Escort for the Hag

Escort for the Hag

Escort for the Hag

Gabriel Crayer tapped his foot impatiently, leaning on his pike while his horse ate oatmeal from a tin bucket outside the city.

He'd accepted a contract to escort some old bint from this little town of Tair's Folly to the city of Capurn. What was going to be a week's journey on horseback through rolling hills and heavy woodland.

She didn't fancy making the journey alone, and so she was paying for anyone to guard her during the trip.

And she was an hour late. Gabriel wanted to cover as much ground as possible while they had light, and that she was wasting it seemed like a waste ofhistime.

She better pay up.

He knew the sellsword's life wasn't an easy one, not all wine and winning, coin and cleavage. One could barely scrape by if the contracts were scant, so you couldn't be too choosy, and the contracts were shit. He knew that before he even offered his services, and he was only twenty-one. But he'd gotten some experience already.

Did that also mean having one's time wasted by an employer who, by what accounts he heard, was a bit of a stickler for punctuality?

They said she was a witch, in hushed tones. Here to pick up ingredients for sinister brews.

Gabriel didn't know what the truth was, only that she was supposedly well to do, and had good coin.

He pulled off his leather cap, running his hands through his copper-brown hair, normally straight but currently wavy and dishevelled from his training a little earlier, clinging to the almost olive-tone of his tanned skin, a product of his time outdoors. He had to make sure he was in good condition, always.

The stables outside the village were busy. Unlike many in these parts, the place wasn't walled, but it did have a big gate on the main road into town, bustling with activity as many travellers came through here, mostly selling trinkets, treasures, and quality fabrics coming from the river port town of Yoman, the Kellen River deep, wide, and leading all the way out to sea, so it was great for shipping.

It was probably why this old lady he was hired by was here, buying things of value she could not get elsewhere, not easily.

He sighed, and rubbed the neck of his chestnut horse, her creamy mane needing a good brushing.

He'd do that when they got to Capurn, if not before if they had a quiet moment on the journey.

Then, at last, his keen hazelnut eyes spied someone approaching who could reasonably fit the description of his employer, leading a brilliant white horse out of the town gate, the bridle made of fine leather, the studs shining like silver.

She herself proved more than a little eye catching; she was definitely middle aged, perhaps in her fifties, but she wasn't exactly a crone.

Curly black hair shimmered in the sunlight, caught by all the little coils of her voluminous head of hair.

Her face showed its age, but she must have been beautiful in her youth. Now, etched with her years, her chin and jawbone angular, her cheeks slightly sunken, and her nose pointy. But not nearly as wrinkled as Gabriel expected.

She had a slender build beneath a well-tailored red dress and black shoes not the most fit for a long journey. Dark green pants covered her legs down to her ankles, and she carried herself with a noble gait.

And like a noble, even if she wasn't, she had this haughty look about her, almost derisive, but not quite overtly contemptuous enough to draw the ire of those around her. Calm, and refined. But more than a little self-assured.

She had a chain hanging from her neck, a tear-dropped pendent the size of a strawberry resting at the top of her generous cleavage - and her dress didn'tquitecontain the curves she still possessed - a bright ruby stone, if not a genuine ruby, set in its centre. Small, silvery ear rings shaped like dew drops hung from her earlobes, the upper parts of her ears obscured by her hair.

There was a ring on her right index finger, what looked like genuine gold. On her left hand, she wore a bangle of silver, made of two interweaving wire-like lengths, and as she got closer, he realised they were styled like snakes devouring each other's tails.

She was without question classy. But as she laid hawkish green eyes on Gabriel, her expression turned to one almost of amusement.

"You are quite punctual, I see," she remarked with a faint smirk on her cherry-red lips, a gloss she no doubt applied habitually.

"Ma'am, you said you would be here at ten in the morning. I listened to the crier, and so I'm here. And now it's almost eleven."

"Indeed. I would have liked to have left at nine, but that was not possible. Ten was my compromise if I was not held up, but so I have been. Business, you see. Surely you do not object to waiting now? Is it not the mercenary's life to sit around and wait until something happens?"

Gabriel bit back a cutting remark, holding his tongue so he didn't lose this contract.

