Chapter Five: Sky Riders
Days came and went. The sun and moon chased each other in an unending war for dominion over the sky. The advantage slipped back and forth evenly between each, sometimes the prideful sun would illuminate the world below, and sometimes the spiteful moon would bring its legions of stars, and cover the blue with blackness. But their war was only between them, for the plains continued to ripple calmly below them, blissfully ignorant to the celestial battle over their heads.
Today, the Sacaen sky was as barren and pristine as the endless waves of grass it watched over. Free from the hindrance of clouds, the sun could relish in its day-long control of the sought after sapphire expanse. It even graced the world below it with the pleasure of its victory, the heat chasing away the piercing cold of night.
A snow white pegasus took advantage of this gift, and basked in the warmth of the sun's victory. It followed the horizon, its feathery wings pumping in a slow, deliberate rhythm so that it may catch every stray beam without fail.
Its tiny mistress, however, had no wish to share in her steed's pleasure. In fact, the sun's gloating warmth was more of an irritating impediment to her than anything. Her azure armor, though light and covering only the top half of her body, absorbed the heat like a sponge. The result was a musty and uncomfortable sensation, one that had her wishing she could simply tear the armor away and send it flying to the earth below.
Of course, she would never even consider truly doing such a thing, lest she accidently strike some unsuspecting bystander below.
She leaned heavily on her steed's graceful neck. She was terribly tired of flying; it felt like she had been in the sky for days. True, she enjoyed the thrill of the wind in her hair and the sight of the ground far below her, but one could only relish in such things for so long. After one had been in the sky for as long as she had, the adrenaline faded. The scenery also tended to get rather repetitive; clouds stopped looking like flowers and fish and kitty cats and started looking more like clouds.
She had been searching for weeks, ever since she had visited Lyn's empty ger. It had been completely plundered by bandits, but miraculously still standing nonetheless. There were countless possible explanations for this, but she tried her best to stay positive.
Perhaps there had been another attack by bandits, a more merciful clan like the Ikane, and Lyn had found them too much for her and fled.
Or, maybe she had simply decided to move, and hadn't had the chance to contact her.
Or... Or maybe the Ganelon appeared and kidnapped her...
Or... the Taliver...
The pegasus knight smacked herself smartly on the forehead, demanding that her mind banish such thoughts. Lyn was strong; she could take care of herself. Her kidnapped by bandits! Ha! What a ridiculous thought!
And yet...
"H-...Huey!" The pegasus knight cried, determined to pry her mind away from the possibilities and back to her search. "Are you tired? We've been flying so long... you're wings have to be tired. They are, aren't they, boy? Aren't they?"
Huey snorted, an obvious dismissal of this statement.
His mistress ignored him. "Oh! Look, Huey!" She pointed past her steed's ivory head, indicating a minuscule congregation of buildings rapidly approaching in the distance. "That should be Bulgar," she said cheerfully, taking Huey's reins and wrapping them around her forearms. "We can stop there. You can rest your wings, get an apple or two... And I can ask if anyone's seen Lyn! Isn't that wonderful?"
Huey snorted again, irritably.
"Right." She snapped Huey's reins once, and tugged them lightly in the direction of the town. "Fly, Huey!"
For one last time, Huey snorted his disagreement, but grudgingly obeyed. His wings lashed out at the still air, filled with sudden, newfound energy. They pumped for a few moments longer to gain speed, then tipped and let the air rush past them. Dipping his neck downward, the pegasus began to sink, sailing towards the city in the distance.
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Though it had appeared minuscule when it had been lying on the horizon, Bulgar was, in all truth, a grand city. Filled to the brim with people, nearly all of them Sacaen, the young pegasus knight couldn't help but hope that her friend was lost somewhere amid the crowds.
First, however, she needed to get Huey situated.
She had been to Bulgar many times in the past, usually on visits with Lyn. She liked to think that she knew the city fairly well, despite the fact that she seemed to forget the locations of key places every time she visited. The one place she always remembered, however, was the stable, placed behind the Inn for travelers to house their steeds.
The pegasus knight led Huey awkwardly through the gate and into the marketplace. She always felt out of place in large cities like Bulgar. Pegasi could only be found in Ilia, and so they were naturally a sight to see anywhere else. They were relatively larger than the everyday horse, resembling them to oversized birds, folding their wings neatly across their perpetually ivory backs. They took the utmost care not to let a single feather go unchecked, and could be found spending their uneventful hours preening away at immaculate wings. Adult males like Huey also sported a mane and tail the color of liquid gold that had to be maintained with just as much fervor.
