Under the canopy of heavens and unseen eyes, Mina, Edvard, and Yuila near a new village.
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The next morning was bright and warm, the unstirring air already promising a damp day. Yuila awoke itching and near tears, fearing she had been poisoned by the leeches the day before. Mina treated the girl's leg and before they had finished packing camp, the itching had subsided.
As it was, Mina stood undecided at the bay gelding's head as Edvard packed the mule and Yuila offered a handful of choice grass to the mare nearby. She had hoped Edvard would forget about her attempt at a riding lesson, but he hadn't. He'd saddled the horses, put the reins to Neito in Mina's hands, and went about packing the mule while, as he put it, she got acquainted with the gelding.
She patted the bay's neck slowly, watching him nuzzle at her hair. "You remember when I gave you those raspberries?" she recalled for the horse, dreading the next hour. "Remember how much you liked them? I've always been nice to you, Neito."
The horse inhaled deeply near her cheek, then snorted. Yuila laughed as Mina wiped her arm of grass clippings the horse blew out. "Not funny, Neito."
"He just likes your hair," Edvard said as he passed them, chuckling at her look of dismay.
She hesitantly pet where the horse's black forelock shaded his eyes. "I like your hair, too." He was certainly a taller horse than Sova, she thought. "We're going to be friends, right?"
Edvard finished packing the mule and strapped another bag on the saddle behind Yuila. He stepped to where Mina held the reins to the gelding. "Ready?"
"Maybe later, Edvard..."
"Why not now? If you don't like it, we'll switch." He watched her dark eyes go doubtfully to the horse and back to him.
"Okay."
He helped her position her foot in the saddle stirrup and explained about mounting. She nodded, and after a few seconds of awkwardness, she was in the saddle adjusting her skirts, smiling.
"Good." He swung up behind her and gathered the reins in front of her. "We'll get on the road, and then you can do it."
"But I don't know how to drive him."
"What?"
"I mean, I don't know where we're going."
"I do. Don't worry about that part."
She sighed as the horse moved beneath them, finding herself with a new view of horse travel. Edvard's left arm rested before her near the horse's mane, not really doing much of anything, she realized. Neito seemed to know what Edvard wanted without any commands. She decided riding was either easier than she thought, or the gelding was a really intelligent horse.
For the next half an hour she realized there was not much difference in her mode of transportation, but when Edvard put the reins in her hands and told her how to hold them, things changed.
She suddenly didn't know how much slack to keep in the reins, and when he told her to pull up to a halt, there was so much extra rein that Neito just kept right on walking. Yuila made a few remarks about Mina's lack of riding skills, but Edvard told her it would take time.
And, he promised, if she didn't want to ride on her own, she needn't.
She had already decided she did not want to. If she was in charge of one of the large animals, she was certain something would spook them and they'd be off at a mad gallop, and she'd be on the ground in a heap somewhere. That wasn't exactly how she worded it to Edvard, but he seemed to understand the idea.
She held the leather reins a little tighter as they broke from the trees and into an open area of the road. They passed halfway across this, with nothing but prairie grass to either side of the road, when he directed her to stop. She pulled up on the reins, and to her surprise, Neito halted. So did the mule. Edvard turned behind her to look at the road they had just traveled.
"You want to take Sova on a run?" he asked Yuila.
The girl's face lit at the suggestion.
"But not us, right?" Mina asked, nervously winding her fingers in Neito's black mane by the saddle.
"Not us, Mina." He gestured to the long stretch of road. "Just on the road, Yuila, and stay in sight. And just once."
The girl nodded and kicked the mare into an instant gallop.
Mina watched the pair as they raced back down the way they had just come.
"Want to try?" he asked from behind her.
She shook her head. "But it looks like fun."
"Maybe just a little canter, just to those rocks up there."
She looked at the three boulders he pointed at ahead of them near the road. "I'll fall off, Edvard."
"I won't let you." He took the reins from her.
She glanced behind them as Yuila and the mare grew bigger, still running at top speed. "But I . . . I don't ride well."
Yuila pulled up to a stop where they stood, flushed and smiling. "You do it, Sapo!"
"We'll trot first," Edvard said. "Want to try it?"
"Okay."
