After weeks of planning and packing, both Tecka and Igmi's families gathered in a wide open field just off the road on the south end of town. The golden light of late dawn shone down through trees to the east of the clearing. Birds and other flying creatures flitted here and there, catching breakfast and calling to one another. It was sure to be hot later, but the early morning was balmy, beautiful, and sparkling with dew.
Other friends and family members who were not relocating, like Tecka and Igmi's parents and other siblings, came to bid the travelers a tearful farewell and bring gifts for the journey. Hugs and well wishes and promises of future visits were shared as cousins and neighbors had final interactions before the long trip. The quiet early morning gave way to bright mid-morning as the last well-wishers finally headed off about their own business.
Two newly-aquired wooden wagons bore all of the families' belongings. A [lowephant] stood in each wagon's harness. The tall, sturdy beasts of burden stood taller than Lissa's father by half again at the shoulder. The brown green, plant-like creatures weren't built for speed, lumbering along on four trunk-thick legs, but they bore the gentle, resolute strength of oaks and didn't require too much more food than sunlight and earth. They, along with the wagons, had been gifts of the community they were leaving behind to make the month-long journey easier.
Because of Drust's flock, the two families had decided not to travel with a caravan, but to travel together at the best speed the sheep could manage. While the [kingdom] to the south was new, the road between them was long-established and well-kempt, and went well around any of the known [dungeons]. It still wasn't the wisest to attempt a trip of any length without a couple [combat] professionals, so Igmi and Hayzen had also hired a few [guards]. They were each extremely professional, but mostly kept to themselves. Two of the three were currently sleeping in the wagons so that they would be well and alert after nightfall. The third, a serious looking young woman with short cropped hair, was feigning deafness toward a young, eager child who was poking every bit of the woman's leather armor she could reach.
"What's THIS for?" Lissa's high voice corresponded with her surprisingly strong fingers pulling at one of the guardwoman's cuisses. "And this?" Another pull, this time at the top of one greave.
The woman made no move to respond, but one eyelid visibly twitched as she kept her watch. Just then, she caught Drust's eye as he and their working dog, Spot, were bringing the flock about. The side of his mouth turned up and he raised his eyebrows as if to say a silent "what can you do?" He came close in and scooped up the boundary-disregarding Lissa, pulling her out of reach of the [guard]'s personal effects.
"Lissa, leave the poor woman alone," he scolded gently, and looked up to address the poor woman in question, "My apologies for this one, Miss...?"
The guard's expression softened, "It's Kilpa, sir. I'm sure neither of us were any different at that age, but it's hard to keep a watch when my attention is divided."
Lissa struggled in Drust's arms, grunting against her father's strength as he replied, "Name's Drust. Well met, Miss Kilpa. Perhaps when you're off duty for the day, you might indulge her? She's quite persistent, and it might make it easier in the long run seeing as we'll be together for at least a month..."
The woman's lips pressed into a thin line, but she sighed and nodded her assent. "I guess it can't hurt..."
He nodded his thanks and carried the squirming Lissa past the first wagon and its lumbering [lowephant]. Once he passed to the other side of the wagon, he set her down and crouched to meet her dark brown eyes with his. He said, "Now, Lissa, that nice [guard] agreed to answer your questions this evenin', but not before."
She stamped her foot, crossed her arms, and pushed out her bottom lip, not speaking.
Drust continued, "I know you want to know everything there is to know about what sorts of [equipment] people can have, but you're not going to miss out on anything between now and dinner."
The concept of delayed gratification wasn't new at this point, but Lissa struggled mightily against it, furrowing her brow and refusing to look at him. She pouted, "but it's not fair! She's just standing there. Why can't she tell me now?"
Drust took his daughter's question as an opportunity, "You know how when Spot is working with me and the sheep we have to be very careful not to distract him. He's got a very important job to do, and if you distract him, he or the sheep or even me might get hurt, right?" He waited for Lissa's tiny nod before he continued, "Well, that woman is a [guard], you know what they do, right?" Again he waited for the tiny nod, and then asked, "So, what is it they do?"
Lissa looked at him out of the corner of her eye and then glared off again, a little less vehemently than before, "They protect us from danger."
"That's right, Lissa," his voice was warm and patient, "but, they can only do that if—," he held up an index finger, "—they see that danger comin' first."
