Chapter 12-The Undocumented Side of Adventuring
Twenty minutes later, after I had exhausted my knowledge of curses, I was seriously beginning to have second thoughts about this whole bold adventure thing. I had been bitten, scraped, scratched, bruised, and I don't know what else, and we hadn't run into any orcs, if that gives you any idea.
"Hey Ainaelda," I panted, hacking my foot free from an entangling vine with the borrowed dagger. "maybe we can just, you know, go play Nintendo or something. It's a lot…safer…" She smiled, clearing the worst of the brush with her little rapier. Actually, it wasn't really a rapier; it was a slim, double edged blade. It was as long as a normal sword, but it was slightly skinnier than two of my fingers. It was sharp as hell, though; I had an attractive missing chunk of hair when she wasn't watching what was brush and what wasn't.
"Sounds great, except that Nintendo doesn't exist here. The absence of Japan creates a little set back there. Other than that, why not?"
"Hardy…har…har…man, I need to…excersize more…" I had a stitch in my side the size of Montana, and I was just beginning to see how attached I was to oxygen.
"Don't worry on that count. I heard slaying orcs is a great way to burn the calories." I'm such a girl. Here I am, on the adventure of a life time, and I'm still fretting about not having any Slim Fast with me. Well, what could you do? We continued amatuerly tracking them. It wasn't easy, but with a party that size, it wasn't exactly hard, either. Between us we knew exactly nothing about tracking, but we knew to follow the broken weeds and horse shoe marks in the patches of soft ground that popped up every now and then. Finally, after what seemed like hours, but it was probably only an hour or so, we stopped for a short break. I collapsed on a handy stone.
"Huh. Funny how they never mention this sort of stuff when they talk about the derring-do of high adventure." Ainaelda snorted with laughter.
"Derring-do of high adventure? What, are we on a pirate ship now?" I shoved her off her rock.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Chuckles. How far do you think we are from them?" She dusted herself off and sat back down again.
"You're asking me like I would know. Let's think. They had two hours on us when we left. We've been traveling for an hour or so, I think, faster than they are." I looked at her quizically.
"Yes, let's. It's a wizard, an Elf, two really good forest men, a dwarf that might prove a little hindering, but okay, and four hobbits and a pony. How do you figure?" She rolled her eyes.
"Look, I know just as much as you do. And that's squat. But that's nine people. Not counting the pony. And we're only two. We GOTTA be moving faster than them."
"So, Ms. Science, whatcha got in the way of estimated time?"
"I'd say, another hour, maybe two, and we get 'em." I nodded and stood.
"I don't believe a word. Let's get going." She grinned. This was right up there with the clothes thing. We set out again, and I felt better now that I had my wind back.
But later, I was cursing Ainaelda and her stupid 'Let's go team!' attitude. We were still traveling, and the Fellowship was nowhere near in view. We hadn't even found any tracks lately.
"Two hours, Vinya, no guarantees, no refunds. We're faster then they are, Vinya," I muttered, massaging a cramp out of my calf as we stopped for the remainder of the night. I looked up at Ainaelda, who was clumsily trying to start a fire with a flint stone and the blade of her little rapier-like thingy. "Can I complain?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.
"I can't really stop you. Darned—stupid—thing!" She yelled, throwing down the stone and sword in disgust. I grinned and reclined on my knapsack. I always felt better after a good complaint.
"Good." Then, I quit the cheerful act. "We were supposed to find them about a million hours ago, I've never been this exhausted in my life, I'm getting calluses on my feet, I didn't think Elves got this tired, I'm gonna be SO sore come tomorrow, and somehow, someway, this is ALL YOUR FAULT!" She didn't even blink. Again. Like the clothes. We were all too used to this to care.
"Thanks. Try your luck?" She brandished the flint stone at me. I stared at it. This couldn't be much harder than using those starters for the Bunsen burners in science. Could it? I drew my dagger carefully and took the stone from Ainaelda. I knelt in front of the pathetic little pile of wood and brush and twigs with trepidation. I struck. Nothing. Again. Nada. Suddenly, Ainaelda shoved me out of the way, and I just managed to keep all my fingers.
"Oh! I got it now! I see what I was doing wrong!" Lo and behold, she struck once, and a spark flew, in a perfect arc, right on the little pile of brush. Through trial and error (mostly error) we soon got a little fire started. And they say Girl Scouts doesn't teach a girl any useful skills! I was starting to doze off, still feeling the effect of the Elven food that Ainaelda had pilfered. While I was busy worrying, Ainaelda had been planning, it turned out. She had relieved the kitchen of half of its contents, it seemed, plus a bunch of other things. I had to admit, even I never knew Ainaelda was so…so…devious. Then, something about the place changed. I sat up. Ainaelda was sitting up too. 'I feel it too,' she mouthed in the dark. Someone was coming.
