Trails of Forgotten Time

[Vacyr]

The morning produced nothing exciting for Colart. He, along with his father, woke up early and checked the soil and started to bring the farm out into life. He talked with his mother about buying seeds to plant in the ground by the end of the week and they came up with a list of what would be grown for the year. Finally when everyone went to work, Colart took a plate with some bread and a small slice of cheese. It was around mid morning when he knocked on the barn door. For a moment, he stood outside of the wooden barn and thought if Aaomi would still be in there from the night. Would she have run away? He swallowed and unlatched the door.

"Aaomi?" He asked when he reached the inside by the ladder up to the rafters. "I have some breakfast for you." He set the metal plate on a barrel by the ladder and turned to move out toward the door. His heart was pounding already for every creak of the barn frightened him. He thought every squeak was his father or sisters coming into the barn to get a rake or hoe for the land. Colart swallowed. He looked up to the rafters and the sunlight shone through the cracks in the roof wood to illuminate the hay. It wasn't a quiet place for the itself creaked with age. He took one more deep breath.

"So I will be," he started to say but didn't quite know if he was speaking to himself or not, "going into the Lord's town today. You should come with me if I am to get the right proportions." He swallowed and licked his lips before settling his back against the side of the shed. "We can throw some mud into those clothes, and age into those clothes of yours, and act as if you were shipwrecked and have been searching these lands for a place to rest." He shrugged at such a thought even though he did not know whether or not she would be ready or willing to go along with it. "Or I can simply take your dimensions to them but I thought you might want to. You don't have to speak but you'll be able to see the town that I know but where people won't bring anything to the ears of my parents and siblings."

 

[Kaisaan]

She'd slept. Or at least Aaomi thought she had. Maybe. It was difficult to separate dreams from visions until she actually woke up. If she had a skull-splitting headache then it was the visions she'd seen and if she was merely groggy then it was vivid dreams. Either way, it didn't make for great sleeping and the woman knew she'd had a combination of both experiences when she woke with the beginning edges of a migraine. It was a full onslaught yet and for that she was grateful.....and wise enough not to move for the first portion of the morning. Watching the flecks floating in the sunlight streaming through the holes in the roof, Aaomi let her mind drift with them, not trying to think, not trying to feel. She only lay, quiet and unmoving and slowly the headache started to pass away, to lessen and while it didn't disappear entirely - it never did - the threat of it turning worse, exploding to violence had been averted.

Just in time, too, as the creaking from down below told her of company and Aaomi stayed as still as she had before until Colart's voice floated up from the edge of the ladder. The woman listened for a moment, shaking her head at his stumbling speech, though he tried to make it seem as if he was confident in all he uttered. It was....not necessarily amusing, nor entirely vexing, but...captivating? Was that too strong a word? Fascinating was more like it, more appropriate she would bet.

Fascinating would work well enough.

Colart was fascinating.....and yet utterly annoying all in the same breath. Odd. Though, that could have just been their time difference, too. Aaomi wasn't sure the cause and decided, for the moment, not to pursue it as she finally moved and peeked naught but her head over the plateform, hair tumbling over her shoulder as black eyes looked down to hazel that looked back at her.

"Good morning, Colart. Thank you for the breakfast, and I will be more than happy to accompany you to town. I do think, however, that the clothes I am wearing now will be fine. I might look strange to be seen in men's clothing, but I think my own attire would raise entirely too many questions, dirtied or not and if news is interesting enough, it will spread faster than you think."

She highly doubted anyone as different or interesting as her had come to his small town in quite some time. People loved to gossip and the better and more exaggerated the story the better. Best that she at least appear somewhere normal to these people.....and if she messed up in some way, the foreigner excuse would still work.

"When do you wish to leave and how would you like me to meet you?" They couldn't very well let her just walk out of the barn in plain daylight. She'd have to sneak out when the moment was right and it was safe to do so, likely to meet the young man in the wood. The thought made Aaomi smile to herself. In any other circumstance she would have thought herself reading a romance novel, but no. She hardly belonged in one of those. Those women were...well, not her. Not cursed like her. Gods, she hoped she didn't have an episode in the town. Just the thought brought a flicker of hesitation, of stiff tension to her body before Aaomi forced herself to release it, breathing past the initial drop of panic. No. No, she'd be fine. She'd stay calm and....well, that wasn't actually a guarantee against the visions, but it couldn't hurt.

