Chapter Twelve: Beware The North: Part Two

“I would like to mail a letter, er, two letters.” I stated to the rotund man behind the desk. Carefully, I placed them onto the table in front of him, smiling.

“Where are you mailing them to?” He queried, disinterestedly.

I replied, “Just south of Yondrin. How much would that cost?” I opened the pouch carefully, not to reveal how much was inside, a trading trick Papa had taught me.

“One Crahavac for both of them.” The man didn’t even peer up from his book. “Envelopes are over there.” Expectantly, he held out his hand for the coin. Once it was in his palm, he bit into it. “Authentic. Now hurry up.” He shooed me over to the other table.

Irritated, I addressed the letters. I felt self-conscious writing Papa on the front so I addressed it Eric Stone at the Lonely Bard’s Inn in Yondrin, Caligeria.

As I placed the letters on the table, the man exclaimed, “Can’t you write any larger? How can you read your own writing?” He pushed it up against his face.

“It’s not that small,” I responded flatly. “Thank you. I hope you have a nice day.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You are not from around here, are you?”

“I’m from Yondrin. That is not far enough to notice a difference in speech, is it?”

“Well, no, but nobody around here is that polite. You weren’t raised in town though, were you?” He peered up from his reading finally curious. “Ah, I understand now, your parents are from else where.”

“My father is from this town actually. You are correct though. I wasn’t raised in the village, just a bit south of town in my father’s inn. Thank you again for delivering the letter. I have to be off now.” I scuttled out of the store before he asked about my mother.

The air had its summer warmth back, though the leaves on the trees showed signs of yellowing, approaching autumn. My concern though, was in the grey layers of cloud looming over the sky, threatening rain, even lightening.

The first droplet fell in front of me as I ambled to the shop to say a final goodbye and retrieve Dill after his boots were fitted. Soon after, the rain steadied into occasional drops; I groaned at the thought of slogging through mud all day.

“Was that what Sleepwalker meant? Maybe the rain is heavier in the north?” I mused on it. After my nightmare the previous night, I had laid awake in bed until the time was decent. As the bell chimed on top of the door, I entered the musty shop.

“Thank you, Mr. Stone. For everything.” Dill gripped my grandfather’s hand in a tight shake. “The boots are phenomenal,” He wriggled his feet in them.

Though new, the black leather was already soft. The soles were a hard material, entirely unworn. The similarities to my own boots were striking with the thin cloth laces crisscrossing toward the bottoms of Dill’s britches; my eyes traced their path upward.

“Jenny, what are you doing?” Armadillo asked with one eyebrow raised.

Blushing, I cleared my throat. “Eh…counting the…floorboards,” I replied hastily. “You disrupted my focus though. I lost count,” I lied. “Hello, Uncle Evan.”

He chuckled. “Hey, Jen. You set to be off? You don’t need anything, do you?”

“No, Papa made sure I had just about everything that could fit into this bag before I left home.” I grinned. “Thanks for everything.” Anxiously, I checked the time, half past eight. “Well, this is already a later start than I hoped to have. I promise my next visit will be longer.” Tightly, I embraced my uncle. Then I offered my hand to my grandfather.

Smiling, he hugged me without shaking my hand. “I may not be one for too much affection, but I should at least show some to my granddaughter.” He winked at me. “Armadillo, you are fine young man. Keep her safe.” Firmly, he grasped Dill’s hand.

“I will try my best, but she has a knack for trouble,” He promised, pushing his glasses up to his eyes as they slid down his nose with their girth. “Thank you both.”

With a few more waves, we started walking out of town. For a few hours of travel, the grey clouds loomed overhead ominously. When the wind drastically increased, the leaves rustled endlessly around us. The trees’ limbs shuddered threatening to break. The sky darkened into near blackness. Rain started to fall heavier than the pitter previously; large droplets surrounded my vision in a veil of water.

“You don’t think that there will be lightning, do you?” I asked over the uproar of the deluge. My voice didn’t seem to pass through the barrier of rain falling down on and around me. “Dill!” When he turned, I yelled again, “Do you think there’ll be lightning?”

“I don’t think so,” He hollered back. “We’re coming to the fork. Stay straight.”

Realizing that he knew nothing of my conversation with Sleepwalker, I simply nodded to his notion. “Dill, I’ve been having nightmares,” I shouted.

