O' children

Chapter 10: Procession

Wrapped up in only Caysa's cloak, they had no other choice but to detour. Using some sense, Tearn had scoped out a straggler's house, a small, wooden thing outside of the village limits that from the squealing coming from inside the house (the shack, really) it was currently being inhabited by a family. Land and housing taxes made it cheaper to live outside of a town or village, poorer families that needed the space were forced to move out, that was one of the reasons the Imran monastery sat so far for Garni's town square. Tearn was eyeing up the clothing rack, sparse as it was it contained hose and shirts hanging from wooden pegs, drifting limp in the wind.

Caysa almost pulled Tearn back as she snuck up to the clothesline. The dim cries of a baby hid the crunch of leaves underfoot. Caysa felt something awful slide down his spine at the thought of stealing from these people who had little to nothing, even the sunlight was dim here, the canopy tall and obstructive. He thought that it must be awful here during the winter.

A clang sounded in the distance just as Tearn grabbed the pair of breeches and a men's tunic in one smooth motion. Caysa swallowed his breath, hiding himself further behind a tree trunk and hissing at Tearn to hurry back. Tearn put her finger up to her lips and inched closer to the house, rounding the corner to the front of the house. Palo's mercy, she was gong to steal their shoes. Caysa swore under his breath, he opened his pack and dug out the loose coins from the bottom, it enough tulurs to buy a few loaves of bread. Tiptoeing forward as Tearn made her way back, a ragged men's pair of boots in her hand, she gave him a sharp look as she passed and Caysa shrugged in response. Caysa's heart jumped as the baby from inside finally stopped crying, dropping his handful of currency next the doorstep.

Scampering back to Tearn by the forests edge, she was halfway to lacing up the breeches, tunic already pulled over her head

"How stupid, you are," Tearn hissed "Do you not think you may need that?"

"Not as much as they do," Caysa said back.

"Do they?" Tearn was hopping trying to put the old boots on her feet. Caysa decided now wasn't the time to warn her about foot infections.

"Yes," Caysa bemoaned, maybe a little too loudly as Tearn pulled his arm and hurried them further into the dark of forest's heart.

~~~

"It's probably rude to ask but why we can't just fly there?"

Avoiding the main roads to and through the Tisgan Alps were a type of struggle that Caysa, in all his ignorance, had never even considered, the Aberre Forest that sat next to Garni was practically an apple orchard compared to this stretch of nature. Whatever wasn't hilly, was thick, overgrown forest, Caysa could feel the awful damp leaf litter through the bottom of his sandals, swatting buzzing with flies from his face. He truly thought it was amazing that such a dense, lively habitat existed in such a small area, he just desperately wished that it wasn't him currently experiencing it.

The river as they approached was not the one Caysa knew from Garni, here it was as massive as it was violent. The Tisgani River was the life blood of the Alps and fields, and it didn't stop for any man.

Tearn looked at Caysa with a glare so withering, Caysa immediately ducked his head down.

"If you want us to immediately get sighted, and killed."

Caysa gave an awkward laugh, but Tearn answered with unamused silence.

"Uhm, how did you know I was dragon back there?" Caysa asked, the question had been plaguing him for hours now. Was it the way he walked or something on his face? Tearn gave strange sigh.

"It's complicated, I don't really know how to explain it but humans are like this," Tearn held out her left hand horizontal, "and dragons are like this," she layered her other hand over the top.