Gift- Book 1

Chapter 5

With a loaf of bread, a spoon, and a knife with a small jar of butter, Leiea turns the corner of the farthest stall in the market- a big blocky structure selling lead and pencils- to pass into the back fields. The fields are strangely lonely here. On the other side of the village, those fields are still crowded with people sunbathing.

In the distance, she sees the dark figures of two workhorses and that of Sheyric. She picks up speed and the dry grass crunches under her boots.

One of the horses, a big, rusty colored one with a gleaming mane, snorts at the sudden arrival of another person. Sheyric pets it and smiles. "This one's Odenne. She doesn't like strangers, so watch out for those hooves."

Leiea nods and sits down a few feet away, putting the food in front of her. She got the bread from the bakery, like usual, and the butter from a vendor working from the entryway of her house. Sheyric, she's just noticing, is holding a lidded pitcher of water, some sort of jam, and a woven basket. "Sweet cheese buns," he says. "My favorite. Good thing you got butter, it's best with that as well as the jam. Today I have wild cherry."

He sits down next to her, takes the buns out, and sets them neatly on the top of the basket.

"This just reminds me," Leiea starts, opening the jar of butter and putting it near the basket, "What will we do about food on our ventures? We couldn't possibly store enough in that tiny caravan."

Sheyric shakes his head. "No, of course, we couldn't. But we can store enough water. Barrels, in fact."

"Okay... would we go hunting when we run out of food? Buy from travelers we may run into?"

He laughs, a little grimly. "That would be ideal, wouldn't it? I know you can hunt fairly yourself, so hope you can hold to it. Also, I can do a good bit of... foraging."

Leiea laughs this time. "You couldn't possibly find plants to eat in these plains. It's all reserved for the horses, basically. I could barely hunt here anyway. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I could find a mouse nest or rabbits, but nothing substantial." He nods and puts jam and butter on a bun and takes a few long bites before responding.

"I know you're sick of me saying this, but we can go into that forest,"

Leiea groans and holds her knees up to her chin. She is sick of all this talk about forests.

"Well? We can," he turns to her more directly. "We would never go far in there, but during the day, and on the outer edges, it's perfectly safe. I know you're still freaked out about it because of the incident with your sister, but-"

"Of course I am!" she throws her head to the side and looks Sheyric in the eye. " It's not just about going into the forest, or forests. I'm just scared about this whole trading thing in general. You've thrown me into this really suddenly."

He stares at her for a moment and takes a deep breath. "Why would you not be scared? It's your first time doing this. I'll learn to be more accepting of that in time. What I was starting to say before was that we can go in there when it's daytime, and just on the outskirts of it. There's plenty of mushrooms, roots, berries, sometimes other tree fruits if were lucky. But remember, we still stock up on food here, as well as in every stop we make. There should be enough for both of us to get to Karyk, but it'll be hard going to Galerus after." Upon seeing her expression, he adds, "We'll be past the forest by then. It'll be those mice and rabbits you mentioned."

Leiea sighs and watches the horses while slicing the grainy loaf she brought. The smaller horse, which she guesses is Lothain, has been grazing the whole time and looking at the raging Odenne with what looks like contempt. Its musty beige coat is almost the color of the grass, and it's dark, heavy hooves match its mane and ears.