Chapter 19

I do not own Claymore

When all was quiet again outside, they left the farmhouse to see what had happened and bring the wounded farmer inside for treatment and calm the boy down.

Cynthia hunkered down to look at the farmer while the boy hovered nervously until Cynthia smiled at him and said in a soothing tone, "Your dad is fine, I'll clean up his cuts and put a poultice on them and he'll be fine in no time at all."

Other than a nasty looking cut on his head, he was basically alright and the boy was more frightened than anything else.

Other than that, all was quiet and soon, the sounds of horse's hooves, clop, clopping along reached their ears.

Around the bend came Riful, sitting happily astride one of the horses and leading the rest back to the farmhouse.

When she pulled up and halted her horse, Teresa handed her her clothing and stepped back while Riful dismounted and began dressing.

When Riful had covered her nakedness once more, Teresa glanced around at the marks from Riful's passing.

To her surprise, there was little actual damage other than an occasional clump of soil torn out of the ground from her pursuit of the bandit gang.

She grinned and commented to Riful,"You're pretty light on your feet, I expected a lot more damage like there was when we fought."

Riful, now fully dressed, grinned back and replied cheerfully, "I didn't want to ruin their crops so close to harvest time, besides, there wasn't any kind of challenge to it. Going after them, I mean."

She looked at Teresa steadily for a moment and said quietly, "I like these people, they have shown me kindness and I wanted to protect them in return."

Teresa smiled at the small abyssal and said, "I never thought I'd be saying this to you, Riful of the West. You and I have more in common than I had first thought. Aside from the awakened being part. We both have lived mostly solitary lives and known what it means to be feared by everyone, now we are part of something bigger than both us and we have both found friendships and acceptance."

Riful smiled back at Teresa and replied cheerfully, "I certainly never thought I'd think of a warrior as a friend, but here we are."

Riful glanced over at the bloody heap and asked, "Would you help me with that thing over there?"

"Okay, what are you planning to do with it?" Asked Teresa in turn.

Riful simply replied, "I'm going to bury it deeply around the outside of their farm, deep enough to where they'll never find it."

"For what purpose?"

"To mark this farm as being under my protection while I'm gone." replied Riful of the West.

Teresa turned towards Cynthia and said to her, "Please tend to his wounds and help her out for a little while. We're going to dispose of the yoma's corpse."

Cynthia nodded with understanding and helped the farmer inside to tend to his wounds.

Teresa and Riful gathered up and carefully spread the remnants of the yoma around the farm, burying the gobbets of flesh and bits of bone deep enough to not be disturbed too quickly.

Upon completion of their gory task, Riful took out a small knife and cut off a lock of her hair, it writhed briefly and turned back into ordinary looking hair.

She commented to Teresa as she tied the lock of her hair around the little figurine she had made out of some twigs and dry grass, "This will let any yoma or awakened being know at a glance, that these people are under my protection and not to be molested."

Returning to the farmhouse, they saw that the farmer was being tended to by Cynthia who had bathed his wounds with warm water and had prepared a poultice for his head wound.

She finished by wrapping a clean cloth around his head and gently tying it in place.

Stepping back, Cynthia surveyed her handiwork and proclaimed him healthy.

Moments later, he rose from the chair he'd been sitting in during Cynthia's ministrations and declared stoutly, "I wanna get a look at the horses you got from those bandits!"

They all trooped outside and surveyed the gathered horses, the boy grinned at his father and said brightly,

"We got our horses back Paw, and more besides! I saw brands on them I don't know, d'you think they're stolen?"

The farmer tousled his son's brown hair with a work roughened hand and said cheerfully, "I have no doubts they're stolen son.

"We'll take them into town and turn them over to the magistrate there, he'll know what to do."

His wife turned to Riful and said in deep gratitude,"We owe you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, all I can say is you're welcome to visit us anytime!"

She looked at the small abyssal quizzically and asked, "How did you drive off those bandits anyway? You're so very small and there were so many of them."

