Once Upon A Story | Fits & Starts: From the Beginning
Chapter 5

Alysian opened her eyes, slowly, and unwillingly. A large, friendly, horsey face looked at her. She glared at it and it gave a soft wuffel and walked away.

Struggling she pushed herself up and looked around, remembering the night before. At the sound of a male voice she whipped her head around, then groaned in pain and grabbed her throbbing head.

“You okay?” the man, Clayton asked, “I didn’t mean to hit you so hard, but I thought you were a boy.”

“You think a boy this size would have taken it any better?” Alysian retorted.

“I said I was sorry,” Clayton pointed out.

“Of course you are, you hit a girl.” she glared at him, “At least when I was a boy you didn’t pretend to like me, but now that I’m a girl you can’t offend my ‘delicate sensibilities’.”

Clayton burst out laughing, “Delicate sensibilities indeed!”

Alysian eyed him, “Well, if you can laugh like that maybe you’re not that bad.”

“Huh?!”

She grinned at his confusion, “Men who can’t laugh are no fun at all.”

Ah,” Clayton was still wondering at her lightening fast change in mood.

“Of course,” she added thoughtfully, “If you can’t be serious it’s no good either.”

“Of course,” Clayton agreed solemnly, hiding a grin. “Come on, if you can get up you can have some breakfast.”

“Is it any good?” she asked

“No.”

“Oh, goody.”

“It won’t kill you and you need food, so come on, get up,” he said offering her his hand.

She inspected the large, yet elegant hand, obviously hands that had done little work in their lifetime, but still strong. She placed her cool, dew wetted fingers in his palm and allowed him to draw her up off the ground. He smiled as he watched her stroll off toward the others. This would be a fun one to tease.

Beth felt like her body was being pummeled from all directions. She groaned, then she heard voices.

“She’s waking up.”

“Go tell the others, quickly.”

She opened her eyes in confusion, wincing at the bright lights. “Wha- ... Where am I?” she whispered, her throat dry and sore. Then she gasped, “Tchimney!”, and began to struggle to her feet. Soothing hands gently pushed her back down, “Don’t worry, you’re all right. You’re in the woods, there aren’t any chimneys.”

“No, you don’t understa..” a coughing fit interrupted her.

“Shhh, just lay down,” the voice told her, “relax.”

Beth finally focused on the owner of the voice, a young woman with long blond curls and a slight bruise just under one eye. Then a face appeared over the girl’s shoulder, more faces appearing around her.

She looked around, beginning to be frightened, “Tchimney!” she called, a bit frantically.

Hearing hooves, Troy turned to look, his eyes widening at what he saw: the ever confusing gray stallion was galloping towards the group, looking very threatening. As he neared, the others noticed him too. Then, oddly, he stopped. Suddenly he began rearing, coming closer and closer each time, until they had to begin backing up.

Clayton leaned over to carry Beth out of harm’s way, but the horse advanced again, and in trying to avoid the sharp hooves, Clayton fell backwards. He watched fearfully to see what the horse would do next, but instead of rearing as Clayton had expected, the stallion lowered its head and gently nuzzled the girl’s pale cheek. Gold-tipped eyelashes fluttered and she reawakened. “Tchimney,” she sighed happily, reaching up to rub the velvety nose above her face.

“Is that infernal thing yours?” Allen asked, understanding beginning to dawn.

She glared at him, “He’s not infernal. Are you baby?”

“Some baby,” Allen muttered under his breath. Alysian punched his arm, “Don’t insult her horse.”

Clayton grinned, a devilish glint in his eye, “Does that mean we can insult her?”

Alysian was about to retort, when a soft giggle erupted from the girl, “Only if you don’t mean it!”

Tim, who, until then had been happily occupied watching the way the sun shimmered and glinted off of Joy’s hair; looked at her in surprised admiration, noticing eyes blue as a mountain lake, delicate features, and a full, shyly smiling mouth. Joy glared at what she saw as competition, someone taking her new admirers, the men had been quite taken with her this morning, but now all their attention was on this scratched up little servant. She conveniently forgot that she’d been that same thing less then a se’nite ago.

