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[TheSongOfTheStars]

Wow, it took a long time for this subject to come up

[W.oH.oB.o]

Bump?

[*ajayred*]

i know its been a long time since i posted a chapter. my life has gotten extremely busy. i will post a new chapter as soon as i can get it finished. i had one almost done but something had happened with my computer and i lost it. Q _ Q

[*ajayred*]

Last Chapter.

This book is going under a major rewrite! I think i owe you guys this chapter.

Five more steps.
I all but wheezed as I lifted my head, desperation in my eyes as I trudged up toward the running water.
Four more steps.
My mud crusted arm wrapped around my agonizing rib cage, while I kept one hand firmly on my staff. Wolfy, as I took to calling the Fortian, kept close to my side seeming to encourage me.
Three more steps.

I closed my eyes tightly, each step taking more effort than the last. My feet weighed down with sludge and exhaustion, my body being held back with ever vine and root that covered my path. My fingertips felt like ice while my torso was a sauna of heat and sweat.
Two more steps.
So close I was to simply falling down in dehydration-the greedy ground having soaked up the puddles- and hunger- this one was self-explanatory. So close was I to closing my eyes to let what might have happened, happen. I fell to one knee and looked up. My breath danced up in front my face in a cloud of frozen air, the wind blowing it across my thorn-cut face and chapped lips.

Slowly I pulled myself to the creek against the terrible pain of my joints and gritted my teeth, willing my hands to stop shaking long enough to cup my hands and bring the water to my lips. It was the coldest water I had ever drank. Maybe it was the need for water and a dry tongue talking, but it was also the best tasting.
Besides me Wolfy lapped at the creek, not fazed by the frigid temperature and certainly not as in need of it as I was. Berries had done little for me, having found so few, but they seemed to help keep me together long enough to make it to the running water.
I swallowed down gulps of water, at the time not minding if I got a stomachache from the cold rock like weight that settled with the liquid in the pit of my belly. It was nothing compared to the outer pain. I had wrestled through vines, struggled over hills, and slipped down slopes trying to get to the river I heard echo through dense thicket and thick trees; the fear of a stomachache or sickness was nothing to worry about in comparison.
My heavy, numb digits went to my brow and though I was shivering, the heat from my forehead felt good on my hand; the cold from my hand felt nice on the hot skin.
“I have a fever.” I stated to Wolfy with a rough voice.

She turned her head to mine with slow precision, then she padded over to me. I don’t know what I was hoping for. To find a cabin? To somehow track everyone down after a storm?

“I’m such an idiot…” I shook my head, feeling as though it weighed twice as much as it did before.

I could have hated the wolf, forcing me to make such a big mistake as letting my friends go, thinking she would hurt them, and then turning out to do nothing of the sort. I could also slap myself for being mad she turned out to be safe and I lived.
Casting my eyes on the creature with an expression mixed with contempt and growing attachment, I held my hand out to her, as I had already done many times on the way to the creek to keep my footing. She lowered her head to me, prepared for the tug on her fur as I gripped the pelt over her neck. She was a large wolf, I doubt it hurt her any more than picking a loose bur out. Meanwhile, I was using every ounce of achy muscle, tense nerves and sore bones to stand, even if she was helping me by lifting her head a bit.

I heard a crack of wood and unlike some easily paranoid people I ignored it, waving it off as an animal. Then there was another and this time Wolfy turned her head to look. Whatever it was, I couldn’t see it because she was in the way, so I knew I wasn’t seen ether. For moment, I was so far gone from myself mentally, that I didn’t register the fact it might be Kyran. He’d be far less injured than me had he escaped the army after him; for just a second that thought flickered through my mind and filled me with fear, before it sunk in a giant wolf was next to me. A new terror settled in my chest as I thought she might attack him and, however much I hated him, couldn’t let her do such a thing.

I forced my voice steady and smooth as I asked “who is it?”

My heart pounded as I peered over the white mass of strength and fur. I put the temporary strength of adrenaline to use, straightening my posture and lifting my chin. I wanted to look as strong as I could, so I puffed out my chest, disregarding the agony that clung to my ribcage.
There stood a tall man wearing a black coat with bronze forearms exposed from rolled up sleeves, holding four buckets in his hands. He stood frozen, face hidden with the shadows of his hood as the air around us halted in every way but our own breaths. I could see his lips part, but the words caught behind the cage of his teeth.

“Who are you?” I said with more force; my leg threatening to shake as I did so.

“It’s Ryker…” he said softly, like he thought his words might break me.

“Prove it.” I narrowed my eyes at the man who I refused to believe. Kyran might have put something on his arms, or perhaps sent a loyal guard. Of course, I should have known better, only my mind was somewhat clouded and bogged down with fever.

