The Black Sword Trilogy: The Poacher (22 page)

              Reaching the top of the hill, she something comfortingly familiar.  Down in a valley between two hills was, what looked like a farm.  There was a small house surrounded by a wooden fence and had rows of; what looked like corn in a generous field.  There was a barn behind the house and she also saw animals; two cows and some pigs moving about near the house.  Perhaps, she would be able to rest safely here, she thought; at least for one night.

              She made her way down the hill towards the farm with her legs barely able to carry her.  Despite having been emptied of some of its contents, her pack felt twice as heavy as it had when she left the hide and her entire body wanted simply to fall to the ground.  She wanted to crawl into some underbrush and sleep; but still, she willed herself on.

              When she finally made her way to the bottom of the hill, she followed along the fence line leading to the house.  Nearly at the front gate, she heard and felt an arrow fly by her head and hit a nearby tree.  She looked quickly around and saw a woman standing in the open doorway of the house.  Her bow was ready and an arrow drawn.

“The next one won’t miss!” the woman commanded.  “Be on your way!”

Terri threw up her hands.

“Please don’t shoot!  I promise I won’t hurt you.”

The woman stepped out of the doorway and Terri could see her better.

              She was the same height as Terri; thin with brown, curly hair and her fierce, green eyes were locked on Terri.

“Oh, I know you won’t hurt me.” She said in a hard voice.

Terri tried to take a step towards the woman who then drew the bow back a little more.

“Look…please…”Terri said quickly.  “I mean no harm.  I’m lost in the woods and trying to make my way back to Kallesh.”

“You’re going the wrong direction for Kallesh!” The woman interrupted.  “Walechians are not welcome in these woods.”

              Terri slowly took her hands out of the air.

“What are you doing?” The woman demanded.

“I’m going to take my bow and my sword off and lay them on the ground to show that I mean you no harm.”

Moving slowly, Terri removed her weapons and laid them on the ground.  She then took a full step behind them.  The woman then lowered her bow.

“What is it you want?” She asked, still in a hard voice.

“I’m very tired and in desperate need of rest before I can continue on my journey.”

“You’ll find no rest here.”

“Please,” Terri said, sounding fraught and exhausted.  “It’s very important that I make it back to Kallesh…”

“Then you’d better be on your way.” The woman interrupted again.

“I can pay you.” Terri urged.

“I have no need of your money.” The woman said and began to turn her back on Terri.

“Your crops!” Terri called out to her.

The woman stopped, turned around and gave Terri a questioning glance.

“What about them?” She asked.

“Well…” Terri stammered.  “It looks like they’re ready to be harvested.  I can pick some of them for you, rest when I’m done and be off first thing in the morning.”

“What do you know about farming?”

“I was raised on a farm.”

              The woman, still looking suspicious took a step towards Terri with the same questioning glance.

“There’s a lot more to farming than just picking corn.” She told Terri.

Terri smiled and gave a little laugh.

“Don’t I know
it.” Terri told her.

They stood staring at each other for a few seconds before Terri asked her in a pleading voice.

“I’ll do whatever chores you need doing, spend only one night in your barn and then be off in the morning.  You have my word.”

The woman took another step towards Terri.

“The word of Walechians is not highly regarded in these parts.”

“Then take my word as a woman, then.” Terri said trying to reassure her.

“You’re a woman?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Stay right there,” said the woman and she disappeared into the house.

              A few moments later, she reappeared with a piece of paper in her hands.

“These are all the chores that need to be done today.” She told Terri handing her the paper.

Terri looked at the list and then her body felt even more tired than before.

“Is there a problem?” The woman asked. 

Terri tried to give her friendliest smile.  “Not at all,” she answered.

              Her first task was to clean the stable of the one horse the farmer had.  It looked and smelled like it hadn’t been done in days and the horse was not cooperative.  It grunted nervously, moving about and getting in Terri’s way.  At one point, it kicked up and nearly hit Terri in the head.  Still, Terri completed this first task.  Next, she had to wash and brush the horse and at first the horse was just as ill tempered.  It calmed eventually, making these tasks much easier for her.  When it did, Terri found herself enjoying the time she spent with the horse.  It reminded her of home and better days.  Working a farm was, indeed very hard work and for as long as she could remember, she always had chores to do that those not raised on a farm wouldn’t understand.

