Chương 175: 172. Journey

~ Maisy ~ ~ Going back to her new family! ~ It was fully dark now, but Maisy had nearly reached her home. Yes, her home! She was returning from the school - which was a new word for her, before papa told her that it was a place where nobles sent their kids to get educated. Immediately, Timmy had asked whether it meant that they were nobles now, but sadly papa had told them that the Lord baron of the village just wanted everyone in the village to get educated - and by his very own teacher!

But Maisy didn't care that she wasn't a noble, because her mom had told her that becoming educated would make it easier for them to become maids in the manor, and it would open other doors for them in the future. She had been confused about how it would open any door without someone pulling it open, but later she had laughed a lot along with Elsie when she found out the meaning.

Her best friend was walking next to her right now, while their younger brothers were chattering about something walking ahead of them, with Leif walking behind them while talking to a friend of his. Their new teacher - Gorsazo - was teaching all the villagers together after they returned from work, so when the class had ended, every villager had started returning to their home at the same time - well, at least those who didn't live in that huge new building.

During the class, their teacher was telling them about how to make some squiggly shapes on a small wooden board. Maisy had tried to copy it perfectly, while her younger brother just doodled on it, like he often did on the ground. She grinned as she remembered the snowball fight which Elsie and her had started after they exited that huge building - which was called a very long house - and their younger brothers had joined them immediately.

That had delayed them a little, until Leif had scolded all of them to hurry back home. But this time she had won the fight, no matter what her best friend claimed about winning it herself! And right now, there were still some other people walking in the dark alleys while going to their own homes, so she didn't feel scared in the dark. As they passed the market square and turned into the alley leading to their home, she felt a little chilly in the falling snow, but she knew that her home wasn't far away now.

And her new mom had promised that they would have some meat for dinner tonight! When Timmy had asked papa about where he got it from, because even he knew that most of the shops had been closed in the market square for months, papa had told them that the new baron was now sending his own hunters deep into the forest to kill dangerous beasts.

Now they were bringing a lot of meat which they had started selling to the butcher in the market square, so he had used some of his savings to buy it for them as a late celebration for them becoming a new family. Soon, they all reached in front of their home, but then she heard someone shouting from nearby, making their parents come out of the house.

Leif held all of them close to him protectively, but soon they saw a manor guard walking in that alley along with a manor servant who was holding a small clay pot in his hands. Their neighbours had also come out of their houses to see what was happening, and seeing the small crowd the guard began to speak.

"Listen up, everyone! Lord Kivamus has generously sent us to see if any villager needs losuvil paste for any injury," the guard announced.

"Is there anyone like that here?" Maisy didn't know what that... losuvil was, so she looked at Leif who looked very surprised.

"But that's... very costly!" one of the neighbours exclaimed.

"None of us can afford to buy it from you right now." The guard grinned.

"Don't worry about the cost. For today, this paste is being distributed for free to whoever needs it. If any of you are injured, just let us know."

"What? Is that really for free?" papa asked with wonder.

"Where did he get that many losuvil leaves anyway?" another neighbour asked.

"I know there aren't any more of them left near the village."

"I can't tell you that," the guard replied, "even if I did know about it. The baron has clearly told me and the other guard who is distributing the paste that we aren't allowed to tell you anything about that. But if you need it, you can still take some of it from us. This paste will last much longer in this freezing weather, so it should be helpful to you in the next few days too." While the older people still seemed too surprised to say anything, Leif took a step forward.

"Please give me some of it then. I got a small cut in my arm when chopping down a branch in the north today." The guard nodded and gestured to the servant to give some of it. And immediately everyone started asking for it! But Maisy didn't think all of them were hurt. Were they? Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Then Elsie whispered in her ear, "Maybe they all want to sell it to others who haven't gotten it."

"Oh..." Maisy muttered. Should she ask for some of it too? Then she shook her head. Where would she even keep it anyway? Leif and papa were already taking some of that paste - whatever it was. That should be enough for them. When everyone had gotten some of it, the guard began walking away, but Leif shouted, "Please thank the baron for us!" Maisy still wasn't sure about all of it, but she followed her new big brother's lead, and shouted her thanks as well, even though she hadn't even taken any paste.

