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The Irritating, But Necessary Step (Walking)

Chapter 5

By: Balloonfuzz

I woke up when the sun shone in my eyes. I silently cursed the sun and its shining powers before getting myself up. I stood up and looked around before realizing that I didn't have anything to do. Looking around, I saw everyone else snoring contentedly from within their bedrolls. I stumbled over to the horse's pack and pulled myself out some bread and cheese. I had to snicker at my choice of breakfast. I didn't even know what kind of cheese it was.

While munching I looked around at the sleeping forms. I noticed that Emma had her backpack, hoping it would hold something I could do I raided it. I found her CD player, her school book, and the first two books in the Alanna Series. I was a tad bit exasperated that she brought them everywhere, but, nevertheless, I pulled out Alanna: The First Adventure, picked a random page, and began to read.

While I read, Emma rolled out of bed and remembered to grab a bite of breakfast before setting up a target and practicing more archery. Julianna woke a short while later to her growling stomach. She dug through the pack looking for something that might resemble her normal breakfast, a bagel. But, alas, all she found was bread, which she grumbled at. Maya and Amanda continued to snooze comfortably in their bed rolls, in contrast to the night before when they had slept restlessly on the cold, hard ground.

Once Julianna ate her bread; she saw what I was doing and came to read over my shoulder. We were both laughing at George's reaction to finding Alan was a girl, when Emma came over to investigate our goings on. She began to read over my shoulder with Julianna, when my claustrophobia kicked in. So I offered to read aloud. Maya and Amanda were slowly aroused by my voice and the occasional

snickers of my colleagues.

Amanda sat up and looked about dazedly, while Maya tried to open her eyes. When they had woken themselves, they both looked a little disgusted that we could read for fun. When Emma got sufficiently irritated at their confusion, ignorance, and stares, she had to snap. "Think about it. You're in a land you'd never even heard about until a couple of days ago. Whereas we've been preparing for the journey every time we've read one of these books. Who do you think is better off as of right now?"

Maya opened her mouth to give some smart-mouthed reply, but was interrupted by Julianna's entertained response of "We're so stupid" she broke into her own distinct laughter that scrunches up her face, turns it red, and keeps her from breathing. She must have thought that whatever she had to say was very important to be laughing while Emma was so frustrated.

"Of course they don't know anything about Tortall, but we weren't helping with our repeated nonsensical explanations. Why can't we read to them from the books we have? That's probably more knowledge than we could give them in a thousand explanations, even if the books we have are a little out of date."

So that became our plan. Emma offered to read to Maya and Amanda while we walked (She knew I couldn't read aloud while walking on uneven ground. Just walking, I trip, on everything, including nothing). Julianna and I would keepan eye out for immortals behind and in front of our group.

After that, it took us a little motivation to get moving, we actually got started because we had to chase after the horse. It must have decided we were too slow in getting to the Swoop and left without us. But, once we realized it was gone we had to do some quick packing and moving. Otherwise we might have lost our only food. But once we caught the horse, all we had to do was get into formation and set off.

I quickly got used to walking in the woods. I looked all around me and took in the beautiful sights and sounds, even the musty smell of forest. I had to think if there were squirrels in Tortall, but all I had to do was ask Emma and she assured me there were (quoting a few pages in Wolf Speaker where they appeared, and also giving page citations). You get so used to squirrels when you live in a Suburb, its weird not to see them as commonly in a forest. But, forest squirrels are probably better at hiding than suburb squirrels. All suburb squirrels have to be good at is not getting run over by a car.

I looked up and saw something glinting off beyond us on the path. It kept glinting in my eyes, so I kept watching it. Then as I waked closer to it, it turned into two something's. After a while, I decided that my job wasn't to watch shiny flying material, but to make sure the forest was clear of immortals.

The forest was pretty boring, and it didn't help that I kept tripping over the uneven ground. Rather quickly my good mood wore off. I decided to listen to Emma's voice instead. It kept me moving, and it was a nice way to keep myself just far enough away that I could spot trouble in a timely manner and close enough that I could warn them of it before it had already reached me. The only problem with this position was that it was just far enough away that I couldn't hear what she was saying. Doubtless to say, that method of entertainment wore off quickly.

