"Hey! HEY!"
Someone was shaking her. Gehnn bolted up, her head hitting something hard.
"Ow! Hey!"
The tattooed girl - Yul Blunt - reeled back, hands covering her lip.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean..." Gehnn leaned forward, extending her hand uncertainly. "Is....Are you okay?"
"Yeah...no worries." Blunt took a deep breath, and let it out again. "Oh, lordy....Wow. Sure gave you a fright, huh?"
"Y-yeah." Gehnn laughed nervously. She realized that her heart was pounding. She sat back, breathing slowly, trying to calm her jitters.
"Sorry for waking you," Blunt said finally, rubbing her nose gingerly. "But Tummett is handing out breakfast and I figured you might want some."
"Uh....yeah." Gehnn swallowed, her heart slowly resuming its normal pace. "Yeah. That sounds good. Where is it at?"
"He's up at the head." Blunt jerked a thumb in the direction of the shellback's head, where the shellback driver usually sat (although it looked like these particular beasts were so docile that they hardly needed a driver). Tummett was indeed sitting there, handing out bundles of what appeared to be bread and some sort of spread in a little wooden bowl, with a bottle of water.
Gehnn crawled up to him, reaching out to take her own ration. Her hands shook as she took the bundle, and Tummett raised an eyebrow. "You okay?" he asked.
"Yes." Gehnn said. "I'm fine."
"You sure? Not getting sick with the shellbacks swaying or anything?"
"No." Gehnn said firmly. "I'm fine. Really."
"M'kay." Tummet shrugged. "If you say so."
He turned to tend to the other workers asking for food. Gehnn crawled back to her space, clutching her food to her chest. Crossing her legs and sitting back, she then spread it out before her, taking stock. Yep, bread, water, and some kind of black jelly. She dipped her finger in the little wooden bowl, giving it a taste. The rich, sharp taste of ridgeapples spread through her mouth.
She swallowed, feeling a sharp pang of homesickness. Shoving it to the back of her mind, she poured the jelly over her bread, and took a large bite. It tasted pretty good, anyway, and felt like it would keep through until supper, the only other meal they would be eating today.
"Don't know about this stuff," Blunt said, in her smooth drawl. Gehnn looked up, startled to see the girl sitting next to her. She was looking at her bowl of jelly, wrinkling her nose. Her gold nose ring glittered in the sunlight, and Gehnn couldn't help but wonder how she handled it when she sneezed. "I never liked desert fruit all that much. Never ate much of it, of course, but still."
"Hm." Gehnn focused on eating her own meal, trying to ignore her companion.
"But I guess food is food." Blunt sighed. "Be a shame to waste it." She tipped the bowl over her bread, and then set about spreading it with her finger. She did it with almost comical preciseness, painstakingly spreading the goop right to the crust, shaping it into an artful swirl. Gehnn couldn't help but glance over, wondering just what on earth gave a person cause to be so prissy with their food. Food was fuel, not meant to be pretty. What was the point in making it look nice?
With her spreading completed to her satisfaction, Blunt took a small, careful bite. She gagged, causing Gehnn to scoot away a few inches. She seemed determined to keep it down, though, and forced herself to swallow.
"Oh....lordy." she gasped. She looked down at her bitten bread, and grimaced. "I hate sweet stuff." She looked at Gehnn, and held out the bread. "Sorry. I can't do it. You want it?"
Gehnn, startled, replied before she could think about it. "Ah....s-sure."
Blunt shoved the bread into her hands, and then set about taking large gulps of water from her bottle, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.
Gehnn edged away from her, turning so that she didn't face her. This girl was a little too talkative for her comfort.
Right then, however, she caught sight of something that made her completely forget all about Yul Blunt.
A man sat at the driver's saddle, beside Tummet.
It was the man from the night before - the one with the wide brimmed hat and goggles. The one who clicked when he walked, from the metal on his boots.
Gehnn's chest went cold. Instinctively, she checked her wrappings, fingers searching frantically for the reassuring feel of soft cloth over her face.
The man didn't seem to take any notice of her, however. He was deeply engrossed in a conversation with the caravan master, face unreadable underneath the hat and goggles. Tummett looked very wary. He did not meet the man's eye as they spoke, and seemed to be taking very great care not to sit too close to him.
"A Rem."
Gehnn jerked her head around, seeing that it was Blunt who had spoken. She was watching the exchange at the driver's saddle with a grave expression, holding her empty bottle idly in one hand.
"Wh-what?" Gehnn stammered.
"Rems. You know. People from that place....Asor-something. It's a long fancy kind of name. I can't for the life of me remember all of it." Blunt tapped the bottle against her knee, still watching. "You never heard of them?"
Gehnn shivered. "S-sort of. My parents...." she halted, and then blundered on. "They're traders. They....they know a few of 'em. They don't like talking about them much."
"No one does." Blunt rubbed her lip with the bottle's mouth, looking thoughtful. "Kind of wierd Tummet'd have one along. Didn't see him yesterday, at the port....must've either come on after that, or was hired before us 'n Tummet didn't want to tell. I don't blame him, I guess." Blunt let out a sigh, making a low moaning sound with the bottle.
Gehnn tugged on her hood, not sure what to say. Or think.
The Rem had seen her the night before. He knew what she was hiding. He could tell Tummett, and then she'd be left as fodder for the skin-hounds -
-No. Wait.
She had to be calm down. Panicking would only make things worse.
The man. Would he tell? What reason would he have to tell? That was the big question. Had he even seen her face? She was pretty far up, and it had been dark. It would be hard to make out anything.
The memory of those red-lensed goggles pervaded her thoughts. They had almost seemed to glow faintly in the dark. Maybe they could see everything, dark or no. Maybe....maybe....
Tummett was coming down to the main saddle, looking very tired.
"All right, I got something to say."
All eyes turned to him, alert. There was something about his tone that made them all suspicious.
"This man, here - " Tummett gestured behind him. The Rem stood at the saddle's edge, hands tucked into the pockets of his surcoat. It was then that Gehnn realized that the shellback had stopped moving. "-he's a Shielder. He was passing us by this past morning and took the trouble to stop and give me a warning. Apparently...." Tummett paused, taking a deep breath. "Apparently, there's some bandit trouble up on the trail we're using. And it's fierce. We got some protection, but it wouldn't be enough. So..." he cleared his throat, looking very uncomfortable. "We're going to have to take a different trail. Through Glamus."
The reaction was instantaneous.
Everyone groaned, shouted, complained, whined. It had Gehnn mystified.
"Glamus is a dirt town," Blunt said.
Gehnn jumped. The girl was sitting right next to her, almost shoulder to shoulder. When had she gotten herself there?
"Too small for any real business, and it also means that we add a few more days to our journey."
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