Morning all. I hope everyone survived Monday. Monday always feels like a slog, especially with the insult of the alarm after two days without it. I admit I wouldn’t get up on time without the clock so it is necessary. If left to my own devices my body wants to wake up at 9 am and stay up until 2. Unfortunately my life doesn’t really work with that schedule. Hence the hated alarm. It does become less onerous as the week progresses though. I abhor it on Monday but by Friday find it an annoyance. Part of that is that I know I will have two days without it, but there we have it. For now, let’s leave alarm clocks behind and jump into our morning prompt. Timers set and off we go.
I like this. And I suspect that I will be spending some time with it at lunch today. Which isn’t a bad thing.
Tuesday, July 22nd: The moss looked like green velvet.
The moss looked like green velvet. She suspected it wouldn’t feel as soft as it looked but it was hard to convince herself. She was so tired. She paused her steps and for a moment all she could hear was the sound of her breath, her own heart thundering in her ears. She needed to stop and catch her breath, if only to be able to hear any sounds of pursuit.
She also knew if she lowered herself to the ground in order to find out if the moss was as soft as it looked, she would have an even harder tome convincing herself to get back up.
She compromised by leaning against a tree as her breath settled. She took slow and steady breaths. How had it come to this?
She swallowed back a laugh knowing it would sound more hysterical than she liked. The answer was obvious. She had been betrayed. Who and why she didn’t know, but the charges and the chase were enough to let her know that one fact. Betrayal.
When she was somewhere safe, she could break things down and figure out who had betrayed her. There were only a few who knew the secret, and each was heartbreaking to contemplate. She knew now was not the time to dwell on it.
Her breath calmed and her heart slowed to a steadier beat, her ears no longer pounding with it’s rhythm. She could hear the world now. It was a quiet world. There was a stream nearby and birds calling in the distance. She blinked.
She remembered Frederick mentioning that he and Devon used bird calls to signal each other when they were on the hunt so as not to alert their prey with human voices. He wasn’t talking to her of course, Frederick was trying to impress one of the prettier and more acceptable girls in the castle. She consoled herself with the fact that even had she been the most ravaging of beauties her position would have made her unacceptable.
But now, listening she couldn’t tell if they were birds or people imitating birds. ‘Have to keep moving,’ she thought. She cast a last longing look at the velvet moss and pushed off the side of the tree. She lost earlier pursuit by slogging through the river hoping to mask her scent. The sun was warm and she was nearly dry now which was a relief. She had also been wearing stout walking boots and clothing suitable for the woods when she ran as she had been gathering herbs that morning in the woods.
It was a lucky break as the court gown would have impeded her greatly. She couldn’t be sure she lost those hunting her and needed to be certain before she actually stopped. Before she started on her way, she took a moment to cast a small obscuration charm. It was a small magic and wouldn’t be detected if they were tracing her with a mage. It would blur her physical path so that footprints, broken twigs and any other damaged she caused on the natural world that could show a tracker her bath, would not be visible. It would only last two days but it would make her path less obvious and wash away any scent that the dogs might be following.
It wasn’t the sort of magic the mages taught in their schools and she doubted that if they did know the spell they would teach her. It was useful and if she was going to be hunted because of this particular type of magic she inherited then she might as well use it to escape.
With her path obscured she continued on her way. She was far enough ahead of pursuit that she could walk briskly instead of running, looking around and taking her time to figure out her next steps.
‘Someplace secure for the night,’ she thought. The sun was sinking towards the horizon and she knew there were only a few hours before darkness. There were dangers in the woods other than the hunters and she would need a place to rest.
Ten til Midnight 