Provided they got to fly away from Ilia's borders enough, it was relatively easy for all the wonder and awe to go to a pegasus's head. Huey was no different.
His tiny mistress used what little strength she had to try restrain her steed as he pranced through the market place. It wasn't nearly enough. Huey simply dragged the trembling girl along, his silver hooves clapping noisily against the cobblestone. People scrambled to create a path for the animal, and stopped on the sidelines to watch and whisper in wonder.
The pegasus knight felt her cheeks rush with embarrassed warmth. She couldn't help but feel like every single gaze was locked on her, despite the fact that she knew this was not so, as everyone seemed infatuated with Huey. Still, it made her seem like the main attraction of some freak show or parade, and her only solace was the fact that it would be over very soon.
"C-...Come on, H-...Huey..." Encouraged by this thought, she took a firmer hold on Huey's reins and marched ahead of him. He whinnied with blissful ignorance towards her mortification and trotted after her, not a care in his mind.
She managed to ignore the people's frenzied whispers long enough to round the corner and get into the main square. As always, the square was noticeably more empty than the marketplace; at this time of day it was almost completely vacant, save for a few souls on their way to market. the pegasus knight took a deep breath, and set off across the empty expanse, past the gurgling fountain to the Yve Inn.
The stables were situated just behind the Inn, free for anyone to house their animals... provided they had already rented out a room for at least two nights. However, the pegasus knight didn't have that kind of time to spend in the bustling hub of a city. She only needed enough time to gather a little information, and she would be on her way.
For short visits, the innkeeper advised travelers to simply tether their steeds to one of the posts outside the building. But, considering Huey and the nature of humans, that was something she simply could not risk. Some of the people from the market had been so awed by her steed that they had even dared to follow her, of all things! As far as she knew, people might try to feed him, or... or maybe even a man would try to touch him! That would cause all sorts of trouble that she most certainly did not want.
No, tethering him outside in broad daylight was simply not an option.
For now, though, it was a must. Huey wouldn't fit through the door, and something had to be done with him while she tried her best to negotiate with the innkeeper. Her steed snorted irritably, but followed obediently as she led him to the tethering rack and looped his reins around one of the posts. Her fingers, perhaps unconsciously, took the leather strips and twisted them around each other in a tight, Ilian knot. It was a knot she had been taught at the Academy; one she was confident would keep some of the more... daring passerby from trying to take her prized steed.
She stroked Huey's nose gently, and reached around him to fetch a carrot from his saddlebag. "You be a good boy, Huey," she told him firmly, and held the treat out to him. His ears flicked in grudging agreement, and he took the tiny vegetable from her hands, crunching noisily in the afternoon sun.
Part of her wanted to reprimand him for drawing even more attention to himself than he already had, but majority of her was tired of struggling with him and she decided to let him cause all the ruckus he wanted to. Besides, she had more important things to tend to, like finding Lyn as soon as possible.
If Lyn had passed through here, the one most likely to know where she was headed was the innkeeper. Almost all of Bulgar's travelers passed through this Inn at one point or another, but there were so many that the young pegasus knight could only guess how many of them the innkeeper actually remembered. In any case, however, the Inn was a start, and she had to start somewhere.
But there was one more obstacle she had to pass through before she could even ask for information.
Summing up the courage to speak.
She had been to Bulgar's Inn almost as many times as she had the city itself, and was tentatively certain that the innkeeper was the same person he always been. However, every time she had come to Bulgar and stopped at the Inn, it had been with her unit of pegasus knights at the Academy. Now she was all alone.
She wasn't sure if she could talk to the innkeeper by herself. In fact, she had never even dared to when she had visited the Inn before. She had let the others take care of renting rooms and ordering dinner. There was one thing about the innkeeper that, whenever they met face to face, stole her voice away.
He was a man.
She took a deep, calming breath in an effort to steady herself. It didn't help.
Excluding her father, she had never been able to form a coherent conversation with any man she had ever met. And to top that off, her father had passed away when she was very young, so, in reality, she could not form a coherent conversation with any man. Period.
But this is different, she reminded herself firmly. It could be that finding Lyn hinged completely on whether or not she got herself to speak to this man. She didn't have the other pegasus knights or Lyn or anyone else for that matter to speak for her today.
Huey had finished his carrot, and was now watching his mistress with undivided attention; perhaps hoping for another treat from his saddlebag. She turned to look at him, already trembling at the prospect of what she was about to do. "O-...Okay, H-...Huey..." she said slowly, "I-...I've got to t-...try..."
