"Why does she want to come with us? And why did Suiv have to interrupt us before I could even say anything back to Nofa?" Yilka thought to himself while cutting turnips.
Near him in the same house Varma was chopping pumpkins with a cleaver, Nofa was grinding peppers, Suiv was throwing the chopped ingredients and spices into broth in a big pot along with cream and fat. Outside Venamo was cleaning the bowls by the water barrel and old man Vaino was asleep in his rocking chair.
"Why are you wearing a scarf here indoors?" Varma asked Nofa.
"Wouldn't want my hair getting into the food, or food getting into my hair. Just seems like common sense." Nofa answered.
"I feel foolish now for never having thought of that." Suiv commented while stirring the pot.
Yilka was glancing over at Vaino snoring and checking if any of Nofa's red hair was sticking out from under her scarf. He knew that if Vaino saw any of Nofa's red hair, there'd be a problem.
"That was the last of the pumpkins." Varma announced and put the cleaver down.
"And the peppers are ground now. Taste it before putting it in the stew." Nofa announced and handed the bowl of crushed peppers to Suiv.
Suiv touched the crushed peppers with the tip of her finger and then licked her finger. She appeared to like the peppers and poured them all into the big pot full of chunky, creamy and fatty stew. She dumped the last remaining chopped pieces of pumpkin and turnip into the pot and began stirring.
"Now we wait. Thank you all for your help." Suiv announced.
"Happy to have helped." Nofa replied and wiped her juicy fingers into a rag.
She began to unwrap her scarf, and as she was doing that, Yilka rushed over to her to prevent her from doing it. He physically prevented her from unwrapping the scarf fully.
"I think you should keep that on." Yilka told her as politely as he could while being nervous.
"I thought it'd be completely fine to do that here, since all of you already know who I..." Nofa began to say.
"Wicked!" Vaino screamed when he woke up in his rocking chair and saw Nofa and her red hair.
He began to sat up despite it hurting his back, but he felt strongly about this matter.
"Get that wicked woman out of this house!" Vaino screamed some more.
"No, Vaino, I assure you that she's a fine person. Her medicine helped Varma get better and..." Suiv began to explain.
"She's brought ruin into the house now! Get her out!" Vaino demanded angrily.
"She was invited in because of the favour that she did for Varma! You've always taught us to be polite to guests but you can't even be..." Yilka began to defend Nofa's honour.
"I don't need to be polite to a bringer of ruin!" Vaino shouted in response.
The door was opened and then slammed shut. Yilka looked over to the door and saw that Nofa had left the house. Yilka ran out of the house as well and saw Nofa crumbling her scarf into a ball and tossing it to the ground as she was walking towards her home.
"Nofa! Please wait!" Yilka shouted from behind and ran to Nofa.
He caught up with her and walked side by side with her.
"Please understand that my grandfather just is like that. He's the one who put those thoughts in my brother's head as well and he won't answer my questions either. But maybe if he had a conversation with you, even he could change his mind." Yilka bargained.
"He won't listen to anything I say, and I'm glad he won't because I don't want to talk to him, or your brother or just about anyone in this place!" Nofa vented away while Yilka listened.
Nofa picked up speed a little but Yilka also did the same and wouldn't let her get away.
"Can we please just get out of here already? I've never been more ready to leave a place." Nofa begged.
"I don't think you should come with us." Yilka calmly replied.
"And why not?" Nofa asked.
"We'll be making enemies on that journey. And the enemy has numbers and Holy magic on their side, as well as massive man-made things that I can't even begin to understand. It will be a dangerous journey and all we have right now is faith that the little group on our side has a good plan to follow." Yilka explained.
"All the more reason to have someone like me with you then. They have Holy magic, yes? I know how to counter it. I also have a book of Holy spells, even if I don't have the ability to cast them. But I know how to make medicine for wounds, I can make antidotes and poisons, and I can make mixes that can break the mind of your enemy." Nofa made a case for herself.
"I suppose that could be useful. But if you come along, you'd have to get along with my brother." Yilka replied.
"If he's willing to work together with me, I'll work together with him. I don't need to be friends with him. And since he has the Holy people's blessing, he might be able to cast the spells in the book." Nofa argued.
"I still have to ask him if he's fine with you coming along." Yilka said.
"Then ask him. I'm not talking to him." Nofa made clear.