The girl, who’d been smiling at the group, was taken aback when she saw Joy’s glare, and wondered what she’d done wrong.

In order to ward off the temper tantrum he feared was coming, Troy quickly asked, “How do you feel?”

Carefully pushing herself to a sitting position, she replied, “Like I’ve been thrown by a horse,” rubbing her head ruefully.

“What happened to you?”

“I was thrown by a horse,” a faint smile played around her lips, “That one, as a matter of fact,” she said, pointing at Troy’s horse.

“My horse?!” Troy asked, offended on its behalf, “Your horse is the only one around here likely to throw someone!”

“Well if they’re not me, of course he will,” she replied logically.

“Oh, of course he will,” Allen muttered sarcastically.

Beth blinked, taken aback at the aggression in his voice, then quickly looked away from him, from all of them, focusing on the ground as she tried to stand. Allen grumbled something about thin skin under his breath which caused Josi and Lin to glare at him; while Alysian wrapped an arm around the girl and helped her to stand up and go sit by the fire. By the time they got there, she looked ready to pass out. To distract her from the pain, Alysian quickly asked, “What’s your name?”

“Beth,” she murmured weakly, as she pressed her fingers to her temples, willing the pain to go away.

“Where are you from, Beth?” Clayton caught on to Alysian’s tactic quickly.

“I don’t live anywhere right now, but I was born north of here.”

“Who were your parents?” Tim was oblivious to the reason for the questioning, just curious of how such a lovely girl (at least, he thought she was a lovely girl under the cuts and bruises) could have escaped his notice.

A sad look came into Beth’s eyes, “Jacob and Annabelle Dare.”

“Jacob Dare, hmm... Of course Jake Dare, and Lady Annabelle! I remember them, Mother and Lady Annabelle used to be the best of friends, but then she died... Oh.”

“Yes,” Beth said softly. Suddenly, she frantically grabbed at her apron, twisting and tugging until she found the secret pocket she’d sewn to the back. She found her diary immediately, but the brooch took quite a bit of grouping around before her small hand closed over it. She gasped in relief.

She looked up to find everyone looking at her strangely; she smiled weakly and quickly smoothed her apron and daintily placed her hands in her lap.

The rest of the day was spent with everyone learning about the stubbornness of everyone else while Beth looked on and rested. The men were determined to find out what was happening to the girls and the girls were determined not to give an inch, so by the time the sun went down, everyone was exhausted and just a bit cranky.

“Look,” Troy said, running his hand through his hair in agitation, “We can’t help you unless you tell us what’s wrong.”

“Well, we don’t need your help,” Alysian retorted.

“I don’t know about that,” Josi put in, but was drowned out by Tim’s comment of, “Well you took our horses, so you obviously need something from us.”

“Your horses, not your help,” Alysian tossed her head.

“What’s that noise?” Beth asked, but was ignored.

“There’s no way you’re getting our horses, our help, maybe,” Clayton put in firmly.

“I think we should accept their help,” Joy fluttered her eyelashes at Tim, who grinned and scooted over closer to her.

Suddenly, Alysian froze, listening.

“What’s wrong?” Lin asked. Alysian quickly shushed her.

“That noise, it sounds like horses, coming this way,” she cast her sisters a worried look, “Soldiers.”

Beth rolled her eyes, “I tried...” but Alysian shushed her.

Seeing an advantage, Troy quickly offered, “We’ll get rid of them if you promise to tell us your story.”

Alysian fumed, but Josi touched her shoulder, “They might really be able to help us.” Alysian glared, but nodded her agreement.

“Okay, uhhh... Go back to the cave, get out of sight, and be quiet.”

“No, wait,” Tim said, an idea dawning, “Leave her here,” he pointed to Beth, who they were helping up, “She can help us.”

“How..”

“Just go!” Tim shooed them toward the cave, then turned to the others, “Okay, now here’s the plan...”

