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batsutousaiSorry this took so long, I got distracted from writing because of a number of things, including work and school.
But it's up now! And I'm working on chapter 5, which will, hopefully, be done before the end of NaNo.
At this point, I know I won't make 50K words by the end, but I'm aiming for 30K.
Chapter Four -- Tales to Pass the Time
The next morning, the three travellers joined up in the hallway between their rooms just after the sun rose. Elspeth wasn't really looking forward to starting their journey again, since it meant she would get dirty again, and she just finally gotten a bath. But she needed to stop Finlay – without being killed by Lonán in the effort – and get to the capital city so she could keep Cathaír from destroying the world. At least she'd slept well the night before, despite being in a new place. Lonán looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, not that he didn't usually look like that.
The three went downstairs and Elspeth handed their two keys over to a yawning gentleman at the counter. He handed her a buttered roll for each of them as breakfast – a service the hotel offered that Elspeth hadn't expected to exist in this world – and waved them off. Elspeth distributed the rolls to a bouncy Finlay and a drowsy Lonán, then led the way out to the stables. As they were reaching the stables, Finlay said, "These are really good! Think they'll give us another?"
"We only get one roll each, Finlay," Lonán said in a tired monotone.
Elspeth smiled to herself and took a bite of her own roll. "Oh," she said, surprised. "These are good." It was, in fact, the best bread she'd ever had. It was warm, so she figured it must have been fresh.
"See?" Finlay said with a bounce. "Can we ask for more? Please?"
"Finlay, I told you no," Lonán grunted.
"Lonán's right, Finlay," Elspeth agreed regretfully. "And we need to get going anyway."
Finlay pouted, but didn't ask about going back and demanding more bread.
Elspeth was left to the task of getting Sulien's bag holder, then packing everything into it. She packed the bags so that the food was on the top and easily accessible, so they wouldn't have to hunt for it on the road. Then she took the lead and led Sulien out of the stall. "We're ready," she told the other two, who'd decided to laze against the wall. Lonán looked even groggier than before and Elspeth suspected he'd gone back to sleep while she'd been packing.
Lonán grunted and motioned for them to follow, then led the way out of the stable and out of the town.
The first couple of hours passed rather dully. Lonán led the way in a sort of trance, with Elspeth and Finlay following. Elspeth led Sulien, though she gave up on the lead after a while, since he followed her just fine without it on the empty road. Finlay created a new game of tease the donkey and continued to try and touch Sulien until he got bit because Sulien's lead was no longer restraining him. Elspeth hadn't even tried to warn him off since she figured that he had to learn on his own that the donkey didn't want him anywhere near himself.
Elspeth judged it to be about ten when other travellers started appearing on the road. A small group going the opposite way as them had the same colour skin as Bonnie had, so Elspeth assumed they were from Zeptel, which made her wonder how her friend was fairing. Another traveller was leading a line of horses and stopped them to ask after Sulien. He got bitten for his trouble when he tried to touch the donkey and threw curses back at them as he continued on his way to E'Fal.
As the sun was reaching its peak in the sky, Lonán called a break and lead them off to the side and under a tree. Once there, he looked warily at Sulien and asked, "If I try and get to my pack, will he attack me?"
"Uhm, probably," Elspeth answered honestly, then looked at the donkey. "Lonán needs to get something. Will you let him get to his pack without trouble?"
Sulien tossed his head and gave Lonán a dark look.
"I promise he just wants to get his things, okay? He's not going to do anything weird."
Sulien brayed angrily and tried to stomp his hoof like a horse, but he just looked ridiculous.
Elspeth sighed and gave Lonán a helpless look. "What do you want to get out?"
Lonán gave the donkey a dirty look, then grumbled, "There's a small bag of bread near the top of the sack. If you could hand that to me?"
Elspeth nodded and pulled the sack open. The bag had shifted a bit during the journey and was now under a few strips of salted meat of some kind, but Elspeth found it without too much difficulty and handed it over, then closed the sack and sat down near the two men, leaving the grumpy donkey tied loosely to the tree.
Lonán pulled a dagger that Elspeth hadn't know he'd had out of his boot and neatly sliced the bread into three pieces, took one for himself, then held the other two pieces out to the other two. They both took a piece, then started nibbling in silence.
When the silence got to be too much, Elspeth asked, "How long are we breaking today?"
"When the shadows move, like always," Lonán replied quietly. "Why?"
"Can you teach me something of the sword? I've never used one before."
Lonán sighed. "I don't know why you bothered getting one to begin with. You're an Elemental of Fire, which is about as good a close-range weapon as you're going to get."
"But I can't control it," Elspeth pointed out.
"You've gotten better," Lonán replied.
"Just because you have a weapon doesn't mean you should rely on it and it alone," Finlay commented, sounding like he was quoting someone. "It's always good to have a back-up plan."
Lonán scowled at his friend. "Thanks, chief," he said sarcastically.
Finlay grinned back. "No problem, boy!"
"Look," Elspeth snapped, breaking up the time between the two long-time friends, "I have the sword now, right? I might as well know how to use it. Then, if I'm disarmed, they'll think it's safe, but it won't be, because they don't know I'm an Elemental of Fire. It's like how you keep that dagger in your boot. I would have thought you completely helpless if I took your bow and sword, but you've got that dagger for when I turn my back."
"Or for cutting the bread," Finlay helpfully supplied.
"That too," Elspeth agreed. "So, will you teach me?"
Lonán let out a put-upon sigh and climbed to his feet. "I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a girl," he warned.
"If you went easy on me, I would never learn," Elspeth pointed out, standing herself.
Finlay scrambled up and out of the way as Lonán nodded. "Good point. Draw your sword and let's see your form." Once Elspeth had done as ordered, Lonán sighed heavily. "This is going to be a long day," he commented to himself, then stalked forward and re-taught her how to hold herself and her grip on her sword.
Mentally, Elspeth commented, 'This is not going to be easy...'
***
That night, when they settled down to eat dinner off to the side of the road, Lonán said to Elspeth, "So, tell us about your family."
Elspeth blinked at him dumbly, thinking fast. She was suddenly reminded of her great uncle once telling her to keep her lies minimal, so she would be less likely to mess them up and get caught. Her current story was all over the place, however, with Bonnie being her sister, her mother being an ex-noble from Dúil who was dead, and her father being a farmer in his childhood. So, basically, she'd given herself a sister and made a father for herself, but that were the only real differences from her real life in her world. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, so she sighed helplessly and said, "What do you want to know?"
"Where are you from?" Finlay asked, looking quite pleased at the chance for a story.
"Uhm, down the Kashum River a bit, on the other side of the road between Shvim and Halone," she said, thanking her lucky stars for her map and the knowledge that it was correct.
"Does that mean we won't be able to stop in and meet your father?" Finlay asked, looking saddened.
"Ah, no. Sorry, Finlay," Elspeth said with a touch of relief.
"What are – were, in your mother's case, I guess – your parents like?" Lonán asked, hoping to catch her in a lie.
Elspeth smiled faintly, thinking of her mother back home. "Mom was the nicest person in the world. She always understood me, even when the other kids – the ones in the nearest village, I mean – didn't get me. She taught me how to read and be a good lady, so I can get a good husband, of course," Elspeth finished, stumbling a bit.
"Do you miss her?" Finlay asked, eyes wide and filled with a child's curiosity.
Elspeth swallowed hard. "Very much," she almost whispered, then wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.
And she did miss her mother, she realized. Elspeth had been so busy cursing meddling gods and trying to fit in and everything else that she'd completely forgotten about her mother and how she wasn't home anymore. It was a rather sobering reminder, and she promised to herself that she would hug her mom as soon as she got home.
"What about your father?" Lonán asked, not seeming to notice or care about her emotional strife.
Finlay shoved his friend and frowned at him. "Meanie."