"Actually, I won't ask him. I'll tell him that you are coming with us and he'll have to just allow it." Yilka said and marched on over to the house.
In the house he saw Venamo pouring stew into the bowls around the table where the others were seated.
"You decided to finally join us?" Venamo asked when he looked over at Yilka on the door frame.
"Nofa is coming with us when we leave." Yilka simply stated.
"Why? What is she needed for?" Venamo asked.
"Could you have this conversation while seated?" Suiv suggested.
"Not interested. Only came here to inform Vena what I already said." Yilka said and left the house again.
He was walking back to where Nofa was waiting but Venamo chased after him and stopped him by yanking his arm.
"We already got what we needed from the witch. Why do you want her to come with us?" Venamo asked Yilka impatiently.
"And what if your hand gets wounded again? Neither of us know anything about healing our wounds. She does. She's helpful." Yilka argued.
"And I am not a witch." Nofa interrupted when she joined the two brothers.
"Tell me yourself why do you want to join the mission of me and Yilka." Venamo said to Nofa.
"Because I don't belong here, and if Yilka goes away, then I really have nothing left here. Simple as that." Nofa said and shrugged.
"I do admit that you've been helpful." Venamo admitted.
"I thought so. So let me go pack my things and I'll meet you at the staples. Any objections?" Nofa said.
"I'll still keep a close eye on you." Venamo told her.
"That's fine. I'm sure Yilka will also keep a close eye on me." Nofa said, smirked and walked away.
"What did she mean by that?" Yilka asked with confusion.
"Don't think about that. Now let's go eat our last meal here and then get to the mounts." Venamo suggested.
"Fine. Let's do that." Yilka said.
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Once everybody in the family had filled themselves with stew that had the exciting flavours of exotic peppers, Venamo stood up and cleared his throat.
"Let's not draw this out for too long. Thank you, Suiv for being a good head of the household and a teacher. Varma, go on to be a great archer like your father was. And Vaino, be well. You've earned your days of rest." Venamo wished to everyone.
"He said what I wanted to say. I love you all." Yilka said when he stood.
"We can handle ourselves here. You'll be missed, but I know that you'll come back yet." Suiv wished back.
"Have a... safe journey." Varma said weakly.
"Are you getting hot again? Should you take another mushroom?" Suiv asked Varma with worry.
"I... can't find them in my pockets. I'll go... look for them." Varma said weakly and got up.
"When you boys come back, you'll be heroes that folk will songs about for generations. Go out there and make your destiny." Vaino encouraged the brothers.
"We are not doing it for glory, but for duty. Isn't that right, brother?" Venamo said and gave Yilka a light shove.
"That's right!" Yilka said with confidence.
"Then let's go out there and win!" Venamo said and barged out of the door with Yilka behind him.
"We're going to fight the King's forces and free our brothers!" Yilka shouted into the air as they marched towards the staples.
They went into the staples where Venamo's mount looked up at them as they entered, while Yilka's mount Pfelo was chewing on something. The brothers paid no mind to that. They made sure that all the bags and weapons were hanging properly on the saddles. They heard the door opening again, and in came Nofa with two books hanging by her belt, and behind her Blueberry was carrying a sack that was clanging as it hung in the air.
"I'm all ready. Are you boys ready as well?" She asked as she walked up to them.
"I think we have everything we need." Venamo answered.
"I already made sure earlier that I have everything." Yilka added.
"Why is Pfelo shivering so much. It's not cold in here?" Nofa asked when she saw Yilka's mount shivering and shaking.
"It doesn't usually behave like this. The last thing we need is for it to fall ill now." Venamo said.
Nofa got closer to the mount and put her hand in front of its beak. She felt the animal breathing into her hand.
"His breath is cold. Did you feed him one of the mushrooms? With a breath this cold, it feels like you fed it five." Nofa asked the brothers.
"I certainly haven't." Venamo answered and then looked at Yilka interrogatively.
"No. I haven't fed it anything today. Weren't the mushrooms in Varma's pocket?" Yilka answered and asked.
"But she couldn't find them! They must have fallen out of her pocket here!" Venamo theorised.
"She did hop down from the rafters pretty carelessly after she had been napping there. Easy for them to fall out of her pocket there." Yilka added.
"Oh this is not good. He's in no shape to go out there in this state." Nofa commented.
"And now that the mushrooms have all been gobbled by him, Varma's suffering again too." Venamo added.
