A/N: Alrighty guys, so this chapter is so massively long, that FanFiction won't even save it in the same file. So... two part chapter! Yays! May post them together, might post them separately, I'm not quite sure, but either way... That's just how it's gonna have to be.
Notes!
FarmersDaughter: Okay, so an IB school is basically a school that only offers AP courses, except they're harder because they're IB courses. You're required to do a personal project in sophomore year, and write a 3,500 - 5,000 word extended essay in the summer between Junior and Senior year. No electives, just academia of one sort or another. Must be fluent in a foreign language by Senior year. You get kicked out if you get two C's or one D after sophomore year. So... yeah. Pretty intense. Oh, and lots of homework and projects. If you have any other questions about that, I'm happy to rant some more, believe me. And no, the length of your comments doesn't bother me - in fact, really long reviews make me go "Oh yay, they had lots to say!" So... :)
Tessi: You may be onto something there my friend *wicked grin* you catch on fast.
(And on a completely unrelated note, who's excited for The Hobbit?! I am soooooo excited, going to see it Saturday!)
But, after that moment of fangirling, let the story continue!
"You don't really, actually mean that we lost everything except our Ranger gear, do you? Because I am really not cool with wearing a dress for the rest of the voyage." Will, Sarah, and I were sitting on the deck of the ship, talking, while Halt was off to the side… well, you know.
"Unfortunately. We got back just in time to get our horses, as the stable was already on fire - had we been any later they would have just busted out. The Inn was already up in flames, so the only things we have left are what were in our saddle packs, which happened to be your knives and anything else you had in there. Your bow was in my bags, Kathryn, so no problem with that." Will told us, and Sarah groaned.
"But we don't even have shoes!" She exclaimed, showing him one bare foot from under the hem of her skirt. "And it's going to get cold soon!"
Will shrugged. "Sorry, there's nothing I can do. They aren't shipping any clothes."
I wrinkled my brow as a thought came to me. "Wait. Will, don't you have, like, a sewing kit of sorts."
"One could call it that, yes," He replied, "Why do you ask?"
"Cuz, what if we could take these dresses and make them into something resembling a pair of pants and a shirt. It'd be a heck of a lot better than a skirt, if still a little stand out-ish in a sneaking situation." I expected him to laugh, but Will actually looked like he was thinking about it. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"We could, at least, continue your training to a degree, and it would be easier for you to ride or run at a moment's notice."
"Yes!" Sarah exclaimed. Then, she suddenly looked a whole lot less enthusiastic. " I suppose we'll have to sew it by hand, right?"
Will gave her a look. "As opposed to..?" Sarah gave him a look back, before remembering that nothing was manufactured by machine here.
"Ah, you're right," she amended, voice sounding slightly nervous. "How silly of me. But it probably wouldn't go quickly, and what would we wear when we were sewing the skirt into pants if it took us multiple days?" Will opened his mouth, then shut it. We all sat in thoughtful silence for a moment, before Sarah snapped and said, "I've got it!" We looked at her expectantly. "Well, it won't be attractive, but they've got some burlap bags down there that they aren't using, and we could cut the bottoms out, then use the part we cut out to make loops around the edge of the bag, and take some rope and use them like a belt, so we could have a makeshift skirt while we work on the pants. Not comfy, not stylish, but they'll work." I nodded my agreement.
"I've never liked style much anyways." Will said. "Wait here, I'll go get the 'sewing kit', as you call it, and maybe Halt's too if he'll let me have it, and you can get to work." He moved over to Tug's saddle bags, right next to where Tug was lying languidly in the warm sun (Horses usually have to be all tied up on boats, because they can fall and break their legs, but on this boat there wasn't a hold for horses, so the four just had to lie down for the entire time, poor things. And they took up a lot of the space on the deck) and rummaged around in the saddle packs, until he pulled out a small wooden box a lot like the first aid kit, and he tossed it to us. "You just go on down, I'll see if I can get Halt's too." We called our thanks then headed into the hold.
"Well, I'm excited about not wearing skirts, but I'm really not excited about burlap clothes in the mean time. Or about sewing." Sarah informed me.
"Well…" I shrugged. "Sewing machine – fine, it involves something close to danger in the fact that you can stab yourself all the way through your finger, and is somewhat similar to a power tool. Hand sewing – tedious, meticulous if you want it to hold together, and the worst danger is pricking yourself. Not quite as exciting."
"Here's Halt's kit – I've also told the sailors not to come down here, so if you need anything you're going to have to come up!" Will called, and there was a clack as the wooden box smacked against the wooden planks that were the bottom of the ship.
"Thanks!" We called together, and the door shut again, leaving us with just the lanterns that we have to use for light down here all the time. "Well, might as well get started on those burlap bags." I said to Sarah, picking one up with my fingertips.
"Goody."
"Well? Whaddaya think?" Sarah and I were standing in our more or less similarly shaped pairs of pants, which had taken us the entire week to complete. They were very voluminous, kind of like the ones that Jasmine wears in that movie Aladdin, and, of course, matched our tops, my outfit white and Sarah's light green. In fact, we probably looked a bit like Jasmine, what with our dyed hair and tanned skin from weeks of training and running. We had both modified our dress tops to be T-shirts with short sleeves, although the pants we had left long because we feared that making them any shorter wouldn't work out well somehow. And we were not wearing corsets any more, thank goodness. I swear I had a bruise all around my midsection, and my core muscles still ached. The way we had to modify the skirt's waistline was awkward, because the dress had originally been put on over the head, which, of course, doesn't work with pants, so we had to make an impromptu sort zipper that was tied together at the waist. It wasn't elegant, but it worked, and that's all that mattered. The billowy effect of the pant legs was because we were wary of cutting off too much material and having to wear the scratchy burlap all the way across the sea, but they didn't get in the way either, so it all worked out. And they were pretty comfy too.
Much to our relief, our cough had disappeared three days after we left, just as Irvius had said, and, just as he had said, it did get worse before it got better, so there were no, I repeat no, peppermints left. However, my leg was hardly bothering me at all now, as the long period of rest I had given it had allowed it to heal more rapidly than before.
"Not bad for a first try." Halt announced. He and Will had both changed back into their ranger clothes, which they apparently kept in their saddle bags. I was jelly.
"They actually work!" Will marveled, and we scowled.
"So glad you have so much confidence in us." Sarah remarked dryly, and Will gave her a look.
"Why can't women just accept a compliment graciously?" He asked no one in particular, before adding, "But really, they're not bad."
Above us, the man in the crow's nest called something I couldn't make out down to us, and a cheer rose from the sailors who were lounging about the deck (they only rowed while leaving the port), who quickly jumped up and started to move about the sails, those who didn't rushing to the bow of the ship. "Well, that means we'll be landing soon." Halt said matter-of-factly, and moved over to Abelard to make ready his saddle bags.
