Rienna yelped as she hit the ground. She stood up and saw a small figure with a black hooded cape jump out of the caravan after her. She looked around and spotted her two cats not far behind her. “Wait!” she yelled at the caravan. “Wait for us!”
Suddenly the figure with the black hood was beside her and clamping her mouth shut. Whoever it was seemed to be a child. They were shorter than Rienna, about the same height as her chin. Despite this, the kid held their hand over her mouth with startling strength. “Shhhh,” they said.
For some reason, Rienna complied and kept her mouth shut. She watched in despair as the caravan rolled away, growing smaller by the second. Slowly, she stepped away from the kid.
“Why did you do that?!”
“You must come with me. My… advisor wishes to see you,” the kid said vaguely.
“Who’s your advisor? Who are you? Why?” Rienna asked, shocked at herself for not fighting to get back to the caravan.
“My advisor is the one called Måren Muril. She is of the frensk and has been watching you since your encounter with Trusten Ylad,” said the girl (Rienna thought she was a girl), keeping her face low and out of sight.
“Trusten Ylad? The witch? Does she work with Trusten? Who are the Frensk? Wait- has she been spying on me this entire time?!” Rienna stared down at her cats in shock, wondering how they couldn’t have noticed someone following them after all this time.
“Måren Muril will answer these questions when you meet with her. I am not under any obligation to answer any of your questions.” The girl said. “Except to assure you that you will be in no danger while traveling with me or while you’re with Måren.” She glanced up at Rienna, giving her a glimpse of green eyes and a button-like nose. “Will you come willingly?”
“No! I need to get back home. If your advisor has been watching me, surely she knows that!” Rienna exclaimed.
The girl hesitated a moment before saying, “I am also authorized to tell you that you will be granted safe passage to the Four Towns after you meet with Måren. I know she will answer most of your questions as well. Will you come with me?”
“Yeah…?” Rienna said doubtfully. Her thoughts were very conflicting. Her logical side said that this was a terrible idea, but her instincts told her to follow the little girl. Also… she was pretty curious about what the connection between them and Trusten Ylad was. Was Måren another witch? Were all witches evil?
“Good. The other option would have been a lot less enjoyable for the both of us,” the girl said, interrupting Rienna’s thoughts. She then pivoted on her feet and began marching through the rocky fields and towards the mountains.
Rienna hesitated again for a moment, then followed.
Xio ran in front of her, almost causing her to trip. “Why are you listening to that child?” He asked
Rienna stepped easily around him. “I don’t know…” she started. “I just have this feeling that we should follow her. She seems somehow… familiar.”
Xio trotted beside her and continuously bopped her foot. “Don’t be stupid, Rienna; you know that following your gut hasn’t exactly worked out well for you in the past.”
“Whatever, Xio.” Rienna stomped ahead of him again. “We’re going to meet with this Mahren person, and that’s that.”
Xio sighed. “Fine. Don’t blame me if this goes badly, though.”
Rienna ignored him and continued following the small cloaked girl, who was moving at a surprisingly quick pace, considering her size. In spite of Xio, she pushed all of her doubts about following the girl to the back of her head. She told herself that she must have met the kid before for her to be familiar, and if they had seen each other before in the past week, the kid couldn’t be that bad. Also, it seemed unlikely that a little girl could be leading them to their deaths. Except, she never did confirm that she doesn’t work for Trusten Ylad… She forced the thought out of her head. Her advisor probably doesn’t work for that witch. Even if she did, we’ve escaped from evil magic-doers before.
They continued in silence. The terrain was relatively flat at first, and the larger rocks were easier to avoid, but as they continued up the mountain, it slowly got worse. The slope increased, and the patches of grass began to thin and disperse. Soon, they got high enough up the mountain that Rienna began worrying about encountering a guard from V4. Then she remembered that all of the fairyeld guards in V4 had been taken as prisoners for Rufdand. Thank goodness I realized that before I said something… It would've been so embarrassing.
“What’s your name?” Rienna asked the girl after a bit.
“You do not need to know,” she said without even looking back.