"What? I just asked her a question!"
Elspeth laughed at them and shook her head. "Father was a little strict," she said of her made-up dad, "but he loved us just the same. He grew up on a farm, and he would always tell us about the animals if we wanted to know something. When Mom died, he was a mess for a while; it was horrible to watch," she finished, remembering how her mother would sometimes get when something came up that had to do with her father. Her mom had really loved the bastard, and Elspeth had always hoped she wouldn't end up with a man like that.
"What about your sister, Bonnie?" Lonán pressed, leaning forward a little.
"What about her?" Elspeth shot back, feeling strangely defensive. "You met her, didn't you? Draw your own conclusions."
"But I want to hear from you," Lonán soothed. "Who was older? What was she like at home? Just because we met her doesn't mean we know her."
Elspeth huffed. "Bonnie's Bonnie. She was always kinda quiet and really helpful at home. She liked to work, do things with her hands. And she's older," Elspeth decided, thinking that Bonnie had certainly looked older than Elspeth knew herself to look or how Gwenonwyn looked in her dreams.
"Who taught you how to shoot?" Finlay asked, completely enthralled.
Elspeth seriously considered coming up with something completely ridiculous as an answer, or even just telling them the real truth – an instructor who came special for gym – but in the end decided to say, "Bonnie. Father taught her before Mom died and she taught me." That sounded reasonable, right?
"I see..." Lonán narrowed his eyes. "And why, may I inquire, is Bonnie darker than you?"
"Our hair?" Elspeth asked dumbly.
"No, idiot," Lonán spat, "your skin."
Elspeth blinked a few times, honestly confused by the question – darker skin wasn't something you noticed as a defining characteristic in the city, especially when it was the lighter-skinned who were the minority. Then she realized that Lonán, her dream boy, was talking about the colour of Bonnie's skin and puffed up angrily. "Why, you got a problem with her skin colour?" she snapped.
Lonán and Finlay both looked startled by her reply and traded looks. Lonán shook his head. "It's not like that, Gweno–"
"My sister's got dark skin," Elspeth spat. "So what? Piss off."
Lonán decided that Bonnie's different skin colour wasn't the way to go about catching Gwenonwyn in a lie about herself. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Let's change the subject?"
Elspeth glared at him for a long moment, then huffed and left the circle around the fire to go lay on her bedroll. "I'll take last watch. Good night."
"Wow," Finlay breathed. "She was really mad. At least she didn't set your hat on fire though, right?"
Lonán reflexively touched the feather on his hat and sighed. "Just a little."
"You'll take first watch?" Finlay asked.
"Yeah. Go to bed. I'll wake you."
"Okay! 'Night!"
Lonán shook his head and considered their female companion again: Elemental of Fire, uses a bow, crap with a sword, heading to the capital to find a husband, good at making things up, the donkey likes her, met because of Radha, dead noble mother, strict farm father, elder sister with darker skin. Very defensive about the fact that her sister's skin is darker than hers. Was it possible they'd had trouble with that nearby village she'd mentioned? That would explain her extreme reaction, he supposed.
Some of the things about her mother, as well as her sister, still didn't add up. Like, how could her mother have died after teaching Gwenonwyn how to read, but before properly instructing her in the Element of Fire? Why was Bonnie's skin darker? Why didn't Bonnie teach Gwenonwyn the sword as well as the bow, since the elder could clearly use both, if the sword Lonán recalled her wearing were anything to go by.
And he still didn't know why their strict father had let them keep all that money from their mother, never mind why he'd let them go off on their own to find their husbands.
The saddest part – in Lonán's opinion – was that most of her story fit together pretty well. And the sorrow from losing her mother had been painfully real. That look in her eyes had reminded Lonán of how he'd felt when his family and she had died. That pain, at least, was real, even if nothing else was.
***
"Fire," Finlay demanded the next morning, pointing at a fallen leaf on the road in front of them. Elspeth sighed and concentrated on the leaf. It went up in flames and the Fire went away. Finlay cheered.
They were back on the road again, with Finlay and Elspeth leading the way. Lonán dragged along behind them, too tired to care that they were destroying things in their path that didn't really matter. Elspeth had already refused four of Finlay's targets because they were either a too big, like the log in the forest he'd demanded that she blow up almost as soon as they got back on the road, or the rabbit that he said would be good for lunch.
Sulien was surprisingly complacent with a mistress who controlled Fire. Elspeth had been afraid he would become skittish or refuse her once she started using the Fire around him, but he didn't seem to care. He even went so far as to butt against her side when she looked back at him worriedly after the first leaf, as if to reassure her that he really didn't care.
"Fire," Finlay said, pointing at a leaf that was falling ahead of them.
Elspeth concentrated, but the leaf moved too fast, so the flame only appeared briefly in midair before going out.
"Awww..."
"What? Moving targets are harder to hit," Elspeth grumbled. "I wanna see you stab a leaf out of the air with that sword of yours."
"That's what archery is for, not sword-fighting," Finlay told her, then pointed up at a bird. "Lunch?"
"Burning that thing enough so that it noticeably falls would make it inedible," Lonán grumbled. "It's getting close to sun-high, let's find a place to stop off. And stop using the Fire."
"But it's fun!" Finlay whined.
"Yes, and if Gwenonwyn wants to use it as an advantage in case we're jumped, she doesn't want to use it where our could-be attackers will see it," Lonán snapped, then he pointed at a small clearing off to one side of the road up ahead a little ways. "There."
They pulled off into the clearing and the men sat while Elspeth got the food from Sulien's pack. The donkey still wouldn't let the two men near him, even in his sleep, as evidenced by the black eye Finlay had been sporting since his watch the night before. Elspeth had jokingly commented that at least they knew their food was safe from midnight snackers, but Finlay hadn't found it quite as funny as she had, and Lonán had been too tired to appreciate the joke.
After they'd finished their slices of bread, Lonán leaned back against the tree they'd sat under and pulled his hat forward over his eyes to sleep.
Elspeth and Finlay traded looks over Lonán's head, then snickered.
"I guess we'll be here for a while," Elspeth observed quietly.
Finlay nodded. "I think he dreamed of her death last night. He always sleeps badly and is grumpy after that," he said with the air of one who knows well the actions and pains of another.
"Who is 'her'?" Elspeth asked, confused. She didn't remember writing anything like that of Lonán. But, then again, a lot of Lonán's character differed from how she'd originally imagined him.
Finlay glanced worriedly at Lonán's dozing form, then stood and motioned for Elspeth to follow him away from the other man. Curious, Elspeth got up and followed him. She'd never expected Finlay to actually think about his actions and how they might adversely affect another. Perhaps there was more to Finlay than the simple idiot that he appeared at first sight.
"There was a girl who came to our village a few years ago from up north," Finlay said, eyeing Lonán's sleeping form. "She was... beautiful. The most beautiful person I've ever seen. The entire village fell in love with her, but she ended up choosing Lonán."
Elspeth was completely enthralled. "What was her name?"
"Ffion Torin," Finlay whispered. "They got engaged. They were supposed to be married in only three days, the whole village was celebrating, and I was going to be best man, but..." Finlay paused and looked worriedly at Lonán's sleeping form. "There was a group of soldiers coming from the base in Halone heading to southern Merun, where they were needed to quell a rebellion that could have threatened us. They stayed the night at a few people's homes, and Ffion offered one a bed. He did something to her, something horrible and she..." Finlay shook his head. "Lonán headed the search party that found her hanging in the woods."
"Oh no..." Elspeth whispered, horrified. She couldn't even begin to imagine the sort of emotional trauma that would cause a happy girl to hang herself, even if she'd seen such sorrow before in the deeper parts of the city. It wasn't something she could or even wanted to understand. "And... what of the soldier?"
