Book 5, Chapter 12: Drying Laundry
I’d gotten used to the vegetation changing as I moved from hilltop to valley, from dry evergreens to abundant shrubs, bushes, herbs, a few sneaky grasses, a variety of flowers, and the air becoming more humid. The first stream we came across was wide, but shallow, moving across a mosaic of stones. Mainly brown and green, but grey and even reddish pink, and the occasional dark purple.
Morry slid off his horse, taking it by the reins. He looked back at me, “Best to dismount, and lead them across. We don’t want the horses stumbling with our weight on their backs.”
“Stumbling?” All the movies I’d seen, the cowboys rode across the streams, never getting their feet wet.
“These rocks are slippery. Some are just big enough to cause problems. We have to be careful.”
“Alright.” Lifting a leg over, I also slid off the saddle. “There’s so many streams here and so much empty land. I’m surprised.”
“The wilds are hard to tame. With all the dangerous creatures around and the constant wars, it’s difficult to muster enough manpower to erect a town out here.”
“We’ll have to put an end to the wars, Morry. And then populate these valleys. Some of them.”
“Oh?”
“It’d be nice to leave some to nature. You know, like a park.”
“A park? Like the carefully manicured ones around castles? I thought you didn’t like showing off your power, Princess.”
“Uh, I didn’t mean it that way. I meant, like, leave it to nature.”
“And leave breeding grounds for creatures to prey on ranchers and their flocks?”
“Yeah, ok, bad idea. I just find it peaceful.”
“Oh, peaceful enough.” He looked at the sky, to the ravens and crows circling above and squawking away. “I believe you’re correct and they are keeping you safe. We haven’t run into anything all day.”
“Are there that many monsters?”
“Monsters? More than enough.”
The horses’ hooves splashed into the water – it was cold against my feet! – and then clunked down upon the rocks. But we were soon on the other side. A small meadow of short, thick grass awaited us and, with my soggy boots, an idea came to mind.
“Hey! Let’s sit for a bit and dry out our shoes. Footwear. The things on our feet.”
“Socks, too?”
“Socks, too!”
“A moment, Princess.” The big man led his horse and pack horse around the meadow in a circle.
Suddenly, the grass parted and waved back and forth, like someone was combing it, in a line away from Morry. Several foxes yipped and chased after it.
“What the . . .?”
“Snakes. Yeah. Always snakes in grass. It should be safe now.” He led the horses to a tree and tied them up, then began undoing their saddle bags, but left the saddles on.
“Oh. Wow. Are they poisonous?”
“Probably not that one. The poisonous ones don’t flee.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re the boss and they know it.”
“Oh! Uh, doesn’t that mean there might be some lurking in the grass?
“Probably not.”
“Well, shouldn’t we check?”
“I expect your little canine friends chased them away before we got here.”
Sure enough, the foxes were racing around and around the area, yipping away. I’d thought they were having fun, chasing each other. Looks like they were chasing poisonous snakes.
Morry took out a blanket, placed it on the grass, saddlebags atop it. I hefted my own off Cloud, did the same. Then we both proceeded to take off our footwear and lay them out. He, his greaves and me, my riding boots, socks.
Soon, he’d dug out some dried rations, poured a cup of ale for each of us, and we were munching away.
“I really should have tracked down some of your whiskey, Princess. It would be nice right now.
“Now? In the mid-afternoon?”
“Yeah. Give the world a nice hue. And, you’re right. It is better than alejack. How’d you come up with it, anyways?”
“On that note,” I said between mouthfuls, “you want to hear something funny?”
“Please.”
“You’ve seen the distillation equipment, right?”
He nodded.
“Basically, you heat up your, uh, base and then toss out the not-good stuff and keep the part you want to drink.”
“Right.”
“Well, you know that Hafthon was ever a thorn in my side, right? That time just before all the suitors were coming, he really pissed me off – made me angry – and so, I gave him all the alejack. To take home with him.”
“Why on earth would you give him all that when you were angry at him?”
“It’s awful stuff, Morry.”
“Granted.”
“The thing is, distillation would have worked on it, too. In fact, Bechalle did half the work already. By freezing it, he got rid of most of the water. All we’d have to do is simmer it, keep the hearts-”
“Hearts?”
“The stuff you want to drink.”
“I see.”
“And toss the rest out. That harsh feeling, when you drink it? We’d have removed it through distillation. Same with the part that makes you go red and feel hot. Hotter than normal.”
“If I’m understanding you correctly, you gave away what could have been barrels of whiskey, with a little effort.”
“Yup. In my defense, I’m a little slow.”
“Sometimes, you are Princess. Sometimes you are.”
“Hey!”
“You said it. And provided the example.”
“I’ll accept that.”
“One thing I want to ask you about.”
“Ok, shoot.”
“What’s that?”
“Uh, I mean, loose. As in ‘loose your questions at me!’ Go ahead. What’d you want to talk about?”
“What exactly did Etienne tell you about yourself?”
“In his final moments? Nothing I haven’t told you.”
“He said you were a god?”
“Yeah. Well, he used the word ‘deity.’ But-”
“Six of one, a half dozen of the other.”
“Sure, sure, but to me, those are words without meaning. There’s nothing quantifiable about them.”
“Unlimited power, immortality, and freedom from consequences?”
“Wouldn’t those be nice. As you can see, I have none of them.” Or maybe just the first one.
“Yes, but Etienne meant something.”
“Sure.” I took a bite and chewed.
“How did you best Aisu?”
I stopped chewing. And swallowed. It was tough, the meat was dry. Coughed, then quickly added some ale.
“Princess?”
I managed to get out, “A moment.” Taking another large sip of ale to clear my throat, I throat-coughed a few times before I could speak.
“Are you ok?”
I waved the mug at him, “Fine, fine! Choking on food like gods do. Sorry. Yeah. Aisu. You, ah, remember when I went to the tower alone?”
“How could I forget that, Princess? You were like a bonfire, burning up the very room.”
“And then I loosed a laser at you. That punched through both stone walls. Thick, stone walls.”
“A laser?”
“A blast. Energy beam. I loosed it straight through the walls, barely missing you.”
“I well remember.”
“You carried me out after.
“Is that how you bested Aisu?”
“Yes, but the blast was maybe ten times wider. In diameter.” Closed my eyes a moment, remembering her head and arms almost waiting in mid-air before gravity dropped them to the ground. “I vaporized her torso. Morry,” I placed my hand on his arm, “she’d just told me that she killed you.”
“Oh, I’m glad that you killed her, Princess. Certainly. I’m curious why she allowed you to.”
“Their defenses. They don’t have any against me.” I couldn’t help but think of what came before that, unleashing the beam across the battlefield, melting the very rock beneath. And how difficult it was to calm the rage within.
“We’re far from that place now, Princess.” I started a bit when he touched my hand on his arm. “You did what you had to. You saved many that day.”
“I don’t think of it that way.”
“Maybe you should.”
I rubbed under my eyes, then my temples, and heated up the water molecules on our footwear. Steam rose off them, vanishing shortly in the sun. “Our footwear is dry.”
“It’ll take a little longer, despite the cloudless sky.”
“I took care of it.”
His hand withdrew, he finished his ale, then began packing up our lunch. I folded the blanket.
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