"We can't tell Suiv to get some more from Rarhea if we're taking the only mounts. I don't think we have time to waste to go there ourselves either, but we shouldn't just let Varma suffer without help. Ngh. This is the worst thing that could have happened right now." Venamo said with frustration.
"Well, the situation isn't entirely hopeless..." Nofa put out there.
"What are you suggesting?" Yilka asked curiously.
"Well, if Pfelo's body heat is extremely cold, and Varma's is extremely hot, then they could balance their body heats if Varma just stuck herself like glue to Pfelo. But that would mean that she'd have to come with us." Nofa suggested.
"We can't take her on this dangerous journey!" Venamo insisted.
"I don't have any better ideas. And in addition to that, we can get the Rarhean mushrooms without going all the way to Rarhea. In the western edge of Uhmakas by the lake of Kemioe that separates us from the province of Haimana is a port town called Laukiv. I know a pair of traders from there who travel to Rarhea sometimes, so they very likely have the Rarhean mushrooms. From Laukiv we can also sail over the lake and get to Vastusar's territories that way. We wouldn't even have to go to the Wound like you did." Nofa suggested and showed off her knowledge of geography.
"But does the Road of Blood have any presence there?" Venamo wondered.
"The road of what?" Nofa asked.
"It's a group of people who have some plans and we've already won their good graces. I told you about them before." Yilka explained.
"Well, if they're fighting the Crown's forces, figures they'd have presence in a coastal town that has easy access to Vastusar's territories." Nofa reasoned.
"I'm not sure if we should take our chances with that." Venamo said.
"Well, if we go to the Wound, we have no chance of getting the mushrooms. And by sailing into Vastusar we could also take our mounts with us on a boat. They can't crawl under a wall, but they can fit in a big enough boat." Yilka reasoned.
"I suppose it's our best bet to just trust that the Road of Blood has a presence in Laukiv. But even if they do, they can't possibly know that we've completed our task already." Venamo said.
"Then we'll do whatever task they'll give us. It wasn't that hard the last time." Yilka replied.
"Sometimes just having a little faith is the best way to go. So I assume that's our plan." Nofa stated.
"I suppose we have no better ones." Venamo admitted.
After that, they all quietly listened as they heard whispering coming from outside the staples coming closer to them.
"Please be here. Please be here. Please be here..." Varma's weak voice kept repeating as it came closer.
The doors were opened by the girl herself as she kept repeating the words.
"Have you seen the mushrooms anywhere here?" She asked desperately.
"We haven't seen them but we know where they are." Yilka answered.
"Where are they?" Varma asked.
"They're in the belly of this feathery boy here." Yilka answered and lightly tapped the side of his mount.
"What? Do you have any more of them, Nofa? Please tell me you do!" Varma begged.
"I'm afraid I don't, but I'm positive that we'll find them from where we're going. And we think you should come too. For your sake and the steed's sake." Nofa replied.
"Fine. I'll come with you just to get the mushrooms faster!" Varma demanded and jumped on the back of Pfelo with all of her power.
As soon as she was on the animal's back, she let out a sigh of relief. She noticed that the part of her that was making contact with Pfelo felt cooler immediately. She laid down on her back while mounted on Pfelo so that their backs were touching, and noticed that she was already feeling comfortably cool. Pfelo seemed to be more comfortable now too.
"See what I mean?" Nofa said.
"But how am I meant to ride it if Varma is laying on it? I can't fit there now." Yilka pointed out.
"I suppose we could use the mounts to pull the carriage. We have a lot of things with us anyway, and with the carriage I can hold the reins so nobody has to sit on the mounts' backs." Venamo suggested.
"Well, I suppose Suiv won't do anything with the carriage if she doesn't have the mounts." Yilka added.
"Do what you want, but I'm not coming down from here." Varma demanded.
"Well, let's load the carriage then. Road trip!" Nofa exclaimed.
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Outside the house, Venamo held the reins while seated at the head of the carriage, Varma was still on her back on the beakmount and Suiv was caressing the girl's head while standing by the mount.
"Please get her back soon. And if you don't find what you're looking for, bring her back here and I'll go all the way over the mountains to get some mushrooms from Rarhea myself for her." Suiv pleaded to Venamo.
"We'll be as fast as we can, and won't let anything touch her." Venamo promised.
