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Tammi, an adventure part 6

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There was just a small oil lamp lighting the tent that the women were in.  There were just the three of us.  I was on one of the rugs, but didn’t have even a fur or a blanket over me.  It was cold.  I know I had been crying, but it had been calmer than before.  I had done stupid things and I was paying for it.  I had an hour or so to shiver in that round tent, to cry and come to terms with things.

I decided that trying to sleep was doing no good.  I sat up and started to go through a few meditation things one of the teachers at the dojo had taught me.

I heard one of the women turn on her cot.  It took me a moment to open my eyes, but when I did, she was looking at me.

“Are you sad?”  It was almost strange being able to see most of her face.  Her blanket covered her, but she did not have her head covering on.

I think I smiled.  One of those smiles that would be called wistful.  “I have been sad for longer than this.”  I thought of the last few months and felt another tear fall.  It had been hard, and good at times, but with the fighting between my Mom and dad, I hadn’t realized how alone I really had felt.  I had just kept busy to not let myself know how I was feeling.

She got up and pulled a piece of clothing from behind her cot.  She came to me and handed me the dark fabric.  “Here.  It is better than nothing.”

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Tammi, an adventure, part 5

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There was more walking.  It was better in some ways, since I did not have my pack and stuff on me.  It was all on his horse.  All of it.  I know that he had some hard words with the other man to keep my stuff together.

There was something about winning all chattel.  My brain kept thinking of Dancers of Gor and hoping that it was not the real way of this place.  I just didn’t know, but with the light whistle that he had going and the slow pace he had the horse, I know he wasn’t trying to rush to this encampment he had talked about.

It is hard to walk with your hands tied behind you.  I’m just putting that out there because I tripped several times and the shirt was not as much protection against the grass and gravel I was briefly dragged along in as the leathers were.  Even the leather halter was better than I thought it would be.  It was a good length rope.  I learned to not be too far back and keep slack in the rope the second time I tripped and he dragged me for a little distance.

The sun was getting to the golden time, the sky and clouds blazing orange and gold, when he stopped.  We rounded a boulder and I saw a place that had been used many times before.  It had a fire pit in the center, the remnants of a fire and cooking spit looking like it could have only been a few days old.  The boulders gave some protection to the wind that was starting up and reflected the warmth when he made the fire.

I sat as soon as I could.  I was tired.  My pirate shirt was ripped along the arms, streaks of grass and dirt on the fabric as well as along some red scrapes on my arms.  I know I had dirt on my face, and I know I had tear streaks through that dirt.  I looked horrible.  I don’t know why I cared how I looked.  As far as I knew, I was going to be the tasty treat for some warlord, or dragon.  There could have been dragons.  There used to be dinosaurs, why not dragons?

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Tammi, an adventure part 4

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I felt like I was in a pasta machine.

The breath was squeezed out of me, my bones felt like they were going to break while twisting like a pretzel.  I closed my eyes before my head went through and I think I am glad.  The light that went through my eyelids made me blind for close to an hour before I could see anything.  My ears were worse off.  I just lay in the grass until I could see the bright blue sky above me and could hear the wind through the grasses and not the metal on metal screeching and pounding that was still lingering after going through.

It smelled...  O.k.. Since I could not see or hear, but I could feel my stuff that I had thrown through and could smell, that was what I had to go by.  At first, I could smell the acrid stuff you get when something electronic gets really dead.  But that passed quickly.  I could smell the grasses and dirt and water.  The grasses had been harvest golden through the table picture, but I could feel that they were soft and felt like it had rained recently.

The wind that was going over me as I lay there smelled of more than the grasses after a while.  I was wondering if wherever this was had lilacs because I could smell something like that in the air over the wet dirt smell.  I opened my eyes when I thought I heard an animal close to me over the ringing in my ears.  Something like a deer was close to me, looking imperial as other things moved the grasses around me.  I felt a snort behind me and jumped in my skin as the nose of one of the deer poked through and sniffed me before bolting away again.

It was almost comforting to see something like a deer.  It was one of those almost normal things that nature lets us have to be able to tell that things are going to be o.k..  Animals and grasses and a bright sun, that was not as warm as I thought it might be.

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Tammi, an adventure part 3

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Everyone now wanted to talk to me.  From no one to everyone was overwhelming.  Mom let me stay home from school for a few days to try to sort things out.  I really was not stable, and I know it.  Being home let me do a few things I probably shouldn’t have.

