~Miranda~
It was morning
and the sun shone through the windows right at Ber, who sat in the corner of
the kitchen, feeding her grandmother.
”I should go,
’cause I can control emotions, which is really good, since we don’t wanna fight
anyone!”
“Well, I can
transform into different people and sneak into places no one else of us can!”
“Hey. I can
change anything into weapons.”
Miranda sighed.
Everyone wanted to go and everyone had good reasons why. She had some reasons
to why she should go herself, actually. Not everyone could go, though, so now
they had to decide. Great. At least three people would probably be angry after
this.
Hannah was a
good choice since she could change things’ shape, so she could make, for
example, keys. So why would she stay? Miranda didn’t know. Arabella, could make
trouble into peace without fighting and she would probably go around and sulk
if she remained here. Natalie, could easily escape to some roof if necessary or
just runaway. Maybe even punch through walls. Eleanor had to go, that
transforming ability of hers would be useful. Charlotte would be able to see
where to go if they got lost. Wilma could make weapons of anything, but they
didn’t want to fight, so that wouldn’t be necessary. Miranda herself, then? She
could heal, so she was be an obvious choice, but maybe it was best for her to
stay here with Ber?
She finally decided that Arabella, Natalie,
Hannah and Eleanor would be the best choice.
Arabella because
she had the biggest opportunity to make peace, and she had to admit the two of
them would probably bark at each other if they were together. Natalie because could
escape if necessary. Hannah and Eleanor because they would be able to access
places the others probably couldn’t.
That left
herself, Charlotte and Wilma. If there were no fights, why would there be a
healer? If they didn’t want to start fights, why would they need someone who
could make weapons? Charlotte would be needed here, so they wouldn’t get lost
in the forest if they wanted to go there, which they probably would.
She wondered how
the others would feel about her suggestion. Actually she knew. It wouldn’t be
pretty. She began to feel nauseous.
When she finally
opened her mouth and interrupted the girls, she actually expected protests,
especially from one of them, but she didn’t get any. Except an angry look from
Wilma and a frightened look from Natalie. Or surprised, she couldn’t tell. Did
they really have that much respect for her? Or at least for her decisions, but
that’s the same, isn’t it?
“There’s a farm
just outside of the city, they should have long robe-like hoods in their barn,
since they ‘re like us.” Ber said before the girls were going to go, “But if
you’re seen…”
“We know, we
know.” Arabella said, “We’re not that stupid. Have some faith in us.”
She smiled like
a fool; Miranda saw Hannah’s mouth twitching. She wondered what they would see.
As the leader
she should say something, but as she saw their backs disappearing into the
forest she shouted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Be sure to come
back! If…If you don’t we’ll leave you here!”
‘We’ll leave you here’? What…?
The girls just
turned around and waved. Some more confidently than others.
It’s all fun and games at first.
That she knew
from experience.
Miranda,
Charlotte and Wilma decided after some time that they could go and look at the
signs. The walk there felt awkward, the only things they said to each other
were some short awkward conversations and Charlotte didn’t say anything at all.
“So-um…What are
you studying next year?” It’s always the easiest to talk about school.
“Economics.”
Wilma answered, “Just like my mum.”
“Humanities.”
Charlotte said.
“Is that the
program with all the languages…?” Miranda asked.
“Among other
things.”
“How about you?”
Wilma asked.
“The Social
Studies Program.”
“Oh, the SoS?”
“Yeah.”
And so the
conversation ended.
The yellow grass
was really there, all the way down to the river and its little shore. The
normal green grass didn’t fade out into the yellow; it just stopped as if it
was an invisible wall. At some places it was brown. On the river shore were
some fish, in the water itself you could see some laying in that disgusting way
with their bellies up. One of them had even gotten its stomach half eaten. Even
the sand looked weird, a strange greyish color. And the smell! It smelled just
like…she actually couldn’t think of something that smelled that bad; even her
father’s painting room smelled better than this and it had been the fear of her
childhood. She put her hand to her nose, but it didn’t help. Wilma and
Charlotte had put their waist cloth over their noses, so Miranda decided to do
the same. Why hadn’t she thought of such a simple solution?
Apart from the
fait wind rustling the leaves and the water in the river there were no sounds.
Actually, the trees that stood on the yellow grass didn’t have any leaves for
the wind to touch. Some trees had branches covered in leaves over the normal
grass, but the branches over the brown and yellow grass didn’t have a single
one, even if one part of the branch was over the green grass.
As she looked
around she couldn’t help but think what they were going to do here, anyway?
What could they do to stop these things except defeating that wizard or
magician or whatever?
