Trail of Tears -- written by DarkMoon
Chapter 4 -- The Journey Begins
It was the grey hour before dawn when Albert made the rounds to wake everyone up. There was much incoherent muttering, but he pulled blankets off of huddled forms and opened curtains in all the rooms.
Dart, who was one of the few who had the strength to keep his blankets, peered over the edge of it. Albert was standing there glaring at him, dressed in his old armour and green cape.
"Are you planning on coming with us?" he asked. Dart mumbled sleepily. "Then get up, lazybones!"
He got up. Most of the others seemed to be having the same problem as he, judging by the three-way collision in the hallway as Dart and Miranda came out of their respective rooms and a groggy and shivering Aasrin shuffled down the hall. The only ones who were welcoming the morning were Albert, Meru, being her usual self, and Fiora, who practically flew through breakfast.
It was nine 'o clock when they finally gathered their belongings and saddled up. The majority of the party had never ridden before, so there was some awkwardness and much complaining. Kongol and Haschel had decided to stay for another day, then go back to Rogue, as they had planned before Fiora showed up.
"Are we ready?" Albert asked from his perch atop a handsome chestnut stallion. The others nodded and made noises of consent. They were all on young warhorses of a smaller size than usual, except Meru, who rode a sturdy pony that also served as baggage-carrier.
Fiora, astride a dapple-grey mare, shifted Caliron in her harness. "You've got the paper with the clues on it, right?"
"Of course."
"Well let's go then!" Kicking her horse into a trot, she took off, Dart and Aasrin not far behind. Miranda shook her head.
"That's got to be Zieg's fault. Rose never behaved like that," she said, following the rest of the party at a walk. ***********************************************************
The party set off towards the western border of Serdio, the sun and a chill wind at their backs. They made good time right up to the border, which was formed by a mountain range, with the Midlake at the north and the ocean at the south. Once there, the pace slowed as they picked their way through narrow ravines dusted with snow that went through the mountains.
"I didn't even know you could get through this way," Shana said thoughtfully as they went single file down a particularly skinny gap. "The only way I've ever gone is through the gap further south near the Volcano."
"That is the easier way," Albert agreed, "but we'd have to go south and then back north again to get to Donau. This is faster, though much harder."
"This route didn't even exist until about a hundred years ago," Fiora said from her place at the front of the line. "One of the kings -- two or three generations back, I think -- got tired of having to go through the Bogs to get anywhere outside of his own country. That would have been your grandfather's time, correct?"
Albert chuckled. "Oh, yes. Everybody else thought the idea was absurd, and he always was a bit crazy. You probably heard something about twenty years ago about him trying to stop the Volcano Villude erupting by going and waving his sword at it. That bit of news went from Seles to Deningrad, I swear."
"Yes, I do remember that," Fiora said. There was silence amongst the group for a while, broken only by the occasional word from rider to horse. There was a slightly alarming moment when a Stinger from the Tiberoan side of the mountains shot out of a hole in the ravine wall right in front of the line of horses, spooking them and generally causing a great deal of chaos until Miranda loosed an arrow, pinning it against the far wall.
Coming around a bend in the pass some time later, the group was blinded briefly by the setting sun. Donau was within sight, and Fiora and Albert, the unofficial leaders of the group, decided that it would be best if they camped outside the town. Finding a small grove of trees about a mile out, they stopped for the night, securing the horses and claiming sleeping spots. After a rather leisurely meal, they turned in, most going to sleep instantly. There was no snow on this side of the mountain pass, and it was a good twenty degrees warmer, so there was no need to keep the fire going after dinner. Fiora lay curled up with Caliron draped over her legs, sleeping with her swords within reach. ***********************************************************
Dart awoke sometime later, not knowing why, but feeling a strange energy in the air. Rolling over, he noted that Fiora and Caliron were gone, and got up, stretching. Heading away from the camp, towards the glimmering lights of Donau, the sound of faint music reached his ears -- yet it was not entirely music. It was punctuated by other sounds, vaguely animalistic in nature, but not any that he could ever recall hearing. It got louder as he walked, until, right on top of the sounds, he finally spotted two dark shapes on a pile of boulders nearby. Going over to them, he heard Caliron chirp a greeting, and the music stopped.
