Chapter Two

Second chapter in a book i am writing.

"What's the matter, Sess?" Kwin asked as he rolled out of bed. "What's this thing that's been bothering you of late? I can see it in your face where everyday the sun gains vigor from and blesses us with good weather, but lately it has cast a shadow of rain wherever you go. Tell me, what's wrong?"

"It's only…" started Sessa before changing her words. "Do you remember what you told me that man from the East said to you? It was a few moons ago, but I have not forgot. Each day seres as a reminder for me, with a new family coming through the Brook every week… at first. Now more than not there is a new one every day."

Sessa's tone was a worried one, and as she spoke she shook her head slowly from one side to the other. Her crimson locks took turns slipping over her bare shoulders to fall along the front of her, framing her freckled cheeks and following her neck down to linger on her chest, caught by her hand clenched in front of her, a fist full of cloth as she held a blanket around her. Kwin could see the lines of her body faintly through the cloth in the early morning light, a prelude to the sunrise.

"It worries me… I know that what they say are just tales, more talk of the sour wind and of animals acting strangely, all stories that have been told in circles so many times none of them can remember who they heard them from first!"

Sessa sighed as she sat on the bed next to Kwin while he was finishing getting dressed, pulling on his socks. "I just get the feeling…" She paused. "even if none of them actually know what's going on for sure or have seen what they're talking about, it's not a good sign."

Kwin gave a laugh, "Well of course it's not a good sign!" He stood and synched up his belt. "The only good thing it could be a sign of is the money they'll spend while travelling through, but even that isn't much. Seem's they've all spent their coin on carts and supplies, else are very prudent."

"On the coast they say that when they see all the rats running for higher ground-"

"They're not rats, Sess…"

"I know that, but that's not what I mean. The point is that they don't know what stories the rats could tell, they can't be sure if they're lying and are running from nothing. The Harbour towns just trust them and follow them inland before the waters rise up and claim what they wish."

Kwin nodded as he rolled up the sleeves of his tunic. Sessa always enjoyed watching him do this, seeing his eyes focused on his arms as he struggled with the folds getting tighter around his forearms. He always did a sloppy job and though she knew it made no matter in the smith with Hall all day, she would unfold his sleeves and roll them up for him again. This happened most mornings but neither of them would break the pleasant tradition of having her save him by asking first.

Sessa continued as she stood and unrolled his sleeves.

"And I'm sure the first time they saw the rats running they paid no mind, until they saw the water rushing after. That is what frightens me, love. I don't want us to be bodies washed up in the surf for others to learn a lesson from. I don't care if their stories aren't convincing, they're actions are, and I wish to follow them!"

Sessa's voice suddenly sounded pleading, as if they had had this conversation many times before.

"Settle down, Sess, relax. Whatever might be coming isn't waiting just outside of Brook for us, it is a long way off. There is no reason to be frightened now." Kwin took her hand and held it with both of his. "Come," he said, "walk with me to the smith and we can talk about this. The sun is rising and you know how lovely you are when the first fingers of sunlight run through your hair. I wish not to miss that this morning."

The sun broke over the south side of Maron's Tower, the lone mountain peak that stabbed the Eastern sky, letting everyone know that summer had only just begun to grow shorter. A few moments later and their path was lit before them. There was no cobbled road leading to their house, only a trail beat into the ground after years of being trodden beneath the feet of two lovers.

"Hall and I have had good enough fortune this last year, Sess, and I am lucky enough to have someone as him who I can trust with my tools. The Easterners may not have much coin for drink or women, but their horses need shoes and their axes sharpening. Hall may not be able to fashion a helmet to save his life but I trust he can handle the smith for now." Kwin kissed her cheek as they came to the bottom of the hill and so to the edge of Brook. "I will speak to him today about taking over the smith for a while and we can go west until we can be sure there's nothing to be scared of. Does that sound as something that would put your mind at ease?"

