A/N
Friday upload again.
I have changed times, travelling etc etc to suit my own means.
I hope you enjoy.
/
The next day began and went as the day before, lots of walking and lots of silence. At least Erin felt somewhat refreshed after her sleep, it seemed her mind and body had needed it.
Chingachgook thought they were perhaps a night or so away from the fort now, having lost half a day helping the Camerons.
They stopped a few times on the trail to gather water, and Erin took these small periods of time to capture everyday moments with her scribbled drawing. It was like a dance she had forgotten, or the lyrics to a song she had not heard for a long time; it came back to her easily, forms appearing on the paper. She drew things she saw before her and things from her own world, the tiny snippets of people she loved, comforting and reassuring her that she would return to them.
It was strange, and a little funny, that she had been living like a cloistered hermit for a whole year. Her outing with Ada was meant to be her first toe-dip back into life, and now she had been plunged into a world that forced her out of her shell, to confront all the harshness and social mental gymnastics without a flinch; she didn't have time to dwell on anything but the walk, the people around her, and just exactly what her next plan would be.
She kept as far away from Uncas as she could manage without making it too obvious, she stayed close to Cora and Alice. Now and then she caught Uncas looking their way, taking a enigmatic dark-eyed moment to take in the slight form of the light haired girl, that same calm stoic look upon his face, the emotions never even showing as a ripple on the smooth surface.
Erin wished she could rush over to him and ask just what he was thinking, when exactly was it that he fell in love with Alice Munro? Was he in love with her right this second? If only she could, it would have been a dream interview.
Alice was such a very sweet, quiet girl, a naïve gentleness was always part of everything she did. She was on the verge of leaving behind the slightly gawky, long limbed features of a teenager, the woman beneath ready to emerge like a butterfly. Erin could see why she held such a strong fascination for Uncas, she was everything he had never known.
The women that lived on this land had to make do and get along with whatever life threw at them. Alice was the coddled daughter of an English Army Colonel, with all the finery and easiness that could be afforded to the upper class. Here she came into this trapper's wilderness, a floating spirit of candy floss pinks and silk, with hair the colour of hazy sunlight, every part the lady, every part the fragility he had never known.
If Erin could save this unlikely pairing, she would; she wanted all her teenage 'what ifs' to become a reality for them.
Alice, on the other hand, seemed almost oblivious to any looks passed her way. Her wide hazel eyes more concerned with the nature about her, as though wondering at how unstructured everything was compared to her normal life.
Erin thought it would be interesting to see when that moment of realization happened for Alice too, and her eyes fell upon the young warrior with a different light.
Yet, to Erin, Alice also seemed withdrawn, as if the weight of the situation she now found herself in caused her to cower away from reality, leaving a mere shade of who she normally was. She couldn't help the lingering thought of just what having PTSD meant in this time, for a woman like Alice.
She took a moment to look over at the young girl, her once neatly braided and secured hair was dishevelled and lying in lank wisps about her face, her pretty silk trimmed riding habit stained and torn, more mud splashing up the hem of her skirts as she walked through a rather nasty puddle. Erin gathered her own skirts into one hand, picking her way carefully across the wet, boggy ground they were trying to navigate. It stank of decomposing vegetation. Erin thanked her own good luck that she was wearing her sensible footwear and had not tried to fit her feet into one of Ada's tiny little historically correct silk shoes.
For now Erin had one job, to stop any crazy attempts being made on those damn cliff tops. She could perhaps try and keep them apart? Her mother always said love could come later if it was meant to be. Erin huffed a breath to herself, like she had ever listened to that advice!
Did she really want to be the sour cupid that denied them building a bond... but then when to start with her meddling? No, she didn't want to keep them apart, she wanted to see that bond grow and bloom, see it with her own eyes, instead of trying to imagine never written tales. Her only choice was to do something big, something that would put them all on a different storyline, but how...
"Ouch!" Erin let out a little cry as a sharp pain radiated from the nape of her neck. She reached back and found a tiny drop of blood upon her fingers. She didn't have to think too hard upon the cause, the constant noise of insects buzzing around them gave the secret away.
She flapped her arms around her trying to dissuade the little bitey things from trying again.
"Something bit me!" she said indignantly.
Cora gave an understanding nod. "It hurts, I know, once we arrive at the fort I'm sure the infirmary will have something we can use to help."
Erin noticed that Cora had a few nasty looking bites across her shoulders, and Alice reached up to her arm about to scratch, but seemed to think better of it.
Erin nodded and they continued.
Finally the sky darkened, and once again they stopped, blessedly away from the swamp. After a little scouting they found a seemingly safe place to camp for the night. A fire was lit, and recently caught game prepared for their meals.
There was no spring to escape to tonight and so an exhausted Erin stayed close to the fire, the night seeming a little more dangerous somehow... there was something nagging at the back of her mind.
