Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Chapter 2 of the Random Story Thingy

Deanna had been traveling for three days with hardly any rest. She would stop to water her horse, and then she would be off again. She ate and slept in the saddle, and was thankful that she was used to it, otherwise she would never be able to pull this off.
She would dismount and lead her horse for an hour and a half, and then remount; determined to catch up to Herndon.
On one of the intervals of her leading the horse, she came across another Inn. She led her horse into the stables, and walked inside.
She came out a half an hour later, frowning. He hadn’t been here, but it was the only Inn around for miles, unless he took the East road, whereas she had taken the North. But it didn’t sound right; going east would only lead him deeper into the country, whereas going north would bring him to the sea.
She mounted her horse, and considered turning him around and going east. But Herndon could have just road past this Inn, preferring to sleep on the ground than in a bed; she rode forward at a trot, moving in the direction she had been going.
Four hours later, she came across another Inn, and came across the same result as last time, and as she rode out onto the road, she frowned thoughtfully. Could he have doubled back? She kept asking herself. Or had she been tricked?
                                                                              *
An hour before dark, she dis-mounted and led her horse into the trees, where she found a small clearing. She tied her horse to a branch and unsaddled him; she rubbed him down and then got out his food, and poured it into a fold-up bucket.
She leaned against the horse for a moment, listening to him eat his oats in that grinding way horses have, she set the other fold-up bucket next to the one with the oats and poured the rest of the water from one of the water skins in it, and then she walked off to go find a stream to refill the them; finding one about ten minutes later.
As she was filling them up, she heard a sound she was not expecting: singing.
She paused in her task and looked around for the source, finding nothing, and the sound having died away, she dismissed it and went back to filling up the water-skins.
As soon as she had finished that, and was walking back up the hill, it started again. She froze in place; the singing stronger, more confident.
She could now tell it was a man who was singing. It wasn’t an unpleasant voice, just unexpected.
It sounded as though it was coming from the other side of the stream. She walked slowly back towards it, hesitantly at first, but, as the singing continued, she walked with more confidence.
Dropping the skins by the shore, she hopped on rocks to the other side silently. The singing continued.
She ghosted through the trees, following the voice. She came across a clearing.
Hiding in the trees, she watched as a young man, who looked no older than she, sat on a rock with an instrument and sang.
The singing was louder now that she was at its source. And she found herself enjoying it. And, no matter how hard she tried to contain it, a small smile broke out on her face. The singing stopped.
At first she thought he had seen her, but saw that he wasn’t looking in her direction, and she relaxed slightly. Another man was walking towards him.
“You ready to go; now that you have alerted the whole forest that we’re here?” The man asked sarcastically. The man who had been singing smiled, taking no offense; suggesting that this was the other man’s nature.
“I apologize, Cadman, I did not intend that; but it relaxes me.” The singer said, getting up from the rock. The man named Cadman waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and nodded towards a wagon that Deanna hadn't noticed until he had motioned towards it.
They moved off and bent over a table that had been set up, looking at what looked like a map of the area.
“Where do you think she is?” Cadman asked. “We have scouted the whole area, she couldn’t have gotten far.”
Deanna knew that he was referring to her, and she stiffened. The singer shrugged.
“No idea; who knows how her mind works?” He said, not taking his eyes off the map. Cadman shrugged. Another man started walking towards them at a brisk pace, holding something in his hand. The singer looked up at his approach.
“What is it, Finn?” He asked. The man, Finn, walked towards them, his pace slowing until he stopped beside them, handing the singer a piece of parchment.
“She was spotted at Horse’s Grove Inn about two hours ago.” Finn said. There was a moment of silence.
“I knew we weren’t that far behind her,” Cadman said triumphantly. Deanna caught her breath and slowly backed out of the trees the way she had come. And, once the three men were a safe distance behind her, she bolted.
She ran back through the stream, picking up her water-skins as she passed, and ran up the hill towards her camp.
As she flew out of the trees, she tripped on a rock and rolled, landing in a crouch. Her horse, startled at her sudden and her very graceful entrance, panicked and tore at its reins, still tied securely to the branch.
Deanna got to her feet and walked over to her horse, talking quietly in a soothing voice.
“Easy, Krennan, easy boy,” She whispered, trying to keep the panic she was feeling out of her voice.
After a few moments, Krennan calmed down and Deanna could breathe again. She picked up her packs and loaded them back onto his back, apologizing as she did so.
She picked up the buckets and also secured them to her packs, along with the water-skins; after everything was secured, she mounted and turned him east, the way they had come and pressed him into a gallop.
After she was a safe distance away, she tried to think of something that she could do to shake the three men on her tail. She wondered if a man with such a sweet singing voice could really be capable of being an assassin, she thought that the man with him could be quite capable, but she wasn’t sure about the singer. And she realized she hadn’t heard his name, only the ones called Cadman and Finn.
After about an hour of hard riding, she stopped and dis-mounted to check Krennan's hooves; finding them clean, she re-mounted. 
She patted Krennan’s neck, feeling guilty for pressing him so hard.
"I'm so sorry for this, boy," She whispered to him, kicking him into a gallop again.
                                                             *
Three hours later, she came to another fork in the road and groaned.
She didn’t know if Herndon had gone this way, and, after deciding to come back and look for a trail when there was daylight, she went left.
After hours of being in the saddle, even the hard ground seemed appealing, and that made her depressed.
Forcing those thoughts from her mind, she dis-mounted to lead Krennan for a while.

2 comments:

  1. WOW
    Raven that is AWESOME!!
    I sense a bit of Romance coming up. An I right? :P

    It was really well written, and the detail was fantastic!
    I just love it!!
    Can't wait to read more!

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  2. This is totally awesome!
    I LOVE the style this story is going in, and I would definitely love for you to write more when you get a chance! :D

    Just so you know, there's a double negative in the first line "without hardly"

    But the point is, that this is BRILLIANT!

    ReplyDelete