On the first afternoon I get a ride in a wagon that's heading north. It's not much faster than walking, but at least I don't have to walk and can get out of the rain, if there is rain. I travel with them, and help them with all the things people need help on the road for the evening and the next day. On Sunday morning we part ways, because my wagoners are turning towards west, and I'm heading as straight north as I can.
Sunday morning I spend walking down an empty road, alone. It's a beautiful weather, the sun is shining, but not too hotly, there are some wisps of cloud in the sky and a slight summer breeze waving the branches of trees by the road. I almost hum to myself while walking, almost burst out singing, but the grim mission of my journey keeps my mood too down for that, even if the weather is better than you could hope for.
Instead, since there is no one else on the road, I practise my magic. I try new things, try to figure out what I can do, what I can't. Most things I can't on the first try, but they give me a feeling I could, if I just kept practising, tried hard enough.
By midday it gets too hot. Even this far north the best days in the summer can get all too warm, especially if you're walking a dusty road with a heavy-ish backpack. Not that the things I own that I might need on a journey like this weight much. Luckily I have just figured out how I can move air, make my own wind. So I make the air move, just around myself, to make the heat more tolerable.
Some time in the afternoon I stop and eat some of the food my former travelling companions gave me. Nothing fancy, some apples, bread, hard cheese, dried meat. What ever I have learned is handy on the road. And I don't carry too much, because I don't want to carry the extra weight. I'll find food somewhere, eventually. I'm lucky I don't have to carry much water with me, since the road I'm travelling runs all the time near a river, in which the water isn't too bad. It doesn't exactly taste good, but it doesn't make you sick either.
I continue until the sun begins to set, as which point I decide it's time to start making camp. I have seen only a few travellers with me on the road, but when it begins to get dark, I spot a fire on the side of the road some way ahead. I walk up to the fire to find an old traveller, who tells me he has been on the road literally his whole life. He lets me stay with him at the fire and share some food. I sleep there with him, under a make-do shelter he's made from an old think cloth. It isn't much, but it does keep most of the rain our, if there is rain. And of course the two of us are safer together than either would be alone. The next morning I thanked the old man and we went our separate ways.
I spent my time thinking about Tauria, about Laelia. About the Academy, and all the things that have been going on there. About Omega and what he told me. I wonder what is going on at the school while I'm gone. The daily routines, classes, the full dining hall. I keep wondering who it was that poisoned Tauria. It had to be the nephew of the man selling the chocolate. It has to be someone quite close to us, so he could've known we were going to the market, that he would've known or at least guessed Tauria wanted to buy chocolate that day.
Or maybe he's just been spying on us, on me. A chill runs down my back at the thought. Maybe someone has figured out a way to listen in to people's conversations using magic. It wasn't impossible. I think. Though honestly, I wouldn't know. Even though I am getting better at my magic, I have hardly scratched the surface of what I can do I can feel that much. But since no one has ever taught me any of it, or even talked to me much about magic other than as a general thing on the list to be avoided, there is no way for me to actually know where the limits of magic lay.
It starts to rain. Heavily. I make a bubble around myself to avoid getting wet. This magic thing is proving to be very handy. And then I remember something. From the day Tauria was poisoned. I drew energy from the ground. I did it without even thinking about it back then, but with its help I was able to move faster, move longer without getting tired. So I concentrate on my feet, in the ground below them. I can feel the energy hidden deep in the layers of the ground being pulled up, rushing into my body. I start to jog, speed up to running. I keep speeding up, just to test my new advantage in travelling. The power is more than I thought it would. I actually run, fast, with the heavy bag on my back, without seemingly getting exhausted.
I stop again when the sun is getting low, but now quite setting yet. I've been running for hours, and I'm exhausted. I decide that tomorrow I can't run this fast, or I'll only make it half the day. Better to go slow and steady and get further than to wear myself out before noon.
