Chapter 54: Tall Pines

Perspective: Zarenna

The pine forests of northeast Ordia made me nostalgic for the tall green firs of my homeland. Everything looked like an altered version of the forests I played in as a child. I imagined this far north that the weather would be warmer, but the elevation kept the air cool.

I walked beside Seyari in my human form. The wet crunch of needles under boots was a familiar, comforting sound. Were it not for our grim goal, I’d be tempted to call the atmosphere fanciful.

Birdsong and the chittering of squirrels echoed around the trees as we followed an animal path. The sounds of a vibrant forest, even this near to winter, were more than worth the trade-off of looking like a human. I was happy to find I still accepted my human form as me. Accepted, but I preferred the form that wasn’t missing important limbs. The fact I no longer made every animal in the forest hide was one reason why I looked human at the moment. If the forest around us was dead silent when we met people, we’d spook them.

Given we were approaching late autumn, bears would be fat and ready to hibernate; less likely to attack. Even if one or another predator did, I doubted it would be a problem. Seyari had said the bears here were smaller than the ones I was familiar with back home.

We weren’t likely to be hunted, but we were likely to run into hunters. A lot of animals had their winter coats, and fur trappers would be in the area. If we wanted a fire, and we wanted to be able to relax, I had to be ready to be noticed and interact with humans at a moment’s notice.

I doubted a quick shift into human form and a ‘sorry, my bad’ would fix a first impression. Even if many of the folk in these parts didn’t ascribe closely with the Church of Dhias, demons were understandably maligned.

To keep up appearances, Seyari had finally managed to get a black dye to take to her hair. From what she told me, keeping her angelic half from burning it away was a matter of changing her mental image of herself to have black hair. She’d done the same with darkening her eyes. Despite her admitted expertise in the art of disguise, I caught a silvery sheen to her hair, and the glow from her eyes was faintly visible in shadow.

We’d decided against such a treatment for me. My height was a dead giveaway to anyone looking, so changing my hair or eye color wouldn’t matter. We only wanted to disguise that we were anything other than human. Although, our cover story involved me having a small amount of ogre blood in me if anyone asked after my height. I didn’t think that sort of thing was possible. Seyari didn’t know either, but we both figured it was an easy enough lie to pass. We probably wouldn’t meet anyone who’d claim to be an expert on that subject, anyway.

On top of that, we needed to have an excuse for why we were out here. The best we could do was claim to be explorers, try to trade for trapping gear as soon as possible, and then change ‘occupation’. We’d decided on ‘looking for lost era ruins’. If anyone asked, we’d point to the sword, and say the site we found had nothing else left.

The final piece of our thrown-together plan was another pair of fake names. This time, I was Lana and Seyari was Valerie. I insisted on calling her Val.

We walked for several days before we saw any sign of people. We’d been skirting the edge of a small meadow that was annoyingly full of waist-high brambles, when Seyari stopped and pointed.

I looked where she indicated and saw a thin trail of smoke twist and break lazily up into the air. The hour was late enough that sunset had begun to tint the sky orange. In any normal situation we would have made camp by now, but with the lack of danger we’d opted for later camp times.

Someone else didn’t feel the same way. Whoever they were, the smoke looked to be just past the opposite edge of the meadow.

“Do we want to talk to them tonight or try to find them tomorrow?” I asked Seyari quietly.

She looked at the sky and frowned. “Tonight. Camping this close would be suspicious, even if we should have set up already.”

Her voice had none of the musical quality she’d had right after she revealed herself as a half-angel. She’d been practicing for days to hide it, and has succeeded as far as I could tell.

“We’ll just tell them we saw smoke and wanted to talk with them before setting up. I know hunters and trappers don’t like other groups working the same area.” I looked over the choked field. “I’d bet they’re trapping something in there if they’re not hunting.”

