Gifts

“Blake, where are we going?”

He didn’t even pause, continuing in his horse’s canter, as he rode further and further ahead of Midnight who was being as careful as possible. I held on for dear life, letting the movement of the horse influence my own, but it was still a very uncomfortable ride. I had never sat on a horse before, let alone ridden one while it was moving at speed. To say I was terrified was an understatement.

Branches from the trees surrounding us loomed so close. I even had to duck to avoid a few. Soon enough the forest began to clear and we rode out onto an open plain. Nothing could be seen for miles around us apart from a few trees scattered here and there.

A smile appeared on my lips - freedom. For so long I had been trapped within a city that did not seem to care much for me. I had never before ventured this far from Verdana, preferring to stay close to what I knew and close to the meagre food that I could scavenge. It was by far the most beautiful thing I had seen in all my years. I allowed the sight of the forever-lasting plain to simply wash over me, hungrily soaking in the view with my weary eyes.

The green, rolling landscape continued on for as long as my eyes could see. The grass blew softly in the breeze, the short stems underneath Midnight’s hooves bending under our weight. Everywhere I looked, the grass was endless. A sea of green. It felt like we were swimming through it. It moved with the wind, dancing and swirling around us, happy.

Blake did not seem to care much for the view, racing ahead. The only sign I had that I was following in the right direction was the cloud of dust that was settling on the ground and the distant, shimmering sight of his retreating figure. I directed Midnight along the path, which Blake’s horse had left behind, a clear indent left behind from the horse’s powerful strides.

I didn’t know whether I was pleased or worried when Blake finally stopped by an outcrop of trees, the walls of the city far behind us. By the time Midnight and I had caught up to him, he already had a fire set up and had some food cooking. Night was beginning to descend and a cold chill was creeping through to my bones. This shocked me. It had only felt like an hour or two but really the entire day had slipped by. What had I seen? Which way had we come? I couldn’t even remember the way back and a sense of panic began to invade my chest. How would I ever find my way back if I needed to? Would the horse’s trail through the sea of grass still be visible?

“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to actually survive this trip,” Blake scoffed tauntingly as I slid gingerly off Midnight, all of my bones aching from the journey.

I stared at him in anger, but I was too sore and too tired to argue the point. Deep down I knew that what he was saying was probably true, but he didn’t make it easy.

It wasn’t fair. How was I expected to keep up when I didn’t know what I was doing? It was as if he expected me to just be able to do it – without practice, without training, without having ever done anything like this before? I wasn’t like that. Sure I was a fast learner, but it took me a few times to perfect something.

“Sorry I’m not perfect at everything,” I mumbled under my breath. I wanted him to know how I felt, but at the same time I was scared of his anger.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s what I thought,” Blake replied angrily. I turned to watch him fiddling with the large rolled up bundles on the back of Blaze’s saddle, and felt the anger ebbing away to leave curiosity.

I stretched my aching muscles slowly, watching him unroll the bundles on the ground to create two makeshift beds. One lay close to the flames and the other a few metres away, completely on the other side of the fire.

Blake silently offered me some food and pointed to the bed farthest away from the flames. I looked at it curiously and then at the proximity of his bed to the fire.

“I can handle it.”

Shrugging him off, I sat gingerly on my bed and ate the warm soup he had given me. It tasted earthy and like a plant I had once stolen from the market, its bright orange colour looked inviting.

“Pumpkin.”

“Sorry?” I asked looking up at Blake.

“It’s pumpkin soup.”

“Oh… thanks.”

The warm liquid seemed to heat me through, right to my toes and I smiled as I tucked myself down into my bed.

It was at that point that I remembered the small packages that Gareth had handed me. I stretched awkwardly to try and grab at my pack, the strap just out of my reach. It made my back spasm, and a stabbing pain enter my upper thighs.

With a small groan, I eased myself from my bed, shaking in the cold. I snatched up the pack and scrambled back into the warmth of the blankets.