Riful grinned at her and replied cheerfully, "I got really mad and became very dramatic, some men will do anything to quiet a drama queen!"

The farmers wife grinned back at her and remarked, "Well,whatever you did, it worked and we are grateful to you."

After everything had settled down, Clare remarked to Teresa, "We do have to keep going, we have much to tell Captain Miria."

They all said their farewells to the farm family and hugs were freely given and happily received. Soon afterwards they were settled into that long, swinging stride, the one that had carried all of them over many a weary mile.

It was nearly dark when Sheila cried out, "I see the town just ahead, we'll be there in just a few minutes."

Riful impulsively tugged on Sheila's sleeve and she paused while Riful nimbly hopped up on to her shoulders to take a look.

Riful stood on her shoulders for a moment or two, then she hopped off and landed gracefully before declaring, "The inn is open for business!"

Teresa grinned and said, "I'm looking forward to a hot bath, a good meal and a tankard of ale. First, let's check it out from here!"

For several moments, the five of them stood gazing at the distant town, their eyes seemingly unfocused.

Teresa finally smiled and said quietly, "There are four warriors who are taking youki suppressants and a couple of watchers. I wonder who they're looking for?"

Riful murmured, "I wonder if they know there is an awakened being hiding in town?"

Clare muttered, "I doubt it, those pills do suppress the youki detecting ability too."

Teresa commented, "The awakened being is getting a bit nervous, we'd better intervene before things get out of hand!"

A short time later, the scouting party ceased their mad dash and stopped behind the inn.

They paused briefly to catch their breaths and pat themselves down to get the road dust off of their clothing.

Pulling the hoods over their heads and securing their swords, the five of them slipped around the side of the inn and made their way inside.

The inn was busy tonight and the ale was pouring freely, the smell of cooked food and foaming ale mingled with tobacco smoke hung in the air.

A young woman on the low stage strove to sing over the noise of the crowd all eating and drinking and talking all at once, hers was a daunting task.

Sheila hunkered down slightly to become less conspicuous from her height as they settled into one of the booths along the back wall and waited for a tavern maid to take their order.

They didn't wait for very long, a cheery lass with red hair came flouncing up and greeted them, "G'd evenin! What would ye like?"

Teresa spoke up and ordered, "We would like ale all around and two roasted fowls, we're very thirsty and hungry!"

She grinned at them and said brightly, "Coming right up!" Then trotted off to the bar.

Sheila commented drily, "You're finally letting me have some ale? All this time it has been off limits, what's up?"

Teresa grinned at her and replied, "You're taller than any of us, restricting you to cider would look a bit strange.

"It's just this once, at least for another year or so, so don't let it go to your head!"

Riful looked Sheila up and down for a moment and finally asked, "Just how old are you anyway?"

Sheila replied hesitantly, "I'll be seventeen summers this year."

Riful gaped briefly, then opened her mouth to exclaim when Teresa pinched her hard and hissed,"Yes, she's young, she's big too. No outbursts, okay?"

Riful rubbed her arm where it had been pinched and hissed back, "That hurt, damnit!"

She was about to make another comment when the doors opened and two black robed figures entered the taproom and approached the bar.

The five of them hastily averted their eyes just before the tavern maid returned with a wooden platter of roasted fowl and set it on the table then scurried off again with a "Be right back with your ale!" tossed over her retreating shoulder.

Dipping their fingers in the finger bowl and wiping them off with the fresh towel, the scouting party reached out and divvied up the roasted fowl amongst themselves.

When Cynthia offered the platter to her, Riful shook her pretty head in a 'no" and said cheerfully, "I ate a really big lunch! No, thank you."

Clare muttered, "I'll bet you did, those bandits probably filled you right up."

Riful was about to retort when the cheery tavern maid returned with foaming tankards of ale and handed them out to the group.

Putting her hands on her ample hips she said brightly, "If there's anythin' else ye'll be needin', just sing out, okay?" then she flounced off again.

