Chapter Ten

Rose and Rowen begin their second dy with a pleasent surprise and a not-so pleasent surprise

The Game

by omegax45

Chapter Ten

Rose awoke to the first light of dawn peeking over the trees, the bubbling of the nearby creek making her want to curl up and go back to sleep.  She slowly got up anyway, stretching away the last traces of sleep as her old instinctual routines kicked in.  She went to head into town to start her day and possibly find something to eat for breakfast when she realized that she was in an unfamiliar setting.  Where was she?  How did she get there?  Before she panicked, her sleepy mind reminded her of the game and she sat down by the dead fire, refraining from sighing in relief so as to not awake Rowen.  She collected vines and began making snares while she wait, not bothering to start another fire as it wasn’t that cold.

A moment later, Rowen groaned and stretched before sitting up and turning to see Rose with a  few snares already made at her side, humming a small tune as she worked.

“Good morning my dear,” he greeted her, “Did you sleep well?”

“Much better out in what I am used to,” Rose replied, “Don’t get me wrong.  The bed is wonderful at the castle, but I am used to sleeping on a hard surface.”

“I am most certain of that.  How long have you been awake?”

“Not long.  I thought to work on the snares while waiting for you to wake.  I have this one ready in a moment.”

“These are plenty enough,” the head butler picked one up, inspecting it, “Very nice.  I am certain we can catch something with these.”

“Thank you,” the poor girl blushed, “The hunters have taught me well.”

“Then let us put them to the test.”

They head out into the forest, exploring near their camp.  They could hear the complaining of the noble girls not far from them, most likely not enjoying their first night outdoors and away from their beds.  Rose could barely make out Octavia having a sparring match with Alexander using large sticks as swords.  They appeared to be having fun.  She was glad for them.

“Over here,” Rowen called, and Rose walked over to him.  He parted a curtain of hanging ivy and she gasped at the sight.

On the other side was a large open field, full of different color flowers.  Pink, purple, yellow, blue, white, and even red.  So many different types just one field… It felt like a fairy tale coming true before her eyes.

“This place is special for birds and butterflies,” the head butler explained, “They brought seeds from many lands and filled this once empty field with all of these flowers.  The servants like to come here and watch the butterflies come and fly around.  It is quite the show.”

“I… I never seen so many flowers,” Rose uttered in awe, taking a step forward, “Not even the flower lady in town has this many.”

“I suppose not.  Many of these flowers are not from this kingdom.  It is a miracle in itself that they can grow and flourish here.”

The poor girl continued to stare at the flowers, trying to burn the image to her memory to remember later.  It was like something out of a fairy tale her mother would read to her as a little girl, now come to life before her.  She then noticed something moving and leaned a bit closer to take a look, fearful that coming any closer would break the alluring spell of the field.  Rowen smiled softly at her before clapping his hands loudly, making Rose jump back in surprise.

The field came to life as a swarm of butterflies flew out of their hiding places and filled the sky with their colorful wings.  Rose moved back in shock and Rowen stopped her from behind, his hands on her shoulders in comfort.  Some of the butterflies landed on them, making the poor girl giggle at the tickling sensation of their wings and legs as they brushed her skin.  They watched the butterflies as they danced in the sky for several moments before they calmed and returned to the field of flowers, disappearing as if they were never there.

“We should head back,” Rowen said after a quiet moment, Rose nodding, “We can check the snares to see if we had caught anything.”

“Isn’t it too soon,” the poor girl asked, confused.

“We’ve been here since this morning,” he pointed at the sky, “It’s the afternoon.  We can always come back at another time.”

Rose noticed the sun high in the sky and wondered how she could’ve lost track of time so easily, her cheeks tinting a slight pink.  She turned away from the wondrous scene slowly and followed the head butler back.

They retraced their steps and found a dead squirrel and a dead rabbit in the snares.  Rose felt bad for the poor animals, but also knew it couldn’t be helped.  They were in need of the food, especially if their fish baskets fail to catch anything today.  They took the animals out of the snares and reset the traps before returning to their camp site, only to find a shock awaited them.

“S**t,” Rowen ran up to the camp site to see their shelter had been taken apart and the pieces stolen along with their firewood and fish baskets, “Who could’ve done this?!  Such unsportsman behavior!”

“The noble girls of course,” Rose replied calmly, “This is not surprising to me.  Even the poor are not above stealing from other poor people if it means surviving in a little better conditions for even a day.  The strongest survive on preying upon the weak. I’ve had many shelters I spent days making taken in the past until I learned to either hide my shelters where no one could find them or simply use a naturally-made shelter.  Most likely, the noble girls and their chosen men couldn’t find the materials needed or didn’t know how to make one, so they stole ours for their own benefit.”

“…I should’ve realized,” the head butler said solemnly, “Enemy soldiers would do the same thing if we didn’t fortify our camps.  I guess it was too much to ask for everyone else to play fair.

