Chapter 8: Departure
Chapter 8: Departure
The distant sound of the front door scraping across the floor on its failing hinges wakes Renno and drags equally through his mind as if to drag him unwillingly back to reality. Slow and groggy he begins to rise from his sleeping mat. Peeling his head from the hard wooden floor. Until of course being thrust back to it by the foot of a Thono stepping across his back in its way to the ladder descending to the main room below.
"Momma Kyra! You're back!" Minetz rushes to greet Kyra.
Renno scratches his head as the faint echo of their voices from below reach him. Minetz's playful and Kyra flat and nearly contemptuous by contrast.
Her words come through faintly. "Oh no, not this time. I just had a bath you stay back or I swear." A loud distant bang as some wooden tool or part falls to the floor in the ensuing scuffle. Renno meets them at the top of the staircase finds himself without words to greet them still shaking off the morning haze.
Kyra carefully balances two covered bowls and a sack over her arm. She walks right past Renno without acknowledging him. He follows her wearily.
"I brought breakfast along with some extra vegetables to tide you over for a few days while I'm away."
Minetz tugs at the satchel on her arm.
"Stop it, you'll make me drop the stew. Here, Renno, take one."
Renno wraps his paws around the top bowl. It's still hot but not too hot to handle. "For me?"
"Yes yes, eat up. You seemed to enjoy it the other day. I guess you do eat meat after all." a hint of joy and satisfaction creeps into her voice.
Minetz waits impatiently for his turn tapping his foot rapidly on the floor at a pace even Renno has a hard time keeping up with.
Kyra sets her bowl down on the table so she can finally take the satchel off her arm. "Here take it, just settle down."
Minetz snatches the satchel from her paws and dumps it onto the table. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" he eagerly overlooks his bounty.
Renno picks up the wooden spoon he ate with the night before. Thank god some real food. Shuttering at his recollection of what Minetz referred to as "Cooking".
Kyra joins him at the table. Leaving Minetz without a stool to sit on.
Renno stirs the bowl and carefully takes a bite. The flavor is familiar but different than the taste he had experienced at Brown Hearth. His morning revelry soon finds its self interrupted by a familiar antagonist.
A loud scraping breaks the silence as Minetz pushes a stool from another bench across the floor.
Renno unable to hide his frustration sits visibly annoyed as he waits impatiently for silence to return then carefully takes a bite before asking. "So Kyra you said..."
And is abruptly interrupted by Minetz. "You got a bath! I want a bath. I'm so jealous."
"You can't bathe with us." she says almost condescendingly like a teacher talking to an unruly student.
"I know, but I still waaaant one."
Renno waits for a chance to ask again. "So Kyra what exactly..."
Minetz bursts out with excitement. "Where did you get all this food from? This is the best. A merchant came in yesterday with hardly anything. I was worried." Minetz words are muffled having taken too large a bite out of one of the vegetables on the table.
Renno sighs. "So Kyra..."
"I made some new cart pieces wanna see?" Minetz leans forward towards Kyra excitedly as she ignores him in favor of her stew.
Renno now angry slams his paw to the table. The robust counter barely resonates a sound softening the intended impact of the gesture. "Alright already shut up and let the adults talk." His gaze fixed on the startled little Thono.
Minetz says quietly "I'm sorry." His ears droop downward across his face as he stares into the floor.
Kyra looks up slowly at Renno annoyed by his treatment of Minetz. The first true moment of silence since awakening creeps into the workshop and it is an awkward one.
Renno starts again. "Sorry, look I need to get back home. Do you know anything at all that might point me in the right direction?"
Kyra stares into her bowl and stirs it slowly before responding. "Unless you can pay for a boat you're not going anywhere until springtime. It's too cold and dangerous. The roads will be snowed in. The boats won't run the coast much longer either. The bay is soon to freeze."
Renno looks at her and thinks for a moment. He grasps at the bridge of his nose before coming up with his next question. "I can't imagine that's the case how do you live here without supplies?"
"We save up what we need in the fall. How else?" Kyra looks at him with concern, as if such things should be self evident. Her expression extends all the way to the tip of her ears. One lays flat while the other is perked up in confusion.
"Fine, I don't accept that but if what you say is true. Is there at least any work I can do around here to earn my keep and prepare to depart?"
"No." she states flatly.
"No?"
"No." She takes a long sip of her stew and just before Renno can break in with a followup question. "Where would you even go." Her tone that of a statement.
"I need to figure that out. So okay, no, I can't leave. I get that but what can I do until then? Any suggestions?"
