Erin remained behind, clearly not willing to budge from her hiding place.
Lee reached the first of the dead human fighters, one of those who had taken part in the final stand. His heart raced, and he momentarily shivered as he looked down upon the dead man’s inert face.
The man’s glassy, lifeless gaze stared back up at him. A gaping wound had been opened in his chest, where a large spear blade had been lodged and then ripped back out. Blood soaked the ground around the body, though the flow of it had ceased.
Lee glanced towards Lynn, who was standing by another fallen human warrior. A few tears had come to her eyes, as she stared in an almost mesmerized fashion into the stark visage of death beneath her.
Taking a deep breath, and struggling to regain his composure, Lee forced his eyes back to the slain human underneath him. The man looked to be in his early twenties, his weathered face unable to mask the youthful luster that still lingered underneath the hardened edges.
The light of life was entirely absent, but the man’s face had settled into a peaceful expression that conflicted profoundly with the brutal violence of his demise.
Lee had to pause again, as this experience was something that he was not well prepared for. The males in their twenties that he had previously known were normally busy with school or work, their concerns related to careers, relationships, or entertainment.
Lee certainly did not come from an environment where bodies were left torn and broken under an impassive sky, sprawled right before his very eyes.
He was not so naive to think that his own world was immune from such horrid things. Terrible sights occurred frequently, indeed every day, in the far corners of that world. It was simply that he did not encounter such awful visions so closely, and intimately, in the world he had left behind. He was certainly not steeled for what he was now seeing all around him.
Lee glanced again towards Lynn.
She had averted her eyes from the warrior’s face, turning her head to the side as she picked up a sword that was lying near to the fallen man. She gripped the hilt and raised the weapon upward, the flesh of her hand pressed against the short, straight cross-guard.
The blade was long and straight, double-edged with a broad fuller running down its center. The hilt had a tightly-wound leather grip, and a multi-lobbed pommel.
As she lifted the sword, Lee saw that it was a little heavy for her to lift in one hand. She then gripped it in both hands, taking a hesitant, awkward swing through the air with the blade. With two hands, Lynn demonstrated that she held enough strength to swing the weapon with some purpose.
Lee then picked up a sword from the man at his feet, very comparable to the one that Lynn had taken, except for its hazelnut-shaped pommel. He kept the sword with him as he walked onward, feeling the considerable weight of it tugging at his arm. He proceeded a little farther out, striding over to another fallen warrior, whose horse’s body lay nearby. Eyeing the dead horse, he moved over to it, to see what might be found attached to the saddle and harnessing.
He searched through the man’s equipment, discovering a strung longbow and a quiver that was almost full of arrows.
“We could use that, for sure,” Ryan stated, from where he was strolling close to Lee.
Lee glanced up to him. “See if you can find some food on the slain horses. And remember to keep up a lookout. Any sign of anything whatsoever, and we bolt immediately for the woods. Got it?”
Ryan nodded, looking back up the sky and sweeping his gaze slowly across the horizons.
Lee did the same, and to his great relief the skies were empty of everything save for some drifting clouds and a descending, reddish sun. He shortly resumed his search, pausing occasionally to take appraisal of the horizons.
Among the corpses of the horses and men, Lee, Ryan, and Lynn found some leather pouches that held a small quantity of dried, salty meat, hard bread, and a little fresh water that was contained in leather skins.
Lee also took an interest in the large, single-edged daggers that many of the men had carried, claiming one of them for himself.
In addition, he gathered up all the small silvery coins that he came across among the possessions of the slain men. While most of the coins were fully intact, a portion of them had been cut into halves. A quick look at the half-coins told Lee that they were of the very same minting as the rest of the coins, though he wondered as to why they were not complete.
Knowing that the small silver coins held more hints about the world that Lee was now in, he examined several of the fully intact ones very closely. He turned them over in his hand, and held them up to bathe in the still-ample sunlight. Lee ran his ringers slowly over their edges, as if he could somehow absorb what the little silvery pieces had to tell him.
The coins were all of the same size, roughly a little smaller than the size of Lee’s thumbprint. They did not have a smooth surfacing, even in the areas without an image or letter displayed.
The obverse facing of the coins showed the side profiles of male figures, with lettering running around the circumference of the entire coin. The reverse side held more similar lettering around the edges, with a spear-shaped symbol occupying most of the inner surface.
Most of the coins, including all of the coins in the best condition, held the image of one particular man, who possessed a strong chin, nose, and full beard. Lee wondered who the man depicted on the coin was, assuming him to be a ruler or leader of the realm that the horse riders were a part of.
He also wondered what the prominently displayed spear shape symbolized, figuring that it was more iconic in nature than merely a simple representation of a common weapon.
The images, and Lee’s inability to read the lettering, created a little more frustration in him. Lee could not decipher anything specific from them. Having taken more time than he intended to with the coins, he placed them all back into his pocket. The questions that he had would have to be pondered at a later time.
When they finally finished gathering up foodstuffs, weapons, and other items, Lee and Ryan had each procured a bow, quiver with arrows, and a sword. Ryan had also taken up a hand axe, whose edge had been honed incredibly sharp.
Both had ended up leaving the long lances born by the horsemen where they lay about the ground.
Lee had taken a moment to consider the spears, with their sizeable iron blades and flaring wings of iron near the sockets. Though feeling reticent about the choice, he had opted not to take one.
They were most certainly solid weapons, and they could be used to keep an opponent at a distance. Yet there was no question that they would be entirely too cumbersome for Lee or any of the others to carry along, and he did not have any training in how to properly use them.
Lee and Ryan also claimed a couple of the very few remaining undamaged round shields, with their raised iron bosses set within the center. Lee looked at the narrow protrusions extending from the apex of the dome-like bosses, instantly realizing the potential of the shields as weapons themselves.
Ryan’s shield was solid red, with a yellow line around the rim, while Lee’s had broad, swirling segments of alternating red and blue upon its facing.
The shield was heavy, with a grip in the center placed just behind the iron boss. Lee was grateful for the thick, buckled leather strap on it, which he used to suspend and carry the shield over his back.
Some of the better items uncovered were small iron objects that were kept with pieces of flint. That alone promised to solve one looming problem that Lee saw coming, of what to do when they no longer had access to the fire-making implements from their former world. The two women’s lighters would not last forever.
Almost as an afterthought, he and Ryan added a couple of small, single-edged knives to their expanding collection of items. Lee surmised that the knives would come in very handy as tools, and would certainly be much more efficient in the shaping of wood than using the edges of rocks.