Following Orders: Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten          

  “Ow!” Elaine hopped on one foot.

            “What happened?” I traversed the few steps that separated us. She hobbled over to a tree and balanced herself against the trunk to get a better look at the bottom of her foot.

            “I stepped on something that stabbed straight through my shoe.” Her face scrunched up with pain as she tried to examine the injury.

            “Here, sit down.” I helped her to the ground, then took her foot in my hands. “Where did it happen?”

            She pointed a few feet away. “Over there. It went straight through my shoe.” Her voice was strained.

            “I know.” The rather thin material was ripped jaggedly and blood soaked into it. I looked where she had pointed to see a sharp stone with a few drops of red on it. “I have to take off your shoe. The rock sliced right into your foot.” She nodded and I gently removed the torn article. A sharp intake of breath accompanied my movement.

            The cut wasn’t very long but I could tell that it went deep and that she wouldn’t be walking until it healed some. Not to mention the threat of infection with all of the dirt dusted over her foot. Even a princess was dirty after a couple days walking.

            “How bad is it?” Worry creased her forehead.

            “You’ll live but we need to get you to a town to get it taken care of. For now, I’ll wrap it up and we’ll head for the next house we see.” I took off my cloak and gave it a last rueful look before ripping a strip off the hem. I wished for water to clean the wound as I wrapped the bleeding extremity. Winces and grimaces were plentiful in the moment it took to finish the work and each one felt like a cut into me.

            Once it had stopped bleeding, I shoved the destroyed shoe hopelessly back onto her foot. “You think you can stand up?” I tried to keep my voice light. I held out my hand and she accepted it as a help up.

            “How far to the next house?” Her face was tense and breathing a little shallow.

            “I don’t know. Hopefully just over that hill. Why don’t I run ahead and see if there’s anything there and I’ll come right back.”

            “Okay. I’ll wait here.” She lowered herself to the ground again, no longer complaining about the dirt.

            I looked at her, leaning against the tree, already seeming alone. “Um, here.” I handed her the dagger, handle first. “You know, just in case.”

            She smiled and accepted it.

            “Right, so…” I turned and jogged toward the rise. It was somewhat of a relief to be able to travel quickly again and I almost forgot about Elaine as the wind fingered my hair and cooled my face. It was a short run.

            As I crested the hill, I slowed to a stop and took a sweeping inventory of the valley below. A lone house with a smoking chimney nestled in a corner, surrounded by a small barn and grazing cattle. I smiled at the simple sight and enjoyed it another moment before returning to report my findings.

            “There’s a house in that valley. Maybe a half mile away.” I let myself catch my breath from the refreshing sprint back.

            Elaine smiled up at me from her position. “Shall we go?” She extended the dagger to me in its sheath and I hurriedly attached it to my belt once more, safe and sound. I helped her up and she placed her arm over my shoulder, gripping to stay upright. The injured foot hovered a few inches off the ground. “Ready?”

            “Are you sure you’ll be okay to walk? I can see if the people at that house have a horse or something.”

            “I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

            I took a step forward and she followed with her good foot then used the toes of her other. It was a slow sort of shambling walk. I recalled the first few steps off the road with scorn in comparison to the current pace. Yet, I didn’t feel the same this time about such slothful speeds.

            “Careful, watch that rock.” She stepped gingerly over it then placed her free hand on a tree to rest for a moment.

            “Okay, I’m ready now.”

            Slow was the road to the house, especially since it was nonexistent as a road. When we reached the crest of the hill, we sat down for a minute and just took in the beauty of rolling green hills and rustic buildings. As we watched, a person stood from where they had been hoeing a small garden, stretched, and headed to the barn. They emerged a moment later without the tool and walked around to the front of the house, where they entered.

            “Um, we should probably stick to the Alex and Elle story. They’re probably Arwonains. Might be willing to turn us in for a prize. It would just be safer to be brother and sister when we talk to them.”   

             “Okay Alex.” She nudged me gently with her shoulder. “I’ve never had a brother before. It doesn’t feel very different.” She smiled contentedly and gazed out over the sunset crowning the hills. An orange light lit up her face and the hair that had come loose from her braid danced in the breeze. She was propped up on her hands, legs out in front of her. “What?”

            “Huh? Oh, nothing.” I jumped to my feet. “Are you ready to get moving? We just need to get down this hill. They might even have some dinner for us.”