She might've had a point. Mercenaries, like soldiers, often just sat around twiddling their thumbs. For a lot of sellswords, those were thegoodcontracts.

But coming from her? In that way? It seemed so derisive.

"Now then, I will need your horse to carry some of the items I have purchased," she said, pulling off satchels hanging from her own horse's rump and bringing them over to his. "No point in weighing one horse down, when a shared burden will be better for them."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered, again holding his tongue. She was right, it didn't matter if one horse or the other was not weighed down and worn out by carrying all the cargo, because the one that was dictated the pace of the journey.

Again, her tone was simply so... haughty, and presumptuous.

He placed the satchel bags on the back of his horse, who whinnied in protest at the sudden added weight.

"It's alright, Lilac, it's alright. It's nothing too heavy," he assured the horse, who snorted in complaint, before going back to her oatmeal.

He made sure to fasten the bags properly.

"Do be careful, there are some valuable commodities in there. Worth as much as your contract, perhaps."

Gabriel did not answer, and simply gave the woman a foul glance as she headed to her own horse.

'Easy, Gabriel,'he thought.'Just do your job.'

Obnoxious or not, it wouldn't do well for his reputation to lack professionalism.

His client mounted her horse, and she trotted up next to him.

"Let us be away, and dawdle no longer." She leaned down and patted her horse. "Come Hector."

Again, Gabriel did not answer, though he did find it rich that she was worried about dawdlingnow.

After being an hour late to herown deadline.

He sighed, and led Lilac out of the stable, giving her a bit of carrot as a treat, before mounting her and leading her after his employer.

She looked back, that same haughty expression ever present on her face.

"Oh, and Mister Crayer, do please call me 'Madam Helena Juno', or simply 'Madam Juno', if you would. You didn't forget what I had penned on the hire request, did you?"

He sighed covertly.

"Yes, Madam Juno," he answered, his annoyance veiled behind professionalism. Thinly.

She was satisfied with this, and flicked her reins to urge her horse on, Gabriel doing the same and going after her.

The terrain outside of Tair's Folly was flat, for the most part, but he could see the hills in the distance, a good thirty leagues of rolling green with the occasional patch of bare rock and dirt where the side had become an escarpment.

Few trees grew up in this land, most capping the many hills that stretched before them.

The main road weaved through the hills, worn away by over a century of travel, beast and foot and cart leaving packed dirt to wind around the grassy humps, so at least the terrain wasn't that difficult. Just time consuming.

After that, it was the Highwood, a great, expansive forest, thick, and dense, but the canopy itself was quite thin, so sun shined through easily enough.

Though vast, the Highwood did not have much in the way of frightening stories or spooky legends to its name. It did supposedly hide a conclave of elves in its deepest reaches, but no one really knew for sure.

What was certain was the presence of bandits. Not many, the roads through the Highwood were patrolled, occasionally. But a few brigands liked to prey on travellers and traders on their way through the forest, using the trees as cover.

Then after the Highwood, it was open farmland and fields until a line of rocky crags that stretched for a hundred leagues north and south, but fortunately they only had to cross over it, not along it, to get to Capurn.

Regardless, it was going to be a week at best, and Gabriel hoped 'Madam Juno' would behave. Or at least not drive him crazy.

She had been rather quiet since leaving Tair's Folly, just keeping her eyes to the horizon, taking in the sights she's no doubt seen many times before, keeping a constant expression of subtly arrogant nobility.

There was no one around, but she surveyed the landscape like a Queen their own domain, pleased with all they owned.

This woman was just wealthy, and supposedly a witch. Certainly, she could look the part, but she was no hag.

At least, not on the outside.

And, if Gabriel was being honest, nor on the inside, no matter how annoying she got, just because she was haughty didn't make her a hag.

"Are you just going to stare at my back the whole way, Mister Crayer? There is a beautiful world around you to gaze at, a world that might hold hidden dangers. You wouldn't want to be ambushed now, would you?"

Though she was making itverytempting.

"We're barely two hours out of Tair's Folly, Madam Juno, there aren't any bandits out here."

"Have you made this trip before?" she asked almost knowingly.

