Leiea wakes up to Sheyric hooking the horses back onto the caravan, making a lot of noise. The sunlight filtering in through the window is warm and feels exactly like it should for early summer. A nice welcome to the day after all the raw emotions before it. But of course, they haven't completely disappeared. The pain of leaving the village and her family will not go away until they return safely in less than a year.
Nevertheless she's glad to realize nothing happened to them being around the forest. Still, it's not like it should be trusted much, and all she hopes for is to pass it as soon as possible. It's almost funny she prefers dry, lifeless prairie over a rather lush and bright summer forest. In fact, a bear-infested, snowy, below-freezing cave sounds better than it. Still, she knows what she's seen in there and will not forget it for the world.
The door suddenly opens and Leiea blinks at the light, shielding her eyes with the collar of her jacket. Sheyric cranes his head in and released a breath seeing that she's awake. "The horses are feisty today. It might take longer to get going. If we go on a break and let them graze they'll probably just run away, too. Either we go really far today, or close to nothing."
Leiea nods. The new length of her hair- which she'd forgotten about overnight- gave her head an unexpected lightness and made the nod feel ridiculously enthusiastic. She feels her face turn red of embarrassment and grabs a fresh shirt out of her open pack.
Sheyric nods as well with a quizzical expression and turns away and she soon hears whinnying and the clinking of metal.
She flips the shirt out in front of her and the small framed picture of her father falls out of it and onto her foot. The old metal is weirdly heavy and specks of rust fly off onto her blanket.
Procrastinating on getting dressed, she picks it up and slowly scratches the rest of the rust off. It looks a lot better clean. She would ask Sheyric for some sort of polish or sander but this is a private thing in her life. Maybe if I ever get good at using all those tools I could do that myself, she thinks, stashing is away in her pack on top of the books.
"We're going!" He shouts from the front of the caravan. "Do you want to sit in the front? This is your only chance."
Leiea throws the new shirt back into her pack and straights out the old one she's been wearing for the last day. All the nice crimpings and fancy collar has been flattened out, making it look much older than it is. She hurries out of the door and swings herself up onto the metal-framed driver's seat. The cold of it jolts up from spine with a shiver as she sits down.
Lothain suddenly starts neighing wildly, sending Odenne into it too. Sheyric's face hardens and starts talking, but Leiea can't hear anything over the horses and concentrates on holding the shaking seat. All she notices is his pointed teeth and the way it makes his face look so... crazed when he's frustrated.
Sheyric starts petting and talking with the horses, but only Lothain calms down quickly. Odenne starts neighing even louder and rears up, towering at an extreme height. The entire caravan rocks around, and the seat goes almost vertical, launching Leiea onto the grass before she could jump off herself.
She can feel the wet grass and dirt all the way through her shirt, and it feels like her elbow was scratched, maybe skinned.
The horse rears and neighs again. She hears Sheyric cry out and and sees him runoff to get her at the corner of her eye. She stands up on her knees. "Lothain's trying to get away. I doubt we can even get going today." His rolled up sleeves reveal a large cut, starting at the inside of his left elbow and leading down to the top of his wrist. It's not deep, but the way it cut over the bone looks horribly painful and dangerous to move. His face is even more pale than it should be and his jaw is clenched into knots.
"Don't worry about me! You can't do anything with that!" She shrieks.
"I'm fine. We'll clean up and let them calm down."
With some struggle, Leiea stands up. As she thought, all her clothes are grass stained on the front and cold when exposed to the air. Parts of her elbows and forearms are dappled with cuts and raw layers of skin, but the pants protected her legs. Bending her arm up to merely brush her hair out of her eyes stings.
In the caravan, she wraps gauze around those areas and watches as Sheyric bothers his own cut. "I didn't know hooves were so sharp." She mentions. "Yes, it's bad. Now you know what happens when you mess with a horse that doesn't like people."
Wrapping his entire forearm and the crook of his elbow almost used the entire pack of gauze they had on hand. Leiea frowns when she sees that there no salve or ointment of some kind, but she doesn't bring it up. Soon blood already starts showing through the layers of fabric
She frowns. "Do I need to lead the horses? You can barely move..." he waves her off. "It's not my dominant arm. We'll manage. The only time you'll have to is if this happens to both arms." He suddenly laughs. "We've been out for only a day, and already had a casualty. We'd better be more careful."
Leiea laughs too. "It's not our fault, we get to blame Odenne." She rubs her arm through the new shirt she threw on. She doesn't like how the gauze isn't secure enough on her skin. It makes her feel vulnerable.
"That's true, we just can't... provoke them anymore. Alright, we'll get going tomorrow, whether they'll comply or not. They probably will not, but it'll all be up to them if we have a good business."
YOU ARE READING
Gift- Book 1
Fantasy- - -Don't underestimate your influence.- - - Before she knows it, Leiea's done with school and whisked away into Kiira by the brother of a girl she can care less about. Yet, while trading and learning along the way, she can't shake the sense somet...
