by Ross Turner
Their expressions were strange: curious and intent, and even expectant, though what they were hopeful of, Vivian hadn’t a clue.
She closed her eyes and listened to the whisperings around them for a moment then, wondering what in the world was happening.
What were the Redwoods trying to tell her?
Nonetheless though, as hard as she tried to listen, they remained silent still, giving her nothing. It seemed that these animals, all the hundreds of them, the deer and rabbits and foxes and wolves and bears, had all gathered for something, but what it was, Vivian was not to know.
They all stood there for a moment, the animals and Kael and Vivian alike, staring at each other.
Eventually, not knowing what else to do, Vivian took a careful and hesitant step towards them.
Immediately they all scattered, darting into movement as if something had startled them terribly, and they all bounded off in every direction, melting away amidst the trees and shrubs as if they had never been disturbed.
6
Their journey back eastward to Virtus took much less time than Vivian’s original journey out to the Keep. Her pace was not the sauntering amble that she had adopted whilst walking alone, but instead a more focused and steady speed that spoke of purpose and time constraints.
Admittedly, aside from the thundering rainstorm that struck them, much of that was due to the fact that, especially at first, she felt uneasy in Kael’s company. Not because he was difficult to get along with, for in fact he was very easy going and polite, but simply because she was not used to travelling with anyone.
The only time she had ever done so had been a long while ago, and even then her company had come in the form of a great red bear, not a handsome and mysterious stranger from a land far to the north.
Perhaps the hardest thing about the journey however, was not growing used to the company that Kael provided, for that happened very easily, and in fact almost instantly. Instead, it was attempting to avert her eyes from him as they walked and as they rested, and even as they ate and bedded down for the night.
It happened more and more as the days passed, and Vivian found it increasingly difficult to avoid glancing over at her companion at virtually every opportunity. Embarrassingly though, quite often as she did so, she found that he was doing exactly the same thing, and every time seemingly without fail they caught each other’s gazes.
For a brief moment they would be locked there, before Vivian tore her eyes away, blushing furiously.
What was happening?
What was she doing?
Vivian berated herself furiously with every thwarted glance, but nonetheless, regardless of how many times they caught each other, they still continued to do it, for just as neither of them knew why they were doing it, equally they could find no reason to stop.
Eventually though, after a few days, the mass of trees around them gradually began to thin, and the view ahead of them slowly transformed from a sea of red to a flurry of rising buildings, mills and stores and homes alike, all surrounded by an array of sown and planted and fallow fields.
It was almost noon as they broke through the tree line on the outskirts of Virtus, emerging from the woods unseen, skirting their way over to the first building they could reach, running shyly as if they’d done something wrong.
Having not eaten that morning, Vivian’s stomach was growling fiercely, telling her that indeed it was time she found food. It had been a long time since she and Red had been running starving through the Redwoods, and her stomach had grown accustomed to being filled much more regularly than that.
Kael made no move to leave her and return to his farmstead, and to be perfectly honest, for some reason, Vivian didn’t want him to, so she didn’t dare question it.
Instead, they headed immediately for the nearest tavern, their stomachs commanding them and their noses guiding them.
From outside, the inn looked as though it had been built at the beginning of days, for its stone walls were crumbling at every opportunity, leaving them mottled with the marks of time, having somehow even withstood the Greystone’s awful rule.
The inside however, was in much better condition, and had clearly been well cared for. The owners were a small family of a mother, father and son, and it was obvious that they knew their livelihood depended on bringing their customers back in, day after day, week after week.
Wooden stools and tall tables arranged up and down the length of the tavern were lit with well-stocked oil lamps, and the place was both unusually and scrupulously clean and tidy. The food they served was not even the tiniest bit stale, and it was clear the owners knew exactly how to bring their patrons flooding back, for the long thin room lined with tables and chairs and stools, all running parallel to the bar, was practically heaving.
Luckily, all that hustle and bustle allowed Vivian and Kael to slip in relatively unnoticed, although of course there were some who spied the virtus of the People as she entered, they respected the fact that she was likely just here to be fed like the rest of them, and, thankfully, didn’t highlight her arrival to the whole tavern.
Within minutes Vivian and Kael were seated, and had placed before them steaming bowls of soup and thick chunks of sliced bread, still warm from the oven. They delved straight in and devoured their meals without a moment’s hesitation.
Partway through, once her hunger had been somewhat satisfied, Vivian turned half of her attention to the others all around them, each tucking into their own meals or diving into their tankards.
“My hams are the best in the city…” One man boasted to another, apparently having come here for business, or perhaps simply to gloat.
“And she rebuilt my house right before my eyes…” Another man told his audience. “An incredible thing it was. She lifted everything into the air and slotted it all together…”
Vivian smiled slyly and turned her attention elsewhere again, eventually finding the conversation she’d been searching for. She’d learned quite some time ago now that if there was news to be had, and stories to be told, taverns were usually the best place to hear them.