Huey's ears pricked; his eyes seemed to brighten. He whinnied encouragingly as his mistress turned away and shuffled towards the door, as if to say, Atta' girl!
She only wished she could feel even the tiniest bit of confidence that Huey seemed to radiate.
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"...! Watch yourself, Mayim! Watch–...!"
CRASH
Fragile glass struck the ground hard, shattering upon impact. Shards flew in every direction, and the contents of the glass spilled forth, slopping uselessly onto the already swelling hardwood of the Yve Inn's lobby floor.
A young Sacaen girl cursed several times, and very loudly at that. That must've been at least the fifth time she'd dropped a glass today! She stepped gingerly away from where the glass had shattered, grimacing at it, but taking care not to cut her feet on the shards.
It was dark in the Yve's lobby; the shutters on the windows were pulled shut, and only one lantern hanging from the ceiling was lit. For whatever reason, the innkeeper liked it as dark as he could get it without it being a hindrance... well, to him, at least.
To Mayim, the darkness was as irritating as the sky was blue. She couldn't imagine why a man of the plains could shut out the sun for so long. She herself was almost dependent on the sun for her sanity!
She cast one, longing look at the tightly-closed shutters before tearing her eyes away and dancing around the radius of the shattered glass. She had been here for days, working for a couple hours each day as a waitress. It was a terrible job, and she found she was horrid at it, but she had to earn gold somewhere.
She shoved her way behind the counter, ignoring the pointed sighs of irritation coming from her employer standing there. "Sorry," she muttered stiffly, fetching a dustpan and a tiny broom from underneath the counter. Of course, she was not at all sorry for what she had done. She dropped so many glasses today out of blindness and sheer clumsiness that she was starting to believe that the damn things deserved to be dropped every now and then simply for being irritating. "I'll try not to do it again."
"Please do," the innkeeper said heavily. He turned and took a glass from the cupboard behind him, filling it high with Sacaen whiskey. "At this rate, I'm not sure what I'll run out of first; glasses or whiskey."
Mayim gave a grunt of indifference as she squatted to sweep up the fragments of glass. The smell of spilt whiskey stung her nostrils as she worked. It was an awful stench; she could only guess as to why so many men enjoyed stuffing the stuff down their throats for half the day. She grimaced as the smell continued to plague itself onto her, distracting her enough that she neither noticed nor cared when the Inn doors swung meekly forward on their hinges.
"Um... Um... Ex-...Excuse me?"
"Yes, can I help you, Miss?"
"I... I... Uh..."
Mayim rocked forward in her squat, and swept the last bit of the mess into her pan. She straightened up and strode across the room, past the trembling newcomer and behind the counter. She didn't have to deal with customers until they actually became customers.
She knelt and fished underneath the counter for the mop. No matter how much old Sacae men liked the whiskey, Mayim herself couldn't stand the smell of it. She had to get rid of it, if only for her own sanity.
Her employer was silent for several moments before clearing his throat uncomfortably. "... Miss," he began, leaning slightly on the counter, "are you well? You're trembling..."
Indeed she was. The girl was shaking like a dead leaf caught in the wind. She had gone completely silent, but, judging by the disoriented sounds still coming from her mouth, she was trying to say something. Mayim peeked her head curiously over the counter; come to think of it, the girl hadn't managed to put together one sentence since she'd come in.
She was a small girl, short and thin, almost to the point where the azure armor across her chest looked as if it were about to engulf her. Lavender hair curled delicately around a pale face, pieces in the front pulled back with ornate, silver barrettes. Her fingers picked anxiously at the collar of a tight, black turtleneck underneath her dress, as if the temperature in the room had suddenly skyrocketed. Mayim narrowed her eyes curiously. Such strange clothes in Sacae. If she didn't know better, she could've sworn that was the uniform of the pegasus knights of Ilia. But how could this mumbling, shaking wreck of a girl possibly be...?
Mayim snorted, and straightened up as her fingers finally found the swollen handle of the mop. That girl, a pegasus knight? Ridiculous. She was probably just some foreigner that worshiped the renowned Ilian knights. She looked like she was about to faint, for heavens sakes. Mother Earth forbid what she would do in the thick of a battle.
Confident in her unwavering logic, Mayim swept silently from behind the counter and past the girl, taking care to maintain an air of indifference about her. But, as she began to mop up the remains of the whiskey, she couldn't help but wonder...
Had that been an almost... pleading look the girl had sent in her direction?