"They laughed over it," Finlay spat, furious. "They laughed and told us it was too bad she couldn't live with herself after being touched by a real man."
Elspeth shook her head, hands over her mouth. To be so crude, even after destroying a people's happiness...
'Do you see?' Elspeth yelled to Gwenonwyn's consciousness, not even sure the other could hear. 'Do you see what your almighty father and his faultless soldiers have done? Do you still think them so great?'
But there was no response, if, indeed, Gwenonwyn heard at all, and Elspeth was left staring at the saddened Finlay with tears in her eyes.
Finlay cleared his throat and peeked over at the still dozing Lonán. "Tell me a story? Something happy?" he almost begged, once again the childish fool Elspeth had always thought he was.
Elspeth blinked, then wiped her eyes and nose with the edge of her sleeve and smiled faintly. "A happy story?" she affirmed, thinking quickly. The first thing that came to mind was Disney's adaptation of Cinderella, which she'd watched in elementary school, and thought to make it end the same, but tell differently. At Finlay's nod, she started, "Once upon a time, in a land not so different from this one, there was a young girl who lived with just her father, as her mother had died. One day, her father remarried to a woman who was as cold as a winter night and already had two daughters, who were both as cold as she.
"Not but a year after the marriage, the girl's father died, leaving her in the care of her uncaring stepmother. The stepmother, jealous of the love the girl received from her father, had her do the work around the house and made her sleep in the fire place, which earned her the name Cinderella.
"One day, when Cinderella and her step sisters were of age, the prince of the kingdom they lived in decided to throw a ball. Well, the step sisters were horribly excited and planned for days about what to wear. The stepmother only wanted one of her daughters to be queen, so she egged them on. When Cinderella asked if she could go – the invitation did say all eligible maids in the kingdom – her stepmother told her that she could go if she finished all her chores, and what a list that was!
"Cinderella worked from dawn till dusk getting those chores done. And the morning of the ball, she finally finished them and went to her stepmother for her allowance to go.
"But the stepmother denied her, for Cinderella had nothing to wear! She'd spent all that time cleaning and still wasn't able to go–"
"Why didn't she just steal a dress and go in one of her step sister's places?" Finlay interrupted, enthralled.
Elspeth shook her head. "Because that would ruin the story. And besides, Cinderella was too nice a person to do such a thing."
"She must have been, to put up with all that," Lonán commented quietly. When the other two looked at him in surprise, he nodded to Elspeth. "Go on, then, Gwenonwyn. What happens?"
Elspeth smiled. "Well, Cinderella helped her step sisters get dressed up in their fine clothing and saw them and her stepmother off, then she sat down on the front step and cried.
"At that moment, a little ball of light appeared next to Cinderella and turned into a tiny fairy. The fairy looked at the crying Cinderella and said, 'Now, now, child, what makes you cry such dreadful tears?'
"Well, Cinderella was so surprised at the fairy's appearance, that she stopped crying! 'I cannot go to the prince's ball,' she told the fairy.
" 'Why ever not?' asked the fairy. 'You are of a marrying age and pretty in your own right.'
" 'Why, I've nothing to wear!' Cinderella exclaimed, standing so the fairy could see her sorry kitchen rags. 'And no travel to get there but my own two feet, which will get too tired to walk before I reach the palace.'
"Now, the fairy had long lived in the garden of Cinderella's family. She knew of the kindness that Cinderella showed in the face of her stepmother's cruelty, so she decided to give the girl a chance. She said, 'I will give you a dress, and a carriage with a horse, too, but you must leave before the night ends, for my magic will also end then.'
"Cinderella agreed, and the fairy worked her magic. Suddenly, Cinderella was a beautiful maid who wore the most beautiful gown and fine, dainty slippers. A nearby pumpkin was turned into a coach and the family dog into a horse. Cinderella got into the coach and waved good-bye to the fairy as they rode away, the horse somehow knowing the way.
"When she got to the palace, Cinderella was welcomed as any lady would have been, and her step family didn't recognize her, for she'd always worn rags and been covered in soot. The prince was in love at his first glimpse of her and danced with her all night.
"The sun was just lightening the sky when Cinderella realized the time, and she fled so fast that she left behind one slipper, which the prince found and declared to all the kingdom that he would marry the maid who's foot fit that slipper."
"What's to say some other girl's foot won't be the same size?" Finlay asked.
"Hush," Lonán murmured, leaning forward. "It's a magic shoe."
Elspeth hid a smile behind her hand. "Yes, a magic shoe. And the prince, with a couple of his men, went all over the kingdom, in search of the shoe's owner.
"When at last they came to Cinderella and her step family's house, her stepmother had her shoved into the kitchen, saying something about the prince only looking for pretty girls to try the shoe on. But Cinderella snuck out the back door and met the prince on the walk as he left the house with rather a dejected air. She said she, 'My Prince, I live as a servant in the house behind you, but I beg, may I try that shoe on?'
"The stepmother, who had followed the prince and his entourage out of the house, sneered at Cinderella and said, 'She is but a peasant, my Prince. She was here the night of the ball, sleeping in the ashes.'
"But the prince shook his head and said, 'I do believe, madam, that my proclamation said that the shoe would be tried on all maids of a proper age, no matter their station.' Then he knelt before Cinderella and slipped the shoe onto her foot. It was a perfect fit.
"The prince rose to his feet and said, 'I believe I have found my princess.' He took Cinderella's hand in his and led her off to his carriage. And that was the last of her old home and of her evil step family that she ever saw," Elspeth finished.
Finlay was smiling next to a pensive Lonán. "So," Lonán said, "what happened to the step family?"
"Well, I've heard a couple different endings," Elspeth replied carefully. "One had them pretty much never appearing again. A couple had the youngest of the step daughters be kinder than her mother or sister, so she ended up living in the palace with Cinderella as a sort of member of the family while the other never appeared again. Uhm, one basically has them killed in a horrific way."
"Hm. I think I like the version you told better," Lonán decided, Finlay nodded gleefully next to him. "But it's getting late, we should get back on the road."
"Okay," Elspeth agreed, getting up.
"But I wanted another story!" Finlay whined as Lonán stood next to him.
Elspeth smiled down at him and held out a hand to pull him to his feet. "I'll tell you another one tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay..." Finlay decided, and let Elspeth pull him to his feet.
***
That night, Elspeth had to turn down numerous requests for another story, a few from Lonán, much to her surprise. She finally begged off to bed with a headache and slept until Finlay woke her a couple hours before sunrise with much on her mind, in the form of the discussion she'd had that night with Gwenonwyn.
***
"Were you listening? Earlier?"
"What? To the story you told?" Gwenonwyn asked, uncaring.
"No, you twit! To what happened to that poor girl. To what your father's soldiers did to that poor girl."
"What of it?"
Elspeth opened her mouth to rant at the other girl, but couldn't find the words.
Gwenonwyn rolled her eyes. "If you're trying to use that silly story to make me hate my father or some such nonsense, you'll be standing there for a long time. Father can't control all of his soldiers all the time."
"But that doesn't mean that the soldiers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, by their group leader, if nothing else!"
"Maybe he did? Maybe he just didn't want to do it in front of the villagers."
"Th– That's like going to the funeral of the person who's throat you slashed and laughing in their family's faces!" Elspeth raged.
Gwenonwyn huffed. "Who cares? It was just a peasant."
Elspeth had no words, but she did have fists, so she jumped at Gwenonwyn's haughty self and smashed her own fist into the other girl's face a few times, not caring that Gwenonwyn was crying or flailing about. Let the wretch feel some real pain for once!
Elspeth finally pulled back when Gwenonwyn had stopped moving. She punched the girl so much that Gwenonwyn had passed out. She had a bloody nose and a split lip and both her eyes were starting to bruise. She would probably have lots of other bruises when she woke up, too.
