Post by Pip on Jul 30, 2004 8:20:28 GMT -6
The night was drawing to an end, and Atool and Anuf were falling asleep on their feet.
“Are we going to get to sleep any time soon?” yawned Anuf, glancing to the East.
"Patience, sister," said Atool smiling slightly. "We still have a few more hours left of darkness, and we should use as much of it as we can. At dawn we will find some where to sleep and then continue on at first dark."
They would be up for at least 24 hours straight, for they usually woke up at dawn, and if they went from dawn to dawn that would be a full 24 hours with out sleep. Not that they hadn't done that before but usually they were not in constant motion for the full 24 hours like they had been tonight.
After a few moments of trudging along in silence, Anuf spoke up again, "When are you going to tell me where we can find TR?"
They had code named The Resistance TR because they knew it was not safe to speak about it, for all around them could be spies.
"I'll tell you when we halt for the morning," Atool replied to Anuf then said very softly so she wouldn't hear him, "If you stay awake long enough, older sister."
Anuf shuddered not wanting to know where they would sleep that morning. Because is she knew she would probably start protesting and freaking out, for she was afraid of small places, and a small place would be key to the protection they needed to be able to sleep that morning. The men had a fancy name for it, but she couldn't remember it, and nor did it matter.
Atool knew where they were headed, though his sister didn't, he had been leading them in the rough direction of where he knew The Resistance would be dwelling. It would take them many nights journey to arrive there, and even then he didn't know if they would be welcomed or sent away. For there were reasons that they should be welcomed and reasons they should be sent away. He just hoped, for both their sakes that the reasons to be welcomed would out way the reasons to be sent away in the minds of The Resistance. For if it didn't, they had no where else to go, no where to hide…<br>Atool thrust these uncomfortable thoughts from his mind, there were more pressing problems at hand. Ones that his sister, though she was older, he knew she could not handle. He knew food may run short, there had been more food packed in his parents' packs, but then again part of the original plan was that his parents would be coming with them. In reality it had turned out quiet different. The packs he and his sister carried were mainly full of other supplies, ones they would need certainly, but would not replace the fact that they needed food. Another of his problems was they didn't have money either. It was the same case with the money as was the food. He also knew that The Force would be searching for them soon, and The Force had horses, and could catch up to them fast. Atool sighed. He knew they could go out of their way into country no horse could follow them, but if he did they ran the risk of running out of food before they got near to their destination. He knew it would be complicated business to get them both through this alive; he couldn't do this on his own! He just wished his sister would help, just a little, that's all he asked for, please?
***
Exxon thought he had known pain before now, he was wrong. Everything he had experienced before was a mosquito bite compared to what he was feeling. Every inch of his body felt like it was being pressed with a white hot wire, even his eyelids. He felt like every bone in his body had been broken 1 million times over. He was in so much pain he lacked the ability to even scream. The worst part was, he couldn’t even move. He lay there suspended in a world of pain, wishing he was dead. Wishing he was dead… that reminded him of something, but his pain soaked mind lacked the strength to grasp the thoughts hovering just out of reach.
Slowly, very slowly the pain receded enough to allow him to hear, though at first it came to him like a badly tuned radio, fading in and out. Though he didn’t understand the words at the time, this is what he heard, the details he only remembered later.
“He was brave…” said a first voice, a high ready sort of voice, that possibly belonged to a man, but maybe not, it was hard to tell.
“…was a fool, even if he was brave… most fools now a days are brave,” rumbled a second voice that defiantly belonged to a man. His voice was like 100 bulls stampeding over solid rock.
“Yes lucky for him the mage was there…” said the first.
Then for a while Exxon could not make out what was being said, he caught a few words here and there, but they made no sense even after he had the ability to understand.
But as the words faded in and out the pain slowly, very slowly and thankfully receded. After a few moments some one put something heavenly on his forehead, something cool and wet that swept the pain and heat from his head in instants. When the pain had receded to a dull ache his thoughts began to fast forward. (It is best if you read the following passage as 2 people talking, it’s easier to understand that way.)
