Friday, July 29, 2016

Following Orders: Chapter Eleven

             Chapter Eleven

I didn’t lose a moment in giving chase, crashing through the woods after the thief. “Hey! Stop!”
            Because the criminal was so small, I easily caught up within a moment or two and tackled him to the ground. We rolled and he tried to stand and run. He was quick. I caught his foot, and he hit the ground face first, letting go of the bread as it flew out of his hands.
            I leapt quickly to pin him to the ground and rolled him over so that his terrified face was looking up at me. With a shock, I realized that the thief was just a boy, maybe eleven or twelve years old. His hair was a dirty blonde and was really messy. His large green eyes looked up at me apprehensively.
            “What were you doing? That was our food!” My anger outweighed the surprise at the age of my captive.
            “I was hungry. I haven’t eaten in days!” A tear rolled down the red cheek.
            “You can understand me. You’re not from Aronway?” I let up a little.
            “No.” He eyed me warily. “You don’t sound like you’re from Aronway either.”
            “Are you from Camelot?”
            He nodded. I let him sit up. My hand hovered near my short sheath and I made sure he caught the movement.
            “What’s your name?”
            “Trent.”
            “How old are you Trent?”
            “Twelve.” He puffed up his chest a little.
            “Got any parents?”
            He looked sheepishly at the ground.
            “Ran away then? Why?”
            “They were talking about sending me to be apprentice to the blacksmith.” He searched my face earnestly for sympathy. “I couldn’t be a blacksmith my whole life! I’d die all cramped up and hot all day! I need to be free!”
            I tried to hold back a chuckle at his seriousness. “I see. So what are you doing now? Stealing from other poor travelers to compensate for your own poverty?” The sheepish look returned. I pursed my lips. I couldn’t not help the boy – he was obviously starving. But I couldn’t take him to Morestia either. “Alright Trent. Here’s the deal. You can come have some lunch and travel with us if you promise to stop at the next town and find a proper job. Sound good?”
            Light returned to the sad eyes and the boy nodded eagerly. “Sounds perfect! I’ll be great, I promise! I won’t steal anything and I’ll only eat when I’m hungry. Of course, I’m hungry a lot so that might be more often than you think. But I promise I’ll do my best to keep up with you while we’re walking and I’m great for conversation. ‘Least, I was back in Camelot. Now there’s not much anybody to talk to out here in the woods.” He paused for breath and I cut in.
            “Trent. Look at me. And you promise to find a respectable job at the next town and stop stealing?”
            “Yeah, sure. Thank you so much! I’m so excited! Who was that girl back there? Was that your friend? Or your sister?” He cocked his head and appeared to actually be waiting for an answer.
            “Oh, um, sister. Come on. We’ve still got a long ways to go today.” I retrieved the bread and we headed back toward camp.
            Elaine gasped when she saw the grubby little boy following me. “Who is that?”
            “This is Trent, Elle.” I shot her a meaningful look.
            She nodded slightly. “Was he the one who stole our bread Alex?”
            “Yes. I’ve got it back now. It’s just a bit dirty. Trent’s going to travel with us to the next town and find himself a job there.”
            Her brow furrowed. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
            “It’ll be fine. We can only be a day or two away from civilization, tops.” I knelt by the empty food basket and began rearranging the parcels neatly within. When I was finished I asked Elaine if she was ready to go.
            “Yes. Anything to get out of these woods.”
            As I helped “my sister” mount, Trent noticed her foot.
            “Oh, what happened? Could I look at it? I bet I could fix it! My mother was always really good at fixing people up when they got hurt or came down with a fever. I watched her a lot so I know what to do. Do you have any medicine? And do you know how to tell a poisonous mushroom from a good one? ‘Cause if you can, I can make a right good soup that’ll heal anything up faster than you can fly.”
            “Slow down Trent. We’ve already got medicine and bandages. Don’t worry about it. All you need to worry about right now is how to find someone who speaks your language to hire you.”
            “Could we please start moving? I’m eager to get to Morestia.” Elaine’s hand flew over her mouth the moment she said it but it was too late.
            “Morestia! Why are you going to Morestia?” The green eyes blinked as they waited for an answer.
            I glared at Elaine as I answered him. “Because we have business there.”
            “What kind of business? Is it something I could help with? You could hire me! Then I don’t have to worry about speaking the wrong language or anything. What are you doing? Is it legal? Are you highwaymen?!” The idea seemed to excite him.
            “Highwaymen? Of course not!” Elaine looked offended at the suggestion. “Why, I am –“
            “Elle Roth, my sister.” I continued my glare as Elaine’s eyes widened in surprise at what she had been about to reveal.
            “Well what’s that supposed to mean? You could still be his sister and be a highwayman. Or a highway-woman. Which would it be?”
            “Look,” I said. “Our business is perfectly legal and it is ours not yours. So stop chattering and let’s get moving.”
            He did a mock salute. “Yes sir, Mister Alex, sir!” He marched a few steps forward and then ran off.
            “Still think it’s a good idea?” Elaine smiled smugly.
            I rolled my eyes. “Like you’re one to talk little miss giving away our mission.” That quieted her down and I led the donkey forward.
            Trent did not travel in a straight line. It was easy to see why he was hungry all the time – running all through the forest instead of walking where you intend to go tends to burn up food rather quickly.
            “Trent!” I called into the darkening trees. “We’re making camp!”
            A spritely figure suddenly appeared from in between some wild berry bushes behind me.
            “Can I help? Is there a tent? What can I do? I didn’t find any mushrooms today so I can’t make the soup, but I can still cook real good so if you want me to make dinner, I’d be happy to whip something up right quick!”
            I put my hand to my forehead. “Just go find some firewood, okay?” I looked at Elaine as he ran off. “I’ve turned into Sir Manchmal.”
            She smiled reassuringly. “Not quite. His manner of asking for firewood involved more yelling and insults.”
            I chuckled. “Thanks.”
            Dinner was a talkative affair with Trent there. By the end, I could have told you anything you wanted to know about mushrooms and then some. Elaine seemed to warm up to him during the meal, in a motherly sort of way.
            “Hey Elle, can I have another piece of bread?” He looked to her for permission.
            “Of course. Here, let me get it for you.” She handed him the bread and he gnawed away happily. She leaned over toward me and whispered, “You were right. This trip’s already more enjoyable with him here!”
            I raised my eyebrows and nodded. Why was I annoyed that they had hit it off finally?
            After the meal was cleaned up, I sent Trent to bed, content and full of food.
            Elaine and I sat in silence for a while. “What was your mother like?”
            I picked up a stick and began whittling. “Didn’t I already tell you?”
            “Sort of. But it’s different now. I feel like that wasn’t quite right for some reason.”
I sighed. “She was sweet and kind and perfect. But I guess memory does that to a person.”
            “Or it’s really what she was like.” I looked up at the comment to find Elaine looking at me. Our gaze held for a moment too long and I cleared my throat and went back to shaving little pieces of wood off of a bigger piece of wood.
            “Um, I know you said not to ask, but –“ I suddenly shrank from the question on my lips.
            “What is my mother like?”
            I looked up at her again. “Yeah.”
            Now it was her turn to sigh and fiddle with pine needles in her lap. She turned her gaze to the canopy of trees above us as I went back to my whittling. “My mother was and is a queen. When my father raised her from the commoners, everyone thought it was the most wonderful thing, and she the most wonderful person. A commoner queen! And I suppose she is a wonderful queen and wife to my father. But I’ve never really spent much time with her. And as my father’s attentions become more devoted to me, she’s been almost shunning me. As if it’s my fault he spends less time with her. I mean, she’s never been cruel or yelled or anything. It’s just, the silence…” Her last whispered word drifted off into the night. Suddenly, she yawned.
            “Why don’t you go on to bed. I’ll stay up a bit longer.” She nodded and I retrieved a blanket for her.
            Trent was already snoring softly across the clearing and it didn’t take long for Elaine to drift off too. True to my word, I stayed up for a while longer, poking at the fire and whittling sticks into splinters.