“Terrible it is.” A much more elderly man said to another then, a little ways behind Vivian and Kael on a small, round table. “Whatever it is that’s been attacking the livestock, it hasn’t stopped. Cows, sheep, chickens, it doesn’t seem to matter.”
Kael saw Vivian listening intently to the man’s words and attuned his ears also, picking up the conversation, presumably about the southern farms.
“Always on the nights of the attacks, you can hear great terrible roars and howls coming from the Redwoods, all mixed up in the darkness. It makes the cattle very skittish I can imagine. It’s like they know something’s coming for them, and with bloody good reason. Come morning, they’ve lost one, two, three, sometimes even five or six at a time. Blood everywhere.”
“Can’t the owner lock them in the barn or something?” One of the men in his audience asked. “Surely if he kept them hidden away…”
“He tried that.” The elderly man replied with a dramatic sigh, clearly enjoying his storytelling. “He even posted watchmen outside the barn armed with crossbows and swords. But the same thing just kept on happening, only worse. Come morning, the barn was ripped to shreds, the cattle had been taken again, and the watchmen had disappeared.”
That was it.
Vivian had heard enough already, and she was far too duty bound to simply stand by idly.
It was one thing to have a few sheep go missing, but this was something else entirely. She would not stand for this, whatever it was, attacking her people, killing them and ruining their livelihoods, it had to be stopped.
She rose purposefully to her feet, with Kael in tow, and marched directly over to the old man who had been telling the news.
“My good sir…” She greeted him. He immediately recognised her of course, and bowed his head respectfully, his tongue stammering for words.
“Oh my…Miss Featherstone…” He stuttered. “Wh
at an honour…”
By now all heads in the tavern had turned their way, and Vivian’s presence was no longer inconspicuous, not by any stretch of the imagination.
“Don’t worry about that…” She replied, waving his courtesies aside with a gesture of her hand. “Please, forgive me, was that the southern farms you were describing just? I’ve heard there have been problems…” She asked of him.
“Yes my Lady.” He responded automatically. Vivian was of course not royalty, but many of her people still treated her as though she was. She, however, was not overly fond of the pleasantries, and much preferred to just get straight to the point.
“Which ones?” She asked more specifically.
“I believe the particular farm I described is owned by a man named Jared.”
“Jared?” Vivian repeated, though she had to admit the name didn’t ring any bells. It would have been virtually impossible for her to know everyone in the city.
“Yes. He owns one of the southernmost farms, right on the edge of the Redwoods…”
“Thank you.” Vivian replied gratefully. “These attacks you described, are they all true?” She asked.
“To the last word.” The old man vowed.
“Very well then.” Vivian said resolutely. “I shall travel south and see to the problem myself. It’s not something that I wish to hear is continuing.”
“Jared will be in your debt.” The elderly man replied with another bow of his head. “And I think his men will all sleep more soundly at night knowing you are there to protect them.”
“Please could you send word that I’ll be down to aid them?” Vivian requested.
“I will carry the message myself.” He replied, rising from his seat as he spoke.
“Very well. Thank you.” Vivian concluded. “I will see to it that this threat, whatever it is, is stopped once and for all.”
It was well into the afternoon, and a few clouds dotted lazily above cast huge shadows over the city here and there, blocking the sunlight in great, billowing masses, as Vivian strode briskly through the streets. Whilst it was not cold, a swift, chill breeze certainly took all warmth out of the day, and it was clear that the seasons were turning rapidly.
Vivian pulled her cloak more tightly up around her neck as she headed back home, escorted still by Kael.
He had insisted on walking her all the way home, having come this far and not wanting to leave her to make the rest of the way alone. She had briefly argued that it wasn’t necessary, which of course they both knew was the case. But nonetheless, they didn’t want to part ways quite yet, and so she hadn’t pushed the matter too hard, and he hadn’t budged on his insistence.
As a matter of fact, Vivian was growing to very much enjoy Kael’s company, and even perhaps, just perhaps, to see him as, and to trust him more, than a simple acquaintance or passer-by in her life.
She had, for obvious reasons, after she’d defeated the Greystones, found it very hard to trust and to love, because those feelings always opened doorways to pain, both from the past, and potentially for the future. Vivian had spent the most recent years of her life, and even many before that, running from that very same anguish, and was not eager to welcome it back afresh.
It was only now though, as they were walking back towards her house, right through the centre of the city, that Vivian realised just how different Kael was to those others all around them.
His skin tone, his body shape, and even the way he held himself. He had done exceptionally well to keep such a low profile.
Now, to Vivian, her eyes opened to his presence, he stood out leagues from the rest.
She even began to wonder exactly how in the world, having passed by those western farms so many times, she had not noticed him, when he had so clearly always noticed her.
