For the last time, they set down their tools, putting each one carefully away into its designated spot in the workshop. The room was tidier than they had ever seen it before, tools which had never had homes finally finding a permanent place to roost.
As they stood back and looked at it, it was a bittersweet moment. This was the shop they had always wanted, had always dreamed of as a young child, had coveted, by sneaking looks through back-doors and windows. It was the shop they had dreamt about at night.
It was the place they had always wanted to work, and now, at the tender age of only sixteen, they were leaving it all behind.
The shawl around their shoulders was thin calf leather, light and new and waxed to a soft sheen, and they had crafted the boots on their feet themselves, sculpting them perfectly to fit. They were the most comfortable shoes Lightsflash had ever owned, and would be even more so in a couple of weeks, once they'd worn in a bit. They had finished making them only that afternoon, and they still shone with the last application of wax.
The pack sitting by the door had strained their shoe-making prowess to the brink, but it was a joy of buckles and straps. It wasn't large, but it was comfortable to wear and well-proofed against the weather. It had been a quiet project, pieced together over the course of weeks, using scraps and buckles not deemed fit for sale, but hard work had hidden those flaws and made it beautiful.
They were late though, and Slipheart would already be waiting for them at the Copper Ingot, the main pub in south-town, so it was time to leave. It wasn't clear if the pub's name was because of something that had been dug out of the ground during its construction, or because of the prevalent mining industry nearby, but either way, it served good ale and good-enough food, and that was all you needed.
They had packed light. Bedding, some food, a flask for water and some cooking utensils, but hopefully they wouldn't be in the wilds for too long. Hunting was not an art either of them were familiar with, but it was spring, and there should be enough growing along the road to sustain them. That was the hope, anyway.
With one last look at the shop, serene and silent in the dusty morning light, they turned, and left.
The only sign of themselves left behind was a note on the table, sealed with red wax.
-
The Ingot, as the locals called it, was busier than usual, but that wasn't a surprise. Tomorrow was the last day of spring, and for most of those in the city, it was a day off. Springs End was a day to visit families, to eat and to drink until you could eat and drink no more, before staggering to bed, ill-prepared for work the next day. Even the foundry would be closed, apart from a skeleton crew, and it would be the first and perhaps only meal of the year that many families got to eat together.
Lightsflash kicked their pack under the table and slipped into the seat Slipheart had held open for them, nodding in gratitude.
"You're late." She smiled at them, pulling the pack further under the table with her foot.
"Yeah, sorry about that," they grabbed a glass and the jug from the middle of the table, and poured themselves a drink, "the old boot threw a last minute order at me, a gift for tomorrow or some shite."
She laughed, leaning back in her chair and glancing around the pub. "Figures. Bet he thought he could get you to work through tomorrow." She reached forward for her own drink, "You gonna miss it?"
Lightsflash shrugged, noncommittal. "End of an era I suppose. But there'll be other shops."
They sipped their drinks together in comfortable silence, the shouts and chatter of the other pub patrons a halo of noise around them.
"Man," Slipheart said finally, placing her empty glass on the table and leaning forward onto her elbows, "I bet he's gonna be /pissed/."
Lightsflash laughed and drained the last of their drink, "oh you have no idea, but by the time he finds out, we should be long gone."
She nodded, and pushed herself to her feet, pulling their backpack out from under the table, followed shortly after by her own. "Well, speaking of, we best be gone then!"
A nod and a moment of adjustments later, they were off.
-
Getting out of the city was easy, they walked. There were no walls, no guards or gates, no border checks or nosy neighbours asking their business. There was just the slowly spreading urban-to-rural sprawl of a city growing rapidly beyond its limits.
It was, as far as either of them knew, one of the safest cities on the continent. The acres of surrounding farmland and the military barracks somewhere off to the east protected it from anything that decided it no longer wanted to live that forested life.
There had been walls once, so Lightsflash had heard, but those had been long absorbed into the buildings and structures of the inner city, superseded and obsoleted by time and growth, with what was left worn to nothing by generations of rain and thievery.
Somewhere further inland was Copper Mountain, which was the biggest producer of copper in the country, if not the world, and the reason for the city's rapid growth, but they weren't headed that way. They were going to follow the road towards the coast, and, if they were lucky, there they could pick up a ship to take them further north.