Elspeth just sat there the rest of the time, not feeling an once of sorrow for her mirror.
***
And Elspeth still felt no sorrow, because Gwenonwyn had deserved every hit. She wondered how long people had been wanting to do that to her, but had to hold back because she was Lady Kerry. But Elspeth didn't care about her double's "privileged blood" or any of those other things, like Lord Kerry's wrath. She wanted to hit Gwenonwyn, so she hit her. And, boy, had it felt good.
***
The next day's journey started out much the same as the many before it. Lonán was tired and grumpy, while Finlay was hyper-active and Elspeth enjoyed peppering him with lies about the world. Every half hour or so, Finlay would request another story, but Elspeth would always shake her head and say, "When we rest at sun-up."
It didn't seem to matter how many times Finlay asked her, she would always respond calmly to his gleeful inquiry and Lonán was getting more and more impressed each time. Even past the point where he would have snapped, she kept calm. He wondered what Finlay had said to their companion while Lonán had slept that made her somehow calmer with him. He'd asked Finlay the night before, when they switched watches, but his friend had shook his head and denied having said anything at all, which really meant that he'd probably said something that Lonán didn't want anyone to know about. So, naturally, Lonán really wanted to know what had been said, so he could repair the damage.
When they finally stopped near sun-up, Finlay snuck off to empty his bladder, so Lonán approached Gwenonwyn, who was tending to the donkey. Mindful of the animal's dislike for him, Lonán stopped just out of its reach and said, "Gwenonwyn? May I inquire something of you?"
"You just did," the girl said with a cheeky grin. "But you can go ahead and inquire again, if you wish."
"Many thanks," Lonán said dryly. Then he shook his head and sighed. "What did Finlay say to you yesterday? While I slept."
The girl tensed ever so slightly. "Nothing of any importance."
Lonán scowled. "You're acting oddly. I want to know what he said," he replied, throwing some force behind his words.
Gwenonwyn wasn't intimidated. "Perhaps I don't wish to mention it. Ask your best mate, if you need to know so badly."
"He won't tell me either," Lonán spat through his teeth.
Gwenonwyn's lips twisted with a mocking smile. "Well, poo-poo for you."
"Is it from the donkey?" Finlay asked suddenly. Then both turned to him and he frowned ever so slightly. "What?"
Gwenonwyn smiled suddenly, as if nothing had happened. "How about some bread? And then a story."
"Story!" Finlay cried, like a small child being offered a rare piece of candy.
Gwenonwyn got the bread and handed it out and Lonán was left with the impression that she was really very good at changing the subject, especially if Finlay came on to the scene.
"What story will you tell?" Finlay asked, once he'd stuffed his face with his bread.
"Uhm..." Gwenonwyn looked thoughtful for a long moment, while Finlay leaned further and further forward and Lonán tried not to be too excited at the prospect of another story, himself. Proper men didn't get excited over fairy stories.
Gwenonwyn smiled suddenly and nodded. Then she looked at the two men and said, "A husband a wife had been trying for years to have a child. When the wife finally got pregnant, she had a craving for a plant that grew only in their neighbour's – who was a sorceress – garden. So the husband jumped the wall to get the plant and managed it without getting caught for two days. On the third day, however, the sorceress caught him and told him that he must stop stealing her plants.
"The husband was distraught and begged to be allowed the plant, saying his wife craved it because of her pregnancy. The sorceress said that if he wanted to keep getting the plant, than he must give her the child when it was born. The husband agreed, of course, to please his wife, and was allowed the plant.
"When the child was born, the sorceress came and collected her. She raised the girl until she was twelve, then she locked the girl in a tall, tall tower with no doors or stairs and only one window at the very top."
"How'd she get the girl up there?" Finlay interrupted.
"Magic," Lonán snapped, grumpy about the story being interrupted. "She's a sorceress, stupid."
Gwenonwyn's lips twitched with a smile. When Lonán made hand motions for her to continue, she smiled outright, then continued before he come up with a grumpy response. "Every day, the sorceress would come to the tower and call up to the child, who she'd named Rapunzel, by the way, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair, so I might climb the golden stair.' And Rapunzel would loop her hair around a hook and drop it out the window for the witch to climb."
"Why didn't she just magic up?" Finlay demanded, giving Lonán a smug look.
"Less effort on her part," Lonán snapped back.
" 'Cause climbing someone's hair doesn't require effort. How is that possible, anyway?" Finlay asked, looking to Gwenonwyn with wide, trusting eyes. "I thought hair couldn't grow that fast. And wouldn't it hurt?"
"Some versions I've heard," Gwenonwyn said with what appeared to be great care, "tell it that her hair isn't really that long, but she doesn't know it, because the witch does mostly fly up. As for her head hurting when someone's climbing her hair? I think you're supposed to consider that she loops her hair around a hook first, which helps a bit. Also, Finlay, keep in mind that this isn't real life. What may hold true for us in this world need not always hold true for the characters of fairytales."
"Oh," Finlay said. And he seemed perfectly willing to remain quiet after that.
Lonán desperately wanted to know how Gwenonwyn did that.
"Where was I? Oh, yes. So the witch would climb Rapunzel's hair every day and bring her food and the such.
"One day, there was a prince walking through the forest and he heard Rapunzel singing. Entranced by her beautiful voice, he followed it until he come upon the tower. He circled the tower and looked for a way in, but found none. Dejected, he left, only to come again the next day so he could listen to the wondrous song.
"One day, the prince happened upon the tower at the same time as when the sorceress arrived. He heard her call up to Rapunzel and decided to try it once the sorceress had left. And, for certain, when he called up to her, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair, so I might climb the golden stair,' she let her hair down and he climbed up.
"Rapunzel was frightened at first – she'd never seen a man before – but she quickly overcame her fear when the prince spoke softly and kindly to her. He told her that her voice had brought him to her tower many a days in a row. Then he asked her if she'd marry her.
"Rapunzel considered how the sorceress cared for her, then how she would be cared for by this prince. She decided that the prince was a good choice, so she agreed. But she also knew that her hair was the only way out of the tower, so she told the prince to bring her a strand of silk every night and she would weave them a ladder. The prince agreed and off he went.
"The two managed to keep their plan from the sorceress by the prince coming over only at night, when the sorceress always came during the day. One day, however, Rapunzel foolishly said something about the prince, and the sorceress realized that she'd been tricked. Furious, she chopped off Rapunzel's hair and took her out to a far off wilderness where she left her to die.
"That night, when the prince came and climbed the rope of hair, he came not face-to-face with Rapunzel, but with the angry sorceress!" Both Finlay and Lonán gasped and Gwenonwyn nodded, pleased. "The sorceress told the prince that she'd thrown Rapunzel to a land of wilderness and that now she would kill the prince. The prince, though, devastated by the loss of Rapunzel, threw himself out of the tower. The thorny bushes below caught him, but they also pricked out his eyes, blinding him.
"So the prince was left wandering the forest for many years. At one point, he wandered into the land in which Rapunzel lived. Hearing a beautiful melody, he followed it to a watering hole, where Rapunzel sat, washing clothing. She recognized him and ran forward to embrace him in happiness. Lo and behold, she cried two tears into his blind eyes and suddenly the prince could see again!
"And so, the prince and Rapunzel went back to the prince's kingdom, where they were warmly received and they eventually became king and queen."
She sat back, looking terribly pleased with herself, but Lonán couldn't find the urge to ask her what made her so happy; he was too busy being happy about the story. He loved it when they had a happy ending.
"Well," Gwenonwyn said suddenly, "I think we should probably head out again. We're almost to the bank of the Kashum, right?"
"Yes," Lonán allowed grudgingly.
They ignored Finlay's whining as they both got up and packed up the few things they'd gotten out. By the time Finlay had stopped whining, they were ready to go, so they headed back out.