The thought was abruptly interrupted as a painful twinge spread through her skin, the itch suddenly very persistent. She'd resisted for the last hour, and now she either scratched or fell into the depths of madness, there was no in between. She scratched softly at first, but the unfortunate thing was that the more she scratched the more the itch grew, until she was sure she was on the verge of drawing blood.
Cora and Alice seemed as if it didn't bother them at all, or maybe Erin just didn't have the strict manners needed to be a true 18th century woman, but they could be damned, she was itchy!
Chingachgook, Nathaniel and Uncas were near the fire and she could hear them laughing quietly amongst themselves. When she looked up, she saw all eyes were upon her and her frantic efforts.
"She looks like a dog with fleas. If she could scratch with her foot I'm sure she would." Chingachgook's look was merry and the words caused the other two men to fall into restrained fits of laughter.
Erin resisted the urge to glare, knowing full well those words had not been meant for her ears, but she did try and restrain her fevered motions in some attempt at regaining her dignity.
"Go help her, it's cruel to let her suffer, give some to the other women." He addressed Uncas, who, after another look between he and Nathaniel resulted in another bluster of laughter, got up and went searching the area close by.
When he returned he paused a moment, his hand full of a lump of something dark. He reached into one of the smaller pouches at his belt, sprinkled something that looked like a dried plant into the mass and then squished it around for a moment before coming to crouch beside Erin.
She gave him a slow side long look, trying her best not to acknowledge his presence at all.
"For the bite," he said simply, holding up a finger which was coated in some kind of mud.
He didn't wait for a reply and moved, getting a clearer view of her back, before placing a rather cold blob of the stuff right upon her bite, it sent all Erin's nerve ends jangling and made her gasp. The relief was near instant and she relaxed, giving him a nod of thanks. He gave her a small huff of a laugh as if he still was not fully over the joke, before he moved on, offering the concoction to the other two women. Cora took it gratefully, applying it to Alice's arms and asking all manner of questions about what it was, how it worked and where to find the ingredients.
Erin rested back, the fire warming her, the bite and her scratches all just a faint throb now. But something still nagged at the back of her mind, something she was forgetting in the heat of all the things that were happening.
Once the food was ready, she ate while still feeling distracted, and didn't hear what the company around her had been saying.
"What about you Miss?" Nathaniel was addressing her directly, giving her a little start as she came back to the present, his green eyes heavy with the question, but glinting a little in humour too.
"M.. me?" She looked around at all the faces who watched her with an expectant air. She'd missed the entire conversation. Everyone had finished their food and Erin was a little surprised to see, so had she. She placed the bowl down and gave Nathaniel a puzzled look.
"A story to pass the time Miss? Do you know any?"
Erin took in the fire and the people huddled around it, and her brain flipped into the familiar process of picking out a story suitable for a summer campfire gathering. She felt everyone could do with the release of a good fun tall tale.
She cleared her throat. "Once there lived a young woman, let's call her... Mary." She felt the gaze of every one of her companions on her and shifted at the weight, trying to remind herself to keep her words and story period accurate.
"Mary lived alone, she was a very nervous woman, scared that one day something terrible would happen to her. She constantly felt a funny feeling in her toes that someone was watching her." Erin narrowed her eyes, holding everyone in a pause.
The firelight suddenly seemed to burn a little brighter, reminding Erin so fondly of all those camp-outs she'd taken with Ada, Ada had always loved this story.
"Mary always checked her locks twice, her bolts thrice." She mimed the actions of locking a door. "She was so nervous, she had a big dog, a thing as big as a bear." She gestured the height with her hand much to her audience's growing enjoyment. "It always slept under her bed, reassuring her with a lap of its tongue when she felt afraid."
The fire crackled and popped but the company remained silent, the distant chirping of an insect nearby sounding a little like a soft moan, making the atmosphere feel ghoulish.
"One night Mary could have sworn she locked her door, but in her rush to do the latest... I mean, baking of something... she forgot, and the front door stood wide open. She quickly locked it and went right to sleep, snug as a bug in her bed. In the dark, dark night she heard it, a soft tap, tap, and a constant drip, drip. Feeling super annoyed, Mary got up from her warm bed and searched high and low for the sound but could find no leaking tap, no leaking roof, so she went back to bed."
She paused a moment letting the atmosphere settle over them all. "But there it was again!" She barked out the words so suddenly that Duncan and Alice started, a little nervous laughter accompanying the shock, and Erin felt pleased with herself. "That slow... drip... drip... dr...ip."
"Feeling nervous, she reached to her dog, that big protector, that always slept under her bed. Her hand felt the familiar lick of her pet's wet, warm tongue and Mary eased back into sleep, but the drip continued, driving her near insane."