Slowly he reached up, pulling the hood off his head, eyes never leaving the wolf as he made this move. Then, as clear as day and as deeply engraved into my mind as it could possibly be, I saw him look at me.
He must have been looking over me for some time before taking his hood off, but he must not have gotten as good of a look as he did afterward. His gold eyes held a sorrow within them, accompanied by brows pulled up and close to each other. He kept his jaw clenched hard and his lips became a tight line.

“Ryker…” I all but squeaked with prickling eyes and a burning nose.
So many forms of relief flooded my system, so many I couldn’t dare explain them. I was relieved to the point of tears and laughter. Slowly I leaned onto the shoulder of Wolfy, wanting to tell Ryker she wouldn’t hurt him but finding no voice to do so.

“Laurel?” I heard his voice and looked up.

While his eyes searched mine, I wondered how he was suddenly so close.

“You’re burning!” he said again, and only then had I realized his hand was on my forehead.

“Am I on fire?” I asked.

“You might as well be.” A frown took his mouth again.

“That’s not good….I’ve always thought it would feel…..lighter…”

………………………


I walked down a path of pebbles that was fenced in with white panted wood, the further I walked, the farther the vines grew up from the ground, taking with them the planks. Soon the path was a tunnel of woven plants and broken fence. The end of the burrow seemed so close, yet I could not reach it. Then I found myself running and panting on the path that fell around me like a crumbling bridge. In a blink I was face to face with someone who I didn’t know. A face who could have been one of my brothers. He lifted a cat and handed it to me, but as I took it, it turned into a tiger that opened his jaws wide to swallow me.

I opened my eyes utterly bewildered and inhaled only to feel harsh regret as my ribs barked signals of pain through my nerves.

“Sit back down dear, I’ll be with you in a moment.” A silvery voice chimed through the air.

I whipped my head in the direction and caught sight of the woman who I had hoped to see owning that voice. “Betty?”
“Yes, that’s me, now don’t move around too much.” She subtly scolded, noting how I was beginning to prop up on my elbows.

My eyes traced her figure in confusion. She rolled up her cream toned sleeves and busied herself with gathering rags and pulling out clothing from the dresser that was next to the closed door.

“I’m sorry to not have changed you while you was sleeping, but I was afraid you would have preferred to feel the pain awake, rather than wake up changed and confused.” She said to me, which was true and explained my still muddy state.

She had, however, took my books, socks and cloak off; that being the least of my concerns I asked “What’s going on?”

“Ryker found you in the forest and brought you here.”

“But, why are you here?”

“Ryker is my husband, dear, why else? Oh, my you might not even know him, Ryker, come in here for a moment!”

Ryker slowly eased the door open and then let himself be seen as he stepped into the room, holding a stoic expression like it was the last thing he owned.

“Ryker, this is Laurel, she was once my mistress.” Betty said. “She has quite the stor-“

“We’ve met.” Ryker and I said in unison, breaking off her sentence.

Betty stared between us and furrowed he brows, expecting one of us to explain how and when. While I was trying to decipher my last moments in the forest, I was also wondering why I never asked Betty for her husband’s name.

Finally not able to take the silence and unawareness, Betty spoke first. “Fine, we will talk about it tomorrow. I need three buckets, two with warmed water and one with nothing.” The woman shooed the man out of the room with a few swipes of her hand.
Ryker, who seemed like he’d disobey any other time, seem to be grateful for this excuse to leave and did so quickly with the door shutting behind like he was never there.

“You can eat while I clean your back, brace yourself.” Her tone left no room for argument and she carefully helped me to sit up.

For my pride and her sake, I gritted my teeth and held back the groans that tried to rip free of my throat. I won’t go into details of how horrible it was to pull my vest off, or how difficult it was to take off the shirt that was connected to my skin with fresh scabs and sweat.
It wasn’t too long after I was wearing nothing but a backless slip that Betty pulled over me at my shy request, when Ryker knocked on the door and Betty went to retrieve the water rather than let him in.
She was clearly trained, or had much experience with doctoring. She hardly spoke until she was touching me, drawing my mind away from the sting of her washing my back and onto an answer between the swallows of soup and bread she had given me.
The conversations where light and about things from memories to recent advents about her life with Ryker and how they met. –I’ll spare those details for a later date.
She cleaned my back, shoulder, calves and handed me a rag for me to finish the rest as she got up to get bandages and salves.

“So, why did my husband find you in the forest with a giant wolf?” She inquired on her way back to me.
“Wolfy! Where is she? What happened to her?!” I questioned, shocked to know I could have forgot about her for the time being.

