Chapter 4 - Chapter III

I shall never eat again, Meg thought to herself as she rolled over onto her back. The sun had just begun to rise, and Meg, thinking on what had made her wake so early, realized that this was the perfect time to start on her Naming Gift to Mari.
Dressing quickly, Meg crept soundlessly from her tent and nearly bumped into Stealth, who had been chewing a patch of grass right outside her tent flap.
-What are you doing/being out here at this time?- she sent, doing up the clasp on her cloak.
-I could inquire/ask the same question/query to you. I was coming to see/listen/find if you were awake/risen yet.-
-And I was going to locate/find Hawk, Mari and Lynx’s mother, Shira. As you can see/find, I am awake/risen,- Meg said absently, tying a red sash around her waist. The activities the night before had taken its dirty toll on her normal garments, so she had to wear a simple white dress with sandals and a sash, though Meg left the sandals, preferring to go barefoot.
-I saw/met her in her tent on my way here,- Stealth said hopefully, earning a scratch behind his ears.
-Thanks Stealth/MoonRider.-
Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard to find Shira in the sea of tents, as hers had newly dyed and coloured cloths hanging outside, drying in the breeze.
“Shira?” Meg called.
“Meg dear, is that you? Oh do come in,” came the reply, and when Meg entered, she found the mother seated on her pallet, chatting to two other women, one of them she recognized as Maple, Hasim’s wife, the other, she did not know.
“Meg this is Maple and Isha. Maple, Isha, this is Aral, my children’s friend.”
Meg could see the look on Hawk’s face if he heard his mother refer to him as a child, and had to swallow a giggle.
“Now, what brings you to my tent child, and so early in the morning, not that I mind of course. We were just sowing some winter clothing.”
“Actually, I would like to learn how to sow myself. I never learnt it where I came from, and I want to make Mari something special for her Naming Gift,” Meg said, aware that Isha’s eyes widened slightly at the mention she didn’t know how to sow.
“Well, you certainly have come to the right people,” Shira said, smiling, and moved over to make room for Meg.
By the time the sun had fully come up, Meg had started the beginning of a rather lovely belt-scarf. Shira had provided with violet cloth and gold thread, and had helped her mark out a pattern to embroider. All in all, Meg felt quite proud of herself.
“Meg! MEG!” Hawk came running up to, clutching a stitch in his side, and stood there, panting and gasping for his breath for a whole minute, before he could deliver his message, which turned out to be from Hashin, to meet him in Mari’s tent.
Thanking Hawk, Meg sped off, ducking into her own tent to hide the embroidery, then jogged up to Mari’s tent, pausing a second to compose herself before going in.
Meg was surprised at the dimness of the tent. Normally, the flap was always thrown wide open, letting the sunlight stream in, but not, the flap was tied down, and Hasim and Mari sat waiting for her in the middle of the floor space.
“Welcome Meg, I am please you received my message in time.” He motioned for her to sit next to Mari.
Both girls exchanged looks, and Meg could tell that her friend was as confused and excited as she was.
“The time has come, and tonight, the Caravan will back the wagons, and we will begin the ride to the glaciers for your Naming Ceremonies. It is a sacred tradition, carried out since this Caravan came into existence. When we arrive at the glaciers, I will instruct you on what you must do, and until then, enjoy being a child, for after the ceremony is preformed, you will have entered adulthood.”
Hasim’s speech sent an uncooperative shiver down her spine.
“Now, Marietta, you may leave, but I would like a private word with you Meg.”
Meg looked pleadingly at Mari as her friends stood, giving a sympathetic look that said ‘sorry’, and walking out, closing the tent flap once more as she left.
“Meg.” Hasim’s old face was lit by a single candle, and the lines that spread on his skin looked deeper. “After this, you will have been accepted as a Gypsy. You will take on our responsibilities, our faith and our punishments if we are discovered by the Rulers. But you will also still carry your past identity as a sorceress, and you will have to go back to your original village. I have already spoken to Hawk, Lynx and Marietta about this matter, and they have agreed to take this journey with you. You will travel as Gypsies and take one of the wagons. The Elders also agree with this, and they say that once you have been named, you must go forth within a three-moon. Your responsibility is high, and so much risk is not always good for a young person, even one as talented as you. Do you want to take this on?”
Meg considered this, her insides clenching and unclenching. Hasim had spoken what she knew was the truth. She knew she had to return to the village, though to stay and continued her work as she had done before was hard to imagine, after all she had been through. She would make that decision when she came to it. Taking a deep breath, Meg calmed herself. “I will take on what you have said, and finish what I have started.”
Hasim smiled. “I knew that would be your answer.” He sighed, looked older than he was. “Take my blessing and those of your friends with you for the rest of your life, and good luck with you Naming.” He stood, bowed and left with a sweep of his robes.
Meg was left in silence, before she stood and exited as well. Mari was waiting for her, twisting her small hands nervously.
“What happened? What did he say?” she asked, but Meg would not utter a word on the matter. Giving up, Mari returned to her tent to pack, and Meg to hers.
She pondered all that she had seen and heard in her time at the Caravan as she packed, folding her belongings -three spare changes of clothing, weapons, Mari’s Naming Gift, Hawk’s gift to her, and a few other objects- into Stealth’s new saddlebags. Whistling as she came out again, she watched the other Gypsies chat and collect their possessions, tying them onto their own horses.
