Chapter Eleven Sadness, Happiness, and Fear

The next day, I was awoken by a clamor going down the hall. I was curious what it was, but when I tried to get up, I was as stiff as a board. I was hoping that Elenni would have set out some of the salve that Leo (I decided to call him by his real name when we aren't around anyone (if that ever happens) and when I write about him.) was talking about. Good ol' Elenni. I really appreciate that woman. She probably knew I wouldn't be feeling well, because I didn't put it on the night before, so she set it out for me with a note saying that she hoped it would make me feel better.
After I rubbed it over the muscles that hurt, I grabbed a robe and put it on while I was walking to the healing room where the noise was coming from.
I opened the door slightly and saw two men. One was heavily bleeding from a wound in his arm, and the other man only had a few scratches on his arm and a cut lip. Elenni had seen me and asked me to help her. Even though she had asked, it was more of a demand and I couldn't argue with her.
"Get the water and some bandages, dear. Their over in the farthest to the bottom right table cabinet." She was pressing a thickly drenched cloth to his arm now. She added to me, "And grab another rag." I did all that she asked.
"Now tend to Robert over there, will you. All he needs is some cleaning up." I went for another rag and dunked it in the bucket of water Elenni was using. (How unsanitary, but that's what she told me to do.) The man I tended to looked like he was about thirty. He had a short beard and mustache. On his left cheek was a burn mark that looked like the letter "K".
I had cleaned up the blood that ran from his lips to his chin and thought I was finished until he had pulled up his left pant leg. I hadn't noticed until now that the pants were ripped. He reviled his leg that was full of small pebbles. It was mostly black because almost dry blood had mixed with dirt. I looked to Elenni who, I guess, had already seen the wound because she automatically told me that there were tweezers in the cabinet that I had produced the bandages from. I got them and went back to the man named Robert to clean his leg.
After about three minutes of silence, save from Elenni stitching up the other mans arm, (He passed out a few minute before. I guess from blood loss, but Elenni assured us he would be all right.) I asked what had happened. He said someone jumped them.
Elenni finally announced she was going to get her hands cleaned off and to retrieve a blanket for the unconscious man. There was another awkward silence.
"So, what happened to your cheek if you don't mind me saying so?" I was only trying to be friendly, but right as I said it, I realized that the burn wasn't an accident. It was the mark of an enemy. And almost like the man had to confirm my thoughts, he shot me a look of venom and held it.
"Young women such as your self should keep out of other peoples business." I figured, sooner or later, someone would say that to me. I admit, I am a rather nosy person. I like to know all that I can.
The man took his stare off of me and shook his head. His face softened and his eyes followed. He turned his gaze to the man lying on the bed in the corner.
"I'm sorry, your right. I will from now-"I started to say.
"No, I should be the one who's sorry. I don't usually snap at people like that. It's just, what just happened put me in a foul mood."
"Okay, I understand."
He snapped. "No you don't. You don't understand anything." His eyes started to look glazed with tears. He looked at me.
"Sir, are you okay?" I questioned. I had figured, by the way this man looked, he was probably part of the rogue. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
He looked back at the man on the small cot in the corner. "Are you good with secrets girl?" He asked me. I told him I was. "Can I tell you something?"
"Shoot." I said as I pulled up a chair that was next to him.
"That boy over there is my brother. My only brother. The assassin who did this to us was sent to kill him, and only him." I had the look of 'why' on my face. "This mark on my face was made by a man named Kline a year ago. I was in a combat fight to the death with his son, and man no younger then I; I won. Kline was so angry at me, that he followed me one night back to my house with his men. It took my family by surprise during the night and he captured us. He killed my wife first." The glazed look that was in his eyes now was replaced by tears. He contained himself and continued, "Next he got my second son, then my first. He did it right in front of me. Then, he took my daughter, my only baby girl from me. I can still feel her hands gripping my arms." He crossed his arms making his hands grip just below his shoulders. "I begged for him not to killed her. I was on my knees, pleading for him not to do it. Then he looked into her eyes and then mine. He said, "You love her that much? You would give up you own pride by begging just to let her live?' 'Yes' I said. He looked at her again the turned to me. I thought he was going to give her to me. He said, ' That's how I loved my son. I loved him like you love her.' Then he killed her. He even did it slowly." He and I were now weeping openly. I don't know why I was weeping though. I guess I feel the same way, sort of. I don't think I'll ever be able to see anyone I knew or loved from my 'old life' either.
He looked away to somewhere where I knew I couldn't follow. I knew he was looking to that night and thinking of his family. He continued, more to himself then me, "I can still hear her scream. ' Papa, Papa!' she kept looking at me with those big hazel eyes of hers. She never looked anywhere else, just at me. Only at me. I wanted to save her, I really did, but I couldn't get to her. I'll never be able to get to her." His voice faded at the last sentence and he looked at me like he just remembered that I was there next to him. He looked deep into my eyes that were filled with tears. "Your eyes, there just like...Rosie's." He broke out into a silent sob and hugged me. I hugged him back for my own comfort as well as his.
He had recovered after a few minutes, and then said, "He marked me with a heated knife and said he would get the rest of my family. He did it because he wanted me to suffer and today, he almost got my brother. I don't know what I'll do if my brother leaves me. I will be completely alone." Right then, Elenni walked in with the blanket for his brother. She told me that I could go eat what was saved for me from breakfast and that she would finish up his leg. I was glad she was doing this for me but I was in a mild shock and could only walk out.
I know why he told me, now that I think about it. He only told me because he had no one else to tell his story to. If he told someone in the rogue, they would think he was weak and treat him with less respect. I, too, needed to vent sometimes. It was the only way to get my feelings out. I wasn't one of those Lets-Punch-In-A-Wall-With-My-Own-Fist sorts of people. So I vented in a less painful way. (This book is a sort of vent, I guess.)

