Awakening

Chapter 6

We had been on the road for two days now, two torturous days of blisters, bickering and Evelyn's pointless stories. My new boots threatened to rub the skin right off my ankles, and no matter how much cloth I shoved into them I could not ease the pain. We'd passed a few travelers that looked just a grim as we did, but so far we had not run into any trouble.

"We are going to pass my cousins home town in a few hours! It has the best tea parlor on main street, I mean we're obviously not dressed to go in but could we just walk by maybe? I bet they just changed their window display for spring!" Evelyn babbled cheerfully behind me.

Despite our terrible situation, the freezing cold weather, and the possible persecution we faced, everything was just peachy for Evelyn Gray. It seemed like she'd traveled all over this part of Mageland, and no matter where we went she had some story of how her carriage stopped here or her mother took her to a party there. Sometimes I forgot how insufferable high born's could be.

"We are not going into that town, it will be crawling with soldiers," sighed Tom.

"But you're a soldier and you could be escorting two fine ladies to tea time," she said, skipping ahead to catch up with me.

"Just one problem with that plan Ev, neither of us are ladies," I said, grinning.

"And you certainly aren't fine," mumbled Tom under his breath.

I gave him a swift wack with the back of my hand, but he continued on walking like I'd never hit him. Brothers. I suppose they never change, even when you surprise them by coming back from the dead.

"But if we're not going into town, that means we're going around. And the only road that goes around and goes to the south is..." Evelyn trailed off, her face paling.

"Yeah I know the stories, and they're only half true, I promise. And the Ragamon's would never attack a soldier in uniform and risk an investigation anyways," said Tom.

I grabbed his arm and yanked him to a halt, digging my fingers into his forearm. His green eyes blinked passively at me, and I felt the same mild annoyance from years ago creep back in. Tom was sweet. Tom was kind. Tom cared too much about the wrong things, and not enough about the right ones.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked.

"Vera's pass. It's just not a very well patrolled road that's all, we'll be fine Addy," he gave me a reassuring smile and I dropped his arm.

"It's not patrolled because it's the closest road to Ragamon territory! Take us back, take us back now!" hissed Evelyn.

"There's no point, we've been walking it for an hour already and see, we're fine!" Tom huffed, picking up his pace.

Instinctively I pulled Evelyn closer to me, pulling out my knife from where I'd tucked it into my skirt. If we'd been out on the open road for an hour already, Tom was right, there was no point in turning back. Either we'd passed Ragamons that intended to capture us and were waiting for the perfect moment, or they'd decided some peasant girls and a soldier weren't worth the trouble.

I heard a tree branch snap in the forest, and I quickly turned to the source of the noise. Seeing nothing, I continued forwards, sincerely hoping that Tom's training was better than mine when it came to hand to hand combat. I was a hunteress, and not much of a fighter. If it was me among the trees and the Ragamons on the road this would be a much different story, but here I was, a sitting duck.

We continued on for another hour or so on edge, and I was pretty sure Evelyn had left a bruise on my arm from clutching it so tightly the whole while. I never sheathed my knife or dropped my guard, but Tom seemed more and more at ease as we continued onward. Even Evelyn, who'd only been fumbling around in the woods for the last few months had picked up more survival sense then he had in his military training.