Ever So Lightly- Book 1

16

"Don't run," Jasper said quietly, his grip on Zephyr's hand tightening for a moment before he let go and grasped his own reins. Zephyr's knuckles had gone white, her grip so tight it was almost painful. She was shaking visibly as she stared at the soldiers ahead.

"Just turn Bells around slowly, we will walk back to the caravan at a normal pace and maybe they won't notice us," Jasper continued. Zephyr wanted him to keep talking to her, his steady voice was the only thing that was keeping her from breaking down and giving up right then. She began to do as he'd said, Jasper turning his horse behind hers, and they began to make their way back to the approaching caravan. She could see it not far ahead, they hadn't run for long away from it. She began to turn her head to glance back at the soldiers again.

"No!" Jasper exclaimed. Zephyr quickly turned to face forward, her breathing coming in shallow gulps. "Don't keep looking back at them, they'll think we're up to something," Jasper continued. Zephyr's only response was to nod, she didn't trust her voice to remain steady.

Their slow, steady march back to the mass of wagons felt like an eternity. As soon as they were within the group where they could no longer be individually seen by the patrol up the road, Jasper leapt down from his horse and reached up to help Zephyr down. He rushed through the people surrounding them, pulled Zephyr along with one hand, his grip tight and reassuring on her arm, his other hand leading their two horses behind them. They found Dalin's wagon in no time. The looks on their faces must have alerted Dalin, who turned and yelled for Nakomi. She had been riding behind the wagon and rushed over, taking the reins of their horses from Jasper and motioning them to follow her. Zephyr felt sobs of fear threatening to break from her as she and Jasper followed the woman around to the back of the wagon.

"We saw the soldiers ahead and have already hid Bennet in another wagon," Nakomi said quickly. "I will take your horses and tie them with someone else's, that way if the soldiers recognize them from when you two were up ahead, at least they'll be misleading from where you're hiding." She turned from Zephyr and looked Jasper in the eyes, her voice commanding.

"Our wagon has a false bottom. It's very small, but I think both of you will fit. You need to hurry and move some of our things off of the right side, that's where the boards will lift up and you can get inside. As soon as I've passed the horses off to someone, I'll come back and cover it back up. We cannot make a commotion," Nakomi said this last part sternly. "No one here will rat you out, but if a lot of people start moving things around on the wagon, the soldiers might notice and decide to look at this one closer. Dalin will keep it moving so that it doesn't look like we are stopping to hide something. Now hurry, we are running out of time."

Nakomi turned away with the horses and Jasper immediately jumped up into the wagon and began pushing everything from the right side over to the left. Zephyr didn't give fear time to root her to where she stood, instead she quickly climbed up into the wagon behind Jasper and began to help him. They had a spot cleared in no time, and Jasper began to feel along the edges of the wagon bed until he found what, to Zephyr, just looked like another crack in one of the boards. He slipped his fingers into the crack and pulled, the board coming loose and lifting with several others attached to it. He looked up at Zephyr and nodded his head toward the dark opening. Zephyr carefully climbed down into the small space, laying flat against the bottom. She scooted her body over as far as she could, but Nakomi was right, the space was very small. Jasper followed behind her, pulling the boards back down over him. He barely fit next to her, their sides pressed completely up against one another.

It wasn't long before they began to hear small thumps above them as Nakomi began to rearrange the wagon back to the way it had been. The space they were hidden in was filled with darkness, the only light that shone through came from small cracks between the boards on the bottom. Zephyr was laying on her stomach, her arms uncomfortably tucked up underneath her as she watched the dirt road roll past through a crack right below her face. She could feel tears beginning to slide down her face. She sniffled once and tried to reach her hand up to wipe her tears away, but she didn't have enough room to move an arm out from under her. The constricting space only increased her fear and she began to shake again, forcing herself to hold back more tears.