Book 2 Season's Change Spring's Revenge

Part 30 The Road to the Bridge

"Is it time?" The sun was barely up yet the young girl was wide awake. She sat up on her pallet and stretched. "It is time!" She smiled a happy smile. She looked forward to the trip to the market every year. New sights, new sounds, new experiences. Anything, anywhere, was almost better than life on the farm alone. But in the end, she favored her parent's farm where life was simple, and she knew what was expected of her and what to expect every day. Life on the farm was predictable but it still held excitement. Occasionally something different would happen. She loved her life on the farm, but she loved the adventure of the road. She had been making the trip with her family for as long as she could remember, which in all honesty wasn't very long. This year would be no different. While they were gone, other villagers would step in and tend to their animals seeing to it that the chickens and the pigs were fed. In turn, when their neighbors took the late spring crops to market, they would watch over their farms. It had been that way for as long as she could recall, but again, that wasn't very long. In that village, it had always been that way. The villagers helped each other. They were one community dependent upon each other for survival and livelihood. They didn't use coin amongst themselves. They took everything in trade or simply shared it. When they went to market, they took their surplus and traded it for the things that they could not grow themselves. Life in the village was simple and clean.

She loved to see the city with its lights and high walls for protection perched as it was at the edge of the gorge. It was always fun to visit, to see all of the different types of people that converged there. She walked over to the basin in her bare feet and washed her hands and face. Then she sat back on the end of her pallet after she pulled the bedding up and laid it out straight and brushed her long ashen hair. "Alleyah?" Her mother stood in the open doorway of the room she shared with her brother. "Why are you awake so early child? The sun has yet to rise."

"I know, Mother I just-- I'm just excited, I guess. We head to the market today."

"That we do. Your brother and your father are preparing the wagons. If you're up already then you can help me in the kitchen. We can finish packing for the trip after we prepare a meal to break our fast." Her mother stepped over and helped her with her hair and they went down to the kitchen and prepared the family meal. They ate as a family then went out to welcome the sun.

"Today is the day." Alleyah smiled as the light of the sun kissed her cheeks.

"The gods protect us and watch over those that would watch over us. Blessed be."

"Blessed be." The family answered together as they stood arm in arm and watched the sunrise in the east.

~Avriel and Katana~

"The braids worked well, but we should have something other than the cowl of your cloak and your hair to protect you. I'm so sorry." Avriel spoke softly as he sat on the floor with Katana and casually tossed bits of bread alternately between the ferret and the fet.

"Why are you sorry?"

"I don't know. I don't like it." He hid his eyes from her for a long moment then looked up at her. "Having to hide any part of you." She cast her eyes down. He touched her chin and pulled her eyes back up to his. "I wish things were different. I wish a lot of things were different, but especially that."

"It would be far worse for you if you were in the world I came from. There would be no hiding the fact that you are human. The two worlds -- they are not so different. The people in the place that I come from are no different from these people. They judge before they get to know you. They do it not with their hearts as you do but with their eyes. I wish all people could see the world and its peoples, as you have shown me."

Her words struck him profoundly. Avriel was stunned silent and did not know what to say should he find his voice. He found them a few moments later. "People should be judged by their individual actions and not their collective ones as people." He had let her face go but as they spoke, they refused to break eye contact. They sat in silence, staring into each other's eyes, both locked inside their own thoughts and emotions. Just when the temptation to lean in and kiss her reached a high and he thought to give in, the small ferret crawled into Katana's lap and the fet did it's damndest to crawl into Avriel's. It was like holding a medium-sized dog; not too bad but challenging. "What are you two about?" Avriel laughed and looked at the two animals. "Okay, okay. The sun is almost up. The market should be opening soon. I will bring back food."