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“Good, good, great, you guys will leave first thing in the morning,” the messenger said with great delight, but the joy quickly left his face.
“If you ever double-cross me,” she brought her dagger up to Ardehn's face and pointed at Saeran, “His body will be floating down a river while his head watches from a tree!”
“Okay, well, um if you want to uhh wash up or anything, it’s that room right there,” Saeran pointed to a door off to the side. As the door closed behind Kiera, Saeran muttered, ”Be sure we raise her reward to 15,000.” He paused then stared straight at Ardehn. “This really bad.”
“And why is that? I mean I know she is scary and violent, but we have to trust she’ll protect you”
“...Must I tell you everything that goes through my head?” he lowered his head a little. “She’s cute!”
“How could you tell? Her face was almost completely covered!”
“That’s what made her cute, geez you’re clueless. I won’t be able to talk to her at all.”
“Or maybe this is dangerous because she hates the royal family, she made it pretty clear when she attacked me the other night,” the messenger whispered. "Crap, I may have just led you to your death."
“I also hate it when people talk about me behind my back, especially when they make it so obvious.” Saeran spun around as Ardehn jumped behind him. “Look, I want money more than I hate you and I don’t think you’ll be carrying 15,000 gold coins on our journey.” Saeran looked down; not wanting to meet Kiera’s blazing red eye. “I will only kill you if you give me reason to.”
“Wow, you got done washing up pretty fast for a girl. I mean for a guy it would have been about that long, but girls naturally take longer--”
“I am unlike any girl you have ever met! I am stronger, meaner and more violent than anyone, girl or guy, in this town!” She had her dagger up to Ardehn's face. “I’ll cut out your tongue if you even think about insulting me again!”
“Okay, I’m gonna go get, er, some dried meats and fruits prepared for your journey.” He backed away slowly then ran towards another part of the house.
“So uhhh, aren’t you going to need more stuff for our journey?” Saeran asked with a voice more shaky than an earthquake.
“All I need is a weapon, the clothes on my back and you,” she stated, hinting that he wasn’t very important to her. “We’ll leave when the messenger gets done preparing our food, we can’t risk leaving before the sun comes up.”
“Hey Zaeran, wuzall the noize about?” Har hobbled in, too drunk to realize that his friend had red satin on. his eyes were a little crooked, his hair was messed up and there was a bottle in his right hand. “Ooh, you brought home a hottie, nice. Hey can I have her?”
“What did you just say!?!” Kiera shouted lunging toward Har with her dagger raised.
“With a burst of courage, Saeran jumped in between Kiera and Har, “Don’t do it, he’s drunk, he doesn’t know what he is saying!”
“Yeah I do, I juz said-”
“Shut up, Har!”
Kiera spoke with a lower voice, “People always say what they truly think when they are drunk.” She never took her eye off Har.
“Please, he’s my best friend. Saeran turned to face Har. “Now Har, buddy, put the bottle down, go back to your room and go back to sleep,” Saeran turned him around and gave him a gentle push. Saeran spun around slowly, scared of what he might find on Kiera’s face, but what he saw surprised him. It was a look of thoughtfulness, like she was reminiscing about something.
She snapped back into reality, “What are you staring at?”
“What? Oh, nothing.” Saeran looked away.
“Uhh, here is your food.” The messenger came into the room staying as far away from Kiera as possible. At arms-length, he dropped the sack of food on the table.
“Okay let’s go.” Kiera said.
The messenger lost control, “What? You’re leaving already? I thought you were going to wait until morning. You didn’t even get a chance to sleep.”
As Ardehn kept going on and on, Kiera looked down rubbing her forehead. “Your voice is very irritating. Look, we wouldn’t have had time anyways; it’s almost morning as it is.
Saeran and Kiera were at the city gates, the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. “This is it, I’m actually leaving Lombarton.” Saeran took a deep breath.
“You have no idea what’s ahead of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see. Come on, let’s go, we can’t let anyone see you leaving. Tybard is that way.” Kiera pointed north east. “We’ll keep Rolongo River in sight but we will walk in the forest.”
Kiera led the way into the forest as Saeran followed. “But the forest is so dense; we won’t be able to see anything.”
“That’s the point; I’ll be able to keep track of you while still keeping the river in sight. I’m assuming you know nothing about fending for yourself. Also enemy scouts and birds won’t be able to see us very well. Now shut up and let me do my job!” Kiera looked back and scanned the sky just as they were walking into the forest. “Scout Hawk! Get down near that bush and don’t move a muscle!” She pulled him down faster than he had time to think and covered his mouth because she knew he would try to argue.
The hawk overhead just kept circling as if it had found something dead to chew on. “C’mon stupid hawk, fly away, there’s nothing to see here.” Kiera thought.
“What is she doing?! That could be a messenger hawk from dad giving me news that everything is fine and I can come home.” Saeran thought.
For fifteen more minutes that bird circled above them until it finally flew in another direction. “Okay, I think were safe now.” Kiera stood up, not bothering to help Saeran up.
“Why did we hide?! That bird could have brought news for me.”
Kiera continued walking, “the vest it was wearing was purple, which means it was from Lombarton, you should know that much. If it were a messenger hawk it would have had a tiny canister and strap, that one didn’t which means it was a search hawk. Thankfully it didn’t find us, had it of found us, it would have swooped a little then headed straight back to Lombarton. The people attacking you are probably from Lombarton, that’s just common sense.”
“But it had a royal crest on it, I saw it shine.”
“For all we know it could have been sent by your sister.”
“Yeah I guess so, I mean I know we aren’t exactly close…wait, how did you know I had I sister?” Saeran asked.
Kiera kept walking, “Because you just told me.” She stated simply.
Saeran stopped, still a little confused, “When did I?…never mind.” he said to himself, still a little confused. “But-”
“Drop it, it is better we’re not seen at all.”
“Okay, but what about food and shelter for the night?”
“Well it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain tonight so we don’t need shelter. And we can eat in the morning so that the fire isn’t so obvious.”
“But we haven’t eaten all day. I’m hungry.” Saeran complained
“It’s starting to get dark; we’ll walk for another hour then stop for the night.” Kiera said, completely disregarding Saeran’s comment.
After an hour’s time, as Kiera said, they stopped and went to sleep for the night. Both fell asleep on the ground with no fire.
i think the messenger needs a name, any suggestions?
 Ember1257 · Wed Nov 05, 2008 @ 02:05am · 5 Comments |
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