That same, strange feeling that she had felt before in the Redwoods began to creep back into residence within her once more then, not so much stirring and awakening this time, but instead reigniting with a fierce and unbelievable flame. Her heart jumped and skipped a few beats, her temperature rose, and her breath quickened, though she desperately tried to hide all of these things.
Kael seemed not to notice, but if Vivian had learned anything about the young man over the past few days, it was that he was not so easily fooled as that.
Whatever was happening to her, Vivian couldn’t believe how different it was to anything she’d ever felt before, and those incredible and overwhelming new emotions rose to the surface uncontrollably, pouring out and filling her fragile heart with an exciting and newfound hope.
7
Finally, a few hours later, Vivian and Kael reached her small, run down house in the centre of the city. Admittedly, though he didn’t quite understand why, Kael found it strange that in the whole time they’d spent together leading up to that moment, Vivian had never once referred to this place as her home. Instead, she had only ever called it her house: the place in which she stayed, but did not live.
After all, home is where the heart is, and Vivian’s had perhaps been lost long ago.
But then again, perhaps not.
There was no time for respite however, for the moment they arrived, Archer immediately came bustling out, obviously having been watching and waiting for Vivian’s arrival.
“It’s about bloody time you got back!” He instantly remarked, his voice tinged with more than a little annoyance. “Where in the world have you been!? Do you have any idea at all how much to do you left me to deal with!?”
His voice rose and dropped in great swells and crescendos as he berated her.
“Any idea AT ALL!?” He finally ended with, having to stop to catch his breath, save he might have passed out.
Vivian was struggling to listen however, for something about the distant look in Kael’s eyes tugged at the delicate strings of her freshly awakened emotions.
“You can’t keep just disappearing and relying on me to do everything!” Archer continued his rant, apparently unaware that Vivian wasn’t focused in the slightest. “You need to have a system in place to help deal with all these things!”
It wasn’t just a great distance that Vivian saw in Kael, but it was pain also. He glanced at her briefly, unable to keep his eyes away any longer, and then Vivian knew. She knew that now, finally, after being thrown together, so out of the blue, Kael was going to leave.
A tight pull in her chest begged her to stop him, but her lips would not move.
“I can see you have much to do…” He said solemnly. “I don’t wish to intrude. I’m pleased to have escorted you home safely…”
Though he spoke, and though his words were sincere, they were empty of the truth, for they said both everything and nothing of what the young man really wanted to tell her, and indeed also of what young Vivian wanted to hear.
They were a mere formality, for Archer’s sake, and were like stones in Kael’s heart as he spoke them.
“I was wondering who you were!” Archer exclaimed then. “You could have got her to hurry up a bit!” He grumbled, obviously missing the emotion that was passing between them in that moment.
“I…I…” Vivian stammered, but that was all she managed, for the words simply would not come to her.
She had never been so dumbfounded in all her life.
“It was lovely to finally meet you.” Kael admitted honestly, smiling affectionately and looking at Vivian in a way that told her, for some reason, that he cared for her so deeply that he simply could not describe it.
It was a look she hadn’t seen for years, not since Red had died.
And so, when Kael finally thanked her for her company and bid her his final farewell, it was with great longing that Vivian watched him slowly walk away. He vanished amongst the crowds in the distance, looking back only once, his eyes full of longing, leaving a whole new feeling of emptiness to open up inside of her.
The rest of Vivian’s day, her whole week in fact, was devoted entirely to the matters of business that she had missed during
her absence. Archer made sure of it.
Though many aspects of the city ran themselves: small businesses and local trade and such. It was when these things encountered problems, much of the time spanning from something as simple as a minor disagreement, to a major crisis, that Vivian was consulted.
Having spent their years under the Greystone rule being told solely what to do, or perhaps more accurately what not to do, the people had grown away from using their own initiative, in simple fear of being punished for doing so. Therefore, the vast majority of all problems, even still, were brought to Vivian’s doorstep to resolve.
Many of them simply required logic and fairness to work through, where perhaps land needed to be divided, or where goods and profits needed to be split equally between parties.
Others required a slightly more tactful approach, for some of those nobles who had been more favoured under the Greystone rule had gained wealth during that time, whilst others had lost it. Now, such favouritism was no more, for Vivian had no time for it, and so some of them simply needed bringing back down to size.
All in all, whilst each task in of itself was not overly taxing, combined, the sheer volume of issues was overwhelming. Though he may have moaned and grumbled about it, Vivian had to admit that Archer had a point. She would not be able to leave again without setting some sort of system in place to deal with this.
In fact, if she was totally honest, she could have done with one while she was there too.
It was three days after she had arrived back, and since Kael had left, that Vivian received a message from Jared, the owner of the farm that had seemingly been under attack. His message thanked her in advance for her assistance, but she couldn’t help but note a certain urgency and desperation in its writing, and knew she was running out of time.
She decided then she would simply have to take a chance. It might work, it might not, but realistically, she’d been left with little other option.