Joseph, a soldier, was on a mission, one he wished he didn’t have to be on. He, along with his cavalry section, was looking for three escaped servants, possibly four. The reason he didn’t particularly like his mission was because one of the servants happened to be his best friend, Josi, who used to work in the stables and shared his love of horses. He knew how much she hated the captivity of the castle, even though she loved working with the horses. He didn’t want to take her back to the horrible beatings that would surely follow.

So preoccupied was he that when he and the other two men who made up his search party came into the clearing he would have rode right over the man before him, had his horse not had the sense to stop.

He blinked and looked down at a young man whose blond hair was falling into his eyes.

“Hi,” he said, shoving his hair out of his eyes, “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” Joseph replied, pulling himself together, “ We’re looking for three, maybe four girls, servants.”

“Sorry,” the young man shrugged, “We’ve only got one.” He waned a hand toward a small, shy girl who was trying to hide behind the other three men without being obvious about it.

“Well, have you seen or heard anything suspicious?”

The man grinned wickedly, “Now that you mention it...” He was interrupted by a dark haired man, “Tim, none of your idiotic jokes.” Tim heaved a put upon sigh, “Some people have no sense of humor,” he said to Joseph, as if he’d understand and sympathize.

Joseph hid a smile and nodded solemnly, “You’ll tell us if you see anything.” it was more an order then a question, but the four men accepted it as just the way military men are.

As Joseph was about to instruct his men to leave a sound almost like a sneeze came from one end of the clearing.

The young man automatically jerked his head around toward the sound, then quickly turned back around a guilty, almost panicked look on his face.

Then a sound almost identical to it came from somewhere closer. The girl spoke up, “Sorry, I’b addergik do hord hair.”

Joseph didn’t actually believe it, but he had a feeling he’d found his friend, so he replied, “Oh, then we’d best get our horses away from you.”

“But sir,” one of his men objected.

“Come on,” he interrupted, “We don’t want to trouble this young lady any more.”

Beth sneezed again for effect.

Once the soldiers had ridden away Allen slipped off after them to make sure they had truly left.

Tim turned to Beth, “Allergic to horse hair? This from the girl with the mad horse!”

“He’s not mad!” Beth replied, and tossed her head defiantly. Unfortunately, she was still a bit weak from loss of blood and she began to wobble. Troy grabbed her by the waist and held her up, “No more insults for now, Tim.”

Allen came back through the trees just as the girls reached the group, “Couldn’t you have waited a few minutes to sneeze? If it hadn’t been for what’s-her-name’s quick thinking we’d be marching with swords at our back right now.”

Josi glared back at Allen, “Joseph would have found a way out, he wouldn’t have let us get hurt; he’s an officer and a gentleman, which is more than I can say for you. And her name is Beth,”

“Huh?”

“What’s-her-name is Beth.”

“Whaa? Oh, right, Beth.”

“Yes?” Beth asked, pausing her looking around.

“Oh, sorry, nothing. What are you looking for?”

“Tchimney.”

“Who’s Joseph?” Troy asked, faintly jealous.

“There’s nobody around here,” Allen told Beth, “You won’t see any chimneys.”

“He’s my friend,” Josi replied, “Why?”

“I’m not looking for chimneys,” Beth said.

“No reason,” Troy pretended to be casual.

“But you just said...” Allen trailed off in confusion.

Tim asked, “Is anyone else feeling dizzy?”

“Yes,” Clayton said, just as the four who’d been talking said, “No.”

“What are you looking for?” Allen asked Beth again.

“Tchimney,” before Allen could ask more questions she clarified, “My horse,” then she put two fingers in her mouth and let loose a piercing whistle.

The now infamous gray burst from the cover of trees, galloping toward them, looking magnificent. He stopped before Beth and gently nuzzled her shoulder, she giggled and seemingly out of nowhere produced a sugar cube which she gave to the horse, then kissed his nose.

“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Tchimney, Tchimney, meet everyone.”

“Hi, Tchimney,” Tim said sarcastically, but was shocked out of his sarcasm when Tchimney gave a regal whinny and gracefully bowed.

“What the...”

Beth grinned, “I trained him to obey command words.”