              Next, she had to feed the animals.  She took feed corn from the barn, ground it to a pulp and mixed it with milk.  She then poured the mixture into the feed trough for the pigs.  Next came the cows.  She took some heavy bales of hay out of the barn’s loft and tossed them into the stall for the two cows.  She put some oats, mixed with milk into a feed bag for the horse and the horse happily allowed Terri to fit the bag over its snout.

              Approximately mid-day, the woman brought her out a large cup full of cold water.  Terri took a short break, drank the water, then set back to work on her list.

              Then she had to collect some eggs.  She was reminded of when she was six years old and the first time she had been given this chore from her grandmother.  Back then, she simply went into the chicken coop and started reaching under the chickens to collect the eggs.  All of the hens then attacked her and chased her back into the house.  That night, so long ago she had chicken dinner and from then on enjoyed chicken more than any other food.

              The lesson she learned was to get the chickens out of the coop first.  She spread chicken feed on the ground in front of the coop and while the hens were eating, she went in and collected the eggs with no difficulty.

              At first, when she had seen the list the woman had given her, she nearly cried from how tired she was.  Somehow, the chores seemed to energize her.  For the few hours that she was working, she felt like she was back home with her family.  There had been no war, no Wolfen, no death and no horror.  She was back in a friendlier place and with virtually no worries.  It was if the past five days had never happened.

              Next she set about the task of picking the corn.  She found a large, wicker basket in the barn and slung it over her still aching shoulder and back.  She walked into the rows and started pulling the ears off of the stalks.  There was an almost mesmerizing quality to this task.  It required her full attention and concentration and although still very tired, there was a point where she didn’t want the task to be done.  Whenever her basket became full, she came out of the rows and dumped the ears into several barrels. Doing these tasks had taken her far away from her troubles and back to a happier time.  There had many times in the last two years since joining the army that she had wanted to go back to her home and her family’s farm.  At one point, she had become so homesick that she nearly deserted.  But she was a soldier now, she reminded herself.  She had promised five years and her parents had taught her to never back away from a promise.  She continued this chore until the sun started to disappear behind the hills.  She found herself not wanting the day to end.  In a way, she was home again and didn’t want to return to the horrible world she had just left.

              “Oi!” She heard the woman call.  “It’s getting dark!”

Terri called back to her, saying, “I’m just about done with this row!”

She picked the last ears off of the stalks that row and then came back to the barrels.  She found the woman sitting on the wooden fence with another large cup in her hands.  Terri took the cup and then attempted a deep drink.  To her surprise, it wasn’t water; but rather ale.  She nearly choked on it.

“I guess I should have warned you,” the woman said smiling.

             
Terri was then shown to a space in the barn next to the horses stall.

“You can sleep here tonight.” The woman told her in a much friendlier voice than before.  “I have to admit,” she continued.  “I thought you might be lying when you said you were raised on a farm; but the way you got those eggs told me otherwise.”

Terri laughed a little as she sat down on a bed of thick straw.

“You were true to your word, Walechian,” the woman said in an apologizing voice.  “I’m very grateful for the work you put in today.”

“I’m grateful too.” Terri replied.  “I haven’t been a farmer for two years.”  Then thinking of the right words to say for the moment, she simply said, “It was nice.”

              After settling down and washing herself with soap and water the farmer had brought out for her, she began to pick out some hard tack and an apple for her dinner.  Before she started, she saw the woman come into the barn with a plate of steaming food.  She sighed in both relief and gratitude.

“Oh thank you so much.” She said to the woman.

             
It was the best meal she could remember having since she had leave after her first year in the army had ended.  On the plate was a thick cut steak, boiled and buttered potatoes and green beans.  She had started to eat it greedily but then slowed down so that she could enjoy it for longer.  Later, the woman came back into the barn with another large cup.

“Here’s you some more ale.” She said.  This time her voice was sweet and tender.  It surprised Terri a little.

