Chapter Six: The Second Game

That day was the beginning of a great adventure. Before, the trip had been a nightmare. Now that Evie had her best friend. She knew things would be okay. Despite that, things got harder right away. They hadn’t gone any farther that day because Trevor and Bridget needed some rest. They relaxed for the evening and caught up on the parts of the journey each group had missed. The discussion didn’t last long because Bridget fell asleep sitting up on the log and Trevor wasn’t doing much better. Evie helped to set up camp and put her cousin to bed. She went to bed early as well. The whole thing felt quite overwhelming and she had the impression tomorrow wouldn’t be much better.

The next few days were better, if only because Evie had company. Elder Banied explained in the morning that they were going into the woods to hide. They had already reached the end of the road and so they could not take the cart with them. Bridget groaned loudly at that. Evie was sure she’d already walked more on this trip then she had the rest of her life. Watching the Elder’s horse run off toward home, Evie suddenly felt very isolated. When she asked if the Elder knew where he was going, he said absently that she would have to trust him.

For three days the journey continued without any exciting developments. Evie and Bridget walked through the woods after Elder Banied. Trevor and Anna walked side by side, but they did not talk much. Early the second morning Bridget had walked over to talk to Trevor, but had come back in a huff after he yelled that he didn’t need the company of anyone like her. However Bridget had felt about souray when she discovered the truth about Trevor, Evie was pretty sure she didn’t like them anymore.

Evie never tried to talk to the boy. Every once in a while she caught him scowling in her direction, but when she returned his gaze he looked away very quickly. After her first attempt at talking to him, Bridget seemed to decide that Trevor didn’t exist at all. It took a few hours for her to stop acting hurt, but as soon as she was back to her old self, things started getting fun, despite the hard walking.

With the summer nearly at an end, there was usually a cool breeze to calm down the heat of the forest. When they weren’t on a particularly rocky hill or struggling through a muddy spot, Evie and Bridget would speculate on the magical places they could see now that they had left home. The mystery of why Trevor’s dad had come after Evie was still very alive in Bridget’s mind. She liked to make up stories about Evie’s dad (since she already knew there wasn’t anything unusual about her mom). Evie laughed, and sometimes joined in, but she wasn’t as creative as her friend.

Those first days were pleasant, until late in the afternoon of the third day. They were cleaning up from a short stop for lunch. They stopped each day, more because everyone needed a little break than because the dried foods they ate required stopping. Elder Banied carried the food in a pack he fastened to his shoulders since they had abandoned the cart. Every once in a while, on the road, the Elder stopped moving so everyone could collect plants or wild berries that he added to the stores of food in his pack.

Trevor never took part in the gathering of food. He didn’t help clean up after meals either. It seemed like everyone was determined to ignore his arrogant behavior, for which Evie was grateful. It was entirely possible that Bridget would have tried to attack him if she hadn’t been pretending he didn’t exist. Today, however, things got a bit out of hand.

They found a dry clearing surrounded by huge trees. Bridget didn’t even ask permission to pull one of the blankets from the pack she was carrying. She laid it out on the ground for her and Evie to sit on. The Elder had only tightened his lips when he saw. He didn’t like getting things out before bed. He thought it wasted time. Today, however, he didn’t complain where anyone could hear and the picnic was a good rest.

Trevor sat on the other side of the clearing, alone. When time to clean up came, the Elder called for Trevor to help him retie the food pack so it would fit on his back. Shocked, Trevor scowled at Elder Banied and shouted, “I am not suited for menial labor of that kind, make the girl do it.” The way he gestured might have meant Bridget or Evie, but Bridget obviously thought it was meant for her because her face went red with anger as soon as he said it. Evie half expected her cousin to tell Trevor off. Instead she lowered her head and looked ashamed for a minute. That didn’t make sense! She wasn’t the one acting like a spoiled child!

Something inside Elder Banied snapped, because his always calm voice became an angry shout, “BOY! I am tired of your behavior. You have been a terror since the day you left your father. I am not quite sure he will want you back, but I will leave you here for him to find, if he can, unless you come over here and tie this pack immediately!” The last word came out like a roar.

The Elder watched long enough to see Trevor start toward him and then turned back to his pack. Trevor didn’t head directly to the Elder. He walked around the edge of the camp so that his route took him over to Evie and Bridget. Without a word he wiped his dirty boots on their blanket and threw a handful of spit-covered nutshells onto Bridget’s lap. With that, he headed over to help Elder Banied.

Evie didn’t know what to do. She wanted to teach the boy some manners, but fear stopped her. She thought that Bridget might. Bridget always had more courage than her. Glancing back toward her friend, warily, she expected to see her readying for battle. Instead, though, Bridget stared down at her lap with unshed tears gathering in her big blue eyes. Evie gaped. This simply wasn’t like her. When kids dared to be mean to her back home she pulled some nasty prank. She never let it upset her this way. She was way too strong for that.

Anna yelled for the girls to get the mess cleaned up so they could head on. Bridget closed her eyes for a minute. A few tears leaked down her cheeks. Then, she silently stood and started cleaning first her trousers and then the blanket.