Mayim tilted her head very slightly, allowing her gaze to slip back to the newcomer. Well, if she had been looking at Mayim before, she certainly wasn't now. In fact, judging by the way she was trembling, mumbling, and whimpering, she probably hadn't moved at all. Mayim shrugged, dismissing the uncomfortable feeling as imagination, and set to mopping up that horrid smell...
The innkeeper, now obviously very uncomfortable, inched out from behind the counter. He approached the little girl almost cautiously, as if she were a cornered beast and not a shaking wreck about to collapse. "... Miss," he said slowly, "Are you all right?" He reached out with his right hand, intending to clasp her shoulder to somehow comfort her...
But his action had the exact opposite effect he had been going for. The girl suddenly sprang to life, but she was anything but relaxed. Emitting something close to a shriek, she jumped backwards, stumbling over–and nearly falling over–one of the already unstable chairs behind her. "N-...No!" she cried, planting her palms over her heart as if to calm a racing heart, "P-...Please, don't come any closer!"
By now, Mayim was staring at the girl in utter shock, her mouth slightly agape. What was wrong with this girl?
Her employer was just as–if not more–baffled as she was. He raised his hands in a defensive maneuver, and backpedaled a few steps, if only to reassure the girl. "Miss, forgive me," he said in a withering tone, "But I don't..."
He didn't get to finish his statement, as now the girl, who had merely moments before been unable to speak, was now talking a mile a minute. Her words slurred together and tumbled over each other carelessly, and, though she was making a point to try and say a lot, she in all truth wasn't saying much of anything at all. In fact, it was as if she hadn't spoken a day in her life.
Which, Mayim concluded wryly, wasn't all that farfetched, if you thought about it.
"I'msososorrybutIhavetoaskyouif...whatImeantosayis...nothatisn'tright...pleaseifyoucouldjust..."
She continued on like that for several moments, hundreds of words spilling from her lips without her actually saying much of anything. Mayim and her employer could only gape at this eccentric girl in disbelief as she plowed onward, unable to say whatever it was she wanted to say in less than a million words.
Finally, the girl's endless flood of words ceased, and she took a moment to catch her breath. She breathed like she'd been underwater for hours, her hands pressed firmly over her heart. Eventually, her respiration evened out, and she took one last, deep breath to steady herself.
Mayim watched in stony silence as her employer once again tried to speak. "M-Miss... Are you...?"
"Please, I need your help!"
The girl finally blurted this with such shocking calmness – though her voice quivered with every word – that it threw both occupants of the room off for a moment. But the girl wasn't paying any attention to their momentary confusion; she was now beaming at nothing in particular, again chattering endlessly to herself.
"I... I did it! I... actually... Ha! Ha ha ha! Ha...!"
But the innkeeper was pleased that the girl had finally gotten out what she had been trying to say for the past few minutes, and wasn't about to let her streak end there. "Of course, Miss," he said hastily, "We will be happy to help. What is it you need?"
"I... erm..." Mayim felt her brain cry out in exasperation. At this rate, the girl was going to go through the entire process again, and Mayim wasn't sure how much longer her patience could take it.
But her employer wasn't giving up so easily. "Yes?" he prompted, "What is it? Do you need a room? Or are you looking for something to buy? Selling, maybe? Or have you lost someone?"
His last suggested clicked something in the girl's mind, and she leaned forward with an extra burst of bravery. "Y-...Yes!" she cried, "I-...I'm trying to find a girl named... Lyn. You... Have you heard of her, b-...by chance? Anything at all?"
The innkeeper paused a moment, racking his brain for any memory of such a name. Finally, after a few moments, he sighed and shook his head sadly. "No, I can't say I have," he said, "My apologies... But... Mayim..." He glanced expectantly at the waitress.
"Lyn..." Mayim frowned, leaning thoughtfully on the wooden handle of her mop. The name did sound familiar, albeit vaguely. Where had she...?
Oh, yes! There was Lyn of the Lorca, wasn't there? That was the only Lyn Mayim could think of at the moment. Besides, hadn't Lyn of the Lorca...
Mayim returned her employer's look, and spoke, very slowly, "Sir... Didn't Lyn of the Lorca pass through her a few weeks ago?"
At this statement, the girl snapped away from her giggles and turned to the waitress. "R-...Really?" she exclaimed, folding her hands in excited prayer before her, "You've seen her, then? Lyn's been here?"