Edvard kicked Neito's sides and the horse moved off at a trot.
That first trot was a bone-jarring, teeth-rattling experience. Mina couldn't wait until he halted them at the boulders. Her fingers were clenched in front of her, her legs aching, among other things.
"Oh, that was terrible," she groaned as he turned the gelding on the road.
"Too rough?" he asked with a grin.
She spared him a look. "That was not what I thought it was going to be."
He stopped the horse and they looked back at Yuila, Sova, and the mule waiting for them. "Something a little faster?"
She tensed in the saddle, fearing going any faster, but quite sure she didn't want to repeat another trot.
"You won't fall off, Mina," he said in her ear.
She nodded, then caught her breath as his arms came around her tighter and he kicked the horse into a canter. The easy lope was everything the trot was not, she decided, smiling into the wind that rushed them. The gelding's strides were long and graceful in something more akin to waves, covering the road quickly. This time they were leaping and bounding with the horse, not rattling. When they pulled up short at Yuila, Mina was almost sorry it was over.
The Crone looked her over, giggling. "You're smiling really big, Sapo."
Mina didn't care, happy with the short ride.
"Again?" Edvard asked.
She shook her head. "But it was fun."
They crossed the grassland at a leisure pace, the horses and riders content with the release of energy. Mina found herself relaxing in the saddle and with the reins, even as Edvard sat behind her with only a hand at her waist. At first she had been overly conscious of the contact, but when she considered its removal, decided she'd be on the ground in no time, despite his promises that she wouldn't fall. And besides, she really didn't mind.
They stopped at midmorning to part out a loaf of bread to eat on the road and Mina and Edvard exchanged places. She admitted she had enjoyed the travel, but declined her spot in the saddle. Riding was something best left to those who could do it, she thought, regaining her seat behind him.
But the short experience did make her more at ease on the gelding.
As the afternoon passed, she noticed Yuila gradually scratching her leg more where the leeches had been removed. She decided not to say anything about it, lest the girl take more notice and scratch more. She leaned closer to Edvard as Yuila hummed one of her non-descript tunes.
"Does your back itch?" she asked in a low tone.
He glanced to her, then to Yuila, noting the girl's scratching. "Not much."
She nodded, another thought coming to mind. "When we first met," she began, thinking how odd the words sounded, "I asked if you were any good with the bow, and you said good enough, but not as good as Elian."
"You have a good memory," he said with a chuckle.
"But you're actually better than him." She watched him smile wider. "You beat him at the tournament."
"Then I guess you're right."
"First place, and modest, too." She would have liked to have seen that, not just to beat Elian, but to shoot. She still wanted to see him shoot. "Will you, sometime?"
He looked at her with confusion. "Will I what?"
She felt her face flush, realizing she had asked a question she had only half thought and not voiced. "Let me watch you shoot?"
"You mean hunt?"
"Well, I meant shoot."
He nodded. "Sure."
That night they camped in a strand of trees off the trade road that was sheltered by a few large boulders and a thicket of various bushes. The small prairie they had crossed had dissolved into a patchy grass that was given to tufts of a dark green, wide leaf variety the horses and mule couldn't resist eating as they passed.
Edvard let them graze in the early hours of the evening, ever watchful of the road for travelers and coyotes. They had heard a few coyotes the last night, but none had made an appearance. Yuila covered her ears at their barking howls, and decided to meditate nearly within eyeshot of the campfire.
While Edvard set about building a fire and finding water at the sparsely trickling stream near the rocks, Mina and Yuila considered the bushes woven among the stand of trees, finding most were varieties of peppers and a few lilac, oval eggplants.
It was Yuila that discovered the plants were actually cherry-size hot peppers, and not small tomatoes. Mina was still studying one of the small, round red fruits when Yuila put a hand to her mouth and gave a yelp.
"They're hot!" the girl cried, running to the water canteen at camp, spitting out the half-chewed mouthful of hot pepper as she went.
Mina shook her head, looking closer at the small peppers. Yes, they did look a lot like tiny tomatoes, but leave it to Yuila to pop one into her mouth without thinking. The Crone returned a moment later, looking sheepishly at her.
"They're not all hot," Mina said, offering half of an orange, pear-shaped pepper she had sampled. "These are sweet."
