Silence in Sagas

20

"C'mon. Hurry up."

Oliwa saw it was Arlos. Speaking to them. Speaking to her. And Oliwa had a particularly hard time accepting the message "hurry up," because they were already walking with long, fast strides that made Oliwa feel quite ridiculous.

It seemed Oliwa wasn't the only one in that mindset. No one hurried, except Arlos, who soon had taken many long steps and found himself far in front of everyone. He turned with an annoyed expression. "Could we please hurry up?"

No one said anything, nor did they hurry up.

"Hello?" Arlos threw his arms up in front of him in an exasperated gesture. "I'm serious. We need to keep going."
Oliwa took long strides through a path of mud. Her shoes and socks threatened to start letting the water in at any given moment. She jumped over another log and another pit of mud.

"I would like it if y'all hurried! We don't have all day, we're so near the castle, and we need to hurry, because—"

"Arlos! That's enough." Denevon glared at his son. "Take breaths and act like a real person, okay. We've been walking for a long time. We will get to the castle. We will get there soon enough, but for now, bothering a group of tired individuals with annoying commands will not get us anywhere."

"'Course it will! Legs moving faster equals us arriving faster."

"But Arlos, we'e tired. It'll just exhaust us further," Kavi said in an apologetic tone. "Besides, when we get to the castle, we'll need all the strength we can get."

Arlos glared at his cousin. Oliwa frowned. It wasn't often that she had seen Arlos like this.

Arlos breathed in. "That's not a—!"

"Enough! Arlos, stop stressing, listen to Kavi. He knows what's best."

Arlos stayed quiet. He walked on, and Oliwa couldn't see his face, but fists were clenched tightly at his sides. They walked on in silence, with the silent promise in the air that they would be there soon. There, at a place to eat and sleep... and then, there—There, with a capital T. At the castle.

And what would happen then? Oliwa did not know. She was also walking with the knowledge that they would meet people. She had spent so much time with this group, she'd been surprised when Alivita, Levlia and Kavi arrived. How would it be to meet a group of... she didn't know how many it was. Fifty? Hundred? Hundred and fifty? Or maybe ten. She hoped not. She was well aware that they were too few.

But to few to do what, really... Take over the castle...? That was crazy already. You would need more than one hundred and fifty men. Way more. Oliwa was sure the castle had to have at least triple the men of that. Or maybe it was more. Maybe they would need eight hundred to match the forces of the Castle.

Oliwa stamped in a puddle. A deep one. And felt the water sink into her shoe, her sock... It soothed and cooled down her feet, but few minutes later, she couldn't feel her toes. Maybe they were frozen. Oliwa ignored it and walked on, knowing she had a spare change of socks in her backpack.

And by 'spare change' meaning they were dry. She supposed they still smelled like something you would like to have lying around... and they were probably still covered in the sauce Arlos had spilled and that she had stepped in. Oliwa had tried to wash it, but the socks were stained. Like the ground on the field where the men had attacked was filled with their blood.

Oliwa wondered of the other fights. Because surely, the future held some more.

They set up a camp when the sun started to sink behind the trees that surrounded them. "We're only about an hour's walking away from being at the border to Centis," said Kavi aloud. Levlia smiled at her son. "That is right, you are so smart."