Part 20- Nina, alone
By Nina Windia
The light was soft and honeycomb, throwing long slender shadows down the lane. Rutted from cart wheels, it ran between the wheat fields that rose above Nina's head at either side.
When she reached the juniper tree, Nina sat down, rubbing the backs of her aching calves. She'd had no idea was possible to feel this exhausted. She'd flown until dawn, until her wings gave out. From there, she'd walked, trying to put as much distance possible between herself and Wyndia.
But now, she felt like she couldn't take a single step more. Her legs ached. Her bottom of her feet burned. Her sandals had rubbed up a blister and she could feel the tell-tale heat on the tip of nose and forehead where she'd caught the sun. Nina laid her head back and closed her eyes, listening to the incessant chirp of crickets; the buzz of the cicadas; the rustle of field mice; the never-ending clamour of life.
It would be getting dark soon, and the heat would die down. She pressed her hand to her stomach as it grumbled particular loudly. Gods, she was hungry. If she'd known it was to be her last meal, she wouldn't have turned her nose up at the wedding feast.
Her eyes were drawn to the plume of smoke rising from a modest villa set amidst the fields, most likely the home of one of the land-owners. Wisteria drooping from the red clay tile roof and a washing line hung between two pillars on the porch, it was inviting.
The rules of hospitality declared that any traveller was welcome to a home that had bread to spare. Bad luck was reserved for hosts that turned a man away, even if he was in rags. Nina had never imagined invoking such old laws, but there was a first time for everything, right?
The mental image of fresh bread crisping in the oven was enough to force Nina back up onto protesting, blistered feet.
The door to the villa stood open. Stepping up onto the porch, she called, "Hello?" Receiving no response, Nina stepped over the threshold into the courtyard, filled with a large leafy olive tree. "Anyone home?"
Clack. The sliding door slid open, and a woman with her arms full of laundry appeared, looking Nina over curiously. "You're a traveller?"
"My name is Esther. I've come from Wyndia," she said, inclining her head.
"This is the house of Aberon and his wife, Cassandra. Come in. I'll fetch the mistress." The servant slid open the door wider, to welcome her in.
After everything that had happened, the generosity of Aberon's family nearly reduced Nina to tears. She ate dinner with the family: Aberon, Cassandra and their three young children. Sat around the low table, they ate floury flatbread and dipped it in hummus, with olives picked off the tree in the courtyard. Nina had no idea something so plain could be so delicious. She told them the false story she'd prepared: that she'd been working as a maid at the palace and was now returning westward to visit her sister.
"The palace?" asked Aberon, a rotund man in his forties. A servant shuffled round quietly to refill their cups. "So you saw the tournament, then?"
"Some of it," said Nina.
The little girl lent forward over the table, asking eagerly, "Did you see who won?"
She stared at the chunk of flatbread in her hands. "Prince Ryu of Dracon," she said.
"What is the world coming to?" said Aberon with a shake of his head. As he and his family discussed the savageries of the north and how shocking it was that the northerners had even been allowed to participate, Nina's attention slipped away like a soap bubble.
Since last night, she'd been thinking only of putting one foot in front of the other. She hadn't had time— or, alright, I might as well be honest, allowed herself to think of Ryu.
He'd betrayed her, and she still couldn't understand why. Was it some political scheme she wasn't privvy to? Or part of a hilariously unamusing joke?
She, Nina reminded herself, She'd betrayed her. Though she struggled to see Ryu in that way. If Ryu was a woman, she was unlike any woman she'd ever known.
All those things Ryu said to her… were they all lies, too?
She started when she felt the warmth of Cassandra's hand on hers. "Esther… are you feeling alright?"
She quickly hoisted a smile. "I'm fine. The food is really delicious."
I won't think about him, she vowed. I don't need him. Nina tucked Ryu away in the back of her mind, along with all the other, shadowy lost people she shouldn't think about.
After supper, Cassandra led her down the hall to the guest room. Nina thanked her, and as soon as she was gone, slumped into the cot in exhaustion. It would be easy to go to sleep right away, but Nina forced herself to sit up and get undressed, fingers clumsy with exhaustion as he pulled the pins from her hair. She dug the Dragon Tear from out of her chiton where it rested against her breast, and about to set it down on the wicker beside table, paused.