“What else can he do?” Clayton asked, fascinated.

“What? You want me to give up all my secrets?!” she teased.

“Uhh... Yes,” Tim said.

She gave him a Look, that kind of look women give men when they’ve been stupid. He looked right back. She turned around and ignored him.

Joy stepped up to him and fluttered her eyelashes. Tim looked down in surprise, then smiled and stepped a bit closer, casually picking up her hand as though examining it, then gave her a flirtatious look. She giggled and pulled her hand away, teasingly shaking a finger at him.

“You do realize that this sounds ridiculous, don’t you?” Troy asked.

“It’s true! We did work at the castle and we did run away, and if we get caught it’ll be all your fault,” Alysian said, glaring at him.

“Lisy, calm down,” Lin admonished.

“Why!?” she tossed her head, “They force us to tell them and then they don’t believe us!”

“Well, can you blame us?” Tim asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s a bit much to swallow, I mean, knocking out carriage men, stealing horses; you’re just girls.”

That got him glares for every girl there. He merely shrugged arrogantly.

“They’re telling the truth.” Beth said, “I saw them, they took the clothes of the men, pushed their carriage into the lake, and left with the horses.”

“You saw us?” Alysian was worried, “I was sure there was no one around.”

“I was the only one,” Beth assured her, “I was in the forest, you woke me.”

“Sorry.”

“I would have wakened soon anyway.”

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Tim asked, “After all, you did take Troy’s horse?”

“That’s because they took mine!” Beth exclaimed, affronted.

“Look out for that spider,” Joy warned her. Beth yelped and scrambled up to stand on the rock she’d been sitting on.

“Where?!” she peered frantically all around her.

“Right-,” Allen stomped on it, “-there.”

“Sorry,” she murmured, “I just hate bugs, they’re so... ugh!” she rubbed her hands in her skirt, as though trying to wipe something unpleasant off.

“You know bugs can be useful,” Alysian told her.

“Not when they’re in the kitchen, they aren’t.”

“You spend time in kitchens?” Clayton asked, “Then you must cook.”

Dramaticly, Tim fell to his knees before her, “Please, don’t let Allen cook anything else!” he begged, “I’ll die of starvation if you don’t cook me some decent food!”

“Insulting your friends isn’t the smartest thing to do,” Beth admonished him.

“You haven’t tasted Allen’s cooking, have you?” Troy said solemnly.

“You people,” Allen looked at them down his nose, “have no taste.”

“No,” Tim retorted, “If that were true we wouldn’t have had any trouble eating that grand dish of wild eggs and sour berries!”

Beth giggled and asked Allen, “Cranberry omelet?” He nodded, surprised.

“You can’t use wild eggs,” she told him, “They don’t work the same. Besides, most people don’t like cranberry omelets.”

“Oh.”

“So you’re going to cook for us?” Tim asked hopefully.

“Well, not now, it’s not even dinner time,” she pointed out.

“Oh, that’s okay, I don’t mind,” Tim scooted a little closer. Joy glared at him and he slid back next to her. She raised her daintily pointed chin and turned her back on him.

“And what about them?” Beth asked, “Why don’t they have to cook?”

“We’re not sure they won’t try to poison us, what with all that other business,” Clayton replied cockily.

Alysian glared at him, then noticed Beth absently rubbing at the bump on her head; “Are you okay?”

“Wha- oh,” Beth put her hand in her lap, “Yes, I’m fine, thank you, just a bit light headed.”

“You’d better let me look at it,” she pushed the waving hair away from the swollen spot and probed gently with her fingers. “Does this hurt?”

“Yes, but it’s not too bad.”

“Okay, if it gets worse, take these,” she opened her precious pouch and removed some fern-like leaves, which she handed to Beth, “and boil them, like tea, but don’t drink too much, it's very strong. If you get to feeling dizzy, sit down a bit and rest.

Beth obediently took the herbs, “Do you know much of herb lore? I’ve always thought it would be interesting.”

“It is, but only the really smart people can do it,” she said, an impish grin curving her lips, “that’s why women do it!”

“Hey!” four voices objected.