A/N: Still not Tammy, so sad lol, but here's the next one.
Throughout the day, Addy would check on the strange girl, checking for signs of infection, or for signs that she was waking up, neither showed so Adeline and Gerald decided to spend the day resting, fishing, and making sure the horses were cared for. Eventually, most likely out of annoyance the strange pony let Addy unsaddle and groom her, but still watched her with suspicious eyes that were much too intelligent for a mere animal. Deciding to settle in for the night, Gerald and Adeline began making dinner, casually chatting about what they would do when they reach Cria, other than the unexpected guest sleeping in their wagon, the night went on as it had done every other night, that is until a scream pierced the calm of the night. Addy and Gerald jumped to their feet, Gerald drawing the sword at his side and Addy pulling the knives from their sheaths on her wrist, ready for an attack, that is until they realized that not only was the scream coming from the girl in the wagon, but the horses were going crazy as well as all the other animals in the surrounding area, making so much noise Addy and Gerald had to cover their ears. The pony was the only animal nearby that wasn't losing their mind, she reached her head out and bit the girl on the elbow, hard enough to draw blood. Everything stopped, the forest was quiet once again, but the girl's heavy breathing. She looked around frantically, then realizing she was both naked and unarmed, she changed tactics.
"Who are you?!" The girl looked as if we had been the ones to sneak into her camp "Quiet Cloud" she hissed towards the pony.
Regaining composure first Gerald spoke up "If anyone has the right to ask that it would be us. You have obviously been through something but there are some things that need to be figured out." The girl stared back with a look that was trying to hide how afraid she was, her stubborn chin standing out definitely, jaw clenching and unclenching as she thought it over, apprehensively she nodded, reaching her hand out to the pony, who butted the girl with her head. "First off who are you?"
"Daine, well, Veralidaine Sarrasri, but just Daine." She looked anywhere but Gerald and Addy.
"Where are you from, how did you get here?" Gerald pressed on.
"Snowsdale, its up north. And well…" Daine trailed off, the hand holding the bedroll over her gripped harder, turning her knuckles white.
"Alright, maybe you'll tell us about it eventually. I'm Gerald Tucker," gesturing toward his daughter "and this is Adeline, well, Addy. We're going to Cria, we can figure out what to do with you from there, find your family, or work, whatever suits you."
Daine flinched at the mention of family, she didn't have any of that anymore, but she couldn't tell them, then shed have a lot more to explain, things she couldn't tell anyone, ever. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, it doesn't do any good, with a sharp glance to her temperamental pony, then she simply went with a simple nod to Gerald, and a glance to the other girl, Addy. "I have clothes in my saddle bag, if you don't mind turning your back for a minute…" Addy and Gerald both turned around quick to allow Daine her privacy. The two of them went to busy themselves around the fire, when they were well away from where Daine was, she got out from under the bedroll after finding her bag easily next to her in the wagon and pulling out a set of clothes that were in a sorry state to say in the least. With a sigh Daine pulled on her loin cloth and breast band, then a shirt, tunic, leggings, and a couple layers of skirts it was still cold out so all the layers weren't that bad but once winter turned to spring she would need to find new clothes. Go on, you gave them a right scare this morning, I made sure they took good care of you but they are still plenty confused. Cloud gave Daine a nip and a strong headbutt in the direction of the fire and her two unwitting caregivers.
Daine made her way towards the fire careful to make enough noise so she didn't take them by surprise, "sooooo, what do you all do?" Trying to make conversation but also wanting to know more about the two strangers who had already seen her in her most vulnerable state, half-frozen, naked, and passed out.
Gerald spoke up again, Addy hadn't said anything "I am a merchant and a trader. My daughter is helping me out while we look for a healer for her to train under, I enjoy having her, but I can tell she's getting sick of the constant back and forth." He smiled and his daughter shot him a look that screamed for him to keep his mouth shut. Chuckling "She learned all she could from the healer in our village so we thought the city would be an easy place to find a teacher, but so far we haven't had any luck. Maybe the closer we get to the fair the easier it should get, but we will see. Don't be shy Addy, I can rarely get you to keep your mouth shut normally." Addy grew bright red, with either embarrassment or annoyance or both but the color was stark against her pale features.
"Daaaa, I don't think she really wants to hear about these simple problems, she obviously has been through an ordeal, our issues are probably completely boring to her… I'm sorry Daine, I wouldn't want to impose on you. How bout you tell us about you, I'm sure you're much more interesting- sorry" Addy was rambling, she grew even more red-faced making it spread down her neck. Daine inspected the younger girl as she was talking, Addy was only a few years younger than herself maybe 10 or so, either that or small for her age, she was very pretty, and definitely fit the northern look, very blonde, very pale, with light blue eyes, she would be a beautiful woman one day and would turn heads even now. Daine looked down at her frumpy dirty clothing, her tanned skin, and thin but strong muscles were nothing to be desired, and her unruly hair, thick, frizzy, curly mass of brown tied back with a scarf, all showed that she was something other than pure Gallan, a bastard.
"I'm not sure what you'd like to know about, I don't have no family cept Cloud, I'm-" Daine paused seeing how much lying she could do "15, and I'm from up north in Snowsdale. Truthfully until I ran away my life was pretty boring, I just couldn't live up there anymore, thought I'd try my way in Cria, find work or such, probably in a stable or something." She shrugged, trying to show it was no big deal, but it came out more like a cringe than anything else.
Gerald could tell she was lying about her age and possibly how she came to be here, but he wasn't going to push the girl, she didn't seem to be hiding any real information, nothing dangerous, let the girl keep her secrets, he thought. "So, what do you do for fun, youngen like you gotta have some hobbies?"
Her face lit up slightly, much more comfortable to move to less precarious topics, "I'm a fair hand with the bow, and I have a knack with animals. People in my village always wanted me to train their dogs and hawks and such, said I was the best at it and the animals always seemed to learn and understand better with me." She seemed to relax talking about animals, Gerald noted, at least this was a safer topic, something to get her talking.
"Long or cross bow?" Addy piped in "Do you have the gift? My old teacher said that some mages use their gift when they shoot arrows, make em go straight, do you do that?" She ducked her head, realizing she was about to start rambling again about magic and the like.
Daine shot a small smile at the girl, "No magic here, Ma wanted me to have the gift so bad kept testing and testing me since she was the local hedge witch and healer in our village." Daine's hands were balled up, knuckles white, she unclenched them, taking a deep breath "Anyway, both but long is my preferred, I have my bow with my bags, my grandda taught me, I did the hunting once he got older and couldn't draw a bow or string one anymore." Daine's eyes had a haunted look to them when she mentioned her grandfather, but she quickly shook herself out of it.
As they were talking, Daine's pony Cloud made her way over to them, coming to lay next to the girl letting her lean against her. That is one loyal pair, I wonder what made then like that Gerald thought to himself, maybe eventually she'll tell us what actually brought her here, shaking his head he got up and clapped his hands. "Well ladies, I for one could do with a meal and some sleep, we can set off to Cria at daybreak."
The three of them worked well together, setting up tents, laying out bedrolls, and cooking food. They all settled down for a warm meal of stew and bread. Once they were all satiated, they crawled into their tents after a long, strange day. Falling asleep the moment they laid their heads down.