The Walled Cities

Chapter 26

"What! When?" Kaelyn asked surprised. Her tone was more one of surprise than of anger, even though it had been someone from her city whom I had possibly shot.

"Shortly before I met you, actually. I had just made a trade with Shaw and was trying to leave when someone threw something at me. I reacted without thinking about the consequences." I admitted.

"Who though?" She urged. Now her tone was mixed with worry and fear, perhaps she thought I had shot Shaw. I doubted it but I had not stayed around to see who I had or had not hit with my shots. With luck I had hit no one, as even the brat who had harassed me did not deserve to die, though a few months of water duty would be good for him.

Since I did not know who I did not want to worry Kaelyn, yet I needed to answer to the best of my ability so that at least she could believe it was not Shaw. The young man was the best option, "I believe the one who attacked was called Jeremy. Some young stuck up, arrogant, conceited man who thought less of me."

"Was he a guard with red hair, cut short?" She asked, interest and possibly excitement filling her tone.

Thinking on it, I replied hesitant as I was unsure where this was leading, "Yes, I believe so. I had never seen him before as I deal with Shaw or whoever is in charge of the gate and the two men who are at the checkpoint."

Kaelyn's expression quickly changed from one of worry to a growing smile. Before I could ask, she laughed, a loud burst of sound that sounded happy or like when someone laughed at a joke. This was uncharacteristic of her, or at least for the time I had known her.

Confused I waited until her laughter had become sniffles before asking, "What is so funny. This is seroius."

"He was my fiancée." She explained, her earlier laughter and humor gone from her voice and face.

Curious for an explanation I listened as Kaelyn continued, "I ran away to escape my inevitable marriage to him. He is expected to be a captain of the city watch one day. I am glad to see someone put him in his place."

Annoyed that she did not seem to understand how serious the situation was, I tersely replied, "Have you not been listening. They will hang me for shooting him. Your fiancée was and is a citizen of Notredram. The law is very clear on punishment for shooting a citizen. Shaw will support me but I could still be branded, which would keep me from trading with Notredram and potentially any of The Walled Cities. My family relies on me, my brother does not have the strength to make the journey, especially with the loss of those fingers."

Sucking in a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh of resignation she replied, "I know. But we may never see Notredram again. We will deal with this together when the time comes. First we have to survive Winter."

"Yes we do have to survive Winter, but Spring is coming, and we will have to trade with Notredram or one of the other cities eventually. I know it has been awhile since we talked about you being and Outsider, but we need to be ready together. You were born inside Notredram and are now an Outsider. Your customs as I have said before are yours to keep. Spring will be different than Fall and we will encounter a lot of traders. They will have questions and some will make comments towards you. None of them will try to hurt you, out of respect towards me and the traditions of traders. Once you have a knife and maybe a staff they will comment less about your past life." I agreed before explaining.

Having said all I wanted to say for now on the subject and noting that the fire had burned low I went over and grabbed some more wood. With the pieces in hand I returned to the fire and Kaelyn. One at a time I added the pieces into the fire, postioniong them so that they would burn without collapsing and destroying the fire. Without the fire for warmth, Kaelyn and I would struggle to stay healthy even now. The cold was not something to mess around with, and sickness now led to death in the Winter.

Kaelyn needed to get her rest if she was to get better before even being here was dangerous. Whether she was going to agree to it was another matter, but I hoped that the food would fill her and get her to sleep. She had eaten everything out of the pot, which now needed to be washed.

Wanting to get to work with my chores, I urged, "Get some rest. Your still weak and you need to concentrate on healing. I will wake you up for dinner."

Rather than argue with me she with a sigh laid down and pulled the blankets over herself. Confident that she would sleep I grabbed the pot and made my way outside. I should have grabbed the crutch but I was sick of the thing, besides I was not going that far.

First on the list of chores was to clean the pot. This meant going to to the stream and scrubbing it out with my palm as best I could. While I sat on the bank and scrubbed it, I listened to the gentle rustle of the treetops in the breeze. Somewhere in the distance a Woodpecker hammered on a tree, it's thunk thunk making its way through the forest.

Enjoying myself, I did not even notice that the pot was clean until my hands had gone numb from the cold water. Returning to camp, I hung the pot on a peg I had made out of a low tree branch. Other branches had been turned into poles to hang the furs of the animals I had killed, on. Slowly I had turned this little space into a trappers camp, which was what I was anyway. There were still other things I wanted to masked, starting with a bucket for water. A beaver would be good for this, and I already had one. Both of the otter hides were going to become hats for Kaelyn and I. All of this work I would do at night, or maybe Kaelyn could tomorrow and in the coming days. She had said that she was good at sewing, and my skills left something to be desired.

For now though there was other work to do. Checking the fish traps was difficult on my leg but I managed as I walked to one and then the other. Both had a medium sized fish, which I clubbed over the head and cleaned downstream of the traps. They would make good additions to the food storage, once I had dried them properly. The fish baskets themselves were a different matter as the weather was going to get colder and soon the stream would freeze. For now they were fine but eventually I would have to either pull them out, or chip through ice to get to them.

With the fish in hand I headed back to camp. By the time I got back my side and leg were beginning to throb but I rested them as I cut the fish into strips and set it out to dry. They would need about two days to dry, but I would have to watch them to make sure nothing tried to eat them. As I was pitting the last of the pieces up high on the rack I had made, I smelled smoke, and not the little amount from the fire inside the shelter.

No longer concerned with the fish, I began to climb the closest tree. Branches snapped and needles brushed my face and I climbed as high as I could. When I stopped I was above the canopy of the trees around and could see where the smoke was coming from. Plumes of smoke rose from the waterfront district of Columbia. Ships bobbed up and down on the ocean, some burning, some roaring as cannons fired. I could not tell who was winning, but with all the devastation was their really a winner even when it was over?

Kaelyn would be shocked at the level of destruction I was seeing, but she was not here. There was no point telling her either. This winter was going to be hard enough without thinking about the fact that come Spring there would be a war to fight.

Careful so that I did not hurt my leg which was not happy with the climb, I made my way down the tree and away from the burning city. While I slid down the tree I muttered words of hope for those trapped inside of  Columbia. War was a horrible thing that brought nothing but death. Life was hard enough without it.

Subdued by the site of the city, I spent the rest of the day cutting firewood for the coming winter.    Most of the trees I cut I had to drag a hundred feet or so, as I wanted to leave the good trees closest to camp standing. Every tree I cut was dead, since they burned easy and were dangerous if left up when the winter storms came. A tree falling on me or worse the shelter was the last thing I needed.