Sessa kissed him on the nose as they passed Oryan's Inn. "Okay," she told him, "but you must promise me this will be our own adventure, together, and that you won't be doing this just to shut me up!"

She pushed him away playfully and they were still laughing when they approached the Smith. Hall was already there, standing on the lowest step of a latter hanging their shop sign. "Smith in the Brook" it read, as large as Hall's chest with yellow letters painted overtop of freshly painted but well weathered brown wooden slats.

"Ahoy! Good morning to the both of you love bir-" Hall turned around when he heard them approaching, almost falling and dropping the sign. He regained his balance clinging desperately to the sign as one half of it hang from one of the designated hooks.

Sessa ran over to him to help him down, laughing as she spoke, "now if only you were a little more extra tall you wouldn't need this silly latter! Kwin, why haven't you two built something for this? God's know even a rock would be less dangerous than this thing."

Kwin shrugged.

"Thank you, dear, you always were the better of two of you. Kwin here would have left me to fall to my death, the devil! And then rest assured not but a few moments later he would come to stand next to my poor lifeless body and wake me from the cold hands of death with the four words that would make even a worm roll his eyes… "Get back to work!" The slave driver!"

Hall was acting out his words very dramatically for the lady's enjoyment, so much so that Kwin was not worried about it sounding convincing to his wife. Still, he thought he had better clear things up.

"now, Hall, you and I both know I'm not the one who keeps you here. If I recall, you're here to use my forge to repair your own equipment. I'm more than happy to let you do that for the return of some light work around the smith."

Hall was grumbling but not objecting, climbing the first step of the latter again and hanging the sign on its second hook.

"Well don't you work him too hard," Sessa skipped over to Kwin and slung her arms around his neck as his found place around her waist. "He still has to be able to run the shop while we're gone!" she smiled and kissed him once more. "Now, I'm going to go see Ghillie about some things we'll need for travel, and to ask about any news from the west we should know."

She turned as she stepped on to the cobbled road that would take her through Brook and called out, "I miss you already, my adventurous knight!"

Kwin smiled and looked at Hall, making sure he was loud enough for Sessa to hear him, "IS IT EVENING ALREADY, HALL? IT SEEMS THE SUN HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO SET, ELSE MY WORLD HAS JUST DARKENED WITH THE ABSENCE OF MINE OWN STAR."

Kwin turned his head to see Sessa laughing as she rounded the corner.

"You certainly have a way with women, Kwinnie." Hall was standing beside him now, sign hung and latter under his arm.

"No, you have a way with women, my friend. I have a way a woman, only one, and I believe she's all I'll ever need."

"Well while you were talking to your only woman did I overheard something concerning myself and looking after the smith? What's all this about?"

"Next time try using your ears to keep your balance as sharp as your hearing and you may not almost fall to your death every time you stand on a latter… yes, you heard correctly, I meant to speak with you about it later in the day, but it seems now is a good a time as any." He led the two of them through the open doorway and into the smith, the fires were already going, the coals hot and glowing. By the looks of the room Hall had showed up quite early and was tinkering with some old plow and a few other tools of his by the looks of it. A Hoe with no handle, an old scythe, and a few wheels.

"Hall… What are you up to with these? I thought you were repairing your equipment, not putting them all together as one… What use is this to you now?"

"I thought it didn't matter what I did to my own tools?"

"it doesn't," Kwin admitted, "but it does raise some questions as to your competency when I see a plow with a scythe attached to it and the blade of a hoe where you should be standing. What is this? And why are there wheels in every place there shouldn't be? Are you sure your plow wasn't broken until after you brought it in here?"
"It will all make sense with enough rope, but you would probably think I'm silly so I won't bother explaining it to you. Now, do you suppose me to run the shop alone while you're gone with wifey?"

"Well now I'm not so sure…" Kwin was still eyeing the contraption, spinning coming off one of the handles of the plow with a finger.

