24 The Escape

  The old man stood in the middle of the street, leaning on his cane, looking up and down the village. It wasn't much, but it was home to Abba-Avi. Abba-Avi was the closest thing this place had to a leader. The village had long ago lost its identity, but the people here kept going, kept trying to find a way to live, love, and find joy.

  That winter a few years back, the memory caused Abba-Avi to shiver when so many had died and so much had changed, but Abba-Avi shook off the memory and nodded, “We're doing better now.”

  He considered the day. It had been an eventful day for this village, but not in a bad way. Though their lord had sent Captain Shedim and his men, they had only taken the supplies they were scheduled to pick up and had left early and didn’t take anyone. The village wouldn't see the soldiers or the lord’s steward for at least a week. Hopefully, they held the Creator’s favor and wouldn’t see them for at least two or three weeks. The merchant/tinker had just been through and had made a few trades, and everyone, even the tinker, was happy.

  Abba-Avi considered the tinker. Dov was a good man. A little odd, especially since, to Abba-Avi’s estimation, he always lost on the trades he made yet seemed happy with them. The merchant/tinker’s disfigurements, at first alarming, made him relatable. He was a man who had suffered as many in this village. This was probably why the people of the village accepted him when he first came through this area. The few other tinkers or merchants who came to the village were so ignored by the villagers that they soon left. Abba-Avi couldn’t imagine how the tinker made much of a living, but then, if you could survive and could find some joy, one didn’t need much more.

  Thinking of having enough caused him to sigh. He couldn’t just stand here looking around. He started to walk toward his home. It had felt empty since the loss of his wife and youngest daughter, but he had accepted that. At least he told himself that.

  A couple of young children ran in front of him, yelling, “Hello Abba-Avi”

  He smiled. Yes, there were new ones now, and they were all under 5 years old. Most of the children and elderly did not survive when the tragedy came. After the plague was over, many of their young people were taken to fill the positions that were empty in the lord's household. Abba-Avi didn’t want to think of whatever other reason the Lord had for taking people. That was not my problem, not today. He told himself.

  In the meantime, he told himself, I have a farm, a garden to take care of, if I don’t want to starve.

  So, he went over, walked around the outside of his house, and grabbed his basket, determined to pick some fruits and vegetables before the day passed. Yes, today would be like any other day, and he looked up and prayed. “I wouldn’t mind a little excitement, Creator,” but looking down at his body and feeling the aches in his joints looked up and added, “But not too much.”

  It was then he saw it. A large bird or. No, no, he told himself. My old eyes must be fooling me because that couldn't be a dragon, could it? Then he saw it clearly for only a moment. Abba-Avi turned his eyes back to tending his garden. Yes, life was steady now. Yet a smile crossed his lips; he had seen a dragon.

  Meanwhile, Sara followed the stream for what felt like hours and was wondering if she was ever going to get anywhere. She had begun to notice the trees around her. They seemed to be of the same variety she knew; they looked like the trees from Rishona. Yet she wouldn't swear she was in her home country. For as far as that went, she thought she might be in the old country, but she pushed that from her mind. That thought was more horrible than being taken to a continent she hadn’t heard of.

  Sara slowed a little and thought about how, since her parents’ deaths she had not spent any time outside the castle walls, that was before her kidnapping. Until David taught her, she could not have survived out here, let alone walked as far or as long as she had on a flat road, let alone in the forest.

  When it was early afternoon, she decided to sit down and have a drink. She looked into her pack and found a water skin. She didn't remember putting it in there, but she was glad. She could have kicked herself for forgetting that, but remembered David was fooling with the pack before she put it on to go. He must have placed it there when he stuffed the bag that she had to gather the mushrooms.

  “What is going on? He must want me to escape!” Sara said, thinking about all David had done to prepare her. It seemed now he wanted her to escape. The very fact that he pointed out the direction of this town she was trying to get to made her think that there was something more going on. Maybe he was just as much a slave as she had been.

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  Now, she started to feel guilty, wondering if there was a way she could go back and rescue David. That thought made her laugh. I couldn't beat David in a fight. How could I ever take on Draco?

  “If I made it back to my kingdom. I might find the resources,” she said. The problem was she didn't know how she could get the lords to agree to go after a dragon, but Mistress Carmarthen often said, there is always a way.