The Tear was no longer its neutral yellow. Instead, it shone an ugly orange.
She couldn't help but think of how it reacted yesterday around Drypetis. The malevolent, ominous purple. Her cousin… what had come over her that night? And how did she know Ryu's real identity, anyway? She's more sheltered than me.
Nina turned her attention back to the stone. She couldn't shake off the feeling that it was trying to warn her about something.
As tired as she was, Nina tied her chiton back in place and slid open the door to the corridor. She slipped out quietly. Set into an alcove, her eyes gaze lingered on an alter to Kaze, incense burning, the leftovers from their dinner set as an offering.
From the opposite parlour, she could hear murmurs.
"—I don't know, darling. She seems such a polite and sweet girl…" she heard Cassandra say.
And her husband: "I'm not saying she isn't. But no maidservant has those table manners."
Nina started, staring at her hands. Pale and delicate and soft as silk; the way a lady's hands should be. Had they given her away?
"Well, she has been working at the palace…" Cassandra countered.
"It's suspicious, Cass. That's all I'm saying. And if she's a runaway the Watch need to know. My good name would come to nought if if the temple found out I was harbouring girls dedicated to the sisterhood."
"Well… I admit it is strange, a young woman travelling alone like this…" Cassandra conceded.
"I'll go to the Watch, first thing in the morning," Aberon said, with the tone of resolution. "It it comes to nothing, no harm done. But—"
Nina stepped away, her heart sinking. Cassandra and her family had seemed such kind people…
Her whole body ached. Slipping back into the guest room, she lit a candle and quietly begun rummaging through the linen chest that sat at the end of the bed.
It was kind of Zilpah to give her her clothes, but Nina knew now it would do her no good. Just being a woman, alone, cast suspicion on her. So she'd have to become someone else.
Nina pulled the rough, homespun tunic over her head and kicked back on her sandals. Unpinning the rest of her hair, she let it come loose. After fumbling for some time with a length of unwieldy cloth, trying to flatten her chest as Ryu had shown her, she gave up. She stared at the cloth in her hands, trying to figure out how in the gods' names Ryu had done this piece of magic. If anything, she'd only made her chest look more bulky.
She pinned on her cloak instead, exchanging her intricate broach for a plain brass clip, considering, No wonder Ryu knew what he was talking about. Lined with fur, the cloak was thick enough to disguise the swell of her breasts.
Taking one last longing look at the warm house, Nina set down one of her earrings on top of the linen chest, enough to pay for the clothes five times over. Then she climbed onto the cot and out of the window, opening her wings to take to the sky.
She didn't stop flying until she was several dozen leagues from the place, and there instead of a soft bed, in the forest found the comfiest spot against a tree. The chill of the night was starting to seep in, and Nina pulled her cloak tighter around her. Far away, an animal howled. Again, the sense of unrealness hit her. If she were to wake up in the palace tomorrow, to find this was all some disturbing dream, she wouldn't blink an eyelid at it.
I wish… I could wake up in my bedroom, and continue living my boring life.
Except, she didn't have a room in the palace anymore. Her old life had been stolen from her. Her sister was gone.
There was nothing left for her in Wyndia.
Her only choice: to go onwards. Leaves rustling in the breeze like tin foil, she looked up at the familiar constellations through the waving branches. They were the only friends she had left.
Nina slept fitfully, and when she woke, she woke with a start, staring blearily at the golden dawn slanting through the trees. Brushing her nightmares aside: shadowy images of bloody letter-openers and spilled goblets, she stood, ignoring the complaints of her muscles and pulling her cloak loose from where it bunched around her.
From further into the forest, she heard someone whistling a jaunty tune. She wasn't alone.
Who else was out here in the forest, this early in the morning? Part of her urged her to walk in the opposite direction, but she hesitated. She had her disguise. Time to try it out.
Curiously, she delved deeper into the woods, following the tune. Parting the thick foliage, she paused. A small stream trickled through the forest, and sat by edge with a small fire going, a man was fishing with his back set to her.
