One. Two. Three. Five. Seven. Eleven. Thirteen. Seventeen. Nineteen...
In order to pass the time while waiting for her uncle to return, and distract her from her growing concern that he wouldn't, Aria was calculating prime numbers in her head.
She got all the way to six-thousand, nine-hundred and forty-seven before he walked in the door.
"Six-thousand, nine-hundred and fifty…" She looked up as the door swung open.
Press ducked in, looking around guiltily, and upon seeing Aria sitting up in bed with a frantic look on her face, winced. "I see you're awake. Have you been up long…?" He trailed off, watching her eyes widen. She had been sitting there for well over an hour waiting for him to return. He got an expression on his face as though he were bracing himself for the outburst. He wasn't disappointed.
Aria let all the anxiety that had been building up pour out of her in a frantic flow of words. "Where were you?! I woke up and you were gone, and your bed hadn't been slept in, and I don't know anything about this place, and the innkeeper is an arse, and I had to go ask everyone if they'd seen you, and…" She left off as Uncle Press held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Sorry, kid, I had to run an errand. It took longer than I thought it would. I meant to be back before you woke up, but…" He shrugged apologetically, and after staring at him wide-eyed for a few more moments, sighed and rolled her neck.
She forced herself to relax, taking deep breaths. He was back, and so there was no need to keep panicking. He obviously hadn't meant to scare the living daylights out of her, so she decided to let it go. She was terrible at holding grudges, anyway.
She sighed. "It's ok." Then she scrunched up her eyebrows and asked, "So what's going on? Where were you? What are we doing now? And, uh, can we get some breakfast…?" Her stomach growled loudly. She could really go for a pop-tart right now, though she doubted that such a thing would be on the menu.
Press grinned, and said, "I'll fill you in while we eat." With that he turned and headed out the door.
The two knights were still sitting there, and nudged each other when they saw her and Press walk out. The blonde one smiled at her and gave a small wave, obviously glad that she had found who she was looking for.
She returned the smile and the wave, then ducked her head shyly and went to sit beside her uncle. With a word to the innkeeper, Kren, breakfast was on its way.
As they sat waiting for the innkeeper to return with their meals, Press slumped into his chair, looking fairly exhausted. "So where were you?" Aria asked. Press shook his head as though trying to clear his thoughts.
"Ah, I'll tell you later. Tonight, maybe." He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow as she began to protest. Although she was buzzing to know where he had been, she held her tongue. If Press said he would tell her eventually, he would tell her eventually.
Still, she twitched her nose in irritation. Press knew she was irritated when she twitched her nose. That, or she was about to sneeze. She was one of the only people she knew of who could intentionally twitch her nose, aside from some skinny guy on the water-polo team back at Del Aurum. At any rate, if he wouldn't tell her where he had been, perhaps he would tell her where they were going. "Well, then, what—"
She was cut off as Kren came back with their breakfast. It looked like porridge, though it was slightly orange and smelled oddly nutty. Like the stew the previous night, it was lukewarm, and delivered with a scowl. "Thanks, Kren," said Uncle Press as Kren stalked away. He grumbled something about his wife again as he galumphed back to his seat. Perhaps she's the cook, Aria thought.
Stomach growling, Aria forgot all about her previous question as she practically dove headfirst into her bowl. She always ate too fast. For such a small person, she could eat a surprising amount in very short periods of time. Her father occasionally joked about it when they went out to dinner. He would put on a cheesy British accent like you hear on the nature documentaries and say, "Ah, yes, the elusive Aria, also called the Aria Sushigluttonus, capable of eating up to half her body weight in sushi in under two minutes…" She would then proceed to wad up a piece of napkin, dunk it in her water, stuff it in her straw, and blow it at him like a spit-wad. He would try to retaliate, and mom would jab them both with her chopsticks and tell them to stop.
She felt a sudden pang of homesickness, but tried to ignore it and focus on her food.
Press watched her with amusement for a moment, shook his head, and got started on his own meal. The sun had only just risen. Aria estimated that it was around seven o' clock, though she couldn't tell for sure, as she didn't have a timepiece. She was slightly resentful about having to leave her books and music behind, and she felt some distinct trepidation at the thought of them being stolen or destroyed by the elements. She'd had her IPod for so many years that it was practically a friend. Her parents had continually offered to get her a new one, since the old one was so out of date, but she vehemently refused. As for the books, they belonged to the library. She'd never lost a library book before, and hated the thought of getting a lost-fee put on her record.
Typical, she thought. Stranded on an alien planet, no way to get home except up a giant mountain and through an army of ravenous quig-beasts, and what are you worrying about? A lost fee.
Of course, it's always easier to focus on small problems when the large ones are so great as to seem insurmountable. Nevertheless, it didn't pay to ignore the elephant in the room. To that effect, she forced herself to turn to the task at hand.
