Caravan Tale

*

Plunk! Lora had been tossing pebbles into the stream for nearly an hour now. All of this news in such a short period of time was too much to handle. She couldn't think straight after her meeting with Tunis, so she escaped the village commotion and came down to think by the stream. Assigning myrrh trees was a brilliant idea, but she wanted to know who was in charge of such affairs. They certainly didn't seem to care about the struggling villages. Well, there was nothing she could do about that for now. Lora stood up and tried to motivate herself. It would be no good to tell the others the bad news if she wasn't determined.

Tobias gave the stump a good hard kick. It didn't budge an inch. Trista began laughing behind him, "If you're this upset, why don't you just tell her instead of taking it out on the stump?"

Tobias turned and glared at her, "Or you could mind your own business."

"I could, but that has never been my specialty. However, I do want to apologize for barging in this morning."

"Don't worry about it." Tobias sat down on the stump defeated.

Trista joined him by his side, "I wonder what the outcome of the meeting will be."

"Most likely bad news, that's how these things usually work out."

Trista sighed, "Cedon really does seem to have the worst luck."

Tobias chuckled, "Yes it seems that way, especially sitting next to you."

Trista let out a gasp of surprise and pushed Tobias off of the stump who was now in a fit of laughter. "Lora said you like to ruffle feathers but I thought she was exaggerating!"

Tobias sat up dusting off his shirt still chuckling, "What else did she tell you?"

Trista smirked, "That's for me to know and you to find out!" With that, she jumped off the stump and jogged over to Kima who had begun to till the soil. Tobias got up and chased after her, "Hey! What do you mean by that!?"

As Lora approached the field she could hear a commotion in the works. She walked over to Jasper who was leaning on the fence watching all the action, "Should I even ask?"

Jasper chuckled, "Trista and Tobias were arguing over something which led into a chase. Kima was knocked down and her hoe hit Puck. After that I lost track. I have no idea when the mudslinging came into play."

Lora smiled, "Well it's good that everyone is in a good mood today."

Jasper looked over at Lora, "I take it there is bad news from your meeting."

Lora nodded. The two continued to watch their friends make spectacles of themselves. Lora looked back over at Jasper. He rarely spoke up in groups, but when he did it was always relevant and well thought out. He was a very intuitive clavat. Lora was slightly sad she wouldn't be able to get to know him better. Then again she could always ask Kima.

"Lora!" Puck yelled as he finally noticed her watching by the fence.

Lora smiled and waved, "Are you all finished yet?"

Trista laughed and ran over to her cousin, "Let's just call it an informal training session."

Kima, Puck, and Tobias also joined the group a few seconds later.

Kima looked expectantly to Lora, "So what did Tunis have to say?"

Lora sighed, "A lot actually." Lora proceeded to hop over the fence and sat down in the grass. Everyone joined her without a word, "Apparently all the villages and cities have created a coalition due to recent dangers. This means each caravan is assigned certain myrrh trees this year and possibly future years as well."

Kima smiled, "That is brilliant! It will help prevent caravans from fighting over trees."

Lora nodded, "Ideally yes, but it seems Alfitaria has chosen the trees for each caravan. It wasn't an equal decision."

Puck crossed his arms, "What trees were we assigned?"

"Selepation Caves, Veo lu Sluice and Conall Curach."

Kima's smile immediately dropped from her face, "Conall Curach!? No one has been there in years!"

Tobias nodded, "The caves and even the sluice would be no problem for us but no caravan has made it through those swamps in recent years."

Lora nodded, but she didn't want to see the caravan already defeated before they had even set out, "Yes well look what we did at Tipa Tobias; we made it through there safely and with only the two of us. Now that there are five of us it is possible."

Trista nodded her head excitedly, "Yes! And since we have selkies in the caravan we can translate our way through!"

Lora smiled, Trista always knew how to brighten things up.

"So when do we leave?" Kima piped in.

"When everything is finished; we need to gather supplies, wagon alterations, and we still need more training. I'm hoping to be ready in two weeks possibly less."

Tobias sat back, "That's pretty demanding isn't it?"

Lora shook her head, "No because travelling to the sluice will take a lot of time. Cedon villagers all pull their weight so we should have enough help to be ready by then."

Trista hopped up to her feet, "Then what are we waiting for!?"

Kima stood up as well, "Right! Let's train today and in the evening we can begin the wagon alterations."

Everyone agreed and headed back out to the field to begin training except for Lora who was holding Trista back by her shirt. Trista turned back to Lora, "Come on let's go!"

Lora smirked, "Oh no you don't. We are doing our own training, by the books."

Trista gave her an odd look. Lora just continued to smirk, "You and I need to brush up on some Selkic texts if we're going to get through the swamps."

Trista sighed, "Fine, but just to let you know you're just as bad as De Nam!"

Lora laughed as she led Trista away from the farm to catch up on some reading. Tobias looked back to see Trista and Lora leaving the field, "Where are those two going?"

"What does it matter? Lora knows what she's doing Tobias. You don't need to watch over her all the time." Kima laughed.

Tobias turned back to his friend and chuckled while he ran a hand through his hair, "I think it's become a bad habit of mine."

Kima pulled out her sword, "Well then let's break this habit of yours!"

Tobias smirked and unsheathed his sword as well, "Alright then here we go!"