“No, I don’t think there are any bears. Only in the east,” He replied.

Groaning, I called again, “No, not bears! I’ve been having nightmares!”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Biting chairs? Jenny, I can’t hear you well. Perhaps-” Before his words were out, a sharp crackling grumble broke across the sky.

Soon after, a flash of light erupted from the clouds.

In my startled state, I had latched onto Armadillo, clinging desperately to his arm. Thankful for the darkness to hide my ruddy cheeks, I detached. “Sorry, I…” I could not think of an excuse except for him being the closest person to me at the time.

“You were frightened. There is no reason to apologize for that.” Streams of rain showered down his spectacles and down his face. Darkened by rainfall, his hair stuck to his face. After another piercing crack of thunder and lightning, Dill stated, “Do you want to go back into town? It would not take so long, only a few hours.”

“I am sure that there is another town nearby. It should not take too long,” I responded over the heavy violent burbling of the rainfall and the occasional cracks of the thunder and sparks of lightning. My dress was soaked through and my boots nearly were too. My hair had cemented itself onto my scalp downtrodden by the pellets of water.

“If you are so sure…” Dill sounded doubtful. “Are you alright to walk in the thunder though? You seemed petrified a moment ago. I nearly lost feeling in my arm,” He asked with as much concern as possible when you need to scream to talk to someone.

“I am fine, really. I do not even think that it’s noon.” My voice hurt from having to roar over the elements. “Perhaps, we should stay silent for a while.”

“Good idea, conserve our voices.” He nodded in assent and forged the way through the glop of mud forming beneath the puddles in the road. Unfortunately for him, his new boots were coated in mud and had already lost their sleek black coloring.

After a long while of trudging through mud and rain, the storm eased. Only pale grey clouds remained. They looked weak in comparison to their darker counterparts.

Dill shook the water from his hair after removing his glasses. He was dripping; we both were. “Perhaps, we should stop and take a moment to collect ourselves?”

I wrung out my hair first and then the skirt of my dress. “Well, that was awful.”

Lingering thunder grumbled, a warning to me as if not to insult it. A shatter of lightning followed, another sign to proceed with caution.

My knapsack was soaked through as well. My extra clothing was sopping wet, the small supply of food I had was ruined, all of my journal entries were blotted, the professor’s book was ruined except for her own writing on the back page, but at the very least, my pocket watch was entirely unharmed and ticked gleefully with each second.

“I see your watch made it. That’s good. I’m sorry about your journal though.”

Water dripped down my face. “Do not be sorry; you did not make it rain.” I wiped it away. “Do you want to stray from the path and make a camp for the night?”

“Sure, that is no problem.” He led me off into the eastern woods lining the road, where the canopy of trees glistened with the day’s rain.

Drops reverberated through the forest walls and the quivering leaves unnerved me each time the wind blew. In the moisture, the bark from trees peeled off and fell down.

Clumsily, I trailed behind Armadillo. I continuously stumbled over the slippery grasses and the mud. When he stopped at a clearing, I asked, “How did you know how to find a clearing? That’s…odd.” I peered around; he simply stared broodingly. Lightening the dark mood, I speculated, “Good thing that there are no waterfalls at this one.”

A smile cracked through his face, even reaching his eyes. “Do you know the time? I am far too tired for it to be early.” He picked up a small branch. “Would you like a fire to dry some of your belongings?” There were dark smudges under his eyes.

“It is about quarter past the sixteenth. And a fire would be nice. Thank you. Are you alright?” I queried, helping him to gather the slightly wet woods for the fire.

“No, I have been a bit troubled since we left my parents house. I know I seemed quite merry around your family, but between your words and theirs, well, I am disturbed by my father’s behavior and how much I once revered him. It is odd to find out your greatest role model is a crook.” Sluggishly, he sorted the wood we had collected.

“I meant you no trouble by saying that. I was upset. My words were nothing.”

He shook his head solemnly. “They were not nothing, Jenny. They were truthful. I only hope that he will take your words and turn himself honest. Your father seems like a good man. I hope to meet him someday.” He offered a wry smile to me, small and sad at once as he struck the branches against one another. “If I manage to light a fire, it will be smoky. Are you okay with that? Aha!” With one final flick of his wrists, he caught the wood in a hazy flame. Then he set the rest ablaze with that.