I researched on the computer how to get from home to the coast.  I looked up prices of tickets and routes and even places to eat.  I packed.  I knew I was leaving.

I don’t know if Mom knew what I was doing.  We really were not communicating.

I heard Mom on the phone with someone at one point.  She was cursing my dad for taking the stability and focus in our lives away.  And the insurance.  That was when I knew she was scared, too.  She just was scared about other things than I was.

I went back to school and tried to be normal.  Most people understood that things just were not going well, and since the rumors of my dad coming back after years had made the rounds, it was easy to put most of it onto that.  Heather made several attempts to be civil before lunch.  At lunch, I was surrounded by so many people trying to be nice and supportive that I just wanted to scream.  But it was nice at the same time.

Even Nathan left off being stalker-ish and was just concerned.  He noticed the necklace, which I still could not get off.  I told him it had been hidden in the table top and he went red.  He said, “I guess I should have looked at the thing closer.  But it looks good on you.”

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Tammi, an adventure part 2

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Around the same time, several other things happened, putting more stress on teenage-brained me.  Nathan became much more of the ‘I wanna be YOUR BoyFriend’ at me, making Heather and I have a big fight.  We cancelled a trip to one of her favorite stores because we could not be in the same room together, and we had been planning it for a while to get her some of the latest girly things, and me, too since I was going to be there.  School decided that I needed some sort of remedial class for something I had aced the year before, bumping me out of English Lit, the only class I don’t mind going to, and making me sit through baby Algebra for two hours a day.  Oh, and that was over my only study hall, too.  And then, because the father person had started to poke around with lawyers and stuff, claiming that he was the breadwinner and crap...  Sorry.  And stuff, Mom’s insurance decided that I was covered by whatever he had and dropped me without warning.  Not that I was sick or anything, but going to the therapist’s and being strong-armed out because it wasn’t covered?  More than embarrassing.  And at that point, I needed someone to talk to.

The time I was forced to be with my dad, I guess wasn’t so bad.  But having to meet his girlfiend and being forced to go to movies and shopping with her...  And no, I didn’t misspell that.  She was sweet for about five minutes to me, then dad went to go get something at the pizza place and she showed her horns and teeth.  She did not like that he had found a renewed interest in me.  AT ALL.  It took several outings with them, never just with her, thank goodness, to have me figure out what was part of what was behind this stupid push to reconnect.

Money.

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Tammi, an adventure part 1

Tammi, an adventure

O.k..  Let me see if I can get this all down.  And understandable.

Sometimes I think I can describe my life as a TV show.  Or perhaps a movie.  I am not remarkable.  I just...  seem to get into the best odd situations.

Best may be an exaggeration.  Overstatement?  My life is a series of adventures.  Let me start by describing something that happens at my home quite often.

Think of sitting on a couch, the lights are dim in the room except for the light of the tv.  That does not seem all that different from other evenings, I know, but this is one of my favorite things to do.  I sometimes have others with me, most of the time, I am alone.  The show starts.

The tv has the flash of horsemen riding across the screen, the deep voice of a mystic telling those watching just enough to let them know that it will be an adventure.  A high adventure.  And then the drum-heavy music.

I love the Conan movies. »Read More

Slave Warrior Chapter 6

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There was a drip that was intermittently falling on Laun’s forehead.  It was cold and the trail down her face made her shiver.  There were bird sounds and a small rustling in the leaves near her.  Laun opened her eyes to a grey light filtering through the trees and bushes around her.  The small animal near her shoulder bumped into her, squeaked and ran back through the leafmold.

Laun carefully stretched in the cloak and felt where her wounds had stuck to her clothing.  The shoulder cut tore open as she moved and Laun could feel the blood trickle down her skin.  Her feet were still in the boots, though some stones and twigs had worked their way in making it painful to move until she was able to pull them off and shake out the intruders.  The linen socks were soaked with sweat and some mud, but they made the boots work better so she left the soiled things on as she pulled the boots back over her sore and slightly swollen feet.  The drops from the leaves overhead whenever Laun shook the surrounding trees was cold on her exposed skin, making her shiver again.