"Don't worry, it's just me," he said, sitting down next to the small Dragon.
"I wasn't worried. I just wanted to let whoever it was announce their presence without feeling the need to interrupt me," Fiora replied. From where he was, she was little more than shadows broken up by pale blotches of skin from where he was. She started playing again, and Dart sat and listened for a few moments, trying to figure out why the sounds seemed so familiar. As she played a particularly low flat note, a memory rose to the surface of his mind: Regole, producing that same noise -- only much louder -- right before attacking.
"That's the Dragon's language, isn't it?" he asked. Fiora stopped again.
"Yes. These are Dragon Pipes. Nobody uses them anymore except for me, and Charle, who taught me. They were used by a couple of the friendly Winglies and other Humans besides the Dragoons during the Dragon Campaign, so they could communicate with the Dragons." She leaned forward and held them in a patch of faint light coming from the waxing crescent moon. Made of copper, they were held together with a polished black Dragon ornamentation, and despite being very old, showed no signs of it.
"Albert would probably like to hear about them," Dart said, "considering how he is about anything old and historical."
"Albert will probably want to move to Ulara after I tell him about the library there. He's already hoping we'll have an excuse to go there, since I told you all they have the most complete history of Endiness anywhere," Fiora said. "But enough about that sort of thing. You should go back to sleep, or you'll be worthless tomorrow."
Dart snorted. "Doesn't matter. I just have to be awake enough to get into the town and onto the boat. I can sleep then."
"Yes, but then your internal clock will be all out of whack."
"Oh, all right. I'm not even going to ask you if you're coming back with me. If you're related to Rose, then you probably have that weird ability she had to go without sleep for three days." Standing up, he stretched again and sketched a mock bow to a grinning Fiora. As he headed back to the camp, he heard the pipe music start up again behind him, and went to sleep with it ringing in his ears. *************************************************************
The next morning, nobody was really inclined to get up when Fiora roused them all, looking fresh and rested, even though Shana and Albert both reported waking up during the night and noticing that she wasn't there. Fiora laughed and promised to explain on the boat, which, by the way, was leaving in half an hour, with or without them. There was a sudden flurry of activity, getting packs together, saddling horses, strapping on armour, etc. When they were finally ready, they set off at a swift canter across the barren plain between the grove of trees and the town of Donau.
They slowed to a walk once inside the town, but still gathered quite a few inquisitive glances. As they reached the docks, one of the boats blew a whistle in greeting.
"That's ours," Albert said, waving back in response. "The Lady Respite. She's normally just a pleasure ship, but the owner has some business in Furni this weekend, luckily enough."
As they led the horses on board, the Respite's owner met them on the deck. He was a cheerful-looking middle-aged fellow, and helped them get the horses settled before casting off.
"Well, welcome aboard the Respite, friends! M' name's Caradon. We should reach Furni by mid-afternoon tomorrow, if th' weather stays good," he said, winking cheerfully at them before heading to another part of the ship to make sure things were running properly.
The cheery mood on the Respite seemed to be contagious. Even Miranda, who had only been on a boat once and hadn't liked it, couldn't help but be somewhat jovial. She, Meru and Shana leaned on the rail to watch the dolphins that were following the ship, and Caliron did twisting jumps on the deck trying to catch seagulls that were teasing her by flying low overhead.
Fiora was kept busy all afternoon telling the others about the Dragon Pipes and the library in Ulara. Albert listened with rapt attention, and made her go over things several times. They only stopped when Meru, who had been lurking by the galley door for the last hour, announced that it sounded like dinner was almost ready. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Caradon and Shana, who had gone to help, came out laden with plates of food.