When I was finished with breakfast and dressed Elenni and I escorted the men home. (The younger brother had come to some time during breakfast.) When we got back to the house, Elenni decided to teach me a few things about medical stuff. Most of it I knew but I wasn't about to tell Elenni that because she would only tell me more about it.
Most of my day was doing that. Well, that and laundry. That was hard and my fingers hurt now. But Elenni says I will get used to it. I'm not sure about that. Luckily, after we finished the laundry, it was time to get to work and I didn't have to do any more chores.
When I was outside of the Dove, a group consisting of two men and a woman caught my attention. The woman looked just a little older then middle aged and one of the men looked younger then her. The major thing that caught my eye was the older man with fire red hair. You don't often see people with that color hair, but when you do, they stick out like a sore thumb. I thought that was the only thing that caught my eye until the woman called to the younger man.
The woman was beautifying tan, as I haven't really seen here with tightly curled dark hair that had a few strands of gray. "Come here, Bear, and carry this." She called the man 'Bear' like it was his name. She gave him a few weapons and he grabbed them and grumbled something I couldn't hear.
The red haired man looked over to her then said, quite playfully, " Now, Wild Cat, just because you're of a higher ranking then our Bear over there, that doesn't give you a reason to give all your labors to him."
"Why not? I did it to you." She said. "But, since I can't do that to you anymore, Dragon, I do it to Bear. Besides, it builds character." They looked at each other, and then laughed.
It was in that moment I realized that the red haired man was Liam. (Duhh...let open the Big Book of Obvious, shall we? Red hair, greenish eyes/ blue/ gray/ every other color except purple. Having friends with animal names, no weapons apparent to the eye on his body...could only be a Shang! And with red hair...could only be the Shang Dragon...AKA- Liam Ironarm.)
This was my chance to talk to Liam Ironarm. But how? I could only think of one thing. It was a good idea at the time.
I had an apricot in my hand. I walked forward and dropped it right as I passed him. I went to grab it and purposely bumped into him. Unfortunately, he was backing up at the time and he pushed me over right onto my face. I was suddenly aware of my nose.
He turned around, I guess and said, "I'm terribly sorry. Are you alright miss?" I turned to look at him and saw he and his friends, as well as most of the people in the market were trying to hide smiles and laughs. I went to feel my nose and found mud all over my face. "Here, let me help you." He extended his hand and I grabbed on. After he pulled me up. I took my apron that was already on and wiped my face off as best as I could without hurting my nose.
"Well, it seems that you got your nose when you hit the ground." He looked a little more serious now. It was starting to throb now and all I wanted to do was go inside. I did; with a hurt pride. But now that I think about it, he and his friends probably knew what I was doing. I mean, come on, he's Shang and he could have caught me if he wanted to. I don't think he meant for me to get hurt though. That's just not Liam-like.
When I went to look in the mirror at my nose, it was only scrapped a little. It would be gone in a few days with the healing they have here. After I washed my face off, I went to work.

At dark, George was in his usual chair by the hearth and Anastasia was on his right. When I served them, George asked Anastasia to sit in the chair to his left so that I could sit next to him at his right. (Oh yea, right hand sister.) It was at the same time that a bunch of unusual customers came in. In fact, I have never seen a bunch like them. George told me they were traveling gypsies and that his rogue didn't associate with them because they, themselves, are a rogue of unusual sorts. I didn't understand much even though I heard horrible tales of them from the men and women of the rogue. All that I really understood was that it wasn't going to be good if you were seen with them. Unfortunately for George, I had a job to attend to, and there were a lot of gypsies that needed to be served.

