Page 8 of A Soul to Guide

“How many guards do you think it’ll take to restrain me if I bash your skull in?” This time, he laughed, but there was true mirth in his voice, like the idea of skull-bashing brought him immense joy.

“Fine! One silver.”

“That’s better.” Coins rattled as he searched his pouch. “Next time you wish to con someone, take into consideration that this much dill is barely worth four coppers.”

“It’s always better to negotiate,” Peter laughed weakly. “Most people aren’t as big and scary as you.”

“Yeah, but people like me will likely strangle you for being a general annoyance.”

Peter gulped, and Raewyn only knew the stranger had moved on by the subtle jingle of his coin pouch shifting as it settled and the diminishing of his smell. He was moving, and she was quick to follow him.

She lost him a few times, but she always managed to pick up his scent or voice in the crowd of pedestrians. Within minutes, she would find him somewhere else, just casually speaking with storekeepers, asking about their wares.

“I’m leaving in two days,” he answered someone as he traded coin for fishing hooks, lure, and wire. “I’m stocking up now, as I wish to leave early in the morning.”

“Ah yes,” the man chuckled. “It’s always best to leave an hour after sunup. The Demons have usually scattered by then, and it gives you a full day to vacate from the town’s proximity safely.”

As he often did, the stranger sighed. “Why are you explaining something to me as though I don’t know? Why is it you think I wish to leave early in the day?”

“Oh, sorry,” he answered nervously. “Was just making general conversation. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t offend me. I just don’t wish to be spoken to as though I’m an idiot.”

Okay, so the stranger had a point. Nothing got Raewyn more fired up than being told something she already knew. She couldn’t fault him on that.

By the end of the day, she was exhausted from following him, from hiding around corners or stalls. She tried to figure out a suitable way to approach him without having to enter the street full of people, but the opportunity never came.

Then... he was gone.

After following the stranger, Raewyn didn’t take into consideration that he would lead her on a strange path. She’d gotten herself lost.

She could tell night was falling when the world got quieter, as if everyone was afraid to be out in the dark.

This market street was generally busy throughout the day. The scattered footsteps and chatter were lessening every minute, and the drop in temperature informed her the sun,singular, was disappearing again.

Night was coming, and Raewyn had already discovered that being out past it brought danger – and not only because of the Demons.

Raewyn had to ask for directions multiple times to find her way back to the inn. She knew her room step for step, having mapped it out, and now she knew it by pure memory. It was small and modest, but that was fine with her. She didn’t need anything lavish.

Thankfully, the inn was the most well-known one nearest to the western gate and was easy to find. She was walking back along a path she wasn’t particularly familiar with, but apparently, she’d find it on the right if she kept going. Once she was in its direct vicinity, she should be able to locate it by the smell of alcohol that permeated the air from the tavern taking up its bottom half.

She brushed the back of her hand over every surface to find her way, making sure she didn’t carelessly bump into anything. She tripped a few times, but she was so used to that now, she was quick to right herself.

The once-clumsy Raewyn was now one of the sturdiest people on her feet, even more so when she wasn’t forced to wear shoes to fit in with weird people who liked to cover them.

Okay. So, the stranger said he’d be leaving early in the morning in two days from the south gate.If she couldn’t find him again, she’d just wait at the gate, packed and ready to go. She already got the impression that if she met him there empty-handed, he’d leave her behind.

She weighed the probabilities, already formulating excuses to any rejection he could give her so she could be prepared. Shewouldbe going with him, even if she had to wrap her hand around his ankle and drag along behind him.

No good person would leave her to wander the forest by herself if she just casually followed him out of the gate. She didn’t care if he hated her the entire time.

She leaned her shoulder against the wall of the somewhat quiet street she found herself on, wishing things were easier. Then, she turned so she could place her back against it, willing for just a small shred of hope.

The town was beginning to feel like a prison. For Raewyn, who was a free spirit by nature, it was becoming unbearable.

I’m worried that the longer I stay here, the likelier it is I’ll be targeted.How long would it be before Raewyn had to beat the heck out of someone to protect herself, where it would be discovered that she wasn’t ‘normal’ to them?

Despite this, she wasn’t the kind of person to weep. She was used to high stakes and high pressure; it was just the unfamiliarity getting to her.

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