Nyssa

Thank you both for your kind comments. I will be working on it a little harder now that I know you are anxious!

Several Days In Several days into our travels, I realized that Amara was looking a bit peeked. The cold nights and dusty roads were certainly no blessing, but surely the lack of fresh roasted meat was weakening us both. On our first night we had mastered building a fire, although it smoked a bit from the too-green kindling. The first morning we gathered enough berries and nuts to feed a large family of squirrels. Although I had drawn my kitana a few times to fend of disturbing night noises, I had yet to use it for anything purposeful, like hunting. “Let’s stop and rest here,” begged a paling Amara. Her limbs were weak from a berry and nut diet, which gave her very little energy for traveling. I heard a carriage coming through the woods at a belaboring pace and warned Amara to quietly climb into the forest underbrush. She more crawled off the path and thankfully collapsed onto her back, nearly invisible to passers-by. I stepped quietly behind a large walnut tree taking special care not to make a sound on the many walnut shells that littered the base of the trunk. About a meter from where we were, the carriage slowed to a stop. Two men dressed in tunics that bore our father’s colors stepped out. I slightly gasped as I observed one of them carefully searching the underbrush. So they’ve followed our path. I cursed myself for not being cleverer in covering our tracks. The man stopped and looked around. Had we made a sound? I wondered as I glanced to Amara who appeared to be sleeping on her back, still and motionless under heavy, low foliage. I almost laughed aloud when I saw him look downward and then straight to the sky with a sigh. I realized immediately that he was simply and very carefully for fear of snakes, relieving himself into the brush just off the path. When the first man was done he went back to the carriage and let the second man relieve himself also. But who are they guarding? I thought as I strained y neck to see into the carriage. A tap on my shoulder made me jump and reach for my kitana, but my hand was met by another already there. Suddenly another hand covered my mouth, stifling my oncoming scream. The strong hand grabbed my face and made me spin around. My jaw went slack as I whispered, “Herades” through his sweaty palm. “Hail sister,” he whispered back. Nodding to Amara he said, “She all right?” I relaxed my shoulders and replied, “I am not providing well enough, we haven’t eaten meat since we left fathers’.” “But that was days ago,” he exclaimed in a whisper. Suddenly he pulled me down. “Stay here for a minute…” He went the long way around a few trees to return to the carriage. I saw him pull out a fistful of rags and say something to the men that made them chuckle. As he started back towards my hiding spot, one of the men shouted, “Hope everything comes out allright!” and broke into hysterics. As he came and sat near me I motioned to his hand full of rags to ask him to explain what the guards were laughing about. “Uh… I told them I’d be busy for a little bit…” he said holding up some clean, but obviously stained rags. “Oh…ew!” was all I could reply. My brother was so crude with the guardsmen. “So,” he said pointing to the kitana on my back, “Why did you take that particular sword out of my room?” He raised his eyebrows as if expecting to hear an answer that I had somehow revealed the blade’s secrets. “You cherished in the most, so I knew it had to be the strongest of your weapons.” “Ah,” he said studying me carefully, “so you haven’t actually…used it yet?” Ashamed I looked away. I pounded my fist on the bark at my back and answered that I hadn’t. “I’ve never even tried to kill anything and look what my cowardice is doing,” my speech softened as I looked to pale, dear, Amara. Herades reached his hand out and put it on my shoulder. “Camp here tonight. There is a small village to the east where we are headed. I have been asked to train a few young men with the sword there. Once we have gone through a few basics, we will head into these woods to hunt. Head east on this path when the sun is about mid-high and when we meet I will ask the two of you to join our group. Until then, take this,” he said as he handed me a small cloth sack, “You need it as bad as Amara.” He then stood up and stretched giving me a wink. “Allright boys, let’s go, we can make it before sundown,” he bellowed. As the carriage pulled off, Amara finally stirred, but I whispered for her to stay down. Although they couldn’t hear us over the din of the carriage, they would easily be able to see us. Once they were out of sight I opened the sack. Inside was a hearty loaf of bread, half a wheel of cheese and partial bottle of robust wine. That night we ate like kings and were kept ruddy by the drink. There was just enough wine in the bottle to calm my nerves for the exciting day to come…

