Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 62

After the night of festivities the Traders wasted no time at all packing up their supplies and wares.

As soon as the sun broke the clearing erupted into activity.

Children scrambled up trees simultaneously to release the cables and collapse the tents, the women folded the materials as small as they could and began to strap them to the harnesses they used to carry them. The livestock, mostly fat sheep and goats, munched at the damp vegetation, their tales flicking at the many flies that surrounded them, oblivious to the activity around them.

Breen sent Far Sighted Damnion to scout the trading routes and check that they were wolf free. He sent the rest of the hunters out to gather as much meat as they could to feed everyone. Marcie's side was not as painful as it had been but Breen instructed her to rest, so she helped the children take down the tents.

By early evening the entire camp had been packed neatly away onto shoulder harnesses the traders wore upon their backs, great towering stacks of brightly coloured cloth, skins, materials, minerals, rare woods and jewellery, exotic fruit in jars of preserve, dried meats of all delicacies, rolls of paper and leather bound books

Not a single trader complained about his or her burden. The children carried much smaller packs but It did not hinder their energetic movement or their laughter.

Featherback blew a short rams horn and the people began movement in a column formation through the trees, leaving the camp that had sustained them for too long. Marcie and the hunters spread out from the column, surrounding and protecting them, eyes constantly alert, ears pricked for the slightest disturbance within the trees.

Marcie watched for the owl, but she saw not a pure white feather in sight. Maybe she had imagined it? Maybe she was going mad. She looked at the traders, at their ragged cloths in need of repair, at their thin faces in need of food and wondered what would have happened had the owl not flown in the direction of their camp and she had not followed. Doe face caught her eye and smiled shyly, a pack larger than she was digging into her shoulders.

Marcie smiled back. Really she should feel kinship with these people. Her mother had been a trader with her family, although her family was not there now, they refused to trade with the forgotten after she died. However Marcie felt very little connection with them, except in that they supplied some very useful and essential wares for the village and herself, she and Miss Maiden would not be able to make the dresses and clothes they did without the materials they supplied. And yet, despite sharing the same blood, she did not consider herself one of them. But then again, she never felt like one of The Forgotten either.

So here she was. Unaccepted by either side of her heritage. A sobering thought.

As if hearing the direction of her thoughts, Doe Face approached her, stepping carefully around tree roots and vines, she managed to keep pace with Marcie, even thought Marcie did not share the weight of her burden.

"Forgive me, Marcie No Ones Bride" She said in accented Old language, "I have heard tell that your mother was of the people?" 'The people' was what the traders called themselves.

"Yes, she was" Marcie replied,

Doe Face waited for Marcie to say more, when she did not, she said, "Only, I wondered if your mother was the same known to us as Bird Song?"

Marcie tried to quicken her pace, to loose the woman and escape this conversation,

"Yes...ah...I believe she was" She said haltingly,

"The Great Master relieve you of you grief" The Trader stated solemnly, bowing her head a little,

Marcie nodded, the Traders god was a mystery to her, her mother had never schooled her in her peoples beliefs, yet she did not wish to appear ignorant.