Twenty minutes later, after I had exhausted my knowledge of curses, I was seriously beginning to have second thoughts about this whole bold adventure thing. I had been bitten, scraped, scratched, bruised, and I don't know what else, and we hadn't run into any orcs, if that gives you any idea.
"Hey Ainaelda," I panted, hacking my foot free from an entangling vine with the borrowed dagger. "maybe we can just, you know, go play Nintendo or something. It's a lot…safer…" She smiled, clearing the worst of the brush with her little rapier. Actually, it wasn't really a rapier; it was a slim, double edged blade. It was as long as a normal sword, but it was slightly skinnier than two of my fingers. It was sharp as hell, though; I had an attractive missing chunk of hair when she wasn't watching what was brush and what wasn't.
"Sounds great, except that Nintendo doesn't exist here. The absence of Japan creates a little set back there. Other than that, why not?"
"Hardy…har…har…man, I need to…excersize more…" I had a stitch in my side the size of Montana, and I was just beginning to see how attached I was to oxygen.
"Don't worry on that count. I heard slaying orcs is a great way to burn the calories." I'm such a girl. Here I am, on the adventure of a life time, and I'm still fretting about not having any Slim Fast with me. Well, what could you do? We continued amatuerly tracking them. It wasn't easy, but with a party that size, it wasn't exactly hard, either. Between us we knew exactly nothing about tracking, but we knew to follow the broken weeds and horse shoe marks in the patches of soft ground that popped up every now and then. Finally, after what seemed like hours, but it was probably only an hour or so, we stopped for a short break. I collapsed on a handy stone.
"Huh. Funny how they never mention this sort of stuff when they talk about the derring-do of high adventure." Ainaelda snorted with laughter.
"Derring-do of high adventure? What, are we on a pirate ship now?" I shoved her off her rock.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Chuckles. How far do you think we are from them?" She dusted herself off and sat back down again.
"You're asking me like I would know. Let's think. They had two hours on us when we left. We've been traveling for an hour or so, I think, faster than they are." I looked at her quizically.
"Yes, let's. It's a wizard, an Elf, two really good forest men, a dwarf that might prove a little hindering, but okay, and four hobbits and a pony. How do you figure?" She rolled her eyes.
"Look, I know just as much as you do. And that's squat. But that's nine people. Not counting the pony. And we're only two. We GOTTA be moving faster than them."
"So, Ms. Science, whatcha got in the way of estimated time?"
"I'd say, another hour, maybe two, and we get 'em." I nodded and stood.
"I don't believe a word. Let's get going." She grinned. This was right up there with the clothes thing. We set out again, and I felt better now that I had my wind back.
But later, I was cursing Ainaelda and her stupid 'Let's go team!' attitude. We were still traveling, and the Fellowship was nowhere near in view. We hadn't even found any tracks lately.
"Two hours, Vinya, no guarantees, no refunds. We're faster then they are, Vinya," I muttered, massaging a cramp out of my calf as we stopped for the remainder of the night. I looked up at Ainaelda, who was clumsily trying to start a fire with a flint stone and the blade of her little rapier-like thingy. "Can I complain?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.
"I can't really stop you. Darned—stupid—thing!" She yelled, throwing down the stone and sword in disgust. I grinned and reclined on my knapsack. I always felt better after a good complaint.
"Good." Then, I quit the cheerful act. "We were supposed to find them about a million hours ago, I've never been this exhausted in my life, I'm getting calluses on my feet, I didn't think Elves got this tired, I'm gonna be SO sore come tomorrow, and somehow, someway, this is ALL YOUR FAULT!" She didn't even blink. Again. Like the clothes. We were all too used to this to care.
"Thanks. Try your luck?" She brandished the flint stone at me. I stared at it. This couldn't be much harder than using those starters for the Bunsen burners in science. Could it? I drew my dagger carefully and took the stone from Ainaelda. I knelt in front of the pathetic little pile of wood and brush and twigs with trepidation. I struck. Nothing. Again. Nada. Suddenly, Ainaelda shoved me out of the way, and I just managed to keep all my fingers.
"Oh! I got it now! I see what I was doing wrong!" Lo and behold, she struck once, and a spark flew, in a perfect arc, right on the little pile of brush. Through trial and error (mostly error) we soon got a little fire started. And they say Girl Scouts doesn't teach a girl any useful skills! I was starting to doze off, still feeling the effect of the Elven food that Ainaelda had pilfered. While I was busy worrying, Ainaelda had been planning, it turned out. She had relieved the kitchen of half of its contents, it seemed, plus a bunch of other things. I had to admit, even I never knew Ainaelda was so…so…devious. Then, something about the place changed. I sat up. Ainaelda was sitting up too. 'I feel it too,' she mouthed in the dark. Someone was coming.