“At least we had the insight to bring our other supplies with us.  I should be able to rebuild the shelter again before dark once I skin the rabbit and squirrel.  Could you please leave me the pot and look for more firewood?”

“Of course.”

Rose took out the pot from her pack as Rowen took out the hatchet that had hung from a loop on the waist of his pants and set to work.  She had to move further into the forest to gather more sticks, the forest floor looking much cleaner than she had remembered.  She came back with a small amount to start a fire before heading back out for more along with ivy, using the fire to lead her back if she went too far as the sun began to set in the distance.  She could hear laughter from a distance and saw a camp fire not far from her, the bushes hiding the occupants.  She assumed they were the ones that ransacked their camp site, but chose not to confront them.  It would be pointless anyway.

Rose returned in time to find Rowen chopping down several thin threes before using them to recreate their shelter.  He had placed the skinned animals in the pot with their furs drying on a makeshift rack, string tight with ivy.  They worked quickly as they took note of the dark clouds in the distance coming closer to them, the promise of rain in the air.  Rose setup their bed rolls within the shelter as Rowen cleaned the hatchet before cutting the meat off the squirrel into strips and then set them on sticks to cook by the fire.  He then cut the meat off the rabbit and set the meat into a sack made from the rabbit’s skin, tossing the remains onto a flat rock far from their camp to keep scavengers away.

“Do you think it will rain tomorrow,” Rose asked as she stared at the darkened sky, not seeing a single star above.

“Most likely tonight,” the head butler answered, sitting down to wash his hands and the hatchet in the stream, “We won’t be able to get much done tomorrow, so it is a good thing we have the rabbit meat.  I would also like to move the fire closer to the shelter so the rain won’t wash it away, but we can do that before going to sleep.”

A sudden rumble of thunder rolled in the sky and they only had enough to take the cooked meat away from the fire and hid in their shelter before a sudden downpour fell upon them.  The fire sputtered out quickly as the small pit filled with water in mere moments, lightning flashing in the sky to illuminate the forest and their surroundings.

“Where’s the firewood,” Rowen asked, shielding his face from the wet wind as he looked around.

“Right here,” the poor girl pointed to a bundle of sticks in the middle of their shelter, “I also put everything here too.”

“Good girl,” the head butler smiled brightly at her before moving further inside, “I was worried for a moment we had lost everything.”

“Keeping anything you owned dry and cared for is the hardest thing for poor people like me,” Rose explained, “I had learned to either make some sort of sack with whatever I could find and fill it with pieces of cloth and placed my items in the middle, or seek a shelter to place them in temporarily.  Still can’t predict the weather, though, so I sometimes end up waiting for the rain to stop to dry everything out.”

“That’s alright.  You will learn eventually.”

They eat their dinner quietly, setting up a new fire pit for later.  Once they were done, they curled up in their bed rolls and went to sleep.  The loud thunder kept waking Rose up, reminding her of hard times.

One time in her early years, the poor girl had gotten lost in the forest while searching for berries to eat, having went without a meal since the previous day’s breakfast.  The rain was unexpected, and she was running around for shelter desperately.  A bolt of lightning struck a tall tree and she was almost hit by it as it fell to the ground before her.  She had quickly found a hollowed and rotten tree trunk and she squeezed herself inside, ignoring the insects that crawled around her and the broken pieces of the decaying wood that splintered around her as best as she could.  She did not get any sleep that night and waited until morning to find the river and clean off to start her day, her skin decorated with bites and stings from the insects that left her itching for weeks.  As luck would have it, she found an apple tree and ate what few healthy apples there were to fill her painfully empty stomach.  Since then, though, she had stayed away from the forest during a storm.

Now, Rose was back in a forest during a rain storm reliving that horrible night.  Her skin felt like the insects were crawling around her again, and her nose could barely smell the horrid stench of wood rot.  She knew she wasn’t alone this time and she wasn’t back in that hollowed tree trunk, but it didn’t ease her memories nor her anxiety.

She suddenly felt a warm arm wrapped itself around her waist and pull her towards a warm blanket.  Rowen.  He must’ve sense her unease.  She felt ashamed that he had woke up because of her, and she couldn’t help but greedily move closer to him and wrap herself in his comfort.  It had been so long she had such contact with anyone.  At most, she had brief hugs from Joseph and the prostitutes, but not long enough for her to bask in the warmth and safety an embrace could offer.  It felt so… wonderful.

After so many years of being on high alert and relying mainly on herself and Joseph and being terrified of those that would bring harm to her and Joseph without others to come to their aid, it’s nice to have another person to count on.

And, in a way, she felt that a part of herself was looking forward to being his wife when everything was over.  If he would have her, of course.

Author's Note

Finally got the font fixed. Sorry for the differences in each chapter.