The girl was looking up at me with her gentle, green eyes. She still looked very sad, but she had at least cheered up enough that she was no longer crying. Slowly, she wiped the wet tears away from her face and eyes, as she tried her best to be strong, and not to show the way that she was feeling.
I knelt down, and looked into her eyes.
“I’m going to pick you up now, so that you can grab onto my back. Okay? After that, I can help you to get to some place safe.”
She nodded, and just barely managed to give me a warm, and a friendly smile.
“Okay,” she said.
I began to lift the girl up, being as careful as I possibly could not to place any weight onto her leg. I felt her grab my shoulders as I raised her up, and as she clung onto me as tightly as she could. Then, I stood up again, and looked down towards the boy who was standing at my side.
“Alright,” I said. “Where were the two of you headed towards?”
I tried to sound as confident as I could. But in truth, I really hoped that this young boy had some sort of a destination in mind. Because if he didn’t, then I wasn’t really sure of where it would be best to take them.
“Well…,” the boy said. “There was supposed to be a house in these woods. That’s where we were headed to.”
“What kind of a house,” I asked.
“The owner said it… that it’s partially hidden in a cave, somewhere,” the boy said. “And that it has an engraving of a staff on the door…”
A wave of both relief and excitement washed over me as soon as I had heard those words.
“I saw that house on my way here,” I said, trying to seem as calm as I could. “It’s about ten minutes back that way. If we move quickly, we can probably get there in about half of the time.”
The boy’s face lit up with a pure, and excited joy, as the girl squeezed me tightly around my shoulders.
“Okay,” he said, “let’s go!”
“Alright. Grab my sword up off of the ground, and then we’ll go as quickly as we can.”
He picked up the blade, struggling with its weight at first before managing to get a decent hold on it, before turning back towards me. I looked out through the woods, trying to remember exactly which direction I had come from. Then, once I had gotten my bearings, I began to move ahead, almost running as I cut my way through the quiet forest.
A few minutes later, we each saw the house with the engraving of the staff on the door. As we made our approach, the young boy rummaged through a pocket of a belt that he wore beneath his robe. He seemed to be having trouble getting inside of the pocket with his trembling hands, but he eventually managed to pull out a small, black metal key, and slipped it inside of the large wooden door. Then, he turned the key as quickly as he could, until a satisfying “click” rang out through the empty woods. Afterwards, he shoved the door open, dashed inside, and looked back towards me. I made my way in after him, and then the young boy closed the door behind me, and used the small black key to lock the home once more.
We had made it inside.
The boy and I worked together to carefully lower the young girl down onto the floor. Once she had been safely set down, the young boy rushed towards her and wrapped his arms around her neck, as they whispered to one another with great excitement. The whole time, warm tears were falling softly from their eyes, as they embraced one another in their arms, and expressed their joy at finally having made it to safety.
I stood a little ways off to the side, trying not to intrude too much on what must have been a deeply happy conclusion to a very long, and frightening journey.
About a minute and a half later, the young boy stood back up, and the three of us began to look around at the home that we had just stepped into.
The house that we were in had three rooms. At the back of the house was a kitchen and a small bathroom, while the room that we were currently standing in was a kind of dual living room and bedroom, with a great variety of different furniture, belongings, and decorations.
There was a little bed with white crumpled sheets in the back-right corner, and a few bookshelves that were full of beautifully bound tomes, and a small wooden chair for reading.
Additionally, in the corners, there was what appeared to be a large globe of the world, and a dresser stuffed full of clothes, and a little desk which was covered in half-finished sketches and drawings.
The walls were decorated with a variety of tapestries and paintings as well, some of which were so large that they covered nearly an entire half of the wall… and the paintings, in particular, were truly extraordinary. There was a painting of the night sky reflecting on the surface of a deep and beautiful ocean, and a painting of a huge, wondrous city that was ringed with a wall of gold, and a painting of the hills and the valleys that I had left behind just a little while before, which somehow managed to not only capture the charms of that lovely place, but even to add to its beauty, and its splendor.
I stood for a while and contemplated each of the paintings in turn, letting myself soak in the beautiful sights that they depicted, while I wondered to myself if each of them was an image of some part of this new world, and if I would be able to go someday and to visit each of those places in person, and to see each of those things for myself.
While I stood and examined the fine artwork, the young boy had moved over towards a row of bookshelves, as he started to search through each of the bottom shelves with a great degree of purpose and direction. A few moments later, he came walking back towards us with a large, green tome, which bore the extraordinarily boring title, “An Unabridged History Of The Bloodless War: Volume Nine.”
Before I had the chance to ask any sort of question, or to make any sort of joke at his taste in literature, the young boy opened up the tome, and faced the book down towards the floor. Then, he slowly flipped through each of the pages.
A few moments later, a small wooden whistle fell out of the book, and onto the ground below.
