By popular (I know, whishful thinking...) demand:
*********
It had crossed Saya's mind more than once, but she wanted to talk to
that girl and she was going to do it, even it it meant fighting her
way through knee deep snow for another half hour. At least the snow
made it easy to follow Laiva. She didn't even know why she wanted to
talk to her that badly, but there was not much to do after breakfast
anyway and it seemed to be a good idea then. After all she had wanted
to talk to her the last evening already, but then Laiva had already
been in bed and the doctor had told her to get some sleep herself; by
the time she had woken up, Laiva had already been up for over an hour,
however. It was almost as if she was trying to avoid her. Well, it
wouldn't work this time.
Before she saw Laiva, however, she heard her laughter. Saya
was unsure at first. This wasn't the laughter of the girl she had met,
but the laughter of a little child, easy, light hearted, unspoiled and
unaware of the cruelties of the world. Yet it was her, looking exactly
the way she sounded. She was romping in the snow and play fighting
with... with a wolf. She seemed to remember that there had been a
wolf, that night, hadn't there? At that moment, however, the girl
stopped in her play and looked directly at Saya, giving her a bright,
almost mischievous smile; Laiva had known she was here all along.
'Hello. Saya, was it not?'
Saya nodded. A snowball hit her directly in the face.
'Come and get me.'
Laiva and Saya were on their way back to the village; a little tired
and with the clothes more white than anything else, but at peace with
the world and, more importantly, themselves.
'Must be great to have a wolf as pet.' Saya said, looking at Mynor,
who was fighting his way through the snow next to them.
Laiva shook her head.
'Mynor is not a pet... and definitely not mine...'
Saya gave her a questioning look.
'It is a bit difficult... and lengthy...'
There was a pause until Saya came to a decision.
'If I tell you my story - will you tell me your's?'
Laiva hesitated a moment, but then nodded.
'I am from at the coast, you know, about two weeks from here. I been
here a couple of times with my parents, though. In fact the doctor is
the daughter of an aunt of a cousin of my father's or something like
that. I could never live here, you know... It is fine for visiting,
but there is nothing here but trees. Have you ever been to the coast
forests? The mighty trees standing almost touching the ocean? No, you
would not... but you have to. You have to come with me and see it; it
is fantastic, the most beautiful place there is. There is nothing like
watching the waves rolling towards the shore, tasting the salty water
while you are sitting below the trees, hearing its voices... and
then... and then they were suddenly there. Pirates... I... I tried to
run away, but... but somehow they had already surrounded me.' At this
point Saya was almost screaming. Laiva did the only thing that came to
her mind and wordlessly hugged her. Even through the thick coats she
could feel Saya shiver, not for cold, but for shock. Elves were aware
of their surroundings; all the time, even in sleep. An outsider
sneaking up on her was so unthinkable, so incredible, so horrifying...
'I... I do not know how this could happen... I... must have been
completely lost in thoughts...'
'You do not have to apologize, it is all right...'
Saya finally couldn't hold her tears back anymore and started to cry.
'And... and then... I will never be able to forget the market...'
'The market?'
'The slave market...'
Talk stopped the second the two girls entered the community room, with
red heads and accompanied by what had to be a wolf. This time,
however, Laiva didn't mind and neither did Saya.
They quickly put down their coats and joined the doctor at her table.
'Not too late for dinner, are we?' Saya asked.
The doctor just kept looking at them, as if trying to figure out who
the two girls standing in front of her were and what they had done to
Laiva and Saya.
'It us, your patients.' Laiva added with a grin.
'Oh... yes... where were we?'
'I asked if we are late for dinner.' Saya said.
'Oh no, no you are just in time... it is just... you seem so... never
mind.'
'So never mind?' Laiva just had to ask.
'Ah, here comes dinner...'
Indeed in this very moment they were being served three bowls of stew.
It did not look like much, in fact it rather looked like the worst
kind of gray pulp imaginable, but the smell alone made up for that.
Laiva, however, wasn't that easily distracted.
'So what?' she insisted.
'Can we talk about something else?'
'No, we want to know.' Saya joined in.
'Happy... Yes, I know... I mean there is no reason you should not be or
anything... I... It's just not what I expected...'
For a second the doctor thought she had blown it, but the girls didn't
even think of getting into a depressive mood and instead grinned at
her.
'Sorry to disappoint you. Now, let's close our eyes and eat.' Laiva
interrupted her thoughts.
'Close our eyes?' Saya asked bewildered.
'Have you looked at the stuff?'
Laiva enjoyed marching through the snowy forest and so did Saya.
Mynor on the other hand somehow managed to look annoyed, but then
again he had a much harder time with the snow. In this cold it was
better not to talk, if you didn't absolutely have to, but there wasn't
much to say anyway. Saya was leaving a lot more than just the village
behind; the last night, out here in the woods, was the first for quite
some time she didn't suffer from nightmares. To Laiva, on the other
hand, leaving the village meant freedom. Of course, it was nice to
have a proper bed, food and heating for a change, but after all those
nights in the wood lands she felt a lot easier without a ceiling; it
would probably take her month to get comfortable with that again.
Accompanying the three was an escort of five elven rangers.
The girls had tried just about anything to go on their own, but they
were taking no chances with Saya; not after what she'd been through
and by now Laiva and Saya were thankful they had lost the argument.
Nobody could tell what could happen in the two weeks to Saya's home
village and if nothing else their escort knew the area.
Twelve cloaked figures assembled around the fire, waiting. It took a
whole ten minutes until, the thirteenth finally showed up, wearing a
slightly wet cloak and leaving a trail of water behind him.
'I hope this is important, I was having a bath.'
'Yes, we can see that.' another one answered, snickering and trying
hard not to look at the puddle, or rather the fluffy pink slippers it
had formed around.
'Quiet, let's start.'
'She is still alive.' one said.
'She is still alive?' the others responded.
'And guarded.'
'Guarded?'
'By half a dozen elves... but we have a little surprise for them.'
'We have?'
'Indeed.'
*********
Now go and comment, will you?
--
emmel <the_emmel*you-know-what-that's-for*@gmx.net>
(Don't forget to remove the ** bit)
Official AGC feedback maniac
"God is playing creatures - and we're the norns."
"A hundred dead are a tragedy - a hundred thousand are statistics."
"I guess you can call yourself lucky." -
"I could, but Linda suits me a little better...
Things called lucky tend to get hit by trucks."
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