Angel Camp

                Eve’s eyes lit up when she saw the camp, they were safe. She turned to Josiah and breathed a sigh of relief, her breath warming the chilly night air.

“We made it, we’re safe…for now,” Eve breathed a sigh of relief and in her joy she gave Josiah a quick hug, she blushed and went into the tent. Josiah stood there stunned for a minute, shook his head, chuckled and walked into the tent.

“Ah, Captain, Eve, welcome back…where are the new ones?”  Major Elijah asked, immediately regretting it, when tears welled up in Eve’s eyes, “She got them didn’t she?” Eve’s tears dropped to the ground producing lily of the valley.

“Her attack came out of nowhere, they were deadly silent and more efficient than last time, her destroyers have improved, and they must have had more training…”

“Josiah, Elijah, if you would please excuse me, I need to sleep” Eve left the tent quietly, knowing that the angels would want to talk over what had happened.

She walked to the creek she could hear to her east, and rinsed off her sweaty face. She took a sip of the cool refreshing water and reflected on her purpose. There were three different types of caskets out there, the white, the black and the multi-coloured.  The white indicated when a person was ready to hear the truth and be awakened, the multi-coloured meant that the person was still in the process of getting ready, and the black meant the opposite of the white. The black caskets were dangerous, the people inside not being ready to be awakened. If Desdemonda opened a black casket, the person inside would be lost. Forever trapped to serve the dark kingdom. When they came across a black casket, they buried it and marked it in unique ways so that only they would know the location and could return every so often to check the status of the person.

“Father, thank you so much for my life, today, tomorrow and always. I know that you will take care of the young ones who came to know you today, and I thank you for your overwhelming loving grace that saves, and protects. Father, please, protect our night, that we may have no more attacks, so that we may peacefully rest our heads,” Eve closed her eyes, stood still for a minute, and ever so gracefully walked to her tent, laid down and immediately fell asleep.

               

                Josiah and Elijah pored over the maps that lay out in front of them, discussing the next best possibility of where the caskets were located.

“We haven’t been to the North yet, Desdemonda has been known to use that area as training ground, there is a possibility that more caskets lay there,” Josiah shook his head in silent frustration, knowing that the probable areas would be the ones where the demons would be frequenting. The only caskets that the demons could open were the black ones, and the only time they could take someone from a white casket, was when they were awake, the proof of this earlier that evening. Josiah replayed the bloody battle in his mind, seeing Desdemonda rip and tear the limbs off of an especially young one named Thea. She was so tiny and so compact, and yet you could see the love of Shepherd shining so brightly out of her lavender eyes. Desdemonda had seen how much Thea wanted to live for Shepherd and had taken on the task of destroying her. Josiah pinched the bridge of his nose as he remembered not being able to do anything after her neck snapped, seeing the look of shock on her face, and Eve’s devastation. He should have known that Desdemonda would be hanging around that area, the place where the very first casket was discovered by his team, the place where they had awakened not only a white casket, but a white that was shining and teaming with life. Eve. He sighed as he internally kicked himself for failing to recognize that the demons would remember that place as well. He shook off the despair and turned his attention back to the maps.

“Yes, the North is a very great possibility, Desdemonda would know that you would want to get to those caskets,” Elijah looked up and saw Josiah sigh.

“I don’t know how we are going to get in there to find out; perhaps we could send out a recon team…” Josiah trailed off, knowing that the recon teams were otherwise engaged, in territory that was far more dangerous than the North.

“No, impossible,” Elijah stated, “they are occupied, staking out territory to the East”

Josiah sighed again, sat down, pulled a piece of parchment towards him, and started drawing up a plan for the next day. It was going to be a long night.