I had some experience with hunters and trappers. Linthel was close enough to the southern wildlands that I’d learned a bit about the trade from acquaintances. Most of them came through Bourick’s shop looking for skinning knives and shared their complaints with the amiable blacksmith.

I hoped he was doing okay. I can’t imagine he was killed that night given where Abby and I had run into him. He was another item on the list for when I finally made it home. Part of me still worried I didn’t deserve to call it home anymore, but I squashed the negative thoughts down easily.

I turned to Seyari, who looked bemused.

“I already said ‘sure’, Lana,” she said, then met my eyes. “Everything okay?”

I returned her gaze and smiled genuinely. “Yep! I just remembered something from my past. Something good to look forward too, for once.”

Seyari’s disguised brown eyes turned away. “Yeah, for once.” She coughed softly. “Anyway, let’s go see if we can get directions to a nearby town from them.”

“Wouldn’t it be suspicious if we appeared lost?” I asked, tapping a horn but finding only air. I frowned and lowered my hand.

“Who says we have to appear lost?” Seyari said with a wink.

I chuckled. “Yeah, good point. You want to do the talking?”

Seyari shrugged. “Either way’s fine by me. For all your terrible jokes you’re not bad at reading people.”

“Aww, thanks!” I gave her a quick side hug.

Seyari leaned into it for a moment then pulled away and turned. She mumbled something under her breath I was probably meant to catch. My hearing wasn’t quite there when transformed, but I could easily guess it was a halfhearted insult. Seyari was sweet in her own prickly way.

We started to walk around toward the campfire smoke.

“We’re a couple, right Val?” I asked.

“Yes,” Seyari replied. “We might be less accepted out here than in other parts of Ordia, but as long as we’re not all over each other, we’ll be fine.”

“But I just can’t keep my hands off you!” I teased, then followed up with a whisper. “All four of them.”

I made a mock grabbing motion and giggled.

Seyari blushed. “Yeah, okay, you’re not handsy. Point taken. We’ll be fine.”

I nodded in agreement and our conversation turned to the weather while we approached. It wouldn’t do to walk in on whoever was there unannounced. The trees on this side of the meadow were shorter, and their bare lower branches obscured sight and restricted movement in the direction of the camp.

We had just gotten in view of the campsite, when a masculine voice called out for us to halt. I heard footsteps crunching on pine needles ahead of us. I could make out where the voice’s source was, but I couldn’t see them clearly through the dense, prickly branches. I could see two tents pitched around a campfire, but not in great detail.

“Hello!” I called back. “We don’t want any trouble!”

“Neither do we,” the voice called back, source moving so they could see me. “But I have to ask why you’re out here. You wouldn’t be poaching our hunting ground, would you?”

“Not at all,” I shouted, moving closer myself. “We’re explorers just passing through looking to get back to civilization.”

Another step closer, and I could finally see the man who’d spoken. He looked about thirty, broad-shouldered and rather tall. His features were of a vaguely familiar bent to me, though I couldn’t place the dark hair and eyes as anything other than ‘north Ordian’. He looked the part of someone on an extended trip in the woods; a bit dirty and unshaven, but not unkempt.

He looked us over as well. I didn’t miss the places his gaze seemed to get stuck on. We were still a good ten meters away.

“What’re a fine pair of lasses like yourselves doing so far out in the woods?” The man asked in a sweeter tone of voice.

“Exploring, like Lana said,” Seyari replied smoothly. “We’re headed back now and saw your fire. We wanted to make sure you knew we were out here too, and weren’t poaching your kills.”

The man laughed. “I’m not worried about you two poaching anything. I’m worried about you both being out here alone. The deep woods are dangerous, even this time of year. Oh, and I’m Ned, by the way.”

“We can take care of ourselves,” I asserted, looking to my spear and to Seyari’s blade. “You already know I’m Lana, and this is Valerie.” I gestured to Seyari who softened her face from the glare that’d set in.