Kyra sighs. She does not have answers for him. "Look, I'm sorry I really am. But I really can't have you causing a problem around here. Just keep your head low and don't call any attention to yourself. I brought you here and any trouble you get in will reflect poorly on me."
She takes another bite of her stew and continues. "We don't get a lot of outsiders here. You have to understand. This is Anoran territory. We sleep in hostiles together. We eat at halls together. We bathe together. We don't have a place for you. Even if I were to let you sleep by my side I can't convince everyone in town to just, let you in. The next morning if I even smell like you I'll have to explain my self to everyone with a keen sense as to why. Sure, if you have the coin you can go get some food. Or rent a room at Brown Hearth, but your not one of us."
Frustrated Renno asks. "So what then? I just stay here and do nothing? For how long? How do I survive like that?"
Kyra raises her voice a little "I don't know, go to The Table and speak with Rozen. But other than that? Unless you have the coin to stay at Brown Hearth, and you don't. The best thing you can do is stay here. Help Minetz around the shop and hope that one of the books in the library has some information on where you kind is from. As for actually getting back to your people, I don't know. But it won't be until springtime if you want to live to see summer." She finished her bowl and rises to her feet.
"Just wait a minute, where is the library?" Renno leaps to his feet and approaches her as she turns to leave.
"You won't be allowed in there either." Kyra pauses and looks at the floor. I'm going to have to take care of this my self. Realizing now for the first time helping Renno was not going to be as simple as bringing him to town.
"So that's it, I'm just," he pauses to find the words. "stuck here?" Renno approaches her from behind and raises his paw towards her shoulder from behind.
Before Renno can place his hand on her Minetz hits him in the ribs. Renno pulls his hand back quickly and Kyra turns to face him.
Kyra looks Renno directly in the eyes. "I will only be gone a couple of days. Just get some rest, tend to that cut on your head and just keep things around here quiet. I will help you figure out what I can when I get back. Okay? I didn't really plan this far ahead, I figured someone would just, recognize you and point you on your way."
Renno sighs, defeated. "Fine, what choice do I have?"
Minetz breaks in unexpectedly hopping to his feet. He hugs Renno rightly from his side. He had been keenly listening with excitement the entire time. "You'll stay with me? This is the best. We will become the best of friends, someone to talk to all day! This is great, thank you so much I can't wait."
Renno caught off guard. "Hey, stop let go. Minetz, come on now. Just..." He struggles to get free.
Kyra stifles a laugh and says "Okay, well he's your problem now."
Finally, Renno breaks free from Minetz grip unsure if she meant Minetz was his problem, or if he was Minetz.
"Oh and I almost forgot. Here, take this and hide it for me." Kyra puts her coins on the table, a total sum of nine chieftains and five paws.
"Oh wow, so much? Where did you get it?" His paws clasp the edge of the table as he stares into the coins.
"It's not important." Kyra descends the stairs to the lockers below. "I'm going to be late if I don't hurry."
Renno and Minetz follow her to the top of the stairs.
"Okay Momma Kyra." Minetz says quietly dismayed at her leaving. He shuffles his feet on the floor knowing there is little he can do to stop her.
Renno too does not wish to see her go but he finds few words to express himself with as she walks down the stairs away from him. He stands at the top at a loss simply watching her gather her things.
Kyra hangs her cloak on the door and pulls a simple shirt out of her locker over her head.. Next, she pulls from the locker a pair of open toes boots lacing them tightly around her calf. Finally, a worn pair of open fingered gloves and pulls those over her paws.
Desperate to fill the air with something other than silence and desperately searching for just one of so many good questions Renno instead asks. "Why don't you wear a shirt like that all the time?" He was unsure what compelled him to ask. Even further startled by the expression shot back at him by Kyra. Her expression almost as if insulted.
"You sound like a Thono. It's for traveling." She pushes open the door to the sound of the bells tolling for watchers light. "No time to explain, I have to go." and with that, she slips through the door dragging it across the floor it jams still half open. "And by Miran FIX THIS DOOR."
The hard slam of the door sends Renno's ears flat to his head. He runs his paws through his hair finding the cut Kyra had mentioned. He had forgotten it was there. Suddenly familiar tug at his shirt.
"Come on, so many things to show you. This will be great oh oh I could teach you to read? You like reading don't you? Who doesn't? Or I can show you all the different tools. I know we can,"
"Stop." Renno grabs Minetz by the wrist and prys his paws from his shirt. "I have more important things to do. This is ridiculous someone around here has to know what I am and where I'm from. Once it's light out I'm going into town."