“What should I call you then?”
“I don’t care what you call me.”
“Fine,” Rienna said. “You will be known as Bunny McSmug.”
The girl stopped abruptly and turned to stare at her. “Do NOT call me Bunny McSmug.”
“I thought you didn’t care?” Rienna said innocently.
The girl swiveled around again and continued walking, ignoring Rienna.
“Wait!” Rienna said. “Slow down, Bunny.” She did her best to sound sincere, but she felt that her air of seriousness was compromised when she began giggling uncontrollably.
‘Bunny’ didn’t respond or slow down, and Rienna ultimately had to jog in order to catch up. What’s her problem? She thought to herself jokingly.
Unfortunately, her good mood didn’t last long. The girl refused to respond to anything she said, and whenever she tried to have a conversation with Xio, it always ended up being about, “This is a stupid idea,” “Have you always been this reckless?” and, of course, “Do you not remember what happened with the witch?” Xio also liked to mention that Rienna refused to trust the Alyene when she hadn’t had any experience in it, and now, after the encounter with the witch and also being kidnapped, she was somehow trusting a cloaked girl who wouldn’t even say who she was.
An hour slowly passed by, and the world was beginning to heat up. Even with the chill that came from being at a higher elevation, Rienna began to feel as though she was baking. Except, sometimes, a gust of wind would come along and cause Rienna to shiver; it was a terrible mix of hot and cold. Every time she asked the girl where they were going, she was ignored. The girl wouldn’t even say how much longer they would be walking.
Rienna slowly gathered her courage and finally said, “Look, if you won’t tell us where we’re going, we’ll just turn around and walk to the Four Towns.”
The girl stopped and looked back at her. “Why?”
Rienna gave her a curious look. “Uh… Because if we’re going to be walking for the rest of the day, I want to have an end goal in mind. That, or decide it’s not worth it,” she added.
The girl appeared to think for a moment, then sighed. “It’s not going to take the entire day. Only a couple more hours.”
“So we’re not close?”
“We’re closer than we were before,” she pointed out. “We’ll stop for lunch in an hour.”
“Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?” Rienna asked.
The girl turned around and began walking again. “You’re annoying.”
Rienna jogged after her and tripped on a stone. “Oof.” One of her hands, which she had just barely managed to put out and catch her, had landed on a rock. She slowly stood up and examined her stinging palm. It was bleeding. Of course.
The girl sighed disappointingly at Rienna and brought out a small pouch that had been hidden on her belt. She opened it, brought out a long piece of cloth, and gestured for Rienna to come closer.
“Give me your hand.”
“It’s not that bad,” Rienna protested but still stepped closer to the girl.
The girl grabbed her hand and began wrapping the cloth around it. “No, it’s not. But it will be a problem later if it doesn’t heal quickly.”
To Rienna’s surprise, the cloth was somewhat damp and smelled of herbs. “What do you mean, ‘it’ll be a problem?’ And why did you wrap it with this… medicated cloth?”
“It’s a little dangerous where my mentor lives; the cloth will make it almost completely healed by the time we get there,” the girl said, tying a knot in the bandage. It was strange to hear someone only as tall as a table talk about mentors and dangers. Even stranger was the fact that she carried a pouch with medical supplies with her. “You’re slowing us down. If we get to my mentor quicker, you’ll get to the Four Towns quicker, so pick up the pace.”
Rienna sighed and continued following the girl up the slope. The terrain had gotten pretty perilous, with less and less grass and more and more boulders. They all had to be careful whenever they got near boulders or had to climb over them; many weren’t very stable and Rienna had already caused a couple to go tumbling down the mountainside.
An hour later, the girl suddenly stopped. They were no longer traveling up the mountain and had been continuing forward at about the same height. The wind was stronger here, and occasionally, small pebbles were blown down the slope. “We will have lunch now. I know there’s a sheltered area nearby.”
“Thank goodness!” Rienna exclaimed. She was starving, cold, and tired and had been carrying Xio for the last mile; a break was just what she needed. “Where is it?”
