Pawn

Chapter 5: A Field of Daisies

To anyone other than Father and myself, The Daisy Field was just another field. The 'Daisy' was a misnomer, even.  It was a just a flat expanse of grasses ,with a few trees near a stream. However, it was called the Daisy Field because when I was younger, Father would take me out foraging. One time, we decided to take lunch in a field near a stream.

"Look Papa!" I cried, pointing to a tiny cluster of delicate, white flowers, "Flowers."

Father looked to where I had pointed and smiled, "Yeah, there are flowers. They're called daisies." He took my hand and led me over to the daisies, bent down, and plucked one, and with deft fingers wove it into my hair. "And now, you are the Daisy Fairy." He tossed me into the air, and as I giggled, spun me around in circles.

"Papa!" I shrieked, "I'm getting dizzy. Let me down" He carefully lowered me to the ground.

"Fine by me. You're becoming a chunky little fairy." He clutched his back and pretended to grimace in pain, "My poor aching back."

I put my hands on my hips and stuck out my tongue at him. "Well this little chunker will banish you from her Daisy Field." And thus it became our daisy field.

"Here we are," I said as we arrived at the field, hands on my hips, surveying the clearing.

Thankfully, we reached the Daisy Field uneventfully. The most exciting thing that happened was Luke getting bit by a beetle.
"I told you not to touch it." "But he wanted to be my pet." "Did he really, now?"  "Yes, but you just frightened him."
A boring walk in the woods, was fine by me. I'd rather encounter no one, than someone dangerous. However, I couldn't ignore the persistent, and very pessimistic voice in my mind telling me that if anyone else escaped, we would have seen them by now. Were Luke and I the only ones left from our village? Mother and Celia... I pushed the ominous thoughts out of my mind. They were probably doing the same thing I was, avoiding other human life. Possibly a group of them banded together and were planning to attack the soldiers and free our captured neighbors. You don't know they took prisoners. That stupid negative voice again. Mother and Celia were alive. They had to be. I'd know if they weren't. Wouldn't I?

Luke plopped down on a moss-covered rock. "I'm tired," he complained, "And I used these feet so much that I need some new ones."
I glanced up at the sky. It was a little past midday, and we started walking relatively early this morning. Also, I was kind of achy.   

"Okay, Let's take a break." I told him as I rummaged in the pack for the remaining plums. I pulled out the few we had, kept two for myself, and passed the rest to Luke. There was a clump of young dandelions a few yards away. While I thought they tasted fine, Luke detested them. It was only fair that I would give him the plums to eat. I bent down and sorted through the leaves, picking the young tender ones near the base of the plant. I was careful to leave the large bitter leaves alone.

Once I had a decent amount, I returned to Luke, who had already inhaled all of his plums. He looked expectantly at me, and sighing, I passed him the two plums. Luke beamed up at me, then proceeded to ravage the innocent fruit.  As I began to nibble on my greens, a rabbit shot out of the woods, startled. It was so taken by fear that it nearly barreled Luke and I. I froze, all senses on alert.

"Look," giggled Luke, "He wanted to share your breakfast."

"Mhm," I said while scanning the clearing. There was no point in being quiet. Whatever it was  would have already heard us. Our best option was to act like we didn't know anything was there. If it was a 'who', rather than what, It's be in our best interest to let them think that they have the upperhand. Security often leads to carelessness, which would be our advantage.

Crack.

A branch snapped from a westward direction. I froze and slowly started to reach for a stone.

 Crack.

 The sound was closer.

Crack.

Much closer.

My fingers closed around the stone. Perhaps I could hit whoever it was hard enough to momentarily stun them, allowing Luke and I to make our escape.

I tensed as a nearby bush quivered. Luke turned his head toward the sound, just as a deer came trotting into the clearing. Luke's eyes widened and he froze. Daintily, the deer leaned down and started to nibble at a clump of grass. Luke waved, and the deer froze, seeing us for the first time.
After a few seconds, it turned around, fleeing into the forest, tail raised high. I turned towards the direction of the willow.

"Come on." I started to walk, and Luke quickly scampered after me. Once I reached the tree, I stepped into the curtain of trailing branches, scanning for any irregularity of color in the light green veil. Just as I could feel the beginning stirrings of panic, a gleam of bronze caught my eyes. Unless willow trees had suddenly undertaken a new evolutionary pattern, I found the key.  It was tied to a branch, with its end facing away from the sun. The key was a few feet higher than I could reach, so carefully I hoisted myself up with some of the sturdier branches, until I was right below it.

"Don't fall," Luke called up not-so-helpfully.   

I ignored him and reached up to grab the gleaming key. It's metal felt cool in my palm. I picked my way back down and when I was far enough down, I jumped to the ground walked over to the bag. I then dug around in it until I found the compass. I held it up and determined that the direction opposite of the sun was north-west.

"Almost there," I said outloud, however, it was more to myself than Luke.  I started to walking in the direction indicated by the needle. I couldn't help but gaze longingly southward, where it was flat, grassy terrain. The direction Luke and I needed to travel was more forest. I cringed at the thought of tripping over countless more branches. However the cabin was a place of what I hoped was safety, and it wouldn't make much sense for it to be out in the open.   

I really hoped someone would come to the cabin and give me instructions like what Father had said in his note. I really didn't know what I would do, should nobody show up. Travel to the neighboring village of Nadam? My feet started to ache at the thought of the thirty kilometer journey. Jauntine was extremely isolated. I used to think it a blessing, because it meant a very low chance of our village being invaded, however now it could very well destroy my only hope for safety.