Breaking Free - Lys's Tale

Chapter 3 - What's a Quala Mate?

Once the carriage is on its way again the Duke continues his lessons on Dranmi and the border lands between their kingdom and ours.

"Now you traditionally wouldn't be learning about the bad lands and their inhabitants for another year or two of training however our diplomatic mission has required us to change all of your trainings up a bit." The Duke says as he respreads the map out on the small table.

The Duke spends some time explaining the various similarities and differences between the bad lands that border their kingdom and briefly touches base on some of the others. He points out on the map how all the bad lands are connected as they circle around each of the kingdoms and that some of the spaces are longer than others. He mentions that most of them are stretches of land that are considered hard to live.

"The bad lands between us and Jermic, the kingdom that is south of us, is a desert. When crossing that bad land you have to make sure to have plenty of water or guides that know how to find water. The people that inhabit those bad lands have always kept to themselves, neither attacking or offering assistance. They consider themselves nomads and bow to no king but since they are almost impossible to find unless they want to be found they are generally left alone," the Duke tells Lys, Ash and Lee-Lee. The Duchess bends over and pulls out one of the books from the box next to the weapons chest, flipping through several pages she passes the book around so that each of the children can see a hand drawn image of a nomad.

Lys stares intently at the image of a male completely dressed from head to toe. Only his eyes are visible as they stare in apparent disdain at whatever lays before him. Lys feels somehow drawn to the image, something about it speaking to her soul. She quietly studies the male absently noting that his stance is a classic warrior one and that while completely covered his clothes seem fashioned in such a way as to allow freedom of movement needed to fight.

"Got a crush Lys?" Ash taunts seeing her fascination with the image in front of her. Lys immediately slams the book shut and hits her brother with it causing her Mother to scold her and take it away.

Ash smirks at her as she apologizes for abusing the book, and Lys elbows him in the gut, thankful that her Mother did not ask her to apologize for abusing her brother.

The Duke clears his throat gathering the twins attention again and stopping them from brawling in the middle of the carriage. Pointing back to the map he sticks his finger on a small town marked in tiny script right on the edge of the Dranmi border.

Lys and Ash both lean forward, their sibling rivalry briefly forgotten as they dutifully peer at the town trying to decipher the cramped script. Lys squints her eyes finally translating the town's name of Rock Point before sitting back and waiting for their Father to explain why he pointed it out.

Lys watches in amusement as Ash's nose has to practically touch the map and crosses twice before he can read the markings and sit back. Studying the bad lands on the map surrounding Rock Point Lys notices that multiple squiggly lines in the bad lands that she thinks might mean lots of mountains.

Her father quickly verifies this as he explains that Rock Point is settled right in the middle of a huge mountain range that spans both into the bad lands and Dranmi. Tapping the town with his forefinger the Duke tells the twins that Rock Point is where they plan to cross over into Dranmi as it is also where Dranmi's most important export is to be found.

Lys stares at the tiny dot of a town before flicking back to the star that represents the capital, trying to figure out the path they were going to take. Ash is mumbling city names next to her obviously trying to trace out the journey path as well.

The Duke allows them several moments to study the map before lightly tracing their journey path. "This is the route we will be traveling." He tells his children making a zig zag motion along the map. "As you can see it begins as a straight shot north towards Dranmi but about a week into our journey we begin to zig and zag a bit because your Mother and I have been tasked to stop at the major towns along the way.