The boy picked up the whistle, and placed it into his mouth.
Then, he blew as hard as he could.
There wasn’t any sort of sound, and nothing appeared to happen.
Undeterred, the boy walked over to the center of the room, knelt down against the floor, and placed both of his hands onto the ground. He held his hands there for about ten seconds, as the girl and I looked on to see what was about to occur.
Then, there was a low, heavy rumbling sound, as a large square portion of the floor slowly lifted up into the air at a sharp angle. Beneath the now-raised wooden panel, there was a small, narrow hole, with a ladder that led into the space below.
And then, I just stood there - unable to form any sort of coherent thought, or sentence.
“It’s a secret compartment,” the boy said, trying to seem like he wasn’t just as amazed as the rest of us were. “It’s for hiding slaves. The owner told me about it when he gave me the key. If we ever need to hide, we can hide in there.”
“Alright,” I said.
That wasn’t exactly the most insightful thing that I could have said. But what else was I going to say, really?
I had already known that there was magic in this world. But it was one thing to know that it existed, and another thing entirely to actually see it at work in front of you. It really was amazing, and I just stared at the open panel in silence for quite some time.
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The girl seemed to be a little more familiar with the workings of magic than I was. But she also seemed to be very curious to see what was down inside of the compartment. So, I gently picked her up, and carried her right up to the edge of the opening, as the three of us all looked down together to see what was inside.
Down in the hole below, there was a large, square room, which was full of beds, lamps, leather jugs of water, and other miscellaneous supplies. There were even some extra pieces of weapons and of armor in a large wooden crate, and I made a note to myself to look through the armor later to see if I could find any sort of good, strong helmet to go with the rest of my suit of leather, if that would be okay.
For now though, there didn’t seem to be anything that the three of us needed right away. So, each of us leaned back from the concealed compartment, and began to sit in a little circle around the floor.
“This is an amazing house,” I said.
“Yeah,” the young boy said. “The man who owns it is a mage, I think. That’s why it has this sort of magic in it.”
“The owner of this house… who is he, exactly?”
“He’s one of the people who helped us to escape,” the girl said, softly.
“The two of us were slaves on a farm that’s owned by the City of the Red Tower,” the young boy said, continuing for the quiet girl. “The owner of this house was part of a group that broke us all out, called the Free Folk. They were going to escort a couple of hundred of us, and to take us all to safety. But, well… some of the soldiers from the city started to attack, and then everyone started to fight. After that… the owner gave us the key to his home, and told us where to go, and what to do. Then he started to… cast a spell, I think – maybe to protect us. I didn’t see what happened to him after that.”
“Then… well, then the two of us just started to run. We’ve been running for the last two days. We don’t know what happened to any of the people who were trying to rescue us, or to any of the other slaves.”
“I think that I may have met one of the other runaways,” I said. “A short, stocky man by the name of Torver. He was headed off towards the East, and was going to head out over the Great Lake. He seemed to be doing very well, and he helped to escort me up to the edge of the forest.”
As I told them a little about what had happened before, the faces of both of the children seemed to light up with a deep sense of gladness.
“We know Torver,” the young girl said softly. “He worked on the same farm that we did. He was a really good person, and he was especially kind to each of the kids. I’m glad that he’s okay.”
The young boy only nodded, but he seemed to feel the same.
Then, there was a heavy silence in the air. All of us seemed to know what we needed to talk about next, but none of us really wanted to raise the issue. Eventually, I figured that I should just take the lead, and let everything play out from there.
“So… what are the two of you going to do now? Is the owner of the house going to come back here to meet up with you, or is the rest of the group going to come to try and help you?”
“I think that the owner is the only one of them who knows that we’re here,” the boy said. “It was really chaotic when all of the fighting broke out, and he ran over towards us, and helped us himself. He told us that he would try to get here before we did, and that he was only giving us his key in case he ran into trouble. But… well, he isn’t here, yet, so… I’m not sure what’s happened to him, or where he could be.”
“Alright,” I said. “For now, though… I guess that the two of you will want to stay here, and to wait for him to return?”
“Yeah,” the boy said. “That’s what we should do, I think. But… if he doesn’t come back in a couple of days, then… I guess that we can think about what to do after that.”
The young girl seemed to understand, too, and to agree with what the boy was saying.
Honestly… I was glad that they both understood that the owner of this house might not be coming back. I hadn’t wanted to bring up that possibility on my own… so, it was good that they had figured it out for themselves, and that they understood the whole gravity of the situation.
I was actually pretty surprised by just how mature and serious each of them were, and how much they seemed to understand at their young age. They reminded me a lot of some of the kids that I had met when I was homeless, and that made me a little sad, because I knew what that implied about their pasts.
But, still… it was good to know that I could speak openly with the two of them, and that I could treat them as my equals. That would make the rest of this conversation a lot easier than it would have been otherwise.