"And I know the way there quite well, and I know the quickest and safest routes." Nofa added from the back of the carriage where she was alone.
"I trust you. Is Yilka coming soon?" Suiv replied and asked.
Right then, the man himself ran out of the house with a tall wooden cup in his hand. He used his other hand to hold a wooden lid to the cup to not make the contents spill over. He stepped into the carriage without using his hands and sat next to Nofa.
"I brought you some as well." He said as he handed the wooden cup to Nofa.
Nofa opened the lid and smelled the stew inside.
"Ah, thank you. I was worried that I wouldn't even get a taste of the stew that I helped with." Nofa said cheerfully.
"I wouldn't allow that. Have a taste." Yilka replied.
Nofa took a sip of the thick stew and then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
"So thick! And Fulfilling! And the peppers give it just a perfect kick too. I need to make this when we come back." Nofa said excitedly.
"Hm. Yes. When." Yilka said a little somberly.
"That's right. When we come back." Nofa reassured.
"That'll be your last warm meal in a while too." Venamo reminded from the head of the carriage.
"Take care, and get going, and keep a constant eye on the most precious cargo." Suiv wished and slapped one of the mounts to get it going.
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As the carriage was already well under way and far away from the home village, some of the people aboard got some questions.
"Are we there yet?" Was the first question, courtesy of Varma.
"Judging by the speed that we're travelling in, I'd say we're there by morning if we don't stop to sleep." Nofa answered faster than anyone else could.
"We have never been this way. I don't know much about this part of the land, I must admit. I don't need sleep, but you all can rest if you need to. I'll stay vigilant for any threats along the way." Venamo added.
"I'll stay awake so we can have more eyes looking out for danger." Yilka proposed.
"I can handle it myself. But I won't force you to sleep." Venamo replied.
"And how is Varma feeling over there?" Nofa asked.
"Comfyyyyyy..." Varma replied in a satisfied manner while rocking up and down on the beakmount's back.
"I should mention that there is a forest between here and Laukiv. I don't know if there are any branch hoppers in that forest, but they should be sleeping at night. So we better reach the forest before morning at least to make it easier for us to pass through. I brought some of that repellent just in case you all need to apply it on yourselves." Nofa told everyone.
"How do you know so much about these lands?" Yilka asked curiously.
"You may not have noticed, but traders occasionally come from far away to trade with me. Through the hole in the door I usually ask what direction they come from and how is the trip from their home to mine." Nofa answered.
"Odd. I've never seen any strange faces going up the hill to your hut." Yilka pointed out.
"Do you pay that close attention to my home?" Nofa asked and smirked suggestively.
"N-no, I mean... when going past it I take a look." Yilka stuttered in an attempt to preserve his dignity.
"Well, they usually come visit in the evening whereas you mostly operate on daytime." Nofa answered.
"You pay that close attention to my movements?" Yilka asked and raised an eyebrow.
"N-no, I mean... hunters like you usually go out during the day because that's when the animals are about. Before I had my repellent I'd often go pick berries and mushrooms at night and I never saw you in the forest at night. Now I prefer to go by day because it's easier to see and thanks to the repellent, I no longer have to worry about the branch hoppers." Nofa explained.
"You had started showing yourself outside even before you had that repellent too. The first time I ever saw you up close was on the edge of the forest during the day. You didn't have any repellent back then." Yilka pointed out.
"That's because I was getting over my fear of daytime. I have some... bad memories of things that happened in the daytime. I feel at home in the night. I still usually stay awake at night and I only go to bed when dawn starts to break." Nofa revealed.
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear about your bad memories." Yilka said.
"Don't worry about it. I don't." Nofa replied.
"I'm glad that you started going out at day." Yilka commented.
"Yes. Me too." Nofa said and the two exchanged looks and smiles.
"Yilka! Check if anything is following us!" Venamo shouted from where he was seated.
"Hm? Oh, of course." Yilka replied.
He looked back at the road behind them. Nothing seemed to be following them.
"Nothing. Just grassland as far as I can see." Yilka informed.
"Keep looking anyway. We can't let our backs be exposed." Venamo requested and adviced.
"What could be following us? Nothing here to hide behind." Yilka asked.
"Some beasts can be sneaky and camouflage themselves." Venamo reminded.
"Which ones?" Nofa wondered out loud.
"All sorts of slithery creatures. I assure you." Venamo replied.