"Come to think of it, I do remember a girl booking a room quite some time ago..." the innkeeper mused, his sentence trailing off into thought before he could finish. His fingers ran thoughtfully over his scruffy beard as he returned to the counter, mumbling softly to himself. He dipped behind it, and emerged with a thick, leather-bound book, its pages worn and yellowed from age. Setting it on the counter, he let it fall open to a random page, licked his thumb, and began to flip.
"Lyn... Lyn... Lyn..."
The girl watched him work with bated breath, her hands still clasped together her chest hopefully. Finally, near the end of the book, his finger stopped midway down the page, and he let out a grunt of recognition. "Yep. Right here. She and a girl named Cynthia stayed the night here two weeks ago. A room for the night, and a meal for two."
The girl gave a cheer. "R-Really?" she exclaimed. She was practically trembling again, this time, however from suppressed joy instead of fear. In fact, she seemed to have suddenly abandoned her unidentified fear altogether. "Oh, that's so wonderful! P-...Please, you don't happen to know where she was headed, do you?"
The innkeeper shut the book with a snap, and looked at the girl sadly. She was looking at him with such hope pooled in those aqua eyes... He almost couldn't bear to break her momentary celebration. "... I'm afraid not, Miss," he said finally, "I have so many customers... I can barely keep track of them while they're here, much less after they're gone."
The girl's face collapsed like a ger that had seen one too many storms. The excited warmth in her cheeks drained away as fast as it had come, and she touched them softly with her fingertips, almost as if she were trying to will the rose hue back into them. "O-...Oh, I see..." she murmured, "I... Well... Um..."
It was at that moment, watching the little girl writhe in her distress, that Mayim remembered. Hadn't those Lycian knights that had visited before – what were their names? Mayim couldn't seem to recall them... – been looking for Lyn? In fact, they had seemed very intent on finding her, now that she thought about it. Was it possible that...?
"I wonder..." she murmured aloud, shifting her mop thoughtfully from one hand to another. The girl looked up hopefully, again clasping her hands in a silent prayer. Mayim lifted her gaze, meeting the girl's aqua orbs with her own dark green eyes. "There were a pair of Lycian knights here at about the same time your Lyn was," she said. She spoke very slowly, so as not to awaken the hyperactive girl underneath the timid exterior. "I cannot be sure, but it's possible that they met up with her."
"Th-...That's wonderful!" the girl cried, "D-...Did they happen to say why they were looking for her, or... or where they were going? Anything?"
Mayim again paused to think. How could she possibly forget almost losing her father's peck of sold chickens to the foolish one's carelessness? She only wished she had been listening when he had been babbling on to her about himself and how much Marquess Caelin must have trusted him to send him on such a dangerous escapade, or whatever he had called it...
Wait...
Caelin! Of course!
Everyone from Etruria to Sacae itself knew about the strife in Caelin, one of the provinces of the Lycian League. About the marquess's daughter – what was her name again? Kaitlin? Marilyn? No, that wasn't right... – and the sudden blood dispute with the marquess and his brother – name, name, name... Mayim was terrible with names today – as to who would be the marquess's successor when he left to greet Father Sky.
But what did that have to do with the Lorca? Mayim could only guess at that, but it was the best lead she had.
"Caelin," she said finally, after a few more moments of conflicted thought. When the girl looked at her questioningly, she elaborated. "They came from Caelin of Lycia. I can't be sure that they were headed back there, but..."
The girl didn't seem to be listening. She was so overcome with joy at just the first few words of the explanation that she was practically dancing where she stood, giggling to herself in endless glee. "Oh! Oh, thank you so much!" she cried, finishing off an extravagant twirl and ending in a low bow before Mayim, "You don't know how much I appreciate this!"
"Really, it's nothing," Mayim said sheepishly, taking a cautious step away from the girl. "Really."
"P-...Please," the girl continued, straightening up and smoothing out the folds in her dress, "I need to... I mean... Could you please...?" Her energy was beginning to fade, and she was slipping back into the comfort of her meekness. She pointed timidly to the door. "My... um..."
"Your horse?" the innkeeper suggested. Mayim snickered inwardly. Even her employer didn't appear to think this girl a pegasus knight. "Does he need a place to rest?" Without even waiting for her to answer, he strode over to the door, passing the stuttering girl with a wink. "Well, normally I don't do this, but if it's just for a few hours..." He seized the door handle and gave it a wrench, swinging the door forward and allowing Mayim's much-wanted sunlight to flood the room. "I'll just..."