Chapters:
One ||| Two ||| Three |||Four
Summary & Character Info
Incomplete
.
But it's up now! And I'm working on chapter 5, which will, hopefully, be done before the end of NaNo.
At this point, I know I won't make 50K words by the end, but I'm aiming for 30K.
The next morning, the three travellers joined up in the hallway between their rooms just after the sun rose. Elspeth wasn't really looking forward to starting their journey again, since it meant she would get dirty again, and she just finally gotten a bath. But she needed to stop Finlay – without being killed by Lonán in the effort – and get to the capital city so she could keep Cathaír from destroying the world. At least she'd slept well the night before, despite being in a new place. Lonán looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, not that he didn't usually look like that.
The three went downstairs and Elspeth handed their two keys over to a yawning gentleman at the counter. He handed her a buttered roll for each of them as breakfast – a service the hotel offered that Elspeth hadn't expected to exist in this world – and waved them off. Elspeth distributed the rolls to a bouncy Finlay and a drowsy Lonán, then led the way out to the stables. As they were reaching the stables, Finlay said, "These are really good! Think they'll give us another?"
"We only get one roll each, Finlay," Lonán said in a tired monotone.
Elspeth smiled to herself and took a bite of her own roll. "Oh," she said, surprised. "These are good." It was, in fact, the best bread she'd ever had. It was warm, so she figured it must have been fresh.
"See?" Finlay said with a bounce. "Can we ask for more? Please?"
"Finlay, I told you no," Lonán grunted.
"Lonán's right, Finlay," Elspeth agreed regretfully. "And we need to get going anyway."
Finlay pouted, but didn't ask about going back and demanding more bread.
Elspeth was left to the task of getting Sulien's bag holder, then packing everything into it. She packed the bags so that the food was on the top and easily accessible, so they wouldn't have to hunt for it on the road. Then she took the lead and led Sulien out of the stall. "We're ready," she told the other two, who'd decided to laze against the wall. Lonán looked even groggier than before and Elspeth suspected he'd gone back to sleep while she'd been packing.
Lonán grunted and motioned for them to follow, then led the way out of the stable and out of the town.
The first couple of hours passed rather dully. Lonán led the way in a sort of trance, with Elspeth and Finlay following. Elspeth led Sulien, though she gave up on the lead after a while, since he followed her just fine without it on the empty road. Finlay created a new game of tease the donkey and continued to try and touch Sulien until he got bit because Sulien's lead was no longer restraining him. Elspeth hadn't even tried to warn him off since she figured that he had to learn on his own that the donkey didn't want him anywhere near himself.
Elspeth judged it to be about ten when other travellers started appearing on the road. A small group going the opposite way as them had the same colour skin as Bonnie had, so Elspeth assumed they were from Zeptel, which made her wonder how her friend was fairing. Another traveller was leading a line of horses and stopped them to ask after Sulien. He got bitten for his trouble when he tried to touch the donkey and threw curses back at them as he continued on his way to E'Fal.
As the sun was reaching its peak in the sky, Lonán called a break and lead them off to the side and under a tree. Once there, he looked warily at Sulien and asked, "If I try and get to my pack, will he attack me?"
"Uhm, probably," Elspeth answered honestly, then looked at the donkey. "Lonán needs to get something. Will you let him get to his pack without trouble?"
Sulien tossed his head and gave Lonán a dark look.
"I promise he just wants to get his things, okay? He's not going to do anything weird."
Sulien brayed angrily and tried to stomp his hoof like a horse, but he just looked ridiculous.
Elspeth sighed and gave Lonán a helpless look. "What do you want to get out?"
Lonán gave the donkey a dirty look, then grumbled, "There's a small bag of bread near the top of the sack. If you could hand that to me?"
Elspeth nodded and pulled the sack open. The bag had shifted a bit during the journey and was now under a few strips of salted meat of some kind, but Elspeth found it without too much difficulty and handed it over, then closed the sack and sat down near the two men, leaving the grumpy donkey tied loosely to the tree.
Lonán pulled a dagger that Elspeth hadn't know he'd had out of his boot and neatly sliced the bread into three pieces, took one for himself, then held the other two pieces out to the other two. They both took a piece, then started nibbling in silence.
When the silence got to be too much, Elspeth asked, "How long are we breaking today?"
"When the shadows move, like always," Lonán replied quietly. "Why?"
"Can you teach me something of the sword? I've never used one before."
Lonán sighed. "I don't know why you bothered getting one to begin with. You're an Elemental of Fire, which is about as good a close-range weapon as you're going to get."
"But I can't control it," Elspeth pointed out.
"You've gotten better," Lonán replied.
"Just because you have a weapon doesn't mean you should rely on it and it alone," Finlay commented, sounding like he was quoting someone. "It's always good to have a back-up plan."
Lonán scowled at his friend. "Thanks, chief," he said sarcastically.
Finlay grinned back. "No problem, boy!"
"Look," Elspeth snapped, breaking up the time between the two long-time friends, "I have the sword now, right? I might as well know how to use it. Then, if I'm disarmed, they'll think it's safe, but it won't be, because they don't know I'm an Elemental of Fire. It's like how you keep that dagger in your boot. I would have thought you completely helpless if I took your bow and sword, but you've got that dagger for when I turn my back."
"Or for cutting the bread," Finlay helpfully supplied.
"That too," Elspeth agreed. "So, will you teach me?"
Lonán let out a put-upon sigh and climbed to his feet. "I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a girl," he warned.
"If you went easy on me, I would never learn," Elspeth pointed out, standing herself.
Finlay scrambled up and out of the way as Lonán nodded. "Good point. Draw your sword and let's see your form." Once Elspeth had done as ordered, Lonán sighed heavily. "This is going to be a long day," he commented to himself, then stalked forward and re-taught her how to hold herself and her grip on her sword.
Mentally, Elspeth commented, 'This is not going to be easy...'
That night, when they settled down to eat dinner off to the side of the road, Lonán said to Elspeth, "So, tell us about your family."
Elspeth blinked at him dumbly, thinking fast. She was suddenly reminded of her great uncle once telling her to keep her lies minimal, so she would be less likely to mess them up and get caught. Her current story was all over the place, however, with Bonnie being her sister, her mother being an ex-noble from Dúil who was dead, and her father being a farmer in his childhood. So, basically, she'd given herself a sister and made a father for herself, but that were the only real differences from her real life in her world. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, so she sighed helplessly and said, "What do you want to know?"
"Where are you from?" Finlay asked, looking quite pleased at the chance for a story.
"Uhm, down the Kashum River a bit, on the other side of the road between Shvim and Halone," she said, thanking her lucky stars for her map and the knowledge that it was correct.
"Does that mean we won't be able to stop in and meet your father?" Finlay asked, looking saddened.
"Ah, no. Sorry, Finlay," Elspeth said with a touch of relief.
"What are – were, in your mother's case, I guess – your parents like?" Lonán asked, hoping to catch her in a lie.
Elspeth smiled faintly, thinking of her mother back home. "Mom was the nicest person in the world. She always understood me, even when the other kids – the ones in the nearest village, I mean – didn't get me. She taught me how to read and be a good lady, so I can get a good husband, of course," Elspeth finished, stumbling a bit.
"Do you miss her?" Finlay asked, eyes wide and filled with a child's curiosity.
Elspeth swallowed hard. "Very much," she almost whispered, then wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.
And she did miss her mother, she realized. Elspeth had been so busy cursing meddling gods and trying to fit in and everything else that she'd completely forgotten about her mother and how she wasn't home anymore. It was a rather sobering reminder, and she promised to herself that she would hug her mom as soon as she got home.
"What about your father?" Lonán asked, not seeming to notice or care about her emotional strife.
Finlay shoved his friend and frowned at him. "Meanie."
