"How long do you think it will take to... get wherever we're going?" Lavenda asked.
"Not soon or long enough, Lavenda." Mentiri smiled a bit and continued to slow his walk. Light, that Aes Sedai eats a lot! He thought of how long it had been since he had returned to the tower and all the things in between. Five years has it been? The wheel turns too fast for me sometimes. Painful memories were all that struck his heart during his remembrance, and he began to slouch as he walked. Loss was the only thing to make the stone that created Mentiri crumble, and he began to breathe a bit erratically.
"Light, give me strength. Allow me to guide this girl to her destiny. Then you may take me. It is what I have wished for all along anyway." Mentiri looked to his sword.
"'Song,' you keep her safe as well. I am counting on your edge." All this was said as silent as a breath to himself, still slowly walking, hoping the Aes Sedai would finish her food.
xxxx
"Not soon or long enough, Lavenda."
Lavenda studiously ignored Mentiri's changed breathing patterns, focusing instead on walking. Whatever Mentiri's thoughts were, they were his own. But perhaps he was thinking of his past...
Maybe, once I reach the Three-fold Land, some of the Aiel- my kin- will remember my parents, she thought hopefully. Maybe she would finally know which sept she belonged to... She looked at Mentiri again. Which sept did he come from? It didn't matter.
Listening to the sounds of the wind, Lavenda heard mumbled words, uttered like a breath of wind, coming faintly from Mentiri's direction, too soft for even her sharp ears to make out the words. Everyone had their secrets.
The day was getting hotter now, the sun proclaiming it was almost midday. She reveled in the heat, closing her eyes and turning her face to the sun.
"Do you ever give straight answers, Mentiri?" she laughed, her face still upturned.
xxxx
Jacquelynn dusted off her fingers delicately, sprinkling crumbs of bread onto the ground below her horse's hooves. Doubtless they would make a pleasant meal for some small rodent or bird later on.
Her blue-green eyes gazed up at the sun for a few moments, gauging it's position and relation to the small group she was part of. Midday and headed East. she deduced, which was only to be expected, for that was the direction of the Aiel Waste. Somewhere ahead of them lay the Spine of the World, and beyond that Rhuidean. The Violet Sitter had never travelled there herself, but she had spoken to a handful of Sisters who had. While their accounts varied, all of them had found the place vastly interesting, and very few of those Aes Sedai had been Brown or Violet Sisters!
Lavenda and Mentiri had slowed their ground-eating paces to match that of her horse, and she smiled as the Gaidar stroked her mount's neck. The animal's head raised for a few moments, surprised and appreciative of the attention.
Mentiri seemed to murmur something, for she saw his lips move but could hear no sound. No matter. Clearly, it was not intended for her ears, although perhaps Lavenda could pick up some of the words with her sharper hearing.
Dropping the horse's reigns, she ferreted around in her saddlebags for a few moments, coming up with a light, leather bound book with several empty pages, a sun paled quill pen and a full pot of ink. Dipping her pen carefully, she wrote a few notes in her neat, simple handwriting, lacking in the elaborate curls of the more refined members of the White Tower.
"I hope you don't mind?" she asked Lavenda politely. "I am merely writing down a few bits and pieces about this journey. A sort of travel log, if you will."
xxxx
Lavenda looked up at the Aes Sedai, tall atop her mount. Jacquelynn was writing, elegantly scribing a few words onto some paper.
"I hope you don't mind? I am merely writing down a few bits and pieces about this journey. A sort of travel log, if you will,"
Lavenda shook her head, a negative.
"It's perfectly alright with me," she stated. "I don't see any reason you can't." In truth, she was quite interested in what there was to write about. All she could see was grass and the occasional tree. Aes Sedai again, she explained to herself. She could almost be a Brown.
She squinted against the sun, looking for birds purely for something to do. None were in sight. They were traveling toward the Three-fold Land steadily, but she wondered how long it would take to get there. Or wherever they were going within those lands. Her lands. They would probably go through Janghai Pass- she couldn't see Mentiri taking them over the Spine.
Even he isn't that crazy, she thought with an absent grin. Or maybe he was. Time would reveal all.
They walked on.
xxxx
"I hope you don't mind? I am merely writing down a few bits and pieces about this journey. A sort of travel log, if you will,"
Taking notes?
Probably so that other Aes Sedai like you can follow in your tracks to find the secrets and treasures of Rhuidean. Oh, the Violets were always the biggest pests! Even when I was at the Tower, they were like this. Why would they still want to rape and disrespect Rhuidean, my home, so much? Mentiri's face clenched a bit and focused on the roads they were traveling.
Hmm, we will have to alter courses soon, and head into the wood. I'm sure that Lavenda will not mind. he smiled.
xxxx
Time passed quickly, then slowly, then quickly again, depending on whether there was a conversation going on. Set at a steady pace, they carefully maintained a pace the horse could keep without dropping dead after a day or so. After a short while, Lavenda saw blips on the horizon, a vague shadow in the distance. Deciding not to say anything, they continued on, the shapes becoming clearer.
A forest appeared, darkly waiting ahead of them, directly in their path. Mentiri continued on, his feet moving in a straight line. She looked doubtfully at him, wondering how far his senses could reach.
"Um, Mentiri?" she questioned, reaching up to place a tanned, smooth hand on his shoulder. "There's a forest directly ahead of us."
She looked slightly behind them, at the horse. If they were headed into the woods, the horse would be a hindrance, and may break a leg, or throw her rider. The Sitter, in this case. The Aes Sedai may have to walk, and she didn't look like she could keep their pace for long, her feet probably soft from years in the Tower.
"Is that were we are meaning to go?"
xxxx
Mentiri 'gazed' back over his shoulder.
"Yes, Lavenda, we are meant to pass through there. And then, over the Spine of the World." The Sitter can keep her horse until the spine, then, she will have to prove whether or not she can continue her travels with us. Mentiri smiled as he added to himself, Lavenda too, though she has already proven herself to me. The Spine will be terrible and horrendous, but after it's course she will be toughened and strengthened beyond any conception. She will make it.
"Come." Mentiri spoke in a voice of cold stone, entering the wood with his keen senses alert.
xxxx
Lavenda looked back at Mentiri surprised, letting a little show on her face and in her voice. The Spine? Why there? The horse would definitely be a hindrance there...
She began to voice these thoughts aloud, then fell silent as Mentiri cut her off, the silent whisperings of her unspoken thoughts hanging thick in the air.
"Come."
They entered the first of the trees. She had never liked forests; too many things- and people, a part of her whispered,- could hide in the deep shadows and thick foliage. Fortunately, she had Mentiri, whom she doubted was daunted by such things as not being able to see things. However, it was one of her better abilities, and she disliked having it hobbled.
She listened quietly to the wind whistling through the leaves, faint sounds of animals and scurryings in the trees reaching her ears faintly. All normal forest sounds. The time to be wary was when the animals fell silent- that either meant bandits, or worse, Shadowspawn.
They moved deeper into the forest, the dim light of mid afternoon filtering to them, diluted and bare of its warmth.