Still, it was hard to really know what to say or to do next right then - and for a moment, the three of us just kind of sat together in a very awkward silence.
Then... the young girl reached her hand over, and took me by the sleeve.
"It's really scary here," she said, very softly and quietly. "Will you stay here with us... for a few days, at least?"
It was clear that it had taken every ounce of courage that she had to make that request... and she didn't have the strength right then to look me in the eye, as warm tears began to run down her cheeks.
The boy was averting his eyes from me right then. But I had the sense that he felt about the same way that she did.
I didn't honestly know what to do... but, I knew that I had to say something in reply.
And then, I just took a deep breath, as I said something that I knew I might regret.
"... alright. I'll stay here with the two of you, until the owner returns. Or, if he doesn't... then, if that happens, I'll try to help the two of you to figure out what to do from here - and how to make your way to freedom."
Honestly…
A part of me already really wished that I hadn’t said that.
Every part of this situation felt like it could go really, really badly, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get wrapped up in it at all.
Plus, I had just gotten out of jail, and I’d just been given the chance to start up a new life for myself. I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to take in a pair of kids just like that, or to start to make commitments that it would be pretty hard for me to back out of, and that might lead me into a lot of trouble down the road.
But, on the other hand… well.
There was just no way that I was going to stand up, walk out the door, and leave them to themselves, with no idea of whether or not they were going to live or to die.
And even though this isn't at all how I'd envisioned my new life in this world going, I knew that I wanted to change from the way that I'd been before - and something in me said that this was really a chance to do so, even if it seemed terrifying to me at first.
So, for now… I accepted her request, and promised to watch over them.
Hopefully, the owner would return, and everything would be fine.
But, if he didn’t… well.
Then, I would just trust in my own instincts, and figure out what to do from there.
But even though I still felt pretty scared, it was also really nice when the two of them thanked me for offering to help, and encouraged me to stay with them for as long as I wanted with as much eagerness as they did. After spending so many years in that cold, and unpleasant prison, it felt really good to hear the two of them so honestly express their desire to stay with me with such warmth, and kindness.
That feeling – of being liked, and wanted – was something that I hadn’t felt in a long, long time… and something that I hadn’t felt much of in all of my life, if I was being honest.
And even though I still had a lot of reservations, that at least helped to make me feel a little more certain that I had made the right choice, and that staying with these kids was the best thing to do for now.
Then, as we began to talk a little, gathered around in that same circle on the floor, the two of them introduced themselves, and told me a bit about their lives.
He was Aaron, and she was Lily, and it seemed as if they had been slaves for the last three or four years, ever since they had been left as orphans in a small war that had taken place several years back. They hadn’t known each other growing up, but it seemed like they were almost like family to each other now, as they helped to shield one another from the harshness and the rigors of their lives on the farm.
It was obvious how much they cared for one another... and as the two of them became a little more comfortable around me, Lily began to rest her head on Aaron’s shoulder, while he gently ran his fingers through her hair, and scratched her behind the ears.
After the three of us had talked for some time, it became apparent that the two of them were completely exhausted. It seemed as if they hadn’t slept at all for the whole time that they’d been on the run, which meant that it must have been at least forty-eight hours now since either of them had gotten a bit of rest. The sheer excitement of the whole situation had probably made them animated at first, and made them eager to talk with me. But, now that we were all starting to settle down, the two of them could hardly keep their eyes open, and both looked ready to take a nice, long nap.
So, Aaron and I brought out a few of the beds from the secret compartment, and helped to carry Lily over to the nice, warm bed that was already in the room. Once that was taken care of, we made a quick search of the supplies that were scattered throughout the house. It seemed that there wasn’t actually any food in any of the rooms, which meant that it would be a top priority for me to go and to pick up some meat and vegetables from the town. Aaron apparently had managed to grab a few coins before he had made his escape, so he offered those up to me in exchange for the food.
Ordinarily, I would have refused the offer, and paid for the supplies myself. But since I didn’t have any money of my own – and since it would have been a lot of trouble to have explained why that was – I simply took the change, and promised to use all of it to buy some food. Then, the two of them laid down on the freshly made beds, and began to close their eyes.
Once I had seen them off to bed, I took the small, black metal key that Aaron had given me, and made my way out through the door, locking it behind me as I went.
Making my way through the bright, quiet woods, I thought about everything that had just happened, and about where I was going to go from here. I didn’t really know what I was going to do if the owner of the house didn’t return, or how I would end up trying to take care of the two kids. But… walking through that peaceful, and beautiful forest, and thinking about how much my life had changed for the better just in these last twelve hours, I at least had a kind of faint sense that everything was going to be okay, even if I couldn’t say exactly how just yet.
After a little while, though, I ceased to think about those things, and began to prepare for the journey ahead.
For now… it was finally time to make my way into the town of Westfall.