Somewhere Else

Chapter Two

I rose with the rising sun the next morning and quickly packed up the few items I had. I brushed the dirt off my clothes and erased my footprints from the earth.  I watered the horse and drank just a small amount myself. Then I searched the horizon for any signs of life. There was nothing, no smoke, no rising dust, nothing! Where could they have gone? I left only a few hours after they took him. I hopped on my horse and decided that as I rode, I would have to come up with a name for him.

            I rode for a good hour and a half before I saw it. On the horizon, definitely still a far way off, was a cloud of dust. My first thought was that it was a dust storm based on the size. Then I remembered that dust storms move in a circular motion, while this moved in a high, flat line across the horizon.  I sat there for about three more minutes before I realized that I was wasting time and it was getting away from me.

          I jumped in motion, kicking Ralph (yes I named my horse Ralph, he looks like a Ralph) into motion. I must not have slept for long enough last night because as we rode, I realized that the dust was moving towards me, and not away which is why I reached it so quickly.  I brought Ralph to a stop and tried to see what was making so much dust go up. I knew it had to be bigger than just one horse or even six. Suddenly, I saw it and had to yank Ralph to the side to avoid being crushed. As the boat like object slowly approached, I began to wish that I had somewhere to hide.  I saw a person being lead to the edge of the sand boat. They were blindfolded.  The boat sped up and in that second, the person was shoved over the edge. There was no flailing or screaming or anything. They fell almost gracefully. I watched as the body hit the ground with a small but thunderous “thud”. Maybe it was just me.  I wonder if by the peaceful fall, the person was already dead.  The people on board only laughed.

Once the boat disappeared, I jumped off of Ralph and ran to the nonmoving body.  I kneelt down and took the blindfold off. Their eyes were closed but I knew it was a female, maybe only a few years older than I.  I hope she died peacefully. 

I felt Ralph nudge me from behind and I turned to pat his nose. I turned back and screamed when the eyes of the assumed dead body opened and blinked in the bright light.  I grabbed the knife that I had stuck in my boot and watched as the lady sat up and looked me over. She was wearing a simple light brown shirt with many rips in it, and men’s pants. She had her long chestnut colored hair braided back, but it was messy and her face was streaked with mud. She appeared to have many bruises littering her arms and even some on her face.   She looked plain, but I could tell she was anything but. She was a warrior, and I believe I’ve heard of her in stories that the men that came to our home would share with our parents while I sat in the stairs wishing I could be her.  Looks like I really need to watch what I wish for.

She laughed, obviously at me. I scowled at her. She stood up and brushed herself off and looked at me again.  She stuck her hand out and looked expectantly at me. I didn’t know what to do other than shake it. Bad choice.  She had my arm twisted behind my back and my own knife pointed at me.

“who are you?” she demanded.

“Lovisia but I have nicknames. Now who are you?”

“Ha! You think I would give my identity away that easily?”

“Can you just let me go? I’m just trying to get my brother back. I won’t tell anyone I ever even saw you!”

“They took your brother too?”

“Well five men on horses did, I don’t know if that’s your “they” but I’d appreciate you letting me go find him!”

“The same men have my brother. I can give you information as long as you let me travel with you.”

I stood there silently before saying,

“Fine, but we travel by my rules, you won’t keep any information from me, give me my knife back, and let go of my arm!!”

She let’s go and hands me my weapon before shrugging her shoulders only saying,

“We’ll see.”

Later that night, we made a small fire and cooked a small animal that she caught. I’m going to need to find out her name soon. I was eating fairly slowly while she ate quickly, as if she may never have food again. I guess that is a possibility, but kind of unlikely.  

I turned to face her and said,

“At least tell me your name, I need to be able to call you something. I’d like to know your background but I’m not getting that out of you I know.”

“My name is Ivy. They often call me the Light Warrior. I left home when I was only 13, I couldn’t stand being all alone anymore. My parents died when I was 11, leaving me alone to fend for myself. The King doesn’t need a new army, he needs people to act like his slaves, he grows something called chala. It mind washes people in a way.  He wants to enslave the entire population, but he thinks that if he can get the younger men in first, then those men and get the women to come, get rid of the elderly people, and create his perfect race.  I am fighting against that. Me and around 600 other people in this group that we like to call The Last Chance.  It’s not only girls, there are a bunch of guys fighting it too. Those people you saw push me off the boat were the ones who often take us for slaves, or even more often, for their form of fighting. I won’t explain that right now though.

A lot of us in the group have family members that the king has ‘recruited’, and are fighting to get them back.”

“Just one question, how did you survive that fall?”

“Haha, all you do is relax. If it was a normal person, they would’ve tensed up and when they hit the ground they would have broken their spine. But when you relax, your just winded for a few minutes, and then your fine. Easy as that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind…”

“Good, well I’m off to bed.” She walked off a little bit and laid on the ground to sleep. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while, that was a lot to soak in and process. The only things I knew for sure, was that I had a warrior for a traveling mate, and that I had to save not only my brother, but everyone else who’s been caught up in this mess

So here's another part in my story. You guys got lucky, I wasn't going to be able to upload till the weekend but I got time to write during school and typed it up this afternoon since I had no volleyball, so you are welcome.

I'm pretty happy with this chapter, I got my new character in play! Let me know what you think is going to happen and how you feel about the characters and story!

Love always!