I was serving the gypsies food at first. Then it turned into ale as well. When a girl, maybe my age, sixteen, or a little bit older, say eighteen called me over, she, too, ordered a pint of ale. I hadn't had a good look at her since she never really acknowledged me either. It was no real biggie though; I was used to it. But when I went to give her ale, I got more then just a look at her. In fact, we stopped what we were doing and just looked at each other.

I don't know why she stared at me for so long, but I stared because she reminded me so much of my best friend in my old life, Dana. She had the same short brown hair and the same light honey and green eyes. She even had her pin-pointed to the shortness with small breasts.

She broke the stair and took the ale from my hands. Then, she asked me the most random question I have ever heard since I got here, "Do you believe in reincarnations?" She sounded so serious. I was going to answer, but she started to laugh like she was drunk. Maybe she was. It doesn't matter though I won't ever see her again.

After all the guests were out of the Dove and I was finished cleaning the tables off, I walked to George and waited for him. (He had told me he would walk me home.) When he saw me, he smiled a tired smile. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"More then ready. I can feel my comfy bed already." I started to imagine how comfy it would be when I got in it.

"Yes, that bed is rather comfortable when all you need is a good nights rest, isn't it?" I just nodded.

As we were about to walk to the door, a man came smashing through it. "Majesty, majesty. Where is His Majesty?" The man was in a panic.

"I'm right here Thomas, what's the problem?" George asked quite concerned.

"It's them damn foreigners, Majesty. They've gotten away. I've got half the rogue after them. Only one remained and he kept screamin' for ya. We can't tells why he wants ya, he just does." George looked at me in an apology.

He didn't have to apologize and I wasn't going to make him. "Go on George. I'll go home alone."

"May the gods burn me if I let you go alone with those foreigners out there. Atreyu, can I trust you to keep my sister safe?" He asked Leo who had come in right after the frantic men named Thomas.

"If she gets hurt, you can take my ear to add to your collection." He said sternly like he meant it.

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" I nodded and he hugged me. (A hug here and there was cool, but he is making a habit of it. I must tell him that it's not very manly anymore.)

He was about to walk out and I cautioned, "George, it could be a set up. Watch out." He nodded and walked out of the door.

I turned to Leo and said, "Okay Atreyu, here's the plan. We walk home as quick as possible and you keep me safe, okay." I looked at his seriously for a moment, then laughed. I don't think he got it. I sighed and said, "Come on hulta butt."

"What did you just call me?" He questioned.

"It's an inside joke, forget it." We walked out the door and I started for home but Leo didn't follow. Instead he went to the left when I went to the right.

"Where are you going?" I asked sounding a little annoyed.

"Well, you said you wanted to get home as soon as possible, so lets grab a few horses." He went to the stales. I followed.

"Uh, I can't, I can't really, umm..." I started to say.

"What, you can't ride a horse?" He laughed as if it was a big joke. When he saw that I was serious, his laughter faded. "You really can't ride a horse?"

"No," I replied. "I've never ridden one by myself. The only time was when I first started working at the Dove and George side settled me home."

"Well, uhh, well then your gunna have to side settle again." He brought out a chestnut horse with a light chestnut colored mane. "This is Zenith. She is my love in this world." He started to talk to the horse. "Aren't you girl? Yes you are. And look at you. You're so beautiful, who couldn't love you? Sorry for waking you. Lets just take Gwen home and then we'll go and get some sleep, okay."

He took her out of the stable and stroked the side of her belly. After, he saddled her and gave her an apple that he pulled out of nowhere. "Come on Gwen. You can get on right after me." He put his foot through the foot holster and swung his other leg to the other side of Zenith. I followed. I remembered how to do it from when George taught me, (which took me a million tries before I could get on. It's harder to do in a dress then you think) so it was easy.

I plopped up on to the saddle and Leo asked me to hand him the reins. I gave them to him and we were off.

"So, you don't know how to ride a horse?" He brought back the old discussion.

"No, I don't."

"This is illogical. You can't be in Corus and not know how to ride a horse." He looked around for some reason then looked back at me. "You must know. I insist that I teach you and I wont take 'no' for an answer. I'll get you after work tomorrow and teach you."

"I can't. I'm baby sitting for Laura, Elenni's friend."

"You're sitting those monsters!" He was astonished that I was doing it.

"Yes, and their not monsters, or at least not to me. We have fun together."

"What ever. It's your life, not mine." He paused. "So what about Saturday?" he asked.

"Maybe after noon. Elenni said she has to do something and I have to go with."

"I'll come over at about one then. I'm sure Zenith wont mind, will you girl?" The horse snorted like she was agreeing with him.

"That reminds me. Why did you name her Zenith?" I asked.

"I guess because she was the only cult to come from her mother and I've raised her from birth, lovin' her with all my heart like my own, she is the high point in my life, which is more then my parents ever felt for me." He rubbed her neck again.