"What? I just asked her a question!"
Elspeth laughed at them and shook her head. "Father was a little strict," she said of her made-up dad, "but he loved us just the same. He grew up on a farm, and he would always tell us about the animals if we wanted to know something. When Mom died, he was a mess for a while; it was horrible to watch," she finished, remembering how her mother would sometimes get when something came up that had to do with her father. Her mom had really loved the bastard, and Elspeth had always hoped she wouldn't end up with a man like that.
"What about your sister, Bonnie?" Lonán pressed, leaning forward a little.
"What about her?" Elspeth shot back, feeling strangely defensive. "You met her, didn't you? Draw your own conclusions."
"But I want to hear from you," Lonán soothed. "Who was older? What was she like at home? Just because we met her doesn't mean we know her."
Elspeth huffed. "Bonnie's Bonnie. She was always kinda quiet and really helpful at home. She liked to work, do things with her hands. And she's older," Elspeth decided, thinking that Bonnie had certainly looked older than Elspeth knew herself to look or how Gwenonwyn looked in her dreams.
"Who taught you how to shoot?" Finlay asked, completely enthralled.
Elspeth seriously considered coming up with something completely ridiculous as an answer, or even just telling them the real truth – an instructor who came special for gym – but in the end decided to say, "Bonnie. Father taught her before Mom died and she taught me." That sounded reasonable, right?
"I see..." Lonán narrowed his eyes. "And why, may I inquire, is Bonnie darker than you?"
"Our hair?" Elspeth asked dumbly.
"No, idiot," Lonán spat, "your skin."
Elspeth blinked a few times, honestly confused by the question – darker skin wasn't something you noticed as a defining characteristic in the city, especially when it was the lighter-skinned who were the minority. Then she realized that Lonán, her dream boy, was talking about the colour of Bonnie's skin and puffed up angrily. "Why, you got a problem with her skin colour?" she snapped.
Lonán and Finlay both looked startled by her reply and traded looks. Lonán shook his head. "It's not like that, Gweno–"
"My sister's got dark skin," Elspeth spat. "So what? Piss off."
Lonán decided that Bonnie's different skin colour wasn't the way to go about catching Gwenonwyn in a lie about herself. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Let's change the subject?"
Elspeth glared at him for a long moment, then huffed and left the circle around the fire to go lay on her bedroll. "I'll take last watch. Good night."
"Wow," Finlay breathed. "She was really mad. At least she didn't set your hat on fire though, right?"
Lonán reflexively touched the feather on his hat and sighed. "Just a little."
"You'll take first watch?" Finlay asked.
"Yeah. Go to bed. I'll wake you."
"Okay! 'Night!"
Lonán shook his head and considered their female companion again: Elemental of Fire, uses a bow, crap with a sword, heading to the capital to find a husband, good at making things up, the donkey likes her, met because of Radha, dead noble mother, strict farm father, elder sister with darker skin. Very defensive about the fact that her sister's skin is darker than hers. Was it possible they'd had trouble with that nearby village she'd mentioned? That would explain her extreme reaction, he supposed.
Some of the things about her mother, as well as her sister, still didn't add up. Like, how could her mother have died after teaching Gwenonwyn how to read, but before properly instructing her in the Element of Fire? Why was Bonnie's skin darker? Why didn't Bonnie teach Gwenonwyn the sword as well as the bow, since the elder could clearly use both, if the sword Lonán recalled her wearing were anything to go by.
And he still didn't know why their strict father had let them keep all that money from their mother, never mind why he'd let them go off on their own to find their husbands.
The saddest part – in Lonán's opinion – was that most of her story fit together pretty well. And the sorrow from losing her mother had been painfully real. That look in her eyes had reminded Lonán of how he'd felt when his family and she had died. That pain, at least, was real, even if nothing else was.
"Fire," Finlay demanded the next morning, pointing at a fallen leaf on the road in front of them. Elspeth sighed and concentrated on the leaf. It went up in flames and the Fire went away. Finlay cheered.
They were back on the road again, with Finlay and Elspeth leading the way. Lonán dragged along behind them, too tired to care that they were destroying things in their path that didn't really matter. Elspeth had already refused four of Finlay's targets because they were either a too big, like the log in the forest he'd demanded that she blow up almost as soon as they got back on the road, or the rabbit that he said would be good for lunch.
Sulien was surprisingly complacent with a mistress who controlled Fire. Elspeth had been afraid he would become skittish or refuse her once she started using the Fire around him, but he didn't seem to care. He even went so far as to butt against her side when she looked back at him worriedly after the first leaf, as if to reassure her that he really didn't care.
"Fire," Finlay said, pointing at a leaf that was falling ahead of them.
Elspeth concentrated, but the leaf moved too fast, so the flame only appeared briefly in midair before going out.
"Awww..."
"What? Moving targets are harder to hit," Elspeth grumbled. "I wanna see you stab a leaf out of the air with that sword of yours."
"That's what archery is for, not sword-fighting," Finlay told her, then pointed up at a bird. "Lunch?"
"Burning that thing enough so that it noticeably falls would make it inedible," Lonán grumbled. "It's getting close to sun-high, let's find a place to stop off. And stop using the Fire."
"But it's fun!" Finlay whined.
"Yes, and if Gwenonwyn wants to use it as an advantage in case we're jumped, she doesn't want to use it where our could-be attackers will see it," Lonán snapped, then he pointed at a small clearing off to one side of the road up ahead a little ways. "There."
They pulled off into the clearing and the men sat while Elspeth got the food from Sulien's pack. The donkey still wouldn't let the two men near him, even in his sleep, as evidenced by the black eye Finlay had been sporting since his watch the night before. Elspeth had jokingly commented that at least they knew their food was safe from midnight snackers, but Finlay hadn't found it quite as funny as she had, and Lonán had been too tired to appreciate the joke.
After they'd finished their slices of bread, Lonán leaned back against the tree they'd sat under and pulled his hat forward over his eyes to sleep.
Elspeth and Finlay traded looks over Lonán's head, then snickered.
"I guess we'll be here for a while," Elspeth observed quietly.
Finlay nodded. "I think he dreamed of her death last night. He always sleeps badly and is grumpy after that," he said with the air of one who knows well the actions and pains of another.
"Who is 'her'?" Elspeth asked, confused. She didn't remember writing anything like that of Lonán. But, then again, a lot of Lonán's character differed from how she'd originally imagined him.
Finlay glanced worriedly at Lonán's dozing form, then stood and motioned for Elspeth to follow him away from the other man. Curious, Elspeth got up and followed him. She'd never expected Finlay to actually think about his actions and how they might adversely affect another. Perhaps there was more to Finlay than the simple idiot that he appeared at first sight.
"There was a girl who came to our village a few years ago from up north," Finlay said, eyeing Lonán's sleeping form. "She was... beautiful. The most beautiful person I've ever seen. The entire village fell in love with her, but she ended up choosing Lonán."
Elspeth was completely enthralled. "What was her name?"
"Ffion Torin," Finlay whispered. "They got engaged. They were supposed to be married in only three days, the whole village was celebrating, and I was going to be best man, but..." Finlay paused and looked worriedly at Lonán's sleeping form. "There was a group of soldiers coming from the base in Halone heading to southern Merun, where they were needed to quell a rebellion that could have threatened us. They stayed the night at a few people's homes, and Ffion offered one a bed. He did something to her, something horrible and she..." Finlay shook his head. "Lonán headed the search party that found her hanging in the woods."
"Oh no..." Elspeth whispered, horrified. She couldn't even begin to imagine the sort of emotional trauma that would cause a happy girl to hang herself, even if she'd seen such sorrow before in the deeper parts of the city. It wasn't something she could or even wanted to understand. "And... what of the soldier?"
"They laughed over it," Finlay spat, furious. "They laughed and told us it was too bad she couldn't live with herself after being touched by a real man."