"You know this don't mean anything, right?" Hall pointed at his plow and dismissed it with a gesture of his hands. "I can do it, Kwinnie, it's not a difficult thing to run once you've been taught."

"Oh really?"

"…Maybe figuring out what needs to be done when no one has done it before, that probably takes something I ain't got." Hall wasn't the smartest, and not dumb by any means, but he knew enough to not to get himself in situations he can't get out of by pretending he knew something he didn't. Kwin thought that seemed like a rare enough quality in people and was glad his friend commanded it. He patted Hall on the shoulder before explaining what he and Sessa had discussed.

"She's scared, she doesn't like all the Easterners running for the west and not knowing why. Her sister lives near the capitol, in Brin, I doubt she's forgotten that but she has yet to mention it. I believe that's where we will go. I do not know how long this will be for, it will take use at least a month to arrive in Brin, and that is if the weather is good to us and we do not have any trouble."

"Trouble?" Hall scoffed, "The only trouble you'll get with Sess by your side will be travelers offering their coins for her to turn around just to pass by them again."

"You know what I mean." Kwin was serious but did appreciate what Hall was saying. "There are roads between here and the capitol that are not as friendly as the rest, and at times there are long stretches between one town and the next. Though they may not be a great distance for the birds, to be the safest one must follow the roads, and the gods must have been drunk when they gave the first men their maps."

Hall snorted a laugh, "Bless those raving map makers…"

"So my friend, how does this sound? Sess and I will leave in a few days once we have readied ourselves and prepared the horses. I will give the smith to you in my leave, and you can welcome yourself to half the profits, so long as no tools are broken. They do break, however, and I expect you to either repair them as I would were I here or to purchase a new one for the shop as soon as you are able, or more likely as soon as a merchant comes this way. You may use the forge and anything else herein as you need, whether to build your contraptions or to actually repair your equipment, it makes no difference to me, so long as the shop keeps half of the profits and you keep it from burning down. We will be gone at the very least for two months just counting the time we will need to travel there and back again. I believe it will be a longer journey than predicted though, I doubt there has ever been a journey made with a worried woman that the gods deemed fit to come to an end when first planned!"

"You know, I once met a woman who was worried of the dark walk home after the harvest celebrations… I offered to guide her if she would have a drink with me. Well, we shared several and I still don't remember if we ever made it back to her house but I'll be damned if I don't wake up with her glaring over me most mornings!" Hall slapped a beam as he laughed and as he did Kwin could see dust falling from the ceiling.

"So it's settled then?" Kwin wanted to be sure Hall understood.

"Aye, you won't have a thing to worry about s'long as someone doesn't come through here looking for a fresh set of armour. I'll keep this place in good order, not to worry."

"I hope you won't give me reason to. Now, before we get this thing of yours out of the way to work on those hinges that we should have ready by midday, I want to say one thing."

"and just what would that be, little kwinny?"

Kwin rolled his eyes at the nickname.

"Please, keep your women out of here. I do not need to explain to Hender how the mark from one of my brands has come to mar the skin of one of his daughters' a*s."

Dust fell from the ceiling boards once more as Hall found this hilarious.

"Come on, you know that won't happen!"

"I know it won't happen, I'm not asking for it to not happen, I'm asking for it not to happen AGAIN. …Let's get to work…"

 

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"Hi Ghillie!" Sessa quickly greeted the old woman as she flew in the door, going straight towards a wall of jars before suddenly stopping, sitting on her haunches and pulling a jar out from the wall to read it. "What is… "J'hara leaf"? Is it a thing to take on long trips?"

"Slow down, babe. If you hadn't of spoken I wouldn’t have known where you were, you move too quickly for my eyes to follow now." The old woman made her way towards Sessa, following where she heard the voice coming from, looking around for the girl. "You found J'hara quickly enough, yet I cannot find you, dear."

