HOME | DD

Description
“Here ya are, yer clothes should be kinda dry now.” Wyatt tossed over my now-only-damp prison uniform towards me as he put his back on. “Wish this thing came in another color huh? Stick out like a sore thumb in this obnoxious orange n’ what have ya…”

I reached out from behind the rock I sat behind and pulled my jumpsuit back on. If we’d left them on all night after being tossed around in the ocean, we would have froze to death. Luckily for me, or either of us really, Wyatt did have some common sense and know how after all.

We found a small cave to take refuge in on the side of the cliff walls that lined the shore. The wind wasn’t blowing around wildly on us in here, so the small fire he managed to scrap together exuded SOME heat. Not nearly enough to be comfortable, but enough to penetrate the mind-numbingly cold air.

Once I felt less embarrassed, I crept back out into the open and scooted closer towards the tiny flames. The soaked wood and twigs weren’t burning so well, not even the scraps of fabric he’d managed to find were holding onto the fire.

I brought my knees up and hugged them, trying to keep warm.

“Why’d you take me out of prison, where are we going to go now?”

Wyatt turned his head for a moment to look back towards the mouth of the cave. “Felt like it.”

I couldn’t help but give some kind of snort in disbelief. “No, what do you want? I don’t have anything with me, no money, nothing of the sort, nothing of value.” The northerner HAD to have wanted something. I had nothing to give him.

“Don’t want anythin’. Ya ain’t bad. Don’t make me regret it though, priest.”

“Why do you say ‘priest’ like that?” To me it sounded like he was trying to say a foreign word in his own language. Like it was unfamiliar, or that it had some kind of slightly bitter taste to it.

He reached around to rub the back of his neck with his big hand. “Just ain’t used to th’ word is all. We don’ call’em ‘priests’ up here. That’s a southerner term.” Slowly he sat down, giving a groan. His bones probably ached as much as mine.

I shifted slightly, hugging my knees tighter. “So what do you call them then?”

“Reverend. Think that name suits ya better to be honest. Anyway, to answer th’ first part o’ your question, I brought ya out because I wanted to. Ain’t nothin’ more to tell about that one.”

It was only through that bit that I could assume he either felt sorry for me, or that he was lying.

“Now then, to answer the SECOND part o’ it, yes I do happen t’know where we are. If we continue along east and follow the cliffs some more; we’ll end up in the woods, Blackwald to be exact.

“Blackwald? Well…so long as you don’t get us lost… Are we going to head to Stranburg after that? I think that town is close by, right?”

Wyatt rubbed at his nose and stared at the fire, eyes half lidded. “…Dunno, maybe. That town’s occupied by the southern provinces. We’re wanted criminals technically, so they’ll arrest us on th’ spot. Not exactly my idea of a welcomin’ place. All I know is we should get movin’ now. I don’t have any doubts there’ll be dogs out lookin’ for us, if there aren’t already. Dogs and their huntin’ hounds.” Suddenly he stood up again and began to kick wet sand over the fire, snuffing it out.

“Dogs and their- what?? What are you talking about?” I followed him outside, still shivering and rubbing my upper arms furiously. The wind was so strong, and the air smelled very salty.

“Soldiers.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded. “S-soldiers? But…but why would soldiers- why would they come all the way out here just to recapture a pair of prisoners? They’re the MILITARY, the south don’t need the MILITARY stationed here in the north, they need them to the WEST to repel the invaders from Zmeya-”

“Cuz they’re gone in the head is why. The south’s got a WHOLE other country attackin’ them and they choose ta waste their time up here, STILL, just like they always have fer centuries and as long as anyone can remember. C’mon now, let’s see how far we can get before the weather gets too bad.”

The clouds in the sky looked very dark, giving the impression that it was going to rain sometime later, perhaps even sooner than that. Snow flaked the rocky shore, but it wasn’t anything deep like the island; I could walk well enough on my own for now. The farther we walked however, the more the ice began to thicken as the land became an incline. We were knee-deep in snow fairly quickly.

I thought about almost everything one could think of as I followed the northerner. “What’ll we eat? Where will we sleep? This- We can’t just go OUT there willy-nilly and expect everything to turn out, Wyatt-”

“We can, we will. Don’t got a choice unless ya wanna be torn up n’ spat out like a dog chew, hmm?”

“But going out against the elements without even being REMOTELY PREPARED ISN’T-” The more I protested, the less he listened to me, and despite all I continued to follow him into the woods. Once I started to hear the distant howls of wolves, I kept my mouth shut.

There were so many sounds floating around. The dark, tall, snow-covered pine trees rustled loudly against the winds, something I hadn’t quite expected. A strange whistling sound accompanied everything, but I could only assume that was a result of the gusts blowing through the enormous mountains themselves. Blues, dark greens, greys and a lot of white and black remained the most dominant colors here.

The birds chirped without a care in the world, and every now and again I saw a few squirrels dart past and into the brush. Each time I thought I was about to get comfortable, there would be yet another far away series of howls.

“D…do wolves live out here?” I hurried along so that I was walking beside Wyatt now rather than behind him where he couldn’t see me.

He smirked and raised a brow, “Well, ya hear them don’tcha?”

“Yes, I do, but will they BOTHER us is MY concern.” It had to have been well below freezing temperatures out here. Still, I felt as though I were starting to break out into a sweat from fear alone.

“They won’t bother us none, but if it were you alone, probably. Good thing yer with me huh?”

I frowned, he laughed.

About ten yards away from us, out crawled a huge black mass from the bushes. We both stopped, even the northerner appeared tense, but not panicked like I was.

It was a wolf with fur as dark as night, and it was staring right at us with its beastly yellow eyes. That thing had to be about as tall as I was, on all fours. I’d never seen one so big. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as it slowly continued on its way, not even batting an eye at the two of us.