Will looked us over again. "Well, those certainly are going to raise a fuss in Galica, let me tell you." I looked down at the clothes I had worked so hard on this past week, and almost laughed. He had no idea. I imagined his expression at seeing some of the girls in my class during the summer, with low cut tank tops and short shorts, and did laugh. "What's so funny?" he asked, and I laughed again.
"You wouldn't understand." I told him, and went over to Tiron.
Well it's about time! He exclaimed, adding a blow through his nose to accentuate his point as he lifted up his head.
"Sorry, I couldn't come out for very long, those burlap skirts weren't very secure and I was scared that…ya know…"
Excuses excuses. He said, still giving me the look. "
Well, don't you see how marvelous a thing I ended up with? These nice new pants are really comfy, and not a skirt." He snorted again but said nothing, laying his head back down from where he had laid the entire trip laying. I patted his nose and gave his ears a scratch, which received a little flick from them, then prepared my saddle bags. The men went down to the oars to slow our speed as we entered the docking area, the only ship sailing in. All the other boats that had left the port with us had split off an hour or so after our departure. There was a little jerk as the oars entered the water and just sat there, dragging in the water to pull off some of the speed. The rolling of the waves faded as we entered a little cove, and instantly our horses regained their feet, stretching out muscles stiff from sitting in one spot for so long. Tiron butted my arm accusingly, and I gave him a light shove on the shoulder in response before gently sliding the saddle pad, then the saddle, then the saddle bags onto his back, and sliding a bit into his mouth, which he took happily. Then, just like before, I tied a safety knot.
I don't need that. He told me. I'm not some dumb gelding whose gonna break his leg in his own reigns.
"I know," I murmured, "It's mostly for me." He tossed his head in acknowledgement, and I patted his nose again.
"Gonna be good to ride again, huh?" Sarah said, leading Correr slowly up to us, and our two horses greeted each other happily, finally able to see each other properly.
"You better believe it. I haven't gotten to ride for much longer than five minutes in ages! Not properly, anyways."
"Yeah, the pants are going to help." We were silent for a while, watching the land slowly get closer. Then, Sarah continued, "Hope we don't have to hide for a while – these aren't exactly easy clothes to go unseen in."
"What? You mean that white and light green don't blend into a forest background? I'm shocked!"
"We'll get you new pairs of clothes as soon as we reach a town of reasonable size that's a reasonable distance from here." Halt told us, Abelard following him placidly. I looked around for Will and saw him sneaking an apple to Tug, heaven knows where he got it, while carefully watching Halt, ready to snatch the apple away if Halt was to turn around. I smothered a laugh and nudged Sarah with my elbow discreetly. When she looked at me, I jerked my head a tiny bit towards where Will was, making the motion look like I'm cracking my neck, as I said, "Oh good. I was worried about having to wear these clothes all that much longer, though I must say I'm glad to have our hard work have some payoff at least."
There must have been either something in my voice or something in Sarah's or my face, or maybe all three, because Halt raised one eyebrow and slowly looked over his shoulder. By the time his gaze alit on Will and Tug, however, both of them were looking up at him, apple nowhere to be seen, with a perfect look on innocence on their faces. He examined them for a while, then sniped, "I know you're up to something whenever you look that innocent. No apprentice I've ever trained looks that innocent," before turning back to us. "We really need to work on concealing emotions with you two. Exceedingly poor."
"No, you're just exceedingly good a reading expressions." I retorted, and he shot me a glare. I smiled as sweetly as I dared.
"Ho ship!" came the call from down below.
The captain of the ship, which we had seen very little of during the entire voyage came out and called down, "Ho docks!" There was a little jerk as the boat ran up against the land.
"What be your cargo?" Came from below. The response was lengthy to say the least, and was ended with "Two men, two ladies, and four horses." I tried not to scoff at the word 'ladies'.
"Permitted to land, on the agreement that you can pay a tax of thirteen crowns and a docking fee of a crown a day!"
"Agreed!" The loading plank was dropped down, and the men started down into the hold to begin unloading their wares. After a questioning look at the captain, we were allowed to lead our horses down the plank and onto the wooden structures that stuck out of the water. They were rickety, and I was certain that at any moment they were going to collapse under the weight of four horses, but, by some miracle, they held, and we made it onto solid ground again. As it turned out, the place where we docked was a little smaller than Seaport, but just as busy. Our interesting appearance turned a few heads, but we managed to get out of town without being stopped by anyone. As soon as we got out of the district where there were a large number of people, we mounted our steeds (straddling, not side-saddle, thank goodness!) and started off at a canter. Tiron moved notably more easily without my bags to weigh him down, and so I supposed that losing them wasn't all bad. It was a relatively easy day compared to our other days on the run, as the Scotti (from Picta of all places; how are the two names related at all?) weren't right on our tails. However, as the sun was dropping below the horizon and we were entering the forest, Will asked us, "Through the night?"
Before we even got a chance to give our input, Halt said, "We've done nothing but sleep for two weeks, we can make it through the night." And so, with a sigh, Sarah and I resigned ourselves to a long ride in the moonlight. As if having to keep riding without stop wasn't bad enough, it started to drizzle as we rode, and before long our makeshift clothes were soaked through thoroughly. Even Will and Halt seemed pretty miserable and cold in the late autumn rain. Then, thinking we just weren't miserable enough, Mother Nature decided that it needed to pour, and when I say pour, I mean soak you through in a second, flash flood scale pour. If it had been snow, it would have been a blizzard. The wind picked up too, making each little drop sting. I huddled down over Tiron's neck, clothes plastered to my skin, wind making me shiver, and hair strewn every which way, rivulets of water running down my face and neck, and determinedly stayed there, saying nothing, trying to convince myself that being miserable and having a head start was better than making camp and being dead in a couple of days because of our lack of a head start. The lightning started some time a few hours afterwards. Every couple of minutes, a flash of lightning would briefly illuminate the world, showing the water that was suspended in the air, and the three figures of my companions, Sarah with her hands tucked under her arms for warmth, Halt and Will with their cowls up and heads bowed, and our four horses plowing unstoppably onward, manes plastered down and eyes half shut to protect from the pounding rain that threatened to temporarily blind them. Then, the light would be gone, replaced by the deep rumble of thunder which, much to my relief, came after quite a number of seconds, meaning that it was a couple of miles away, instead of right over us. When I reached forward to pat Tiron's neck, I was surprised to feel him shivering just like me. It had never occurred to me that horses could shiver. As the morning came, the lightning and thunder passed, and the rain lightened to your typical every day rain, instead of Armageddon class rain. A faint gray glow was able to be seen as the sun rose on the other side of those clouds, and I was glad for the ability to see once more. The feeling of the rain and not being able to see, especially with Tiron moving underneath me, had been disconcerting to say the least.
"Can we stop now?" Sarah moaned, "I'm tired and cold and wet!"
"Me too." I added. Halt though about it for a moment, examining the sky through the canopy of trees.
"I suppose so. No sense in exhausting you."
