Yspaddaden - Chapter 10

 Kadyriath

Ynwfn, Woods.

Kady had no idea where she was going.

She simply walked. She chose a direction, started walking, and did not even care where she would end up, or who she would meet. Forget the mission! Forget the quest! Before she had been growing excited at the prospect of becoming involved in Yspa's journey, but now that she knew what she was, now that she realised that she was nothing more than an object to be used at the end, she had no desire to continue on. She hurried on, unaware of her surroundings, uncaring of her fortune.

Tears ran down her face and obscured her vision. She roughly swiped away at them, angry that they came so easily. How long had she known Yspaddaden? Not even a full month? Why did she care so much to be parted from him? He had kidnapped her! Took her away from all that she knew and led her into the wild, only to become terrorized, kidnapped again, tortured, beaten and laughed at. He had taken everything from her, and the only way he could think to repay it was to allow her to join him in his little quest and fulfill some prophecy that he needed her for. Without even saying please. And she still didn't have any shoes!

Kady stopped and sat down on a rock underneath a tree. The sun was directly overhead and the shade made the heat bearable. She looked down at herself and let the tears flow. Her dress was torn, her sash was gone, her feet were covered in dirt and leaves. If she was back at the city, no man would have her. At least, no man who had any money. She could not remember the last time she had been this dirty and felt this disgusting. She was a lady! She owned expensive clothes and perfumes, had men knocking at her door day and night, plying her with gifts of gold and jewels. How had it come to be that she was reduced to this, a lowly woman, sitting alone in the woods, covered in travel filth? It was all because of that son of a vuzhong, Yspaddaden. She sent up a wish to Adnan, a prayer that something drastic and painful happen to him. Good riddance.

She wiped her tears away one last time, resolving that she would not be so affected by this turn of events. She glanced up at the sky once again and declared it too hot to travel any longer for a while. She glanced behind the rock and found a small place in-between it and the tree where she could lie down and rest the afternoon away.

Curse Yspaddaden.

Tylosse

"Where is she?"

Tylosse looked up and could only see the silhouette of the giant man, the sun behind him. He had not even heard his approach. 

"I'm not sure. All I saw were you two arguing, then she walked away. That was over an hour ago. She hasn't come back yet."

Yspaddaden gave a large sigh and sat down on the grass next to Tylosse. He glanced at the soldier, then started grasping at clumps of grass and pulling them up by the roots. Tylosse ignored him and lay his head back down, trying to go back to his nap. The midday grew hot in these parts and it was not very smart to be moving about too much until it grew cooler. He was almost asleep when Yspaddaden started talking.

"Maybe she left."

Tylosse groaned on the inside and sat up once more.

"What?"

"Maybe she left. I didn't give her much of a reason to stick around. I can't really blame her for not understanding. But if she knew everything that I did, she might forgive my actions."

Tylosse didn't really care what Yspaddaden was talking about. The business between him and the whore was his own and he didn't want to become involved with it. What he did with her on his own time should not be shared with others. However he did not feel that expressing those thoughts would benefit him at the moment, so he took the more subtle route.

"Possibly. If you honestly believe her to have run off, maybe the best thing to do is to go after her. Bring her back. Tell her the truth." Then maybe I can get back to my sleep.

Yspaddaden sighed again and returned to mutilating the grass. Tylosse, feeling he accomplished his mission for now, lay back down and closed his eyes. The peace lasted for not even a full minute.

"I didn't mean to hurt her. I say things sometimes that I do not mean. I got angry. I started to rant. I didn't mean to push her away."

It was Tylosse's turn to pull clumps of grass out of their resting place, but his actions were based on frustration, not nervousness. Yspaddaden did not notice the movements, and it took Tylosse a minute to compose himself enough before he could answer.

"Things like that happen. It's not your fault."

"But it was. I wasn't honest with her. I lied out of convenience. She deserves to know the truth."

"Then go tell her."

"I've known Kady longer than she realises. It was never my intention to…"

Tylosse could take it no longer. He sat up, laid a hand on Yspaddaden's shoulder, and looked him in the eyes.

"I don't care. The only thing I care about right now is my rest, and you're not helping with that. No, if you truly want her to come back to you, I suggest you leave, go find her, and tell her whatever truth it is that you believe she needs to know. She shall be happy knowing, you shall be happy telling her, and I shall be asleep, and thus happy myself."

Yspaddaden looked at Tylosse in shock. He honestly had not realised how annoying he had become? Tylosse sighed again inside, then once more out of relief as Yspa nodded his head.

"You are right. I appologise. She is valuable to me, but not simply because I need her for the quest. I must tell her that."

"Yes, you should." And leave me alone.

Yspaddaden stood and smiled down at Tylosse.

"I appologise once more for being a nuisance. But you have told me the truth, and I thank you for that. It is a rare gift."