-
"As far as I know, she lives alone," This conversation had been going on for a while, with Slipheart doing most of the talking and Lightsflash doing most of the listening, "never partnered or nothin, no kids, but I sent a letter so she knows we're coming."
They nodded, one part of their mind watching the side of the road, looking for fruiting trees or bushes, the other half listening to her talk. They had only left the farmland behind a couple of hours before, but food-wise, the trees had been a disappointment so far. Spring was, it appeared, the wrong season, and on top of that, the road was well travelled, anything that was fruiting already stripped bare.
"You're sure she'll take us in, though? What if her life's changed since you last wrote."
Slipheart brushed this off with a wide hand gesture, "Well she won't have no choice, will she, once we turn up on her doorstep. 'Sides, who would just abandon a relative like that."
Lightsflash gave a noncommital shrug and adjusted their pack, one of the buckles digging in, "My feet are killing me," they changed the subject, "these shoes are great, but I was not cut out for this amount of walking. Have you seen any food so far?"
Slipheart rolled her eyes at them, spinning around with her arms out, "what weakness! Did you expect a walk to the shops? We've only been out here what, three or four hours?"
They grumbled something incomprehensible, even to themselves, and eyed up the trees again. If there had been fruit on them, Lightsflash would have thrown it at her, but alas, there was not.
-
That night they camped by the side of the road and ate their dinner cold. Their attempts to start a fire had gone about as well as their attempts to scavenge over the day, read: poorly. Shoe-making and carpentry skills did not translate well into wilderness survival.
"I've spent most of my life trying to avoid fires." Slipheart sighed, staring glumly at the pile of expertly shaved kindling, "didn't even think to bring a sparker. Not sure we even have one in the house."
Lightsflash nodded, face just as glum, "me neither, my ma always set it back home, and the boss was too stingy with the coal to let us do it ourselfs."
Slipheart sighed again and stared down at her cold and somewhat inedible porridge. It would have been so much better if it was just a bit warm, but no, she couldn't even have that. This was rubbish.
Neither banging rocks, nor rubbing sticks together had produced anything resembling a cook-fire, and they had given up.
They both stared at the kindling for a while longer, chewing on their food, as the light faded around them, then when it was almost too dark to see, they rolled themselves up into their blankets and tried to sleep.
The ground was rocky even with the new bedroll, and as they drifted off, Lightsflash considered that maybe this trip wasn't such a great idea after all.
-
"Reckon your ma'll have noticed yet?"
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
It was the next morning and they were both cold and miserable, but they had survived the night. Without discussing it, they skipped breakfast. Today was a feast day, back home. There would be parties in the streets, and both their families would be sitting down now to luxurious spreads, the first fruits of the spring harvest, ready for the summer to come.
"Nah, thinks I'm at yours, or at work, yours?" Lightsflash asked, but it wasn't a question more than it was an excuse to fill the air with sound.
Each family would be assuming that their wayward child was off at the other's house. Their disappearances wouldn't be noticed until late evening at least, or the next morning if they were lucky.
Slipheart swung her arms as she walked, smiling, and feeling a sudden flash of guilt, although, for what they couldn't say, Lightsflash leaned over and bumped shoulders with her. She smiled and bumped them back in return, and they walked onwards together.
Lunch was the last of the rations they had packed, eaten shivering by the side of the road. They had expected to see at least some other travellers today, but it was eerily quiet, everyone at home with their families.
"It's weird." Slipheart whispered, "I never heard such quiet before."
Lightsflash nodded, staring out along the deserted road and listening to the quiet birdsong. "I've been to like, the fields sometimes, but never outside the city like this…"
"Think we'll make it by tonight?" Slipheart's voice was quiet as she climbed to her feet, pulling the rucksack back onto her shoulders.
"Bloody hope so, it's too cold to sleep out here again."
With a nod and a pained grimace from Slipheart, the two of them set off once again.
-
"-You shoulda seen her face, oh man," Lightsflash laughed as Slipheart told the story, waving her arms around and walking backwards on the hard-packed earth. "Then my sister came in, and it got even worse, both her feet got stuck to the floor, and she didn't realise until-"
This wasn't a new story, but they laughed all the same, enjoying the day and the company. The weather had improved as time went on, and despite the muscle aches, the two of them were making good time. At least, Lightsflash hoped they were making good time, the last mile-marker had been several hours previous, and they hadn't spotted another since.