The Beginning I remember as a child being the best ball player around and even the boys couldn't beat me. Using a rough rope to tie my dress into baggy looking pants, I would kick the ball barefooted right past the boys who were twice my height. I lost a few toenails this way. *Grins* Even the squires in the guard would show me how to properly hold a sword and occasionally joust with me. They enjoyed my company and I theirs, like the bond a knight and his squire must feel. My poor mother was forever fretting about the state of my tousled hair and my dirty dresses saying things like "You really aught to learn to be a young lady," or "You will never find a husband this way!" But she just didn't understand. Deep inside of me there was a warrior pounding to get out! When I was barely a teenager I saw a carriage pull into the town gates and head toward the palace as I was playing ball with the street children one day. A young man, about my age, poked his head out of the carriage and stared at me wide-eyed and flushed. I'm sure I looked frightful with my hair, knotted neatly when I left home, shooting out in all directions from my head and my dress tied up with some loose rope. I stared back haughtily and then suddenly got a lump in my stomache... I let the kids have the game and I snuck into the palace, searching through the dark tunnels in the secret passageways to get behind the painting in the sitting room. There he was again. This time his complexion was soft and very pale and quite appropriate for a .... prince! I grew furious behind the wall when I heard the end of the conversation... "Yes, Nyssa will be very happy with you Xenos, and our kingdoms will greatly benefit from this merger," the words trickled from my mother's lips. I leaned back against the wall... merger?... She couldn't mean... oh, would she dare?! "I'm sure Nyssa will come to love me and I know that I can tame that wild creature to being a proper lady in no time," Xenos said as he glanced over to the painting as if he knew I was there listening. I knew then, taking one last look at my mother and blowing a secretive kiss to my father, that it was time for me to persue my dream. I couldn't get wrapped up in a marriage of convenience and I certainly couldn't be with someone who intended to change me, to ... tame me... as he put it. I snuck into my brother, Herades, room and took as many pieces of his leather armor that would fit me and a kitana that he kept locked in a blue box under his bed. It was supposed to be a secret that he kept it there, but I had seen many things peeking out from the dank passageways behind the walls that others had long forgotten about. The kitana looked normal to me, but I strapped the sheath to my back and though it might come in handy soon. After arming and disguising myself I snuck into my youngest sister's, Amara, room. As I was looking for on of Amara's bags that I could put my last few items in, she awoke from her nap and seemed very startled at first. "Shh... Amara, sweetie, it's Nyssa..." I said very softly raising my leather cap enough for her to see my face. At a ripe young age of 10 she rubbed her eyes and said, "why, where are you going?" in a beautiful tinkling voice. "Dear, I must leave. Mother's trying to make me marry that horrible man in the sitting room..." I said as I quickly packed a little gold and some bandages in the pack, just in case I met any trouble. "But Nyssa, if you go, she will betroth me to him! I can't have that... why... just look at my hands! Who would have a bride with hands like this?! He will surely beat me!" she cried as she held up her dirty and calloused hands. Amara loved to dig around in rocks and find little pieces of metal to melt together. She often hammered the thin pieces together to form little toys for the pauper children in town, like little tiny toy swords and little play men with armor. Horror-stricken I realized that she was right. I immediately told her to pack her things bringing the warmest clothes she had and an additional pack with whatever gold she had stashed away. We snuck out through the passageways, for Amara knew them well too, and I even let her stop behind the sitting room painting to say her goodbyes to father and mother. A few hours into our silent journey I noticed Amara stop and turn around. As I turned my head over my shoulder I breathed in sharply as the beauty of my father's kingdom hit me for the last time. Amara and I stood silently and wept as we watched the sun set on the castle we had known and the lives we had lived. As darkness crept into the woods, we turned around to face the road ahead together not knowing what we would find.