Down the Endless Road

Town

         This is where it begins, where my new future was going to unravel, may it be good or bad, it will be mine. And I have to accept it. 

         The wind had begun to pick up as soon as Nolan and I touched the grass at the end of the forest. It blew its cold, harsh gusts as if there was no tomorrow, and there may as well have been. The long dirt and gravel road for horse drawn carriages stretched out ahead, and the thunder of hooves could be heard from a mile or two away. 

          The thought of being some where that I hadn't seen in years made my stomach flip, but the sound of nearing horse hooves kept me focused on what was important.  In the corner of my eye I caught Nolan's brown eye and immediately i tried averting my gaze; I ended staring and his perfect black hair. 

        "Are you OK? You look sick," The concern in his voice was nice to hear but not quite what I was expecting so I just nodded vigorously, "Alright, but you know you can tell me anything that happens to be on your mind?" Again I presented that vicious nod. 

         He seemed hesitant to let the mostly one sided conversation go, so I pointed to the hill and said, "We better catch that stagecoach if we want any chance of not dying of dehydration or starvation or murder or-"

         "Chill."  Nolan stuck his arm out to slow the arriving coachman who pulled on his gorgeous chestnut Hackney mare's reins and came to a trotting stop. 

         "What do you want, kid?" The man had a gruff voice but I strangely picked up a very slight Russian accent that put me mildly on edge. 

         "My friend and I were hoping that you could give us a ride to the nearest town? It would be a big help, and," He held up a finger for the man to wait then dug around in his jeans and pulled out a handful of copper dallions, showing them up to the coachman, "I can pay."

         I quickly stuck out my hand to lower his but the coachman beat me to it, grabbing the handful with a greedy gleam in his mud colored eyes. 

          "Thank you for your service." He said as he hopped down from his cushioned seat and opened the olive drab carriage door, sweeping his unoccupied hand out in front of him. Nolan stepped into the cart first and as soon as he sat down he thrust out his hand to help me up, to which I happily ignored and instead helped myself up.

        The carriage ride was surprisingly cold despite the fact that it was only supposed to get this cold in a month of two. I kept suppressing down shivers, but couldn't seem to cover the goose flesh that ran up and down my forearms. Nolan caught me clenching my teeth and getting this tiny spasms and tried to move from his opposite bench to my side, but the cart went over a rock and the carriage bounced, sending Nolan sprawling for a hand hold and back to his seat.

        From his end Nolan spoke to me, "I have a few extra dallions, I can get you a coat and a shawl if you wish."

           "No, no. Save it for yourself, I bet you are cold also."

           "Uh, actually no. I don't feel the cold. I know, weird, I think it might be my genetics." 

          The carriage flew again and Nolan clenched his fingers over the ledge of the seat, turning the usual caramel color into snowy white. He looked so focused on not falling that I had to suppress my laughter along with my shivering. 

             He looked up to my staring and looked at me strangely "What?" 

            "You. Just, focused." I felt a slight smile creeping up and it was met with Nolan's bright one. In that split second he very slightly let go of the seat and the cart bumped again, casting Nolan into the seat next to me. He still hadn't learned that you need to go with the movements not fight them if you want to not learn the ways of a bird. Like me. 

              The town was nearing, but we were swerving. The coachman was going off the road on purpose! The open windows of the carriage were suddenly darkening. I felt the cart come to a halt and the coachman's feet hit the ground as he jumped down from his post. Nolan gave me a confused look from the corner of his eye as the door opened and the coachman grabbed and pulled each of us out of his property.

             "This is as far as you paid." 

             Nolan looked at each other worriedly as the coach man once again drove off, leaving us in an unknown place.