            I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep against a tree. The sound of a horse whinnying by my ear awoke me with a start. A sword hovered near my throat and I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes.
            “What…?” My gaze traveled up the sword to the soldier holding it. There was a crest on the shoulder of the uniform. My vision focused and I saw that it was the emblem of Aronway. And the man wearing it – the guard who had been so secretive in telling us about the “princess of Camelot.”
            He noticed that I was awake and looked at me with something between a grimace and a smile. “Can I assume your name is not Alex then?”
            “Elaine!” I was about to scramble to my feet, when the sword pressed in closer.
            “Yes, the princess. She will be well taken care of, I assure you.”
            I felt in my short sheath for the dagger. It was gone.
            The man laughed at my frantic search. “You really think we would leave you armed? How foolish do you think we are?”
            I glared up at him. “Foolish enough to believe that I ran from Camelot.”
            His face reddened. “That’s enough! You’d already be dead if Sir Whyh hadn’t ordered otherwise.”
            I ignored the last comment and turned my attention toward Elaine. A couple guards were leading her toward a large horse.
            Her terrified and frantic eyes caught hold of mine. “Will!”
            “Elaine!” I leaned forward, only to feel the cold touch of steel on my skin.
            Sir Whyh appeared in front of me. He was smiling triumphantly.
            “What are you going to do to her? You have no right to –“
            “I have no right…hmm. You see, no one really has any right to anything. People get what they have because they work for it. Or take it. Which I have now done.” He looked down at me with a cruel light in his eyes. “The question now it, what am I going to do to her? Well, my plan remains the same, excluding you of course.”
            “What?” The statement confused me.
            “You won’t be coming this time. I’ll just be taking the princess, the donkey, and the provisions. Oh,” he said, pulling out my dagger and fiddling with it. “And this, of course.”
            “That’s mine!”
            “Didn’t you hear what I just said about working for things? Anyway, where did you pick up the boy? Is he perhaps the prince of Gaul?”
            Oh yeah. I craned my neck, trying to look around Sir Whyh for Trent. “What did you do with him?”
            “Oh, he’ll be fine. Just a little scared is all. I have one of my best men questioning him on what he knows about the princess.”
            “He doesn’t know anything! He doesn’t even know she’s the princess.”
            “Wonderful. By the way, I’ll be leaving him with you. You see, I feel safe doing this because I now have outposts all along the route from here to where I’m taking your little princess. You’ll never find her again. Good day.”
            He stalked off and mounted a horse next to Elaine, grabbing the reins of hers. “Shall we, my dear?”
            She looked desperately back at me. “Will.”
            “I’ll find you! I promise.”
            “How touching. But we really must be going now.” Sir Whyh kicked his horse into a trot and as soon as they were a ways off, the knight with his sword at my throat, mounted his own horse and followed.
            I gazed after them. “I’ll find you.”