Anaya had to admit that, at least for this, Madiza was handy. She got them out of the town without rising suspicion with an ease Anaya and Tiu wouldn't have managed on their own. Madiza even managed to talk the Madam to give them one of the school canoes. The possibility of that hadn't even occured to either of them.
So on the eve of giver's day they simply packed their hammocks and nets, which would have been an obvious sign they were gone, with any other equipment they thought they might need, bowed goodbye to the school in broad daylight and headed to the river.
They stopped at the uroxoo tree at the center of town on their way out and took a small branch each with them. For good luck, to keep the spirits with them, and to bring them safely home. Anaya tucked hers safely into her pack, making sure none of the leaves was too squished.
And then, suddenly and very easily, they were heading upstream the Taka river. This was the only moment they had to take some care: they were going in the opposite direction they had told the Madam. But it didn't take long until they were behind the bend from the docks, and Anaya sighed in relief. They still weren't completely in the clear - most traffic was downstream from town, but especially fishermen often went upstream too. If they saw someone they knew, they might be in trouble. Then again, if they saw someone they knew, that someone wouldn't know they were heading in a very different direction they were supposed to. The Madam might find out about it after whoever it was got back to town, but by then it would be too late to go after them.
"Well, then," Anaya said, watching the snowy river bank slide by. "That was suspiciously easy."
"Please," Madiza said with a tone Anaya didn't care for. Madiza was smiling in a way that was supposed to be charming. "Everything is easy when you are me."
Tiu scoffed.
"Everything is easy when you're in the good graces of the person in charge of your life," Madiza rephrased.
"I'm in charge of my life, thank you very much," Anaya told her.
"You tell yourself that," Madiza said.
"Even if you were right," Tiu said, "I'm pretty sure now we really are in charge of our own lives."
They both stared forward for a little while, at the river that in front of them disappeared around another bend.
"We're really out in the forest on our own, huh?" Madiza said after a moment. There was a tone to her voice Anaya had never heard.
"In the frozen forest," Anaya said. They all knew how to be in the forest, of course. They were taught that since they were young. But a forest covered in snow was a whole different story. She wondered how far the dragon's influence reached. And where it was. They hadn't seen it since that first dawn. Maybe it had settled somewhere nearby. Maybe places ice dragons went to simply stayed cold for a long time, and it had moved on to elsewhere days ago. Maybe it was pointless to head out to the mountains in the first place, and there were no answers to be found there.
"We'll be fine," Tiu said, pulling Anaya out of her thoughts. She smiled at her, and that made Anaya feel better. Tiu wasn't always right when she said that, but if they weren't fine, there was no one else she would rather be not fine with.
They travelled in silence for a long while. Eventually they got hungry, and even though it wasn't hot like usually, they felt like they needed to get out of the sun for a bit. So they headed to shore and had a bit to eat in the shade of some trees, sitting in the canoe to avoid sitting in the snow.
They'd traveled for some time after their break when Anaya finally noticed it. There had been a feeling nagging at her, a suspicion, for almost half the journey, but she hadn't really noticed it. Like a mosquito bite that you don't pay any attention to at first, it had grown into an itch that was impossible to ignore once you notice it.
"Something's off," she said. The other two looked at her like she was the weird one in this group.
"What do you mean?" Madiza asked.
She shook her head, gazing out over the river and along the shores. And then she spotted something, far behind them on the river.
"Someone's following us." She pointed. The others followed her finger. All of them stared intently out over the water in silence.
"What makes you think they're following us? It might just be someone going in the same direction. It is a free river, after all. We're not the only ones here," Tiu asked, shading her eyes with her hand.
"How do you know they're even going in the same direction as us?" Madiza asked, squinting. "Honestly, I'm not even sure that's a person. It could be the branches of a fallen tree."
Anaya shook her head. "If it was a tree in the river, it would be going downstream. We would have passed it."
They all stared out at the thing for a moment longer.
"Who would be following us?" Tiu finally asked.
"Maybe the Madam heard from someone we started upstream instead of down," Anaya suggested, but Madiza shook her head.
"No one saw us take off from the docks. And besides, I'm her favorite. She'd need more than someone random telling her we weren't going in the right direction for her to believe it."
"I don't think they're following us," Tiu said again. "I think they're just going in the same direction."
Tiu turned to look upstream.
"And I think we should start looking for a place to stop for the night. The sun is starting to go down, and I'd rather set up camp when there's still daylight."
"Yeah, okay," Anaya said, almost absentmindedly, still staring at the figure behind them over the water.
____________________________________________
This story is killing me, and we're only in part five.
The topic for tomorrow is Necklace.
~matleena
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