Foundling

Progress

The Girl Who Was Alone

The bones rang out against the endless flagstones, a hailstorm of ivory and steel marching towards the girl who was alone. Alone. Where were the others? On every side there were only more of them, with their empty eyes and chattering teeth like white pebbles. Skeletons, their unnatural animation bent against the child, flowed like an iron tide across the world. She struggled, cried out, called upon the magical forces that now seemed to have forsaken her, and the things advanced.

A hand pulled off her cloak, another took away her staff. Swords were raised, and they came down like falling trees, spilling her blood across the ground. The bones clinked and clattered and laughed, and the girl died in pieces.

⁂

Reva awoke with gasp.

She was blinded by the morning light and tangled in her cloak, her body drenched in sweat and covered in bits of hay that would never all be gone. The girl rolled and put her head over the edge of the loft, expecting to vomit but never quite reaching that point. She spat and gagged and waited for the shaking to stop.

From one of the stalls below came a whinny and a snort. The whole stable smelled of dung and hay. A stablehand stared up at her in confusion and asked if she were okay, or told her that she wasn't supposed to be there. That's all people ever said to her and she had stopped paying attention to them long ago. A few coins thrown in his direction would shut him up, if needed. People liked coins.

Reva crawled back to her spot in the hayloft. The large, gray mass of fur beside her shifted in waking and opened one of its big, moon-like eyes. Alia sensed her discomfort and licked the girl's face in an attempt to soothe her. Reva just lay there for a while, watching motes floating in the beams of light that knifed their way through the walls of the loft.

Still shaking, she crawled onto the huge wolf's back and gripped the soft fur tightly. It was hot, but it smelled familiar and safe. She held her staff against her body, not trusting to leave it behind.

"Will you take me to the river?" she asked, and her guardian immediately began to rise up. Alia gently shook the hay from herself and leapt down from the hayloft, bounding across the grass between the innyard and the river. The stablehand gave a few shouts of alarm but made no effort to follow.

The others would be in their rooms at the inn, probably awake a long time past. Reva often regretted becoming involved with them and their tendency to wake in the day and sleep in the evenings. She had since given up on changing their minds about what hours were suitable for being awake and how long and how often one should sleep. Nightmares would keep her from taking any naps today, though.

The wolf sat her down by the riverbank and licked her face once more before going to find breakfast. Reva lay there in the cool shade and damp clay and admired the darkness that the tree lovingly provided for her. How nice it was, shielding her from the sun with its leafy arms. She would be sure to leave it an offering of thanks before she journeyed on.

Reva sat up stiffly and watched the water slide past. She had seen people clean themselves and their clothes with magic, but she preferred to do things like she always had. The water was cold and clear, pulling her hair and swirling it around as she waded in, ducked beneath it. She lifted up and breathed in, sputtering out droplets and scrubbing her face and shaking her head about. Perhaps today would not be so bad.

She put on a clean shift while her robes dried out. She should get another set; she had the money, after all. The others always gave her coins whenever they got paid and she stopped trying to refuse them, even if keeping track of so many bits of metal was tiresome. They seemed alarmed whenever she left them anywhere.