Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Part Three-
She opened her eyes. She was in some kind of cave. There was fire, a small fire, just a few inches from her. It was warm. There was a large man sitting cross-legged on the other side of the fire. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping, though she thought that was a strange position to be in if you wanted to sleep. She tried to roll over, off of her left side, and found she couldn’t. Something was holding her in place, and there was pain. She wasn’t sure what part of her hurt the most. There was a stinging on the right side of her face, her shoulders and back were just a little less sore than that, but yes definitely her right ankle hurt the most. The man sitting across from her must have not been sleeping after all, because he was shifting in place and smiling at her. When he finally spoke his voice was very different than she had imagined it would be. She had been expecting a powerful and maybe deep voice to come from such a large man, but instead his voice was soft and he spoke very slowly as if he was not sure of himself.
“Can I get you something, are you comfortable?” He said.
“Who are you, and why can’t I move?” She said, and felt dry and stiff in her throat.
“I am Leto Fallowel. You cannot move because I was concerned about the injury to your back. I tied you to a travois in order to move you safely, out of the storms. If you think you can move with out pain I can remove the bindings. I hope you will tell me if there is any discomfort. I have a thorough education in the healing arts, and I shall try to do everything I can to ease your pain, and speed your recovery.”
“Yeah, well, yes that would be nice. Please untie me, I think I can sit up on my own.” She was unsure of why she felt so at ease around this strange man. His chest was huge, his face broad, but smooth and very handsome. He had no hair, but did not appear to be very old. His voice was so calm and pleasant that she was instantly at ease and yet something about him, something she couldn’t pick out, troubled her. He rose from his sitting position with a gracefulness that surprised her, and when he was standing erect she was even more troubled by his size. “You’re very tall. You’re from Anthandra?” she asked as he moved around behind her and began untying the ropes that held her to the litter.
“No, I am not. I am from the Chawillik Glade monastery. It is south east of Crystal Lake in the Chawillik forest. I am told that I am tall for my age, but not abnormally so. I am six feet two inches tall. You are Eshian?”
“ I am part Eshian. My mother is Drasbian. My Father is Eshian. My name is Yarrine Gulhame. Thank you for taking care of me.” She noticed he had stopped moving his hands and wondered if she had said something wrong. She couldn’t see him, and could barely hear his breathing. “I still can’t move. You all right back there?”
“Yarrine is a beautiful name. It means ‘wild flowers’ in the old language of the islanders. Yes, I’m sorry this knot is a little tight. I have never met a Drasbian before, are they much like the Eshians?”
She felt the sudden freedom of movement of her body even though she never felt exactly where the rope was holding her down. “No, well actually Drasbians are very much like Eysturluns only their skin is not green and they are more gregarious.”
He moved around in front of her as he helped her to sit up. He had a puzzled look on his face. He said, “I do not know what it means, gregarious. I have met some Eysturluns. We trade with a village of Eysturluns that live north of us, at the monastery. They are a very pleasant people. What is it like to not be gregarious?”
“I’m sorry, it means friendly.” She said trying to smile, but found that moving her cheek caused a pulling and a strange sensation on her face.
He still wore a puzzled look, and said, “Friendly? The Eysturluns are very friendly. I would not say they are unfriendly.”
“I mean around strangers, or in groups outside of there own kind. That kind of friendliness.”
“Oh, yes I see what you are getting at. The Eysturluns are friendly once you get them to accept you. That is very true. You can feel the stitches in you cheek. I can tell by the pain in your eyes when you smiled. I had to close a wound, a cut, very long near your ear and down onto your cheek. It bled some but I think it will heal very well. How did this happen to you?” He looked at her with a warm and honest compassion in his eyes, and she felt very much relived to be in his company in this strange land.

“I must have fallen from my horse,” she began to tell him and as she did she shifted her legs to try and get closer to the fire when there was an overwhelming feeling of pain in her right foot. She yelled out, and grabbed her ankle protectively.
Leto pushed her gently back onto her back and then placing one hand under her calf elevated the leg and tried to pry her own hands away with his other hand. “Let go,” he was saying softly, “I will try to take off your boot. You may have a broken bone.”
She trusted him. She didn’t know why, but then she thought he was kind of like her uncle. He had that same knowing determination about him. The kind of self-confidence that isn’t hindered by arrogance, but shows in a real craftsman, or mercenary. “It’s hurts so bad,” she said through tears she couldn’t hold back, “but I don’t think it’s broken. I can wiggle my toes and it doesn’t hurt any more, or less. My Uncle, I was with him when this happened, he taught me that broken bones make the limbs hurt more when you try to move them. Oh no,” and she suddenly remembered, “I didn’t fall. Something jumped at us. Jumped out of the trees.” Leto was working to loosen the buckles on her boot. She felt some relief, as each of the small clasps was un-clipped. She wanted to go on telling him what she remembered before the pain got any worse, but as he loosed the last clasp he slid his hand down into the back of the boot and worked it off of her foot in a quick pushing motion. The sudden release of all pressure on her ankle made her gasp for breath, pulling in deep gulps of air as a powerful throbbing began in her ankle and spread down to her toes. In the light of the small fire she could see her right ankle and most of her foot had turned a deep purple and was swollen to two times its normal size.