She'd do that just fine on her own.

 

[Vacyr]

Colart couldn't say he wasn't surprised by her acceptance to come into town with him. From his perspective, a lady such as herself, a woman from the future, would have wanted more time to figure herself and this place out. But he figures that perhaps its not about time but rather opportunity. If she is going to get used to the customs of his time period then she shouldn't shelter herself away in a barn for the week. She wouldn't want that. A lady so outspoken like herself... he could not imagine such a thing. He just hopes that she says nothing too far fetched while they are in town or else they might attract more attention then they are used to. There will be eyes on her, he is sure, but at least he could play it off as her borrowing his clothing due to hers being lost on the trip over or her caravan over being attacked by bandits. Colart would indeed have to think of something.

"Of course m'lady. Should I have your garments hidden away somewhere safe in my room so that no one finds them? We can also bury them in the woods if you would like. That way," he figures is a better solution with a nod of his head, "if it is found, there is no link to you. Not directly anyway. And no link to me." He chuckled a bit and pinched his fingers around his flat collared shirt, "I'll get the noose if the Sheriff hears of such a strange concept as time travel. He would think of it as black magic. All folk think of it as such." He tugs at the collar of his shirt before dropping his hand.

He thinks for a quick moment at where they should meet. "As for our arrangements." He motions over to the far wall. "Behind that shovel is a loose board. You can easily slip through the opening it gives you and replace it without anyone noticing. That way the barn door, facing m'home, won't have to be opened and my family wouldn't accidentally see you. It faces east on the road so you'll take that until you reach a crossroads. There will be some tree cover. Wait there until you see me. I'll have to bring us in on a small carriage. I have some sacks of grain to sell anyway so that'll account for the cart being out of the house." With his words said, he nods his head and bows it before unlatching the barn door. "I best get back before a family member comes looking. I'll meet you at the crossroads in a bit."

 

[Kaisaan]

Getting to the crossroad had been easy. Making herself wait was not and it wasn't long before Aaomi discovered she was a rather good tree-climber. She was sure she'd be a sight to see for anyone in this time; a grown woman climbing a tree with reckless abandon, but there was no one to see and she found a strange enjoyment in getting so far away from the ground, as if the world didn't matter anymore the higher into the tree she went. In time, though, her limbs grew tired, not used to such activity and Aaomi brought herself back down to the ground, content for a time to lay on her back in the grass and watch the impossibly blue sky above and the clouds that rolled by. She wondered if she should have been homesick for her own time, but couldn't bring herself to miss it. It had never felt like home and in truth she wasn't sure if she knew what that felt like at all.

Colart certainly did. The way he spoke about his family, even in brief passing, and his home gave clear enough proof to that. This was his home and he knew he belonged. Was it wrong to envy that? Aaomi didn't think so. Every person desired that, didn't they? A place they felt themselves, knew they were wanted, safe, loved.

She might have known that, when she was much younger, only barely a toddler, but it hadn't lasted long. Things like that in her world, her time, never did. Her family had been killed long before she could clearly remember them and Aaomi had never gotten a chance to learn what a home felt like. There was a small, hopeful whisper within that wondered if she might find what she sought in this time, but the woman ignored it. She was long past the point of believing in fairytales and happy endings. Survival was enough to focus on and despite her lack of typical skill-sets, Aaomi was very good at surviving.

The fact that there was no danger around her....well, THAT was strange and it was such a thing that was putting her slightly on edge. It wasn't the best state to be in as far as her power was concerned and Aaomi felt the first traces of a migraine creep upon her mind. She groaned and rubbed at her temples, knowing it wasn't going to help. Dammit. She'd been hoping to avoid this, but even now could see the faint edges of a vision surfacing behind her eyes.

She had just enough time to sink her teeth into her arm to keep quiet before it struck. It didn't last long, but her body convulsed anyway and when Aaomi finally came back to herself, she'd drawn blood from her teeth, not too deep and not every tooth, but her canines had pierced through and the woman wiped at the red shakily, smearing it before giving up and simply focusing on breathing through the pounding in her head. She was just glad it had been a small vision and only one.

