~Eleanor~
Through the
trees she could see a clear, sunny sky. It was an amazing day. She, Arabella,
Natalie and Hannah were on their way to the city, and the other three had
stayed at Ber’s.
It had been so
strange for Eleanor, a person who had always lived in a city in a big, luxurious
house surrounded by people, to be alone with people her own age and walking
through a forest with them. She loved it. Absolutely loved it. She loved the
light shining through the trees, the weird creatures, the plants and the
people. It was sincere in a way; she didn’t need to think about how she
behaved. Well, she did, but not in the same way.
They could see
the city, smell the spices and hear the people. It was going to be fun to see
the city, see how people dressed…
“That’s the
town, right?” Arabella asked behind her. “We’re almost there, I can’t believe
it!” She said that to Hannah; then she turned to Eleanor, still smiling:
“You’ll protect
us if something goes wrong, right?”
“That’s what I’m
here for.” She smiled back, “And hopefully I will succeed and we won’t end up
as red stuff on the ground.”
She had expected
a reaction were they didn’t just stare at her and then laugh. Even Natalie and
Hannah smiled. It was true, so she didn’t understand what the fun part was.
“Yeah, wouldn’t
want that to happen!” Hannah said.
“We should get
out on the road.” Arabella said, “Wouldn’t it be a sight to see four hooded
figures comin’ out of the forest?”
“They would
probably think we have green skin and then we ‘ll have to run back so we won’t
get killed.”
They were all
looking at her again.
“Seriously,
Ellie, we’re worried enough!”
Ellie?
The city was
amazing in its simplicity and even though it was so early people were already
up and looked at the colorful booths in the market. The smell of the spices
made her head hurt, colorful clothes, that she would never see at home, hurt
her eyes, the sun made the long and closed hooded cape she wore so much warmer.
But she loved it. It was completely
different from home and it was colorful; not just white or grey or beige, but
blue and red and yellow and pink and green and orange and purple. She had never
seen anything like it.
She didn’t have
control over her facial muscles anymore and soon her cheeks began to hurt. One
of the girls said something, she didn’t hear what, but when they walked forward
she walked after. Only slightly behind.
The street was
wide and the booths stood on either side of it, making the salesmen’s back face
the houses’ wooden walls. There were plenty of people looking in the booths or
just walking down the street. She wasn’t able to see how long the street was,
because it parted and the bigger street turned about 15 or 20 booths away, but
she thought she could see some blue fabric at the turn, so it probably
stretched longer. A smaller street, though, continued going forward between the
houses. There weren’t as many people there. It would be a good way to go.
“Well…They are nice…” She heard Natalie say, “But I
don’t have any money with me.”
“They’re very
cheap,” A flat nosed salesman said, “You must have coins enough for this small
sum. And as you said…What’s your name, miss?”
“Uh…Natalie.”
”What a
beautiful name; you can’t be from here can you, Natalie? And as you said: they
are nice.”
”But I really
don’t have…”
“Oh but you must
have, miss. For this?” He held up a necklace of rope with a rough black stone.
It was pretty in its simplicity, yes, but it looked like something he had done
himself.
“No, I don’t
have…”
“But miss…”
“Didn’t you hear
her? Stop bein’ so persistent!” Arabella lashed out. Of course she did, how
very smart of her to think first. Why didn’t Natalie just walk past the booth?
It looked shabby; Eleanor thought the girl had some common sense.
She better step
in before they caused a scene. The salesman looked angry now.
“Sir,” she began, “Please excuse my friend.
We’re travelers and we have walked all night, so we are tired and she is
hopeless when it comes to keeping her temper in check. The only money we have
is reserved for food and roof over our heads.”
“But this is
very cheap, almost free, you can spare a couple of coins, can’t you miss?”
ANNOYING.
“No, didn’t
you…”
“That girl stole
my merchandise!” He screamed and pointed at Natalie.
WHAT?!
They had
suddenly caused a scene.
And unfortunately
enough, she and the rest of their little group looked like possible thieves
with their long hoods.
She looked
around, people began to come closer. There wouldn’t come anything out of
reasoning with this.
She pushed
Hannah’s back and together they ran after Arabella and Natalie into the smaller
street with fewer people. Eleanor looked back, some were still following
them.
They continued
to run through smaller streets and when they stopped they had no idea where
they were.
“It’s so hard to
run in this.” She said as she panted.
“At least they
didn’t see our clothes.” Arabella said. She didn’t seem as tired as the rest of
them. ”What the heck happened back there?”
“He said Natalie
stole something and then we ran.” Eleanor answered. “But we didn’t steal
anything, he was just angry that we didn’t buy anything.”
“Bastard…”
Arabella muttered.
“Hannah…” Natalie
said, ”What’s…what’s that in your hand?”
“Oh. Well…” In
Hannah’s hand was a necklace like the one at the booth.
“You stole it?!” Eleanor couldn’t believe it.
”So then it’s your fault!”
“It just
happened in the heat of the moment!” She glared at Natalie, who took a step
back.
“In the heat of
the moment? No wonder he got so mad!”
“I did it after
he screamed.”
“So? You can’t
just steal!”
“What do you
want me to do? Go back and give it back? Yeah, that would work out just fine.”
“…Then just
leave it here. It’s not yours.”
“Would it really
be better if someone else took it? It’s already taken, what’s done is done. And
besides, it might be of help later, we can sell it or trade it for food!”
“We can’t get
much food for that. Just look at it! He probably made it himself.”
“I’ll still keep
it.”
“Oh, yeah?”
”What’re you’re
going to do about it?”
