Night Forest

Chapter 3

         Kylara woke to someone calling her name. She opened her eyes and couldn’t see much. Just a shape hovering over her because it was before sun up.
          “Kylara, dear, get up! You must get ready and go to the kitchen! Our young lord has come during the night! He came to help us move back to the castle. You must get up! We leave an hour after sun up!” the shape hovering over Kylara was Fanna and she was speaking very anxiously but quietly.
         Kylara stood up and stretched then turned to Fanna, “Alright Fanna, calm down, I’ll have breakfast ready in no time at all…ow!” Fanna had started unbraiding and brushing Kylara’s hair, and she was doing it fast and hard.
          “Hush, the others get to sleep a bit more before I have to wake them up. Your hair is a mess! I bet your clothes are just as bad!” Fanna spoke quietly so as not to wake the others.
         Kylara tugged on her top and smoothed her skirt, her hand brushed once over the sword she had carefully hidden underneath. The day she had to sit down before the lord, Kylara had worried it would show, but she had sat down well enough that it hadn’t. “It’s fine Fanna, you go do your things that you have to do before it is time to go. I’ll have breakfast ready, no worries.” Kylara felt Fanna tying her braid secure.
          “Alright dear, I will see you at breakfast time then,” Fanna left to do her things.
         Kylara looked down at herself. If she had to move fast, she wouldn’t be able to do it in this skirt, thought Kylara. She glanced at the sleeping forms now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark. When she felt sure that they were in a deep sleep, she took a dagger out of the bag she had and cut slits on both sides of her skirt to mid thigh. Her sword now showed so she took it off and hid it with her other things. She would wear it under cloak later, she thought. Instead of the sword for protection now, she hid the dagger in the same place, it wasn’t much, but enough to make her feel safe.
         Kylara quickly pulled on her shoes that fell off in the night and put on her cloak. She hurried out of the tent and went to the kitchen.
*center*
         An hour later, Kylara had fried ham, eggs, bread, and a special morning porridge her father had taught her to cook. The three tables were piled with all the food; the men shall not be hungry at all, thought Kylara with a smile of satisfaction, and she could move more easily. Kylara nibbled on some bread and ham as she worked to clean the kitchen back up. So far, as the information she gathered added up, she figured that the tents and almost everything in them stayed. Only the people and their possessions would leave. That made things a bit easier, thought Kylara and she finished the last pot and put it away.
         She suddenly realized Fanna wasn’t going to ring the bell, she had to. Kylara finished her bread and quickly went outside and rang the bell, twice, just like Fanna. On her way out, she noticed some men lurking about the kitchen tent and as she finished ringing the bell, they quickly had gone inside. That’s interesting, she thought as she slipped into the back.
         Kylara peeked around the curtain and watched the men come charging through, they were either in a hurry or very hungry. Then she saw him, the man from the night before, he came in slowly and walking with pride. He sat at the head of the biggest table. Kylara watched as the food slowly disappeared, then realized she was being watched as well. Kylara slowly looked around the table and noticed that the man from the night before was watching her as he talked and ate. When he saw her looking at him, he smiled then turned his gaze to his fellow men. Kylara stepped back and away then turned and sat on the cot that was in the kitchen. She sat and listened to the mixture of men’s voices and drifted into the past.
*center*
         She was nine again. She sat upon her dad’s knee and listened to him talk with other men of battles and wars they had fought in. The other men thought Kylara was to young to understand, so they told their stories in detail. Kylara’s father knew that Kylara understood what was being talked about, and later on, after the stories he would explain many things to Kylara. Some times he would explain that one has to live everyday like it’s their last. Other times he would explain that the greatest power in battle is to know you are protecting the one’s you love, to know that would give you strength to carry on and continue protecting them. But most of the time, he would explain in many different ways how life was a gift, and if you take someone’s, that you take it for the right reasons.
         She moved forward in the past, she was now thirteen. She was hidden in the forest. Her favorite spot that no one knew about. She came here to think, and now she came here to secretly practice sword fighting. Kylara had found a dull sword in the forest one day and had decided she could use it to practice with. No one could find out, she thought she would be scolded, men were only suppose to go to battle and know how to fight. Well, she had thought, she would show them that a woman could fight just as well or even better.
         Again the image changed, she was fifteen. She was in the same spot in the forest, but now her father was with her. A year ago he had found out what Kylara had been up to and he had laughed. He had said that if Kylara were going to practice sword fighting, then she would do it right and with help. Now he was training her and sometimes her father’s friends would come and train her too. Her father thought that war was over and he didn’t have to worry about his little girl ever fighting, so did the other men. So Kylara was the only warrior in her town, all the other men had retired and became hard working men. The boys followed their fathers and trained to work, not to fight.
         The image changed once more. She was sixteen and again she was in the forest. She was suppose to meet the man, she thought she was in love with at the local inn, but he hadn’t shown up. The last couple days he had said he was working in the forest so Kylara decided to look for him. She stepped into a small clearing, well hidden in the trees. In there, Kylara couldn’t believe her eyes, the one she had been looking for was here, but he wasn’t alone. He was embraced in another woman’s arms. Kylara gasped and felt her heart breaking. He was talking, saying something, but Kylara couldn’t hear. She ran to her spot in the woods and took out her emotions on the trees with her sword. When she was to exhaust to do anything she curled up in a ball in the middle of the forest floor and cried.