“Sure, sure,” Ned smiled and waved off what I said with a gesture. “If you two fine ladies want to make camp next to ours, Jacob and I will make sure you stay safe. You’re also welcome to join us by the fire tonight, and maybe after. We’ve got meat from kills that needs to be eaten soon or made into jerky.”

I felt a slow rise of anger from Seyari. Nothing serious, but given that I’d not appreciated his tone either, I’d been looking for it. Despite my reservations, I looked to Seyari and nodded. Jerk or not, Ned didn’t seem to me like he meant us harm.

“We’ll camp next to you, but we’ll set our own watch,” Seyari replied. “If you have extra meat, we can trade for rations.”

Seyari had a point. We weren’t out yet, but the pickings had gotten slim the last few days, and there wasn’t much around for foraging. If we could save time by not needing to hunt, that would be worth the money.

The man motioned for us to approach and we did. “Fine by me, but if you want some company, don’t… whoa.” He stopped when I got close enough for him to realize how tall I was. “Damn girl, what’d your parents feed you?”

I shrugged. “Meat, mostly.”

Not entirely a lie, but not the truth either. Anyway, he seemed to buy the joke as an excuse and didn’t question us further. He went back to his camp and I saw him talking with another, more wiry man. Jacob, I assumed.

Seyari and I found a flat spot a dozen or so meters away and began to set up our own camp. I set down the packs and waited, but my partner didn’t use her magic to sweep the needles away from where we wanted to put our tent. I gave her a look, and she responded with a side eye towards the other camp and a shake of her head. I nodded.

Understandable. I didn’t trust Ned or Jacob either, although that might be unfair to Jacob.

Instinctively, I wanted to use my tail to sweep the needles away. I only just barely caught myself from transforming.

Well, if people talked first and demons didn’t trick them, this wouldn’t be a problem!

I grumbled to myself and looked about for something I could use that wasn’t my two hands. I found a branch of decent length and used it to sweep the area clean. Or at least as clean as packed dirt could be. Seyari took our money pouch and hid it somewhere on her person. I mimed using a flint fire-starter and got a fire going. Within minutes, our camp was ready.

I looked over to the other campsite, mostly visible through the trees. The firs were much older and taller here, and with a lack of undergrowth, the forest was somewhat open. Ned and Jacob sat on a log by the fire talking. I could hear the sounds of conversation, but I couldn’t make out any words.

I turned to Seyari. “You said ‘trade’. What do we have to trade for food? Unless you’ve been hiding something, all we have is a dagger, my dress, travel gear, other clothing, and our own food.”

She sighed. “We don’t have much besides money, but we can pay for it so long as we don’t look rich.” She showed me a coin pouch I’d seen her fiddling with. Inside was a moderate amount of money.

“Isn’t that too much?” I asked.

“We’re explorers. It’d be more suspicious if we seemed broke.” Seyari put the pouch back.

“Fair point.” I thought a moment. “You said ‘trade’ instead of ‘buy’ so they wouldn’t think we were rich. Smart.”

Seyari tried to shrug off my realization and compliment. I could tell from the way her smile tried and failed to leave that she felt at least a little happy at the praise.

The two of us walked over to Ned and Jacob’s camp. I waved and the two of them waved back. I saw a pot over the fire and could smell something cooking. My stomach rumbled.

Seyari and I still needed to get directions to the nearest town. Ideally, we’d be able to do that without appearing lost.

As we approached, Ned gave us a friendly look, but Jacob’s eyes stuck firmly to my chest. The leering, wiry, man had the same features as Ned, but more hawkish and with brown hair instead of black.

I hoped Jacob was just an awkward person, but doubt crept into my mind. I weighed warm food against social discomfort. So far, food was winning, but I’d see how the conversation went before making a final decision. We hadn’t met anyone so far, aside from Malich, who was truly rotten. I hoped the same was true here.

Maybe they’d both turn out to be nice and we’d enjoy a pleasant evening chatting?