            Her eyes widened. “Dinner. That sounds amazing. I’m starving!”

            I bit back a comment about how she had probably never been starving in her life and instead helped her to her feet. We assumed our position and awkward, rambling walk and made it down the hill in short order.

            Upon closer inspection, the small farm was just as inviting as it had been from higher up. A few goats pawed about within a small enclosure next to the barn, but a good distance from the vegetable garden. The cows were a ways off, still grazing contentedly. The house was more of a cottage – sweet, small, and hospitable. A few flowers adorned a short walk leading from a rough road. We shambled up it and I knocked on the small door.

            A woman of about forty answered, wiping her hands on her clean apron. She said something in a foreign language and beamed. Considerably shorter than me, I was looking down to speak to her.

            “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Arwonain.”

            She knit her brow and called something inside to her husband. He soon appeared next to her, about my height, but much stronger, still in his working clothes.

            I decided to try to explain our plight to him. “My sister, she is injured.” I pointed to Elaine’s foot. As soon as they caught sight of it, the couple flew into action.

            Like a mother hen, the woman immediately began tending to Elaine while her husband dished up some soup and bread for us. Elaine was taken from my shoulder and guided to a seat by the fire where her foot was propped up and the old bandages taken off. Unsure of what I was supposed to do, I stood awkwardly by her elbow, anxiously watching the deft fingers of the woman.

            She discarded the shreds of my cloak in a pile and poured hot water from a kettle over the fire into a wooden bowl. With a white cloth, she carefully bathed Elaine’s foot with gentle but thorough strokes. Elaine winced a couple times and each time I glanced nervously at her face. Then she smiled. “I’m fine. I’ve cut myself before.”

            In a few moments, while the woman was putting medicine onto the wound, the man of the house came in with two bowls of steaming soup with large hunks of warm bread soaking in the broth. He handed Elaine hers first and nodded at her foreign thanks. I didn’t notice when he held out mine. A hand touched my elbow. I looked at the man to receive a look that spoke across languages. She’ll be fine, it said. Relax. She’s in good hands.

            I accepted the meal with a smile and immediately dug in, ravenously consuming every last drop. By the time I was finished with my food, the woman was finished wrapping clean white bandages around Elaine’s foot. She smiled at my empty bowl and took it to refill with another ladle full of the delicious stew.

            “Oh, you don’t have to do that – I don’t want to take all your food.” My protests were ignored as the bowl was pressed into my hands. The reluctance to accept the kind service diminished as I continued eating.

            “So they can’t understand us?” Elaine was eating her soup slowly, like a princess should and had paused to look up at me.

            “I don’t think so. But we should still stick with Alex and Elle just in case.”

            Elaine smiled. “I suppose I may as well have a brother for a while longer.”

            After we and the kind couple had finished our dinner and the dishes were cleaned up – something I could help with – the man laid out blankets by the fire for me and wrapped a couple more around Elaine.

            “Oh, we shouldn’t stay,” I said. I wanted to, but it wasn’t safe. They seemed to understand what I meant, if not the individual words.

            The man shook his head and pointed at the floor. We were staying.

            The four of us sat around the fire in a companionable silence for another hour before the couple went to bed and Elaine and I did the same. I curled up in the blankets by the fire and closed my eyes.

            “Will?”

            My eyes flickered open and I stared at the foot of the chair that Elaine was lounging in. “Yes Elle?”

            “Sorry, I meant Alex. Um, I looked at the blade on that knife. The engravings were beautiful. Where did you get it?”

            “From my father.”

            “Oh. He wasn’t really a knight, was he?”

            I bit my lip. “No.”

            “But I bet that’s how you think of him.”

            “Yeah.”

            She shifted in her seat and then silence reigned. I let my mind drift back in time. Back to the days of happiness and life.

            I was up early the next morning, eager to keep moving. By the time breakfast was ready, I had my blankets folded neatly and was helping to get out plates. The woman smiled at me as she placed a fried egg on each plate, followed by a piece of toast and another of ham and handed me a cup of coffee. I smiled in return and took Elaine her breakfast.

            “We have to get moving this morning. We’re still not that far from Sir Whyh’s castle. How’s your foot?”

            “It hurts.” She pushed herself higher in the seat with a grimace. “I don’t think I can walk on it all day.”