"Yes!" Sarah and I chorused, more sigh than cry, and pulled Tiron and Correr off to the side of the road, a little ways into the trees, until it became fairly hard to see the road, a good indicator that the same could be said about us from the view point of our pursuers. Then, we veritably collapsed from our saddles. I was tired enough that I had to hold onto Tiron's saddle to keep from falling. He was panting and shaking, looking utterly miserable. I loosened his girth, to which he sighed gratefully, but couldn't take his saddle all the way off in case of an emergency. Then, as I examined just how wretched Tiron was looking, with his soaked hair, and with the saddle pad literally dripping, I decided that I could weather out Halt's wrath, and that if there really was an emergency, I could ride him bareback, and removed the saddle all together, laying the saddle and pad out to dry. I had to leave his bit in though, as I was no good at steering with just my legs, but it was made of leather and hadn't soaked up any water.I patted his nose, pulling out the foldable bucket that I kept in his saddle packs and setting it under a stream of water that was flowing steadily off of a branch high above, catching the rain and filling up with surprising speed. I let out a jaw splitting yawn, and leaned against my horse, who gave me a little comforting nudge.
"Ya did good, Tiron," I told him, "I'm impressed. More than a full day of a canter, in the rain, and the wind, and the thunder." He nickered softly, but said nothing. When the bucket was all the way full, I pulled it out from under the stream and put it in front of Tiron. He eagerly sucked from it, lapping up every last drop. I started to go over to refill it, when he let out a snort. I turned, and saw, no joke, this horse with his head tipped up, just letting the stream of water go straight down his throat. It was so ridiculous, that I laughed out loud. He stopped for a moment, letting the stream run down his nose, and said, Well, it works, doesn't it?
"I suppose it does." I replied, patting his nose, before wandering casually back over to the others. Halt and Will were talking softly, and Sarah was just approaching.
"I call last watch." I said, and Sarah gave me a look.
"I call second watch." She said, which pretty much summed up the best watches in a situation like this. I had the better one though. The thought made me smile just a little bit.
"Alright, I'll take the first watch, now get along." Halt said, oddly hurried, which made me curious. However, I was too exhausted to pursue the matter, and followed Sarah a little ways away before collapsing on the soft layer of fallen leaves from the last year, and some new ones from this year. In the dim light, I could just barely make out her figure as we shifted around trying to get comfy. I lay down, resting my head on my arm, and promptly started to shiver as water dripped steadily onto me in a very annoying fashion. I rolled to one side, then the other, but even under the trees, there was no escaping the incessant rain. Finally, fed up, I stood, went over, got Tiron's sopping wet saddle, and got out our tent. "C'mon, help me set this up. I don't care what Halt says, I don't have a cloak and I am staying in a tent." In under a minute, we were laying in a nice dry tent, and a minute after that, I was out cold, no pun intended.
"C'mon, get up, I'm tired." Will grumbled, grabbing me by the ankle and partially pulling me from my nice warm tent.
"Oh, come on, it's not like you're getting any sleep anyways!" I begged, but Will shook his head.
"No sneaking out of it, it's you're turn, now don't be such a girl."
"Oh, thanks guys, now you've woken me up!" Sarah moaned, sitting up groggily in the semi-darkness that the heavy clouds produced.
"Sorry." We both replied, and I scooted the rest of the way out of the tent.
"Well, I'm not getting back to sleep anyways, so I might as well come with you." Sarah said, rubbing her eyes, "But I'm not happy about it."
"Well, if neither of you are going to be using it, can I-"
"As long as you pack it up afterwards." Will was in that tent in an instant.
"You owe me." Sarah told me, "I was sleeping perfectly fine until you two bozos woke me."
"Hey, I wasn't worried because it's usually hard to wake you up with a blowhorn." She rolled her eyes, but said nothing as we settled next to each other, watching the road carefully. The rain was just barely drizzling at that point, and as we sat there it stopped all together, leaving only the noise of rain drip, drip, dripping off the trees and onto the soft earth. My eyes scanned the area carefully, ears perked for any noise that would betray a Scotti trying to sneak up on us. I could feel myself threatening to fall asleep, like always, but, this time, I started making a hard equation in my head, something that would hold my attention and keep me from sleeping. I would have to be alert to solve it, it was really hard for me. It was a sum of a finite arithmetic series which, though I could do it easiily enough on paper, was pretty tricky in my head. It was also helpful for watching – when I am deep in thought, my eyes don't focus on any one thing, but they will flick right over if there's any motion what so ever. As I realized just what I was doing, I almost laughed. I'm such a nerd, I thought. Doing math to keep from dozing off.
I don't know just how long it was when the sun suddenly burst from the clouds, but when it did, the view was spectacular. Almost all the leaves in the forest had turned their colors, and the moisture left behind from the rain caught the sunlight, making it look as if every tree was aflame, literally. Each individual raindrop was visible on the leaves above us, looking like a diamond. The whole world looked as if someone had taken a Bedazzler (do you remember that machine?) and put see through jewels everywhere. Sarah and I gasped softly at the sudden lighting of the world, revealing the spectacular view. When I was finally able to tear my gaze away, I looked at Sarah, smiling broadly. Then, my eyes widened as I realized that I saw lines of black running across my vision, obstructing my vision, and making it appear as if Sarah was cracking. I rubbed my eyes, smile fading, and looked again. The black lines were still there. I looked around… and the lines disappeared. Blinking I looked back. There was still a line running jaggedly across the contours of Sarah's face, and down her shirt, all over… Then I laughed. Sarah's hair had returned to mostly brown over night. But the dye had to go somewhere.
"Sarah!" I exclaimed, "You're clothes…!" then laughed again.
She looked down and let out a small exclamation of surprise. "How…?"
"You're hair's gone back to normal, but the water made the dye run down onto your clothes. There's a line of it on your face too."
She quickly brought a hand across her face, looking incredulously at the black liquid that appeared on her hand. Then she looked at me and let out a bark of laughter. "You too!" she told me. I brought my hand across my brow, and found that it too came away with a coating of black. At a closer look, I found that my shirt now had a network of black lines running down it, until about half way down, where it all just blurred into a grayish color. It honestly wasn't very funny, in fact, it probably wasn't funny at all, but we hadn't been very well rested, and we were on the run from evil Pictians, Scotti, whatever, and it was more of a laugh that came from a need to not frown anymore. Laugh or cry, isn't that the phrase?
"What's so funny?" Will asked, rubbing his eyes at the sunlight that came streaming into them. His hair was back to its light brown color, but, much to our disappointment, the stains that ran across his cloak looked like they were put there on purpose. When he saw our shirts, however, he too let a small smile flit across his face. "Oh yes, you two are the height of fashion now."
"Aren't we?" I said, standing and brushing off my pants. "Well, that's all for my watch, I'ma go and eat what little fresh-ish bread is left in my pack and get ready to take off. Poor Tiron, he's gonna have to put up with a damp saddle pad I think."
