In the red light of the setting sun, Lissa could see a tall pillar of grey smoke rising up from the forest. She wondered how long it had been there, or if she would have seen it while she was walking on the road before, as she started down at the ground. She felt better now. She had food in her bag, and though she didn't know exactly how far Rawlins was, or how much longer the forest went on, she knew she had food. She even had a knife now. There was a certain lightness to her step to. Lissa felt better than she had in a long time. So long as she didn't let her mind drift back to lord Mintas. So long as she didn't think of Luk, or her mother.
But now, now that she was looking up at the sky, and taking in the freshness of the forest, the clean, skeletal branches which is the fading light seemed to be black cracks in the sky, she saw clearly the smoke in the distance. Smoke meant fire, and that provided her with the one thing she had not been able to steal from the house the other night. Warmth, and a comfortable night's sleep. She slept better having food in her stomach, but how long could she sleep in the woods before she froze in the night?
She looked back and fourth on the road. She had seen no more travellers this day, and wasn't planning on looking through the night for one. Tomorrow, or the next day she might find someone to help her, or she might just get out of the forest. For now, there was the issue of the cold night coming ahead, and the smoke lingering in the distance.
She ran into the trees, and started stumbling along, half walking, half climbing through the trees. The ground was covered in fallen logs, mud and rocks. It was easier just to climb through the trees than try to find any easy footing, and since all the leaves had fallen off the trees, it was easier to see where she was going, and easier to find branches to grab. At least, it was until she came across a path.
IN the middle of the trees, there was a well beaten footpath which twisted among the larger trees. The path was free of fallen leaves and branches, and as such, Lissa could tell that it was recently used. Piles of wet leaves were kicked off to the side. Piled over wet and stamped upon piles of rotted debris over the years. She reached down to touch a footprint in the mud, and felt the mud softly give way under her fingertips.
'fresh prints, or is the ground just wet.' she wondered. She wasn't sure. But she was sick of climbing around, and in the cold, her hands were starting to grow cold and numb, so she jumped down onto the path, glanced up into the fading sky, and took down the path towards the smoke.
It was dark by the time Lissa saw light dancing around the trees. The air was colder than it had been int he last few nights, and Lissa didn't like the idea of sleeping in the cold again. She was going to sleep somewhere warm tonight. She was going to be comfortable.
She didn't care how she did it. She got herself some food, she could get herself somewhere warm to sleep.
Silently, she walked on, and came to a clearing in the forest. A makeshift lean-to stood in the middle of the clearing, a reasonable distance away from it was a deep, well used fire pit. , with charred stones set in a ring around it. Leaning back against a large, fallen log to one side was a man, sleeping soundly with a bottle hanging from his hand. Lissa hid in the shadows for a long moment, listening and watching, terrified that any moment, he would wake up, or that any moment, or that someone would suddenly come out from the shadows. Her heart pounded, and to her, it seemed to resound over the sound of the crackling flame. She waited, saw nothing, made to leave the shadows and explore the clearing, then stopped suddenly and hid behind a tree.
'why wasn't I this afraid the other night.' she thought.
A moment passed, and nothing happened. She took a deep breath, hesitated, then reached into her bag, and took out the knife. She hesitated, almost put it back, then held onto it.
“Ok,” she whispered to herself. “One... Two... THREE!”
She pushed herself out from the trees, and stood still in the clearing at the edge of the flickering circle of light. After a moment, nothing happened. She relaxed, and wandered towards the man
he was obviously drunk. She could smell liquor off him, and and bottle was empty. Far off to one side of the log was a pool of vomit. Lissa was sure that he had passed out. After a moment of staring at him, she gave him a little nudge with her foot. When he didn't move, she relaxed.
“Passed out for the night.” She muttered. She decided that she didn't really want to sleep near him, but it would be easy enough to find a place nearby where she could have a small fire, and a camp set up. She couldn't start a fire herself but perhaps she could make a torch from a stick and her old dress.
She looked around the area, and in the lean-to, she saw a sack. With a quick glance at the man, she slipped over to it and quietly untied the sack. There were mostly bottles inside, some empty, some full. She dug around and found some coins at the bottom, then some jewellery next to some dried meat.
All she thought about was the money, not why this man might have coins and jewels next to food and drink. Money was even better than the food she had stolen the other night. Money meant she could rent a room somewhere, or buy food. Money meant she wouldn't have to live on the streets when she got to Rawlins, at least not for the first night or so.
Money meant options. Money meant she could get to Rawlins, and find work. Failing that, it still meant she could take some time to save what she could find or steal. She quickly began digging through the sack, ignoring the noise she was making, the man was passed out. She grabbed fistfuls of silver coins from the bottom of the sack, and threw it into her own sack. She couldn't wait for find a place to set up a little camp for the night, and count out her coins next to a nice, warm fire.
Out of nowhere, she felt a sudden pain as someone grabbed her neck and pulled her backwards, way from the sack. A soft, feminine voice whispered in her ear, “You've made a bad mistake tonight, boy.”
Lissa was pulled, and thrown away from the sack. She fell to the ground, but wasn't badly hurt. She looked around for her knife, but realized that she had left it next to the sack. Between her and the sack was a tall, slender woman dressed in loose black pants and a worn burgundy tunic. A long black cloak was pushed back off her shoulders, out of the way of her arms. Long, brown hair was held out of her face in a loose braid, slung easily over one of her broad shoulders. She looked up and nodded behind Lissa. Lissa turned to see two men coming at her with rope. She jumped up, and ran to get her knife, stumbling to her feet as she did. The woman kicked her between the legs. Lissa fell to the ground, rolled away, and tried again to grab the knife. The woman stepped down on her chest, with enough force to keep Lissa down but not enough to seriously hurt her.
“Tie him up.” she said after a moment, “ but be gentle... I want to talk to our visitor when we get home.”
M.K.Barry
Wow, can't this other girl see that Lissa is a woman and not a man? What a shock she'll get when she actually finds out. lol
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