Chapter 2- Secrets Revealed
Captain Faun was waiting where requested when Kasta skittered to a halt by the small harbor. She was roughly 15 miles from the 7th prince's, her Po's, small castle now. Katsa boarded the boat with a vacant expression the experienced captain took in with a small frown. The older women showed her to her cabin in a quiet companionable silence, and thankfully for Katsa she asked no questions.
Over the long voyage the crew helped her more than they could guess. Neither the crew, nor Captain Faun had ever met Po, only heard stories of their wonderful graced prince. They could accept her sadness, without contemplating the intense grief that Bitterblue, or grandfather Tealiff would know she felt. With time Katsa's face softened, and she would smile during mealtimes, and climb up the ropes, mirroring her old ways. She began to heal, but only she knew that this was only the beginning to months of heartbreak.
The morning sickness jolted her to reality. All of a sudden she remembered why she left, what she knew she could not do.
At the sound of her retching, Jem rushed in through her cabin door. "My Lady!" he said, in his now low voice, "What's wrong?"
Suddenly it dawned on him, "My Lady, are you alright?", pulling her up back onto her bed, he murmured "My Lady, are you with child?"
When she headed it out loud all she could do was nod. She could not keep the secret in any longer, it now not only just hers. Jem's eyes were wide with astonishment, "And Prince Po, does he know?" Closing her eyes, Katsa shook her head. She mumbled, "No one knows Jem. This must remain between you and me. You cannot even tell Captain Faun. Jem, do you understand?"
"Yes, yes I understand, no one shall know."
The night she left was hell for Po. Moments after reading her letter, he was back on his mount, head bent towards the ground, sensing the small etchings in the dirt that were her trail. She had perhaps a 3 hour lead on him, but there was still the slightest trace of her passing on the slim dirt road. He followed the trail until the early morning, when all of a sudden it stopped.
There was nothing left to follow, and he sensed her nowhere near. He turned his head focusing in on his surroundings. The small break in the rocky coast was filled with fish, wonderful for a small fishing boat. Then it hit him, this small cove would be a convenient place for any reasonably sized vessel to anchor, to restock, go ahore, even pick up a passenger. At this he spun around, galloping in the direction he came from.
He needed a ship, fast, but where would he head? More importantly, where would she head?
They were five weeks at sea, more than Katsa expected, but their zig-zaged course avoided the harsh sea weather.
Jem kept his silence as promised, and a week after her secret was discovered they docked at Sunport. "Where are you planning on going, Lady Katsa?" Captain Faun asked, as Katsa exited the vessel. Throwing her belongings over her back, she replied, "The wilderness."
And there she went. She did not travel to Bitterblue City, or Randa City, not wanting to burden her friends with her secret, and she did not want word to return to Po. She could not stand to see him when she knew she could not keep their child. He would let her give it away, but in her heart she knew he would not want to. He would want to raise their child, and be a family, and she could not do that. She could not be a housewife, or a doting mother a baby deserved. That would hurt him, always wondering if, and she swore to never hurt him. She gave him sadness, instead of pain, because he was willing to risk unhappiness.
She bought a small grey mare and trudge north, masking her sorrows with physical labour. She set a fast pass for herself, making camp a sunset, and starting again at dawn. As the days past, her large floppy tunics now felt snug, and her stomach soon grew round. She found herself crooning to it. Mumbling nonsense of beauty, health and brains, but never love. She would never admit, even in her constant solitude that she loved her little baby. Adored it in fact, but she pushed this thought out of her mind. Her child deserved a family, not the lady killer.
She past through the forest, edging near the border of Monsea, and Estill. After weeks of riding, hiking in the hills, and denial, she stopped in a quiet village. "Peace" she said to herself. She approached the small inn and stabled her horse. Hiding her protruding stomach with her dark cloak.
In this secluded corner of the kingdoms it seemed no one had heard of raging Katsa of the Middluns. It was a blessing not to be starred at with frightened eyes, to walk around anonymous. The village's lack of knowledge was no doubt due to their rual location, no merchants or even traders traveled through.
After her lonely dinner, she asked the rather short and chubby, but steady inn keeper's wife if there was a doctor in town. "Doctor Sno, he's the best in this region", she replied proudly, "Of course if you need someone to walk you over, I could happily show you his home." Katsa replied, "Oh, no thank you. Simply curious.", to the chatty wife, who merely sought gossip
In her small cramped bed, Katsa thought to herself, "This us where I'll wait. This Doctor Sno can deliver the baby, and the church or a family could take it. They cannot divulge my location if they do not know who I am. I could move on." But even now she knew she would never really move on, but here she would wait.
The next day Katsa talked with the inn keeper about a more permanent place to stay. The man, most likely Estillian from his accent, said surprised, "Well Old Fen's place is open for a renter."
Katsa moved into Old Fen's vacant cabin the next day.
With time she fell into a routine. She woke, hunted, bathed, and more than ever ate. Raffin would have laughed at the amount of food she ate, saying, "Are you feeding the Middluns entire army down there? If you were that sure would cut our budget."
It was things like this, and her now ginormaously round stomach, that made it impossible to forget her small little secret, and the one who gave it to her.
She kept to herself. She never went to town, or mingled with travelers. She hunted, cooked, ate, slept, cursed with surviving, but still not living.
