chapter two, part two

Sorry for the late post, the 21st is my wife's and my 10th wedding anniversary so we've been doing lots of celebratory type things today.

When Altarn arrived at the tavern it was mostly empty, early afternoon being too soon for the crowds to arrive. Berryl was not yet awake so Altarn sat down at the bar and ordered himself a beer. The bartender responded with a beer, “Aye, you hit your coming of age now haven’t you. You get that fool notion of wandering about the world out of your head yet?” Altarn shook his head and thought that if he had to explain his reasons one more time he might well snap, “Well, you know the farm just isn’t for me. It is well enough and good if you like that sort of thing but I’ve had enough of it just growing up on the farm. I don’t want to do that for my whole life.”

Altarn nursed his beer for a while. In an hour or so Berryl would be out and he needed to decide how to ask her to join Luciana and himself in their travels. The time slipped by all too quickly and Berryl wandered in before he had decided how to approach her. Berryl walked over to Altarn and sat down beside him, “I see you are taking advantage of our refreshments. To what do we owe the pleasure of seeing you here in the middle of the day?” Altarn nearly choked on the sip of beer he had been taking, “Well I kind of came here to see you when it wasn’t busy. I have something to ask you but don’t know how to do so.” With a chuckle Berryl turned to him, “I don’t do that sort of thing, at least not when my dad is around.” Altarn blushed furiously, “I didn’t mean that, not that I wouldn’t like to… but… ummm…errr…” Berryl laughed gaily, “Good to see that you are still the same old shy Altarn even if you are legally adult now. Now, what did you really want?” With a heavy sigh Altarn decided bluntness was the only possible way to take care of this, “Well, Luciana and I are going to leave the village and go traveling. See the world a bit and maybe find some adventure. I would like, I mean we would like you to come along with us.” This time it was Berryl’s turn to blush, “You know I’m not of age yet Altarn. I would have to get my father’s permission and he very much likes the extra cash I bring in as tips when helping out in the bar. I can ask him but I am pretty sure he is going to say no. I don’t suppose you want to wait until fall when I am old enough to not need his permission? Not to say that I would go with you but then it would be my choice and mine alone as to whether or not I went.”

Altarn felt foolish, he never remembered that Berryl was younger than himself. Her poise and grace in any social situation always had him feeling the younger by several years. He knew that Luciana would not want to wait several months, nor would he himself. Although he had a fair bit of cash in the pouch his mother had given him he knew there was not enough to last several months and he certainly wasn’t going back to the farm for that long. His father would only wheedle at him to stay and take over the farm. “Well ask your father and we’ll see what he says. I don’t think Luciana and I can wait that long. I am sorry to ask but you know I never think of you as younger than I.” Altarn blushed again once more and finished off his beer. “We’ll not be leaving town for a few days more at least, perhaps you will be able to get away.” Altarn called out as he left the tavern.

When Berryl broached the subject with her father, the resulting uproar was heard throughout the village. Shouts echoed among the buildings “I’ve got plans for you girl, you’ll not be leaving even when you are of an age. Be glad I am waiting that long on my plans.”

Altarn could hear the screaming over the hammering of the blacksmith’s forge. When he went to the tavern that night Berryl’s eyes were both blackened and bruises showed on her arms, jutting out from under the long sleeves she wore. She looked as though she had been crying on top of everything else. When she took Altarn’s order she slipped him a note: “I have been forbidden to even talk to you unless it is related to serving in the tavern. My father raged when I asked, as best as I can tell he intends to whore me out when I reach my coming of age. Let me know somehow when you are leaving and I will sneak away to join you.” Altarn’s joy at knowing Berryl would accompany them was tempered by thought of her father. If he chose to follow them and caught them Altarn was sure that the result would be bad for Luciana and himself and worse for Berryl. He would have to think of something to obscure their trail or something to keep Berryl’s father busy for a few days. He drank his beer quickly and left to return to Luciana’s spare bedroom.

Altarn showed the note to Luciana when she returned. Luciana blushed and said “I cannot read, would you read it to me?” As Altarn read the note to her, Luciana began to grow red faced, by the time he was done her face was purple and he was certain she was going to explode. “What is it?” he asked. “”I am just thinking about blooding my sword before we leave town is all. Who does he think he is, she is not his property and once she comes of age what is he planning on doing? Chaining her to a bedpost so she cannot leave? Give me a few minutes to calm down, you can be sure we will be bringing her with us.” Luciana recovered her composure and started to plan “We need to get her out of there as soon as possible, I was going to need another three to four days but I think if I work some extra hours I can get it all done in two days. I dislike leaving while exhausted from work but I can recover in a couple of days on the road.” “I had been thinking” said Altarn “we’ll need to be able to cover our trail or find something to delay her father for a day or two else he may catch us and I think he might be a fair bit of a problem if he did so.” “Not to worry, I have ways of obscuring our backtrail that he’ll never be able to track us through.” said Luciana “All those years of tracking game have shown me how to obscure a track as well as find it. It may slow us down a bit but not enough to make a huge difference. We wouldn’t be traveling really fast with me all tired anyhow.”