"Well... only twice," he admitted. Most of his work had taken him north towards a little place called Granger Flow, a river town that had a rather large problem with petty thievery. Most of his jobs were guarding the local treasury and the banks, as there were a few in the town.

The trip between Tair's Folly and Capurn? That he hadn't done much. But he was still used to long travel.

"Well, I have made it many times, and I always take a moment to admire the beauty of the land. And it's allowed me to spot danger before some of my other escorts even, so do please be careful. This road is more treacherous than you may think."

She turned and smiled at him, almost smug, before humming a small, admittedly sweet tune to herself.

He growled under his breath. Once again, she had a point, but she just couldn't make it without sounding so... uptight.

But as if to really make her point, he looked to his left, and creeping through the gully between two hills was a dire wolf, its patchy fur a sign of many scars, from many fights.

Dire wolves were rare creatures, the great canines venturing out alone and often taking over packs of more common wolves, though this one appeared solitary.

He didn't expect to see such a creature in these parts, and though it seemed completely uncaring to their presence, so far away, he still clutched his pike that little bit tighter.

They had not left the hills behind by the time the night began to fall, though they were much smaller humps now, the land slowly flattening into a field. Just another day, and they would be at the Highwood, which would be a much longer journey.

A week was a long trip for anyone, there were probably ports closer to Capurn. But Madam Juno no doubt had her reasons, and Gabriel wasn't about to ask them, as long as he got what he was owed.

They pulled off the path, finding a nice depression with a flat base nestled between hillocks, a perfect sheltered place to set up camp.

"Hmm, cozy," Madam Juno remarked as she slipped off her horse. She grabbed a simple tent rolled up and carried on his haunches, and got to work setting it up.

At the very least, she seemed used to sleeping rough on the road.

"I hope you don't mind making the fire, I am terribly poor at it," she asked, in every way a 'polite' command.

"Yes Ma'am," he murmured as he got off Lilac, grabbing a bag behind all the cargo she was carrying, full of small cut twigs and a tinderbox, a kit to create a campfire. It wouldn't be big, there wasn't much to forage out here.

He had a spade with him, not much more than a trowel, and created a little pit in lieu of surrounding it with stones.

Before long, he was using flint and steel to ignite some of the tinder, and a little fire began to crackle away, offering a modicum of light as the sun began to set.

Satisfied with the fire, he got to setting up his own tent, nothing more than a lean-to made of sealed fabric. Madam Juno had a bit more shelter, but it was open at either end beneath the gabled fabric.

She laid out her bedroll, and sighed as she sat down on it, leaning backwards and rolling her head rearward. It was a rather youthful posture, and her age did not seem to bother her at all.

"I've done this a hundred times before, but it's always so wonderful, that first rest of a long journey," she said.

"Every rest on a long journey feels good," he answered as he laid out his own bedroll.

"Ah, the jaded view of youthful half-experience," she teased. "You've had a few knocks, and now you think you know all of life's cynical tricks."

"No, ma'am, I just don't think one rest is different from another, except the last one."

"So you think, but the first rest is the first step. The journey is only just beginning. You are not yet exhausted, you are not at that point where each sleep does not feel restful. The first rest will be your most comfortable sleep until the journey's end. And you will be able to enjoy the scenery so much more before the end. Of course, someone like me can admire it the whole way."

She had a knowing smirk on her lips, simultaneously smarmy and oddly beautiful.

Gabriel shook his head.

"I think I'll be fine, I'm always looking at the scenery anyways. It's my job, after all."

"Ah, yes. 'Keeping an eye out'... but you're not really admiring, are you? I suppose it is true, it is your job, and I did warn you to be vigilant. But that doesn't change the fact you are not enjoying what you see."

"Is that important to keeping a look out?" he asked as he pulled out some bread from his ruck, the brown loaf tough to cut with his knife, and so he washed it down with some water from his canteen.

"If you can do both, it will leave you with a calmer mind, and a clearer picture. You may notice more than you thought."

She proceeded to reach into a pack she had laid on the bedroll next to her, producing several sticks of jerky wrapped in cloth, taking one, and then pulling a small glass cup from it. And after, a small bottle of wine.