Suddenly, Lissa's eyes widened in understanding, "OH! Like Nerin the Knowing with the [Visor of Vision]! He didn't move for days while watched through his visor and then he could save the kingdom because he saw evil [general]'s army coming from a bazillion leagues away and—"
Drust chuckled over top of his girl's exuberance, "ha, yes, yes, just like that, Lissa. She needs to be able to watch for dangers, not distracted by you or anythin' else."
At this, the girl nodded vigorously, light brown hair flopping in and out of her freckled face.
He gently turned her by the shoulder and pointed to a group of three blonde boys standing with Lissa's uncle Hayzen near the first wagon. Unlike Drust, whose [shepherd] profession required him to tend the sheep, as a [weaver], Hayzen would not be able to work on his trade while on this journey, so he had been designated to be the primary caregiver to the four cousins. Igmi and Hayzen's youngest son, Bup, was just a couple months younger than Lissa. The two had been thick as thieves since he was born. Cammind, a lanky boy of 7, and Falton, the tallest at 10 years of age, wanted nothing to do with the two five year olds.
"Why don't you go play with your cousins, mmm?" Drust asked his daughter. Lissa, who needed no more encouragement, rushed off to tackle an unsuspecting Bup. Drust smiled as he watched her scamper off and waved to Hayzen who nodded an acknowledgement that Lissa was coming. Drust turned and headed back toward his flock.
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Lissa's running tackle into the slightly larger blonde-haired boy toppled both of them over into the grass. A loud boy's "oof!" accompanied Lissa's giggles. She shoved herself up onto her wrists and triumphantly declared herself the winner of the game Bup had not been aware that he was playing. The unflappable boy merely grinned and nodded, acquiescing happily.
"Bup! Let's play Lost Treasures!" Lissa squealed at the cousin she was still leaning over.
If Bup had been much older, he would have rolled his eyes as he smiled and nodded. The 'Lost Treasures' were all his slightly older cousin thought about or talked about. She had sworn him to secrecy about a plain grey bracelet that she'd found several weeks ago, claiming it had come to her in a dream. He believed her and took secrets very seriously, and promised he wouldn't tell. His mom and dad had secrets too, and he hadn't even told Lissa, his best friend. He was a very good secret keeper.
Bup pushed Lissa off, and got up, not noticing the grass that clung to his knees and butt. "Okay," he said simply, plucking a tall flower from the roadside. "This," he said, holding out the flower, "is the [Commanding Blossom]!"
She scoffed, "I've never heard of that one." She put her hands on her hips and furrowed her brow.
He laughed, "It's the best one. If you're holding it, you can tell everyone else what to do. Now. March!"
Hayzen, tall, burly, and fair skinned with short, straight, blond hair chuckled quietly as he watched his son march his niece toward the first wagon. His wife, Igmi sat in the driver's seat there and spoke a few words to the huge green [lowephant]. It appeared to nod to her, and extended its prehensile trunk, sounding a long deep note like a digeridoo. The note seemed to descend into the earth, creating a low pulsing rhythm that could be just felt underfoot if Hayzen concentrated. The second [lowephant] responded in kind, and the two creatures began to move in rhythm to the slow beat.
All four children stopped their play to stare at the huge creatures, more than three times taller than Lissa and Bup. Drust, who had no experience with these creatures, was more than a little taken aback that his flock, rather than responding anxiously and scattering, calmed considerably, and began to plod forward to the low, easy cadence of the [lowephants]'s call. Tecka, who would be processing fiber or sewing in the back of one of the wagons for most of the trip, walked up beside him and took her husband's calloused hand in her own. Worry, fear, anticipation, and curiosity all swirled in the pit of her stomach like butterflies.
Drust, expression open and searching, looked past messy mousey-brown bangs into his young wife's fair face. Worry lines creased her brow and tightened the corners of her eyes and mouth. She noticed him turn her way and looked up into his dark, steady gaze.
"You ready, love?" He asked quietly.
"As long as you're with me," she replied firmly, worried expression firming into resolve.
He gave her smaller hand a light squeeze, and said, "Of course I am."
Together, they strode south, toward the future.
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After the first few days on the road, the four children needed a break from one another. The two older cousins stayed with Hayzen, but Lissa and Bup found other interests. Little blonde Bup found the [lowephants] incredible and quietly watch them, making sure to stay out from under their feet. His uncle, Drust, saw his interest, and walked with him, helping him make observations about them.