"No fair!" Sarah objected, "That was, like, an hour, and my watch was, like, three hours!"
"Well, everyone's up, so no need for a watch." I said as Halt rolled to his feet, apparently woken by our jabbering, as he told us dryly. And so it was, all our horses complaining with soft nickers as we set their virtually saturated pads on their back, and then their saddle. When I put his saddle on top, it made a squish noise. "Sorry boy." I whispered, and he flicked his ears. "I'll give you a good brushing down tonight. Or tomorrow morning, depending on when we stop for rest." Then I swung up onto his back, which produced another squish. I winced in sympathy as we took off.
I tried to ignore the chorus of squishes as all the cantering horses had their saddle pads started to wring themselves out with the motion of their drumming hoofs. The sun flickered behinds throughout the first half of the day, but it didn't start to rain again, which was a relief. Then, as we were eating small saddles while slowed to a trot, the sun broke out for good, and we began to dry out. We all looked bedraggled in the extreme, but I noticed that Sarah was smiling a little now, as was Will, and Halt looked less… foreboding. I felt a lot lighter in mood too. The sun was out, we had a good lead on the Scotti, and no one was injured anymore. All in all, things were almost normalish.
We stopped before the sun went down, and set out the horses' saddle pads out in a patch of sun in the trees that wasn't visible from the road, to let them dry out, before Halt and Will gathered us around. Halt produced a map from inside his cloak, rolling it out on the only slightly moist dirt in front of us, lit by the dying sun, and then stabbed one of his knives into two opposite corners of the map. He pointed to a point on the top of Gallica, in a place right next to a peninsula sticking up into the Stormwhite Sea. "This is where we are right now." Then, using his finger, he drew an invisible line along the curve of the Sea, until he reached halfway into Teutlandt. "We are going to follow the general shape of the sea here, and hope we can lose the Scotti along the way. Then, when we get to this point, we're going to veer through Teutlandt, and into the Durals, and right here-" at this point he touched a spot right about in the middle of the line of the mountains, just inside the line of the Eastern Steppes "-is Mt. Norovanaya. It's not going to be a short or easy trip, but hopefully it will lose our pursuers, and the others will be there too. Most likely we will be the last ones to arrive, due to our delays, but they won't have left yet."
"How long will we be traveling, exactly?" Sarah asked, not sounding too hopeful.
"Well, judging by the fact that we got to Seaport in a week with injuries and other delays, I'd judge that without injuries it would have taken… three days. So… just under a month." Halt told us, and we groaned.
"A month?" Sarah complained.
"Are you sure?" I added.
"No. It could take longer because of the mountains."
We groaned again. "Not fun." Sara grumbled.
"Try sailing to Nihon Ja some time." Will intoned, "That's a month on a boat without any good food. Easy."
We fell into silence as we all pondered the previous conversation. We went about our business, rubbing down horses and such, before returning one at a time to where the map was laid out. Then, without warning, Halt said, "Alright, both of you, up." We stood, our eyes filled with questions. "Now, this is the most interesting little practice session I believe that I have ever come up with. I have always wanted to try it, but never had the time or need to do so. However, the skills it teaches could very well be critical in the next couple months, so I have decided to try it out."
"What is it?" Sarah and I chorused, feeling a strange mix of curiosity and fear.
And that is how we ended up with our wrists bound and tied to a tree branch.
"Oh, yes, very creative. You tied us to a tree. Masterful." Sarah said, who, unfortunately for her, was tied closer to the trunk, where the branch was higher up, so she had to stand on tip toe.
"You'll be grateful when this actually happens to you and you've already had practice." Halt told her, as he finished off the knot that was holding my wrists to the tree.
"Yeah, but you made it sound all brand new, like, 'whoa, check out what Halt came up with!' not like, 'Wow, Halt ties his apprentice to a tree.'"
"No, they would say that I tie my apprentice and my apprentice's apprentice to a tree." He corrected, and after sorting through all of the apprentices mentioned, Sarah rolled her eyes in retort, but didn't say anything. "Now, Will and I are going to be over there, watching you, but, of course, you won't see us. The situation is that all the guards who captured you have fallen asleep, and you're trying to escape. Dinner will be served when you have done so." Halt said, giving us the premise, before the pair each took a couple steps back and melted completely into the background. Sarah and I were completely silent for a moment, just looking at each other, with a mixture or consternation, leftover surprise, annoyance, and puzzlement. Then, as one we started straining against the ropes, testing their strength. We both lifted our legs off the ground, putting out full weight on the ropes, but quit as soon as it was evident that they weren't breaking, because the strain they put on our wrists was excruciatingly painful. It crunched your tendons and bones and nerves all together... well, I'll just leave that description lie. Then, slightly more creatively, I wrapped my hands about the small stretch of rope between my hands and the branch - which Halt had left, saying that, although he normally wouldn't do it, that a guard late at night, in the scenario where they would all be asleep, that slack would probably be left - and hung on that, which was considerably less painful, although twisting around did make the ropes tighten a bit, and swung side to side. Still no effect.
"Well, this isn't going to work." I murmured, and Sarah nodded, looking thoughtful. We both stared forward into the depths of the trees, the setting sun dancing through the treetops, which were tousled in a gentle breeze. I shivered, wishing that we hadn't lost our cloaks back in Araluen. It wasn't that cold, per say, but it was definitely foreshadowing that autumn was on it's way.
"I've got it!" Sarah yelped suddenly, wrapping both her hands about the slack in the rope just like I did. Then, after a couple back and forth swings, she swung herself upside down, looping her knees over the branch, so that one leg was on either side of her hands. She winced, grunting a curse, and I saw the skin about her bonds turn bone white, and I wrinkled my brow in confusion. "What on earth are you trying to do?" I asked her, my own fingers scrabbling uselessly at the knots, which were much to tight to untie in my restricted position.
"This." She said, face already red from hanging. She slid her legs slowly back towards her, so she was basically in jackknife position, (for you yoga fans out there) bent double in the middle with her shins resting on the branch, hands by the edge of her boot, which came up to mid-calf. It wasn't comfortable at all, as I could tell, as she cursed a bit, starting to bounce her right leg up and down. Whatever she was doing, she at least wasn't hanging upside down anymore, so she wouldn't be passing out. For a moment, I was fairly sure she'd completely lost her marbles, before I saw something emerging from her boot, very slowly. I gasped as I recognized the hilt of a knife, and her grasping fingers wrapped around it, before she let her body drop back into a standing position.
"Well. You've gotten more flexible." I stated,and was silent for a moment, before bursting out, "What up with the knife in the boot?!"
She grinned broadly. "Clever, no? All the characters in my books have them, so why not me?" The blade was starting to cut through the fibers of the rope, despite her awkward cutting position.
"But I thought you lost you knives?" I exclaimed as the knot binding her to the tree snapped, letting her hands dropped down, and relieving her from her tiptoe stance. She let out a sigh of relief, before starting at the bonds that held her hands and answering me.
