Desert Wake ✔

Ch. 9, pt. 2: Our Daily Salvation

Shit, I think. Cain't nothin' be simple fer us, even fer one night?

I grab fer Frank, but Ro moves in front of me, holds his hands up like he's just gonna let 'em take him down without a fight.

"Ro, move!" Frank tries to nudge him out of the way.

He ignores Frank and me, keeps his focus on the unknowns. I count nine of 'em. Nine. With Orin's Pa plus his lawfolk friends, they was a party of nine too. But no way it cain be them, cain it?

"Hello there," Ro calls out real cheerful. "We've just come here for water and rest.

We don't mean any trouble."

"Yer girl there looks like she means it." A woman steps forward. Her short cropped hair frames a face lined from years of desert livin' more than from age. She got herself a common way of speakin', too. Lawfolk is proper citizens of the Regions, and ain't no exceptions. Lucky ones. But this one, she ain't that. She's as unlucky as the next desert dweller.

"May, put Frank down." Ro is real even in his tone.

"I will not."

"Yer outgunned, Curlicue." The woman holds herself real steady. "What you gonna do, take out one of us while the rest fill you both with buckshot? Now I ain't inclined to tell a woman to listen to a man, but in this case, I may have to make an exception. Do as he says and put yer gun down. I'd hate to have to kill sich a lovely young couple."

I hold Frank up a mite longer while I debate her point, but I know she's right. Mostly.

"You ferget, even if you shoot us both, one of yous would still die in the process. So it seems I still have some leverage," I say. "Seein' as though yer the closest, it's probably you I'm most likely to hit, and I'd hate to have to kill sich a lovely old bat. So here's what I propose. Agree to let us have us some water, give us a corner we cain rest in, and I won't do no shootin'."

The woman blinks her eyes real fast. The corners of her mouth turn up a bit. "You got spirit, that's fer damn sure. It's a deal, Curlicue."

I lower Frank, everyone else holsters their weapons, and Ro and me git to the business of fillin' our canteens from a spring to the left of the cavern, all under the watchful eyes of them people. They ain't no lawfolk, so that's a sprig of good news. Still, I don't understand who they are, and why they're so protective of this here cave. Ro, though, he's got things figured.

"What are you trading in, if you don't mind me asking?" Dang it, why couldn't he have told me they was traders. And double-dang it, why didn't I figure that out myself!

The woman, must be their leader cuz she does all the talkin', answers in the kind of manner that ain't no answer at all. "Oh, this and that."

She do open up more to our non-work related inquiries. Her name's Tegan. Two of the youngest members of her group, maybe sixteen and eighteen, are her sons. She's from northeast of here, though she won't say where exactly. When she's not movin' what she swears is entirely legitimate merchandise through the desert, her favorite pastime is makin' pottery.

Well ain't that swell.

"Now it's yer turn," she says. "Seein' as though romantic liaisons 'tween commoners and proper folk happen this side of never, I'm guessin' the two of you have quite a story to tell." She looks at us real suspicious when she says it, like she already knows exactly what our story is.

"We don't need to tell you nothin'." I squint my eyes. Ro gives me a look like, come on, cut 'em a break here, May, and then he starts speakin' in his storyteller voice, the one you cain't help but listen to.

"What you need to know is that we aren't officers of the law, and we're not informers either. We aren't interested in the legitimacy of the goods you're carrying, nor do we want to steal those goods from you. In fact, we're grateful to you for sharing your space with us. We wouldn't have made it another night without this refuge." He taps his bad leg. "And as for who we are, well you've got it right. May here is from a different class, but none-the-less, I fell in love with her. Can you blame me?"

Tegan's oldest son whistles and says, "Ain't no way I'd pass her up, neither."

"Well," continues Ro, "my family didn't approve of our relationship. They ordered me to end it, but I refused. I said I'd rather be cast out into the desert than give up my love for her. And that's what happened. They cast us out. So here we are, traveling through, looking for a home where our love will be accepted."

Ro, he is a marvel. A couple of the traders smile, and one of 'em even dabs his eyes with his kerchief. Tegan nods, but ain't no way he's convinced her. She got a look that says she'll be keepin' an eye on us till the moment she witnesses our backsides crestin' the horizon.

Ro does git a response from her when he asks about the best course to take to git to the next X on his map. Unfortunately fer us, Tegan's answer ain't at all comfortin'.

"That map's terribly out of date." She studies it over Ro's shoulder. "Whoever made it ain't been in these part in a while. That one there, that one, that one too, all them water sources been dried up and fergotten about fer years now."

Ro and I exchange a look. His shoulders tense up. The cave, so spacious just a short while ago, feels like it's closin' in on me. "Ain't no goin' back the way we came. We gotta git through to south of the desert."

"Why south?" she asks.

I shrug. "Cuz it ain't north." That's the best answer I cain give, cuz truth be told, we don't have an actual destination picked out. We just wanna git through the desert and then decide from there.

"Hmm." Tegan turns away from the map. She don't offer us no advice.

After that, Ro and I settle into our corner of the cave along with Nessie, and the traders do the same across the way from us. Tegan may seem on the up and up, but even Ro ain't willin' to have us both sleep with them traders in the vicinity. I tell him I'll take first watch on account of the fact that his hurt leg's tired him out something awful. Besides, come to find our route south ain't got nearly as many water sources as we originally assumed—I don't know if I cain sleep with that information coursin' through my brain.

Keepin' a low glow in my lantern, I watch the traders nod off to sleep, one by one. Soon, there ain't nothin' but the sound of my own heartbeat thumpin' away, carryin' a hypnotizin' rhythm. I listen to it go, thump-thump, thump-thump, and 'fore long, I ferget our travelin' setbacks and do the stupidest thing I ever done. I let the exhaustion of the day thump-thump its way into my head, and without even realizin' it's what I'm doin', I fall asleep.

A/N: What's your take on Tegan and her crew: friends or foes? Also what will be the repercussions of May giving in to her exhaustion? 

I am still accepting vote donations in lieu of flowers for Reba's Memorial Fund. Proceeds will go towards extra grain for our dear Nessie (Reba would have wanted that).

Today's dedication is for a super Wattpadder, rskovach. I read her story THE PIRATE KING AND I and, you guys... it is SO GOOD! It's got adventure, derring-do, swashbucklers, and sexy pirate kings. I mean, what more do you need?