Elsie and their younger brothers also copied her, making all of them giggle.

"Come on, you all," ma scolded them.

"It's very cold outside. You don't want to let the meat stew get cold, do you?"

"Noo..." the younger boys immediately wailed and went running inside the house, while followed by others at a slower pace. Maisy just watched them all walk for a moment, before she smiled and started walking too. She was feeling so happy today. She had joined a school like a noble's daughter, she had found a new family and a new home, and there was freshly cooked meat waiting for them inside! She grinned. Life was good!

~ Hyola ~ Hyola was feeling so tired right now. And she was hungry. And it was so damned cold with the snow falling continuously. Calubo had told her that it should be less than a week's journey to reach the village, but they had already been travelling for ten days now. Or was it eleven days? She wasn't sure. Just when would they reach Tiranat? She sighed. There was no point in getting agitated.

She already knew that they had kept losing track of their location again and again in the forests, and sometimes even when they knew where to go, there was no good path between the trees for their two wagons, which meant they had to backtrack many times, making the journey even longer. At least the wagons were sturdy enough and built to travel through the forests while carrying heavy limestone blocks, which meant they hadn't broken down on the way.

Although many times they all had to climb down from the wagon and push it from behind to move it when one of them got stuck on something. The guards and some of the slaves also had to clear the path many times with some axes. As her stomach growled again she wondered when she would get to eat a full meal again. But then she snorted. Had she already been spoiled by getting a good meal twice a day since the time the guards had arrived to rescue them? She fondly remembered the first few days after leaving the quarry.

It had been wonderful, with the guards preparing enough porridge for all of them every evening, coupled with some dried meat and even some hardtack biscuits. To all the slaves it had felt like they were having a feast every day after being on the brink of starvation before that.

However, the guards had only brought a limited amount of food for their journey - which was expected to last only a little more than a week - so their rations had started getting low a few days ago, making the guard captain announce that everyone would only get half meals from then. For some reason, they hadn't found any animals to hunt either, which had made their problems worse.

But she had seen that the guards were also eating only half rations, so it wasn't like they were having a feast themselves while barely giving anything to the slaves - quite unlike when the stonecutters lived under the rule of bandits at the quarry. Hyola had also been giving some of her own meal to the older slaves, since they needed it even more to survive in this freezing weather, which had made her feel even more hungry these days.

At least the guards lit a fire every evening when they stopped for the night, otherwise she didn't know if any of them could have survived this cold. But during the day, when they had to sit on the wagons, all of them had to stay huddled together for warmth. After travelling south for many days through the forests, when they had finally exited the woods to find a dirt road going west to east, she had hoped that at least it would be easy going from now on, since they wouldn't get lost now.

But snowfall had started the very same day and it hadn't stopped since then, burying the dirt road under snow, and making all of them cold, hungry and miserable. Some of the older stonecutters were already worried if they would even survive this journey, while a few of them had even started blaming her, saying that at the quarry, at least they knew what to expect, and they were familiar with the place.

She didn't know if there was anything she could reply to them, other than to hope for the best, so she had remained quiet against their grumblings. But in the past few days, even she had started to get some doubts about whether she had made the right decision. Hopefully, the goddess would take care of all of them, otherwise she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for making the older slaves leave the only home they had known, as bad as the situation had been there.

Out of the four guards who had been riding on their horses, the guard captain had made sure that one of them was always ahead of them to scout the road, while another one was trailing back behind them since the time they had turned to the east on this road. As it started to get dark, Hyola saw the leading scout returning back towards them on his horse under the constant snowfall, and she dreaded another bad news, since that's all they had been getting recently.

Usually it was about the path ahead being too narrow for the wagons to cross when they were still in the forests, while other times it was about the scouts having seen some dangerous beast ahead - including an adzee one dreary afternoon - which made turning around to find another path the only good option. As the guard reached closer to them, Hyola noticed that he seemed to be grinning.

Once he reached closer to the guard captain - who was riding on his own horse - the scout jerked his thumb behind him and announced, "Captain! Tiranat is just ahead of the next bend in the road!"