Braving the shower from above, Laun pushed aside some of the branches to look outside her little safe place.  It was misty gray outside with a vague light that comes with a morning after a well needed storm.  There were bird sounds and more leaf movement, but all from small animals.  Laun pulled out a small journey cake from the backpack and sucked on it as she looked through another part of the foliage.

There was only nature that morning.  No sign of the bandits.  Laun gathered up herself and carefully pushed through the weak spot in the bushes.  She tried to pull herself through as the cloak became stuck on something and she was afraid to rip the fabric.  Pushing herself back, she found what she was caught on and decided to take the cloak off.  The backpack, cloak and sword were pushed out of the copse before Laun followed them. »Read More

Slave Warrior Chapter 5

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It was about an hour until sunset when Laun started to hear hoofbeats in the distance.  They grew louder and louder until Laun realized that it was the bandits that were riding toward her.  She dove off the road-trail that she had been on and into a mire of blue-grey mud.  She saw glimpses of what seemed to be one hundred men on horseback galloping by as she sank up to her knees in the mud.  She had barely missed a large log when she had leapt in and tried to stay behind it as the men rode past.  The shouts and hoofbeats had been quieted by distance and the curve in the road for more than twenty breaths when Laun focused on the cold mud she was sinking into.

It took longer for her to get out of the mud than it had taken for the bandits to ride by.  She had to take off her backpack and throw it onto the road, hearing the pottery baking container breaking as it hit.  At least she had eaten the pie, but it was a shame. She was hoping that the ale that was left had not also broken.  Her cape was next off her shoulders and onto the road, though the grey mud was already caked onto the bottom third of the cape inside and out.  The next ten minutes or so was taken up by holding onto the top of one boot and moving her whole leg and then holding the top of the other boot and moving her whole leg until she could pull herself out of the mud filled ditch.  By the time Laun stood on the road, all of her and what she was wearing was covered with the mud.  Laun felt thoroughly disgusting.

“Why me?” Laun wondered to herself.  She knew that she was on the right road to find where the bandits had their hideout.  She figured that it would take a horse no more than half as long to go to and from anywhere than a person on foot, even heavily laden with loot.  It had been 5 days of travel, some slower than others, and the bandits had consistently been out every night she had been traveling.  She knew that the hideout had to be close.  Had to be. »Read More

Slave Warrior Chapter 4

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There was a scratching sound.  It took a few minutes for Laun to come out of sleep enough to recognize the sound that the servants and slaves of her own home used to announce their presence to their masters.  The door was still closed and locked to the outside.

Laun pulled the blanket around her and with achingly slow steps went to the door.  “Who is it?”

“Lady Laun, it is Marie.  May I come in?”

The lock was undone by Laun’s bandaged fingers and she stepped back.  The Innkeeper’s wife came in with a tray of food.  The house maid was behind her with a pitcher of water and clean linens for the room.  The door was closed and locked behind housemaid Disa and the two women busied themselves around Laun.

Laun still wore the arming harness under the blanket and nothing else.  Marie gently took the blanket from the Lady’s shoulders and only narrowed her eyes to show any emotion.  Within minutes, Laun was cloth-washed, her hair was brushed out and braided again and the clean skirt she had was being fastened at her waist, covering the warriors arming harness from there down.  Marie went to put the tunic she had lent Laun over the Lady’s arms when Laun shook her head. »Read More

Slave Warrior Chapter 3

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The Inn at the crossroads they finally stopped at was only one of several larger buildings that were at the obvious trading and resting point in the road.  Geralk tied his mule to a post in front of the Inn and opened the door for Laun.  She hesitantly went into the darkened room before the merchant, but found that the white painted walls and the fattened Innkeeper and his wife were instantly amicable to her when they saw Geralk.

“You are going to the Festival on Lord Falmir’s land?”  The Innkeeper swiped at a permanent stain on the pine table before he set tankards of ale down before the two travelers.

The merchant pressed a piece of metal into the Innkeeper’s hand without making a show of it and said, “I shall be heading that way myself, but my Lady here will be parting my company tonight to follow another road.”

“I see.”  The knowledgeable thumb ran across the face of the unseen coin as it was put into a pocket on the Innkeeper’s tunic, the smile widening slightly.  “Shall I bring a joint of meat and some pies for you and the Lady?”

“That, and have Marie come to my Lady Laun to help her wash some of the road from her.” »Read More

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