Chapter 21: No Wonder (Patreon)

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Chapter 21: No Wonder - link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102264554

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Chapter 21: No Wonder

"Whoa," the old man howled, careful not to be too loud but heard by the mares. To my horror, the wagon stopped not far from me.

'Did he hear the chains rattling too?'

At his age, though?

'Perhaps, like me, he understood his horses.'

However, the likelihood of that being a common ability faded the moment he stretched and grunted: "Argh, here at last."

'The hell? This was his destination?'

Confused, I looked around, careful not to make a sound. This place didn't seem any different from the rest of the forest: trees everywhere you looked, the ground covered with moss, stones here and there.

So, what made it so special for the old man to stop here?

Me!

I broke out in a cold sweat, ready to bolt at the slightest hint of him eyeing my spot. He did not, though. Instead, the old man stretched out again and slowly climbed down from the driver's seat. 

»Not like it here,« the younger mare whinnied. »I will pull for you; let's keep going.«

»Silliness, darkness close. It will soon fall on the woods.«

"Calm down, girls," the old man spoke in a low, husky voice, patting the neck of the younger mare. "I don't like stopping here any more than you do. But as long as we don't disturb the woods, we'll be fine."

With my ears perked, I listened to every word. Night was coming; this peaceful-looking forest was apparently dangerous, but above all, they didn't stop here for me.

At least it seemed so; the old man did not show any interest in my hiding spot, preferring instead to busy himself with unharnessing the horses. Knowing nothing about it, I found it fascinating to watch him. He made it look very easy.

»T-there! A beast!« neighed the younger mare, tossing her head my way. 

'Shit, shit, shit, shit . . .'

Panicked as the mare was, I ducked back behind my tree, ears flattened against my head.

»Where?«

»A-among the trees, behind it.«

'Shi - fuck!'

»Silly, there no beast.«

»I saw it, big ears.«

Of course, my stupidly big ears gave me away. The most sensible thing to do would be to just run away, not looking back. So, why did I not? Why did I stay, hoping the old man wouldn't pay any attention to the neighing horses?

'Because deep down, I didn't want to end up living like a beast in the woods.'

"What is it, girl? Something scared you?" the old man asked the mare, his voice soothing. For all my curiosity to see what he was doing and whether he was looking in my direction, I stayed down, still as a rock, merely listening.

"Don't worry; like I said, as long as we don't do anything to disturb the woods, the big beasts won't pay any attention to us. And as soon as I make a fire, the little ones won't come near us, either."

'Fire? Won't that disturb the forest?'

Contrary to my better judgment and expectations, hearing that seemed to calm the mare down. 

»See, Liam knows what he is doing,« the older mare spoke, throwing my mind into a flurry of questions. Did she, an animal, understand him? How? She didn't used to be a human like I first thought, did she? Was the kind looking old man a deranged lunatic after all? And why the hell did a few words calm the mare down so much? Did he use a weave, some kind of damn mind control? 

It wouldn't surprise me - slaves and masters, that was how this world seemed to operate.

Alas, while foolishly staying and listening, I got no answers. The old man, Liam, by all accounts, did as he said after unharnessing the mares and tying them to a tree. He found a suitable place among the towering piles of stones and started a fire just as dusk began to fall on the forest.

Swallowing a whimper, I couldn't help but marvel at the sight:

'My first actual evening in this damn world.' 

Sure, huddling among the roots of the trees, spying on the old man with two horses, and watching the flickering light of his fire on the trunks around me was kind of lame. Still, the best evening I've had in a long, long time.

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With night falling on the forest in full might, fatigue settled over my body. No wonder, so much had happened. I had turned into a beast and back, killed a few people, died several times, and regained my freedom while finding myself in a mossy forest. I had every right to be tired. But still huddled behind a tree, I was swallowing yawn after yawn and fighting off the sleep that was coming to me with an unusual ease.

No wonder there either - the forest might have been buzzing with the sounds of nocturnal creatures, but compared to the tortured wails of my fellow freaks, it felt like a beautiful lullaby. 

To fall asleep, however, would be to risk ending up with a collar around my neck again and a new master ordering me around. And so, while stifling yawns, I kept waiting and waiting until I was damn sure the old man and the mares had fallen asleep. Only then, after ensuring that my chains were secured and would not rattle, did I move from my hiding spot.

Did I do the smart thing and run away, though? No, I crept forward toward the old man's campsite like the biggest fool I was.

Every fiber of my body was screaming at me to run away. After all, I knew too well how cruel humans could be to each other. The remnants of that abuse were still evident on my body. So, other than the slim chance that he was not a bad man, I couldn't even find a good reason for me to act so foolishly. All that drove me forward was this unquenchable, almost painful curiosity - no, not curiosity - the need to know if this world was as twisted as I feared or if I was just that unlucky.

And so, bit by bit, as silently as possible, I made my way to the stone wall behind which lay the old man's camp.

'A wall?'

Squinting in the gloom that my eyes made of the night, I looked at the stones buried under layers of moss. It took me a while, but I recognized the rooms, the doors, and even the openings for what had once been windows.

'How come I didn't see this before, in the full light of day?’

Baffling, for sure. The ruins of what was obviously already a thing of the past, however, were not why I was sneaking around. Getting my mind back on track, I crept up to the wall and peeked over it. 

The old man had set up camp in what appeared to once be a rather large room with a fireplace in which the flame of his fire was now dying. Close enough now for the Lattice to tell me more about the man, I glanced at him lying under the blanket, his head resting on a soft-looking pillow. He certainly knew how to make camping more enjoyable.

[Merchant: 78 sigils]

And no wonder - as a merchant, he had to travel the world, or at least some part of it. I almost laughed out loud as relief settled in my heart. Sure, what the Lattice showed me didn't rule out the possibility of him being some kind of slave merchant, but at least he didn't appear to be someone who experimented on others.

Speaking of which, my eyes traveled to the two mares lying tied to a tree growing in the corner of the room. They both seemed to be sleeping peacefully, something I never got to enjoy in the cellar. No, unlike me, those two were well taken care of.

'You two are lucky,' I thought, kind of envious, then looked back at the old man. 

To my utter horror, his blue eyes were staring right back at me. He was awake, a dagger still partially tucked under the pillow, its blade flashing in the dying firelight, gripped tightly in his hand. 

This time I didn't think twice and ran away.

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