Traveler

Reader: The Splitting Wars for Dummies

Traveler Chapter 10 (Reader)

The Splitting Wars for Dummies (Part I)

I had followed the boy's instructions, and now I regretted it.

Stay on the train until you find a place that's better, he had said. Now I was stuck, broke, and had absolutely nowhere to go. The train wouldn't allow me on without any money, now, would it? So I was stranded here, in some piece of the Outside completely unknown to me.

My mind ran over a list of possible actions that may or may not help my predicament. Mostly, they tended toward the latter side.

I could contact that boy again.

Impossible. And what would I do with that, anyway? Chewing him out really would not help.

I could sneak onto the next train.

I would be fortunate if I didn't go to jail first.

I could...read.

Sure.

The train stations were little more than huge spaces carved into the hills, with vendors' carts crammed together, and as such, they were extremely noisy. And crowded.

I snuck outside, clutching my book in one hand and my pack in the other. There wasn't much left inside anymore, but the last few days had left me wary and closer to paranoid than I had ever been before.

I glanced around again as an effect of this unfortunate condition and plopped myself down without any further ado. Apparently, benches were a foreign concept to these people, because they seemed to be absent everywhere I had even the slightest urge to find one.

Thankfully, the words printed on my very own book were sufficient distraction from my predicament. I buried my nose in its pages, so close that for a moment I could smell the musky odor of the paper. This was the book given to me by the librarian, and indeed, it had wormed its way "into my heart," as she put it. I had absorbed its content somewhere around nine times already...but who was counting, as they said?

I was close to the blessed relief of pulling my mind away from the dusty world and the hot sun, into the rich forest of the book, when a resounding bang caused my head to shoot up. My book slammed shut before I could mark the page. "Aww," I whimpered. The page numbers counted around one thousand, five hundred, twenty-seven pages. There was almost no way I'd be able to find that page again unless I read the entire book over again.

I shoved the slight disappointment away, focusing in the direction I thought the sound had come from. I didn’t find anything at all, until a merchant came down the road, rolling his cart along by the handles. Unfortunately, they had been placed at the front of the cart, so that the merchant was forced to walk backwards as he came to the station.

I watched him for a few moments, debating with myself on what I should do. In the end, I pushed myself up and started towards him.

He held up a sudden hand. "Not open yet, sweetie!"

The way he said the pet name sounded slightly poisonous, but I was stubborn. "Well, Sir, I was coming to help, not buy. I don't have any money, anyhow."

He looked at me for the first time, stopping his struggle with the cart for a moment. All the glance really was consisted of a sliding of the eyes so that he could see me, but I met his gaze with a small smile.

"Not many 'round here offer to do that," he puffed. "Much less a lady. Not from here, I reckon?"

 I shook my head. "No, Sir. I came from the City. I'm a…runaway," I added quietly, to myself.

He heard. "Aw, well, don't beat up on yourself too hard. We got lotsa those 'round here. Just keep on the train for awhile; you'll find 'em."

I smiled grimly back. "I would, Sir, but I already told you: I don't have any money. It was stolen."

"By the conductors or the travelers?" The man wheezed a chuckle. I couldn't help but grin, though I wasn't entirely sure why this was considered a joke. He waved his hand dismissively. "And you don't need a dime to get on those trains, if you don't mind a bit of rust." 

I cocked my head with a silent question.

He stared at me for a moment before bursting into a spout of laughter. "The boxcars, sweetie! You hop on the boxcars with the rest o’ 'em." 

"Oh," I said, forcing the polite smile now.

The man hesitated a moment, then reached into his cart and pulled something out. "Well now, sweetie, money or no, none of 'em last long if they are simple to us and our ways. And I rather like you, so..." He thrust a book at me, much thinner than my red one and coated with paper instead of the fabric of the ancient crimson book.

I took it slowly, giving him time to change his mind and yank it away. He didn't. "What do you mean, they don’t ‘last’? I said nervously.

He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, so long as you stay clear o’ their fate."

My eyes widened, but he didn't seem to notice in the slightest. Instead, he began to puff down the road again, hobbling backwards with his cart. Somehow, I understood that he simply didn't want help, so I let him go.

"Thank you!" I called as he disappeared into the station.

A hand flicked a wave in my direction. Then the merchant was gone.

I looked down at the book he'd given me. The Splitting Wars for Dummies. A strange title, and slightly offensive to my foreign mind, but I flipped open to a random page and started reading.

With the victory of the Allies came great amounts of land and wealth. The countries were celebrated internationally (except by the Alye Powers!)...

I glanced again at the comment in parentheses. It was in a messy, scrawling calligraphy, and I figured that I knew exactly who had added his own comments to the book's original text. I huffed a laugh to myself and read on.

The losing side...

~*~*~*~

Hi again, wonderful readers!

I just wanted to give a humongous THANK-YOU to everyone who has read and voted on Traveler, and another to AlexQueenintheRiver for her awesome comments. So, thank you, guys! Your support really does give me the fuel to continue in my rough spouts.

I hope you have liked the story so far, and I'm sorry for the irregular updates; life has a way of sneaking up and making writing next to impossible. Thanks for sticking by the story through everything!

That's all I really wanted to say, I suppose, so I'll sign off with one last message. Please, read, vote, or comment (anything is valid!). it really does support my writing, and I'd really love to improve.

Anyway, thanks again, and I look forward to seeing your feedback!

Signing off (for now),

~Raine