"A feast fit for a king!" Caradon said as he checked to make sure the tiller was still locked in place, as it had been all afternoon. Fiora and Albert exchanged a look. It was a feast, but the most informal one any of them had ever been to. They sat in a large circle on the deck in the warm sea air, eating off of each other's plates and joking and telling stories. The information was leaked somehow that Aasrin and Meru were Winglies, but Caradon didn't seem too bothered by it. "No point in fussing over old grudges!" he said, and offered Meru a plate of fish.
They dropped off to sleep soon after they finished eating. Dreams were filled with the noises of wind and water and seabirds, and the only one who awoke at all during the night was Shana, who listened to a bit of the mariner's song Caradon was singing before going back to sleep.
The morning dawned cold and slightly damp and cloudy; so cold that they didn't need to be woken up -- the weather did it for them. They had passed into colder seas overnight, and the fog-shrouded coast of Mille Seseau could be seen to the northwest. The day passed with little change, save for the fog lifting a bit. They were due to reach Furni in a little under an hour when dark clouds appeared to the southeast. The clouds grew steadily closer as the minutes passed, and they were within sight of Furni when the squall blew up.
There wasn't much anyone could do except hold on to something stable. Fiora crawled over to where Caliron was hunkered, claws sunk into the wood, shrieking in panic. Meru's petite frame would have been lifted clear off the boat had Albert and Aasrin not grabbed her in time. Looking up, Dart and Fiora both saw a dark mass ahead of them that was drawing closer very quickly. Blue eyes met blue eyes. There was a loud splintering of wood and a mighty lurch. Fiora blacked out. ***********************************************************
AuthorÕs notes: All righty, you should expect longer breaks between chapters from now on. IÕve now posted all that I had previously written, and IÕm currently stuck in the middle of chapter 5. Also expect a little more action from now on, as they are now traveling, and still donÕt know what this poem fragment is all about. Thanks a bunch to QQQ and Anjali Elios for reviewing!!
Chapter 4 -- The Journey Begins
It was the grey hour before dawn when Albert made the rounds to wake everyone up. There was much incoherent muttering, but he pulled blankets off of huddled forms and opened curtains in all the rooms.
Dart, who was one of the few who had the strength to keep his blankets, peered over the edge of it. Albert was standing there glaring at him, dressed in his old armour and green cape.
"Are you planning on coming with us?" he asked. Dart mumbled sleepily. "Then get up, lazybones!"
He got up. Most of the others seemed to be having the same problem as he, judging by the three-way collision in the hallway as Dart and Miranda came out of their respective rooms and a groggy and shivering Aasrin shuffled down the hall. The only ones who were welcoming the morning were Albert, Meru, being her usual self, and Fiora, who practically flew through breakfast.
It was nine 'o clock when they finally gathered their belongings and saddled up. The majority of the party had never ridden before, so there was some awkwardness and much complaining. Kongol and Haschel had decided to stay for another day, then go back to Rogue, as they had planned before Fiora showed up.
"Are we ready?" Albert asked from his perch atop a handsome chestnut stallion. The others nodded and made noises of consent. They were all on young warhorses of a smaller size than usual, except Meru, who rode a sturdy pony that also served as baggage-carrier.
Fiora, astride a dapple-grey mare, shifted Caliron in her harness. "You've got the paper with the clues on it, right?"
"Of course."
"Well let's go then!" Kicking her horse into a trot, she took off, Dart and Aasrin not far behind. Miranda shook her head.
"That's got to be Zieg's fault. Rose never behaved like that," she said, following the rest of the party at a walk. ***********************************************************
The party set off towards the western border of Serdio, the sun and a chill wind at their backs. They made good time right up to the border, which was formed by a mountain range, with the Midlake at the north and the ocean at the south. Once there, the pace slowed as they picked their way through narrow ravines dusted with snow that went through the mountains.