The girl pointed up the mountain a little bit. “Just above that ridge,” she said.
Rienna groaned. “All that way?”
“That, or we could sit here in the freezing wind.” The girl held her cape close to her to keep it from billowing in the gusts. Rienna was surprised her hood hadn’t fallen off with all the wind.
She looked down at Xio, who had his eyes closed and was shivering. “Okay. We’ll go to the shelter.” She hoped Xio would be okay; he was still so tiny, and the weather was so cold up here. She reassured herself that once they stopped for a break, he would have a chance to warm up.
As promised, just over the ridge was a ‘sheltered area.’ It was not what Rienna had been expecting. She had heard shelter and thought there would be a little cabin or shack. Instead, she saw a wooden plank tied over two sturdy boulders next to an almost vertical slope. It was like a giant stone box that was missing a wall and had a wooden top.
“That’s the shelter you were talking about?” Rienna said, almost yelling.
The girl walked into the shelter and turned around. It seemed to be about the size of two outhouses. “Yes. What did you think it would be?”
“I don’t know! A cabin, maybe?”
“This was built as a momentary stop on a journey. Not for an overnight stay,” the girl said simply. “The roof keeps out possible rain, and the rocks behind and to the side of it keep out the wind. It’s still better than sitting out there,” she said, pointing to where Rienna was at.
Rienna knew that what the girl was saying made sense, and she was too tired to argue anymore, so she went into the shelter and sat down in the corner.
“You have food, right?” the girl asked.
“Yes…” Rienna said cautiously, taking off her backpack.
“Can I have some?”
“Seriously?! You didn’t bring your own food?” Rienna exclaimed. She pulled out a bag with salami and passed it to Xio and Xia, who happily accepted it.
“No. I knew you brought food. No point in me bringing some if you have enough for me.” Rienna studied the girl for a moment. She seemed completely sincere and oblivious to the fact that she should’ve brought her own food.
“Okay, then,” Rienna said. “You may have a kebab.”
“Thanks,” the girl said, quickly taking the kebab from Rienna’s hand.
Rienna shook her head wearily and grabbed her own kebab. When she looked up, she gasped: The girl had taken off her hood. Suddenly, Rienna knew exactly who the girl was. “Rildie?!” she exclaimed.
“Oh? You know my name,” Rildie responded, completely unfazed by Rienna’s surprise.
“Yes, Jen told me about you,” Rienna said. “Why did you wear that hood if you were going to take it off now?”
Rildie took a bite out of her lunch. “It was cold.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me your name?”
“Like I said, you’re annoying.”
“I’m only annoying because you’re so annoying!” Rienna said loudly.
Rildie rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Why did you ignore me at the care center?”
“I never ignored you,” Rildie said, taking another bite out of her lunch.
Rienna threw her hands into the air. “You never even looked at me!”
“I took note of your presence when I entered the room. I don’t need to watch you to know you are harmless.”
“Hey! Not true! Anyway, weren’t you spying for Mahren Muril?” Rienna reasoned.
“Her name is Måren Muril. Not Mahren,” Rildie corrected. “Now, could you be quiet? I want to eat.”
“It sounds basically the same…” Rienna mumbled, shoving her food into her mouth. I can’t believe Rildie was a spy, she thought angrily. They ate the rest of their lunch in silence. Rienna purposefully refused to look at Rildie for the duration, but she didn’t think she even noticed.
Finally, Rildie spoke up again, “Let’s rest for half an hour before we continue.” She stood up.
“Make yourself comfortable, I’ll go see if the river is running.”
“There’s a river up here?”
Rildie nodded. “Many, but most have run dry decades ago. Hopefully, the one I am going to is still running from that storm.” She didn’t wait for Rienna to respond or ask another question; she quickly stepped out of the shelter and out of Rienna’s vision.
Alright, then. Rienna set up her backpack to use it as a pillow and leaned back against it. The cats hopped onto her lap and huddled together, fighting against the cold. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, deciding to try and nap, so she would be refreshed once they began traveling the mountain once more. Whether or not following Rildie had been a good idea, it was too late to turn back now.
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