"Down here!" She was smiling up at Ghillie when the woman's eyes found her, holding up the mostly empty jar of dried leaves.

"Ahh, there you are. My, you don't look dressed to be leaving on any sort of journey, not with that dress! It would get caught on a root not but a mile down the road and you would be donned in only a few threads by the time you reached wherever you're planning to go."

Sessa looked down at her dress, it was a light blue decorated with darker blue four pronged stars throughout. It was ankle length and very modest as far as what was revealed, but it quite shapely above the waist, a style the older women of the Brook thought was provocative to be worn without special occasion or outside of either the bedroom or dining hall. Ghillie, Sessa knew, was quite understanding though, and the old woman would often ask her where she could have one made for herself so the younger boys would look at her the way they did Sessa. There would always be a moment of naïve hesitation in the air before Ghillie would start laughing about the thought of it.

"Oh, I'm not leaving just now," she explained, "Kwin and I are planning a trip to the West to see where all these travelers are going to!"

"Is that what you two are doing? Hmm, well then you best not take any of the J'hara leaves, all they do is ward off bad dreams when brewed into a tea. The same men you're keen to follow west are the reason why I have so little left, it appears that they all have some demons following them of which they wish to forget." Sessa put the jar back where she pulled it from the wall after Ghillie pointed for her to do so with a bony finger. "over here… or is it… yes, over here. This may be something you could find some enjoyment in on your long journey…"

Sessa was handed another jar with a mixture of what looked to be pine needles and dirt. She looked at the label and then to Ghillie.

"What is "Krokko's Vigor"?" she asked, puzzled. She had never heard of this before.

"Oh child." Ghillie sighed before reached for the jar, taking it from Sessa's hands and having a memory come across her face. "This is just Krok, Krokko's Vigor is much… MUCH more potent, so much so that ladies like myself stopped producing it, as much a concern for our own safety as our customers'!"

She looked back Sessa, meeting her puzzled look with her own reminiscent smile. "You're confused, I see. Well, let us just say that if you snuck a few pinches of this into Kwin's meal, which, let me tell you," Ghillie paused to giggle before continuing, "that is a very hard task to accomplish, it tastes dreadful. If you did succeed though, let's just say that your trip would be twice as long, three times as hard, and you would need four legs to carry you along your path!"

Sessa could tell the old woman was trying to wink at her but Ghillie's eyes were already so closed with age that they looked like very pale, dry lips being pursed together, only that one was trying to chew.

"A tip from the wise," Ghillie suggested with a smile, "is that you ride like the ladies in the capitol do, and have both your feet to one side."

"Ghillie!" Sessa blushed and held her mouth agape with disbelief as she looked at a Ghillie she had never known before. "This isn't what I meant I needed for a long trip!"

Ghillie put the jar away. "I know, dear, but the youthful rarely know what they need… Here," as she spoke she pulled out a number of jars, all of them looking very poorly filled, "these are what you're looking for. I apologize for the amounts I can offer but these travelers we are seeing so much of seem to have a use for just about everything. Here, Glaston's root for any stomach pains you may come across while drinking water from pools or creeks. It also helps to see in the dark if that's what you need. Some leaves from the tilcum tree, they should stop any bleeding you have when set with pressure, and they will also prevent infection, so long as you clean the wound beforehand. Hmm, oh yes, and this!" She held up a jar with the remnants of some kind of paste inside the colour of moldy bread. "To tell you truly I don't remember what they call this, but it comes from the nests of the nobal bird. A small amount of this and your belly will feel full for a day and you will have energy enough to find shelter, or food, or simply to stay awake for the long road."

Sessa was grateful for what was offered, but could not hide her disappointment in the amounts available.

"I am sorry, babe, I wish I could prepare you as I should, but I just don't have the supplies, I can hardly keep up the stock of Bey's root for horses, and it grows absolutely everywhere! But don't tell the men from the East, they don't know what it looks like above the root…"

"Thank you so much, Ghillie, I wouldn't want anyone else to see me stocked for this trip who was not you." As she offered payment for the items the woman objected.

