ALL NOVEL Book 3: 49. Mount
Lulu woke Aloe up even earlier than usual. The maid came stocked up to the scribe's bedchamber with a tray of light food, a readied travel bag, and a desert garb. Even though Aloe hadn't prepared anything for the journey, this was the first time she had been so readied for the trek to the oasis.
In less than half an hour – between toiletries, eating, and getting clothed – the two women directed themselves to the entrance of the palace. To keep up with the charade between the two, Aloe abandoned Lulu at the entrance alongside the wheelchair and made the palace guards carry her all over to the city gates. The escorts were less than pleased with the treatment at such early hours, but it wasn't like they could refuse.
Palanquins were slower than wheelchairs, so it took them another half an hour to arrive at Sadina's stables. If it wasn't because she could use her defense stance at maximum potency as she no longer had the need to hide her vitality, the walk would certainly have taken a lot of her. Instead, it just took a bit of her. The fact didn't fill Aloe with much hope as the journey across the desert would be a hundredfold worse.
"Ah, if it isn't the scribe of commoners." A rugged familiar yet nasty voice greeted her.
"It has been a while." Aloe diplomatically greeted the rough-looking stablemaster. She didn't like the dirty man. Not because of his profession nor his looks, but because of the treatment he gave to the beasts. "Though I do not remember informing you of my workplace."
"Well," the man grinned, "there has been a dweller taking up food and space in the stables with no one to pay it up for months, so I obviously searched for the owner around the city. I would dare to say I would have never known such information if someone paid for their expenses."
It was likely that the man had sent a bill to the palace, but if she hadn't seen it, it meant it had arrived at another scribe, which she would most likely have ignored.
"Save up your sarcasm, stablemaster." The scribe of commoners announced harshly. "I have been on a diplomatic mission for months and I am hurt, I will not tolerate any offense."
Her violent outburst wasn't fully intended. Yes, she wanted to make the charade of her falling with Lulu believable, but it was also true that the man before her wanted to make her puke. The bumpy ride neither had helped with her humor.
"Of course, of course." He clasped his hands and rubbed them together. "I would never dare to offend a person who has done so much for our beautiful city. I would just like to be paid what I'm owed."
"Here." Derisively, Aloe threw four coins at the man from the top of the palanquin.
"Hey! Watch ou…" The man instantly calmed the second he saw the coins he had caught midair. "Uhm, venerable scribe," his tone suddenly became polite, "this is more than you owe me."
"I know." She stated as a matter of fact. Her 'mission' at Asina had lasted two months, and adding the time from her last visit to the stables, that didn't add more than a hundred days. She had given him four fajati, or two hundred drupnars. Considering their deal was one drupnar per day, she had overpaid quite a bit. "Now I do not want to hear you yelp about money in a season, understood?"
"But of course." The stablemaster submissively nodded. "I will lead you to your mount then."
It was quite ironic how she had treated those four coins with such disdain when said mount had cost her barely more than two hundred drupnars. Now that almost felt like pocket change. Especially once Fatima arrived at Sadina in a matter of days by now.
The guards followed the stablemaster, the palanquin and Aloe resting on their shoulders. The scribe didn't have quite the viewpoint from her prone position, but the grunts alerted her that they were finally there.
"Put me down," Aloe commanded and the guards complied without hesitation.
The grunts became more frenetic by the moment, getting a raised brow from the stablemaster. "Are you sure you'd like to be on the ground, venerable scribe?"
"Open the pen." The man didn't deserve more than that.
The instant the stablemaster did so, a projectile the size of a cart shot toward Aloe. Fast as it may be, bellyflops only gave for so much speed. The petite woman raised a hand before her and the monster stopped on its feet. Not without bopping the hand with her snoot.
"Wrooooo!" Fikali, the desert dweller, announced her presence with the unrivaled might of the sun.
"I also missed you, girl." Aloe grabbed the dweller's face and started rubbing it with excitement. Being at ground level was the optimal petting level for dwellers, after all. "Who's a good girl?"
"Wrooo!" The dweller grunted with shared glee.
"You!" She put on a silly voice. "You are a good girl!"
"Wrooooo!" Fikali heaved her snoot up and down as to agree with the statement.
Aloe separated herself from the dweller, though the monster didn't want to be separated this fast from her owner's skinship, and continued headbutting her friendlily. The scribe pushed her away and ordered her to wait, then she dusted her hands. Fikali didn't boast the best of looks, and as much as Aloe wanted to criticize the stablemaster, it was clear that those were the signs of her advanced age as the dweller's facial skin sagged.
"What are you looking at?" She growled at the guards. "Raise me at once." Shellshocked as they were in the one-eighty change of behavior, the men complied. "Carry me to the city gates." She ordered the guards. "And as for you," she looked at the stablemaster, "saddle Fikali up and once and bring her to me at the gates."
She didn't give the stablemaster the chance to utter a single word as the guards carried her away. After five minutes, the stablemaster appeared with a bellyflopping Fikali.
"Lead her to the sand and tie my luggage to the saddle." She still didn't allow the man to talk, and he wordlessly accepted her demands.
The guards handed him Aloe's luggage, which to be fair, wasn't much as she was travelling light. Most of the weight came in the shape of waterskins as the only food she brought with her was jerky and pistachios. The oasis should be bustling with crops, even if she doubted she could harvest them in her current state. Nonetheless, she didn't think she would starve to death even if the Blossomflame didn't end up healing her as the regeneration stance seemed to slow down her metabolism, or at least mitigate her hunger. In a perfect scenario, the three to four days she would spend at the oasis should be dedicated to recovery, and jerky was a quite filling food for its weight.
Once the luggage was well-tied, the scribe of commoners motioned the guards forward toward the sand. Their feet slightly sunk in the sand, though Aloe blamed it on the men's armor rather than her own weight. Once again, the palanquin was put down and now asked for one of them to mount her on Fikali.
"Do not give me that look," Aloe said to the man who carried her. "I am more than healthy enough for this journey."
"I would never dare to state otherwise." The nameless guard who saddled her said.
Aloe pouted but didn't elaborate any further. She attended herself to the reins, not without before donning her gloves. There was no intention to go fast enough to need them, but every sliver of damage on her body she could mitigate the better. The scribe slumped her body, pressing her chest against the back of the dweller's head and then she whispered to Fikali's ears.
"Girl, I need you to go slow, understood?" She had removed the speed infusion – or rather haste now with her new naming nomenclature – from the dweller months ago before she surrendered her to the awful stablemaster, but that didn't mean Fikali wasn't already fast by default.
"Huo." The good girl grunted in affirmation.
"That's what I like to hear." The scribe patted her mount's head. "Now, onward my steed!"
Fikali pranced forward, her lower body slightly submerging in the sand. Whilst Aloe held to the reins with her dear life, the dweller obeyed her command of going slowly. The human took a look backward, turning her gaze to the city to measure the distance traveled. Ah, this is perhaps too slow. Even after a few minutes, the guards were still clearly visible at the city gates. The ones who had escorted her. I'm kinda offended that they don't trust me enough to let me go without standing still and observing me like senile old men.
The hour was early, but as low as the sun may be, she could feel the weight of the desert in her body already. I guess we are going faster than if I was walking myself so at least we will make it in a single day… Aloe told that to herself, but the heat was affecting her more than expected. Ugh… why did Fatima have to send the letter this soon?
The petite scribe continued rambling in the confines of her mind until the city was no longer visible behind them, and after she found an outcrop big enough to provide shade, she commanded her mount to stop.
"Ugh," Painfully, between sighs and groans, Aloe dismounted herself and rested on the shade. She picked up one of the many waterskins and took a hearty gulp of the still-cold water. "Who would have thought that being sick would siphon my strength?"
"Wuo?" Fikali tilted her head in a lack of understanding.
"Don't worry about it, girl." The human patted the monster between gulps. I still don't know how she comprehends some orders so easily and then doesn't understand other speech. "You've done good so far, but my body is too weak to go faster. Once I've grown a bit more used to the bumps perhaps we could go faster."
"Wroo!" The dweller grunted excitedly.
"Wroo," The girl groaned on her own, though instead of elation, it was out of pain as she crawled her way to the saddle. "Let's get going. The more we rest, the darker will be when we arrive at the oasis."
Her head was dizzy from the heat, her body exhausted just from existing let alone the ridding, and her heart was as broken as always, but there was nothing more endearing and comfortable than slumping her body on Fikali and letting her do the job. Ah, how much I missed you, Fikali…The rays of scorching light became an afterthought as Aloe could only think about the warmth of her mount.
Best girl is back!
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