Bow and Sparrow

CH 11

The camp was alive and I could feel the energy thrumming through the air. Usually, Rylan and I would eat between the soldiers' schedules and now I wondered if he did that on purpose to keep us from running into too many people. The sun had already set and there were torches lit every few feet. The air smelled of sweat and my short cut hair clung to my neck.

I stuck close to Rylan's side as we walked. I hadn't seen so many soldiers in one place since I've been here, but tonight it seemed like they were everywhere I looked. Even though most kept a wide berth around us, I could feel their stares lingering on me. I anxiously twisted a short strand of hair around my finger.

"What's the occasion?" I asked Rylan as we approached the dining hall. The yeasty aroma of fresh bread poured from the open doors and hung heavy in the air.

"It's the spring equinox. The men tend to make a big deal about it." Rylan sounded like he didn't approve of the grandeur, but I liked the idea and my stomach agreed.

The spring equinox. I counted backwards in my head and a knot formed in my chest. It had been a full month since I was home. I hadn't realized just how much time had passed. Only yesterday, it felt like I was on the roof with Ayla and enjoying the warmth from the sunset. I worried for her and whether she was taken care of.

"You didn't mention that earlier."

"I try not to encourage them." Of course he wouldn't. Rylan frowned more often than he smiled, and he certainly didn't seem the type to do anything for fun. It's only by chance that I happened to find his poems the other day so at least I had somewhat of an insight into the man that walked beside me.

We passed through the double doors of the dining hall and the tables were packed with soldiers. I kept my head down but nobody seemed to pay us much attention. Maybe it had something to do with whatever was in their mugs the soldiers were chugging.

Armed with dumplings and bread -it was still warm from the oven- Rylan led us to an empty table near the back. I spotted Knox amongst the crowd, sandwiched between two beefy looking men but he had a wide grin on his face as he enjoyed his meal. He did a double-take when he saw me, cheeks puffed out with food, but he gave me a thumbs up. If my hands hadn't been full, I might've waved but I settled on a small smile instead.

His interaction caught the attention of those sitting around him as they wildly looked around. The rambunctious talk died down as table by table, the soldiers watched us walk by. I tried to hold my head high, eyes trained on Rylan's back in front of me.

I sat at the very end of the abandoned table closest to the wall, and Rylan, much to my surprise, took the seat next to me. He glared at the tables next to us, and they begrudgingly went back to their own conversations.

"You would think they would've gotten over it by now." Rylan grumbled. He picked up his roll and tore a chunk off of it with his teeth, glaring at anyone who dared look in our direction.

"Over what?"

"You." He spoke around the food in his mouth.

Duh. It seemed I was forming a habit of making a fool out of myself. I didn't respond and busied myself with the bowl of dumplings in front of me. Just as I had decided to not open my mouth anymore for the rest of the night, the table shook as the bench across from us screeched across the floor.

"Well look who it is." The man was massive and his body took up three spots on the bench. I was shocked that I recognized him. He was the same man from the training grounds that tried to 'teach' me how to shoot a bow. He held a bowl in each of his large hands and when he plopped down across from us, I worried for the integrity of the bench that groaned beneath his weight.

Rylan let out a deep sigh and instead of sending this man away -he had acted cold towards almost everyone else I've seen- he introduced us, waving a hand between me and the large man. "Nori, this is Iskander."

"You can call me Anders." Iskander -Anders- grasped my hand from across the table and just as I'd thought it would be swallowed whole in his fist, he gave it a firm shake.

"Nice to meet you, Anders."

Anders seemed nice enough. Though he was an intimidating man, he smiled easily. He was a foreigner from Fraossau, the country that bordered Rezantri to the north, but his parents brought him to this country when he was little to escape the frozen wastelands that took up most of Fraossau. He assured me that both of his parents were equally as large. I was inclined to believe him.

He was lieutenant, right below Rylan who held the highest rank in camp. I had already guessed he was the one running things around here based on his private quarters and how most soldiers steered clear of him. Anders seemed like the only one that gave Rylan much of a challenge.

As more soldiers filed in through the doors of the dining hall, I forgot all about the stares from the other tables. A pair of white-haired twins sat next to Anders. One was a carpenter and the other was a smith, and one of them was missing two fingers on their left hand. Their names were Haiden and Haigen, though I couldn't guess which. What kind of mother did they have to give them those kinds of names? One of the twins was rattling on about a new discovery.

"We're actually working on a pretty impressive project right now. It involves this new powder we've experimenting with-"

"I'm sure Lady Nori doesn't want to hear about your powders, Haigen." Anders waved a giant hand, cutting off the twin with missing fingers. He insisted on calling me Lady even after I told him several times not to. Now he said it with a wide grin on his face.

I hid my disappointment behind my cup, taking a long sip of the room temperature water. Not that I was trying to gather information from them. It was just my natural born curiosity that had once forced me to develop a habit of eavesdropping at my father's door. Before I could set my cup back down, it was snatched from my hand.

Anders raised my cup to his nose and took a swig, slamming it down on the table as he swiped an arm across his lips. A little water splashed onto the table. "You're holding out on the good stuff, Capt'n."

I looked between Anders and Rylan, brows furrowed. The twins were stifling their laughter. Anders held his own cup out to me. Gingerly taking the cup, I raised it to my lips and recoiled from the bitter smell that stung my nostrils. Rylan watched with one eyebrow raised in a challenge.

I straightened my shoulders, and took a big gulp. The ale burned like acid down my throat. I coughed, the cup clattering against the table. "That was nasty," I said as warmth pooled in my belly.

Anders whooped, throwing his hands in the air and the twins roared with laughter. I peeked at Rylan from the corner of my eye and he returned it with a wink.

"Where are you from, Lady Nori?" I refrained from rolling my eyes as Anders leaned his forearms on the table, narrowly missing the Haiden's bowl of dumplings at his elbow. Haiden muttered under his breath, snatching the bowl from Anders' reach.

"Dast."

"What do they have there?"

"Farmers."

Anders let out a booming laugh, thumping his hand on the table. Everything Anders did was dramatic and exaggerated or maybe it only seemed that way because of his size. "My cousin is a farmer. Scrawny bastard." I found it hard to believe there was anything scrawny about his family. Anders probably thought an oak tree was scrawny.

We walked out of the dining hall at the end of the night with full bellies and flushed faces. Anders linked his arm with mine and I had to walk on my tiptoes to keep up with him. The twins walked ahead of us, their heads together in a heated debate about something that I had long since lost interest in once I couldn't keep up with their rapid jargon. They were odd, but I was entranced by how the moonlight reflected off their white hair. I breathed in a lung full of warm, spring air and looked to the heavens. Even the stars had made an appearance tonight.

"We should get you back." Rylan said from my other side after I had tripped over my own feet for the third time. But I didn't hear him. I was focused on something else. On the edge of camp, torchlights glowed and somebody was chanting.