This time there is no one else on the side of the road, no fire, no shelter. I walk some way into the woods, to the bank of the river flowing steadily back south where I came from. I make a shelter for myself under a tree from some huge branches, have some supper and try to sleep.
~x~
I wake up in the middle of the night to a growl. I open my eyes and lay still, listening. There is an animal outside my lousy shelter. A big animal. It sounds like a northern wild wolf. Those things are enormous. The shadow I can see through the branches supports my hypothesis. I breath in, deeply, steadily, slowly and silently. Not that it helps. The northern wild wolves are not only huge, they also have excellent sense of smell. The thing probably already knows I'm here. So I am not going to give it the advantage of attacking first.
I move fast, throwing my hands out, blowing up my shelter with the help of magic, right in the wolf's face. I'm up and running faster than I thought it would be possible for me to get up. I can hear the wolf howling behind me, and soon settling into fierce and fast run behind me. I draw energy from the earth beneath me as best I can, being still tired from the day. I'm getting terrified.
The fear of the enormous beast on my heels is jamming my thoughts. I realise that when I realise something else. Wolves never hunt alone. The one after me must have a pack, and they must have heard the howls. That moment I can hear more creatures appearing behind me, joining the one already chasing me. In a minute there must be a dozen chasing me.
I escape through the woods, terrified. By every moment I get more certain the wolves will catch me. They're not far behind anymore. I can barely see ahead of myself. I flick a magic glowing ball into existence on top of my head. Never in front, I remember being told when I was young. If you have a light between you and the rest of the world, you won't be able to see the world.
Just as I'm getting too exhausted to run anymore, I have an idea. I begin to head right, towards the river. The wolves are getting ever closer, and the rush and fear of the chase is unbelievable. I think they are the only thing keeping me moving.
The river comes by faster than I thought. I don't stop when I get to the bank, just continue straight, jumping into the cold water flowing down from the mountains still days away. I gulp a huge mouthful of water when I go under. It fills my mouth, my nose, almost my lungs, but I remember to breath out hard just in time. In a few seconds my head breaks the surface and I'm gasping for breath in the cool summer night air. I look around me while gasping for breath. There are no wolves in the water. They didn't follow me. They are still pacing back and forth on the bank, letting out an occasional howl. But apparently they don't care enough about me to follow, but instead move on to find easier dinner to catch for tonight.
I swim slowly to the other bank of the river, all too aware that the river is constantly taking me back south. It's not a big river, so the current isn't too fast, but it's there never the less. When I reach the eastern bank I'm simply of it. too exhausted to do anything other than crawl further away from the water and under a low hanging tree. There I lay, and soon fall asleep.
~x~
I'm dreaming. Even while dreaming, I can't remember what the dream is about. What is happening. I can't make sense of any of it. Tauria is there, and Laelia, and my sword partner Oz, and professor Cole. I can see there is something weird happening, even though I can't tell what or even where we are. An image of a mask with a purple eye on the forehead keeps flashing in my mind. It seems vaguely familiar, but I can't place it anywhere.
Then I fall. The way you fall only in dreams, deep into nothingness.
I jerk upright, breathing hard, shivering in my still-wet clothes. I can feel something is wrong. There is only one thing in my mind: I need to get back to the academy.
_________________________________________________________________
Hello again, I'm back!
I've been back since Moday, and I know I had to write that bit, but since I had only slept for an hour and a half and dad was kind of in the middle of something with his stuff, we decided it's better he writes one bore bit. But I am here now.
Italy was great, by the way. And so hot. You wouldn't believe, but I already told you. The one thing I won't miss about Italy is being sweaty literally all the time. I might do a post about the trip later, maybe after we finish up with the story, or an extra post about it once I get my thoughts about it somehow together and have time to go through the pictures and stuff. Or then I won't.
Either way, this is my first post for a while, and writing feels good. You did some really not-all-that-expected stuff while I was gone, but I guess that's how this story goes and I'll keep building from that.
Your next topic is Waking.
Bye now.
~matu
No comments:
Post a Comment