Just as she was beginning to have second thoughts, he spoke: "Come over and have some breakfast, lad. You know, it's not safe to sleep in the woods like that without a ward. There are beasties in these parts."
Nina approached and sat by the man's side. Behind the huge brown beard, it was hard to pinpoint his age: he might have been forty, or sixty, or anything in between. His hair touched his shoulders. Thickened round the middle, his muscular arms spoke a life of physical labour.
"What's a ward?" Nina asked.
"You are green, aren't you boy?" laughed the stranger, a deep boom from deep in his gut. From the leather napsack by his side, he pulled out a bookmark-shaped talisman made of woven fibres. Embroidered onto it was a rune, one of the marks of power used by the wizards which she recognised from the books she and her sister secretly perused as children. The stranger handed it to her, and she turned it over carefully in her hands. "Keeps the beasties away. Kind of distracts them from you, like."
"You can buy these?"
"Yeah, you can. Though the craftmanship can be dubious. I make my own."
Nina stared at him. "You're a wizard?"
The man laughed his big booming laugh. "Not in the slightest. But any folk with a drop of magic in his body can cobble together something like this." Nina handed the ward back to him. "I should introduce myself. Name's Bunyan. I look after the woods. Live a couple days west of here, but I come out a few times a month to check on things here. What about yourself?"
"Aric," she said. "I'm travelling west, too."
"And it's your first time away from home, is it?" When she opened her mouth to protest, he laughed. "Yeah, I can tell. It's clear you don't know what in the Gods' name you're doing. You looked frozen half to death when I saw you. Why didn't you start a fire?"
"I— uh…" she trailed off. What did she know about starting fires?
Bunyan spoke a little more kindly, now. "Well, we all have to start somewhere. Where is it you're headed to, lad?"
Nina pulled out the crumpled page from her pocket and handed it to the woodsman, showing him the place Zilpah marked on it.
"You know how to get there?" Bunyan asked.
"Go… west? Past this squiggly bit here?"
"You need to pass through the western woods and the marshland and cross the pass, here." He stabbed the map with a thick finger. "On foot, I'd say it'd take you about a fortnight."
"A fortnight?" The hopelessness she felt must have shown on her face, because Bunyan placed a calloused hand on her shoulder.
"Tell you what. We're heading the same way, so you may as well stick with me a while, eh?"
Nina hesitated. She'd thought it safer to travel on her own, and yet, she'd barely made it through one night on her following that dichotomy. She'd assumed she could slip into a new identity like a fresh pair of clothes, but in the new light of day she saw the truth: she was a spoiled, pampered princess, and she could use any help that was offered to her.
"Is that alright?" she asked.
"Well, as it is, if I left you I'd feel like I was abandoning a babe in the woods. So ye'd best come with me. Aric, was it?"
The Dragon Tear shined a soft turquoise. Somehow, it made her feel like she could trust this gruff woodsman.
"You have my thanks," said Nina.
There was a tug at the line. "Ah, good timing. Here's breakfast," said Bunyan.
For the next three days, until they reached Bunyan's home, she and woodsman travelled together. He was of a solitary nature and preferred silence to idle chit-chat. When he spoke, it was because he was showing her something, whether that was how to build a fire, weave her own ward, or pointing out the various edible fungi that grew in the woods. Seeming to realise the extent of her ineptitude, he often paused in what he was doing, and would motion Nina over to quietly observe. He even showed her how to make her own fishhooks, and the basics of fishing. When she got her first bite, her elation was tempered with sadness.
Ryu had promised that one day, he would take her fishing. She'd laid in bed imagining it: sitting by his side in a new land, his arm around her, fingers entwined in hers as he showed her how to thread the lure. A possible future now extinguished.
He was probably lying about that too, she told himself, as she put him from her mind.
Bunyan was well-known and liked in these parts, and though two nights they camped in the forest where the woodsman was at home, one evening they spent the night at the house of his friends. A far different bunch than the family she'd approached before, they were farmers and manual labourers, full of gruff and easy charm. Bunyan introduced her to them as, "A lad I found in the woods."
His friends laughed. Someone said, "Another stray, Bunyan?"
The night was filled with drinking and laughter, Nina choking down the strong malty ale, so different from the fine wines purveyed at the palace. Spluttering into a coughing fit, she felt the rock hard hand of man slam against her back.