"Lets just say I have it on permanent loan from one of those crates in the hold of that ship." She said, and when I let out a noise of surprise, she said, "C'mon, we're in a story book now! Who cares about one little blade when the whole of Araluen's at stake?"
I thought about that for a moment, then conceded. "I guess."
Sarah finished freeing herself, and, after rubbing her wrists a bit, started on my bonds. They went considerably faster, because of her freedom of movement, and so I was down and free in no time. We looked around, waiting for Halt and Will to come out. "Hey! We're done!" Sarah called. There was no response. We looked around. "C'mon, I'm hungry!"
"Have you really escaped yet?" came Halts voice from the shadows.
"Yes! Yes we have!"
"Well then, you'd be alright without food and water on your way back to us if you were captured."
I scowled. "Fine, Mr. Demanding." I jogged quietly over to Tiron and snatched some food from his saddle packs, along with my water skin and the tent. Then, handing the tent to Sarah, and keeping the rest, said, "Okay, now we're out."
There was a hesitation, then Halt and Will emerged. "Next time, we're going to pose as captors and you'll have to escape from us when we wake up." Will told us, and Sarah and I groaned.
"Sounds like great fun, can we eat now?" I asked, and Halt grumbled something about not being grateful before moving over to the fire while Will went to catch us some meat.
True to his word, the next day, after a grueling day of traveling through a lightning storm in a pine forest, we found ourselves with out hands tied behind our backs, our feet tied, and Sarah and I tied together, back to back. Then, Halt and Will melted into the forest, with the warning of, "When you escape, you're going to have to really escape from us."
Instantly, my hands were at Sarah's wrists, struggling to untie her. "Got any plans on how to escape after we're untied?" I asked.
"Run?" she replied, and I laughed.
"I suppose..."
"Oh, and your horses are off limits." Halt's voice came through the dripping of the tree's leaves upon the ground.
"Damn!" Sarah commented, slumping as I finally freed the first knot that bound her wrists, and started on the second. I freed her wrists finally, and she started on mine. We sat, looking thoughtful. Then, I swear a light bulb lit up above my head.
"Hey Sarah." I leaned back and whispered in her ear. "Our horses are off limits... but theirs aren't."
Sarah paused in untying me, thinking. "They'll buck us." she hissed back.
I glanced furtively into the trees. "No they won't - because I remember their passwords." I said, fighting to keep from grinning. I whispered them softly to Sarah, who had just finished ridding me of my bonds.
"How do we get the other ties off without them knowing we've freed our hands yet?" I asked softly.
Sarah thought a moment, then said, "We could look like we were kneeling, trying to lean outwards and break the ropes, but we're really untying the ankles."
"Pretty good. Worth a shot, since I've got nothing better." I replied. We did so, making it look like we were struggling to stand while still bound. carefully relieving ourselves of our bonds. Then I felt a cold metal piece on my palm. "I've got the knife." Sarah murmured.
"I've really got to get one of those." I mumbled.
"Count of three?"
"Yep."
"One."
"Two."
Then both of us together - "THREE!" Sarah brought up her arm and severed the rope that held us together in one clean slice. Then, we were up and away, running full speed towards the horses. Pounding footsteps followed us, and a deep thrum filled the air, followed by an arrow slicing past my head. I yelped, jumping to the side. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!" I yelled. Then I was to Abelard, grabbing his reigns and stuttering out the words, "Permettez moi?" before mounting up, while beside me I heard Sarah saying, "Do you mind?" I started to wheel the compliant, if slightly confused, Abelard around, when I heard Halt and Will start to break in a different direction - towards Tiron and Correr. "Tiron, follow!" I yelled, before digging my heels into Abelard and dashing into the road. Sarah was quick behind me, calling Correr to her as well. Fours sets of pounding hoof beats filled my ears as I struggled to become accustomed to Abelard's gait. As soon as we hit the road, we pulled up, deciding we didn't need to legitimately leave them behind. After a few moments, Halt and Will plunged out of the trees, glaring at us. I swung out of the saddle, biting my lips to keep from laughing. Really, the joke was on me, however, because Abelard was considerably taller than Tiron, and I staggered as the ground came later than expected, dropping onto my hands and knees with little grace. I stood, wiping mud from my knees and checking to make sure my palms weren't bleeding, while Halt stormed forwards, snatching Abelard's reigns from my hands angrily.
"How did you know his code word?!" Halt snapped, and I suddenly realized my mistake. How were we going to explain this one?
"Uhhhhh..." I articulately replied.
"You must have mentioned it sometime." Sarah said casually, and I nodded vigorously, all too willing to agree with her.
Halt gave me a suspicious look. "Rangers don't just toss around their code words..."
Please, please just believe us! I thought, holding my breath. If we told him the truth, I had a feeling that he'd discount it as an insanity relapse, and who knew what would happen then? However, I kept my expression innocent and clear as I struggled to continue meeting his gaze. Finally, he just turned and stalked into the woods, followed in a similar manner by Will. Sarah and I followed meekly, leading our own horses. As we walked, Halt and Will leaned down to grab their fallen arrows, which turned out to have small spherical ends. They admittedly would have hurt, had they hit us, but they wouldn't have done any more damage than a little bruise. We were, as promised the night before, provided with our diner, before being sent to bed, told that we would have second and third watches. However, as I lay in the damp darkness, I couldn't get my eyes to close, and just stared silently into the forest canopy. Behind me, the fire cracked and fizzed as the occasional drip would plop from the trees above. I practiced feigning sleep, however, knowing that I simply wasn't very good at it. This became considerably harder as Halt and Will's voices came softly from the darkness, and I strained to listen in.
"I just don't understand." Halt began, and I heard him toss another log on the fire. I noted that he must be confident of our lead if he was allowing such a luxury.
"I know! Only you, Old Bob, and I know Tug's code word - knew, I mean."
"And I'm absolutely certain that neither you nor I have ever been so careless to let them slip, and Old Bob would not be so thoughtless either. But how else could they know?"
"Guessing? Hope? Experimentation?" Will's voice suggested that he was grasping at straws, and that he knew it. They were silent for a very long time, before Will said so softly that I almost missed it over the crackle of the flames, "I'm worried Halt." Halt did not respond, and as I lay there listening, I realized that there really was nothing for him to say. "Halt, what if we lose this war? What will happen to the people of Araluen? To the Rangers? To Horace and Evanlyn?" Will took a long shaky breath, before he continued. "What about Alyss?"
Again, there was a long silence. Then Halt said gently, "Will, you know as well as I that Alyss and Pauline are more than capable of taking care of themselves."
"But Halt, you don't understand!" Will exclaimed, "Alyss is... Alyss is..." he trailed off, as if unsure of what he was about to say.
"You can tell me, Will." Halt softly told him.
"I know, it's just..." Will was silent a moment longer, before he said even softer than before, "Alyss is pregnant."