"So," Aria asked carefully once her uncle had finished his strangely orange nutty porridge. "What's the plan?"
Press looked at her thoughtfully, actually going so far as to rub his chin. "Well, we need to find more information on the Tryptite shortage and what kinds of effects it's having on both tribes." When he finished saying this, he nodded slightly as though making up his mind on something. "I intend to head over to the Bedoowan village, near the cliffs, and get some answers there."
Aria nodded, looking interested. "Ok, sounds good. When do we leave?"
Press grabbed their bowls, placing one inside the other and setting them aside. "I'll be heading over there shortly. You, on the other hand," he said as her eyes widened in trepidation, "Will be questioning the Milago here in the village. Since you already have no problems with their language, there's no need for me to walk around translating for you."
She looked at him with an expression bordering on horror. He was abandoning her!
She shook her head. "Uh, no way. I don't know anything about this village. How do you expect me to just walk around, casually mining for information when I'm bound to stick out like a sore thumb?" She would probably get herself arrested for suspicious behavior. "No way am I tackling this alone. I'm sticking with you." She folded her arms and tried to look confident. Truth be told, she was less concerned about blowing their cover than she was about being left alone in unfamiliar territory. Her family had always encouraged her to explore the world on her own, but as a general rule she didn't go anywhere without first reading about it, seeing pictures of it, planning out an agenda, and ensuring she had at least three different ways to get home. She wasn't an on-the-fly kind of girl.
He grinned at her. "Come on, kid. You've done scarier things than this," he teased. Strictly speaking, it was true. She had traveled out of state on a number of occasions, visited some pretty intimidating cities, and had even gone to a few foreign countries. But this was different. Paris she could look up on Wikipedia or read about in a travel guide. Besides, he had never left her alone in the middle of some backwater village with no way to contact him and told her, "figure out why everyone's pissed off!" He had always been with her.
"I can't…" she trailed off, looking slightly desperate.
His face took on a more serious look, and his voice was encouraging. "Yes, you can. You're smart, and you're resourceful. You're good with research. Once you find a lead, you chase it down to the last footnote. It's very important that we get this information. I wouldn't be putting this on you if I wasn't confident that you were up to the task. Besides," he added with a small smile, "You won't be totally alone. There's another Traveler in the village."
This made her ears perk up. He saw this and continued. "His name is Alder. He's native to this territory. He should be able to help you figure out what's going on here."
Aria was torn. On the one hand, she didn't want to be left alone. On the other hand, she wouldn't be completely alone, and besides, her uncle needed her help with this. Suddenly her eyebrows creased in confusion and she asked, "Wait, don't you just introduce me to Alder, and he can tell me everything that's going on here? I mean, he lives here after all." Part of her already knew the answer to that question. As any decent researcher knows, you can't get all your information from one source, no matter how reliable it may be.
Press raised an eyebrow. He knew that she knew the answer to that question. "It's best to get as wide a variety of information as you can. As an outsider, you may have access to information that a native won't."
Aria sighed and shook her head, but arguing any further was a moot point. He was set on this. "Alright," she consented. "I'll stay here and mine for info. But if you don't mind my asking one more question," she said as Press grinned at her good-naturedly, "Why are we in such a hurry to get this done? Why don't we both look for information in the Milago village today, and hit the Bedoowan village tomorrow? What's the rush?" Really, it didn't seem like the Tryptite was going to run out by next Tuesday (if they even had a Tuesday here). There didn't seem to be anything immediately threatening their existence. Surely there was enough time to be cautious and thorough?
But Press shook his head. "We could, but I don't feel like that would be a good idea. I can't help but feel that things are going to come to a head very soon."
Aria didn't generally accept, "I have a hunch," as an answer. She generally didn't accept anything as an answer unless you wrote her an essay on it, included a works cited page, and got it graded and approved by a teacher. And even then she was cautious.
But the look in her uncle's eyes made her uncertain. She let any further objections go, and simply nodded.
They stood up to take their leave, Uncle Press tossing a few quills to Kren on the way out and thanking him for the room and food. Kren didn't even say anything this time, merely catching the quills, shoving them in his pocket, and grunting at them as they walked through the door.
As they walked briskly to the edge of the village, where Press would begin his trek to the Bedoowan town, he filled Aria in on some of the basics and gave her a cover story. If anyone asked, she was from a village over the mountain, visiting with her uncle, and she wanted to learn more about their peoples during her visit.