"N-...No!" The girl cried, stumbling forward desperately. So much emotion was packed into that one dismissal that the innkeeper couldn't help but hesitate at the doorway. But as soon as he looked at her for an explanation, her courage withered. "Huey... he... he..." She swallowed hard, resolve flickering vaguely in her eyes. "He's... I mean... He's not a horse."
"What?"
"You see... Huey, he..."
The girl never finished her statement, but, in all reality, she never had to. Mayim shuffled her way to the doorway just as the innkeeper was leaning out, frowned, and tilted her own head through the portal so as to get a look at whatever it was the girl had ridden here.
She felt her mind go blank with shock.
This girl, she...
... Mayim could only pray that she was more impressive in the air than she was in the lobby of an Inn.
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In less than ten minutes, Mayim – that was her name, wasn't it? – had gone from waitress to stable maid.
She was a rather tall girl, slender, but obviously strong from years of life on the plains. She appeared to be in her mid-teens – Florina made a guess at about fifteen or sixteen – but had all the maturity of a full grown adult. She had not protested at all when she had been asked to take care of Huey; only nodded and obeyed. Her skin had the tanned toughness that many Sacaen's possessed, even beneath the long sleeves of her blouse, now rolled to her elbows. Her hair was on the darker end of the green spectrum, almost a shade of forest, and cut at her shoulders. She had tied it high behind her head, and it swung behind her in rhythm with her work.
As much as Florina hated to impose this task on her – after all, the girl was a waitress – it couldn't be helped. Huey was a pegasus, and pegasi would, under absolutely no circumstances, not allow a male – adult or child – to touch them. This ruled out the innkeeper and all of the stable boys, and so the innkeeper had been forced to ask the only woman on duty at the moment: Mayim.
At first, it had been difficult to find a stall that could accommodate Huey's greater girth, and eventually Mayim – who had at that point finally betrayed signs of intense irritation – had been forced to place him in a pen with a few pigs as roommates. This, apparently, did not suit the ivory stallion one bit, but, with some pleading courtesy of his mistress, he conceded to being sniffed by a pair of curious sows.
At that time, Florina had left her precious steed in Mayim's care and gone to buy supplies for their journey westward.
The trip had taken longer than she would've liked, but now she had everything she needed for a journey as far as Caelin itself, if need be. The sun was beginning to sink low in the sky, casting a heavy, orangish glow over Bulgar. Florina cupped her hand worriedly at her brow, studying the sky with distaste. Shopping had apparently taken a lot longer than she had anticipated; now she was going to have to stay the night at the Inn. She could only pray that the innkeeper would let Huey spend the night in the stables...
At the thought of the innkeeper, Florina felt her heart swell with pride. It had taken well over a few minutes, but she had managed to get the question out; not to mention, she had also gotten sizeable amount of information in return. She had even been able to say what she wanted to say without stuttering; at least, after a few minutes of... gathering her thoughts. How proud Lyn would be when she heard about this!
And she would be able to hear it very soon. If Mayim's guess was right, Lyn should be just entering Bern by now; Florina would reach her in a week at the most. With this optimistic thought to encourage her, the young pegasus knight felt a bit of a skip make its way into her step as she walked in the late afternoon sunlight. Everything was set to go; all she had to do was leave at first light.
The marketplace was all but empty now, vacant of buyers and sellers alike. It basked in the golden glow of the setting sun; the dust was finally beginning to settle, and at long last the area's true beauty was exposed to eyes that would never gaze upon it. The swollen, chafed wood of the stalls now gleamed with a smooth, beautiful sheen that projected illusion of youth. Faded, frayed strips cloth meant to protect the balding head of shopkeepers now shone with the color of days long past. The grass and shrubs wilting at the side of the cobblestone streets now seemed less like a precursor of premature death and more like the slip into peaceful, eternal rest.
Florina adored the Sacae plains with all her might at this time of day. It was a beauty that the Ilian mountains simply could not match, with their blizzards and perpetual ivory caps. She cherished every moment of the fleeting hours the sun remained at this altitude. The sight was even more spectacular from above, gazing down through the paint-splattered clouds and into the golden grasslands below.
Lyn, she remembered, loved the plains with an equal vigor, but at every waking moment of the day; perhaps, even the non-waking moments of the day. Lyn was so passionate about the plains; they were her life, and, as long as Florina had known her, they had always been.
Which was why, no matter how many different ways she looked at it, Florina couldn't imagine why Lyn would leave with a couple of strangers to Lycia. Sacae meant so much to her, surprisingly even more so after the Taliver did what they did to her tribe. Florina shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
Forcing her mind away from the thought of the Lorca massacre, Florina did her best to focus her mind on the information she had received from Mayim and the innkeeper. It was then that she remembered.
