Alicia just stood there, mostly in shock at what was going on. Between the voice in her mind, the horse knowing exactly where he was going and the woman backing up when she helped her up, it was just too much for her! She looked around, realizing she was standing in the middle of someone's garden. "Oh! Excuse me, ma'am. I didn't realize I was in your vegetables." The woman stared at her as if she had just grown two heads. The two girls and the little boy did as well as the older man. She looked between all of them and the horse whickered and walked up to her a bit.
:My apologies, dearest. I forgot that you can't speak Valdemaran. I can give you a little knowledge so that you can ask them what village we're in. They'll just assume that something happened and we tumbled out of the forest. Which we kind of did. I think I know abouts where we are, but I just want to make sure.: He then did something to her, which made her feel quite lightheaded, but when he was done, there was something different about her. She knew some strange words that she didn't know before. She looked to the family again and repeated what she said, though it was done in a different language! The woman nodded a bit and then she cleared her throat again, gently.
"Please. Can you tell me.. um.. us... what village we're in? We just got a bit.. umm... misdirected." She hoped that would work. The family relaxed a little bit and the man nodded slightly, walking up to the two of them as the Companion looked around.
"Of course, Miss. Ye be in the village of Shonen. That be just east of the town of Trevale." She nodded and looked to the Companion who whickered and nudged her to get back on his back so they could be off. He had thought he was near Trevale, but just wanted to be sure. He wasn't too well-traveled, yet, after all. She did and she smiled to the family.
"Thank you. Thanks for your help." They then started off and she sighed a bit, rubbing her head. "What in the world. Ok, Alicia, calm down. You were in your car, going to work, when you found the escaped horse." Her thoughts were interuppted by that 'voice' in the back of her mind again.
:Companion, dear. And in case you were too frightened to sense my name after you looked into my eyes, my name is Corie. Though I believe that you haven't opened up to me yet, since you were more frightened than I hoped you would be.:
She just sat there in silence as she listened to him and then went about trying to figure things out for herself. "Ok. You were going to work when you found the.. uh... Companion staring at you. He talked to you, you listened for some god-forsaking reason, got on his back and he rode you out to the country-side. But there is no country anywhere near where I live. Not for miles at least. In the next county actually. So how in the world, did you get here?" She sat in silence for a moment, but then finally reasoned it out to herself. "I have no idea." She heard a sound coming from the Companion and in the back of her mind it even sounded like a chuckle.
:Of course you have no idea. You're from another realm.. Well.. At least another realm as we see it. But this is real. You're not dreaming or whatever else your brain is thinking up. Unfortunately, I can't give you too many details, even if I am your Companion. That's in the hands of Heralds Teren and Dirk when we get you back to Haven.: He paused and collected his thoughts as he moved along. :We're going to stop at the first Waystation that we find. I know it's not quite dark, but everyone'll figure out where we are from where I sent the message. They'll know not to expect us back right away. Besides. I'm tired from that running I just had to do and I need to rest. I'm sure you need something to eat as well.: She knew he was right. She was hungry. She wasn't sure what time it was, but she did skip breakfast this morning. They were both quiet now as Corie continued to move up the dusty road. Soon though, he found what he was looking for, and it was going to be nightfall soon, so it workd out pretty good.
Alicia looked up and noticed that she was looking at a log cabin. The roof was thatched, so she figured that their weather must be calm here, otherwise it would seem like that roof would just blow right off. She looked down as the Companion stopped and she slowly slid off him, wincing a little as she did. He nuzzled her again and looked to her. :I'm sorry that you had to ride without a saddle, Chosen, but I was in a bit of a hurry this morning when the others were preparing for me to pick you up. I didn't have time for the stable hands to tack me up.: She was sore, but she felt that she couldn't be mad at him. She smiled a bit and then rubbed her hand along his muzzle.
"That's alright. I'm not used to riding anyway. Then again.. I've never ridden." She shrugged a bit and then looked to the building. He nudged her in the back with his nose and she moved forward, starting to open the door. She noticed it was empty so she walked in and looked around. She frowned and looked to Corie as he stuck his head into the door and gave another chuckle to the back of her mind.
:I'm sorry, love. In that box over on that wall over by the bed, there's some towels and a brush. Do me a huge favor and dry the sweat off me and then brush me off. That's to get all this dirt off me since we ended up plowing into that poor farmer's field.: She nodded and did just that, grabbing the towels and then towelling him off really good so that he was bone dry. She then used the brush to brush him clean of the dry dust. She had to giggle at him probing into her mind to tell her where to brush and get the itches out of his body. She then put them back in the box and then noticed that in another box was a couple of buckets. She looked to him and he threw his head in a nod and she smiled. She found the grain and filled one bucket full, leaving it next to him as he dug his nose into it and started to eat. She grabbed a couple more buckets and then walked to the stream she saw next to the cabin and filled them both. She left one with him, which he immediately started to slurp from, since he was too tired to even move another step. She used the other one to wash herself up. She searched the cabin and found some fruit that had been preserved. Withered apples, mostly, but she ate them. She was hungry, but she felt that if she ate too much, then she would be sick. She looked over to Corie and noticed that he had fallen asleep, laying in the cool grass. She felt bad for him, but then realized that she was tired and headed into the cabin, and just fell into the bed and falling asleep.
The next couple of days was like that, and by nearly the end of the week, Corie was back up to his full strength and was moving at a normal pace. He figured they would be able to reach Haven by the time the dinner bell rang at the Collegia. His Chosen had been quiet, only asking a few questions here and there, but he had expected that. But she surprised him when she finally did speak up to him. "How did you get me to understand and speak the other language?" He turned to look to her with those beautiful blue eyes and she smiled at him while he turned to look forward again and answered her.
:It was merely me just putting some information in your head. Well.. let me put it this way. You don't know how to shield yet. So I basically entered your mind and just put the language there, but I was still shielding you from anything else at the moment, so that it wasn't broken. You didn't actually know the language, except for those few moments. When we get to Haven, you'll have to be taught the language. I'll assume that they'll work on you right away to at least get your Valdemaran sketchy at best, and then explain what you'll be doing, and finally giving you a tutor to help you with the rest of it.: She just nodded at the answer and then continued to think. She had found another question lagging in her head.
"I'm gonna take a wild stab at this. But all those weird things that I can do.. is that connected with you. I mean. I could grab things without actually reaching for them. And I could hear people's thoughts." He thought about that before answering her.
:That's right. The reading the people's thoughts thing is connected with your Mindspeech. That's how I'm able to talk to you, and how I can 'read your mind' as you had put it the other day. If ever you want to have a conversation with me without anyone overhearing you, all you have to do is think it. You'll be taught how to shield on your own in time, but for now, I'm helping out, otherwise, you'd be getting a mess of thoughts from all over the place. The other thing you mentioned... grabbing things. It sounds like that's your Gift. To be more precise, it sounds like you're a Fetcher. You'll be taught how to use that, probably as soon as you can speak good, if not excellent Valdemaran.: This was all too weird for her, and they stopped a couple more times, once at a Waystation to eat and another time because nature was yelling at them. Soon, they came over a hill and she could see a huge walled city. She narrowed her eyes to get a bit of a better look and she could almost see what looked like some sort of castle with other buildings around it. She looked to Corie as he spoke to her again. :Welcome to Haven, Chosen. The capital city of Valdemar.: