Inheritance

Month 2 – Week 1

Dara – Horde Territory (or is it?)

The path was easy to follow, being wide enough for two, or three if they were small, people to walk abreast. There were even paving stones in a few areas that suggested this forest had once been more heavily settled. Probably before the treaty with the Orcs.

Dara was filthy with leaves, dirt, and unmentionable substances smeared all over her through carelessness and excitement despite the cleared path. She had every intention of bathing and washing clean in the first deep pool she found. There was no bathtub in her farmhouse so bathing in this stream would be the closest equivalent.

Time passed quickly as she trod onward through what had now become a tunnel in the trees encompassing both the stream and path. The woods now formed a wall on either side which she did not believe that she was capable of pushing through. It was darker there than earlier along the path as the growth had changed from the barren twigs swelling with new buds to the dense needles of evergreens.

Quite suddenly the branches overhead thinned, and Dara stepped out into sunlight. There was a pool. Just over the rise which a little waterfall fell from. There was no way to reach it from this side of the stream because of forest growth. But the path wound over a little bridge of land of questionable integrity.

Unseasonably green grass inter-grown with moss trailed off the little bridge into the stream, dancing slowly in the eddies beneath the tiny waterfall. Clutching her copied map firmly with the sudden worry she might drop it in the water, Dara took a deep calming breath. Then, she charged quickly over the bridge, in the hope that presenting her weight to it for as little time as possible would prevent any damage to it.

She rushed the last bit to the pool. There didn’t seem to be any stream beyond the pool. It must be spring-fed. The young woman thought to herself as she assessed her location.

Dara was in a meadow surrounding the spring. She could see no way out of the meadow as the walls of the forest closed off any access besides the path she had followed to arrive there.

The path ended in a large flat rock beside the pool. A rock large enough to act as a table or bed.

There was a grassy area past that on the forest side of the rock and a pebbly beach pool-side of the rock. Setting her belongings on the flat of rock and securing her map among them, Dara quickly gathered the driest tinder she could find and kindling as well.

It might have been unseasonably warm in this place at this high altitude, but she decided she would need a fire to dry off after her swim.

Yes!

Dara had stopped short in her gathering and straightened to stand as she realized she did intend to swim in this random spring she had just found. Why the hell not? There wasn’t anyone here to condemn her for impropriety. She couldn’t be accused of trying to seduce anyone by just minding her own business and doing what made her happy when there was no one around, to see and deliberately misinterpret her actions as intended for someone else.

With that realization, Dara felt lighter. A sodden, weary weight she’d been carrying so long she had forgotten it was there was suddenly removed from her shoulders. A giggle of absolute joy escaped her lips and Dara returned to her plan of building a fire to warm herself with after her swim.

Once her kindling and tinder were collected, larger sticks followed. All were stacked neatly on the leeward side of the large rock. Starting the fire in the lee of the waist-high boulder took a frustratingly long time even with the fire-starting kit she had brought with her.

She was aching to strip off her sweaty filthy garments and get clean. Eventually, a small flame crackled merrily, and she stripped off her mud-caked clothes scrubbing them with a fist-sized rock on the shallow shore of the enticingly deep pool.

Once the fabric was mostly clean it was draped over the rock to dry by the fire. Then it was Dara’s time to play. The water was cold.

Not so cold as it should have been, but colder than the air, and she had goose flesh covering her from head to foot as she dove into the blue-green water. It was deliciously invigorating and she stayed in the water until she had acclimated. By the time Dara stepped out of the depths, the sun was high in the sky.

Now that the day was warmer, she could be comfortable beside the fire while her clothes dried. Rummaging in her pack she pulled out a towel and dusted beads of water off her body. Her long auburn hair proved problematic. Instead of trying to dry it off, she finger-combed it into a semblance of control and spread out her towel to nap on. So, what if she was naked? It was her property, kind of, with no one around for miles. Basking in the sun she drifted off to sleep, content for the first time in as long as she could remember.