She poured herself a mouthful delicately, and sipped it between not-so-dainty bites of jerky.

Gabriel looked at her, and refrained from comment, finishing off his own dinner, before getting up to feed Lilac some oats in a pouch attached to the saddle.

She happily ate them, before returning to grazing.

"I'm going to keep watch. I'm going to ask that you also take the watch so I can get some rest," he commanded.

"You are asking an old lady to stir herself from her most vital sleep?" she joked sardonically. "Youth today have no manners."

She laughed, seemingly at his expense.

"Do not fret, I will endeavour to watch in your stead."

Another giggle, and she laid back on her bedroll, pulling out a book from that same pack, a lot stuffed in there for something as small as it was.

Gabriel shook his head, and moved to sit down on the grass at the edge of their little campsite, keeping an eye out for danger.

He didn't expect bandits, but that dire wolf made him wary of what might be lurking in these hills, and he hardly wanted to end up a snack in the middle of the night.

Nor did he want that for Madam Juno; he still needed to get paid.

Even if her yelping for help might just be a little satisfying.

He set those ideas aside and kept his eyes peeled, between moments checking on the horses and the fire. As the moon rose higher in the night and the fire died down, he gently shook Madam Juno awake in order to exchange watch.

She grumbled, not sounding so jovial as before, which admittedly gave Gabriel a bit of a smile, hidden of course.

So much for the 'first rest'. Now she'd know what it was like for him.

The night was uneventful, and they rose early in the morning.

As much as Gabriel was used to interrupted sleep, and despite her grumbling from being woken up, Madam Juno seemed rather energised. And bossy as usual.

"Let us not dawdle, we must away to make the most of the daylight hours."

The morning light was only just starting to gain its amber hues, still mostly pale half-light of dawn.

They packed up quickly, Gabriel burying the ashy remains of their little campfire, the only evidence they were there the patches of nibbled grass and the spot of dirt in place of the fire.

Soon, they were on their way again, meandering through the final part of the hills, and entering the plains between them and the Highwood.

The road stretched on for leagues, though it branched off here and there. They passed a farm, a farmer tilling the fields, paying them no mind. A cart came from the other way.

They even met a patrol of soldiers, though they seemed tired and grumpy, a feeling Gabriel could relate to. But again, no mind was paid between them, just travellers sharing the road.

It was otherwise quiet, and Madam Juno rarely made any remarks, preferring to hum to herself and take in the landscape. A few trees and copses were scattered about here and there, and they saw a little village off in the distance.

Time was well on their side, and Gabriel wondered if they were going to get to Capurn ahead of time.

Of course, in the distance, a line of green slowly formed from the murky blue of the horizon, steadily getting larger as they approached. The Highwood, in its great expanse.

There'd be plenty to forage in there, but they made sure to pack a bit more than a week's worth of food, just in case.

It was not easy to get lost in the Highwood, but it had a habit, so he heard, of slowing people down.

And when the reached the forest's edge, he watched as Madam Juno slid off her horse.

"We shall stop here," she said.

"What? I thought you wanted to make the most of the daylight?" Gabriel retorted, gesturing around.

"And I did, but it is afternoon now, and it would be best that we start early when we cross into the Highwood."

"So we're just wasti-- forget it, whatever you say," he muttered.

"I suggest you trust me on this. Like I have said, I have made this trip many times. I have some experience here you'll come to appreciate."

He wasn't so sure about that, but at least she didn't seem to get snippy with his attitude, which he was trying his best to get under wraps, but gods was it hard.

She just seemed... so unreadable, and inconsistent. Late to her first meeting, expects an early rise to make the most of the daylight, but stalls at the edge of the Highwood for reasons she deigned not to say.

He could've asked, but he didn't feel in the mood for it. He was just gonna do as he was told.

They set up camp quickly, pitching tents and getting a fire going, Gabriel able to make a bigger one, ringed with stones, by foraging at the forest's edge.

It was just endless birch and oak, among other trees he was less familiar with. Bushes filled the spaces between the trees, but there was quite a few rocks to find. He noticed the shattered remains of a boulder not far from where they were setting up camp, and noted a few more bald rocks just peeking out from the leaf litter.