“Thank you very much.” Terri said to her.  She drank the ale and leaned back against the wall.  She closed her eyes only for a moment and then looked for the woman again.

“So what’s your name?” Terri asked.  But the woman wasn’t there.  Terri assumed that she had simply gone back into her house.

             
Terri slept more deeply and more comfortably than she had before the battle.  However, when she woke in the early morning, she still felt tired.  Her back and shoulders still ached and her legs felt tight.  She thought about trying to sleep some more; but decided that it was best if she left as early as possible.  She ate a breakfast of hard tack and an apple and prepared to leave; but then saw the two cows in their stalls.  Looking at the two cows, she thought that, even though it hadn’t been on the list, there was still one more task to be done.  She milked both the cows.

              She put her pack, bow and arrows back on her back, attached her short sword to her belt and then carried the pales of milk to the back door of the farm and left them there.  After that and with more light filtering into the forest, she set herself back on her journey.

Chapter Twenty Seven

             
About a mile past the end of the farm’s wooden fence, Terri found a bridge leading across a small stream.  There was a sign on a tree before the bridge that read, “Bring no ill will across this bridge”.  She went down to the water’s edge and filled her canteens with water then set across the bridge.  The wood of the bridge was solid black and felt as hard as stone on her tired feet.  The hand railings were the same wood as the footpath and it arched gently over the rushing water.

              Once across the bridge, Terri found herself among huge trees; larger than she had ever before seen.  They were solid black, like the bridge, and the trunks were as big around as houses.  Looking upwards, she saw the trees stretch into the sky with high and thick branches.  Although an awesome sight, she worried at this.  The branches were far too high to climb and she would have to find someplace other than these for shelter in the night.

              She tried not to worry about this as she continued along the trail leading through the forest.  She could still hear birds and other animals so she felt relatively safe.  There was something else about these woods that seemed strange.  She felt an unusual energy flowing from the trees, passing around her like wind.  Indeed, it did feel as if the trees were alive and in a way, she felt as if they were watching her. 

              Continuing on, the trees only got larger and taller.  Looking up, she thought she saw wisps of cloud passing through the high branches.  And then she heard strange sounds, like whispering all around her and a far off deep moaning as if something large was moving.  The light around her was odd as well.  She could see no sunlight coming through the high branches; and yet the forest was still as bright as day.

              After hours of walking along the trail, her body demanded rest and she looked for someplace to put down for the night.  She crossed over a small hill and saw a single, huge root sticking out of the ground.  Under the root was, what looked like a hole and she investigated it.  The hole opened up into, what looked like a small cave sinking about six or eight feet down.  The entranced was sloped and she saw that getting out of the hole wouldn’t be too difficult.

“Works for me.” She said to herself and lowered herself down into the hole.

             
The cave went further back than she saw from the opening into a tunnel that wound its way at least twenty feet further.  Looking back, she could see light coming from the opening; but only if someone or something were to climb down into the cave would someone be able to see her.  She sat down, unrolled her blanket and settled down for the night.

              She slept much as she had when she had been in the trees the nights before.  She woke periodically, hearing voices and noises that she wasn’t sure were real or dreams.  The cave was completely dark; much like the hide several nights before.  She would close her eyes, feel as though falling asleep and then wake again, looking in the direction of the opening. 

At one point during the night, she thought to herself that she may never make it to Kallesh.  Every step was now hard work and she was getting virtually no rest.  Not even the night in the barn had helped her feel better.  There was plenty of water to be found as she could hear a nearby stream along the trail.  But she was running low on food and when she ran out, as she knew it wouldn’t take long for hunger to sap her remaining strength.  She felt as though she couldn’t go on.  At some point down the road, she knew she would simply be too tired to continue.  She thought about turning around and heading back to the farm; however, she knew there was no guarantee she would be welcome again.  She sadly pulled her knees to her chest, buried her head between her knees and softly cried.

She awoke again and saw light coming from the cave’s opening.  She listened carefully for any  sound of something above the hole and then looked up through the opening to determine if she could see anything.  She saw nothing.  She climbed up and poked her head out of the hole and still saw or heard nothing out of place.  She then climbed out of the hole, and summoning up her strength continued along her way.