Again she took a long pause. "So Mary got up again, going on her search, until the sound led her into her... erm... pantry." She looked at each person, building the tension. "There, upon a hook, was the body of her dog, dead and gutted!" She heard an intake of breath from the women. "Its blood slowly drip, drip, dripping onto the floor." Not giving them another chance to react, Erin barrelled on with the story at a fast pace. "Mary raced back to her bedroom and there, upon the wall, in her own dog's blood, were the words 'Mad men can lick too!' The tongue had not been her dog under the bed that night, but that of a crazed man!"
She finished with a self satisfied air. Silence and stiff postures met her gaze.
"Good God!" Duncan said, bewildered.
Erin slowly took in the women's horrified pale faces, and Duncan's aghast expression.
"That story was not for good company!" he said stiffly. "My God, Miss Cooper. Did this happen to someone you know?"
Erin stared at him, dumbfounded. "W... well no, it's just a story, to scare you, it's not real."
"Why on earth would anyone want to tell a story like that?" Duncan continued his berating. "Good God Miss!"
"It's just entertainment," Erin said, finding herself quickly becoming panicked. Did ghost stories around campfires not exist during this time? How big of a faux-pas had she just made? "Like the theatre I guess."
"Well on board ships you may tell such... stories, but that tale was not fit for telling in this company!"
Erin found herself abashed and lost for words.
"No, Duncan." Cora's voice cut through the tension. "Miss Cooper is indeed right, it was entertaining and I don't know about anyone else, but it certainly took my mind off our current predicament." She looked over at Erin, throwing her the face saving words. "Thank you, it was a very interesting story."
Erin twisted her hands together, feeling the high discomfort of Duncan's still disapproving gaze, but then her eyes caught the sight of two laughing faces, Nathaniel and Uncas were in near fits.
"That was quite a story Miss," Nathaniel said, trying to control his humour. "Not heard anything like it."
Uncas gave her a beaming grin as he continued to laugh, and Erin thought her story telling skills had not been wasted after all.
/
Erin awoke suddenly and sat upright in her bed. The fire had been put out and all was silent and still. A fine sweat beaded her brow and she looked about her in the darkness, searching for anyone, finally knowing the piece of information she had been missing earlier that evening, how had she ever forgotten!
Two full nights it should have taken them to reach the fort, this was night two and they were not where they were meant to camped! Out here in this open space, they could easily be found, they had to move.
"Are you alright Miss?" It was Nathaniel, his voice causing other sleepers around them to stir.
"No, I'm not. We have to go."
"What do you mean?" Nathaniel's look was serious now, and his tone drew Uncas' attention who was also standing watch upon higher ground, a musket in hand.
"We are in danger here, they are coming!"
"Who?" His eyes scanned the trees around them.
"We are being followed, they are on our trail and we need to move, we should be at least a good few miles further along by now." She got up, dusting the dirt from her skirts.
He stared at her with a dubious air.
"How do you know this?" Uncas was coming down the slope as he voiced the question.
"I just do," Erin said, setting her jaw in determination and making towards the people who were still upon the ground to wake them.
"Your word is not worth us packing up and moving on in the middle of the night," Nathaniel said frankly, grabbing her forearm to still her.
"If my word is so worthless it can be worthless tomorrow, when we are safe and alive." She shook off his grip, gathering up her blanket.
He looked a little taken aback by her brash manner.
"All we lose is some sleep, instead of our lives. Which do you think you'd prefer, Mr Poe?"
He seemed to be considering her words.
"Trust me on this, please. I would not ask it without a good reason."
Nathaniel glanced over at Uncas, who gave a small nod in agreement at whatever had just passed unspoken between the two men.
"Alright. We'll move on." He turned to Uncas, "Wake father." These two words had been in his own tongue.
"Thank you," Erin said, and Nathaniel gave her an uncertain look.
/
No one was happy at being made to pick their way across the dark forest floor. Branches and bushes grabbed at ankles and tripped unwary walkers with ease, but it seemed Chingachgook had a destination, and so they continued at a slow but constant pace for what felt like a few hours.
"By God, why are we walking in the dead of night?" Duncan grumbled, somewhere behind them.
"Something has happened. It wasn't safe where we were Duncan," Cora replied calmly.
"When will we be safe?" Alice's voice trembled.
"Just over this hill," Nathaniel whispered, gesturing with a hand that they should keep going. "We can rest there for the night, it is a safe place my father knows."
"I hope he does, I would like to get at least an hours rest Sir," Duncan said stiffly.
"As would we all," Uncas said lowly, giving Erin a small glance in that moment.
They entered the burial ground on swift feet and each found a safe place to spend the night. Erin very pointedly staying beside Cora and Alice, they settled into a little hill of earth.
"Do you know what's happened?" Cora asked in a whisper.
"No," Erin lied, pulling the comfort of her blanket around her shoulders and closing her eyes, she was so very tired.