The smell was comforting on the bleak day, but Dill and I were both quiet and reflective at the moment. The smoldering fire stung my eyes when the wind sent it in my direction. Dill’s glasses acted as a shield from the smoke’s smart sensation.

“Earlier,” his voice was soft. “You mentioned something about biting chairs?”

I clarified, “I said that I was having nightmares. There’s this man in my dreams. He’s not quite a man though. He is about twice my size, tall and lean, with no face. He says that he appears in everyone’s dreams in someway or another. Yesterday, he appeared to me outside of a dream as an actual figure. That is why I ran into the woods. He warned me about going into the north, saying that I should go west instead. But he said I would travel westward anyway, but I assumed that storm was his warning yet I see no reason to go west. I had hoped you could offer some perspective.”

“Interesting. Do you think that he hoped in your paranoia about his warnings that you would eventually take his advice and travel west because of his warnings?”

“I did not even think of that. He may be trying to goad me into going there, but I don’t see the purpose of that when he still finds me whether I am at the inn or elsewhere.”

He pondered this problem for a bit longer. “I have no idea. Your food is all mush now, isn’t it? Here, lucky I brought along some as well.” With a grunt, he tore a bit of meat and handed it to me. “Enjoy.” His voice held a hint of sarcasm in it.

“Thank you.” I munched contemplatively. For a while, neither of us offered any conversation. Somehow the rain had soaked not only our clothes, but also the light airy connection that had finally passed Armadillo and I into the realm of actual friendship from traveling companionship. The thought only dampened my mood more. Soon enough, I began to muse on my search for my mother in the first place. When I grew frustrated, tears trickled from my eyes down my cheeks. “How could I be so stupid?”

“Jenny, are you- are you crying?” His tone was a combination of surprise and horror. “Are you okay? Did I say something wrong or was it that I said nothing at all?”

“It’s not you. I’m just thinking how impossible this whole search is. How could I have hoped to find one woman’s location in an entire country? Maybe even the entire world! It was so foolish. I should just head go where I am actually needed.”

“Jenny…” His voice trailed off. He tilted my chin up. “Jenny, you are going to find your mother. I will make sure of it.” Smiling, he wiped a tear from my cheek.

“Dill, are we actually…you know, friends? I mean two days ago, I met you and we bickered and now it just seems-” My words were jumbled in my blubbering state.

“We are friends. I actually only had a few friends growing up. There was Chester, who was a bit light in the head. I mean, seriously light, he did not have enough sense to not walk in front of a speeding carriage. And Eddie, he was…the rougher of us. He gave me a black eye once. I gave him a headache. There was Billy who had teeth larger than a horse’s. Ironically, I think he apprenticed to make false teeth for a living.”

Entranced, I sniveled, “Who were you in your little group?”

“Do you need to ask? I was the brain of the group, but once we finished schooling, we never spoke much. They were just schoolmates. We all have our old schoolmates, right? True friendship comes from compatibility, not an old classroom.”

 “I wouldn’t know. I never went to school. My only friend is my father really.” I wiped my eyes, ridding them of tears that hadn’t fallen yet. “And you, now I suppose.”

The darkness had returned, but this time it was not of a storm and we had a fire.

“Are you feeling better?” He asked tenderly. With my nod, he suggested, “We should probably get some sleep. It’s been an awful day, hasn’t it?”

“Dill, why did you tell me about your schoolmates?” I wondered.

He beamed at me, rolling his dried shirt to use as a pillow on the ground. “To distract you. It worked better than I thought it would.” He snuggled into the ground near the dying flames, which even in their weakness still had dried most of our belongings.

I yawned, “Shouldn’t we pack this stuff up for the night before we sleep?” My eyelids drooped slightly. Even my head throbbed with sleep deprivation.

“Why bother? Our stuff isn’t going anywhere is it?” Armadillo grumbled.

I rolled one of my own dresses into a cushion for the night. As soon as I rested my head on it, I knew that our belongings were going to hang all night. Even so, I was only able to capture a few hours’ repose before Armadillo tried to wake me.

“Jenny, get up.” Dill whispered, urgency and desperation were in his tone. His voice was right in my ear. When I creaked my eyes open, he commanded, “Do not open them any further. I need you to pretend not to speak or understand Caligerian, okay?”

Before I answered, strong rough hands ripped me up and pinned me to a tree.

Author's Note

Do you think Jenny and Dill's friendship was formed too quickly? Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for reading.