"I didn't even know you could get through this way," Shana said thoughtfully as they went single file down a particularly skinny gap. "The only way I've ever gone is through the gap further south near the Volcano."
"That is the easier way," Albert agreed, "but we'd have to go south and then back north again to get to Donau. This is faster, though much harder."
"This route didn't even exist until about a hundred years ago," Fiora said from her place at the front of the line. "One of the kings -- two or three generations back, I think -- got tired of having to go through the Bogs to get anywhere outside of his own country. That would have been your grandfather's time, correct?"
Albert chuckled. "Oh, yes. Everybody else thought the idea was absurd, and he always was a bit crazy. You probably heard something about twenty years ago about him trying to stop the Volcano Villude erupting by going and waving his sword at it. That bit of news went from Seles to Deningrad, I swear."
"Yes, I do remember that," Fiora said. There was silence amongst the group for a while, broken only by the occasional word from rider to horse. There was a slightly alarming moment when a Stinger from the Tiberoan side of the mountains shot out of a hole in the ravine wall right in front of the line of horses, spooking them and generally causing a great deal of chaos until Miranda loosed an arrow, pinning it against the far wall.
Coming around a bend in the pass some time later, the group was blinded briefly by the setting sun. Donau was within sight, and Fiora and Albert, the unofficial leaders of the group, decided that it would be best if they camped outside the town. Finding a small grove of trees about a mile out, they stopped for the night, securing the horses and claiming sleeping spots. After a rather leisurely meal, they turned in, most going to sleep instantly. There was no snow on this side of the mountain pass, and it was a good twenty degrees warmer, so there was no need to keep the fire going after dinner. Fiora lay curled up with Caliron draped over her legs, sleeping with her swords within reach. ***********************************************************
Dart awoke sometime later, not knowing why, but feeling a strange energy in the air. Rolling over, he noted that Fiora and Caliron were gone, and got up, stretching. Heading away from the camp, towards the glimmering lights of Donau, the sound of faint music reached his ears -- yet it was not entirely music. It was punctuated by other sounds, vaguely animalistic in nature, but not any that he could ever recall hearing. It got louder as he walked, until, right on top of the sounds, he finally spotted two dark shapes on a pile of boulders nearby. Going over to them, he heard Caliron chirp a greeting, and the music stopped.
"Don't worry, it's just me," he said, sitting down next to the small Dragon.
"I wasn't worried. I just wanted to let whoever it was announce their presence without feeling the need to interrupt me," Fiora replied. From where he was, she was little more than shadows broken up by pale blotches of skin from where he was. She started playing again, and Dart sat and listened for a few moments, trying to figure out why the sounds seemed so familiar. As she played a particularly low flat note, a memory rose to the surface of his mind: Regole, producing that same noise -- only much louder -- right before attacking.
"That's the Dragon's language, isn't it?" he asked. Fiora stopped again.
"Yes. These are Dragon Pipes. Nobody uses them anymore except for me, and Charle, who taught me. They were used by a couple of the friendly Winglies and other Humans besides the Dragoons during the Dragon Campaign, so they could communicate with the Dragons." She leaned forward and held them in a patch of faint light coming from the waxing crescent moon. Made of copper, they were held together with a polished black Dragon ornamentation, and despite being very old, showed no signs of it.
"Albert would probably like to hear about them," Dart said, "considering how he is about anything old and historical."
"Albert will probably want to move to Ulara after I tell him about the library there. He's already hoping we'll have an excuse to go there, since I told you all they have the most complete history of Endiness anywhere," Fiora said. "But enough about that sort of thing. You should go back to sleep, or you'll be worthless tomorrow."
Dart snorted. "Doesn't matter. I just have to be awake enough to get into the town and onto the boat. I can sleep then."
"Yes, but then your internal clock will be all out of whack."