”I can take it
and throw it away. I’m stronger than you are.”
“Are you really
going to use your powers against me for such a thing? That’s
just low.”
“What does it
matter if she keeps it? Big deal.” Arabella said.
”Big deal? Do you realize that they might
look for us now?”
“Geez, calm
down.”
“Not until you realize…”
She felt the anger disappear. She saw Arabella had her arms crossed and knew
the girl had done something and she wanted to get angry again, but she couldn’t.
Then she found herself getting happy and thinking back on her dog Leslie as a
pup. Those times had been wonderful…
”Where are we
anyway?” Arabella said.
They were in a
small street with high houses on both sides. It didn’t smell good in there and
Eleanor thought she smelled pee. She wrinkled her nose. Behind them was not a
single person, but ahead some were passing by, not even looking into the alley.
Even if they had looked, they would probably hurry past the alley. Eleanor
could imagine how people saw them if their long hoods. It reached far down to
the ankle, which made it hard to run in, as they had just experienced.
“Probably in
some alley people don’t usually walk through,” Hannah said, “How about we
continue forward so we can get out of here and get to a more people filled
place.”
“So you can take
something more ‘in the heat of the moment’?” Eleanor asked. Hannah chose to
ignore her and Eleanor felt the irritation crawling back.
“Just drop it,
will you?” Arabella sighed.
“Or what? You’ll
use your powers on me again?” What was with her today? She wasn’t like this at
home.
Arabella just
walked away. Eleanor began to wonder if it really was so great to be alone with
people your own age for this long.
They walked out
of the alley and saw the people moving in one direction.
“Where do you
think they’re going?” Hannah asked.
“Whatever, we
should…” Arabella began, but Eleanor interrupted her.
“Let’s follow
them.” She earned a strange look from Arabella, but Eleanor wouldn’t accept her
as the leader for their little group. She didn’t like how no one walked in the
opposite direction, though, and not one of the men and women smiled. Not even
the ones who walked in groups.
After a few
turns they could hear murmurs. She drew a quick breath and quickly looked away.
Gallows. With
dangling bodies.
She couldn’t
believe she was seeing it; this didn’t happen. It simply did not happen. Not in
her reality.
“…What?” Natalie
whispered beside Eleanor. The girl simply stared at the bodies, Eleanor looked
at Arabella and Hannah; they hadn’t looked away, either. Even Natalie looked at
the bodies, even though she was panting heavily and she looked like if she was
about to cry. But Eleanor was the only one who looked away. She forced herself
to look at the gallows, but when one of the bodies’ leg twitched she averted
her eyes and took a step back.
“That’s just…”
Arabella breathed.
“Do you see that
mark on their foreheads? The one shaped as a triangle?” Hannah asked, “Have they
burned it in?”
Oh, God.
How Hananh seem
so indifferent? They saw dead people.
“Don’t say
that…” Arabella’s voice was faint and it seemed like struggle for her to say
anything at all.
Eleanor looked
at the wooden platform, trying not to look at the bodies, though she saw their
legs. Two men in orange clothes brought the bodies down and she looked
down. She heard them drag the bodies
away. The knowledge that the dragging sound came from dead humans made it much,
much worse.
“Do you feel
like those soldiers over there are looking at us?” Arabella asked.
“Don’t think
so.” Hannah answered, “They must be looking at someone else. It’s a pretty
large crowd.”
“Ever since that
new guy came, they’ve been looking at us.”
“You’re probably
just…imagining things.”
“Nope, we just
made eye-contact. Not worrying at all.”
“W-w-we should
g-g-g-g-et out of here.” Natalie said. Her body shook as much as her voice.
“Are you okay?”
Arabella asked.
“That will just
seem suspicious.” Eleanor said, “They might keep an extra eye on us and then maybe
even realize who we are.”
Yes, it wasn’t
that likely, but she didn’t want another Rurica.
“B-b-but they
already d-d-do.” Natalie whispered. “They k-k-kno-w we’re here.” The girl
hugged her hands tightly to her chest. Eleanor felt herself beginning to do the
same.
“…What?” Hannah
breathed.
“What?” She
wished she was home, played that stupid piano or was at some stupid little tea
party lying her pants of. She wanted Leslie. “What do you mean? H-how can you
know?”
“I-I know
be-be-cause of a…th-thing. We need t-t-t-to g-go.”
“Is this the
same as with the forest?” Arabella asked.
Natalie nodded,
but because of her shaking it looked as if she nodded more than once.
“You can’t just
trust something like that! I’m sure you’re wrong!”
As a puppy
Leslie usually wore a blue collar and she had those big brown eyes…They might
get trapped and drugged and…No, no, no! Her fur had been so soft and golden,
actually it still was…maybe killed or losing a body part…
“We should get
out of here. Go somewhere where there are a lot of people or someplace where
there isn’t a single soul.” Arabella sounded so sure it was almost comforting.
Her tail wagged every
time Eleanor came home, no matter if she had only been gone for a few minutes…
“She could be
wrong!”
How would she explain
a missing arm to her parents?
“Hannah! She
probably isn’t, damn it! Don’t you see how they’re lookin’ at us and talkin’?”
She began to talk faster, “Do you wanna stay and hope they won’t do anythin’?
We will go now, ignorin’ the soldiers, the gallows and everythin’; then ask
some people about prisons. Then we’ll hurry and to the most likely place and
hope it’s the right one and then get the heck outta here! Okay?”
Leslie’s fur
shining like gold in the sunlight, Leslie’s fur shining like gold in the sun
light, Leslie’s fur shining like gold in the sun light…
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