Cynthia took a long drink from her ale and after setting the tankard down and wiping the foamy mustache from her upper lip, she asked, "You mentioned an awakened being earlier, which one do you think it is?"

Teresa grinned at her and replied, "She's right in front of us!"

Cynthia looked around and muttered, "Who is she?"

"She is the singer." replied Teresa.

"What?!" Sheila blurted out, then caught herself and lowered her voice, "She is the singer?"

"Yep! She is the singer. Though I doubt if the watchers recognized her, but I did." Replied Teresa with a grin, "She was from my time actually, we called her The Nightingale because she was a very good singer."

As they talked among themselves, the black robed men left the taproom their question evidently unanswered.

Clare said quietly, "So what do we do now, are we here to confront this "Nightingale" as you called her or do you have something else in mind?"

Teresa muttered, "I would like to at least talk to her and I would like to find out what the warriors we felt and these watchers are up to?"

The young singer briefly stopped her performance and began circulating the taproom with a small basket in hand, occasionally she would pause at a table or a customer and small coins would be dropped into the basket, she would smile and thank them then continue her meandering.

Eventually, she stopped at the scouting party's booth and froze when she saw four pairs of silvery gray eyes looking at her.

Teresa dropped a coin into her basket and said softly, "Your voice is as sweet as ever, Nightingale." "I..It's Melody! Nobody has called me that in a long time." She replied as she looked about uncertainly, mentally gauging where the nearest exit was.

Teresa smiled at her and said soothingly, "We aren't here for you, we are on our way back to our home base." and she dropped another coin into the basket.

Melody looked closely at Teresa's face then she said, "I heard you were dead, dead and buried. I awakened not long afterwards and I've hidden ever since. What is going on here?"

"In case you haven't noticed, there are four warriors with suppressed auras and two watchers here. We detected your agitation and came to see what we could do about it." Replied Teresa as she dropped yet another coin into the basket.

Melody said tersely, "I have noticed them, yes thank you. I haven't done anything, I haven't eaten anyone in many years. They're not after me."

"What were you agitated about, if I may ask?"

"Stage fright, I get it really bad, once I start singing it goes away!" Melody smiled at them and moved on to other patrons and collected her evening's tips.

Having finished their order, they went over to the landlord's desk and rented a room for five.

As Teresa laid down the room fee, she asked, "Is there plenty of hot water? We need to bathe properly with actual soap!"

The plump landlord chuckled and replied, "We have enough to get you started and we can bring more as you need it and we have fresh towels."

He leaned over and pointed down the long hallway, "The bath room is at the end of the hall, here is the key."

Taking the key, they trooped down the hallway and soon found themselves in a warm room with three large wooden tubs and four barrels of water.

While they were filling the tubs, a matronly woman came bustling in with two large hot water kettles and right behind her was a younger woman also laden with hot water kettles.

After pouring in the hot water, she pointed out the cakes of soap on a shelf and said, "Make sure you dry them off and put them back when you are finished, that soap came all the way from Rabona, the holy city!"

Having said her piece, she bustled back out again and left the ladies to decide who went first.

In moments, the bathroom was strewn with cast off clothing and five naked women were sitting in the tubs scrubbing vigorously.

Teresa and Clare were in one, Cynthia and Riful were in another and Sheila had one all to herself. The layers of grime and dried sweat washed away to reveal clean, bare, skin.

A thick lather was made up and icky, itchy hair was washed and rinsed, twice.

Last of all, the travel stained clothing was gathered up and washed in the now grey bath water, to rinse the clothing, more water was scooped out of the barrels and poured over the wet clothing until the soap was gone.

Rummaging through their back packs, clean dry clothing was fished out and shaken strongly to smooth out the wrinkles then pulled on to cover their nakedness once more.

Pulling on her boots, Teresa grinned and declared, "I feel human again!"

They tidied up the bath room a bit and as the landlady had requested, they carefully dried off the soap cakes and placed them back on the shelf.