020 - First Day On An Adventure

Upon their return to the high mountain circle, members of the caravan helped the Spy and Warrior just in from Terra, binding hands and feet of the unconscious woman and children in the process. It was late afternoon, but they descend to the valley camp, carrying the bound three. From there the Wizard opened a gate to the base camp near the village.

The leader of the caravan decided that they did not need the woman, Roxanne, and having her with could be a liability. They bound her arms in front and her legs so that she can be tripped up, but otherwise walk. The party leader announced that the next morning the Spy and the Wizard would sell her to a slave trader, posing as merchants. Then the caravan would head south.

The Spy and Wizard teleported to a village, with Rox in bonds between them. The caravan had been through this village a few days prior, to restock, so the wizard knew it to land here. The teleporting was a terrific strain on Rox, so she was nearly out. But she was quickly regaining her composure. Her leash was held by the wizard as the Spy approached a larger man. After a bit of talk, the two men walked back. Rox looked around her.

Her gym clothes were drastically out of place. They were in the square of a town, next to a market full of wagons and booths. Nothing was paved. The people all looked like refugees from a SCA meeting. What kept getting to her was that it all looked functionally real.

She had gotten home to find two home invaders with her children in their hands. She had gone as mamma-bear as she thought she knew. But then she was waking up in the wilderness, with her arms and legs bound, her children no where that she could see. She tried to speak but could make no sound. She was bound to a wagon, with people around the area conversing in an unknown language. Then the sneaky shrimp and some other man had come and taken her leash in hand. Now she was standing somewhere else, the wagon and woods gone.

The sneaky shrimp in black and the larger man approached, and seemed to be haggling. The wizard pulled Rox to her feet. An awkward task as Rox felt heavier than normal, and stood a head taller than the wizard. Her equilibrium was on edge, due to the shock of repeated recent teleportation.

The larger man looked well groomed, if a bit day-worn from being outside all day. He was well built, but older, with his hair tied back into a tail. His face looked honest, if a bit weathered. The two talked a bit, and then the man began to prod and poke at Rox.

She tried to slap his hands away, but was leashed in by the wizard, and all but yanked off her feet. The bindings on her wrists bit as they pulled her hands to the collar on her neck. The wizard grabbed her shoulder and squeezed and said something. She suddenly felt herself relax, and stand. And try as she might, she could not make her body do anything.

The well groomed man then resumed his inspection. He was evidently expert at his craft, and did not waste much time. Nor did he violate her beyond the inspection itself. The wizard let go of her shoulder, and she felt control return slowly. She watched money be exchanged, and her leash was given to the well groomed man. The wizard and the shrimp then teleported away in a swirl of dust.

The well groomed man was stern, but patient, as he led Rox over to his wagons. He had several large awnings set up over his wagons. One of the larger wagons was a cage. Next to this sat a pen with four naked people in it. A woman came over and helped the man undress Rox, being careful to always have one or the other holding the leash.

Rox grasped immediately what was going on. She was now property.

Her wedding bands and stud-earrings were taken from her. Rox tried to resist the taking of her wedding ring, but the leash was pulled tight, and the woman held her as the man carefully worked the rings off her fingers. The bands on her arms and legs were the last things removed after the rest of her clothes had been taken. Rox never saw those clothes again. She was then pushed into the cage. The air felt cool and moist but she soon acclimated. The spell that had inhibited her finally dissipated about lunch time. When her disorientation completely cleared she held on to a measure of dignity, as she had nothing else. Lunch was little more than a subsistence level meal of some kind of bread, and water, it left her still hungry, and sat heavy as her body adjusted to the quality of the food, and she was ravenously thirsty. Fortunately there was a well close enough that she could reach, and was able to help herself to, and a slop bucket to relieve herself in at the other end of the cage.

The other four slaves regarded her with mild interest at the start, but made no move to get to know her. As the afternoon wound on, and she moved about, the oldest of the four, another woman, watched with growing hostility. Finally this woman gathered the other three and spoke quickly at them in their language. Rox only picked up one word, as it was repeated by the others. “Schwaer.” They whispered it as if it was a curse, or something to fear. None of them made any attempt to get to know her after that. Or even to show her any kindness.

Rox did her best to rest, watching the market and listening to the language. Perhaps she could learn enough quickly enough to get by, once she got herself free. In the mean time she found two rocks to use. And she sat down on a spot of ground and started running through some lifting exercises. First one arm, with the small rock, then the other arm. Then after the full set of movements, she switched rocks, and repeated the sets with the larger rock. After that she moved to push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups.

She noticed that several people were interested in her. But as the haggling got along, the older woman slave would wander over and hiss the word “schwaer.” This would cause a bit of discussion, and end in the potential customer leaving and the slave-master squabbling with the slave woman.

Rox continued to work out, and slake her thirst. She finished by doing a range of pull-ups using the bars of the cage. She then paced the cage to get a feel of the size, and then moved to the center of one quadrant, and began running through several practice drills. The other slaves stayed on the far side of the cage, though the two boys watched with interest as she moved through the fighting moves.

At closing time, the Slaver and his wife had closed up shop. With the help of another person, upon which two of the four looked with disgust, they had packed the wagons, and hitched the teams. The caged wagon was backed up to the pen, and the five of them were loaded in. Another hour and the pen was disassembled, and stowed and they were on their way. They traveled until after dark. Rox noted that they were traveling through hill country.

As the temperature dropped, the slaves pulled some blankets from a box in the wagon, and wrapped up in them. Rox was not offered one, or prevented from getting one. Some time after dark the wagons were parked in a thicket, and camp was made. A drizzle rolled past, and then cleared. After dinner was cooked, a kettle of stew and a pan of bread were handed in to the slaves. This was divided evenly. It warmed Rox, and rejuvenated her some, but was not as filling as she might have prepared for herself.