When Stealth trotted up to his mistress, he sensed her mood and kept quiet, standing still as Meg attached the saddlebags.
-You are/feel elsewhere/preoccupied,- the stallion said softly, braking the prolonged silence between the two.
Meg sighed, smoothing Stealth’s smooth black mane that had been plaited like the other Gypsy horses.
-It is nothing/nothing,- she replied, shaking herself mentally and physically, mounting up and waiting. Other did the same, a soon the whole Gypsy Caravan started to move forward. Cheer’s erupted from the people around her as they exited Gypsy Forest, heading in the opposite direction of Anakoe forest, and cutting around Hergine village which accompanied Gypsy Forest.
The moon hung low by the time Gypsy Forest had faded into a tiny speck in the distance, and a cold wind swept over the grassless plains that the Caravan now travelled on.
Mari caught up to Meg on Sunny, and the friends were soon joined by Hawk on his pale grey gelding Blitzen, and Lynx on his own chestnut mare Tashi.
“Come on,” Hawk said. He looked like he was enjoying himself. “Alec and his brother want to test how fast Stealth is. Coming?”
Meg followed Hawk, trailed by Mari and Lynx, to where Alec and his brother Davyd stood, their mounts waiting quietly.
“So this is the infamous sorceress!” Alec cried. Like Hawk, he was jolly. Or maybe that’s the effects of the tankard of ale he drank before we left, Meg thought, but grinned and nodded. “I first saw ye’ when Hawk came walking into the camp wi’ a black horse trainlin behind ‘im. Slung across the horse’s back ye’ were.”
Meg blushed, averting her eyes to the road ahead.
Hawk gripping Blitzen’s reigns. “Ok, ready, set go!”
Both Alec and Davyd jumped ahead, their mounts springing into action, followed by Lynx, Mari and Hawk, and lastly Aral.
-Come on Stealth/MoonRider show them you acceleration/speed!- Meg sent, and Stealth thundered joyfully head, lengthening the distance between her and the others. “Each my dust!” she called over her shoulder, laughing.
“Alright! We forfeit!” Hawks voice carried to her ears, and Meg turned Stealth around. She dodged Hawk’s hand as he took a playful swipe at her. “You should know I would rather each mud than forfeit to a girl!” he yelled as he and Blitzen raced ahead of them.
“Cheater!” Meg called after him, and she and Stealth began to move again, catching up in no time al all.
“I win! I win against a sorceress and her devil horse!” Hawk yelled, raising his fist in the air with triumph.
-Dump him,- Meg instructed Blitzen.
-Gladly/Happily- the horse sent back in good humour, rearing and shaking Hawk off, dropping him on a grassy patch by a stream.
“No fair!” Hawk complained. Sitting up, and glaring at Meg, then waggling his eyebrows.
“But I still win don’t I? Oof!”
Meg jumped on him, and probed for his ticklish spot. She found it at the back of his neck, and began to tickle him furiously.
Tears of laughter were running down Hawk’s face.
“Alright! Alright! ALRIGHT!” he gasped between breathing and laughing.
“Do you yield?”
“Yes, yes! I yield! Now stop it!”
Laughing, Meg let go of him. Both lay panting on the grass, Hawk on his elbows watching as the Caravan began to catch up to them.
“Have you ever thought what would have happened if no one had found you?” he asked suddenly, turning on his side so he could see Meg’s face.
“Yes,” she said softly. “I wouldn’t be here today.”
Hawk smiled, reaching up to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear. His hand was calloused, yet warm. Why am I thinking of his hands? Meg thought, and looked away, watching the Caravan to give herself something to do.
Hawk gently took her chin and turned her head. There was a moments silence as Hawk looked into her emerald eyes, and she into his hazel ones.
“You shouldn’t have ridden off like that! Mother’s been worried!”
Lynx rode up, so suddenly, he could have just appeared out of the air. Meg and Hawk sprang apart, startled.
“Why would mother worry? It’s not as if I never did it before,” Hawk retorted, stretching and getting to his feet.
Meg followed suit, but remained silent. If Lynx had noticed anything, he made no sign of it.
“Come on,” Lynx said, holding out Stealth’s and Blitzen’s reigns.
Mounting Stealth, Meg asked, -You were watching/looking I suppose/guess,-
-I was actually speaking/talking/chatting with Blitzen/SnowDancer,- the horse sent back, sounding amused. Meg accepted his story, and didn’t harp on it.
The threesome and their horses waited by the stream as one by one, the Gypsy wagons pulled up, and riders dismounted all around.
Shira didn’t seem worried, and Meg wondered what Lynx had really been doing. She and Hawk had been so close…
“We’ll stop here for the night,” one of the Elders called out from his wagon. Judging by his smooth voice, Meg guessed he was the one Hawk had said was Eel. When she thought about it, it was funny how alike the Gypsies were to their Soul names.
That night, there was dancing and music as the first snowflakes fell. Winter had truly begun.
“Would our sorceress grace us with a song from her homeland?” Lynx asked, handing her a harp. Meg nodded, settling herself down amongst the musicians, consisting of Hawk on the fiddle, Lynx on the lute, Alec on the flute and Leon, yet another friend of Hawk and Mari’s, on the pipes.
Meg noticed that throughout the night Leon and Mari kept glancing and smiling each other, and Meg drew to the notion that Leon and Mari were sweethearts. She kept this to herself. Mari’s love life was none of her business.
Meg thought back. Her home village… no, she had long ago given up her identity from that time. Her mind drifted further forward to the place where she had learned to control her magic, and she began softly, a ballad, so much like her past in some words;

