As their journey continues, Mina wonders at her companions, at her own past that seems from a distant world.
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The next day provided an unexpected detour from their forest trail.
Edvard pulled the bay gelding up short, frowning over the blocked passage before them. The heavy rains from a week ago had washed away the trail crossing the incline, leaving few trees. To worsen matters, part of the brook further up the slope had been rerouted and now poured over the passage ahead.
He felt Mina behind him turn to look up the hill where the trees were thicker. Yuila kicked the mare's sides, but the horse refused to step farther into the unsteady, soggy ground.
"Hold back, Yuila," he said as Yuila prepared to urge the mare on. "It's too soft. We'll have to cross further up."
Yuila wrinkled her face, which was only a little swollen now. "Why not downhill?"
"It'll only be worse. Come on."
Yuila followed with the mare as he turned the bay horse into the foreign trees above them. Mina clung tighter to him as the gelding lurched into the thicker, unbroken woods. The low hanging trees made them watch carefully, slapping their faces when they didn't move quickly enough. The mule, which Mina had learned was called Makka, balked several times, making Edvard stop and coax him. Yuila was not in the mood to threaten the pack animal this time. She had crouched over the mare's back in a small form, head tucked over its mane and eyes squeezed shut, letting the pinto fend for both of them among the trees.
After a grueling forty-five minutes, they broke into a patch of clearer forest and could see the brook was actually a river that had been divided from the recent rains. Edvard sighed, estimating the wider, more rapid waters that had sprouted into the two smaller tributaries.
"Do we have to cross it?" Mina asked him.
He nodded. "At some point. Maybe it's shallower up farther."
Yuila rubbed her face. "Can't we just swim it?"
"No. It's too fast here."
"Is there fish in it?"
Mina saw Edvard look to the Crone with temperance.
"Once we cross, we'll see if it has any fish in it."
She didn't fully understand why the discussion of fish was so important to Yuila until they had found a good place to cross the river where the muck had begun drying up and they were safely on the other side. Although it was only late afternoon, Edvard said they would stop for the night, and Yuila immediately hopped off the pinto they called Sova.
Mina had barely regained her land legs after dismounting when she caught the mare's reins the younger girl tossed her before rushing to the water's side. "What's her hurry?"
Edvard led the gelding and mule to a grassy clearing sheltered by large, pale gray boulders. "She misses her fish."
Mina nodded, recalling what he had told her previously about the Crone's coastal homeland of Prima Lūce. She timidly patted the pinto's black neck, smiling a bit when the horse's nose reached over to sniff her hair. The nostrils moved like a large rabbit's nose, Mina thought. The animal rubbed her forehead on Mina's chest, nearly knocking her over.
"If you want to try to ride, she's the horse to learn on," Edvard said as he approached.
She braced herself for the mare's affection, smiling at the velvety nose that nuzzled her blouse sleeve. "She's soft." She drew her hand over the horse's neck, surprised at the big animal's thick coat.
"Want to try her?"
She shook her head, handing him the reins. "Not yet."
He led the mare to where the other animals were tethered. "Let me know if you change your mind."
They spent the first hour building a fire and watching Yuila attempt to catch fish. The girl angled a basket in the water, trying to bring it up swiftly to trap the fish inside. When she was patient enough to actually detain a fish, she would pull it up too hastily, and the fish had no choice but to wash over the basket side.
Edvard looked to where Mina stood by the fire, her hand at her side. He had seen her stand like that many times since first meeting her, but had never questioned why.
"What do you have there?" he asked.
Her dark eyes dropped, as did her hand. "Just a bruise."
"How bad?"
She shrugged. Actually, it was getting better, only dark in the center now, and ringed with a sickly green and yellow. "Not too bad now." She took a basket from where they had put their supplies. "Are those berries over there edible?"
He looked to where the elongated blue berry bushes fringed the boulders. "Yes, but they're not as sweet as blueberries."
She nodded and departed from the fire before he could ask more questions. It wasn't that she didn't want to answer; she just didn't have any answers. She picked one of the dull blue berries. It was more of a dusty opaque color of blue than a blueberry. After studying it for a moment, she bit into it. Not as sweet as blueberry was an understatement, she thought, but not sour like a huckleberry. She knew that from when her Grandmother Tanako had taken them berry picking several years ago outside Chicago.
She paused at the memory, staring at the half eaten berry. If she could remember that, why not more about the truck that had hit her? If one even had hit her.
She decided that while the berries were not as sweet they had more flavor than blueberries, and were more than a little juicy. Soon the bottom of her basket was covered with them. She looked up as Edvard joined her.
"You can use this, if you want to get the bloodstains out of that one," he said with a nod to her olive blouse. "There's some stiller water over there." He pointed to an inlet of the river where a small pool had formed.
She took the woad blue shirt he offered and exchanged a handful of the berries in return. "Thank you. They're not too sweet, like you said."
He rolled the blue berries in the palm of his hand. "Thanks."
He left and she picked berries until the basket was half full, then left it at the fire side and made her way to the small pool of water. She changed into the blue shirt behind a large boulder, smoothing the loose material over her. It definitely wasn't a fashion statement.
She tried to regain her train of thought from before, but memories of home eluded her. She could recall the truck, but not what had happened before, or where she was going, or where she had been. She knew they had moved from Chicago, and that she hated her new school, but she couldn't remember why, or even what school had been like.
She kneeled at the water's edge and soaked the blouse in the cold water, doubting that three days of bloodstains would come our of the drab colored material. It didn't even look like blood anymore, just a darker discolored brownish area.
She rubbed the edges of the sleeve together, wondering if her mother was looking for her. What would she think? Mina groaned, her eyes tearing a little. Her mother would think she had run away, that's what she would think. She would put things together and call. . . What was her aunt's name? How could she remember Grandmother Tanako and not her aunt?
The stains on the sleeve started to loosen and dissolve. Mina smiled in relief, wiping her eyes. She wanted to wash the skirt, but had nothing to change into, and Edvard's shirt, while long and roomy on her, was not long enough to cover enough of her.
Satisfied with the wash job, she wrung out the excess water from the blouse and shook it. Not bad, she thought, considering the sleeve. She went back to camp and hung it on a tree branch near the fire, then looked to where Edvard had met Yuila in the river. She watched the girl with her basket, moving slowly and nodding as Edvard pointed and advised her on the fishes' movements in the water. Yuila bent closer to the rippling water, raising the makeshift bamboo net deliberately until it cleared the water. She squealed as water drained from the basket, then covered the top with her hand as a fish flopped around within.
"Sapo!" she cried. "I got it!"
Mina waved, sighing. She decided Yuila couldn't pronounce her ts, and wondered if it was a Crone lisp or just Yuila's problem. She could at least call her Mina.
Supper that night was of roasted fish, the berries Mina had picked, the last of the hard rind cheese, and a few handfuls of walnuts they had found along the river side. Edvard broke these open with the back of a hatchet, and they spent several long minutes picking out the small pieces of nutmeat in the growing darkness.
Yuila dissolved into the night later for her meditation, and Mina felt awkward at not telling Edvard more about herself. She didn't know how to tell him she didn't belong there, anywhere there, and if she did tell him, he'd probably think she was crazy.
She sighed, staring into the fire as Yuila returned. She knew she would think someone was crazy if they told her they came from another world. She looked up at the twin moons in the sky.
But she did.
PG13, saga; teen, fantasy, fantasy world travel, tee, 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!