Elspeth shook her head, hands over her mouth. To be so crude, even after destroying a people's happiness...
'Do you see?' Elspeth yelled to Gwenonwyn's consciousness, not even sure the other could hear. 'Do you see what your almighty father and his faultless soldiers have done? Do you still think them so great?'
But there was no response, if, indeed, Gwenonwyn heard at all, and Elspeth was left staring at the saddened Finlay with tears in her eyes.
Finlay cleared his throat and peeked over at the still dozing Lonán. "Tell me a story? Something happy?" he almost begged, once again the childish fool Elspeth had always thought he was.
Elspeth blinked, then wiped her eyes and nose with the edge of her sleeve and smiled faintly. "A happy story?" she affirmed, thinking quickly. The first thing that came to mind was Disney's adaptation of Cinderella, which she'd watched in elementary school, and thought to make it end the same, but tell differently. At Finlay's nod, she started, "Once upon a time, in a land not so different from this one, there was a young girl who lived with just her father, as her mother had died. One day, her father remarried to a woman who was as cold as a winter night and already had two daughters, who were both as cold as she.
"Not but a year after the marriage, the girl's father died, leaving her in the care of her uncaring stepmother. The stepmother, jealous of the love the girl received from her father, had her do the work around the house and made her sleep in the fire place, which earned her the name Cinderella.
"One day, when Cinderella and her step sisters were of age, the prince of the kingdom they lived in decided to throw a ball. Well, the step sisters were horribly excited and planned for days about what to wear. The stepmother only wanted one of her daughters to be queen, so she egged them on. When Cinderella asked if she could go – the invitation did say all eligible maids in the kingdom – her stepmother told her that she could go if she finished all her chores, and what a list that was!
"Cinderella worked from dawn till dusk getting those chores done. And the morning of the ball, she finally finished them and went to her stepmother for her allowance to go.
"But the stepmother denied her, for Cinderella had nothing to wear! She'd spent all that time cleaning and still wasn't able to go–"
"Why didn't she just steal a dress and go in one of her step sister's places?" Finlay interrupted, enthralled.
Elspeth shook her head. "Because that would ruin the story. And besides, Cinderella was too nice a person to do such a thing."
"She must have been, to put up with all that," Lonán commented quietly. When the other two looked at him in surprise, he nodded to Elspeth. "Go on, then, Gwenonwyn. What happens?"
Elspeth smiled. "Well, Cinderella helped her step sisters get dressed up in their fine clothing and saw them and her stepmother off, then she sat down on the front step and cried.
"At that moment, a little ball of light appeared next to Cinderella and turned into a tiny fairy. The fairy looked at the crying Cinderella and said, 'Now, now, child, what makes you cry such dreadful tears?'
"Well, Cinderella was so surprised at the fairy's appearance, that she stopped crying! 'I cannot go to the prince's ball,' she told the fairy.
" 'Why ever not?' asked the fairy. 'You are of a marrying age and pretty in your own right.'
" 'Why, I've nothing to wear!' Cinderella exclaimed, standing so the fairy could see her sorry kitchen rags. 'And no travel to get there but my own two feet, which will get too tired to walk before I reach the palace.'
"Now, the fairy had long lived in the garden of Cinderella's family. She knew of the kindness that Cinderella showed in the face of her stepmother's cruelty, so she decided to give the girl a chance. She said, 'I will give you a dress, and a carriage with a horse, too, but you must leave before the night ends, for my magic will also end then.'
"Cinderella agreed, and the fairy worked her magic. Suddenly, Cinderella was a beautiful maid who wore the most beautiful gown and fine, dainty slippers. A nearby pumpkin was turned into a coach and the family dog into a horse. Cinderella got into the coach and waved good-bye to the fairy as they rode away, the horse somehow knowing the way.
"When she got to the palace, Cinderella was welcomed as any lady would have been, and her step family didn't recognize her, for she'd always worn rags and been covered in soot. The prince was in love at his first glimpse of her and danced with her all night.
"The sun was just lightening the sky when Cinderella realized the time, and she fled so fast that she left behind one slipper, which the prince found and declared to all the kingdom that he would marry the maid who's foot fit that slipper."
"What's to say some other girl's foot won't be the same size?" Finlay asked.
"Hush," Lonán murmured, leaning forward. "It's a magic shoe."
Elspeth hid a smile behind her hand. "Yes, a magic shoe. And the prince, with a couple of his men, went all over the kingdom, in search of the shoe's owner.
"When at last they came to Cinderella and her step family's house, her stepmother had her shoved into the kitchen, saying something about the prince only looking for pretty girls to try the shoe on. But Cinderella snuck out the back door and met the prince on the walk as he left the house with rather a dejected air. She said she, 'My Prince, I live as a servant in the house behind you, but I beg, may I try that shoe on?'
"The stepmother, who had followed the prince and his entourage out of the house, sneered at Cinderella and said, 'She is but a peasant, my Prince. She was here the night of the ball, sleeping in the ashes.'
"But the prince shook his head and said, 'I do believe, madam, that my proclamation said that the shoe would be tried on all maids of a proper age, no matter their station.' Then he knelt before Cinderella and slipped the shoe onto her foot. It was a perfect fit.
"The prince rose to his feet and said, 'I believe I have found my princess.' He took Cinderella's hand in his and led her off to his carriage. And that was the last of her old home and of her evil step family that she ever saw," Elspeth finished.
Finlay was smiling next to a pensive Lonán. "So," Lonán said, "what happened to the step family?"
"Well, I've heard a couple different endings," Elspeth replied carefully. "One had them pretty much never appearing again. A couple had the youngest of the step daughters be kinder than her mother or sister, so she ended up living in the palace with Cinderella as a sort of member of the family while the other never appeared again. Uhm, one basically has them killed in a horrific way."
"Hm. I think I like the version you told better," Lonán decided, Finlay nodded gleefully next to him. "But it's getting late, we should get back on the road."
"Okay," Elspeth agreed, getting up.
"But I wanted another story!" Finlay whined as Lonán stood next to him.
Elspeth smiled down at him and held out a hand to pull him to his feet. "I'll tell you another one tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay..." Finlay decided, and let Elspeth pull him to his feet.
That night, Elspeth had to turn down numerous requests for another story, a few from Lonán, much to her surprise. She finally begged off to bed with a headache and slept until Finlay woke her a couple hours before sunrise with much on her mind, in the form of the discussion she'd had that night with Gwenonwyn.
"Were you listening? Earlier?"
"What? To the story you told?" Gwenonwyn asked, uncaring.
"No, you twit! To what happened to that poor girl. To what your father's soldiers did to that poor girl."
"What of it?"
Elspeth opened her mouth to rant at the other girl, but couldn't find the words.
Gwenonwyn rolled her eyes. "If you're trying to use that silly story to make me hate my father or some such nonsense, you'll be standing there for a long time. Father can't control all of his soldiers all the time."
"But that doesn't mean that the soldiers shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, by their group leader, if nothing else!"
"Maybe he did? Maybe he just didn't want to do it in front of the villagers."
"Th– That's like going to the funeral of the person who's throat you slashed and laughing in their family's faces!" Elspeth raged.
Gwenonwyn huffed. "Who cares? It was just a peasant."
Elspeth had no words, but she did have fists, so she jumped at Gwenonwyn's haughty self and smashed her own fist into the other girl's face a few times, not caring that Gwenonwyn was crying or flailing about. Let the wretch feel some real pain for once!
Elspeth finally pulled back when Gwenonwyn had stopped moving. She punched the girl so much that Gwenonwyn had passed out. She had a bloody nose and a split lip and both her eyes were starting to bruise. She would probably have lots of other bruises when she woke up, too.
Elspeth just sat there the rest of the time, not feeling an once of sorrow for her mirror.
