Training was the only thing she…desired now.
There wasn’t anything else left but that, until she was ready. Ready to follow her father’s example, now that his warnings no longer mattered. The vengeance of the demons on her was already complete. They’d taken everything she’d known, and now…the world around her.
Elan felt like she was still in the Dreaming, like none of it was real.
The people Kaern had taken her to, they were nice but they weren’t real.
The demons, they were real.
With only nightmares left, Elan was ready to die.
Kaern’s words stayed with her, however, and she was willing to put off the inevitable until she had the capability, and the opportunity, to make the demons pay.
“Awake, child?”
Simone was looking in on her, causing Elan to snap out of her reverie.
“Yes,” Elan nodded stiffly. “I’m ready.”
“Ready?” Simone asked. “Ready for what?”
“To work,” Elan said, stating the obvious.
Simone nodded. “There is work to be done, but we’ll eat first. Work, and training, comes later. Get ready to meet the day, Elan.”
Elan nodded and pulled on the shirt she’d gotten in the old Redoubt, the smooth, soft material soothing as it draped over her. She hadn’t washed it…well, ever, but despite having bled on it, the shirt was still the cleanest thing she had. Elan didn’t know how that was possible, but she wasn’t above taking advantage of it either.
The morning meal was simple, but left her feeling ready to meet the day as Simone had suggested, and Elan went out with the others to get the morning’s work finished. Everyone participated, bringing water to the gardens and plucking the strangling weeds that would kill the edible plants. She was surprised at how little time it took to get the work put away, as they were finished up before the sun had risen more than a quarter mark.
With the day’s heat just starting to build, Simone called a stop to the work.
“We’ll finish the rest in the evening,” she said, “after training. Caleb, why don’t you show Elan around in the meantime.”
Caleb nodded. “Sure, I can do that.”
Elan nodded as well, though with considerably less certainty.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to explore a little, or that she didn’t like the boy exactly, but Caleb…left her feeling odd. Elan had never known anyone her own age. Of course, she’d never really known anyone at all besides her parents, so it was all beyond her at the moment. Caleb, though, stood out.
She just didn’t know how, or why.
So she forced that discomfort aside and brushed the dirt off her skin along with what little dust had gathered on her shirt. A couple swipes of her hands and a shake of the fabric left the colorful material as clean again as the day she’d first put it on.
“Alright,” she made herself say aloud.
“Come on, then,” Caleb said. “We’ll do a quick tour and then go to the water when the sun gets up so we can cool off.”
“There’s a river?” she asked, curious. She hadn’t been paying much attention to…well anything really, when Kaern had led her to Simone’s land.
“Sure, but I mean the water,” Caleb said, gesturing.
Elan looked in the direction he was pointing and frowned. “What water?”
“What wa…?” he sputtered, half turning. “The blue? You know? Water? The sea?”
She narrowed her eyes, looking harder. There was a thick blue line of something out there, but for that to be water, Elan couldn’t even imagine just how much of the precious liquid there would have to be.
“So much…?” she murmured.
Simone laughed softly. “Yes, Kaern said you came from deep inland. That’s all water, and much more besides, but none of it will quench a thirst.”
Elan frowned, looking at her sharply. “Poisoned?”
“Not as such,” Simone said with a hint of a sad smile. “Experience with that?”
Elan shook her head. “No, but my father’s stories…”
“Of course.” Simone nodded before going on. “Well, no, it’s not poisoned. The water is saltwater, enough to make you sick if you drank it, but it would not kill you unless you were very determined. The rivers and streams are fresh. Caleb can show you which ones are safe.”
She nodded. “Thank you both.”
Simone just waved them off, and Elan and Caleb started walking in the general direction of the great blue band in the distance. They were silent for a while, until his curiosity got the best of him and he half turned to her.
“Did you really come from inland?”
Elan glanced at him, surprised to see that there was a look she didn’t really recognize on his face, along with hints of looks she did know. Fear, wonder, curiosity. She nodded curtly in response. “My mother raised me there, away from the demons, until my father came.”
“No one goes inland,” Caleb said softly. “Even the bandits and demons don’t go out into the desert. I didn’t think anyone could live out there.”
Elan considered those words for a moment. “My father says…” She paused, wincing as she corrected herself. “My father said that humans were an adaptable people. We can cut out a life anywhere we choose, if we just put our minds to it.”
Caleb laughed softly. “Simone says that too. Even she’s never gone far inland, though.”
Elan nodded, her mind mostly elsewhere.
“It’s dry,” she said finally. “Mother said that it was harsh, but I don’t know a lot about that. I just know that it was home.”
“Well, come on,” Caleb told her. “I’ll show you the sights, then we can go swimming when the heat is on us.”
Elan nodded and followed him willingly and even with a little building eagerness. Everything was so…new.
*****
She’d underestimated just how new it was, Elan found in short order.
The people, the sheer number of people, staggered her. There were dozens. No, hundreds! They were crowded in on each other in a way that made her shiver at the thought, which caused her to hang back when Caleb went haggling for some food from someone he saw. She just waited on the periphery for him to get back and was surprised…pleasantly, but still surprised, when he offered her some of the snack he’d procured.
“Thank you,” Elan said, accepting the fried meat and bread.
“No problem,” Caleb said with a grin, popping a piece of his into his mouth as they started to walk away from the market. “You okay? You look a little…I dunno, pale?”
“I have never…I didn’t know that so many people existed,” Elan confessed quietly. “I don’t know how to…”
She stumbled over her words, uncertain what to say as they continued on. She didn’t even know how to say that she didn’t know what to say, if that made any sense. It didn’t make much to her, frankly, so she just fell silent again.
“Really?” Caleb asked, puzzled. “Wasn’t that many there today. You should see it on a holiday celebration!”
Elan shivered. It got more crowded than that? She didn’t think she could really handle that.
“I don’t think I want to,” she said after a moment’s thought. “I...if that’s okay, I mean.”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Again, Elan found herself completely unable to respond. She was realizing with every passing word they exchanged just how completely ignorant and unprepared she was for the life she had now fallen into. She just wanted to go back home, with Momma and Pappa.
Caleb had moved on ahead of her, and she was thankful for that, as she felt tears well up in her eyes despite every attempt to quell them. Elan shifted slightly behind him as they walked, staying out of his line of sight as much as she could.