"Oh no, you better not. Kyra will be so mad. It's not safe, you should stay here. We could have so much fun."
Minetzes enthusiasm grates on Renno. "I can't stay here until spring. Someone probably misses me. They might even think I've died or abandoned them."
Minetz stares solemnly at the floor. "Okay, you leave too. I'll be fine."
Renno fights back a pang of encroaching guilt now felt for disappointing the kid. "Sorry. It's just how things are."
. . .
Kyra runs through the empty streets her paws pounding the cobblestone. The bells of Watchers Light ring in the air. Past Kota's shop and between the buildings. Weaving through the narrow alleyway between stacks of cut firewood she bursts out into the city street between shops in the cultural district. The roof of brown hearth barely visible above the colorful banners. She looks down the street to her right at the southeastern gate she brought Renno through the other night.
Her paw grasping the edge of the median she vaults the decorated shrubbery planted atop the divider her gaze fixed on the gate wondering if it would be faster to go around the outside. Upon landing on the far side of the planter she nearly runs over a woman she hadn't taken account of before her leap.
"By Miran, watch where you are going you street rag!" The woman shouts as she checks her pockets and bag to make sure she has not been the victim of a pinch purse.
"Sorry mam, I'm late very sorry." Kyra shouts back at her jogging backward towards the alley. She weaves down the dark narrow path past the back entrance to Brown Hearth, the snow now clear. She looks up at the window Renno and her used to gain entry to the attic as she passes. I hope he will be okay while I am gone.
Racing into the street at the compass plaza startling a child just out of sight of the alley brushing past him and his mother at break neck speed they cling to each other.
The absence of the bells weighs on Kyra, watchers light has been called. She is late.
Her arrival at the eastern gate of the city goes unnoticed. A small crowd of Anoran men gather around a pair of carts.
"Come on hurry, get the cart loaded we haven't got all day." A team of Airet are lifting and loading large crates of goods being handed to them by smaller teams of other Anorans.
An Ieza male stands on a crate and shouts to the crowd "If you are taking a pole gather here for assignment." Kyra rushes to the loading area and stands in line with the others to man the cart.
"Okay, you eight here take the first cart with me." He surveys the remaining volunteers Kyra among them. "One, two, three..." He points out his choices from what's left directing them where to stand. "Come on, you two over there. I don't know you what's your stake in this?" he questions a pair of young men who appear to be brothers just a little older than Kyra.
"For pay sir."
"Fine, let me see your bands." He says with a stern yet impatient inflection.
The young brothers comply and raise their arms to show their fang tooth bracelets. "Good good, two paws each way, if you're good I'll pay double next run. Take the right side."
Kyra is left alone in the space before the man on the crate barking orders she moves front and center before him unsure if he's noticed her or not.
"Come on I need three more."
"I," Kyra begins to speak up.
Before she can start the man on the crate cuts her off shouting a second time. "Come on people this is the last boat for Dunmoras on the registrar. Winter is upon us, another won't be guaranteed till spring."
"I'll go." Kyra says to the man from below.
"No room, we had to load a second cart and it too is full. I can't take you."
"No sir, not to travel, to push." Kyra says in a formal and polite tone.
He waves his hand in a shooing gesture. "What? You? This is a man's job run home."
"I can do it." Kyra asserts her position confidently.
The caravan leader holds his finger up to silence her as frustrated shouting arises from the crowd. A crate being handed through to the second cart has been dropped and burst open spilling pine nuts all over the ground. An argument breaks out between the merchants passing the goods to the Airet loaders over who is responsible. One man in particular, the owner of said pine nuts getting particularly animated. The crowd gathers around for what seems like the start of a fight. The Airet loaders lean on the cart and watch over the drama joking with one another for their entertainment.
"Don t just stand there. Get back to loading." The caravan leader shouts at them before letting out a call to alert the guards. They come running from the gate to resolve the dispute.
Kyra's gaze is fixed on the mans face awaiting his decision.
The man looks down on her but says nothing.
"Last call for push-men." surveying the loading area no one heeds his call. "Naron, go to the warehouse and grab two of the boys to push."
One of the Airet jump off the second cart. "Yes sir."
"And you." he addresses Kyra. "Your bracelet."
Kyra grasps her bare wrist.
"Well then by whos honor are you here?" he says in a quiet tone.
"I am an orphan, sir. Of 15."
"Are you mad, get out of here before I call the guard you little thief." He waves his hand dismissively.
