the Leathermines

Back to part 9

We left within minutes.  They pushed more of the milk-beer onto the Prince, because, well, alcohol helps to deaden pain and this was going to be fast and painful riding to the portal before it closed.  I could almost feel the opening drumbeats of Conan as we sped across the plains.  Six of us, all on horses, one having to be carried like a saddlebag, as night came and we pushed through until we could not ride safely under the stars.

We did not have the shelter of the rocks, but we were able to make a small camp on the lee of a hill as the night winds started up in earnest.  We walked the horses and I showed the herd how to take care of their horses to make sure there weren’t any saddle sores, or the horses developed muscle cramps by just stopping moving.  I didn’t even think of it as unusual, just something that needed to be done, though Nate seemed to be bewildered at some of it.

And I chose.  That sounds all prophetic and stuff, but I knew Nate was going back to Earth with us, but I didn’t know if Ilsin would.  And all I wanted was to have Ilsin tell me one of his stories and to hold me while we were sleeping.

It was really a group sleeping arrangement, we did not pair off or anything stupid like that.  It wasn’t a sleepover.  We started out kinda lined up with the Prince in-between Heather and Steve, coats and stuff being used as blankets.

I did wake to Ilsins arm under my head and his hand wrapped around mine.  It was the best thing to happen that entire adventure.  And, even though I was slightly cold and hurt in places I still can feel, I didn’t want it to end.

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Back to part 8

I hate to admit it, but stories with flashes of other places and times and stuff usually put me off.  It’s like you get invested in one scene and then you have to reorient yourself to what the heck they just switched to.  And I’m sorry.  To try to tell this story without going back and getting everyone to tell their version means I am doing the silly flashes.

As the Prince and I were fighting for our lives and forcing our way out of the city(which I still don’t know the name of, to be honest), there were some of the beautiful golden horses being led across rocky fields by some of the nomads.  I’ve been told that Heather was up on one of the horses with a nomad behind her.  Supposedly, it was because of her ankle, but I was told of the big grin on her face as he held the reins around her and kept putting his nose in her hair to smell it.

They had not only gotten out of the yurt alive, they had been successful traders.  Steve had exchanged things for one of the long wool coats and Nate had real boots, not just the gym shoes he had worn through the portal.  They were in a group of the younger nomads, being escorted towards the capitol city.  They were taking their fine time about it, too.

One of the nomads stopped, dropping the lead of the horse he was walking alongside, to listen.  I can tell you that the wind through that golden-red grain could be very loud, but so can horse hooves on rock.

The others didn’t even have to talk, confusing the herd.  Heather was helped down from her ride as the men started forming a defensive line around their guests.

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Back to part 7

Until I ran away, into this really strange world, I had not really paid attention to what was outside of me.  I was very self-centered, even though I didn’t think I was.  Not everything had to do with me in this world, no one knew who I was and I had to fight for what I had.

When it was about me, I wasn’t always there to see and participate.  I hadn’t thought of that aspect of how people interact really before now.  Not having communications with my phone, not having the internet and t.v., I was finding that I had to wing it, and go by what other people tell me.  And trusting that what they said was the truth.

From bits and pieces, I have a scene of the confrontation between the Prince and his father in my mind.  They are in the King’s chambers, some servants with the red and gold sash standing against the walls.  Even though it is daytime, there are candles and torches in some of the room to brighten it.  Even the fire is lit in the fireplace.

The King is a very physical man.  He would pace when he was angry.  And he was very angry at his Son.

“Father, I-”

“Don’t you ‘Father’ me!  My boy, it didn’t work on my father, and it doesn’t work on me.”

“I talked to her and-”

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Back to part 6

I can only imagine the days and nights that my friends had when they came into this world for me.  Heather is a girly-girl and has the fashion sense of a runway model, but not for the outback.  Nathan and Steve had some better luck, but they are city boys, not country wild men.

I think that it kinda went like this.

They were huddled around a little fire, cold and tired and lost.  Like I had been.

Steve would be snarking on Heather.  “If you had worn real shoes, not heels, you would not have twisted your ankle.”

“If I thought this was really happening, I would not have come.”

Nathan, the peace-maker of the group would have to get in between and say something like, “Will you two stop bickering?  You sound married.”

“You watch your mouth!  It was not my idea to use that thing.”

“I just thought it was a fancy digital picture frame or something.  Between Tammi’s video and notes and the stuff you found, Nate-”

Then they would be frightened by the sound of a horse.  Ilsin came up to them and said, “You look as lost as she did.”

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Back to part 5

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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Back to part 4

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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Back to part 3

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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Back to part 2

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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Back to part 1

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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