Now, if it were anyone but Halt, this would have been a spit take moment. The water/coffee/other would come spewing out of their mouth all over the fire, and they would say, 'WHAT?!' However, because it was Halt, he just said, "Ah." and was silent once again. I on the other hand was barely keeping myself from doing just that by holding my breath determinedly until the urge to do so receded. I squeezed my eyes shut hard, and slowly reached up to cover my mouth so I couldn't accidentally make any noises. For a long time, all was still, before Halt said, "Will, go get some rest, I'll take first watch." I heard Will stand and silently move away from the fire a ways, and then lie down. Soon, his breathing slowed and I knew he was asleep - or faking it like me. Halt moved around a bit before settling down, and eventually, I drifted into sleep.
I was woken by Sarah a few hours later, and groggily staggered to my feet. Sarah plopped down and was asleep in seconds, making me jealous. I walked a couple silent circles around the camp, in an attempt to wake up a little, before settling on the ground with my back against a tree trunk. I suddenly felt as if someone was watching me, and I turned warily, only to find Tiron standing behind me. I stood, smiling, and rubbed his nose.
Were you awake when- Tiron began.
"Yeah." I whispered, "Whoa, right?"
Tiron tossed his head in agreement. Tug says that Will's all worried and stuff.
"Understandably." I said, and I swear that little horse shrugged.
Alyss could fight off a whole army by herself, just using words. She'll be fine.
"I know." I whispered, ruffling his ears. "I know." Then, in my handmade clothes (or was all clothing handmade back then? Well, handmade by me, anyways.), I sat myself by the embers of the fire and, facing away to preserve my night vision, stared silently into the darkness. My shift passed without incident, and so I woke Will, who did so with a jerk. I helped him up, and, though I knew it might give me away, I gave his forearm a reassuring squeeze. If he noticed, he didn't say, just stretched and moved over to where I'd been sitting a moment before. Even though I doubted my ability to get any rest at that point, I lay down and rolled into a blanket I'd scavenged from my pack, shifting my knives so that they weren't digging into my hips anymore, and shut my eyes.
Apparently I got at least a little sleep because Sarah had to wake me. I groaned as I stood, thinking that this whole adventure business was not as glamorous as it seemed. Then I thought how ironic it was that Sarah was waking me up, and grinned, thinking of days where Shayna and I had thrown pillows at the groggy Sarah, having been awake for hours while Sarah lay inert upon her bed. Oh, how much we had changed.
The next days passed in much the same way, with either escape training or a different type of training each day, like knife throwing or archery or unseen movement, etc. None of them were fun after hours of traveling, but we didn't really have a choice. After a particularly interesting escape challenge where we'd been tied to a large boulder in the middle of a nearby river, we sat heavily down in the dust to find that some of the dust wasn't dust - it was snow. The cold substance was mostly melting on contact with the ground, but where it didn't it was a bit of a shock. I'd been so engrossed in the traveling and training I hadn't even noticed the cooling weather until now. From Sarah's expression, she was thinking much the same thing as I was. Halt glanced at the sky, as if gauging something. "We should be getting into the mountains soon." he said softly. "And we need to stop in a town to get supplies. Ranger cloaks are warm, but not enough for tough mountain climates. And you don't have any cloaks, anyways." We nodded and wrapped ourselves a little tighter in our blankets, which, unfortunately, were damp. Not very helpful for keeping warm in cold weather, but they were all we had. Will and Halt both left to go hunting, saying that many animals would now be retreating into hibernation and that finding game would be harder, so Sarah and I were left to making a fire. Despite our complete and utter failure at making fires at girl scout camp, with Will and Halt's tutelage, we were now able to start fires, even if we weren't amazing at it. By the time our mentor's returned, we were both huddled comfortably in front of the fire, a nice little ring of snow-less ground around us and blankets already beginning to dry. Will had caught a nice deer, and after it was gutted and skinned, it was set to roast over the fire. Sarah had gotten over the whole vegetarian thing, so she could now eat as much as she wanted of it, and did so happily. Sarah and I got first and second watch, and since we were happy with the promise of some time in a village as opposed to on the cold frostbitten trail, we decided to take the watches together. We sat a ways away from the clearing where we were camped, and we leaned side by side against a large trunked tree.
"Cold, huh?" Sarah puffed, revealing her breath in the cool moon's rays.
"Eh, suck it up. I walked to school in colder. Regularly."
"Well, just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have. Some people would pity my plight." Sarah said, and I smiled, getting the Harry Potter reference.
"Yes, well, apparently I'm not that someone." I said.
"Hush." Sarah said, "Halt's glaring at us." I raised my eyebrows (yes, plural. The one eyebrow thing still didn't work). Sarah hadn't even turned around.
"Well where's the fun in a shared watch if we can't even talk?" I whispered. Sarah shrugged. We were in silence for a long time, eyes roving over the scenery, ears pricked. Thoughtfully, I began to hum without thinking about it. It wasn't until Sarah had hummed a few bars with me that I realized what song it was. Convenient, I thought. Very in era. Sarah had shown me the tune a year or two ago, and it sounded like it could have been from the time period. Mordred's Lullaby, it was called. We came to the end of the tune, and I said, "The only problem is that we can't get that slightly electronic sounding background."
"Yeah." Sarah replied. "Dub step would be even harder!"
I laughed softly. "Yes, when people try to sing dub step it always turns out badly." I gave Sarah an example with a few seconds of my imitation of Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. As always, it sounded like I was a complete idiot, and when I finished we laughed together.
"Very nice." Sarah said.
"Let's hear you do better!" I exclaimed, giving her a playful shove.
"No thanks, I'll refrain from looking like an imbecile, but thanks for the invite." I gave her another shove. "Look, we can't just go around singing anything we'd like - most of the stuff would sound suspicious here, and we'll be abandoned 'cuz we're crazy."
"Okay, point taken." My vision zeroed in for a moment on a motion out in the forest, but then a doe came into my view, and I decided that she was what had caused the movement. Back home, I would have pointed it out to Sarah, but here, not only was I certain she'd already spotted it, but we had seen so many deer that it wasn't even interesting anymore.
The moon had moved to the other side of a branch on the tree, before Sarah said softly, "Hey, would Mulan tunes be too out of era?"
I glanced over at her. "Well, wrong area, but close enough." Together we started humming 'I'll Make a Man out of You', and then, on the last verse, started singing it softly. So, it wasn't in era, or in location, but it was better than rock. Soon, we were cycling through our favorite show tunes. And then, deciding it wouldn't hurt to much, we went on to 'Hotel California','Hallelujah', 'How to Save a Life', and 'Livin on a Prayer', jumping to our feet while we sang. "Whoaaaaaa we're half was there..." "Whooooooaaaaa! Livin' on a prayer!" "Take my hand, and we'll make it I swe-ar," "Whooooooaaa! Living on a pra-!" We both choked off the last words as we were thrown to the ground, winding us and leaving us gasping for air. I coughed and spluttered, searching for my attacker. There behind me was Halt, glowering at me as if I were the devil himself.