"I am no thief. I'm an orphan and I want to push the cart. I could just walk alongside you know. I'm going to the docks either way. With or without helping you."
He crosses his arms and scowls at her insolence. "Oh yeah? I won't pay you."
"I don't want to be paid."
"Then what do you want?"
"I want to bring something back on the return trip."
Now intrigued he leans closer to her. "And what's that."
"I have a list here from Kota, and Lichen for Brown Hearth." Kyra pulls the list from her waistband and but it gets caught in the wind and blows from her paw. She scrambles to pick it up from the ground and hands it to the Caravaner.
"Very well, you can push. Without pay in exchange for your spot and the return trip of your goods. Be warned I won't go easy on you," he gestures towards the second cart. "Take the center right."
Kyra nods respectfully.
The large wooden carts with four wheels are uncovered. They are long enough for three to push on either side via large poles threaded beneath cargo bed on either side. Two more push from behind and a single Anoran takes the lead by holding a large rod to steer the front axle.
Neither cart here today is meant to hold passengers and therefore is uncovered by design. However, to protect the wears from snow a large linen cloth has been draped over the top and tied down to the rail. In the wildlands, there are no beasts of burden. Denizens need to find other means to make due.
The Airet worker Naron returns with two more Airet from town. The large experienced Airet men wrap their paws for protection.
Kyra finds her self staring at her own paws, claws sticking out from the open tips of her gloves hoping that this will be enough for the long day ahead.
"For those of you who have not met me. I am Rivaus your caravan lead. There is still a lot of snow on the trail from the storm earlier in the week so this will be a particularly difficult run. A caravan of Tanoi diplomats has gone ahead of us yesterday and the last word received implies that they have made it through. Therefore since there has been little snow between now and then and calm winds we should make it by Watcher Rest but likely no sooner. They are holding the ship for us in case there is any trouble so this won't be a wasted trip if we get stuck for a while. Pray to Miran this is not the case." Rivaus pauses for a moment to look up at the pale gray overcast sky showing the first signs of daylight. "All right, positions everyone."
"And just what do you think you're doing." A sturdy push from behind on the shoulder startles Kyra. She turns to find the older of the two brothers behind her.
"I'm pushing the cart what does it look like?" She rubs her paws together before placing them in preparation on the center push-rod of the cart.
"You, pushing the cart? What a waste of a pretty servant girl. Isn't that right?" the elder brother elbows the younger.
Encouraged to participate the younger joins in on her. "Yeah, you must be sworn to a woman. I could think of a much better use for a body like that than pushing a cart." They laugh.
Kyra grasps her wrist and scowls at them. "I am not a servant, I'm an orphan."
"You don't look like an orphan." says the older one as he pulls at her cloak. "Your hood is down children have to keep bundled up from the cold."
"Get off me." Kyra pulls away from him snapping the cloth from his paws.
The younger one now party to hazing chimes in. "Yeah you're right, shes probably a whore who got tired of whoring. Shame, I would pay."
"I'm 15, I can dress myself."
"Yeah? You when's your birthday?" the older brother mocks her. "I could have you as my wife, work wouldn't be any easier than cart pushing but at least you could do it from the comfort of a warm bed." He extends his paw mockingly to take her hand as if proposing to her.
The younger brother turns jokingly on his sibling. "You would marry a whore brother?"
Kyra having heard enough swipes at his outstretched paw claws extended. He pulls his hand away but not quick enough to spare the pad of his paw from reviving a modest scratch. Consequences be damned. She thought to her self as using one's claws is a serious offense.
He snaps angerly at her."You filthy street rag." he clasps his paw for a moment before lunging at her.
Kyra skillfully ducks out of the way of his strike. The two circle each other eyes locked. His brother stands frozen a moment still startled by the sudden exchange. The other caravaners start to gather around them.
The guards still distracted with the merchant dispute remain unaware of the exchange.
"That's enough!" Rivaus pushes his way through the workers.
"She scratched me!" he holds his paw out as evidence of the assault.
Rivaus grabs him by the wrist and examines it briefly. "All that over this?" He twists the boy's arm and throws him to the ground. "By Miran learn some respect."
The young man quickly gathers himself and springs back to his feet.
Kyra speaks up though her gaze is fixed on Rivaus's feet in shame rather than at his face. "Thank you, sir."
"Not for you ya little vagrant, respect for me." He turns to the boys. "I'm the one paying you worthless cubs and you will do as I say and not cause me any more trouble." He turns back to Kyra. "Same goes for you."
End Chapter 8