"Hey, remember to breathe, youngster," he said. "You're not an ale drinker, then?"
"N-no," Nina spluttered.
"Where'd you pick this one up, eh Bunyan?" the man called across the table.
"Sleeping in the woods without a ward or a fire."
This was met by uproarious laughter. "Yer lucky some eye goo didn't use your head as a chew toy," the man said, slamming Nina on the back in a fond gesture and nearly sending her headfirst into the table.
Nina slipped into this role easily—the green lad, ineptly venturing forth on his first adventrue into the world. She'd prepared a cover story for Aric, but was surprised how little she needed to use it. As a woman she was constantly badgered about where she was going. What she was doing. As a man, her destination, past and identity were "his business." Nina had never been allowed the luxury of owning "his business," and found she rather liked it.
Where had she got, being Princess Nina? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all to become someone else.
She still struggled creating enough friction to kickstart a camp fire, but little by little she was getting better. With the embroidery she'd learnt as a child, creating a ward was easy.
"Well, look at that. You're a natural," said Bunyan, as she wove the leather strips into the shape of the rune. He'd explained: "Wizards have a whole alphabet of these things, but the common man might need only make use of a handful. This one here is a master mark, for protection."
When she tied the ward off, the mark on glowed a bright blue. She nearly dropped it in shock.
"It— it's working!" she cried, turning to Bunyan in excitement. "I can do magic!"
Bunyan laughed heartily. "Well, of course you can."
"You knew?"
"Sure. As soon as I saw ya. Some people have an innate talent for magic, and you're one of them. You mean to say nobody ever told you?"
"No…" she said.
Her, a magician?
How much more didn't she know about herself? She ran her thumb across the glowing talisman, wondering.
"Sorry lad, but this is where I leave you."
They stood at the edge of the forest Bunyan called home. He directed her eye down the dirt track that bordered th edge of the wood. "If you follow that path, it'll take you to a village, say, half a day's walk from here. You can buy a horse there, which I recommend. When your ward breaks you'll need to make a new one, but I trust you'll have no trouble with that, eh?"
Nina smiled brightly. "Is there anything I can give you?" she asked.
"Nah, don't worry about that. Helping travellers… it's kind of what I do. Everyone stumbles, once in a while. I like to give folk a leg up."
"Thank you, Bunyan."
"Good luck, Princess," the woodsman said, turning away and shouldering his pack.
A breeze began to blow.
Nina stood, stock still. "You knew? All this time?"
Bunyan paused, twisting his head back to look at her. Eyes twinkled. "I know everything that happens in my wood. My leaves catch every whisper."
No— Nina thought. It couldn't be—
The wind picked up, leaves flying from the branches.
"I know you'll beat her," Bunyan said. "You're stronger than she is."
Whipping up more fiercely, a whirlwind of leaves blew round Bunyan, encasing him. When they whirled away, the woodsman had vanished.
Nina stared at the space where the god had stood, unblinking.
She made her way down the dirt path, alone. Birds tweeting, jumping from tree to tree in the sunlight that shafted in through the branches, Nina felt inside a tentative optimism.
Twisting around, Nina glanced back behind her. Stood in the lane, in the shadows beneath interlocking fingers of branches, her sister stood, watching her.
Shuddering in the sunshine, Nina tore her gaze away. She had to go forward, because she couldn't go back.
Princess Nina continued west. Some one hundred leagues away, the other side of the wood, Prince Ryu and his brother rode north. Thus, they brushed past one another, and did not meet.
End of Act 1.
A/N- In typical Breath of Fire tradition, we're now going to have a time skip. Though, I'm talking weeks, rather than ten years (a'la BoF 3).
I've always personally thought that Bunyan was one of the Endless. Like Deis, he always seems to show up in some helpful capacity during the games. Since the gods have much more a presence in this fic, I thought it would be cool to include him.
Once again, thank you all for your reviews: Little-moon-fae, Landofdragons, Foreverness, Sara-lj, Heroism and Amnyous. I cherish each and every one of them. :)
I'd love to hear your comments on this chapter, and predictions for act 2.