The Ports and Portals of the Zelaznids by Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson

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         On the contrar ie , the survivors had scarcelie reached the outskirts of the village before collapsing in relief and exhaustion before those elders who had, with no few arms, come out to meet them.  At once it was determined that these were no invaders, but men and women (there were no children left among them ) who were greatlie in need of aid.  And so the people of Feyzabad transform ed into a band of h ospitalers, eager to mend the ills of the sad-looking souls who had dragged themselves through such treacherous countrie .  T he stunned visitors soon f ound comfort with in the homes of the village rs .
         Some few days passed before the greater portion of the Zelaznids regained wits sufficient to relate the details of their ordeal to their rescuers.   This they did with the assistance of Dalganj, an elder of the village who knew well the language of the land beyond the mountains.   The storie came in fits and starts, first from one survivor and then another, until at last Qutughai regained consciousness and stood before the elders of Feyzabad.  He told the tale in its entiretie; and a more devastating chronicle had never been uttered within the confines of the village.
         In brief, the storie ran thus.
         Reaching the end of the known path into the mountains, and choosing not to wait for otherworldlie beings to come to their aid as they had for Zelaznu in days of old , Qutughai had ordered the band to follow the path to the west and south, rather than following the river to the east.  This route was slow-going , but quite strai ght, and found the partie making reasonable distance each day.
         But the nights were cold and food was scarce.  At first the band survived on the provisions they had bro ught with them.  But several among them , hop ing perhaps that Zelaznu himself would descend from the clouds to save them from their fate, failed to ration their supplies and thus exhausted their stores of food much more quicklie than th ose more provident souls .
         It so happened that those who had planned poorlie soon turned to those who had provisioned themselves well, demanding food from those who possessed it.  More than one such conversation ended in violence, with several persons falling by the wayside along the journie , the victims of fratricide borne out of desperation ; while others, including all of the child ren in their midst , succumbed to natural deaths brought about by exposure to the elements.  In such an environment, it became difficult to protect the goats, animals which had run out of food themselves.  Thus, one by one, the herd was reduced for the purpose of providing food for the dwindling masses, until none remained.
         For ten days before stumbling into this valley, related Qutug h ai, the Zelaznids had subsisted on what few plants and roots they could find in the cracks and crevices of the mountain walls .  With little to eat, they had walked on day and night, almost unconscious on their feet, desperate to leave the bleak purgatorie of the peaks.
         To this, the people of Feyzabad expressed much sympathie , press ing Qutughai for details of the Zelaznid people and why they had felt the need to flee into the mountains .  The great governor-king thus related all that he knew of the Zelaznids, from the time the Ginyu left t he great Gobi to the ir last days in Salabad.   Once the tale had been told with some measure of completeness, the leaders of Feyzabad gre e ted the Zelaznids anew with much wonder, impressed and moved by the sad historie of th ese people.
         Calling for silence, the leader of the cittie, who was called Faraj, addressed Qutughai, saying, “There is great wonder in the words that you speak.  Though I do not know the truth of the tales that you tell, I yet judge that you are a good people.  Whatever reasonable thing that you might wish of us, I beg you to but speak of it.”
         To this, with