Yuila put the entire piece in her mouth, her trust in the older girl unwavering. They picked half a basket of the orange and green peppers, and a few of the hot red ones, and half a dozen eggplants to take back to camp. If nothing else, Mina thought, dinner would be colorful.
Edvard added to the meal two ducks from hunting. In a matter of moments he had them plucked, cleaned and singed, and Mina looked on as he secured the skewered poultry over the fire. She kneeled, settling back on the heels of her moccasins, arms wrapped around her knees, to watch the birds. She suddenly had a vivid memory of preparing duckling with her mother. It was while Grandma Tanako had lived with them, during the celebration of Golden Week or some other holiday. She couldn't quite remember it. Mother had always made duckling, pickled plums, and rice balls with sweet bean paste.
She realized Edvard was crouching near her.
"Who's that?"
"Who?" She was at a loss, returning his curiosity. She glanced to where Yuila had disappeared for her meditation. "What did I say?"
"Okaasan."
"Oh," she said with a sigh, looking back to the fire. "My mother."
"Did you run away from her?"
She looked to each of his eyes, hoping he wasn't right. Truthfully, she couldn't remember. "No. I wouldn't do that."
He nodded slowly, then reached out to turn the skewers over the fire. "Did you raise duck or birds?"
"No. I don't think so." She watched the flames lick at the ducks. "We made duck when my grandmother was with us."
He cleared his throat. "Does she still live with you?"
"I don't think so." She used a stick to poke the clay pot wedged in the fire. She and Yuila had chopped the eggplants and some of the peppers into the pot and hoped it would be a passable casserole. "I think she died a few years ago."
"I'm sorry."
Mina rose to her feet, groaning at the ache that caught her legs.
Edvard grinned at her muted complaint as he built up the fire. "Still sore?"
She muffled another moan as Yuila returned from her meditation. "More so now than the first day of riding."
Edvard sat alone that night against a tree, watching the girls sleep near the fire. Yuila had lay down early after supper, drifting in and out of visibility as she fell asleep, something both he and Mina found unsettling. He had observed Mina as she brushed her hair and braided one side of it while he checked on the horses and mule. He had seen many people, even women, with black hair, but he'd never seen any quite like hers. He didn't know if it was her or his imagination, but it seemed that her hair was a deeper black than he'd ever seen before.
And it didn't hold much of a highlight, even in the firelight. If anything, it was more bluish by the fire. It wasn't the paleness of her skin, either, because she had more of a yellowish-tan tone. Not like Yuila, with her strange, almost luminescent cast that made him think her coloring odd.
He moved against the tree where his back itched. The largest of the welts left by the leeches was indeed inflamed, but the liniment Mina applied helped. She had used more of the camphor salve on both his back and Yuila's leg shortly before supper. Yuila could well reach her own leg, but it was obvious to him that the young girl liked the attention Mina showed her. He hadn't thought too much about Yuila missing her mother lately, not since he offered to take her home to Prima Lūce. She hadn't brought it up much to him, making only a few off-handed remarks, and he'd gotten the feeling there was more to her wandering away from home story than she had admitted. Yuila had not said as much, but he got the impression from other things she'd said that she had tried to follow other members of her village on some excursion and gotten lost. They hadn't searched for her because they didn't know she had trailed them.
He saw Mina turn in her sleep, and Yuila tugged at the older girl's blanket. He shook his head. No matter how many blankets or cloaks Yuila had, she was always grasping at Mina's. He looked to where a coyote howled in the starry night. The mule stomped as the animals dozed, but none responded to the predator.
Mina had done well with her turn at the reins. He knew she was scared, but she had tried it. Even the short canter, she had tried. He wouldn't push her to learn to ride, but did want to offer the opportunity. And it was kind of nice to see her profile for a change. He only got to see her when they were making camp, and he was still trying to get a good, long look at her, without her watching him in return.
He had to agree with Neito. Mina's hair did smell good, and not all of it was from the sandalwood comb.
PG13, saga; teen, fantasy, fantasy world travel, teen romance, clean romance, realm, magical realism, shadow world, school/new school, high school, fiction, serial. #ReadFree with free signup. ♫♪
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Thanks to P.G. Waters for the use of her story!