Trip's Adventure

Escape

Trip tried to stay as quiet as possible, it was one thing to run away and quite another to escape with another slaves chain. She snuck quietly out of the yard and into the small orchard at the back of her master’s property. Just three months ago she had been picking the succulent cryn fruit from these trees. That had been her life, doing what she was told without question and without a second choice. If she didn't she would be whipped or beaten. She didn't care that there was no fruit, she had eaten as large a meal as they were allowed the other night and Kess had given her a bun to take with her in the morning.
Trip reached the far side of the orchard and tried to climb over the steep fence. No good her pant leg snagged on the frayed board and cut her dark ivory skin. Retreating to the ground she unhooked the snagged material and tried to locate a better way to get over. Her attention turned to a nearby cryn tree; it looked like one of the branches reached over the fence. Trip smiled, she remembered this tree she had been sternly reprimanded for trying to pick the fruit on the other side. Gaston, her master, had ordered that limb be cut off. His orders had apparently been ignored. Trip grabbed the lowest branch and hauled herself into the tree, she had always been good at climbing trees, which was the main reason she was always selected to pick the fruit and do most of the work at harvest time. All that practice was certainly paying off now. She dragged herself to the next strong branch and clambered on. She could almost see over the ten froye wall that had been erected to keep Gaston's slaves in. That was what she was, a slave. Trip's hand moved to the scar on her neck. It always felt like a fire on her skin.
"I hope Kess keeps her end of the bargain." Trip said to herself as she jumped nimbly to the branch beside the one that hung over the wall. Her foot slipped and she had to steady herself with her hands. Taking a deep breath she moved toward the designated branch and climbed out 'til the stone wall was directly below her. She looked back at the only home she had ever known, the place where she worked, where she got her name and where she supposed she had been born. The large picturesque house sat in the middle of the large yard, ivy and grey-top vines making it look ancient as it was bathed in the silver moonlight. The stable that sat adjacent to the house had the same feeling, a few froyes away from the back of the stables she could make out the shape of the store house where she, Kess, and the other slaves lived. They didn't get to stay in the warm room off the kitchen where the servants stayed. No. They had only the drafty worn out store house for shelter. Trip turned her turquoise eyes back to the task at hand. She looked on the other side of the wall and found the area devoid of any objects to lower her onto and only the tall uncut grass at the walls base to break her fall. She shut her eyes and breathed hard. She couldn't turn back now, she and Kess had made a deal. Still trembling she edged her way out past the wall to where she could easily clear the wall. Gripping both sides of the branch with her hands, she let herself hang there and dropped to the ground with a thud.
Trip froze hoping and praying that everyone was sleeping soundly enough that they wouldn't wake or notice she was gone. Slowly she raised her head, eyeing the road warily before getting up and putting her back to the wall.
"I'm finally doing it I am finally going to get out of here." She was pleased but not comforted by the thought, if she got caught the penalty for running away was torture or death. "I can't just stay here for hours." She silently said to herself. "It will be light in a few hours. Kess wouldn't have wasted all the time that I already have."
Trip slipped away from the wall and started off in the ditch beside the road. She had walked ten milos when she noticed that the sky was starting the change into its oranges and pinks of sunrise. Alarmed at the thought of being clearly visible and the whole country side awake, she ran. She was not accustomed to traveling and had to slow down at she approached a forest. Upon entering she allowed herself to breath. Creeping away from the path she lay down for a rest. She had never actually been in a forest; the closest she got to it was the orchard back home.
Trip shook her head how could she possibly be homesick for a place where people treated her badly? Well almost all people. Kess had never been mean to her that was probably the reason Trip had accepted this plan.
Trip would escape and free Kess and then Kess would free Trip. It sounded simple but was anything except easy. In order to free a slave you had to take their chain, a symbol of slavery, and drop it into the volcano known as Mount Trocep. Slave owners had made the way to this place practically impossible to get to.
The forest certainly was peaceful. Various birds sang over head and Trip saw a yellow-breasted bick come to a lower branch and eye her curiously. Small rodents peered out of their holes and from behind trees trying to get a closer look at their guest without being seen. A few froyes away a toad stared at her indifferently. Trip started to relax. This was the first moment of calm she had felt since she had made the deal. The stillness and solitude of the small wood was suddenly broken by voices on the road. Trip panicked. What if they had been sent to find and bring her back?