Lissa went to sit with her aunt Igmi on the driver's bench of the front wagon. Igmi wasn't sitting idly, however; she was [spinning] wool into fine thread for weaving. Lissa had known that her aunt was a [spinner], but had never seen the woman working before. While she had many, many tools, for ease of use on the road, Igmi was using what looked like a long upside-down top. It was a top-whorl spindle, she explained, and allowed Lissa to watch her work as long as she didn't try to grab it. Igmi assumed Lissa would bore of watching the process after a few minutes, but as minutes turned into a few hours, Igmi decided to attempt to teach the child. She pulled out a second, smaller spindle and a basket of lower quality wool rolags from behind the seat inside the wagon and handed them to Lissa.
Lissa's dark eyes widened in rapt attention as she took the materials from her aunt. The wool was a little on the scratchy side, but it would spin very easily for a beginner. Igmi started the spin for her, catching a small bit of wool fiber between the whorl and the dowel, and twisting it clockwise until the friction of the individual fibers caught against one another. She looped the newly formed string across the notch in the round whorl and slipped it through the hook at the top of the spindle. She handed the prepared spindle to Lissa, and picked her own spindle back up. Igmi began by demonstrating a beginner technique to Lissa.
"This technique is called parking and drafting," she said crisply. "Start by holding the end of the yarn that’s farthest from your spindle." She showed Lissa what she meant by lifting her own spindle by the thread coming from the top of it; she pinched it right where the loose rolag that looked like a cigar of fuzzy fibers turned into spun thread. Lissa obediently mimicked her aunt.
"First the parking part," as Igmi spoke, she moved her hands in demonstration, setting the spindle into quick rotation. "You hold tight to the fiber up top, and with your other hand, you give your spindle a good twist. Now, you're gonna let that twist build up a while, let it get all bunched up in the thread between the spindle and your fingers."
Lissa tried it, flicking the spindle in a wobbly clockwise turn. They both waited a moment for the twist to build up in the thread. As both spindles slowed, Igmi continued, "Alright. Quickly now, before it starts twisting the other way, you’re gonna grab it and hold it between your knees." Again, Igmi demonstrated the process to her eager onlooker. Lissa took the spindle and put it between her knobby child's knees, holding it tight with the whorl just touching the tops of her legs.
"Good!" Igmi praised. "Now comes the hard part. We've got all this twist in this little stretch of yarn, but all that twist needs to be spread out over a much longer length. But, we don't want the yarn to be as thick as the rolag, so we have to draft it thinner, and while we're doing that, we have to make sure to control when the twist enters the fibers."
Lissa concentrated on the careful, practiced movements her aunt's steady hands made. She watched as her aunt drafted the thick cigar of wool into a long delicate strand and slowly allowed the stored up twist to enter it. Igmi was left with a smooth, fine thread that nearly matched what she had spun already. Lissa's first attempt was lumpy, some parts thicker than others as she struggled to control both the drafting of the fibers and the twist. Her aunt didn't intervene though, and eventually she was done with that first segment.
"That's not bad for a first try! Not bad at all." Lissa glowed under her aunt's praise.
"One more step. You've got to wrap that around the shaft of the spindle. So, keep hold of the end there, pop it off the hook, and wrap it around the shaft. Once you're done, you'll just put it back into place and do it all over again," Igmi concluded while demonstrating once more.
Lissa, it turned out, was a natural. Not even an hour later, her yarn was smooth and even. Igmi congratulated her, and challenged her to finish the basket. It wasn't long before Lissa left the parking and drafting method behind, learning to draft at the same time that the spindle spun, distributing the twist as it came.
It didn't take long, however, for the trip to wear Lissa and the other children out. As the terrain changed from fertile pasture into rocky hills, Lissa did in fact get multiple lessons on basic [equipment] from the [guard] Kilpa over the course of their journey, along with continued [spinning] lessons from Igmi, but traveling for any stretch was difficult for the children and those with them. Jostled sleep schedules, resting practically in the open, and the calls of unfamiliar wildlife all served to make the travelers tired and a little short-tempered, resulting one evening in an argument between Kilpa and Igmi.
The long grey of dusk was just settling as the two women's voices rose into the cool evening air. Only, their anger was accompanied by a sudden, piercing quartet of howls.