"Fine then. I'll watch." Yilka conceded.
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And so the carriage rode through the dirt roads across the grasslands all through the evening and even the night, much to the fear of everyone. By the time the forest that Nofa mentioned became visible to Venamo, the darkness was already losing its battle against the light of dawn. Venamo decided that it'd be safest for everyone to wake them up before they head to the forest.
"Forest ahead. Start opening your eyes, everyone!" Venamo commanded with authority.
"They've been open the whole time." Yilka said with a weak and tired voice.
"You mean he haven't passed the forest already even though it's getting bright here?" Nofa asked as she was waking up and yawning.
"I'm afraid not. So when we enter, make sure you make noise all the way." Venamo adviced.
"Wait! Before we go there, you should apply the repellent on yourselves just in case." Nofa warned and sprung up to a seated position from the floor of the carriage.
She started digging through her big sack and from somewhere in there she took a glass jar with a lid on it. Venamo stopped the carriage and looked at what Nofa pulled from her sack.
"And that is the repellent?" Venamo asked with suspicion.
"Precisely! To them it smells awful. It works. I've tested it." Nofa told.
"Wearing something like that would only make me complacent. I trust my own method." Venamo stubbornly replied.
"Do as you wish then. How about you, Yilka?" Nofa asked and turned to Yilka.
"Give it to Varma. I'm able to make noise in my state. She may not be." Yilka replied.
"Hmm. I suppose you're right. But I think there is enough for all of you in here." Nofa said.
"It's a big forest. Go ahead and paint Varma's whole tunic with the stuff." Venamo suggested.
"Well, if that's how you feel." Nofa said and stepped down from the stopped carriage.
With the jar in hand she walked over to the front of the carriage where Varma was still asleep on top of the beakmount. Nofa started shaking her awake gently and in a few seconds, Varma was awake.
"Hey. Rub this all over yourself." Were the first words that Nofa said to Varma.
"Huh? What? Why? What is that? Who are... oh it's you. But what is that? And where are we?" Varma blabbered in confusion.
"A forest is up ahead, and that means there'll likely be branch hoppers. Apply this to yourself to avoid them." Nofa explained.
Varma processed what she heard for a moment.
"Sure. I trust you." She said and took the jar that was offered to her.
She hopped down to the ground and opened the jar. She took off the shoulder pad that she uses for archery and the leathery rib armour that she took with her, and shoved her hand in the jar and started painting her brown and short sleeved tunic with the repellent.
"It seems to stick really well." She commented.
"Doesn't it? My entire robe is dyed with it, and you couldn't even tell that it's made of berries." Nofa replied.
"Gives a pretty red colour to me as well." Varma said and tried to apply the repellent to her back.
"Can't reach there?" Nofa asked.
"Not quite." Varma answered.
"Let me help." Nofa said and dipped her own hand in the jar.
She started applying the repellent to Varma's back but quickly realised just how hot Varma's back was to touch.
"Ow! Is your back this hot to you as well?" Nofa asked as she pulled her hand away quickly.
"Every moment that I'm not on the mount. So could you be quick with it?" Varma replied.
"I'll do my best. In the meantime you can hug Pfelo... I mean the mount." Nofa adviced.
Varma did as instructed, which helped a little, but not as much as keeping her back on the shivering animal. Nofa applied the repellent to the rest of Varma's back, giving her full tunic a red dye.
"There!" Nofa exclaimed when she was done.
"Will it stick to the feathers of the beakmounts if hop on now?" Varma asked
"It shouldn't. It dries really quickly." Nofa answered.
"Great." Varma simply said and hopped back on the mount where she laid on her back.
"Now we both have the same pretty red dye!" Nofa exclaimed and clapped happily.
"Nice." Varma said, feeling tired but comfortable now that she was cooling off again.
"Hey, Yilka. Do we look cute like this?" Nofa asked excitedly and looked towards Yilka who was still in the carriage.
"Very much so." Yilka answered from up there.
"Don't ever call me cute." Varma warned.
"It wasn't directed at you." Yilka said to Varma.
"Rude!" Varma replied.
"I think she's cute." Nofa said and put her hand on Varma's hair.
Varma looked satisfied and flattered.
"Now that you're done with that, get back in the carriage and make as much noise as you can." Venamo ordered.
"Ah. Yes. Of course." Nofa said and climbed back into the carriage after picking up Varma's dropped items.
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