"Oh, no! That is much too much for what you have there, please, do not insult me, Sess, I know neither of us has much coin to spare but I will not take from you what I haven't earned. Here, half that, that's good." As she pocketed the few coins she was struck with a notion intense her eyes opened wide enough for Sessa to see that they were, in fact, there. And blue.

"Oh!" she shouted, "I do have something else for you! It would be useless for you to take it, but maybe what I can tell you about it will be of some help." She scuttled to a far corner of her shop and moments later was back before Sessa.

"This! This is Heldon's Hope, an incredibly useful little plant, if you can ever find it." She held up a small jar for Sessa to study. Inside was a single leave, rolled up and dried. The veins of the leaf were a pale yellow against the ashen green of the flaking leaf.

"It's said to grow all over the known world. History, or legend, as the younger families call it now, has it that when Heldon the Hopeless, the youngest and most disappointing of sons to his father Sir Sij, left the capitol, it was before the roads had been completed and maps were not yet commonly sold. He was lost the moment he set foot out the gates and he wandered for years, one misfortune after the next. They say he was robbed so often that he was walking naked for the last year. When he finally found the N'hari dessert in the south he thought he had found the place where he would die. He walked into that wasteland prepared to die of thirst, but a storm followed him and before he had lost sight of the trees the waters poured down on him like they have never done before, and he was swept away in a wave so strong it would have taken buildings with it. Deeper into the dessert he tumbled, for so long he couldn't begin to guess where he had been taken, and when the water calmed and sank into the sand Heldon opened his eyes for the first time since the rains began to protect them from the mud. What he saw was endless, an infinite wasteland of watery sand and dirt."

Ghillie apologized and slipped away for a moment before returning while chewing some grass Sessa was not familiar with.

"Stark Grass," Ghillie said, "fairly useless stuff, but it keeps your mouth moist. When you're old like me it's a rather useful thing, you'll see. One day! Now, where was Heldon when I stopped… yes, when he tried to look down all he saw was sand, he had no body. It was that he was buried up to his neck in the now drying mud. He was utterly stuck. What did he do? What could he do? He stayed right where he was. For two days he stood there, vigilant, watching for any speck on the horizon that might save him, and preying they didn't. Then on the third day he was spotted, not by any would-be rescuer mind you, no. It was the Jekkers what found him, those nasty birds. They swooped down at him and tore his face open in the sun. one sat down beside him and pecked his eye right out of his skull!"

Ghillie pretended to do the same to Sessa with her hand.

"Hey!" The quick word was all she could get out before the story continued.

"They pecked and they clawed for two more days. Heldon had only shreds of his scalp left to him, one eye, and no lips. It was only after the Jekkers had started their toying with him did Heldon the Hopeless wish not to die. If that was the pain of death he felt, he wished to put it off forever. So he prayed and he prayed for another flood to wash him up out of the sand and out of N'hari, but no such rain came. He kept his eye trained on the horizon in search of clouds but no clouds came. He stayed focused for so long, even through the jekker attacks, that he failed to notice something happening right below his nose.. A small single leaf, very much like the one you hold in your hand now, grew in front of him. When these leaves are fresh they are very plump and those yellow veins shine brightly, even at night. And it was the night of the fourth day that Heldon spied the glow just beneath him.

He tried and tried but could not reach the leaf, for it was too small to reach his mouth. He tried until his neck was sore and his muscles ached. Soon he found himself awakening once more.

On the fifth day the jekkers descended upon him a final time, tearing his ears off and deafening him with the sound of their beaks beating against his skull. On and on this lasted, all through the day until Heldon had thought he had gone mad and the beating he heard were the drums of the demons of hell.