Trip crept closer to the road. Still hidden by the trees, she found a place which offered an excellent view of the road. Trip gazed at the road, and then let out all the air her lungs held captive when she saw that the travelers were going east and not west, which was the direction of the mountains.
Trip wanted only to travel in the evening, morning, and night as Kess had instructed her. This considered, she thought herself at liberty to observe these travelers. The first thing she notice was that they were tall that meant they couldn't be Greydons. They were not Kaserans, or they would have darker skin. That meant they must be Bredes, which is what Kess had told her she was.
Kess was a Kaseran and a tall one too. Kaserans were very dark in skin color and always had black hair. She had told Trip that both Bredes and Kaserans stood about five froyes seven teys, about two froyes taller than Greydons. Kess was almost six froyes five teys and had green eyes, not exactly a common characteristic of Kaserans.
Greydons, Kess said, were very short race, commonly bald with the women having very short, fine hair.
Kess told Trip that for a Brede she was right on par as far as skin and eye color goes but that her blonde hair was a little out of the ordinary. Kess must have been right there. All three of these travelers had rich brown hair.
Trip leaned closer to try to hear what they were saying. While trying to concentrate on what they were saying she heard a voice at her feet.
"Why are you spying on them, Brede?"
Trip stared in wonder at the small bi-colored gecko at her feet.
"You can talk," she said in a hushed tone.
"To you and your kind," the gecko said casually as though this was normal.
Trip gently picked up the gecko and receded to the safety and solitude of the small forest clearing where the travelers wouldn't hear or see her.
"You can talk," Trip said sharply while holding the gecko in her out stretched hand and squatting on the ground.
"Yes, I can," he said raising his head, “I am called J."
"J," Trip repeated sounding very puzzled.
"Yes, there are lots of geckos and other animals in this forest. Since we found it troublesome to remember all the names we just used letters and letter combinations like Z, NA, and P3."
"I had no idea that animals talked or were...well," Trip didn't think she could really talk to the gecko and that it was just someone playing with her head.
"Intelligent?" J finished for her though he didn't seem offended."You’re not the first one to think so, most Bredes never really get used to it."
Trip looked suspiciously at him. She couldn't tell if she wanted to run or continue talking to him.
"Where are you going?" he inquired as he walked up onto her shoulder.
"I am going to Mount Trocep," Trip answered still unsure of the gecko.
"Ah, that would make you one of Kess' friends."
Trip jumped up.
"You know Kess?" she could not hide the shock in her voice. How could this forest gecko know Kess? Kess wasn't a Brede and therefore she wouldn't be able to talk to him.
"I don't know her personally but I have met one other slave who she sent to the mountains."
"Wait, another slave?" Trip was beginning to wonder if she should really be trusting Kess.
"Yes, Kess is part of an odd group that made their priority freeing slaves."
"How does she do it?" Trip demanded convinced she couldn't get the answers fast enough.
"Kess basically sells herself then finds out who in her master's house is in the most need of freedom. She then shares a plan to get both of them freed."
"Has Kess ever failed?" Trip asked, impatient for a reply and yet dreading it.
"I'm only aware of one time and in that case she was beaten to within an tey of her life," J smiled at her," even then she didn't betray the slave she was trying to free."
"So I can trust her," Trip reassured herself.
"Without a doubt," J said starting to climb down her arm."Do you know the way to Mount Trocep?"
"No, when I asked Kess just smiled and told me to head west," Trip paused to look at the muttering gecko on her forearm.
"She would, my father met her. He said that she is to seriously playful for her own good, that she makes use of every opportunity to confuse people she can," Trip was having a hard time keeping from laughing at the angry gecko who was waddling around on her arm.
"I believe it," she said at length while settling on 'riddle' as an accurate description of Kess," but why didn't she tell me what she was doing?"
J sighed, “The penalty for freeing slaves as a trade is being burned at the stake."
Trip gasped.
Kess was risking her life for someone she had only known for a few months.
"Why would she do it?"
J looked up at her, his jeweled black eyes shining in her gentle turquoise irises.
"Because she cares, she doesn't believe that any person should be owned or exploited like a plow horse or a cow."
"But that means that she has to lower herself and become what she hates in order to help those in the same situation,” Trip half-yelled.
"It keeps her focused," J shrugged, "don't worry if you don't understand."
Trip lowered J to the ground and started to move off.
"Wait," J called as he crawled across a rock and moved toward her. Trip turned expecting him to give her some piece of profound advice.”Take me with you!"