It wasn’t easy. The girls had no extra clothes for this journey. The last few nights they had washed themselves with a dry cloth because “water doesn’t grow on trees,” as Elder Banied had put it. They passed a few streams while walking and rinsed off in them, but the water froze their hands numb and they didn’t get very clean. Covered in mud and filth, they felt only a little worse than they had after playing in the forest back home. At first it didn’t bother the girls that much. Today, however, they had both decided that they wouldn’t complain a single word about being sent off to bathe. The blankets weren’t doing much better. Silently, Evie wished that wherever the Elder was dragging them would have a lake or a bathtub.

The immediate problem was Bridget. As soon as they began walking again, Evie glanced over at her friend hoping she was in the mood to talk. That boy irritated her like no one she’d ever met before. How could he be so cruel? And why didn’t Bridget just laugh it off, like she would have with anyone else? For some reason this boy just seemed to get under her skin. Evie decided to give talking a try, “Bridget, don’t let him get to you.”

Silence answered. She tried again, “I don’t understand why what he thinks bothers you so much. He’s just a dumb boy. You used to eat those for breakfast.” Bridget looked at her for a moment. Evie thought she might smile at the memory of teaching some snotty boy a much deserved lesson. Instead she looked down again.

After a minute, she spoke, quietly. “I’ve never met a souray before. I didn’t know they hated us so much.”

Evie didn’t know what to answer. She still felt butterflies in her stomach when she thought about her own background. After a few more minutes of silence, she hoped with all her heart Bridget would agree with what she said next, “I think souray are just like the rest of us. I think some are nice and some are not. What about James? He needs his butt kicked, but you don’t think to hate all ray because of him.” About their age, James always had his nose in the air because his parents were traders and traveled to surrounding villages. They often brought him things that no one else had ever seen before.

This had the effect Evie was hoping for. Bridget smiled and said, “He hasn’t held his nose so high since his hair turned pink.” She very nearly laughed. Evie did too. Only a few months ago James had come over to show them his fancy soap brought all the way from the city. Only it wasn’t like any soap the girls had ever seen. It was a liquid in a bottle and made to use only on your hair. Aunt Abby worked as a seamstress and had collected a few dyes to use on the plain thread or material she sewed with. Evie didn’t know if James suspected that they had put dye in his soap or if he really thought his parents had bought a defective product, but his obnoxious tendencies slid into quiet embarrassment since his once yellow hair changed to bright pink.

Everything went better after that. At least Bridget returned to her normal, vibrant self. They laughed about home and remembered some of Bridget’s other marvellous pranks. In fact, Evie’s cousin had even more energy than normal. Sometimes she ran out into the forest away from the party. She would return giggling madly. Evie guessed she wanted to show Trevor that he would not slow her down.

That evening after the meal, Trevor went aside while everyone else set up camp. Evie very nearly growled. She had hoped he would be better to deal with since Elder Banied came down on him earlier. She looked carefully for Bridget, to see how she reacted to the situation, but she didn’t see her.

She noticed the Elder, however. He looked like he was heading over to talk to Trevor, but Anna pulled him aside and they began to fight quietly. Evie didn’t have to wonder what it was about. She was sure Anna was defending Trevor’s laziness. That odd woman did everything Trevor asked of her! It was so strange. Evie had always been taught that you had to respect and obey anyone older than you. People naturally deferred to the older because they had so much more experience. She could not understand why Anna would obey a boy young enough to be her son.

She didn’t wonder long because Bridget reappeared. Across the camp from her cousin, she carefully set up Trevor’s blankets! Evie sighed. She hoped Bridget would get over thinking that Trevor was better than her. The boy’s obnoxious arrogance made him impossible to live with as it was. He didn’t need someone else obeying him. When Bridget scurried over to Evie, she acted very anxious to get into bed.

“Hurry, Evie.” she said. “I want to get as much sleep as I can tonight.” It startled Evie to hear such a thing from her cousin. Bridget’s tendencies to stay up all night had gotten the two of them into trouble more times than Evie could count. But, she snuggled into her blankets anyway. The day of hard walking took its toll and she felt sleep creeping up after all. The others still moved about the camp when Evie drifted off to sleep. Laying down had showed her how truly tired she really was.

A few minutes later, before she could begin dreaming, she awoke to a blood-curdling scream from across the camp. Instinctively, she jumped up, only to feel a hand on her leg. She looked down at Bridget, still snuggled into her blankets. “Don’t worry, Evie.” She said with a yawn. “They were only harmless wood lizards. And I could only find thirteen of them today. I think he’ll survive.” Her lips curved maliciously, but she turned it into a deliberate yawn.

Evie smiled. So that was what she had been up to all day. That certainly explained why Bridget had been happy to set out a bed for Trevor. Where had she been hiding them? It didn’t matter. The thought of thirteen wood lizards climbing all over that snot boy made Evie think she would have pleasant dreams. And besides, Bridget was going to be fine. She just proved that. Evie fell into deep sleep thinking that everything was finally going well.