As the jekkers left him for the night Heldon was as good as dead, he could no longer muster the strength to hold his head up or to open his eye. But as the moon sailed across the sky the small leaf in front of him grew. And it grew and it grew, right into his mouth! When he awoke he did so from a dream wherein he was a whirlpool in the ocean and was drinking all the sea, leviathans and ships too. When he opened his eyes his mouth was watering so much he had to cough to allow himself to breath. He chewed and he drank and he chewed and he drank. When there was no more of the leaf for him to chew he could feel his body once more, right down to his toes. He could move them and in moments could wiggle his fingers. Soon he was moving his arms and legs, little by little, lifting them only small amounts and having the sand fill the gap underneath them, slowly moving his way out of the ground. Half a day went by before he was fully out of the sand, and when he was he looked at himself, he looked as though he had been baked in an oven for 5 days, and he had been! But everything functioned as well as it did before he left the capitol, save for his eye which he was still missing. The leaf had healed him of everything, but it did not return to him what he had lost. Covering his face and the rest of his head were horrendous scars, fully healed but garish. His ears were still missing and had only few places where hair still grew on his head.

Yet still, he was so thankful that he had not known the pain of death that he sank to his knees and dug through the sand which he had just fought to be released from, and there, in the sand that had been his captor, his jailor, was his savior. A small pod, like that of a nutshell, was in his fingers when he brought them up from sifting through the sand. In that pod were numerous seeds for the leaf that had saved his life, and he vowed then and there to all the gods that cared to witness the birth of Heldon the Hopeful that he would spend the rest of his life giving these seeds to the people of this land.

With the strength he was given by both the leaf and his second life, Heldon made it out of the dessert. No one knows for sure which people or which village he happened upon first, but whoever was there was so afraid of Heldon's new visage that they ran from him or they would drive him away with flaming pikes or dogs, afraid that he carried with him a disease that would corrupt their towns."

"But," Sessa spoke up, "he just wanted to help.."

Ghillie only nodded.

"Heldon was heartbroken at this, but not defeated. He had vowed to a jury what would not be denied, and so he set out to the wilderness where no one would find him, where he would not scare anyone. It was there, and everywhere all across the land that Heldon the Hopeful planted his seeds, in the most remote of places, where he was safest and where if anyone found them, they would need it most.

Some say that Heldon roams the wildlands still, living an extraordinarily long life by nibbling on only the leaves his seeds would grow."

Sessa didn't know what to say, this sounded like incredible magic to her.

"If they're so powerful, why have I never heard of them before? And if they glow, why have I never seen them before when it is dark?"

Ghillie shook her head. "Darling, tell me… how far into the true wild have you travelled? How many mountain peaks have you kissed? When was the last time you were farther away from Brook than Lee's Lake? This journey of yours will be something quite different from what you're used to, and if ever you find yourself in absolute peril, look for this leaf. It is not common, but it seems to have a funny way of showing up just when it's needed most… That is my gift to you, free of charge so long as you bring me back a good story when you return. The leaf in that jar is too dried up to be any good to you now, but if I can use it show people what to look for, then it has many uses for me. Take that story with you and do not forget it. A long and fat leaf with veins that glow yellow."

"I will." Sessa assured, "I will not forget! Thank you so much Ghillie, your wisdom for these matters is always appreciated and I can only wish to one day be as knowing about them as you are."

Sessa headed towards the door and turned under the entrance.

"Ghillie?" She asked.

"Yes my dear?"

"How old are you?"

Ghillie just smiled. "old enough to know that how rude it is to ask that question, now get going!"

Sessa laughed as she turned and set out on her way.

"AND REMEMBER, THE LEAVES ARE PLUMP! AND FAT!" Ghillie called after her. When Sessa heard this she turned and walked backwards as she called back, "And the veins glow!"

"YELLOW!" Ghillie shouted, "THEY GLOW YELLOW!" but Sessa was already out of sight having rounded the corner of the tavern.

 

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