"Oh, all right. I'm not even going to ask you if you're coming back with me. If you're related to Rose, then you probably have that weird ability she had to go without sleep for three days." Standing up, he stretched again and sketched a mock bow to a grinning Fiora. As he headed back to the camp, he heard the pipe music start up again behind him, and went to sleep with it ringing in his ears. *************************************************************
The next morning, nobody was really inclined to get up when Fiora roused them all, looking fresh and rested, even though Shana and Albert both reported waking up during the night and noticing that she wasn't there. Fiora laughed and promised to explain on the boat, which, by the way, was leaving in half an hour, with or without them. There was a sudden flurry of activity, getting packs together, saddling horses, strapping on armour, etc. When they were finally ready, they set off at a swift canter across the barren plain between the grove of trees and the town of Donau.
They slowed to a walk once inside the town, but still gathered quite a few inquisitive glances. As they reached the docks, one of the boats blew a whistle in greeting.
"That's ours," Albert said, waving back in response. "The Lady Respite. She's normally just a pleasure ship, but the owner has some business in Furni this weekend, luckily enough."
As they led the horses on board, the Respite's owner met them on the deck. He was a cheerful-looking middle-aged fellow, and helped them get the horses settled before casting off.
"Well, welcome aboard the Respite, friends! M' name's Caradon. We should reach Furni by mid-afternoon tomorrow, if th' weather stays good," he said, winking cheerfully at them before heading to another part of the ship to make sure things were running properly.
The cheery mood on the Respite seemed to be contagious. Even Miranda, who had only been on a boat once and hadn't liked it, couldn't help but be somewhat jovial. She, Meru and Shana leaned on the rail to watch the dolphins that were following the ship, and Caliron did twisting jumps on the deck trying to catch seagulls that were teasing her by flying low overhead.
Fiora was kept busy all afternoon telling the others about the Dragon Pipes and the library in Ulara. Albert listened with rapt attention, and made her go over things several times. They only stopped when Meru, who had been lurking by the galley door for the last hour, announced that it sounded like dinner was almost ready. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Caradon and Shana, who had gone to help, came out laden with plates of food.
"A feast fit for a king!" Caradon said as he checked to make sure the tiller was still locked in place, as it had been all afternoon. Fiora and Albert exchanged a look. It was a feast, but the most informal one any of them had ever been to. They sat in a large circle on the deck in the warm sea air, eating off of each other's plates and joking and telling stories. The information was leaked somehow that Aasrin and Meru were Winglies, but Caradon didn't seem too bothered by it. "No point in fussing over old grudges!" he said, and offered Meru a plate of fish.
They dropped off to sleep soon after they finished eating. Dreams were filled with the noises of wind and water and seabirds, and the only one who awoke at all during the night was Shana, who listened to a bit of the mariner's song Caradon was singing before going back to sleep.
The morning dawned cold and slightly damp and cloudy; so cold that they didn't need to be woken up -- the weather did it for them. They had passed into colder seas overnight, and the fog-shrouded coast of Mille Seseau could be seen to the northwest. The day passed with little change, save for the fog lifting a bit. They were due to reach Furni in a little under an hour when dark clouds appeared to the southeast. The clouds grew steadily closer as the minutes passed, and they were within sight of Furni when the squall blew up.
There wasn't much anyone could do except hold on to something stable. Fiora crawled over to where Caliron was hunkered, claws sunk into the wood, shrieking in panic. Meru's petite frame would have been lifted clear off the boat had Albert and Aasrin not grabbed her in time. Looking up, Dart and Fiora both saw a dark mass ahead of them that was drawing closer very quickly. Blue eyes met blue eyes. There was a loud splintering of wood and a mighty lurch. Fiora blacked out. ***********************************************************
AuthorÕs notes: All righty, you should expect longer breaks between chapters from now on. IÕve now posted all that I had previously written, and IÕm currently stuck in the middle of chapter 5. Also expect a little more action from now on, as they are now traveling, and still donÕt know what this poem fragment is all about. Thanks a bunch to QQQ and Anjali Elios for reviewing!!