Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Highwaymen

Walking was again like flying, the aching was gone. Even more relaxing than just standing. The wagonway turned south, but we continued a faint path which wound along the hills more or less westwards, following the contour lines of the hills.

Freya wanted to know more about the clothing in my world. Since mass production was unknown here, it took a very long time with several sidetracks. The time passed and the miles were flying by.

We went through dense forest for hours. As I city dweller, I could identify five trees. Or at least they looked like I remembered them. There were a few birches, some firs, some pines, and quite some trees which looked like acorns. But there were other, straight ones, with almost vertical branches (squirrel voice would love to climb into them) with leaves that looked like small fern leaves or soft needles. There were trees looking like stacked palm trees (unclimbable trash according to squirrel), very broad trees which might have been oaks, but with needles. Occasionally, there was a bunch of trees, which had broad leaves that hung almost to ge ground (poisonous, and close to swamps, said squirrel). I was amazed at how well I could grab these concepts from the squirrel voice without words. Maybe the mindspeak had also opened my mind to my voices. Although some had become weaker, some I had not called for some time. Walking was now natural, no call out was needed. Trying now, I could no longer find the voice at all. No answer.

"Freya?"

"What?" came a sleepy answer.

I turned my head around. She was dozing again on my back, arms and legs hanging to my sides. I snickered. "Flat, like a cat."

"Cats are great," she murmured.

"Do you remember when I told you about the voices in my head? Like I call out to them for walking?"

Now she was wide awake, sat up and turned to face me. "Is there a problem?"

"I don't know. But the voice for walking is gone."

"And you walk."

"Yes, no problem. Feels natural even."

"Hmm" She took some time. "The cleric said, your soul may mend and you will become one. Maybe this is what has happened. But only a cleric can tell."

"So the other voices will go too?"

"Ask a cleric."

"Today?"

"No, no villages here. We are taking the short route to Krenburg. But this is a contested mountain range with swampy valleys and harsh winters. Hard to reach, so few settlements here. Maybe tomorrow evening."

I turned forward again and walked on.

"You are really ok?"

"Yeah, the squirrel voice is a great distraction. I learned a lot about trees. Even that there are poisonous trees here."

"Eh? Where."

"Last ones about a quarter ago. Long, long leaves, broad with some white stripes along the leave centres."

 "Please tell me next time."

"Since you are awake, how about more teaching?"

"Ok, say, 'I am a big cat'."

"I not being big cat."

And so the afternoon went by. Neither did the scenery change much nor did my vocabulary, the grammar was so frustratingly different that I still couldn't fully grab the concepts. 17 declinations of verbs seemed like 15 too many to me.

Once we passed through a big campsite. Someone had made a small clearing, tree stumps, with trampled thickets, the remainder of some fires, and a few large bones left. An army camp, according to Freya, likely the Kwal army, because we were in disputed lands and they came from another direction for their battle. Whoever had camped here had left downhill and southwards, and probably had come from the west. Thus, the narrow path we had followed so far had widened and the thickets left and right had been trampled down and bowed against our direction. Hence, now we were on a road to Kwal.

I just wished for an open view, but it was still dense trees in all directions. A map would be great too, Freya was really bad at explaining direction. And because of the trees, we had just the way as guidance. At least we could not get lost.

* * *

"Why do you stop?"

"Something is wrong. The bird stopped singing." I sniffed. "There is smoke and freshly cut wood. And at least two men ahead."

"You could smell this? How did tell apart human smells?"

She was right. I could not. "I smelled the smoke. But for the rest, I think the squirrel and two other voices agreed on this. Someone is ahead, camping here."

Freya sniffed once. "Sorry, I don't smell anything. But let's be careful. Since the Kwal army went through, there could be deserters hiding out here."

"Ok, then let's pass them quickly."

I took deep breaths as if I would be diving until I felt dizzy. "Hold tight!" and then I bolted away.

After three hundred paces we passed a lookout. He soon gave up running after me and just shouted ahead. The way bent and passed through a small cut, where two logs blocked the way. The upper one was almost two metres high to block riders and pedestrians.

Two highwaymen jumped down in front of their barricade. I ignored Freya's cursing but accelerated and jumped with all my might. The practice from yesterday had paid off and we sailed over the upper log with a meter to spare, also clearing the highwaymen. Unfortunately, one of them had an arrow ready and despite the confusion that my appearance had caused, he shot from less than five meters away. I felt a piercing pain in the right hind leg and nearly fall over when landing. But I continued to run three-legged, . A very bumpy movement, Freya clung tight. After a short while, I stopped, I couldn't go any further. Tears of pain were running down my face, my right hind leg was shivering.

Freya was already looking at the arrow stuck in my hind flank. "Please relax."

I snorted an incomprehensible sound.

"I am a healer, worked on battlefields. So please relax. I must remove the arrow."

"Just remove it now."