Didn't the innkeeper mention someone else? ... Cynthia? Was that her name? Yes, I'm sure it was. Lyn's never mentioned her before...
The edges of the young pegasus knight's lips turned down in a thoughtful frown. If Lyn had stopped in Bulgar, that meant one of two things: she needed supplies, or she was going on a journey. The fact that she had stopped with a stranger in her midst indicated heavily towards the former. But Lyn had always been reluctant to go on visits to Ilia with Florina. What had this stranger done that could have possibly changed her friend's mind on the matter?
And those knights of Lycia that Mayim had spoken of...
Florina sighed heavily. The only way to truly find out what had went through Lyn's mind was to ask Lyn herself. And to do that, the pegasus knight would have to find the stray Sacaen first. For right now, though, she put thoughts of her search in the back of her mind. Tonight, she needed to rest, and tomorrow the next leg of her journey would begin.
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"Oooh...! Huey, I have no idea where we are!"
Huey snorted irritably as Florina adjusted herself in the saddle. They had been traveling for a week now, and she was beginning to feel the effects of flying from dawn to dusk for seven days. With a small, ladylike grunt, she reawakened the energy in her legs and managed to stand, sighing with contentment as the dull aches in her leg muscles were stretched away. Cupping a hand at her brow, she squinted at the blurry horizon and scanned it for any signs of life. "I've never been in this part of Sacae before," she told Huey softly, "It's... awful..."
Indeed it was. Florina and her flying steed had reached the far side of Taliver Mountain; where Sacae ended and Bern began. The mountain had been an active volcano many years ago, and the land around it remained a testimony to those days. The mountain itself and the area around it for many miles was blackened with ages of ash and volcanic rock, layers upon layers that even time was having trouble erasing.
However, the mountain had remained nameless through its entire streak as a bubbling natural disaster. Perhaps the villagers of surrounding towns had given it their own labels, but neither Bern nor Sacae, nor anyone else for that matter, had recognized a true name fo the monstrosity. It was not until the makeshift "government" of this area had been instituted did the mountain finally receive a name of its own.
Taliver Mountain.
The Taliver Bandits had named it themselves when they had seized complete control of the area. It had not taken long–a few months, at most. The valleys around the mountain were populated sparsely with villages, but they were not united enough to have a set leader and government system. So, naturally, the bandits had decided to take the area for their own.
It showed. The countryside was so visibly ravaged from the flames of battle that, eventually, the endless, blackened plains surrounded by the black faces of Taliver Mountain began to give the illusion that fire had simply engulfed everything. Even the decimated remains of cities and villages were charred from flame, leaving nothing but black, empty shells of buildings behind. Perfect pictures of ghost towns, the streets were eerily empty, suggesting that a gruesome fate had befallen the inhabitants.
Lyn had told her about the terrors the Taliver inflicted on the people, but Florina had never seen them first hand. It was disgusting and heart-wrenching, all at the same time.
Florina settled back into her saddle, a distressed frown twisting her lips. Not only were the sights terrible to behold, they also foreshadowed an ill fate for Florina herself. The sun was dipping dangerously close to the horizon now, and if she didn't find a suitable–preferably still inhabited–village to spend the night in soon, she would be forced to land and sleep in the open.
The very thought made her feel like someone had just dumped a bucket of icy water inside her chest. No matter how empty the area looked, the Taliver still held power here.
Shuddering involuntarily, Florina ran her eyes along the horizon line once more, as if doing so might cause something to appear that she had missed before. Still, no matter how hard she prayed it wasn't so, the area was just as bare as it had been moments before. Florina could only sigh in defeat and lean on her steed's graceful neck, burying her face into the golden threads of his mane.
"What now?" she moaned to her steed, "We can't fly all night... but there's no way we can land here. Ohhh, Huey, I don't know what to do..."
Her steed whinnied softly, and slowed his pace to a peaceful glide. After a moment, he whinnied again, this time a tad bit more urgently. Florina took the bait, and raised her head slightly. She locked her gaze on the horizon once again, scanning it for anything. They did still had a few hours to go, after all. Maybe something would...
Wait, what was that?
Was that... smoke?
"Ah...!" Florina sat up straight, and leaned forward eagerly. Maybe she had missed something after all! "H-...Huey, look!" she cried, pointing in the general direction of the gray pillar. "Smoke! That could only mean..."