Still, just why was she seeing ancient Egypt?

 

[Vacyr]

Colart picked his best horse and within fifteen minutes had him ready for their day's adventure to the town. He made sure that the hooves were clean around the horse shoes as well as the girdles and other leather harnesses weren't on the verge of breaking, too badly, for their ride. He strapped her to their wooden cart and filled it up with the excess spoils of their storehouse that his parents asked him to sell at the market this week. While loading the cart, he remembers how lucky he is that he waited for today instead of taking it two days ago like his mother had wished. Now he had an excuse to bring Aaomi into town with him and also, hopefully, get his parents some copper, and maybe some silver, for their goods.

Soon he had lead the horse from the barn and with the cart in tow, headed to the crossroads to meet Aaomi so they could make their way to the town. It was a beautiful day with a few stray clouds here and there and the warm sun beaming down on the land. Before him was an open field, his father's land, where the crops were sowed sturdily and the trees provided them enough cover once they reached the forest. Colart, his axe still at his waist, hesitated for a moment before leading his horse to the spot where she would be waiting for him. Well, that is, if she didn't get lost. Colart frowned. Bandits didn't care if it was daytime or night for their rounds. Any man, woman, or child, was fair game to them and Colart kept an eye out for any large bodies moving among the trees.

"M'lady?" He called when he approached her position by the tree. He knew that it was her for who else would be lounging so close to the road? Without a second thought, he was pulling the black mare to a stop and wrapping the leather straps around the wooden post at his left. The carriage he had was simple with no cover on the roof. It was made out of planks of wood with a small seat up front for two to sit and a large bed in the back for carrying goods as Colart was now doing. There were grain sacks, vegetables tied in bunches as well as in baskets, as well as meats salted and stored away in crates. "Are you ready to depart?" He rounded the carriage and offered his hand to her to help her up from the ground. When she went to climb into the cart, he stood by the small step and held out his hand for her.

"Have you thought of a story that fancies you, m'lady?" He asked, suddenly feeling the knot in his stomach grow as he realized this trip was happening and with a woman from the future. "We should be sure that we are on the same page if anyone should ask me or you then converse later about such a fact."

 

[Kaisaan]

The headache was tolerable by the time Colart came around - perhaps more painful for someone else not used to constantly having their head pounded on by what felt like a dwarf's hammer - and Aaomi let him help her up because it was rather nice to have such offered. A leg up into the wagon was looked on more with amusement, but she allowed that, too, keeping her twitching smile to herself. She didn't hide the frown so much, though as she watched him get into the wagon beside her and this time Aaomi didn't say something.

"My name is Aaomi, Colart. Not m'lady, not ma'am, not miss, not woman or girl. I have name, just as you and I do like hearing it, and in truth if you call me m'lady to get my attention when I am not already focused upon you, I won't respond. I likely won't even realize it is for me. I give you fair warning of that."

So saying, she switched topic for her correction wasn't meant to offend or insult, and it felt a simple matter to her - over and done with. Aaomi looked ahead at the road, interested in where they were headed and what she might see along the way. This world and everything else might be normal for the man at her side, boring even with the commonness of it, but everything was new, beautiful, fascinating for her. Grass alone was something to wonder at as far as she was concerned.

"As for my story, I believe it wise to say I am Avelina, daughter of Godwin from across the sea. My father was a trader looking for better business in these lands and seeking to escape the memory of my recently deceased mother. Such was his reason for bringing me with him on this voyage that has, unfortunately claimed his life as well. There was a storm and we were shipwrecked. I managed to wash up on the beach and have been wandering this land since." She told the story as if every word was true, the perfect emotions accompany each reveal, spinning a tale that one could almost see and Aaomi gave Colart a small smile.

"Until I met you, of course. You couldn't possibly leave a young woman to wander around on her own and have graciously taken me in until further arrangements can be made for me or my relatives can be reached."

Now a brow rose, the act of a grateful, simple girl seeking shelter and a way to perhaps get back to her own land dropped from Aaomi's demeanor, leaving the confident, strange woman Colart no doubt found puzzling in its wake. "Is that a good enough story for curious ears?"