The brown paper wrapped packages still lay on top and I pulled them out carefully and lay them on top of my legs. They were relatively small, except one, but were wrapped so perfectly I didn’t want to disturb them.

Finally unable to contain the curiosity, I grabbed at the closest package and ripped off the paper hurriedly. It was an exquisite hairpiece that glinted in the firelight. I picked it up carefully and delicately turned it over in my hand. Small stones lined the piece of metal, which were about the length of my small finger. A small flower made of luminescent purple stones sat up one end, perched on top of other smaller ones in a dark forest green. I now believed I had seen the most beautiful thing in the world. This far exceeded the raw beauty of the plains. It was simply gorgeous and surely far too expensive for me to have.

I placed it carefully back on top of the blankets and picked up another parcel. This one was slightly longer and slimmer. I cautiously pulled away the paper only to see that I hadn’t needed to be so careful. I pulled out a dark piece of plastic and I stared at it curiously. I twirled it around in my hand plucking at the little tongues of plastic that was coming out of the thicker side. I had no idea what it was but it made an enjoyable sound when I ran my finger along the many fingers that lined up.

“It’s a comb,” Blake pointed out grumpily, his face slightly amused and curious. “It’s for your hair,” he added, picking up my empty food bowl and taking it away.

I glanced down at the thing he had called a comb and twirled it around in my hand again before pulling out my hair and running the comb through it carefully. It pulled sharply against my hair, but with some persistence I found that it made it soft and took out many of the tangles.

It seemed like a weird thing that I had never come across a comb, but in the orphanage we had brushes, and they were always old and missing some of the bristles.

I tucked the comb away into a front pocket of my pack and turned to the last package. It was larger than the other two and slightly heavier. It was shaped like a large box and I decided to place in back in the pack. I wanted to have the surprise of opening it up on another night.

The hairpiece sparkled in the light of the fire, bringing my attention back to it. I smiled, but felt sad that I had left Gareth behind. His cheery demeanour was something that would make even the worst situation bright. I put the hairpiece away, wrapping it in one of the spare pieces of clothing in my pack. It was too beautiful to break or scratch.

Blake was watching me with his annoyed face in place and I rolled my eyes and poked out my tongue to him. To my surprise, a small flicker of a smile crossed his lips in response, but the emotion never reached his eyes.

“Get some sleep,” Blake said bluntly, tucking himself into his own bed.

“No… wait, I was hoping you could…”

His brow crinkled. “Could do what exactly? If you think I’m going to read you a bed time story for you to get to sleep, forget it.”

His tone and words only infuriated me and I rolled over to face away from him. He was mocking me, trying to be spiteful. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach. It must have showed on my face, because a tinge of regret flickered through his flaming eyes.

“Don’t worry, forget I said anything.”

“Kida…”

“No! Just go to sleep.”

I heard him take a deep breath. He released it slowly as if trying to calm himself down, and then mumbled a complaint - something about girls with their issues.

I closed my eyes and tried to stop the tears that were welling up in my eyes. Blake’s attitude was what made me angry, and even worse, upset. I was infuriated to think that this would be my life for the next few days, weeks, months… however long it was going to be. I was angry. I was scared. And to be with him, through it all - I was going to go mad. What had I ever done to upset him or make him so angry with me? Maybe it was because I had stolen from him. Maybe he simply didn’t trust me, and I could understand that to a certain extent, but he didn’t know the reasons behind why I did what I did.

Maybe it was because he had been burdened with me instead of being with Nyssa. Maybe that was it. He was supposed to be escorted a powerful magician, not some nobody from nowhere.

Or maybe it was simply because of who and what I was, an abandoned orphan – a street rat.

I cringed at the thought. I remembered the way Alana’s face had curled in disgust when she had realised. It wouldn’t surprise me if he felt the same.

I prayed to the Magician’s that tomorrow would bring a better day before I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.