“All she ever wanted was freedom
To fly on high
With wings of silver
And a soul of gold

“All she ever wanted was love
To love someone
And have them love her back
An eternity together

“All she ever wanted was light
To hide from the darkness
And the jumping shadows
From an endless tunnel of doom and death”

Lynx picked up the sad tune, plucking a melancholy harmony.
The song went on for eleven more verses, until the final one came.

“All she ever wanted was gone
Lost forever
In the dark
In the depths
Without a trace
Without a gift
Leaving her alone
Leaving her
Alone
Alone…”

Her voice faded, and a cheer went up from the Gypsies, and Meg smiled, though her heart was heavy. The song always had that effect on her, but it was her favourite.
Biddings of farewell followed her to her make-shift tent, and without getting undressed, she lay down on her pallet, and fell into the rivers of dreamless sleep.

***

The next days of travel passed in a blur for Meg, too tired to do anything but ride, eat and what was required of her. She had finished Mari’s She felt drained of all strength. When she told Hawk this, his face creased in worry.
“You should see Hasim, or at least Mari,” he argued, but Meg kept on refusing, until on the last night she relented, and allowed Mari to see her in her tent.
Mari could find nothing physically wrong with Meg. “I think the journey is just taking its toll on you,” was all she could say. “If I transferred some of my power into you, would you accept it?”
Meg nodded, partly because she would hate to sit through the lecture Hawk would given her about ‘being ignorant’ and ‘too brave’ for her own good, and partly because she felt to terrible to protest.
Mari rested a soft hand on Meg’s forehead, and Meg let out a sigh of relief as coolness flooded her body, replacing the fatigue with energy, and, restlessness.
“I have to walk around, I can’t just lay here!” Meg protested when Mari suggested she should sleep.
“No,” Mari replied, her voice firm. “You must restore yourself to you full strength. Sleep, I will take care of your duties.”
Her voice echoed in Meg’s head, the command of sleep seemingly taking over her senses.
The rivers of sleep trickled through Meg’s mind, and she found herself sleeping, deaf and numb to the world around her.

***

“We’re here! We’re here!”
Meg was jolted awake, startled to find herself in a wagon, and that the sun was halfway across the sky.
“Did I sleep that long?” she asked, amazed, but no longer tired and washed out. She felt alive again! Not that she was ever dead.
“We’re here!” Mari repeated, popping her head into the wagon, exclaiming, “Meg, we’ve finally made it to the glaciers! Come and look! Don’t forget the cloak,” before popping out again.
Meg looked beside her, shrugging on a fur-lined cloak that had been neatly folded on the floor next to her pallet. As she stepped out from the wagon, she pulled it tighter around her body, shivering as the chilly wind but into her skin, but it was an exhilarating feeling.
“It’s like a Land of Ice!” Meg yelled to Hawk, who was turning cartwheels in the snow, laughing.
“It is isn’t it? Maybe that’s what we shall call this place; the Land of Ice! Has a nice ring to it too.”
Meg laughed, scooping up some snow and throwing it at Hawk.
“And so the journey to the Glaciers ends,” Hasim’s voice carried from the lead wagon. “We have arrived!”
And so the Gypsies called into the air, amid their laughter and songs, “We have arrived!”

***

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