They had hoped to hit the village before nightfall. It was a small place, and unnamed, as was the custom with all villages below a certain size, but called Willow Point by those who lived there. From there they should have been able to follow the paths along the new artificial channel until they hit the coast in a week or so. Easy doings.
It would be almost impossible for them to get lost, the road was a straight line between two points, and the village would be appearing out of the trees any moment now.
Any moment now.
-
"I think we're lost." Lightsflash stared down into their cold porridge, resenting everything about it. They had been lucky enough to find water along the route, but that was it. Dinner tonight was supposed to be a meal in the inn, along with a comfy bed and human company.
"Next time," Slipheart mumbled, glaring into her porridge, "I'm bringing three fire-sparkers, just you see."
The daylight was fading, and what little light the waning moon put out was being blocked by the wall of trees that bordered the road. They had beaten their way through the growth line and into the woods themselves, and it was cool and sheltered, merely feet from the road.
"It's dark and creepy here," Lightsflash whined, their voice sounding strangely muffled by the surrounding foliage, "feels like we're somewhere people ain't meant to be."
Slipheart nodded, and moved a little, rustling the dry leaves beneath her. "Think how long it must have been since rain touched this place, for the leaves to build up like this."
They nodded, "comfy though at least, hopefully."
They both patted the ground, and wished again they had a fire, but if wishes were sparks, the whole forest would have been alight by now.
With stomachs full of raw oats and water, they settled down to sleep.
-
The leaves did turn out to be more comfortable than the stony ground of the previous night, but they also turned out to be full of tiny insects, and Lightsflash woke up on the third day of their adventure covered in small bites. Slipheart on the other hand, to their jealous envy, had not a single one. Whatever special qualities her sweat had, the bugs didn't like it.
With a groan, the two of them fought their way out of the brush. Lightsflash's headache had been building over the past couple of days, and their head was throbbing fiercely with the morning sun, each bird sound a spike of pain.
"I would kill for a cup of tea right now," they groaned, picking twigs and bits of leaves out of their hair, trying not to scratch at the tiny bites up and down their arms, "this is the worst."
Slipheart sighed wistfully, staring into the morning sun with no care for her eyesight, "yeah, me too. I got some tea leaves, we could try chewing them?"
Lightsflash gave her a glare, or really more of a squint, with the headache, and then stared down the road, back the way they had come.
"You know, we could-" a hesitation at finally saying the dreaded words, "-we could turn around and, you know, go home."
She gasped at them, partly mocking, partly genuine, "You gotta be kidding! You'd have to face your boss, and my ma'd kill me, you know that!"
Lightsflash rolled their eyes, "she'd be insufferable for a bit, but it wouldn't be that bad." They scratched at one of the bites, which was a little bigger than the others, was this what infection looked like? "She'd shout at you a load and then set you to polishing tables or some shit for the next week and that'd be it. Now my ma..." They shuddered in exaggerated fear.
The road behind them was straight and empty, bordered by the towering green, not a soul in sight.
"C'mon, your ma's nice!" Slipheart laughed, starting walking, "besides, she probably ain't even noticed you're gone."
Lightsflash flinched, and then shrugged to themselves, following with reluctant steps, and all of a sudden not having quite as much fun. Looking back at them, Slipheart paused, realising she'd said something wrong.
"Ah c'mon, I didn't mean it like that, she's nice…"
When Lightsflash didn't respond, walking onwards down the endless road, she stopped for a moment to watch their body language, before jogging to catch up. Adjusting her pack with one hand, she caught up to them quickly and laid the other on their shoulder, bidding them to stop, "Hey, I didn't mean it. You know that."
She pulled them to a halt, "Hey, is /that/ why you're leavin'?"
They shrugged against her hand, but failed to dislodge it, forced to stop and torn apart inside, somewhere between anger and sadness. "I dunno, just... Just, just leave it alone, alright? It doesn't matter."
Slipheart's face was serious as she drew around in front of them, placing both her hands on their shoulders now. "I didn' mean it. You know that. We can go back, if you want, go home."
"It's ok." It was hard to look at her face, so they stared off into the trees to the side of the road, wishing they could keep walking and pretend this conversation hadn't happened, "figured you knew anyway."
She shook her head, hands still on their shoulders. The heat of them was shocking in the cold air, and a part of them wondered how she had kept them so warm, when the weather was so stupidly cold.