"Truth told in anger isn't always the best thing to tell."

Yspaddaden smiled again.

"A wise head as well."

He then turned and grabbed a few things, provisions, placing them in a bag. He turned back to Tylosse.

"If I do not return within three days, consider me gone, and go about your life. It was good to know you, Tylosse of the Realm."

Tylosse's anger subsided a bit.

"And you, Yspaddaden, The Giant."

They both smiled at each other, then Yspaddaden turned to leave, and Tylosse lay back down under the heat of the afternoon.

Peace.

Yspaddaden

The first thing Yspaddaden did when he left the clearing was go to the horses and set free the great unicorn there. Choosing not to use the saddle that had been provided with his theft, he leapt up on the stallion and tied the bag to his back. Within the bag was food, a change of clothes, the drawing he had got from Joyill, and the small box that he had obtained in the city. He needed nothing else. The bread and water would last him until the next city or village, and he could always hunt for meat. He hoped he could find Kady soon. She had not the skills to survive for long in the woods. First things first. Find the trail.

He backtracked and went to the place where he had fought with her. He could see the outlines of their footprints as they wandered about the clearing haphazardly. After tracing their paths for a bit, he found where she had eventually turned and left the clearing, going off on her own. It appeared as if she was heading in the direction they had been traveling. That was both good and bad. Good because she had not started back toward the soldiers. Who knows what evil might befall her if she was captured again by those men. Bad because Kady did not know of the ending of the forrest, mere miles away. After that began the Endless Plains. Nothing but grass and prairie dogs survived for several days journey. And if she did not stumble across the town that sat on the edge of the expanse, she would not be able to stock up on the needed provisions to traverse such a distance. She would be alone if Yspa did not find her before she ventured into the wild lands. And if she traveled too far to the north, she might end up in Dinas country. Yspaddaden shuddered at the thought.

He stood and leapt back up on the unicorn. For some reason, a sudden urge to name the beast came over him. He reached over and patted him on the neck. He could feel the great muscles, writhing just under the skin. Such a powerful, yet tame animal. He needed a proper name. But Yspa could not think of anything at the moment.

He kicked the animal and he surged forth, forcing his way through the underbrush. It was time to track down his companion.

Kadyriath

The woods at night was so much scarier than in the daytime. Kady hadn’t noticed it before, but the nighttime sounds that emanated from the trees were extremely foreign to her and when she could not identify them, it made them creepy, and thus frightening. She had always been with Yspaddaden at night or kidnapped. When she was with the giant, she had felt safe. When she had been with the soldiers, her focus had been on her predicament and she had ignored the sounds. Now they seemed to blast from every orifice and behind every unknown shadow. She hated to admit it to herself, but she wished she was back with Yspaddaden. But her pride made her forge ahead.

A howl made her stop dead in her tracks. She had lived in a city her entire life, but she knew this was no howl like she had ever heard before. It wasn't a wolf, or a coyote. It didn't even sound like a troll howl. The sound she was hearing would have made a troll cower in fear. The only thing she could imagine was a Dragon. But there weren't any rogue Dragons in this area. Were there?

The howl sounded again. A large flock of birds burst into the starlit sky, shaking the tree branches they had been hiding in. The sound made her skin crawl. She rubbed her arm and bumps started to form there. She would never admit it to anyone, but she was scared for her life. She had never been in this kind of situation before and she wanted it to be over. If she could only find a village or something to hide out in. She racked her brain, trying to think of what one was supposed to do when lost in the woods. Find a river. If she could follow a river of some sort, she would eventually stumble on some kind of civilization. And she could get a drink. She hadn't thought about it before, but she felt the pains of thirst rumbling in her belly. The urge to find water suddenly became very important.

She suddenly found her face in the grass and her foot on fire. The pain radiating from her foot was so severe that she convulsed for a full minute before the spasms rocked her away from whatever it was that had tripped her. She lay in the grass, trying to get her breath back. Her foot felt like it had a million ants chewing it off at the same time. She let herself recover, then slowly stood up to investigate. She looked back to where she had tripped and found the grass overgrown over a small wire fence. The fence was trampled down where she had forged through. She looked to either side and noticed it was the only spot where the fence was this low. It traveled upward on either side to rise up to a twenty foot tall barrier. She reached out and touched the wire with her finger. It bit her with such force that she recoiled and grabbed her hand in pain. What was this magic?! Was the fence enchanted? How could it inflict pain at a mere touch, without even having any sort of barbs that she could see? Incredible. Just another wonder of the world she supposed. She turned around to continue on, and stopped in her tracks.

There, before her, stood a giant man, covered head to foot in full thick brown fur, easily twelve feet tall. They stood there looking at each other for a moment.

Then it howled in anger.