Wyatt swallowed hard. I could see the lump going down his throat. “…We better keep movin’.”

“It’s not going to follow us is it? Oh, God-”

“No. It won’t. Not in the way yer thinkin’.”

“What do you mean?” I could hear a new sound the deeper we went into the forest. It almost sounded like water, maybe there was a river nearby.

“Black wolves are omens. Means Death is on the hunt. The river’s up ahead, we can climb down from there, we’re on a really big hill right now.”

“Are all the wolves around here as big as people??”

“Yep.”

We passed a few more clusters of pines before finally coming towards the river I had heard before. It wasn’t very wide or deep, and the foamy waters weren’t rushing along like I had expected them to be judging from how loud it was here. The sounds echoed around rather easily in a place like this.

Wyatt sighed, stretching his legs and his arms. “Getting’ tired yet? We could stop fer a break.”

The air was starting to burn when I breathed in. My legs felt shaky, so I nodded, spotting a fallen log to sit down on. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it was much better than standing.

Not a moment after I had taken the weight off my feet, we heard a gunshot disturb the air. A bullet came smashing into the log nearby me, splintering off a chunk. My heart must have leapt out my throat for a moment; I threw myself forward onto the ground automatically to hide behind it with my hands over my head.

“What in’a- HEY! ” Wyatt continued to stand out in the open staring at the trees, scanning for any sign that someone had followed us. There were no barking sounds, and if there had been a whole group of soldiers out after us like he had said, we would have heard them (right?) “YA DAMN SOD! WHO’S OUT THERE!”

“What are you DOING?! Hide!” I hissed back at him. If there was anything I knew about people from the north, aside from their being hardheaded, it was their stubborn, confrontational nature.

He stooped down and picked up a rock, as if that was going to scare off whoever was watching us. “C’MON OUT YA COWARD!”

Surprisingly, on command, someone DID appear. Wyatt’s expression changed from ready-to-fight to shock. He lowered his arm slowly, eventually dropping the sharp rock he’d taken from the ground.

I peeked over the log to have a look.

A man emerged from the trees with a rifle held tightly in his hands. He had very light skin, so much so that he looked almost pale, the kind of pale one turns when they claim to see a ghost. His hair was stark white and windswept, a scruffy white beard that matched occupied his haggard, old face. His hands were boney and thin, I could only assume the rest of him was rather lean as well, but he was wrapped up in a faded blue shawl and wearing a myriad of furs underneath, and maybe another coat under all that. He didn’t even have proper footwear, just crude wraps made of more animal skins sewn together roughly and unevenly. On his back were several different sized packs and satchels, carrying who knew what.

As he and Wyatt stared each other down I could see his weapon slowly lower, but only a little bit. “What in all hells…Wyatt, that you??”

I glanced over towards my fellow inmate, waiting for a reaction.

“Harlon,” His voice had gone from its typical trickster nature to completely sad in an instant, almost as though he had just remembered something he’d forgotten long ago. “What…what happened to ya?” He asked, still in a daze.

Neither of them spoke afterwards. This man, Harlon, took a cautious step forward, raising his gun again and glaring directly at me. “…Who the hell are you.”

I stood up quickly and backed away, trying to appear as small as possible. Once he had gotten closer, I could see his eyes. They were bright yellow, just like that wolf’s. They were one in the same in that respect. Still, that did nothing to ease any fears I had. “P-please don’t shoot me- I- I’m with HIM-” I pointed to Wyatt quickly, scooting over towards him in an attempt to hide behind him.

Harlon screwed up his face and eyed Wyatt again.

Wyatt blinked a few times, snapping out of his trance. “I…yah, he is. Don’ worry, he’s harmless.”

“No he isn’t.”

“What’re ya doin’ out here…? I thought… maybe ya were…”

“Dead? I could have said the same about you.” Harlon refused to take his eyes off me the entire time. There was hate burning in them like hot coals in a fire pit. “Thought they hauled ya away ta some camp.”

“They did, to the island. But…forget about that. Just…” Wyatt shook himself again to refrain from becoming emotional. “Do ya know where we could go? Don’t have anythin’ on us, no shelter or food or weapons.”

The mountain man sniffed and gave a short glance at the river. “…There’s a fort nearby fulla folks from town. They’ll probably take ya in. I don’ know about this one though, yer better off leavin’ him somewhere to rot. ‘S all southerners are good for anyway.”

I choked down the insult.

“A fort? Where?? I didn’t know they’d made a new home-”

“They didn’t. They been holed up there fer years by this abandoned mine, bein’ harassed by th’ fuckin’ soldiers day in and day out. Neither side’s given up as far as I know. It’s only a matter of time before they either starve or get overrun. And I ain’t plannin’ on being around when that happens.”

“Do you LIVE there??”

Harlon scowled. “No, and I wouldn’ dream of it either. Everyone can go ta hell at this point for all I care.” He stepped away from us and moved closer to the water’s edge. “…Ya follow this all the way down the hill there, turn south, you’ll see it if ya keep going. Don’t go blamin’ me if they forgot about ya and decide ta shoot though.” With that he started to leave without so much as another word.

Wyatt almost rushed after him. “WAIT- Harlon- couldja show us there? I don’ think we’ll get th’ rest of the way on our own like this…please?”

The other man stood still, not facing us. He sighed loudly and grunted in annoyance. “…Once we get there I’m leavin’ ya to it.” He kept walking.

Wyatt smiled a little and pushed me forward. “C’mon, let’s go.” As I watched them I could tell he wanted to talk to this Harlon character. Maybe they were friends at some point in time. Whatever the case was, Harlon wasn’t going to stay for long once he’d seen us to this fort he mentioned.

The way he reacted towards me though, only made me dread everything else.