Journey of the Messenger Cycle 1 Part 5c
Odeena turned out to be a rather charming and well spoken woman. She was surprisingly well educated and broadly travelled despite only being a couple years older than Berri. She knew plenty of stories; mythic, ancient, historic and more modern tales. Her repertoire of songs was expansive. She favoured the lute but was comfortable with most other instruments. She loved languages, was fascinated by all the variations of Andalee and intended to write on the subject at some point in the future. She was conversant in the four major languages of the northern continent and could read Andalee and Maldorn.
More pertinently to Ijah’s circumstances Odeena knew the local region. She knew the South Valley, well enough that she was able to lead them from one point to another along lesser trails that cut southward more directly than the meandering Valley Road. She also knew of a family not far from the Old Trade Road, who for a very reasonable sum would be willing to supply travellers with enough food for the journey to the Republic of Caffern.
Ijah also found the woman appealing for other reasons. Her open smile was contagious, Ijah had been in a much fairer mood since Odeena had joined them. She had beautifully long, curly brown hair, intense green eyes and a healthy shapeliness that haunted Ijah’s dreams. Her long fingered, agile hands were seemingly capable and confident with any task. Ijah was sure that her wives would approve of such a woman. Certainly Odeena was the sort of woman that the Kereshi were looking to enlist to their cause.
Fair-weathered evenings were more pleasant now than they had been. Odeena played the lute and sang for a while once they had their camp set up. The music had a calming affect on Berri who often fell asleep while listening to her play.
Berri was certainly happy to be travelling in her company. Odeena listened to Berri and seemed to follow her disjointed stories easily enough. Oddly Berri had become more concerned with her physical appearance and cleanliness, though Ijah was not sure that Berri was cognizant about that change in herself.
Osran however was less enthusiastic about their new travel companion. For the first few days she was quiet, sullen and short tempered. She hardly interacted with Odeena, instead she hung back and kept a careful watch on the minstrel. Her brief interactions were limited to pointedly, but not verbally, suggesting Odeena make herself useful. Once they were back on the road Osran dropped a portion of the group’s supplies at the woman’s feet each morning. In the evening she gathered what needed to be cleaned and put it beside Odeena.
For her part, Odeena did not seem to be too concerned about Osran, nor did she mind doing chores or carrying the supplies.
On their fourth day on the road, Osran started bodily getting in her way, brushing past her and even pushed her aside at one point when they had been crossing a stony stream.
As this all played out, Ijah observed the interactions and watched Berri’s awareness and reaction to the ongoing situation. The girl had not liked what she had been seeing from Osran as they travelled through the valley. She had fretted about the situation but had initially left the two of them to sort out their differences. After Odeena nearly fell while crossing the stream, Berri had spoken up, “Osran! What’s wrong with you?”
The half-orc stopped walking, she turned around, her teeth were showing more than usual and there was an angry glint in her eyes. She glared at Berri but did not respond. Berri did not appear to be overly intimidated, though Ijah wondered if the girl truly realized how dangerous the situation had become. Berri marched up to Osran, “Do you have something to say?”
Osran continued to glare.
Berri tilted her head slightly to one side, placing her hands on her hips. The two of them remained that way for a long moment, Berri was the first to speak, “You’re being a bully.”
Osran’s brow creased slightly, “What, bull?”
“You’re being mean. Cruel. Hurtful. What if she had dropped her lute? What if she had fallen and broken an arm or leg?”
Osran snarled and shouted at Berri, even though they stood less than a pace apart, “Why you like her so much!?”
Berri took a moment to wipe a hand across her face, then she calmly replied, “Well, she’s nice and well mannered for one thing. She’s also a story teller and a musician, damn near a bard from what I can tell. Most importantly, she’s helping us. When a person is helping you, you treat them with respect.”
Osran relaxed a bit as she tried to sort out what Berri said, “I help you.”
“And we help you.”
Osran looked over to Ijah and the minstrel then back to Berri, “Okay, I know not bard is. But, not hurt little song bird girl. She help, we all help.” She gave a shrug, turned and walked off, generally southward.
Berri huffed, exasperated. She took the extra gear that Odeena had been carrying, “Sorry about that. She’s only recently left the wasteland tribe she once belonged to.”
“Thank you. I don’t mind carrying that.”
“I know, but Horse is better at carrying stuff than the rest of us.” She secured the gear and took the lead in hand, then she followed after Osran.
Ijah and Odeena walked along side by side for the rest of the day. They said little to each other, the minstrel was obviously in a reflective mood. Ijah thought that Berri had handled the situation fairly well, she expected that there would be further issues with Osran. She weighed the pros and cons about keeping the half-orc in their company but had come to no conclusions by the time the sun was sinking behind the hills to the west.
It was late the next afternoon when they reached the homestead that Odeena believed would be able to supply them with food for the next part of their journey. The hills this far south were much smaller than throughout the rest of Madden and the property appeared prosperous, even from a distance.
The homestead was expansive, a bit over a suri from the central area, where they saw three houses, a tall windmill, a large barn, and numerous smaller buildings. Around the living area was a ring of crop fields and pastures of a size one would expect from a prosperous homestead. Additionally there was a second ring of fields and orchards, these being twice the size of those closer to the central area. There were only a handful of buildings in the outer fields and a couple of observation platforms. Raised lanes lead towards the houses but did not lead directly to the centre, the outer radial lanes were offset from the inner radial lanes by about twenty degrees. Walls of mortared stone lined the approaches and divided the fields, as well there was an outer, middle and inner perimeter wall, each successively higher. The property also had a network of ditches and catch basins that were obviously part of a water manage system.
A lone crow landed in a nearby field and watched them pass.
Their approach had been noticed and by the time they had walked up the first lane towards the second perimeter wall, seven of the homesteaders with three dogs had converged towards them. They had waved and smiled as they closed the distance towards their visitors. A lad, a few years from adulthood was the first to reach them, though he hung back with two of the dogs until some of the others joined them. Ijah noted that someone was up on the closest lookout platform and she held a strung bow, though no arrow had been drawn. Interestingly about half the people she saw displayed traits of being orc-blooded. Not half-orc by the look of it, perhaps a crossing of the bloodline from a generation or two earlier.
One of the older men stepped forward, “Welcome strangers. What brings you to the Treppon Homestead?”
Osran regarded them with open curiosity, Odeena stepped forward, “Laf, you’re looking fit, your leg seems to have healed well. Mikkar, you’ve grown considerably since I last saw you two years ago.”
“Odeena!” One of them exclaimed. Then the youth turned and shouted up to the person with the bow, “It’s Odeena!”
They were obviously well disposed towards the minstrel, hugs and friendly hand clasps were given, introductions were made. Four of the locals walked them up to the central area of the property where a score or so of people had gathered to see who had come to visit. Again there were happy exclamations when they realized it was Odeena and another round of introductions took place. Of these people, close to half of them showed some orcish ancestry. None of them were put off by Osran’s presence, if anything they were as curious about the half-orc as she was about them. Ijah observed all this with great interest.
It took the rest of the afternoon before most of the locals had been introduced, there were a lot of children, at least four of which had been born since Odeena’s last visit. Ijah noted that there were at least three of the women who were presently pregnant. It was difficult to get an accurate count of how many people actually lived here, Ijah guessed there was at least two score. She and her companions were made welcome and given seats at a long outdoor table, as the sun was setting food was brought over from the nearby kitchens. Torches were lit, placed around the yard and sizable fires burned in pits near either end of the table.
They feasted, then those with any sort of musical inclination produced instruments. There was music, dancing and story telling. Ijah enjoyed herself immensely.
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