“Hey, let’s go
to the city, too.” She said. Charlotte stopped from her way to the river and
looked wondering back at her.
“Why?” Wilma
asked, “Hadn’t we decided they, and only they, were goin’? We said we were
goin’ to look at the signs…”
“And then what
are we going to do? Or actually, now what
are we going to do?”
“Well…um…I don’t
know, but I think we should stick with what we decided. Don’t you think so too,
Charlotte?”
Charlotte didn’t
answer. The girl just looked like she was surprised anyone said anything to
her.
“I’m going.”
Miranda said.
She turned
around and left.
“But you’re the
leader! You can’t just go.” Wilma’s voice sounded so surprised, so hopeless.
Miranda was done
taking orders from people; she was going to what she thought was right, no
matter what others said. Even if it meant walking alone.
“Wha-wait!
You’re not really goin’ are you?”
She imagined
them standing behind her looking all bewildered and powerless. Like she had
done long ago. The emotions and memories of the past came over her and she
actually considered going back to Wilma and Charlotte, saying it was a joke and
of course they would try to stop it from here. Then they could become friends
and talk and have fun. She smiled for herself.
She came home angry and crying, slamming every damn
door as hard as she could. When she got to her bedroom she didn’t even make it
to the bed before she broke down in hard sobs. The little pink book lay on her
desk, laughing and mocking. Before she really knew what she was doing one of
the telephone numbers and its name were buried beneath layers of ink. The
friendship bracelet they had made together lay in pieces on the floor. She
breathed heavily and then heard a child cry its life out. How disgusted she
became when she noticed it was her.
Disgusting. She
was not going back. She was going to do what she thought was right, no matter
what others said. Even though it meant walking alone.
“Hey!” Wilma
called out.
Miranda heard
footsteps behind her, but didn’t need to turn around to know who it, they,
belonged to.
“Only because
you’re the leader.” It was hardly a mutter.
When they got
back to Ber’s house she wondered what they thought. Was it really that bad?
“I don’t know
what ‘that bad’ is exactly, but I would say it’s pretty bad, yes.” Miranda
said.
“Do you know why
everything seemed to come from the river?” She was surprised Charlotte had
opened her mouth, she who almost never talked in sentences longer than five
words.
“The river? No,
I didn’t even know that.”
Of course
Miranda hadn’t noticed it.
“We will follow
the others into the city.” Miranda notified Ber, “We don’t know what we can do here,
anyway.”
The girl didn’t
look very surprised and her eyes lit up.
“You’ll need
clothes.” She said instead of asking why, “I don’t think there are any more
long hoods around here, but we should have some ordinary clothes. Just be sure
you’re covering your hair and at least a little of your faces.”
“Why?” Mirada
asked.
“You’ll get
questions up to your ears if they see you’re foreigners and they’ll probably
realize what kind of foreigners you are.”
“Should we
really leave our clothes here?” Wilma asked.
“We can bury
them in the garden and then come and get them before we go home.” Miranda
answered.
Wilma did not
look convinced. Miranda wasn’t very keen on it, either. Would they get new
clothes if they forgot these? Maybe they would be placed in a museum here.
Charlotte got
some of Ber’s clothes, since she was the thinnest of the three, though she had
to have a thinner shirt under, so the sleeves didn’t look like they were as
short as they actually were; and she had to have the skirt far down on her hips
so her legs wouldn’t show. Miranda and Wilma had to borrow her grandmother’s
clothes. She would have preferred Ber’s clothes, the grandmother’s clothes were
loose and were probably counted as old fashionded, since the models were kind
off different. Charlotte’s orange clothes with leaves patterns overlapped on
the left side of the chest and were attached at her waist with two black needle
like looking…things. This made her neckline rounded. The clothes sat tight on
her, too tight for her to be comfortable it seemed, because she pulled at them
all the time.
Miranda and
Wilma clothes didn’t sit as tight; they were actually loose, especially on
Miranda since Wilma was taller and the grandmother seemed to be quite tall.
Their clothes met and overlapped in the middle of the chest and were fastened
with a large, thick and patterned belt of fabric that ended at their waists.
The skirt dragged on the floor. How fun it would be to walk in the forest.
Miranda’s was
dark blue and Wilma’s red. They were pattern less.
“How do I look?”
Wilma asked.
“Amazing.”
Miranda answered.
Even though the
clothes could have looked better on them it was amazing to wear them.
Ber and her
grandfather placed their clothes in a barrel they had their rice in and dug a hole
in the backyard while they changed.
