LABYRINTH: Birds Fly Over The Rainbow

Chapter 3

Day 2

She slept hard into the morning. She got up and went to the bathroom. She washed her face, brushed her hair and teeth. She got dressed again and went down for breakfast and had tea and pastry. Griff sat next to her and had his tea and breakfast.

Griff gruffly said, "Yer one of me better tenants. Ye paid up front and don' complain." She chuckled at him.

His wife came from the back and said, "Griff quit flirting with the lassie and come help me with the venison haunches. I want you to cut them into roasts and I'll visit with our new tenant." He grumbled and said she was no fun.

Sarah put her hand out and the woman shook it. Sarah said, "I'm Sar, I'll be her for the next six days. You are the best cook I have ever tasted. That mutton stew was the best tasting food, frankly, that I've ever had in my life. Your chicken dinner was very good also."

She grinned and said, "Me name be Abigail. Me husband said yer a very nice young girl alone from far away. He said ye got here on foot and ye needed clothes and a horse. Did ye find what yer needin', Sar?"

Sarah said, "Oh yes, thank you for asking. I found exactly what I needed. I have a lovely black stallion named Cróga. He sold him to me with full tack. He is boarding him at the stable for me until next Wednesday."

Griff came out and said he had finished with the venison and Abigail had to go back in the kitchen area.

Sarah took another hot tea up to her room. She went through her stuff again and reorganized to accommodate the new stuff. The leather bags would fit inside the saddle bags with more room. She was going to pack things around them so they wouldn't be obvious.

During her repacking of gold, she split the 800 gold coins on each side of the saddle bags. She was evenly distributing the extra weight. It weighed evenly at about 25 pounds on each side of the saddle bags. She had her rain poncho folded and stuffed around the gold in the bag and added her two books in front. She stuffed her towels around the other gold coins on the other side with her shampoo, conditioner, and a few bars of soap wrapped up in there. 

It took her all week to get everything she would need for traveling safely. She had it all figured out how to pack up the horse with everything when she was ready to leave. She had gotten directions from Devon on traveling from town to city. He had drawn her a map on a piece of parchment, showing all the ten kingdoms and the lay of the land. She was told that she was due west of the Highland Kingdom. The High King's Palace was in the center of the map and The Outlands were a ring around it surrounded by nine kingdoms.

He gave her information important to her survival. He said the ogres and centaurs were enslavers of humans and to avoid them at all costs on the road, if not to kill them because they would not be so forgiving. He said both their kingdoms were due south and south-southwest. He described the ogres as large, bald with jagged teeth, bad smelling and gray skin. He showed her the Ogre Kingdom on the map to the south and the Centaur Kingdom. They were flanked by the Dwarven and Leprechaun kingdoms. He said the elves, to the northeast, were kind of arrogant like the fae, but more tolerant of humans than the fae. He said the fae ruled in the Pixie, Fairy, Unicorn and Goblin Kingdoms. The other five kingdoms were self governing. She decided that being it was summer turning to fall, she would start to the east and visit the Pixie Kingdom due east and travel clockwise to Elven, Fairy and Unicorn. She would leave the Goblin Kingdom for last. She wasn't ready to face Jareth yet.