🔱 Chapter Three 🔱

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NOT EDITED. Excuse any mistakes.


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Abidah and Maurie had ridden all night and the horses were deathly tired, so they stopped at a riverbank for rest. They watered the horses and removed their saddles then tethered them to the overhanging branch of an olive tree.

Abidah lit a small fire and set up camp with their makeshift blankets. Maurie huddled close to her sister in order to keep the cold out and the warmth in. Abidah wrapped her arms around her in a soothing manner.

"What are we going to do now Abby?" She did not answer, instead she looked up at the night sky with the stars blinking down at her. With a sigh Abidah looked at her sister.

"I don't know Maurie, I really don't know."

With those words Maurie fell asleep leaving her sister watching the night sky looking for a sign, wondering how she was going to get through this.
Feeling the stress and tiredness from all the events that occurred today wash over her, Abidah fell into a dreamless sleep.

June 4

She woke at the crack of dawn, the sun just peaking from behind the mountains in the east, the way they had come from. Not wanting to wake her sister she slowly eased herself from under the blankets and stood over her. It was best if she let Maurie get all the rest she could because they had a long day ahead of them.

She walked over to the river's edge proceeding to wash her face and drink some of the refreshing water. Walking over to the saddles she picked up the two goat skin canteens and filled them with water. She had decided that it was best if they continued to head north, they would maybe find an inn along their way to lay low then decide fully what they were going to do then.

During her moments of thought the sun had come out and gone higher into the sky. It was definitely time to wake up Maurie and head out. She went beside her and shook her shoulder.

"Maurie it's time to get up." She said gently, Maurie only groaned and snuggled closer into the blankets.

"Maurie wake up, it's time to go."
"Five more minutes mom." She grumbled.

"Okay, since you won't wake up." Abidah took a piece of cloth out of one of the saddlebags and soaked it in the stream. Walking back over to Maurie she lifted a brow in amusement and squeezed the contents of the cloth on her head. Maurie shot up off the ground with a yelp.

"What was that for?!" Maurie yelled.

"That was for not getting up when I asked you to." Abidah turned away from Maurie and made her way back over to the saddlebags.

"You didn't have to throw water on my head." She heard Maurie mumble under her breathe. This made her chuckle to herself.

She got her horse's blanket and threw it across Ashkelon's back. Ashkelon was the name of the god of death and all things dark in the world. Abidah had decided to give him that name because she had found him in the forest behind the temple of Ashkelon back in her village. She also called him that because of his gleaming black coat that looked to be darker than the midnight sky at times and the bite he had given her on her hand when she had tried to approach him that day in the forest, there was a permanent scar left behind form that little endeavour. But the main reason she gave him that name was because of what he was. He wasn't a normal horse and the mere fact that he had allowed her to ride him was astonishing and a rare feat.

Hefting her saddle bag over her shoulder she carefully placed it on Ashkelon's back and began to buckle up the straps under his belly and to the side.

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