The rising of the sun wasn't what woke Silva- the sun wasn't up yet. It was Lenti, who shook her shoulders. "C'mon, time to get going, or else any pity we had on you not giving you as much work yesterday was a waste." Silva groaned, but made some effort to roll herself towards the side of the bed. Lenti frowned and clenched her teeth against a yawn. "Lazybum. The sooner I get you up the sooner I can go back to sleep, so don't make me get you up myself. And don't doubt that I will."

Silva groaned loudly and with much drama at that, but sat herself up, blinking. "Fine, fine, I'm up, you can stand down officer." Smirking sleepily, Lenti flopped back down onto her own bed and fell back asleap without bothering to cover herself again. Silva rubbed at her eyes and sighed, but her sister was right; the herd had to be moved to Ascra, a small inland town where the animals had their yearly health check, as the nearest animal doctor lived there and was too busy to travel himself. He had moved inland from the nearest port town a few years ago, to Silva and Lenti's great dissapointment- all kinds of interesting people and merchandise could be found there, not to mention a great view of the ocean, but now they almost never had any reason to go.

Stretching and using one hand to clumsily guide herself down the hallway -so she wouldn't have to open her eyes- she walked out to the kitchen for a quick breakfast, as much to wake her up as keep her strong for the trip.

The animal's hooves throw up puffs of dirt from the path, walking heedlessly through it as it turns gold for a moment in beams of the new sunlight. Silva, riding bareback on one of them, smiled and took deep breaths of the cold morning air. The smells of animals and dirt gave it a warmer, almost comforting feeling, as she rubbed her arms through her long and warm sleeves. Ah, out on the road again. She stretched, careful not to fall from her seat on one of the animal's backs, fondly remembering the past trips along the same familiar road that would lead her all the way there. I remember the one time, what was it, three years ago. It rained almost the whole way, that was a weird season. Lenti was with me that time... Silva passed a few hours like that, thinking, singing to herself, watching the animals and making sure they didn't miss any turns. She stopped only a few times, once to take off her jacket as the day warmed up and twice to pull off to the side and let a larger group pass. The animals, used to the trip and mostly docile both by nature and training, rarely stepped out of line. But even without complications it was tiring, and the constant bumps of riding and lack of scenery made Silva feel numb and tired, almost sleepy. When an edge of the deep, healthy green of trees came into view ahead, she smiled and yelled for the herd to pick up it's pace. "Almost there guys, then we can all rest..." She muttered mostly herself, pulling her pack back up onto her shoulders in anticipation- this halfway point was her favorite part of the trip. The stand of trees around the path only continued for about a quarter mile, but it's cool shade and soft ground cover was a blessing for her tired legs, and a clear stream bent close to the road through it for a little ways. She first learned to braid flowers along the bank, and she and Lenti had played at pushing eachother in while catching tiny minnows. She yelled for the herd to hurry a little more.

"Aaahhhhhhhhh. That's better." She smiled, breathing the clean air in the trees as she slid down from her ride's back, not minding the stiff soreness of her legs. With a whistle and a wave of one arm she motions the herd to the right, off the path and into the trees, towards the stream. Inwardly their eagerness to do as they're told has always dissapointed her a little, but the one she generally worked with- a female affectionately called Fluff as a joke- was a bit more spirited and tougher than the rest, making her Silva's favorite. She put her hand on the back of Fluff's neck and pulled her along a little, wanting to get to the water herself. "C'mon, then, you need a drink too." Fluff snorted grouchily and tossed her head, shaking off Silva's hand and running ahead to get to the water first, an old vetran of these trips who knew where they were going; Silva followed, closing her eyes for a moment as the cool shade slid over her.

