(Continued directly from part one)
With no hope of having anywhere to stay to sleep or rest, the two travelled in silence in the cold, waiting to see the night out and hopefully the snow away. Aware that Sefa was poorly dressed for such an occasion - the girl wearing a woollen dress, dyed to a dark brown shade; a pair of brown leather boots and a fur shoulder piece – he pulled off his cloak and wrapped it over her shoulders, protective of his little niece. The two trudged on in silence, Sefa strangely accepting of the strange situation she had found herself in. From the snippets of eavesdropped conversation she had heard, it was evident that her uncle had begged her father leave to take his daughter away for a while. Of course, to start with their had been a great deal of rowing between the two brothers but eventually they had settled into a more reasonable, if somewhat tense, discussion, regarding Horfryth’s absence, Sefa, her brother Denith, and the welfare of various other members of the family, idle chatter with little meaning and purpose. Still, the discussion culminated in a conclusion that both wished for Horfryth to take Sefa under his wing for a few weeks, leaving the doted Denith alone under the care of his parents.
So there they were; traversing their weary way through the night. Slowly, the rosy-fingered dawn started to poke her shy head up from the horizon, stretching her crimson arms up as though to embrace the oncoming day, her arms breaking through the layers of nimbostratus clouds, parting them and the snow they bare in a gentle manner, as though she is parting a tempestuous veil of night. Her brightness radiated down onto the travellers, bathing them in light which gradually brightened as the day wended its slow way into existence, dazzling their eyes as it reflected off the snow that carpeted the ground.
Horfryth paused to admire the winter wonderland that surrounded them, his small niece coming to a halt beside him and glancing up at her uncle, taking a closer look at him with a quizzical stare. Suddenly, he turned to her and reached forwards to ruffle her hair in an unprecedented burst of affection, delighting in the giggles his action was met with. Speaking in his gruff voice, he addressed her in as gentle tones as he could muster for her, speaking Westron rather than Dalish; aware of how little her Father liked his native tongue;
“I think we should make some sort of camp now Sefa. Have some food, a nap and then travel on during the afternoon until we can have a proper sleep at night. What do you say?” He tilted his head to the side a little in a quizzical manner as he questioned her.
“Sounds good to me! Where will be going?”
Her chirpy voice replied as he started to slowly pull a bulging travelling pack from beneath his cloak, casting it down on the ground and moving to unpack some of the contents. He set to constructing a make-shift tent for the two of them to offer a little shelter from the cold, chattering idly to her as he worked.
“We’ll be going to the Lake-Town. You know of it?”
“I’ve heard of it for sure! Aint it that place where the dragon were supposed to have been slain and that?”
Sefa had oft heard tales of the dragon that had roamed her homeland, particularly when sat upon the knee of her beloved Granny M. These tales had inspired her to many games of childish innocence in her younger days and to her own creativity and contemplation in her more recent childhood so that she dwelt upon the theme often and would find herself scolded in her quest for more knowledge on this theme. Still, it rarely put her off from asking and it made her uncle smile for it as he finished the makeshift tent and cast a few blankets inside it, ushering the girl within and following her.
“So the tales say, but that was before my time. Now then, let’s see what we can have for some breakfast hmm?” Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a small package which he opened with great care. Inside was a perfect pie, its golden crusts gently crumpled at the edges with a few narrow slits in the centre. Baked to perfection, it radiated the care and attention that must have gone into its creation. The girl’s eyes lit up at the sight, causing him to smile as he unsheathed a hunting knife from his boot and used it to skewer down, neatly severing the pie into two even pieces, careful not to allow the gravy soaked innards to spill out onto his hand as he carefully picked a piece up, giving it to Sefa. Munching away at the cold pie hungrily, she grinned, unused to such lavished attention from an adult the age of her parents. The two ate in silence, enjoying the taste of the pie as much as they enjoyed the mere sight of it. Its innards filled with gravy, chunks of meat and fresh vegetables so that it tingled on the taste buds with its goodness. Licking the last remnants of gravy from her fingers, the girl wiped them on her dress before curling up on the blankets, fatigue finally starting to claim her. Horfryth picked up a blanket and tucked her in it, content to stay awake so that she may rest, watching as her large blue eyes slowly closed in sleep and she drifted off into a well-earned rest.