Well, smoke could mean one of two things. Elimine willing, it was smoke from a chimney, or maybe even the stray plume from a traveler's fire. Anything of the sort would be good enough for the young pegasus knight. Just as long as she didn't have to sleep alone on the outskirts of Taliver Mountain.
But there was also the possibility of a bandit camp, or–Florina hated to even think it–it might even be the beginnings of another massacre.
Florina hesitated. She couldn't risk something like that.
And yet... She had just spent the last ten minutes or so searching desperately for any sign of life. This was better than nothing at all, wasn't it?
She pursed her lips, thinking hard. After a moment, she jabbed Huey delicately with her heels. "Fly, Huey!" she commanded, "Towards the smoke!"
–;.;–;.;–;.;–;.;–
Ah, the welcome warmth of fire. He hadn't felt it in over a month; much too long for anyone, in his opinion, to go without fire. He smiled and pushed himself as close to the flames as he could without scorching himself, and held his chilled hands against the warm air. Oh, how he cherished fire.
But, for the past few weeks, such fire was too dangerous. It was by miracle and miracle alone that the Taliver hadn't discovered and decimated this village yet. As far as he knew, the troop was completely on the other side of Taliver Mountain, but, in these dark days, no one could be sure. The people lived day by day in agonizing unease, waiting for, perhaps, the inevitable. It was as if everyone in this area was simply waiting for death.
Wil would have to leave them very soon.
He was close to hating himself for it; after all, the villagers seemed to cherish his company. Anything to prove that not all outsiders were cold blooded killers, he supposed. But it was dangerous here, and he couldn't allow himself to be caught up in something he couldn't handle. He could defend himself against the occasional wolf or bear in the woods, but his little bow simply couldn't stand up to a swarm of blood thirsty bandits.
Wil frowned and touched a leather pouch at his belt almost self-consciously. It was the pouch that was designated to carry his gold, and, right now, it was very much empty. The villagers in this area were so poor that they couldn't afford to provide for themselves, much less to hire some random traveler to do their work for them. He had hoped to stop here for a job, but that obviously wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
And, when he left, he'd be at the mercy of whatever happened to be out in the wilderness, and without a copper coin to support himself.
What a wonderful mess he'd gotten himself into.
You're a complete fool and you know it, he told himself for what had to be the millionth time, What was so wrong with your old life that you had to dump it like a sack of potatoes?
He tipped his gaze upward, watching gloomily as the dark clouds rolled by, blanketing the sky. The fire's momentary joy had washed away as if a flood had suddenly barreled through, and now it looked like it was going to rain.
He might as well bask with the fire as long as he had it. Of course, the villagers had warned him against starting it in the first place, but the mountain nights were biting cold, and he needed something to warm away weeks of the chills. He only prayed that it wouldn't attract... unwanted visitors.
It was then that he heard it.
A shriek, a crash, a curse, and loud, muffled voices.
His heart stopped dead.
Bandits.
Of course, in reality, it could be any number of things. But his mind worked faster than his logic. Frenzied thoughts were already upon him, racing in fury. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Didn't you know that fire would attract bandits? Wildly, he began to shovel soil onto the blaze in a blind effort to extinguish it. What if they were Taliver? He would've led them right to what was probably the only village they hadn't decimated yet!
A tiny part of his mind recognized that whoever it was wasn't approaching him, indicating that they hadn't been attracted to his flames, but fear for himself and for the villagers swallowed that thought whole. He was partially hidden by the bushes and tall, dying grasses around him, but it wasn't likely that something as simple as brush would be able to conceal him for long.
The last glow of embers was swallowed by grit as the voices grew louder and clearer. Wil stopped his frantic movements and listened, as tense as a rabbit hiding from a fox. But no matter how still he was, his heart seemed to be beating so fast and so loud that it drowned out anything important he might have heard. Only bits and pieces of a loud, one-sided argument reached his ears.
"... What kind of... ...don't you ever look...! ... pay for this!"
The second voice was incredibly soft. So soft, that Wil doubted that even the speaker could hear it. He himself could only hear the faintest shadows of speech, but it was just enough for him to recognize them to be feminine in nature.
He glanced uneasily at the tiny tunnel he had made in the brush to come here. It lead in the complete opposite direction of the voices. If he slipped away now, maybe the bandits wouldn't be able to...
"... Ha! ... Think you can get away... Bit of a looker... ... Fetch a pretty penny... flying mule..."
Wil grimaced. He retrieved his bow and quiver from their hiding spots among the bushes.