There was a long silence after that, mostly because I was falling asleep in the saddle. Hey, Leo was the one who was basically holding me up in his arms. But I didn't get to sleep long before I was rudely awoken. (The second time that day) I opened my eyes and began to speak but someone covered my mouth as I was dragged off of Zenith.

I could only see that Leo was not on Zenith either. Instead he was fighting a fairy larger man. I couldn't really see what was going on and I got scared.

I panicked. I started kicking and throwing my arms every which way trying to hit the person who was keeping my mouth closed. When that didn't work, I bit him. He pulled back suddenly and started swearing at me. I turned and gave him one of those punches that George had taught me. That caught the man off guard and he stepped back cradling his nose. I instantly ran.

Interestingly enough, I ran to Zenith and mounted her. (Yes, my dress ripped up to the top of my thigh because I stepped on it when I was trying to mount her.) My first instinct was to run away, but both Zenith and I wouldn't leave Leo. When I turned to see where he was, I saw him snap the larger man's neck and was running to the horse.

I saw the smaller man who was holding me previously with a knife in his hand and I cried out, "Watch out," and Leo turned in an instant just missing the blade. Leo had already had his dagger pulled from the previous attack and was in a combat with the man. When it looked like the man had Leo trapped on the ground and was about to kill him, Zenith automatically ran to the skinny man and reared up (throwing me off behind her), kicking him right in the back. He fell just to the right of Leo and Zenith fell on top of the skinny man.

I was lying on the ground when I heard Leo thanking Zenith. "Thank you, love. I don't know what I would do with out you. That was a good job. And... Hey, Zenith, where is Gwen. Gwen, Gwen!" He started to call my name.

I started to sit up. "Now I know why you love her so much." He came to me and extended his hand to help me up. "That is a good horse whether she threw me off or not, that is a good horse."

"Come on, lets get out of here just incase there are any more of them." He mounted and helped me up. I wasn't about to sit side-settle now that my dress was ruined. I think Leo was a little suprised, but he didn't say anything about it.

"Now that that just happened, I would be a fool to take you to Mom's house. I won't put her in that kind of danger. We'll have go to my little place away from the city."

"So you don't live at the Dove like George?" I thought he did because I saw him there the first night we met.

"No, I just stay there when I'm to tired to go to my place. Hang on." He took Zenith into a gallop. I had to scoot back a little and place Leo's arms around me tighter to keep me from falling.

It was a twenty-minute ride to his place. When we got there, he lit a lamp and then the others around the house. In the light, I noticed that he was bleeding from severally places on his body. The cut that caught my eye was the one on his stomach. His shirt was completely bloody there and I figured that my dress on the back was too. When he was finished lighting the lamps I told him to lie down.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know if you have pain receptors or not but there is a gash in you shirt with blood all over it that tells me that there is probably a gash on your abdominal area. You need to tend to it or else you'll lose too much blood, and then I would have to tell George that I killed his best friend."

"But you wouldn't have killed me."

"Yes I would have. I know about the bleeding thing and he would have held me responsible for you death. Then I would have to tell Elenni that I am a bad caretaker. That would be bad. And after all that, I would still have to attend your funeral, which would be a waist of my time, so lie down and shut up." I was mostly messing around when I was talking but I said the last part with authority (so much, I guess) that he just lied down.

I ripped the bottom of my already ruined dress and used it at a pressure so the blood would clot. I went for a bowl of water which I was directed to and washed his wounds. The wound in his belly area wasn't as deep as I thought. It was stopped by his muscle. (He has a nice washboard for a stomach)

When we were finished we went to his bedroom where he gave me a nightshirt to sleep in and a wet cloth to wash off with, then he plopped on to his bed. I went into the closet to wash and change. When I emerged, I was more then ready to sleep. I went through the house and blew out all the lamps. When I got to his bedroom, Leo was already sleeping.

"Move, you lazy bum." I told him, to tired to yell. He moved a little and I settle with the room I had. I blew out the last lamp and lay down.

Before I was fully asleep Leo started to snore lightly. I took my arm and flung it at him, "No snoring!" And he stopped "That's what I thought." And I fell asleep.

Yes, this is the longest chapter I have written so far. And for all you who are wondering or just didn't know, Zenith means the high point. Sorry for it being so long but I couldn't get my self to make it two. It all just went together. It wouldn't really matter though, you'd still read it all the same, right? Just a little heads up. The next chapter I don't think anyone could really predict, or the chapter after it. It those chapters that are gunna be hard to get through. And yes, I did cry when i was writing the part of the old mans story so if you did, your not the only one. But maybe it was harder for me because I was writing it slowly and thinking as I saw it in my head. Yes there is a movie theatre in my head.