Leto was moving his hands all over her ankle and the top of her toes. She could barely make out the intense look on his face as he bent close to the injured area with his eyes seemingly focused on each nuance in the discoloration. Her foot, even though she could tell was massively swollen looked tiny in his hands. He turned his head and smiled at her. “Not broken, only sprained,” he said.
“Sprained?” She asked. “You mean strained.”
“No, worse than a strain, it has been pulled out of position. I suspect there is serious damage to the ligaments that connect your foot to the calf. I can’t be sure, I am trained, but I’ll be completely honest with you, I only have very little practical experience with serious injuries. I want you to stay on your back just for a little while, and keep the foot elevated. Use your hands, if you have to, but hold your leg at the calf muscle. Try not to touch, or move your ankle. I need to get something out of my pack.”
She wasn’t sure about everything he was saying, but she believed him, and held her leg up high while he moved across the cave to a large leather backpack sitting in the shadows. She wondered what had happened to her pack, and that thought made even more of the events that caused her to fall come back to her. As Leto was carefully taking things out of his backpack she started telling him what had happened. “It was early on, wait let me think, Thursday, and there was snow falling. My uncle was at the lead, and I was at the rear. There were four wagons, and three of us on horses.”
“Horses, really? Riding horses?” Leto’s sudden reaction startled her.
“Yes, ridding horses, but the wagons were pulled by oxen. My uncle, my cousin and I were hired in Drasbia to protect a shipment of cloth from Redrock to Canicton. Well not really hired. The cloth belongs to my grandfather. My Uncle is a veteran soldier from the war of independence. He works as guard now for many Drasbian merchants, but this time it was for family. We left Nulaundum on Saturday.” She was feeling better now talking, and holding her ankle up. Leto came back to her with what looked like a small bolt of cloth in his hands. He knelt down at her feet, facing her this time.
“Go on.” He said. “I am going to wrap this cloth around your ankle. It will hold your foot in place and put the right amount of pressure on it. I think I should put some snow on it as well, but I can do that latter. I want to hear the rest of your story.”
“We camped Wednesday night north east of Licombe. It was cloudy and Harry, my uncle, thought we should get an early start the next day. We had a guide with us, even though my uncle and I have been on this road twice before. It was very dark, still, when we set out and our guide, her name was Lori, stayed at the back of the wagons just ahead of me. I have only been riding with my uncle on these jobs for a few months, but I am good on a horse, and I can usually get around in tight places better than he can. Lori had been telling me how she thought the oxen where catching a bad smell from somewhere, because we were having a lot of trouble keeping them moving. I thought it was just because of the steepness of the road.”
“You were up on the mountain then?” Leto asked and gestured toward the north with his eyes. “The Ridgeline road, that’s almost a quarter mile up from here.”
“What?” She asked. “Did you say a quarter mile?”
“Yes. It is the best road out of Licombe going east. I would have taken it myself, but that I had to stop in Sadderham village, and so when I left yesterday morning I decided to walk cross country instead to Landenshire. Did you fall?”
“Like I was saying, I thought the oxen were having trouble with the steep road, and then it started to snow. The sun was not up yet, but the temperature must have come up a little. I remember taking my hat off because I was starting to sweat. I guess I overdressed. I had stopped my pony so I could tie my hat to the back of the saddle. I didn’t dismount, but I was turned. I heard Lori yell out for me to move, but it was too late. This thing, it had to be a large bear. I couldn’t tell. I never got a good look at it. It jumped onto the pony and me from the left. It must have come out of the trees. We were knocked down for just a moment but I got the pony back on its feet right away. Lori was yelling for my uncle to come to the rear with the lantern. I couldn’t control Corky, my pony. He kept rearing up and trying to back up when he must have gotten to close to the edge of the road. I felt his backside fall away from me and we tumbled down to the right. I can remember hitting the ground hard on my right side. I think Corky fell on top of me. That was the last thing I remember. I must have fallen down the entire cliff.”
“There is still a lot of snow in the shadows and around the trees. You could have slid most of the way. You were very fortunate not to hit your head on a rock or tree, and only suffered some cuts and bruises.” Leto finished wrapping her ankle, and it did fell better, what ever he had done. “Still it is a long way to fall. You said it was dark when you fell?” He asked.
“Yes, at least two hours before sun up. My uncle has a pocket watch. It was gift from his battalion commander in the war, imported from Forttrugen. He does every thing according to that watch. I am sure he said it was four o’clock when we left, and this all happened when we had been on the road only a few minutes. Why?”
“I left Sadderham after I celebrated a morning prayer with the Huargud village elder. He is very interested in the way of my order. I had been walking for more than an hour, probably two or more, I can’t keep track of time very well. I would really enjoy seeing you uncles’ watch. I have only seen one other. We have three very nice clocks at the monastery, but when I found you it was very late in the morning, and you had snow covering you. I don’t think you had moved from that spot for some time, and it was Thursday morning. I only found you by accident, and at the time I did, it appeared as though some goblins had found you as well.”


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