And there was the stream, mostly hidden by the backs of the animals turned to drink, sliding past quickly over smooth stones as if it had somewhere else to be. Here and there a fallen leaf flew by over the water. Sighing, Silva bent sideways to pull off her shoes and step into it, closing her eyes and smiling as the soft silt rested her feet like a pillow and the water slithered over her skin, simply enjoying it for a minute to the sound of the animals drinking; it was a satisfying sound, one that told her she was doing what needed to be done, that things were going just as they should. Funny, to think this water goes straight across and out to the ocean. Silva opened her eyes as a leaf brushed against her leg, watched it go- it looked lonely, somehow. Even funnier to think of a leaf from all the way in here making it all the way ou-

Loud, confident voices came from ahead on the road, and Silva's head snapped up. Something about the way the voices sounded made her hair stand on end, prickling her skin, alarm ringing in her mind. As silently as possible she stepped from the stream and slipped her shoes back on, mental wanderings gone in an instant. It's probably nothing, really, just another few travelers, it's a fairly well used path... Still, she was careful to breathe quietly as she moved towards the road, stooping as she walked to stay out of sight.

"Heh, but still, at the next town we'll do even better. Hell, if we can make it to the Port we'll have ourselves a little fortune- too many people there for any to watch their stuff. Serves them right anyway- teaches 'em to pay attention." A second voice laughed; an ugly, gruntlike sound.

Silva shuddered, mentally pleading the animals to keep quiet. They'll probably just pass by, they sound as if they're too excited thinking ahead to pay attention. Come on theving idiots, just pass by. The fact that she couldn't stop them was bitter in her mind, but she wasn't stupid- weaponless and alone, she wasn't going to beat two brawn-over-brain thugs who probably had daggers at the very least.

They were mostly past when the footsteps changed, one set of feet stopping and both voices hushing. The second voice, the one who had laughed, said something to the first, quietly. Silva had to strain to hear him.
"Lookat here, there's hooftracks." Silva's breath caught in her throat. "Not enough to need a lot of people to guide them, not more people than we kin handle f'sure. An' they just stop here, too scuffled to tell which way, but musta gone off the road..." Nothing more was said, the only sounds that of careful movement.

Silva keept her breaths deep but quiet, looking around quickly. The animals were starting to graze but stayed back from the road, it would take the hooligans a minute to see them if they came this way. The ground was green grass and a few leaves, that could be slippery; the shade was helpful, the trees branched enough to hide in if it came to that...
I could run, but they'd find the animals quick, no good; I could distract them and run, but I'm not that fast and that still leaves the animals; no good. I can't try to run WITH the herd either, they would make way too much noise. If the theives think there's more people than they can handle...

With a deep breath and a nod to herself Silva picked up a branch that lay on the ground, testing it's weight. It was big and heavy enough, although so old and rotting that if she actually had to hit something it would probably crumble into dust. Best I've got. Slip back behind the animals and wait until they come over this side of the road, yell and splash to make enough noise for lots of people, scare the animals into making noise too- good blazing stars this is desperate!

One of the animals made a nervous lowing sound, and as if it were a trigger Silva jerked to her feet and ran ahead and right to get behind the animals. Flecks of white panic spotted her vision as the trees blured by and her boots dug into the dirt, pounding heart demanding more air than she could supply without making too much noise. She reached the edge of the stream and cut left to come even with the herd, and one of the men was already there, had circled around the other way while Silva planned, too quietly for her to hear.

Trying not to gasp she slid to a stop, teeth gritted and mind flying for another plan, but too late- the man heard the noise and turned, flicked a knife out and came at her, and she didn't have time to think anything but how much bigger he was than she had realised, and she swung-
The world was spinning, the evergreen of the trees being taken by darkness and shadow, a wave of deathly cold waving through her, freezing her fingertips and numbing her mind-
and with a loud crack things were right again accept that the man had fallen to the ground, knocked out.

Gasping for air that suddenly seemed so thin and far away, Silva held her free hand to her head to try and stop it from spinning, to fight off the blackness that haunted the edges of her vision. I... hit him? Knocked him out, how... Shoulders sagging, she fought to raise her head and look around. The second man stood just a few feet away, staring at Silva as if there was something terribly wrong with her; and with another look at his fallen cohart he turned and ran.

Still clutching the branch so tightly that the bones in her hands ached, Silva swooned and fell to her knees. How... I don't... As the air and her turned to ice water, she looked at the branch; it was a solid, healthy brown, and a few vibrant green leaves sprouted from it's tip.

Then the darkness came, and Silva fell.

Fall...



The Beginning       One       Two       Fall      Three       Four       Five      

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Glenn Dragons from Midsummer's Enchanted Caverns and Isle of Mirrors

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