And Elspeth still felt no sorrow, because Gwenonwyn had deserved every hit. She wondered how long people had been wanting to do that to her, but had to hold back because she was Lady Kerry. But Elspeth didn't care about her double's "privileged blood" or any of those other things, like Lord Kerry's wrath. She wanted to hit Gwenonwyn, so she hit her. And, boy, had it felt good.
The next day's journey started out much the same as the many before it. Lonán was tired and grumpy, while Finlay was hyper-active and Elspeth enjoyed peppering him with lies about the world. Every half hour or so, Finlay would request another story, but Elspeth would always shake her head and say, "When we rest at sun-up."
It didn't seem to matter how many times Finlay asked her, she would always respond calmly to his gleeful inquiry and Lonán was getting more and more impressed each time. Even past the point where he would have snapped, she kept calm. He wondered what Finlay had said to their companion while Lonán had slept that made her somehow calmer with him. He'd asked Finlay the night before, when they switched watches, but his friend had shook his head and denied having said anything at all, which really meant that he'd probably said something that Lonán didn't want anyone to know about. So, naturally, Lonán really wanted to know what had been said, so he could repair the damage.
When they finally stopped near sun-up, Finlay snuck off to empty his bladder, so Lonán approached Gwenonwyn, who was tending to the donkey. Mindful of the animal's dislike for him, Lonán stopped just out of its reach and said, "Gwenonwyn? May I inquire something of you?"
"You just did," the girl said with a cheeky grin. "But you can go ahead and inquire again, if you wish."
"Many thanks," Lonán said dryly. Then he shook his head and sighed. "What did Finlay say to you yesterday? While I slept."
The girl tensed ever so slightly. "Nothing of any importance."
Lonán scowled. "You're acting oddly. I want to know what he said," he replied, throwing some force behind his words.
Gwenonwyn wasn't intimidated. "Perhaps I don't wish to mention it. Ask your best mate, if you need to know so badly."
"He won't tell me either," Lonán spat through his teeth.
Gwenonwyn's lips twisted with a mocking smile. "Well, poo-poo for you."
"Is it from the donkey?" Finlay asked suddenly. Then both turned to him and he frowned ever so slightly. "What?"
Gwenonwyn smiled suddenly, as if nothing had happened. "How about some bread? And then a story."
"Story!" Finlay cried, like a small child being offered a rare piece of candy.
Gwenonwyn got the bread and handed it out and Lonán was left with the impression that she was really very good at changing the subject, especially if Finlay came on to the scene.
"What story will you tell?" Finlay asked, once he'd stuffed his face with his bread.
"Uhm..." Gwenonwyn looked thoughtful for a long moment, while Finlay leaned further and further forward and Lonán tried not to be too excited at the prospect of another story, himself. Proper men didn't get excited over fairy stories.
Gwenonwyn smiled suddenly and nodded. Then she looked at the two men and said, "A husband a wife had been trying for years to have a child. When the wife finally got pregnant, she had a craving for a plant that grew only in their neighbour's – who was a sorceress – garden. So the husband jumped the wall to get the plant and managed it without getting caught for two days. On the third day, however, the sorceress caught him and told him that he must stop stealing her plants.
"The husband was distraught and begged to be allowed the plant, saying his wife craved it because of her pregnancy. The sorceress said that if he wanted to keep getting the plant, than he must give her the child when it was born. The husband agreed, of course, to please his wife, and was allowed the plant.
"When the child was born, the sorceress came and collected her. She raised the girl until she was twelve, then she locked the girl in a tall, tall tower with no doors or stairs and only one window at the very top."
"How'd she get the girl up there?" Finlay interrupted.
"Magic," Lonán snapped, grumpy about the story being interrupted. "She's a sorceress, stupid."
Gwenonwyn's lips twitched with a smile. When Lonán made hand motions for her to continue, she smiled outright, then continued before he come up with a grumpy response. "Every day, the sorceress would come to the tower and call up to the child, who she'd named Rapunzel, by the way, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair, so I might climb the golden stair.' And Rapunzel would loop her hair around a hook and drop it out the window for the witch to climb."
"Why didn't she just magic up?" Finlay demanded, giving Lonán a smug look.
"Less effort on her part," Lonán snapped back.
" 'Cause climbing someone's hair doesn't require effort. How is that possible, anyway?" Finlay asked, looking to Gwenonwyn with wide, trusting eyes. "I thought hair couldn't grow that fast. And wouldn't it hurt?"
"Some versions I've heard," Gwenonwyn said with what appeared to be great care, "tell it that her hair isn't really that long, but she doesn't know it, because the witch does mostly fly up. As for her head hurting when someone's climbing her hair? I think you're supposed to consider that she loops her hair around a hook first, which helps a bit. Also, Finlay, keep in mind that this isn't real life. What may hold true for us in this world need not always hold true for the characters of fairytales."
"Oh," Finlay said. And he seemed perfectly willing to remain quiet after that.
Lonán desperately wanted to know how Gwenonwyn did that.
"Where was I? Oh, yes. So the witch would climb Rapunzel's hair every day and bring her food and the such.
"One day, there was a prince walking through the forest and he heard Rapunzel singing. Entranced by her beautiful voice, he followed it until he come upon the tower. He circled the tower and looked for a way in, but found none. Dejected, he left, only to come again the next day so he could listen to the wondrous song.
"One day, the prince happened upon the tower at the same time as when the sorceress arrived. He heard her call up to Rapunzel and decided to try it once the sorceress had left. And, for certain, when he called up to her, 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair, so I might climb the golden stair,' she let her hair down and he climbed up.
"Rapunzel was frightened at first – she'd never seen a man before – but she quickly overcame her fear when the prince spoke softly and kindly to her. He told her that her voice had brought him to her tower many a days in a row. Then he asked her if she'd marry her.
"Rapunzel considered how the sorceress cared for her, then how she would be cared for by this prince. She decided that the prince was a good choice, so she agreed. But she also knew that her hair was the only way out of the tower, so she told the prince to bring her a strand of silk every night and she would weave them a ladder. The prince agreed and off he went.
"The two managed to keep their plan from the sorceress by the prince coming over only at night, when the sorceress always came during the day. One day, however, Rapunzel foolishly said something about the prince, and the sorceress realized that she'd been tricked. Furious, she chopped off Rapunzel's hair and took her out to a far off wilderness where she left her to die.
"That night, when the prince came and climbed the rope of hair, he came not face-to-face with Rapunzel, but with the angry sorceress!" Both Finlay and Lonán gasped and Gwenonwyn nodded, pleased. "The sorceress told the prince that she'd thrown Rapunzel to a land of wilderness and that now she would kill the prince. The prince, though, devastated by the loss of Rapunzel, threw himself out of the tower. The thorny bushes below caught him, but they also pricked out his eyes, blinding him.
"So the prince was left wandering the forest for many years. At one point, he wandered into the land in which Rapunzel lived. Hearing a beautiful melody, he followed it to a watering hole, where Rapunzel sat, washing clothing. She recognized him and ran forward to embrace him in happiness. Lo and behold, she cried two tears into his blind eyes and suddenly the prince could see again!
"And so, the prince and Rapunzel went back to the prince's kingdom, where they were warmly received and they eventually became king and queen."
She sat back, looking terribly pleased with herself, but Lonán couldn't find the urge to ask her what made her so happy; he was too busy being happy about the story. He loved it when they had a happy ending.
"Well," Gwenonwyn said suddenly, "I think we should probably head out again. We're almost to the bank of the Kashum, right?"
"Yes," Lonán allowed grudgingly.
They ignored Finlay's whining as they both got up and packed up the few things they'd gotten out. By the time Finlay had stopped whining, they were ready to go, so they headed back out.
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Summary & Character Info
Incomplete
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