On The Road
Rith looked curiously at the bay horse. Bishop raised an eyebrow as she examined it closely with a curious spark in her eye. She slowly put a hand out as she went to touch the horse's nose, only to flinch away as it sniffed at her. She gave a squeak and hid behind a pole nearby.
"What… are you doing?" Bishop asked, making Rith jump.
"I've never seen a horse before, let alone rid it." She looked at intently.
Chris came out of the stable master's house with a slight frown. "The guy with only sell one horse."
"I could steal one." Rith said plainly.
Chris shook his head. "Nah, one should be enough. You'll just have to ride it and it will carry our gear."
Rith looked at the horse. "I have to ride it?"
"What's wrong, you afraid it will bite?" Bishop asked with a smile.
"Yes and I could walk."
"Fine…" Chris looked up I defeat. "It's just your smaller than us, and I'm afraid you might over work yourself just trying to keep up with us. So I figured you wouldn't faint if some bandits try to kill us, and you've been running for about a mile."
Rith rolled her eyes. "I get your hint." Rith grabs the saddle and tries to get up, only to end up falling on her backside. She got up and whipped the dust off furiously.
"Here…" Bishop suddenly grabs Rith by her slender hips and lifts her up.
"Thank you." She says over her shoulder as she tries to mount again.
For a couple of minutes she struggles to get on. "Would you hurry up?" Bishop asked through his teeth.
"Oh, bite me."
"I wouldn't say that when I got a view of something I would like biting." He said giving her behind a approving look.
Rith finally gets on. "There you go, ranger boy."
"Quit calling me that." He sneered.
Rith rolls her eyes and looks down at the horse. "Why don't we stop calling the horse it and give it a name?"
"Name away!" Chris simply said, getting the last of his gear ready.
"Do I look like someone with a bunch of names on my mind?" Rith asks as she clings to the horse as it shakes her mane.
Bishop ignores the conversation and whistles, causing them to stop and watch him. He waits several minutes with no sign of his wolf.
"Here…" Rith puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles like a street boy, louder than Bishop but in the same way.
They waited 15 minutes before they watched a wolf jump out of the bushes and run towards Bishop.
"Right so we're ready?" They nod in his direction. "Good."
Bishop grabs the reins to the horse. "What are you doing?" Rith asks.
"Leading the horse, you just got to sit and look pretty."
She holds the mane of the horse and leans on the neck, her mouth close to his ear. She whispers. "I can more than pretty any day, ranger boy…."
XXX
"I'm telling you that the seer can help us." Chris says over his shoulder to Bishop. "We just need to get to him."
Bishop listened to the silence and Rith's deep breathing and light snoring. She had fallen asleep on the neck of the horse as quickly as they left. Her silver hair covered her eyes, her mouth slightly open. He watched as she leaned to the left a little too much and fell off the horse. They stopped and turned around to look at Rith who was on her back with her eyes wide open. Her hair was spread around her head, like a firework that had been paused.
"Oww..." She simply said, sitting up and stretching.
"Time to wake up sleeping beauty..." Bishop smiles at her.
"Shut up." She said over her shoulder, getting up.
Rith walks next to Bishop, yawning every once and a while.
"So how did 'ranger boy' catch Rith the 'most skilled thief of West gate'?" Chris asks.
"I didn't think that anyone would track down a thief if their money purse was gone, not like any one from West Gate, usually they get more money or die of starvation."
"But I'm not from West Gate." Bishop simply says.
"Yah, well the way you were making love to Betty, in public, you seemed to be." Rith says with a wicked smile.
"Betty?"
"Whore…" Rith answers.
Chris looks at Bishop. "You told me you were done with that!"
Bishop shrugs. "I lied."
Rith laughs slightly.
"What's your story?" Chris asks.
"Me?" Rith asks, Chris nods. "I'm just a thief, been on the streets since I was little."
"Why? Don't you have family?"
"Yah, but they left me for the streets." Pain, anger, and sadness were deep in her eyes and her face. "Claimed they couldn't take care of me, but yet their somehow the riches family in West gate."
"They abandoned you?"
Rith looked over and nodded. "Yup, they boot my ass out the door with only three days' worth of food and a wool blanket. So I wandered the streets until I was hungry. Finally I stole some one's purse and liked it, so I stole again, and again. Until I got a name for myself, then I decided to do more than just pickpocket, I picked locks and broke into people's houses, stealing their valuables and sold it on the street. Eventually, I got my respect and rep up enough to start a street gang."
"What happened to your gang?" Chris pried.
"Ah, my family intervened, they slaughter half of them mercilessly and tutored most of them, trying to get to me, so I left them, and been living off the streets ever since, that was… a year ago."
"Why did they do that?" Bishop shook his head in confusion. "If they wanted you gone, why bother slaughtering the one thing you have to live off of?"
"'Cause they want me dead, and they claimed they wanted me back, and were saving me from getting killed. Street lords don't live long."
"Why didn't you go back?" Chris asked.
Rith looked down at her feet. "Because I wasn't going to go back and be worthless again. Because I hate the life of a noble, and I hate my parents and sister for trying to make West Gate perfect. Because I have the right not to go back, and I'll be damned if any one tries to question my choices or not!" Rith walked with longer strides and moved fasters until she was a good couple of feet ahead of them, and then slowed down a bit so she was in stride ahead of them.
Chris looks over at Bishop and shrugs.