"I knew shit was bad at home, I didn' think it was that bad. I've known you since… Forever, and you didn't say none of this." She seemed to hesitate for a moment, sucking her lower lip back in thought, "knew your boss was a prick, but didn' think home was the bad bit."
"He wasn't so bad, it wasn't him" Lightsflash felt a sudden urge to defend him. "He did his best." as they spoke, they tried to think of a way to get her hands off their shoulders, so they could continue walking before the tears came. "Always paid me on time, and let me use the shop for my own shit, s'long as I cleaned up. Stingy with the heat, but whatever."
A shrug didn't work to move her, and the next option would be walking into her and hoping she got out of the way in time, which they couldn't see working. Couldn't see much of anything, in fact, through their increasingly blurry vision.
A rogue sniff, and as Lightsflash wiped their nose on their sleeve, pretending their eyes weren't watering, Slipheart took a step back. A moment later they were walking down the road again together, continuing their journey, almost touching, but not quite.
They stayed like that for a while, putting one foot after the other, wrangling emotions back into check.
"Home sucked," it was getting easier to talk, as the truth finally came out, "I used to come back at night and she wouldn' have even made dinner. Didn't stay up or nothin' to make sure I was back. Durin' the day, if I tried to talk to her, she'd just look past me, like I wasn' even there. Wouldn' even take my wages off me, I used to have to just leave 'em where she'd find it."
Slipheart winced, "your siblin's didn't step in, didn't say nothin?"
"Nah," a breath, "Bluejay left years back, the others didn't care, got their own shit to do, their own lives."
Ahead of them, the road ahead was green and bright, a beautiful spring day, and the morning air had a misty quality to it. It was made all the more surreal by the blur from their tear-filled eyes, "Bluejay tried to step in once, but she screamed him out and he never came back, 'cept for on the holidays, it was just me really."
They heard Slipheart sigh quietly, and somewhere in the forest behind them a flock of birds took off, scattering to the sky, "I don't get it, she always seemed so nice with me. I thought you were leavin' cause of work, not cause…" a shrug, which was more felt than seen.
"Was easier to blame it on work, 'sides, you wanted to go, I figured I may as well come with."
She laughed, "Yeah, but I wanted to go cause I wanted na see the world, and my ma's too overbearing to let me go but too stingy to let me work on anythin' 'cept polishing. Not cause things were, you know, bad or nothin'."
They walked in silence for a minute, but it was more comfortable now. Slowly, the tears dried on their cheeks, leaving them feeling tight and hot, in contrast to the cold air, and they reached out, holding Slipheart's hand.
-
"Do you know why she hated you so much?" they had been walking for a time in silence, but the question had been forming between them. "I mean, if you wanna say, takes a lot to make a ma hate her kid like that, normally."
Lightsflash shrugged, "I think she thought I was why the old man left." Another shrug, "we didn' get along great, me and him, and the bloke she got to replace 'im didn't like me neither."
They walked for a minute more, still hand-in-hand, collecting their thoughts before continuing, "we fought a lot, me and the last one, he didn' like that I wasn't bringing in any money, didn't like that we were still payin' for school."
Slipheart drew away and put her hands behind her head, thoughtful, "that was ages ago though, I remember him, and you've been working at the cobbler's for what, two years now?"
"Almost three."
"Oof, and she's still mad? When did the bloke leave?"
"Like," they had to think about it, screwing up their face and feeling like their cheeks might crack, "a month, maybe two after I started there? Couldn' complain anymore once I left school and started bringin' in money, so they scarpered one night."
They laughed suddenly, "nicked our best biscuit tin when they went too, petty piece of shit."
Slipheart laughed, "the one with the roses on?"
"Yeah, the new one doesn' seal nearly as well, we've been through like four since then."
She grinned, "I can see why he nicked it then. But she really still won't speak to you, cause of that?"
"I guess so." A sigh, it was strange to talk about it, after having lived in silence for so long. "It's weird, I dunno if she even thinks about it anymore, it's just… It just is, now. It's how we live, and it sucks and I hated it, but I stopped tryin' to get her to change."
Slipheart nodded, and then let out an exclamation, pointing. Ahead of them, the road opened up, the oppressive trees giving way all of a sudden to open fields and byres. In the distance, they could see small green houses, the taller form of an inn, and the blue line of the channel, glittering in the morning light.
"Guess we're not lost anymore!"
Lightsflash shook their head, smiled, and rubbed one sleeve over their face, and together they set off, towards the promise of warmth.