            I bit my lip and furrowed my brow as I handed her the plate and mug. Then I knelt by the bandaged appendage and tried to peer through the wrappings to see the wound they hid.

            A soft touch pulled me away and the kind woman handed me my breakfast. Eat, her expression said. Worry about that later.

            The food was once again very good and very satisfying. I probably wouldn’t have cared if it was the most disgusting thing I had ever eaten as long as it was edible.

            After the dishes were once again done, the man left and his wife took my hand and guided me over to where Elain was resting. She carefully undid the bandages. Once they were gone, I could finally see the cut clearly. It looked much better clean, but my original assessment had been right. She wouldn’t be walking many miles today.

            The woman held up a small bottle of the medicine she had used last night and showed me how to apply it, then had me rewrap the bandage under her scrutinizing eye. When I was finished, she handed me a small basket with a lid that buckled shut. I opened it to find the little bottle of medicine and a roll of bandages. I smiled my thanks.

            She nodded and stood. Then she pointed at me and then at Elaine and motioned for us to follow. She waited patiently as I helped Elaine to stand, then led us out the front door.

            Her husband held the reins of a donkey. It looked old and tired, especially laden as it was with another basket and a blanket across its back. The woman attached the smaller basket that she had shown me next to the larger one as I stood gaping in gratitude.

            I looked at Elaine to see that her eyes shone as she stared at the gift and then looked at the givers. “Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said.

            The man had wrapped his arm around the shoulder of his wife and they both stood beaming happily. He motioned from Elaine to the donkey. I understood the gesture to mean that she should mount and hurriedly helped her to do so.

            The animal was short and so she wasn’t really much taller riding it, but it did add to the natural and more rustic look that had been accumulating over the past few days. Elaine’s hair was looser, her hands dirtier, and her face touched by the sun. It really did look nice.

            I stood facing the benevolent couple, unsure of what to say or do. The man stuck out his hand and shook mine. Then he swept his arm out over the open road in an invitation. I took the reins of the little donkey and began walking away from the rising sun. One last glance back showed the pair still standing there, smiling and waving. Then they were gone.

            “I’m starving. Do we have anything to eat?” The princess’ words broke the silence.

            Food! I had forgotten about that one important detail in worrying about Elaine. For the past couple days, roots and berries had provided little sustenance and the occasional stream insubstantial quenching of thirst.

            “Maybe we should stop for a bit and rest. We can move again in an hour.” Once out of sight of the kind Arwonains who had taken us in, we had turned off the path once more to head southwest toward Morestia. Now it was about midday, the sun shining brightly overhead, speckling the forest floor through leaves and branches.

            Elaine settled against a tree trunk and I decided to take inventory of what the couple had given us. I tied the donkey to a dead branch and took the baskets off of his back. I almost saw relief flood the animal’s tired eyes. Almost, but not quite.

            I already knew what was in the smaller basket, so I set it aside and opened the larger one. The contents were neatly arranged and wrapped in clean brown cloths. I pulled them out one by one. The largest bundle contained a huge loaf of fresh brown bread. Next was a large wedge of cheese. A little bowl of blueberries had been carefully wrapped and placed so that they wouldn’t spill, right next to a canteen of water and a thermos of coffee. A few carrots and handfuls of green beans were in a drawstring bag. Most exciting of all though were the two strawberry tarts laid on top of the whole spread. I sat for a minute and just stared at all of the food.

            “Anything good?” Elaine had been watching the whole process in silence. “I’m so hungry!”

            “How does bread and cheese sound? Then we can have the berries with dinner along with the tarts and save the coffee for morning. We can refill the canteen at the next stream which shouldn’t be too far so we don’t really need to worry about water and the carrots and green beans will keep for a couple days so we can save them for now. We’ve got almost enough to get us all the way to the border of Morestia at the pace we’ve been going and we can stop in a town there for more food.”

            “That sounds like quite the plan. Now can we have some lunch?” She smiled wryly.

            “Oh. Right. Yeah.” I broke off a piece of bread and sliced a piece of cheese and handed the two to her, along with the canteen.

            “Thank you.”

            I settled down a few feet away with my own feast and tucked in hungrily.

            “Will!” Elaine’s cry made my head snap up.

            “What? What is it?”

            She pointed. “There! Someone’s taken the rest of the bread!” I looked after her finger to see a small person sprinting away, a suspicious looking bundle under his arm.