"Prayer?" I said meekly.
"What. Are. You. Doing." he demanded, and I swear I thought he was going to kick the living crap out of me. His voice was icy cold, like a dagger in the Antarctic.
"Ummm... singing?" I offered lamely.
"In the middle of the night? When we're hiding from the Picts?"
"Ummmm... yes?"
Halt's face was emotionless. "You two, are in so much trouble." he turned and stalked off. Sarah and I watched him leave in our prostrate position, eyes wide, until he laid down and apparently went back to sleep. We both let out sighs of relief.
"That was wayyyyyyy to close." I whispered.
"Too close? That was way past close dude." Sarah replied, "That was caught caught caught. Caught."
I sighed and sat back against a tree. "Yeah. If I could tweet this, I would hash-tag it 'busted'."
Sarah chuckled. "Ah twitter. I never got one you know. Never saw the point."
I nodded. "Me too, for the longest time. Then I got one, mostly so I could follow famous people. Like Ryan Higa."
"ShamWOOHOO!" She mimicked, and I smiled.
"Yeah, and then a couple of friends. Like Shayna." Sarah nodded.
We both sat in thoughtful silence for a while. Then, Sarah asked, "I wonder where everyone else is? I mean, like Shayna and Mike and the like. Ah! That rhymed."
"Well, I saw Shayna just before we found Halt and Will after fleeing castle Araluen, but she didn't recognize me and seemed to be just an average peasant girl - collecting mushrooms."
Sarah nodded. "We did always call her the normal one, didn't we?"
"I knew being weird was a good thing!" I exclaimed, and we both grinned, elbowing each other. The moment was so real, so normal... and that's when it hit me like a sledgehammer. Even though the plot was fantastical, the people once fictional, the adventure like it was from a story book, this wasn't a story. It was real. If I died, there wouldn't be another chapter to reveal that it had all been a decoy, or a ploy, or that the seemingly killer blow had been deflected in some amazing way - I'd be dead. If Sarah died, I couldn't just re-imagine it a different way and bring her back. I realized that for the entire trip, all my emotions had been muted, like those you get when you're reading. When the main character is sad, happy, or angry, you feel those emotions too, but obviously not as strongly, right? It felt like all the emotions that I'd been feeling had just been thrown into sharp relief, and the fear of being caught by the Picts, the fear of being grabbed out of the darkness, the fear of unfriendly eyes in the night was suddenly very, very, real. My breathing sped up, and my eyes dilated, every muscle tensing. I scanned the darkness, sure that an arrow or a blade was going to shoot out of the shadows at any moment.
"Whoa, you okay?" Sarah asked, and I realized that my hands were shaking like an old man's.
"I don't - I don't know." I felt out of breath, like I had just run a long way.
"I think you need to lie down - you don't look too good. I'll take this watch, okay?" Sarah gave me a little push towards the dying embers of the fire.
"You sure?" I asked.
She brushed my words away with a hand. "Go on. You look ready to pass out."
I didn't ask again. I laid down, a cold knot in my stomach, close to the embers, closer than was safe. I felt the heat burning my skin, but I wanted to be close to that light, like a little kid with a nightlight. What's wrong with you? I asked myself. It's not like you're any worse off than you were before. What's got your knickers in a twist all of the sudden? I forced my eyes to close, taking slow, deep breaths. As I drifted into sleep, I felt tears sting my eyes, and though I tried to hold them back, they tumbled down my cheeks with annoying persistence. You're such a sissy. I told myself, with made another tear roll down my cheek. I hoped that Sarah wouldn't come around the fire to warm up and see my crying, and that Halt and Will were truly asleep, but decided it would be best to just let the tears come. They rolled across my nose, as I lay on my side, along my one cheek and down along to almost my ear before touching the ground. It felt good to be able to release all the emotion pooling inside me, and I felt the lump in my stomach seemed to fade. I finally fell asleep, with the song "This Too Shall Pass" by Ok Go playing over and over in my head.
When I finally was woken, I almost forgot about the night before - almost until my eyes were all the way open, in fact. Then I was quickly bringing my palms to my cheeks, rubbing away any tear stains that might still be there. Just because I was a sissy didn't mean that I had to show it. I could put on my brave face and tough it out - maybe.
The day started out normal, just us riding into the dawn light, but soon after the sun had risen above the tree tops we were met with a fork in the road, one with a sign pointing towards our ultimate goal, the mountains, and one with a sign pointing to a town. Instead of turning towards the mountains, Halt instead turned us into town. There was a definite chill in the air now, but Halt instructed Will to remove his cloak (and Halt took his off too), and us to take our blankets and wrap them around our unusual clothing like they were robes. Sarah and I lucked out, but Will and Halt were a bit chilly.
This town was even tinier than the first one we'd stopped in - it couldn't have been more than a dozen buildings. I assumed the housing portion of the town must be on the far side of the downtown area, if you could call it a downtown. We rode in on our horses with our weapons disguised, and then left the horses in a stable though we did not remove their saddles. Snow began to drift down like feathers as we started down the small dirt road between the quiet buildings. It was how I imagined a small western town would have looked on winter's day in the early eighteen hundreds, except plus trees - there were people about, but not many, and making virtually no noise. All the buildings were log cabin style, and when customers or shop keepers stepped outside, they made sure to firmly shut the snugly fitted doors to keep the cold in. "We're going to need to get lots of things here - the inner land bound side of Teutlandt is mostly tribal, and they aren't too friendly to strangers. This is all we're going to get." Halt told us, and we nodded, both trying to mentally calculate how many days this meant we had left of trudging through the hinterlands.
We entered the first building and bought lots of winter clothes, which looked suspiciously thin to me, along with two more dresses for disguising Sarah and I, which we donned right away, much to our displeasure, though the soft but tough fabric of a working woman were much more comfortable than the stuffy formal things we'd been forced to wear before. We bought a mountain of preserved foods, and Halt bought more coffee, though he refused to buy me any more tea. It was the bare minimum for us, apparently. Halt decided we needed to restock our medical supplies, but there wasn't a place to buy any in town, so Halt, after inquiring with a shop keeper, Halt headed off on his own to find a place to get them, while we all waited back in a small, uncrowded tavern. Will was generous and bought us all drinks, him getting a small glass of a wine (keep in mind that alcohol back then was barely alcohol at all - it took quite a bit of it to get even a little tipsy, so Will wasn't going to have any troubles), and Sarah and I getting warm ciders, which were luckily non-alcoholic. There was just one big table in the Tavern, but the couple of other people in the tavern were friendly enough. Soon we were all laughing together, though the three of us had to be careful to not disclose anything stupid. The warmth and camaraderie of the tavern was apparently alluring to people from such a small town, because as the sun set, and Halt remained absent, more and more people began to filter in and sit down, chatting. It never got crowded space wise, because the table didn't take up that much room in the space, but soon the table just didn't have any chairs left. As people began to make their dinner orders, other people who worked at the Tavern began to drag out more tables and chairs, so that people who didn't have seats could have a place to eat. The conversation grew louder and louder, so we almost had to yell to be heard, but we didn't really mind. To be brutally honest, it was a relief to be able to talk to someone different for once! After I got over my shyness, talking was amazingly fun. The best part was being able to tell jokes that had been told to death at home, but here, they were brand new and hysterical. Sarah and I had tons of fun with that. We even started re-enacting some Monty Python sketches, but we had to be a bit particular, as some of them wouldn't even make sense during this time. A man of about thirty was telling us a story about how one of his boys had been dragged all about his farm by a sheep, when Sarah gave me a nudge and pointed across the room.