When they came
back Ber was holding two long green pieces of fabric in one hand and a shorter
yellow one in the other. The shorter was obviously for Charlotte’s model
because it did not look good with
Miranda’s clothes. Wilma got the shorter one that only was long enough to cover
the shoulders, because her hair was shorter. They all had to put up their hair
up in a low ponytail, though.
“I bet I look
like an old lady now.” Wilma muttered.
Ber threw
something at Miranda, who caught it in the air. It was a pouch that clinked.
She opened it and saw coins made out of what looked like copper. The color was
the same, at least.
“We can’t accept
this.”
“You need food,
don’t you?” She answered. “And I forgot to give this to the other girls,
so yeah…”
Miranda just
looked at the gift. She knew they were poor and they had even moved their
precious rice for the sake of their clothes.
Ber must have
seen her doubt because she said:
“Just take it.”
With a tone you
didn’t say no to.
They, Miranda, had
decided to go into the city from a different way. She had thought it would be safer, just in
case if the others had done something they shouldn’t have been doing.
Miranda had
convinced, forced, the other two to enter through the main road into the city.
So now they were walking down the road, a very empty road. They were actually the
only people on it. Maybe it was lunch time? As if…
There were
soldiers right before the entrance to the city and they were looking at them,
Miranda, Wilma and Charlotte. They had spears with three spikes. Like a cross. She
knew it was a big risk, but she thought they would be able to trick them. In
these clothes they didn’t look like themselves. Even Ber had said they looked
good.
The plan was to
go into the city and then Charlotte would use her powers to look around the city,
as far as she could, and look after buildings that looked like prisons.
“I think we
should go back.” Wilma whispered to her left, “This isn’t worth the risk, and
we all agreed back then what we would do. You can’t just change your mind like
this. It was even your suggestion!”
Miranda took a
deep breath and breathed out and she clenched her fists. It was because it was
her decision she did this. Besides, they couldn’t do much back there, anyway.
She had a feeling the city was where they were needed.
The soldiers got
closer. They weren’t even 20 meters away now.
“I think we
should turn around.” Charlotte whispered on her other side.
“Why?”
How could they
be so against it? It was a good idea!
“Maybe they know
we’re here.”
“And how would they do that?” She stumbled on
her skirt.
“The others
could have been captured or seen.”
“Of course they
were seen.”
Charlotte
sighed.
“You know what I
mean.”
“They haven’t
been that kind of seen.”
“They have a
wizard and a powerful wizard probably has all the possibilities in the world to
know we are here.”
She had not thought
of that.
“I say we go
back.” Wilma whispered.
“They’ll just
follow us, it’s better if we just walk past them.”
“Be realistic,
we’re the only ones on the road, how can they not stop us, ask questions or
whatever? How stupid do you think they are? We won’t be able to fool them!”
“Don’t risk our
lives for something like this!” Charlotte said.
“We can look for
another way.” Wilma suggested.
“We’ll go.”
“Then you’ll
have to go yourself.”
“Wilma, come o…”
“Charlotte?”
“It’s a stupid
idea.”
They both began
to turn when Miranda saw the soldiers running towards them. She turned around
and pushed the girls’ backs.
“Run, run, run,
run, run, run!”
She ran past
them. They looked back. Then they ran after her.
She ran into the
forest holding most of her skirt in one of her hands. Her feet’s thumps melted with
the sound of the heart beating like it was going to burst. The room in Rurica
hit her, she stumbled on a root, her thighs were filled with pain, her lungs
felt as if they were going to burst. Were the girls still behind her? She heard
someone scream, then someone cursed, she turned her head and nothing.
There was no one
behind her. She slowed in and panted heavily. Then Charlotte came from nowhere.
When she saw Miranda she stopped with a confused look at her face. She looked
even more confused when she looked back.
But Wilma didn’t
come.
“Where’s Wilma?”
Miranda asked as her stomach to hurt.
“I don’t really
know.” She stood wither hands on her knees.
Did they catch
her? What a stupid, idiotic, crazy, irresponsible, unplanned idea it had been.
How could she have been so stupid to just run into it like this? And not to
mention, dragging the other two into it, against their wills? What a leader…
“I thought you were
coming later, to be honest.” A black haired man with brown skin came out from a
door. From a house. Behind her. That hadn’t been there before.
“I thought you
were more than two, though.” He continued, “Ah, there’s the last one.”
Wilma appeared.
She didn’t have her head cloth. Miranda didn’t have hers, either, she noticed.
It must’ve fallen of when she ran.
The man gestured
with his arm into the door.
“Come on in.”