She was taking stock of her situation, and had reached several conclusions. She was not crazy, or imagining this. She felt heavier than normal, but was quickly adjusting. She had been forcibly separated from her children and husband. Whoever had done this was eventually going to have to reckon for this. Now she had to observe her situation, orient to the problems and challenges, decide on a course of action, and act accordingly.

She noticed that while the people all seemed to be generally fit, at least according to her experience from working with people physically, they averaged a bit shorter and heavier than she expected. The tallest that she had seen, save for one, was nearly a head shorter than she was. Also they looked more muscled as an average than she was used to. Everybody was tanned from spending time outside, but the average skin color was significantly darker than her own, with darker shades of hair. With her pale skin, tall stance, lighter hair, and slim build, Roxanne could not have been of sharper contrast physically if she had wings.

*          *          *

Steven and Caspian arrived on Tywacomb about noon. The sun was just approaching its zenith. The lesser of the twin moons was pursuing the sun across the sky. They would have enough light to hike all the way down.

Steven could not decide if he was feeling jetlagged or drunk. He was unsure of his footing as they rested on the stones of the circle Caspian had left approximately a week prior. He looked around, and quickly realized they were not in the northern Sierra clearing they had first awakened in.

For his part, Caspian first rejuvenated his mana supply and very quickly got his equilibrium back. He felt very good being back on his native world. Cyrril slowly recovered, as his physiology did not take to ley line travel well.

Caspian did not waste much time looking around. “I don’t see them below.”

Steven only heard gibberish. “What?”

Caspian checked himself, and had to consciously think about which language he was speaking, and switched to English. “I reverted to my native language. First chance I get, I will help you with that.”

Steven looked around from the stone he sat on, and got his binoculars out. “Where are we?”

Steven did not get the binoculars up before noticing that the little light that said the camera was on and ready was not glowing. He held them to his eyes and looked around. He recognized terrain features and types, but nothing was remotely familiar for anywhere he had ever been.

Caspian seeing Steven scanning around looked down where he remembered the camp to be. He pointed. “Can you see if there is a camp in the valley below us, about there?”

Steven looked at where Caspian was pointing, and then held up the binoculars, zooming and focusing them. “I can see lots of scrub and rocks, maybe a few game trails… and where a camp was. Two fire pits, and lots of trampled brush.”

Caspian nodded, and pulled out his water skin and took a long drink. “Good eyes. That was the people who met the ones who kidnapped your family. Drink as much as you can. The way we traveled here dehydrates real fast. Are you able to walk yet?”

Steven sucked on the hose from his bag, and then looked back at and fiddled with his binoculars. Caspian nursed his water for a bit more watching, and letting the mana flow from the ley line recharge him, and his equipment. Cyrril was still sluggish. Finally he realized that Steven was trying to get a device to work.

“Steven, did that have a battery in it?”

Steven distractedly responded. “Yeah.”

“It won’t work then. The planetary teleport spell can carry anything over long distances, but it drains all chemical batteries in the process. I did tell you not to bring anything with those.”

Caspian watched in mild amusement as Steven pulled out his cell phone and checked it, then his frozen watch on his wrist, and then the device on the binoculars again. Steven then pulled what Caspian remembered as a camera out of a pouch, and attached a lens to it, and looked through it.

Steven spoke to himself. “The powered light meter is dead, but all the rest looks fine.” Steven aimed and pressed a button on the camera, causing it to click. He then worked a lever on the other side from the button, and took the lens and camera apart and put them away.

Normally, thanks to digital camera capacity, Steven was a bit of a shutter-bug taking pictures of everything. Now he only had 107 pictures, three 36-image rolls of film, which he could take with his manual camera. With the SLR camera he had two lenses with him; the standard-to-telephoto lens, and a wide-angle lens. Steven was annoyed that the battery powered light meter in the camera did not work. But he had been photographing enough that he felt he could work without it. He had thought of taking more pictures with the camera on his binoculars, but like his watch and the light meter in his SLR, that digital camera was completely lifeless.

Steven commented, mostly to himself. “Good thing I prefer manual cameras to the electronic ones.”

Caspian just looked on, and then stepped to the edge, and looked down the steep face of the mountain.

Steven joined him, sucking again at his drink tube, and then stopped. “We get to hike down that?”

Caspian looked sidelong as Steven. “We don’t have to. But it’s the easiest way.”

Caspian patted himself down, and checked his coat pockets, and then cursed in his native language.

Steven looked up. “What?”

“I left the tracking stone for finding your family in the coat I was wearing on your planet. I will have to make new ones. And I can’t do that right here.”

Steven had read enough fantasy fiction over the years to guess at what Caspian was saying. He could not dispute where they were or begin to argue how they got there, from his home. But he was still skeptical.

Caspian just started pacing about, and then stood back in the middle of the circle. “Come on. I will teleport us to where we can make a better start. I can begin to get the stuff to make some trackers; you can maybe get some local clothes and maybe a sword.”

Steven looked back at the climb, and then walked in to stand opposite Caspian, as he had in his back yard. “You know, this was not fun the last time.”

Caspian did not wait. Nor did he need to vocalize as much this time, having a stronger mana pool to draw from, and a clear idea where he was going. They landed at the head to the path leading out of the village Caspian had last visited before his hike to the circle. Again, Steven collapsed as he came to himself. Caspian caught him, and almost collapsed under his weight. He got Steven off the side of the trail, and put Cyrril who was likewise out cold on Steven’s chest, and then hiked into the village, and found the inn keeper. With that man’s help, and a wheelbarrow, they got Steven back to the inn, and into a bed.

After having supper, and making initial arrangements, Caspian also went to bed.