"It could be barbed. Stand on three legs and let it dangle. Please."

"Warrg"

She held up the bloody arrow. "Great no barb. And not bleeding much. It has hit just a muscle. Please move the leg."

I did and nearly passed out from the pain.

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Then Freya did something like the old healer in the camp, something left her hand and like a tongue and licked out the arrow wound. It left also something sticky.

"That must do. I cannot numb the leg more, we are still too close. Let's leave quickly."

She ran next to me. After a mile of three-legged gaited running, I tried to put again some more weight on my injured leg. We continue a little more. Her healing did its job much faster than it should be possible, or my brain just numbed the pain. I could walk with it again. Only now, I felt how the bouncing three-legged gait had chafed certain other parts of me. It cannot be helped.

Freya was spent after running a mile barefoot since then was no time for putting on her shoes. Hence, her feet needed some healing as well.

"Freya, riding me."

She did not bother to correct me and went directly to mindspeak. "Let me check the wound again. Are you really fine?"

"Much better. These legs are made for walking." Of course, she did not get the reference. "Freya, please!"

She got on. I walked a little slower since my gait was still not as smooth as before. But we were moving further away. Freya was healing her feet on my back. She also intonated a slow hymn. Not sure, if it was for me or for her, but it was relaxing.

Then she put on her shoes and walked next to me, stroking my fur from time to time to reassure me, that everything was good. When the numbness from Freya healing was fading, she put in again some healing magic. That was the only way to describe it.

"If clerics can do magic, and you healers can do magic, what magic then do mages?"

"Eh? You are really good at distracting me. Mages do useless magic. Mostly they study magic."

"Do you hate mages?"

"The one who did the centaurs, yes. Weather mages, no."

"So you have weather mages. Can they make a thunderstorm?"

"Them? No, they just tell you there will be a thunderstorm."

Somehow these mages sound more like scholars. "Are clerics going to a university?"

"Some, the important ones."

"And healers?"

"Eh? No, of course not. How would you learn healing at a university? Ha, here read this book and then cure this guy?" She was laughing.

Somehow I was embarrassed because I had no good answer. I didn't study at a University, but still, I felt the urge to defend the scholars. On the other hand, Freya seems very capable but would not be allowed even to touch a patient back home.

"Did I hit a nerve?"

"No, just, in my world the answer might be the other way round. No one was allowed to heal who had not passed a university exam."

Now she was silent for a long time.

* * *

The sun touched the treetops when the way started to descend steadily. A little later, the way curved above a steep cliff, giving us the view of a wide valley in front of us. The sun was at the horizon on the far side. Soon the road descended into vineyards and further down into the valley. We instead walked north, a narrow path at the top of the vineyards and then into the forest again. Soon came a challenging river crossing where I needed all my jumping capabilities and my claws to get from rock to rock without sliding in the gushing white water. On the other side, I was crying. "Please, get down!" I pressed. It was stupid to put that much strain on my hind legs.

Freya patted my flank and stroked the fur and then numbed the wound again. "Sorry, I should have never allowed this!"

"Hey, I jumping. Now, walking slow."

"Enough for today. We must find a camp soon."

Freya was right. The sun had gone down and even the twilight was fading. And there was no way, that the highwaymen could be still after us.

The forest on this side of the river was a beach wood, light, and bright, with a lot of space between the trees and almost no thickets. But with a steep gradient. We followed the contour line a short distance until we came to the next small creek.

"Let's camp here. There is a flat ground over there and water here.” Freya took off her shoes and massaged her feet.

"Why not going valley."

"As I told you before, this land belongs to the Kwal kingdom."

"And I have no passport."

She looked at me. "Again some stuff from your world?"

"Never minding."

"You only have Republic coins. They lost the war. We will not be welcomed here. So no fire tonight."

"We having bread, cabbage, carrots. No needing fire."

"Yes, big cat with a vegetable sweet tooth. And thick fur against cold nights."

"Freya hugging me sleeping cold."

She beamed. "For sure!"

After the evening meal, it was as dark as in the tent in the camp. The moon was probably still behind the hilltops and no stars could be seen through the thick canopy. Since the ground formed a little hole, I laid on my back. Freya was sprawled on my lower body, exuding the heat of youth. I put my tail over her and hold its tip in my hands, cuddling it.

The pain in my leg was quite present there but again bearable, My mind began to wander. I thought about how lucky I was. No, not because of the escape. And, I might not be fully human anymore. But this body was almost superhuman in endurance and speed. I was even paid for hiking through largely untouched lands. It was warm wetter, just like late spring, and no mosquitos. Just a great outdoor experience in unspoiled nature. Ok, there have been battles and highwaymen, but if I would have lived rough in the north district of my town, mugging would have been rather an hourly thing.

Even with the highwaymen, I would have paid for such an experience this back in my world. Well, people paid for that, buying books, movies, and games.

With that, I fell asleep.

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