I started to hum my little walking song to myself. I wondered if my humming would call unwanted travelers of the forest directly to us, but decided it wasn't any worse than Emma reading to Maya and Amanda, and we had to give them some background on Tortall. A light breeze was blowing directly in my face, but it wasn't a very cold breeze, so I didn't mind. Until one of the pockets of wind was filled with the rancid odor of decay, it almost made me want to hurl, but I was distracted from the smell when Emma stopped reading. I turned around and looked at her.

She was looking beyond me down the path, an astounded look upon her face. "What is it?" I asked.

Her only reply was to point directly beyond me. When I turned around and saw two half people half metal birds. They were weaving down the path some ways away from us, looking for something along the path. Slowly, I began to comprehend what was going on. The glinting I had seen earlier had been stormwings, and if we all didn't hide quickly, they were going to find US! Emma motioned frantically for me to hide Maya, Amanda, and the horse in the forest while she found Julianna.

I flew back down the path and caught the horse by its bridle before entering the forest. I whispered to Maya and Amanda to find some bush to hide under. They rushed off and I wondered what I could do with the horse. I looked around desperately for some kind of thing a horse could hide behind, and felt astoundingly lucky when I saw a large bit of ivy that had covered over three trees. I walked the horse over and tied his reins to a low hanging branch. I silently thanked the riders for giving us a horse with plain tack, and a cool head.

Then I looked around for somewhere I could hide, but it seemed my luck had run out. All I could find was a bush next to the path. I sighed, and hid. Whenever I hide my heart goes pitta-pat. Whether for a game of hide and go seek, or for a life or death situation. And this situation was no different. I always get a little angry at myself for not being able to control my body when control would be most helpful. And that leads to insulting myself, which I did. What is there to be afraid of? All stormwings do is befoul the results of warfare, and then there are usually more than two. My entire situation was only helped by the intensifying overpowering stench of stormwings.

I tried to keep myself calm by listening to their approach with my whole self. It sounded like they were talking, but it was hard to hear over the flapping of their enormous metallic wings. I could finally hear one of them speak, while they were flying directly adjacent to me along the path, and my heart was racing like a jack-rabbit.

"U'klim, you are a very bad man."

It was a girl, and it sounded just like Lauren. Weird, I don't think even Lauren could have become a stormwing when we've only been in Tortall for a couple of days. I poked my head out from under the bush and watched the stormwings flying away. That one even had Lauren's hair! Do all girl stormwings sound like Lauren, and wear their longs brown hair in a pony tail, and Tammy never felt that that fact was important enough to inform her loyal readers?

I continued to ponder the Lauren-like storm wing until they were far enough away that I was sure it was safe to come out of cover. I crawled out of my hidey hole, untied the horse, and called for Maya and Amanda to come out, because I had no idea where they had hidden.

I led the horse to the path, and we walked back along it, in hopes of finding Emma and Julianna making and opposite trek. When we found each other we all seemed to have the same trail of thought. Was that Lauren? But there was nothing we could do but gather up a dejected looking Maya and Amanda and continue on our way.

I was a little more wary to everything else in the forest that afternoon. Seeing any kind of stormwing, even one that appeared to be Lauren, put me a little on edge, and made me a little fearful that long life wasn't what was in store for our little band. But, while I walked, bit by bit, I calmed myself that wherever they were going was where death was, not here with us.

When the sun approached the horizon I had to keep my eyes out for a place to camp. As the sun was setting I came upon a nice little clearing we could stay in for the night. I stopped walking and made myself comfortable waiting for everyone else to catch up. I watched the sunset while listening to Emma's voice become louder and louder. Her words became a bit clearer every moment.

When they entered the clearing I took care of the horse, letting them rest for a minute. When I was finished, I looked for something good to eat. I decided to gnaw on some of the leftover venison the riders had left us. It was good, and eating it filled up my mind while watching the sunset through the trees.

Emma picked up her bow and arrow to practice, and Julianna tried the simple pattern dance Kel had taught her. Maya and Amanda sat and talked. I could never quite pin down what it was they were talking about, but they always seemed to have a lot to say.

When the sun had set I pulled myself up and recruited Maya and Amanda to collect firewood. I had to borrow the lighter from Julianna, but decided against using cigarettes as fire starters. Dried leaves would be just as successful, and they smell less like cigarettes. I spent maybe a full ten minutes trying to build a stick teepee I could light, before Julianna came over to start the fire with Maya and Amanda's firewood. She caught some logs on fire pretty quickly, and we had a nice warm roaring fire. Great lot of good taking camp crafts at camp did me. I couldn't even get a fire started with a lighter.

