Wishing Fell

Chapter Two: Tempst

It had been three days since Mary's journey began. They did not seem to take a hurried pace, but Mary's feet were hurting bad as blisters, and the backs of her legs were sore and trembling. There was an insistent knot of muscle lodged between her neck and shoulder blade that twinged every time she moved too abruptly and had been present since the first night of sleeping awkwardly propped against a tree. 

Mary took a deep breath and ignored her body aches, enjoying staring up into the unknown canopy as red bog water sloshed around her ankles. She had abandoned her shoes as the morning had begun to heat, and the trickle of cool water against her toes was joyful and felt like a cure to her overworked feet. 

The Magi were walking ahead in similar fashion to Mary, robes trailing in silken colors on the surface of the water. 

The day's sunlight was filtered through the branches of the trees and it danced yellow and warm off the ripples of red water the Magi made in their wake. Some small freckling of dark green plants floated in the water as well, catching on the shins of everyone who waded through it. The donkey got the worst of it, a thick coating of these small plants building up in its fur as it was led along by Amandi. 

In the three days that the Magi have been Mary's traveling companions, Mary thought she had gotten a good reading of each Magi's personality. Amandi was friendly and playful but just a few sharp smiles shy of being welcoming. Emem was quiet, peaceful, fiercely intelligent and observant. Hakim was steady and had an alert presence of mind. He would often bark orders, but he would just as often pause in silence or point out some distant bird or cloud for seemingly no reason. 

Mary wondered if perhaps pointing out these random things held some meaning of what it was the Magi did, for she was still at a loss for what it was they exactly were. 

She knew it was something magical, and she had curiously watched their activities the past few nights awaiting something spectacular. 

Each Magi entertained themselves in different ways. Emem would read. Hakim seemed to only want to bask in the heat of the fire. Amandi would make conversation with Mary, often while preparing a meal or pulling needle point from somewhere, embroidering small handkerchiefs, although this conversation seemed to be riddles or tests half of the time, leaving Mary feeling both frustrated at her own lack of interesting responses and beguiled by the unfamiliarity of the dialogue

Regardless, Mary found herself happily following along, basking in the sheer joy of seeing new things.

The Magi ahead of her froze in stillness, staring at something ahead of them. 

Amandi looked back and caught Mary's eye. With a finger to her lips to motion silence, she waved Mary forward. 

Walking in front of their group were some wading boar, tusks curling up and over coarse hairy snouts. They snuffled about in the water obliviously.

Mary's delighted smile must have been infectious because Amandi smiled wider as she watched Mary light up at the sight of the animal. Of course, Mary had eaten boar before. David and the other village scouts had monthly hunts and water hogs were a prize. Mary had seen the gouges of wood taken out of weapons and the scars left behind by those tusks. The animal matched almost exactly with David's description of it, except that in his stories, boar always were huffing and screeching and charging. 

These boar did none of that, moving almost silently through the raised water, tendrils of tiny green plants disappearing into their dripping mouths. 

Their tusks did not look nearly sharp enough to tear through the meat of someone's thigh, the reddish spines of hair that stuck up from their round shoulders twitching as bugs landed and were shooed by its swinging tail.