Who am I?!
I am Exxon… Ok good I know my name.
Where am I?!
I am in the bed.
Where is the bed?
The bed is in the room, from the sound of it full of people.
Where is the room and who are the people?
The room is in the inn, and as for the people I don’t know.
The inn?
Yes, the inn.
Suddenly everything came rushing back, the reaper, the mage, the injustice of it all. He clenched his fist in anger. Wait, did he actually just clench his fist?
He lay there for long moments, he didn’t dare clench his fist again, just incase he couldn’t, he didn’t think he could bear it if he couldn’t. Just move a finger, he told himself. Just a finger that’s all. Ok, which finger? After a while he decided pointer finger, right hand. Just up and down. All right. He told his finger to move. It moved. Happiness coursed through him. Though his eyes were still shut he FELT it move. He wanted to see it move, but that meant he had to open his eyes. Could he open his eyes?
Very slowly he forced his eyes open, all he saw was white. At first he started to panic again. Calm down, he ordered himself, there must be a logical explanation for this, just think it out one step at a time. Ok, he saw white, what was white? Clouds, sheep, paper, sheets, cotton. He stopped himself, none of those were logical. Think of LOGICAL explanations, he told himself. I am in a room, lying face up in a bed, what is logical to be directly above me and white? Of course how stupid he had been, it was the ceiling.
If he had trusted being able to move he would have kicked himself, as it were, he felt like a complete fool. Then he realized suddenly voices no longer filled the room. He listened hard, he was alone. Privately he was glad no one had seen him panic over seeing the ceiling.
“I wonder if I can sit up?” he asked himself, “Well it’s worth a try.”<br>He told himself to sit up. He sat. As he sat up something fell into his lap. It was the cool towel someone had put on his head.
“Who ever they are,” he thought to himself, “They should be made a saint.”<br>Suddenly the door creaked open. It was the White Mage. Anger coursed through him, he would set this guy right.
***
The rays of the sun shot up over the horizon like fingers of flames. For a few hours now they had been walking along the fringes of the forest, a meadow to their east the forest to their west. Anuf had almost fallen asleep on her feet dozens of times, and it was only constant vigilance from her brother that kept her from falling entirely asleep. Atool was exhausted too, but seemed as fresh as he could have been.
Atool strode on watching the sun for a while, until he realized that his sister was no longer walking with him. He whirled around. There she was standing right where she had been when the sun came up. Her shoulders were slumped and her head down, as though she was too tired to take one more step. Atool felt a pang of pity as he looked at her. Though she was older, she never seemed like it. She hoped she would grow up fast, for her own sake as well as his.
“Anuf?” he said softly as he walked back to her.
Anuf looked up at him, her eyes blood shot from the lack of sleep, “You said we would stop at first light,” she looked at the sun. “It is first light. I will go no further. You promised.”<br> Atool sighed. He hadn’t exactly promised her they would stop; he had said it as a possibility, not a definite.
“Just a bit further,” he coaxed her. “If we stop now we will have to sleep under a tree, or some such place, but if we move on, I think I we can stay in an abandoned barn I spotted just 5 minutes walk away.”<br> “But you promised!” she said.
“Sometimes even the best of us have to break their promises, just please, only five more minutes and I promise you can sleep.”<br> “Oh all right,” she mumbled, and continued walking, right behind him. Her steps were faltering and slow, a sharp contrast to the quick confident steps that Atool took. Soon Atool realized he had to slow down in order for his sister to keep up.
It took them more like ten minuets, not five, to reach the abandoned barn. As soon as Atool managed to get the door open his sister hurried inside and fell fast asleep.
Atool on the other hand had a more difficult time falling asleep. His mind kept leaping on to the tasks that would be before him, not allowing him to relax for sleep. But finally do to sheer exhaustion he dropped off. His last, and comforting thought, before he went to sleep was that for the day at least, they would be safe and the tasks in front of him would stay there, until time came.
<to be continued>