  She considered for a moment. Yes, there was one way. In the past, cities that had been plagued by alicorns or flying horses had offered the elder's or lord's daughter as a possible mate to the one who would be willing to go out and deal with the plague. The daughters could refuse, of course, and at least one had, but the rest of the time it had been done; she had never read that a daughter refused.

  It seemed unimaginable that she could convince anyone to want to go after a dragon. After all, dragons were the symbol of good and decency. Anyone wanting to kill a dragon would be the greatest villain. It was inconceivable that a dragon could be bad; it would have been in Sara's mind before her experience with Draco. Even now, knowing all the stories about good dragons, she had a hard time fully believing it. But she had seen it. She had experienced it. Draco was as bad as the worst lord in her kingdom. He was as bad as any person she'd ever met.

  Maybe he was good at one time, but then she thought, could dragons fall? Could dragons choose to quit following the creator? It was a radical thought. But, then again, if the legends were true, the flying horses and the alicorns once served the creator. And no one, no one ever wanted to see one of those creatures. Even now in the middle of the day, thinking about them caused her to shiver.

  She tried to shove the image of those creatures out of her mind. Hearing nothing, she looked around for them, and on seeing no sign of evil beings, she walked faster.

  She focused again on David’s plight and the thoughts of four-footed feigns left her mind. She had to find a way. She had to find a way to rescue David. Then she laughed, "You're getting ahead of yourself, Sara. You're not even to the village yet, and who knows how far from Rishona, let alone Castle Degal."

  Sara stopped and found a place to sit down. She decided to take a small break. The thoughts of all that had happened today, this week, the last few months that had passed, filled her mind, and she wanted to share them with someone. She would be glad to find someone to be her friend. Someone to stand beside her. Now she realized David had been her friend in his own way. She had to find a way to help him.

  After a bit of a rest, Sara got up and started moving through the woods again. The stream was at her left, and she walked along, hoping to find some sign of people. The forest seems to be getting a little thinner, she thought.

  She saw evidence that trees had been cut down, and further ahead, she saw it. Something wider ahead off either side of the stream. As she got closer, she could hear the rippling water. Taking another step, she saw that though the water looked deeper where she was, in the direction she was heading, the water was shallower. She hoped against hope that she was getting close to a road that forded the stream.

  Sara pushed through the last brush that was in the way and walked onto a narrow dirt road. The road moved sort of northeast to southwest, and she knew, or at least she guessed, this would take her to the place she wanted to go.

  After meeting the thief in the valley, she wasn't going to take a chance. Sara double-checked her supplies were secure, and her staff was ready. Everything was in position. She knew there were bad people in the world. She knew that she might run across someone even here, even now. But hope filled her as she began to move in that southerly direction toward the village she had seen, toward the direction that David had told her she shouldn't go. At least with his words, but with his actions, he had said this is the way.

  Sara walked along for about ten minutes when she saw a man with a cart coming her direction. The man pulling the cart, and from what she could see, the man was probably a tinkerer. He was a strange-looking man, maybe six feet tall. And his skin looked strange. He wore a long cloak and a hood, making it hard to see his face. His hands were puffy and wrinkled; if at one time he had been a very fat man, and having lost the fat, his skin just sagged across his body.

  As she walked closer, the man looked up and said, "Hello there, child!" in a voice so deep that it reverberated through the air like a drum. The voice didn't match the man. The voice carried with it a sound of nobility and strength, and yet this man did not look like he was that strong, but Sara corrected her assessment as he was pulling a large cart.

  As Sara grew closer, the man said, "It is dangerous for a young lady to be walking in this area of the woods or along this road. May I ask what you are doing here, girl?"

  Sara stopped about 20 feet away and said, "I'm trying to find a place of safety." She debated whether to tell the truth or not and decided now was as good a time as any. She said, "I was kidnapped and I've just found a way to escape."

  “Oh, and who kidnapped you, and who is your family that they refused to pay the ransom?”

  “No ransom was offered. I was taken by a” Sara paused and then guessed the truth was the best choice. “A dragon kidnapped me and made me his slave.”

  The man looked up and said, "Oh! A dragon!” Clearly not believing.

  “Yes,” Sara insisted, “A dragon and a giant."

  The man laughed, "Child, I would not repeat that story; if people believed you, they might think you were the monster and the dragon was saving other people from you.”

  Sara stared. She never considered that someone might think she was the problem, especially since she was the one kidnapped.