Reminiscence

Chapter 22

Footsteps surround the wagon, and I reach for Echo. "Easy, Nesra. You're alright. They'll take you to the camp." Mazuka smiles and pats my head before swinging back down to walk with the leader of the camp, whose name we've not learned yet. Matteo and I are questioning whether to run for the hills or to stay when we're pushed to a halt. "Okay, get out you two." I'm pulled to my feet. "We're gonna hunker down here until we're not being chased anymore and then we'll move again." Mazuka leads us to the fire, where the men and women of the camp warm their meals and use the smoke to ward off predators at night.

It's eerie, it just feels wrong walking into the camp. We're a bunch of strangers, and I feel like I'm intruding on something important. They have a few wagons of their own, smaller than ours and stocked full of months' worth of supplies for the road. Enough to make camp as well. Night descends once again, cloaking us except for the smoke from the fire that is still being used to ward off predators. We eat a smaller meal of deer and some wild berries. We do not speak the same language as the majority of the men and women here, but we get by with Mazuka's help. "My name is Lord Thomas Dandridge. I was ousted by my people for a crime I have not committed. My own father agreed to banish me even though I was and still am the heir." He's a strong man, I notice now. His walk, his talk, and the way he holds himself with nothing but the clothes on his back, leading his people.

He leans back, a few tattoos here and there. They carry stories, I'm sure. Deep ones, riddled like the rivers and vines of the land. He notices me. "Well, what is your name? You seem intelligent." He cracks a smile.

"My name is Nesra, I'm the being of loyalty and trust." His eyes light up, and he lets out an "ah!" when I mention it. "Yes, I remember you. Smart one you are, keeping together with these two." He hands me another piece of meat. I have to return the smile, how could you not? A small huff comes from our left. Matteo's looking at us. "Relax, I'm not here to steal him. You've already lost one friend." How in the divines does he know? We haven't told anyone.

He goes on to explain that on his journey from his castle, with his group, he had passed our town and had heard the explosions when we were at the market, or rather one of the women here had been at the market earlier than us and had reported the explosions when she saw them. "Sid was the one who was at the market." she waves, and I smile at her and return the gesture. She keeps her hair tied up in a headscarf, and her eyes gleam with mischief. The crew begins turning in for the night, and we three follow suit. "The ground is rough here; I don't know why we stopped." Thomas rolls onto his side. "Holy crap this is painful." When we'd grabbed everything out of the cart, I thought it would be soft enough. Guess not.