Emma continued to shoot round after round of archery, until she had no chance of hitting her makeshift target, much less seeing it. It will forever be a mystery to me how she never lost any arrows. (Almost reminds me of a certain sharp-shooting elf)

There all five of us were, sitting around the campfire. We looked pretty pitiful. Our uniforms were all the worse for their wear. I looked down at my long sleeve button down rolled twice, and saw how stained it was getting. Why couldn't the riders have given us some clean clothing? They were probably too shocked to see us all in the same strange outfit to offer us anything different. I guess uniforms of plaid short-skirts aren't very Tortallan.

Once everyone had gotten something from the horse-pack for dinner, Emma offered to finish off Alanna: The First Adventure before we turned in for the night. But, I was too tired to pay attention, so I stuffed my bread in my mouth and crawled into my bedroll.

I wondered what we must have seemed like to the Own. They'd seed our bus, and we didn't have any supplies, so they probably thought we were some kind of great sorcerers from a far off land. I have to wonder what they thought of me and Emma's braces. Every time we smiled must have put them a little on edge.

"He dozed off quickly. Alanna lay awake a little while longer, watching the dark towers of the Black City in the distance. If there were any more Ysandir about, she was too tired to care. She wished she had Jon's faith in Duke Roger, but knew she wasn't going to get it. Still, she could figure out the Duke of Conté later. As Jon said, there was morning and Lord Martin to face, and it was time at last to sleep."

I woke to the steady thudding of arrows against wood. Emma never seemed to get tired of honing her skills. I was glad I had slept through the sunrise, but wasn't sure waking up to archery practice was much better. I rolled over and squinted at the world around me. Maya and Amanda were digging through the horse-pack, Julianna was reading one of the books, and Emma was doing archery.

While I waited for Maya and Amanda to get their food, I let my eyes adjust. Once they had chosen their breakfasts, I got up and grabbed some pieces of bread. I then took to eating them in a daze. When Emma noticed I was awake, she came over and told me to get moving. I wasn't awake enough to argue, so I gathered my stuff, and set off, beginning the days walk.

I didn't walk very fast, just fast enough that I wouldn't get yelled at by Emma. I waited until I could hear Emma reading behind me before I quickened my pace. After a day of walking I was, like my clothes, a little worse for wear. It was little comfort that if I walked for entire days on a regular basis this would be easier, because it would also be easier if I never did this at all. Nevertheless, my legs and feet began to kill pretty early on in the day, unlike the day before when they had only begun to kill when they had stopped walking, and become less numb. I tried to distract myself by walking differently, but that didn't work very well.

When the sun was directly ahead I stopped and collapsed against a rock. I could wait for my lunch serving horse to arrive there. I tried to massage my aching legs and feet, to little avail. I sat there, and man, did my feet stink, regulation school socks were not thick enough for days of walking.

When Emma, Maya, Amanda, and the horse reached me, Maya and Amanda also collapsed. Emma dug through the pack and grabbed us all some bread. She passed it out and stated curtly, "If you want seconds, you can get them yourself," before plopping down onto the ground in a heap followed closely by Julianna.

Once we had all eaten our fill of bread, we set off for the afternoon. I spent my time racking my brain for info on the Swoop. I wondered what it would actually look like, who would be there, would they like us? I had so many questions. Late into the afternoon I caught a breeze of salty air. It made me thirsty so I took a swig from my canteen. I was a little confused though, salty air isn't usually in my description of the forest. But I soon remembered we must be near the sea.

I saw the end of the forest. There was a small hill in the distance that didn't have any trees on it. The hill was large enough that I couldn't see beyond it. I quickened my pace, for I was excited to see the sea. I had never seen it, and thought I would like it.

At the end of the forest I jogged up the hill filled with excitement for a journey nearly over, and anticipation for the sea. Reaching the peak of the hill, I was enraptured by the beautiful sunset on the far off sea. I could also see the Swoop, albeit far off. I squinted to see what flags were up, and thus who was there, but my poor eyesight failed to help me. All I could do was wait for everyone else to catch up.

I sat down and watched as the sun slowly dipped lower and lower into the sea. Listening I could hear Emma's voice. "She let out a whoop of sheer exuberance and kicked Moonlight into a gallop."˜C'mon, Coram!" she cried, galloping past him. "Let's go find an adventure!"