When A Life Is Lost (NaNoWriMo 2013)

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ania woke in her makeshift bed. She blinked, and looked at the small clock on the counter. Seven in the morning. Ania stretched, the blankets fell off her. She got up and padded over to Alykana, who was still asleep. She shook her and told her that it was time to get up. She stretched herself as Ania went out of the door, seeing Malus in the same spot as the night before.

He looked slightly tired, but looked up and smiled when he saw Ania. She smiled for a moment, but was mostly concerned.

“Did you not sleep?” she asked him, sitting on the log next to him.

He started to yawn for a second, shaking his head when he could not speak.

“I don’t need sleep,” he joked, wiping his eyes as he spoke.

They sat on the log for a few more minutes, waiting for Alykana. She finally emerged a few minutes later, yawning and wearing almost the same as the day before, except she had switched her long skirt for a pair of loose trousers. She looked over to the pair of the log and smiled for a moment, before waving them over with her hand.

Ania got up and started over to the cart, helping Alykana fix it to the horse – whose name, Alykana informed her was Telkus.

“Where are we going?” Ania asked conversationally, helping Alykana with checking the harness that was positioned on Telkus.

“It’s a small town on the other side of the forest,” Alykana explained, rubbing her horse’s neck, “It’s called Reial. Just a market town, but the locals love the flowers.”

Ania nodded. She had heard of it.

“It’s very small,” Alykana reassured her, “You won’t be found. At least it’s better than just sitting around here doing nothing.”

“Yeah,” Ania agreed, doing some final checks, and giving Telkus an extra cube of sugar.

Happy that the horse would be fine to go to Reial, Alykana started to climb into the cart. Malus tried to give her a hand up - she struggled for a moment as she was a little short – but she refused it, grabbing a box from the side of the house.

He tried to help Ania too, but she glared at him, forcing him to retract his hand. Ania sat in the middle, with Alykana on one side and Malus on the other. Alykana had insisted that they sat that way, mumbling something about motion sickness, and glaring at Malus when he started to contradict her statement.

The start of the journey was awkward. Ania completely blanked Malus, as Alykana tried desperately to make them talk. They were about an hour into the journey when they spotted a small shack nestled in the undergrowth. Alykana pulled Telkus to a stop, and climbed out the cart, shouting something about exploring the shack.

Subtle Alykana. Really subtle.

Ania was slightly annoyed by her behaviour – it was pretty obvious that she wanted them to talk. Ania wanted to do anything but talk.