I had mostly kept my comments to myself, in numb thought. So perhaps it isn’t so strange to think it’s possible for something like Fortian wolf having been forgot by a girl who just broke a high fever.

“Ryker told me the wolf hardly growled as he picked you up, and followed him home with you. I was in quite a shock when I went out to see why he was calling at me to open the door. He didn’t explain much more then he found you and the wolf, put you on the bed and said he was going back to get the buckets.” She informed me.

“How long was I asleep? Where is Wolfy now?”

“Dear, these are question you really should have asked when you woke up. You have been asleep for about….oh, three hours?” she leaned back and pulled a curtain over so she could look up at the falling sun. “Maybe four. And there is the wolf.” She pointed.

Sure enough, Wolfy was laying down right under the window with her head up and facing the forest. The wolf was content waiting and while this did spark in interest about her loyalty to me- a stranger, I felt a tinge deep in my chest, one that stirred emotions I so irritatingly could not leave behind.

Betty had washed my hair, helped me to dress and then stand while she replaced the blanket with a new one. With that all done, she told me I needed to get some rest and that she needed to finish her chores. I laid on the bed for what seemed like hours, scraped, cut, bruised and limp but alive. With so many things happening, it was amazing how much more I simply had the chance to just lay down and think. The advents where like river rapids and I was nothing but a piece of floating debris going with the torrent. It was time to stop this nonsense path and start fixing it the way I wanted it to go. My struggles where not just my own, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t fix the way they flowed.

I was foolish and rash, but I could still learn to do better.

“I will do better.” I said to myself, stressing the point so I couldn’t forget it. It was time to use more than my fist and my swords.

Ryker had left a few days after I arrived and informed Audrey of the advents that followed my leaving the palace; both agreed it would be a good idea to let me recover in the cabin. Audrey also sent Ryker back with a letter of his apology that also told me he wanted me to cool my head.
It took three weeks for my bruised ribs to heal, but Betty was sure to make me stay another week and by the end of it I was back to normal physically.

“So, what do you plan on doing when you leave?” Ryker asked me two days before I was set to leave.
From the giant wolf’s back I replied. “I am going to go back to the palace, from there I am going to talk to Isana and Audrey and tweak their plans. I will settle this all and then I’m going to reunite with my family.”

“Confident, are you?”

“By will alone, I’ll stop going with everyone else. I am so deeply rooted in these problems, yet I am tossed about with almost no interference.” I could feel a bit of anger tense up my throat but I soothed it over as I added while I scratched my new found pet’s ear. “I don’t mind acting something I am, right Iridescent?”

“That name is such a mouth full, why would you name it that?” Ryker asked with brow raised high.

“Look at these eyes!” I explained, flopping over Iridescent’s head to point at her opal eyes. “Tell me it doesn’t suit her while looking at her.”

“What are you doing to do with her, anyway?” He changed the subject.

“I suppose…I’m going to ride her into battle!”

“You can’t just….Are you serious or joking, I can’t tell.”

A knowing smile creeped over my features. “I am very serious. She will be a big part in my plan.”

“Lara, come here I need you to try this on!” Betty called from the house as she stepped out into the frosty air holding a rich red fabric.

I slid off Iridescent’s warm back onto to the ground covered in a layer of fresh snow. There was a satisfying crunch of the frozen ground each step I took to her, where I pulled the borrowed coat off and pulled on the requested garment from Betty.

“It isn’t common to see women wearing coats, so I was sure to make this one tapper in at the waist and I gave the tail a bit more length so it isn’t completely man-ish, given I know you will be wearing pants with it. The hood also has a bit more fabric so if you have your hair up, it shouldn’t snag or feel strange. “ She explained as I smoothed it out.

It reached a good four inch below my knees and the long sleeves were welcome in the cold. It fit my shape comfortably and I was able to move my arms with ease. It offered a similar flow to that of a cloak, but with thicker materiel and less likelihood of catching the wind and snagging who knows what.

“The dye to make this was terribly hard to find, thankfully I managed.”

I pulled the hood over my half up pony-tail and gave her a toothy smile. “I love it, thank you so much for making it!”

“Well, after telling me how you lost your last, I thought I could stand to make you something new.”

“It brilliant. I didn’t even know you were going to make it a coat.”

“I figured with your lifestyle, it would be safer.”

Softly a chuckle escaped and I nodded, knowing the truth in her words. It was a pleasant surprise, something new I could cherish and be reminded of nice times when I was going through rough patches. It served another purpose, one that showed I was not going to be a toy to Cymatilus.

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Yay update! And its fine that you haven't posted. It is terribly difficult to update consistently. I've tried and its rubbish when you stress yourself over it.

[katomorakwarrior]

ugh. . . it's been a long time. . .
refresh pathetic memory. . . who's Betty?