He also filled her in on the basics of the recent history. Apparently the Bedoowan used to rule over the Milago with an iron fist, forcing them to mine a mineral called Glaze. The Glaze was valuable, but mining it was hazardous, and the Milago were dying off. The Milago planned to use another mineral called Tak - a soft, malleable substance that exploded violently when thrown or lit - to destroy the Bedoowan. Something in the plan went wrong, however, and for some reason the Tak mines underground caught fire and exploded, destroying both the Bedoowan castle and the Milago village. The two tribes have since had to work together in order to survive, and have forged a strong alliance. This revolution happened around 15 years ago. In the last year or two, however, there has been a dangerous shortage of Tryptite. The Tryptite used to come from another foreign village; they traded it for Glaze. Now that the Glaze wasn't being mined, the Milago and Bedoowan couldn't afford the Tryptite.
The Milago and the Bedoowan had always lived in predominantly separate villages, the Bedoowan constructing a town near the cliffs overlooking the sea, where their castle used to be, and the Milago rebuilding their village in roughly the original location, a few miles away. However, they'd been fairly close the last 15 years, mixing and marrying cross-tribe, and visiting each other's villages frequently. It was only in the last six months or so that the separation between the two tribes had become almost absolute.
It was her job to figure out why…from the Milago's perspective, that was.
One other thing Press told her as they drew near the eastern edge of the village was about their government. The two tribes each had their own specialties. Milago were farmers and builders, very good with hands-on work. The Bedoowan were generally more advanced thinkers, and their talents lay among the intellectual. The Bedoowan spent years governing over the Milago, and as such, had taken over primary responsibilities for government. The Bedoowan didn't have all the power, though. Their governing system consisted of a Council of Six, on which sat three Milago and three Bedoowan. Aria filed all of this information away in the extensive corridors of her mental reserve, which was, frankly, considerable.
As they walked and talked, Aria looked around at the village as it slowly came to life. The Milago were an extremely pale-skinned race, so she would at least fit in on that front. Also, they were all wearing generally the same thing – leathers and furs, with relatively few adornments. She would also fit in there. She didn't see much variation, with one exception.
There was a group of girls leaning against a hut, watching them pass. They wore tangles of blue, white, and brown feathers in their hair. One of them appeared to have a wooden nose-ring. They gave her the evil eye and she walked by, and Aria decided that she would stay out of their way. She didn't need to get into a tussle with ye olde Mean Girls on her first day in the village.
Aria thought that the village, though primitive, was lovely. Golden light glinted off the dust motes in the air and shone on the grass lining roads that twisted their way through the buildings. There was no symmetry. The village didn't need it, any more than a forest did. While she listened to her uncle's description with one ear, the other was turned to the sounds of the village. The soft footfalls made by feet clad in simple leather shoes was the white noise, and the birdsong emanating from the surrounding forests rang through the village in a strange, beautiful and discordant symphony. People passed them by carrying baskets woven out of branches and sticks. Some of these baskets held fruits and vegetables, others bread. Still others held swathes of cloth and piles of leathers, and one was filled with sharp-smelling, fragrant herbs. All in all it reminded Aria of a medieval village from some sort of fairy-tale, and she half expected to see a gryphon fly overhead or a pointy-hatted wizard stroll by.
Heck, she thought, they already have the armor-clad knights…though I seem to have missed the towering castle and tyrannical king by a few years.
The village was truly starting to get lively as they reached the road that led to the Bedoowan town. Aria was hit with yet another wave of trepidation at the thought of going back into it alone. She forced that emotion, bordering on panic, down deep, and turned to her uncle.
It had taken them little over 20 minutes to reach the edge of the village, and he had been silently watching her for the last few. She realized after a moment that time had come to part ways for the time being. He looked fairly relaxed, although Aria sensed that he was concerned for her. Nonetheless, he smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder, saying, "You'll be fine. Ask some questions, find some answers, and get a feel for what's going on here. And ask around for Alder. He's one of the Bedoowan knights who are posted permanently in the village, so he'll either be patrolling around on horseback or at the barracks on the other side of the village." He gestured generally in a direction behind them. "You good?" He asked, slight concern lacing his voice.
She took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. After all, it can't be much worse than that time I got lost in France," she said with a slight smile. What a fiasco that had been.
He laughed. "That's the spirit. Don't worry, I'll see you tonight. The Bedoowan town is only a few miles up the road. I should be back before sundown." With that, and one last wild grin, he turned and began walking up the path, quickly being swallowed by the snaking path that forced its way through the foliage.
As she watched him go, Aria's emotions bubbled up, and she was forced to examine them. She recognized the bright tug of curiosity, and a burning need to learn what was going on here. She intended to do her best to help her uncle, but wondered if her skills were adequate to the task at hand. Uncertainty weighed on her, aided in part by an electric anxiety that traced its way up and down her spine, causing her to shiver in the already warm morning. And, of course, fear was waiting in the wings. It always was, like an unsavory friend who's always too eager to help. As Aria turned to look at the village again, preparing to wade back into that throng of foreign life, fear raised its ugly head to offer its assistance again.
Declining politely, she shoved the feeling back down. She took a deep breath, and began to make her way into the throng.