"Looky." she said teasingly. "It seems like someone's come through the looking glass to see you."
I looked up, confused, and felt my face flush. There, helping to drag a table out of the back room for the ten people standing by the fire, was Malin. Now, you've gotta understand, when we left home, I had what you might call a puppy crush on Malin - we both played guitar in Jazz Band, and he wasn't like all the other boys in my school. Unlike them, he was kind, polite, and hadn't once talked to me in that voice - you know the one, the one that says 'You're such a loser so I'll never take you or anything you say/do seriously' - in fact I hadn't seen him talk to anyone like that. He was popular, I guess, or at least he had lots of friends. And he wasn't an airhead like many - he clearly had something other than rocks in his skull. But we rarely talked, and when we did, it was somewhat strained - I was shy for the obvious reasons, and he seemed shy too, though if it was for the same reason I couldn't tell you. The fact that he was a Junior and I was a freshman also made things a little tough for me. When I'd finally told Sarah and Shayna, they'd not made fun of me, but gone 'Aw, so cute!' in an ever so slightly teasing way.
"Oh great." I muttered, looking away from him, feeling my face start to blush.
Sarah laughed and gave me a little nudge. "C'mon, you're never going to see him again here! Just see if he likes you, or if he could like you in our world - if we ever go back, that could be valuable information." Sarah encouraged, and I shrugged, downing the last of my cider. She elbowed me again as I shook my head. "C'mon, you baby."
A waitress came over, placing plates in front of people a little ways down, then coming over to our section, and asking "And are you folks going to have today?" Her accent was thick, unlike other people here, and sounded Russianish, but not quite. Almost all the people here had some sort of accent, and many couldn't speak English very well, but her's was particularly distinct. People all around us called out their orders heartily, and she rushed to write down all their orders.
We glanced at Will, and he shrugged, before calling, "Might as well - Halt's not back yet, so what else are we to do?" Sarah and I peered down the table, examining the other people's dishes, and then pointing out the ones we wanted in the absence of a menu. The waitress was patient and kind, so we didn't feel pressured. After I'd ordered a dish that looked vaguely like steak, and Sarah had ordered a big bowl of stew, she went off to deliver our orders. She stopped halfway across the room however, looking over her shoulder at the door, before yelling "Bendik's here!" The entire crowd erupted into cheers, and a man in his mid thirties stepped in. He was holding a violin, and the table was scooched back to an uncomfortable proximity with the wall to make a big open spot near the fireplace. Bendik pulled a stool out from behind the bar area, and sat down, settling the instrument on his shoulder.
"I am going to play a couple of tunes for you while you eat, and then you are free to join me out her after, alright?" His accent was even thicker than the waitress', so I had a bit of trouble attempting to understand him, but I managed. My steak was placed neatly in front of me just as he started playing, and I marveled at how they could possibly be faster here than at home, where we had microwaves and electric ovens. I took my unfortunately dull knife and began hacking away at my meat as he began a delicate tune, something that sounded way ahead of it's time - meaning it sounded like Beethoven. It felt weird to think that Beethoven was ahead of this time, I actually almost laughed at the thought. There was still a hubbub out in the tables, but it had gotten noticeably quieter in here, in order to hear Bendik. The steak was scrumptious, at least compared to the fairly bland soups we'd been having for the last weeks. I ate until I was filled, then leaned back in my chair, listening to the violin music. When paired with the heat of the room and my full stomach, made my eyelids begin to droop. I yawned... Then jumped in surprise as a cheer rose up and a couple dozen chairs slammed backwards, wood scraping on wood, and feet clomping along the boards. Twenty or thirty people had gotten up and were clumped messily in the center of the open space that had been cleared earlier, standing in pairs, one boy and one girl. Then Bendik began to play a lively tune, and the entire group began a dance that matched the tone of the music. The room was no longer quiet - it anything it was deafening.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and I whipped around, feeling suddenly jumpy. In the noise, a battalion of Scotti soldiers could bust down the door, swords drawn and calling for our blood, and we wouldn't even have heard them. However it was not a Scotti, but a young man who looked oddly familiar. He was perhaps a couple years older than me, but with our adjusted ages, it was harder to tell. He had an easy smile, with long tousled blonde hair. "Dance?" he asked, holding out his hand, his thick accent and uncertain pronunciation of the word suggesting he didn't speak English natively.
I glanced at Will, who shrugged, and then at Sarah, who did the same. I shrugged, being of course the only one who hadn't done so yet, and said, "Why not?" I took his hand, slipping out of my chair. I scowled as my skirts got all tangled up, but the boy kept me from falling. He turned around and called something in what I assumed must be Russian to someone, and as I was guided to the dance floor, I saw a boy who must have been this boy's brother stand up and approach where I'd been sitting. Well, at least Sarah wouldn't get left out. The song changed just as we got over there. As if choreographed, everyone began to do a complicated sort square dance, which I now realized that I had no idea how to do. The boy stood in front of me, smiling expectantly, and offering me his arm. Feeling a little embarrassed, I said "I don't know this dance." He frowned and gave me a quizzical look. "I," I gestured to myself, "don't know," I shook my head, "this dance." I gestured to the dancers who had already begun the complicated steps. He frowned a moment more, murmuring something to himself, then his face lit up with recognition.
"I can... show you." he stumbled on the words, as if they were hard to remember and harder to pronounce, like how most of us sound in Spanish class back home. He took my hands in his own, and held them up between us. He took a step backwards, and I followed, but he shook his head, gesturing me to step back as well, so our arms were extended fully. I did so, and then slowly he stepped back in. We were going much slower than the music, but Bendik didn't seem likely to stop any time soon, so we'd have time to catch up. I copied him, and he took us in a couple spins that I supposed would be much faster in the real thing. Then, releasing my left hand, he looped other arm around so that I spun one way, then the other, and ended up with both our arms outstretched, side by side, before he spun me back in so that my back was against his chest. He spun me back to face him, before repeating the first two steps. Then, with no warning what-so-ever, he let go of my hands, grabbed my waist, and tossed me into the air. I let out a little squeak, before he caught me again and lowered me to the ground. He was grinning wider than a little boy on Halloween, and I couldn't help but smile too.
Okay, so awkward place to stop, sorry. I'll try to post the next one quick as possible.