And then there were Two

As I rose and dusted myself off, I heard the gentle nicker of a horse. Stricken I whirled towards it to find peering at me from the shrubbery of the tree line was the rider and horse from the night before. I had been so intent on watching the riders inside The Green Bucket and their leaving along the stream, I had not thought to look elsewhere. I was both alarmed and relieved simultaneously to see it was merely the young rider from the night before. Surely, if this person had hidden from the other riders as well, then I had nothing to fear. Did I?

Tying the dark horse to branches, the rider eased towards me. I was at the ready to bolt if need be but stood fast as the person advanced. When we were close enough together to see each other's facial features, both our eyes widened in surprise. We each found ourselves staring into a mirror image of the other.

"Woah!" was all I could manage.

"Hi, I'm Laurel. And you are?" the rider extended a hand.

Part of me felt panicky about providing my name. Mother had always simply called me "child" as though my name were not something to share. And yet I knew my name. "I'm Glory." I kept my hands holding tightly to my pack slung over my shoulder just in case. If I needed to run, I didn't want it to be something Laurel could grab hold of to stop me nor to be able to gain enough purchase to take it from me. These meager supplies were all I had.

"Are you going in? Or staying out here?" Laurel shoved past me headed to the door.

"In." I scrambled after her. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I..."

"Don't know who to trust? Yeah, I get it." Laurel was everything I wasn't. She was bold and brash and had a sense of purpose.

Scurrying along behind her, we went inside. Laurel took a seat at a table that allowed a good view of all the windows. We could see the tree line where she had left her horse although the horse was not readily visible. I would not have been aware the horse was there had I not already known it.

The Inn Keeper was a burly man, chewing something that reminded me of a cow and its cud. He took an order from Laurel and turned to me. "And you? What'll you have?"

"Um, water please. And umm, umm." I wasn't sure how to ask.

"Spit it out, lass. It'll be alright. If I don't have it, I'll tell ya."

"A packet for me. Do you have one?"

The Inn Keeper's brows furrowed. He looked from me to Laurel and back to me. Suddenly, he grabbled my arm, turned my hand over and spit into my palm. And there it was. An odd mark that rose in the palm of my hand only briefly and then faded away.

He let me loose and said simply, "Yeah, I got one." And went through a curtain and what sounded like down some stairs.

Laurel looked at me. "Discommodious Being?"

"I... I don't know what that means." I remembered hearing one of the riders say it with disdain as they rode away earlier.

Coming back up the stairs, the Inn Keeper popped through the curtain bearing two packages. He handed one package to me that bore my name "Glory". He turned to Laurel, "I'm guessing this one is yours by the looks of ya being a twin image of that one. But tell me your name and show me your palm."

"Laurel." And holding out her palm, the Inn Keeper chewed vigorously and once again spat in Laurel's palm. An odd mark much like my own briefly rose and disappeared.

Handing over the package, "Here ya' go. Take your meal and go. Head East through the hills. The tree line will lead you. Don't stop. Two days is all you got to get there."

"Get where?" I was befuddled. I hadn't even been given my water or viewed my package but already, I was expected to embark on a new leg of my journey. And yet, that was exactly as Mother had told me. Slightly different than I had thought but still the same as she had told me.

Travel to the cabin, watch for The Green Bucket. Take the packet from The Green Bucket and continue running.

"Come on, let's go." Laurel rose and grabbed my hand. "Shade can carry us both. We need to get going."

As we walked out the door, the Inn Keeper's wife handed us each a food bundle. "Thank you ma'am."

"Nothing to it child." She touched each of our cheeks softly and whispered an odd phrase I had heard my mother whisper sometimes. "Oct ack bleh juw de sep trazon." I flushed and felt more energy and a calmness and boldness I had not felt before.

"Sep trey blu faw." I returned. I knew her words were a blessing and that my response was a thank you. But the precise meaning or what language the words, I did not know.

"Be safe child." The woman smiled and we scurried to the tree line to mount Shade and be on our way.

Shade swiftly and quietly wound his way along the tree line headed east. It seemed odd to no longer be traveling along the stream. With four riders headed north along the stream though, it was good to be putting distance in a different direction.

My curiosity was burning to open the packet and see what Mother had left for me. And I was most curious as to what Laurel had in her packet. Why did she get one too? Who was she? Why did we look like two peas from the same pod? Were we kin? Mother never talked about my birth and I could not remember life at a very young age. There had never been a father for me nor a friend. We always lived on the fringe of a town or village and moved every spring. This time with Mother ailing, we had stayed through a second spring and into the fall. Was that why this was happening? We had stayed in place too long? Long enough for mother to hack a tunnel through a thicket for me to escape? That had a curiously smooth floor as though no tickets had ever taken root on the path that wound its way through it. I shook my head to rid me of the cobwebs of my thoughts.

"Laurel, I'd like to open my packet. Can we stop for just that long?"

Twisting to look at me, she shrugged. "Can do. I kinda' want to see what's in my packet too. Just we can't stop long. "

Taking the packet from my shirt where I had tucked it away for safe keeping, I tugged at the string that bound it. A slight hiss occurred and then it reddened and fell away as ash. Startled, I jumped back.

"You really don't know, do you?" Laurel asked.

"Know what?" I kept looking at the packet warily, not certain what to expect from it next.

"That you're a Discommodious Being. Like me..." Laurel placed her hand on her packet and the string hissed, reddened, fell away to ash and the paper flashed blue and vanished.

Watching, I gingerly reached my hand to my packet where I had let it fall to the ground, placed my hand over it, and my paper flashed blue and vanished. My palm tingled with a warm pulsing feeling I had not felt before. Looking into it, I saw that the mark was fading away.

The packet seemed to contain a letter written in a language that I didn't recognize. In fact, I knew very little about reading or writing. Mother had said it would never be an issue for me. I trusted Mother. But now I wished that I had insisted on learning.

Watching me, Laurel laughed. "Your ... Mother ... didn't teach you anything about who you were? About who WE are? WE, you and I, are Discommodious Beings."

"How do you know anything about my Mother? Or me? And why do you think you know me? Or that you and I are a WE?" For the first time since Mother died, I felt tears coming on. I had been so busy journeying to The Green Bucket to retrieve a packet I didn't know the contents of, running from a "They" undefined, that I had not yet cried for the loss of my Mother.

Lauren unfolded her letter. In it's folds was a strangely shaped key.

I stared at her awaiting an answer, but she gave none as she focused solely on the contents of her packet.

My letter had an odd coin with a hole in the middle on a string. And a white feather. Such odd things.

"Use your hand. Go, on, waive it over the letter, then hold onto it. You will hear it then." Lauren offered as she sat holding her letter.

Following her instructions, I heard Mother's voice begin to speak to me.

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Part 3 - coming soon

Part 1 here: