Blackout, Post #1

Chapter One




A rooster crowed as the sun began to rise over the small town of Red. Maya, a pale thirteen-year-old, stirred in her bed, rolling onto her back and opening her gray eyes. The red roof above her was tinted gold in the faint sunlight. She sat up and slid out of bed. There were things to be done that morning. Breakfast had to be made, the hall decorated.

She ambled from her bedroom and into the hall, walking to the stairs at the end. She grabbed hold of the elegant banister and descended into the lower room. In the middle was a table that matched the reddish walls with four chairs around it. There was a door directly across from her which led out into the yard and the rest of the small town. She walked toward it and paused. There were footsteps upstairs and a boy of ten appeared suddenly on the stairs. He rubbed his eyes and began down.

"Good morning Toby," Maya said, smiling warmly at her brother.

"Morning, Maya."

"I see you’re learning when to get up." Maya looked him up and down as he stood in front of her. "You should be big enough to work out in the fields with the others soon."

"Do you think so?" Tobias asked. Maya nodded.

"You do need to grow a bit more though, so why don’t you help me make some breakfast? That way you can eat it faster." He laughed and walked past her to the door.

"I call getting the eggs." He walked over the threshold and out into the yard, his sister following after him. Red was a small farming community on the southern tip of the Red Lake and on the eastern side of the Great Forest. There was a single barn in the center that no one owned which was filled with animals that belonged to the town instead of simply one person. An inventory list was posted on the door of the barn and there was always someone there to mark down what they had and how much of it there was.

That was where Toby and Maya were headed. They had to pick up eggs and milk for breakfast, not to mention some chicken for the party they were having later that night. They passed scarlet houses and soon came to the center of the hamlet. Old Mr. Sander was on duty that morning and both greeted him with warmth. They were admitted into the barn and Mr. Sander unlocked the coop.

Maya went to the back of the building and turned into a stable. There was an old dairy cow lying in the straw near the back and she tiptoed over to it. When she was halfway through the stall, the cow opened its eyes and pricked its ears forward. She stood up and shook herself out, bits of hay falling to the ground. Maya grabbed the stool near her and the pail that was hanging on the wall and got to work milking the cow, humming softly to herself.

In five minutes time, she had finished and was carrying the half full pail out to Mr. Sander. Toby was already waiting for her, six eggs in a basket. Mr. Sander measured out how much milk she had taken, and she and Toby were allowed to go home for breakfast. First, though, they had to get the meat and other supplies. They headed to the butchery section of the barn, a closed off room that was attached to the side of the barn. Maya opened the door and walked through, her brother a step behind her. There were skinned pigs hanging from the roof and dead chickens in the crates by the back wall. The place reeked of dead animals, but Maya had been in there so many times she didn’t really notice all that much.

She walked to the other side of the room to where the chickens were stored. They had not been plucked and were all piled in a jumbled mass of feathers. She picked up the first one, examined it a walked back through the room, satisfied with her decision.

"Is that all today, Maya?" Mr. Sander asked, marking down that they had one less chicken.

"Yes. It might be a party, but it is being thrown for me, so I really don’t need to bring much."

"That’s for sure. Well, you two have a good breakfast."

"We’ll see you tonight, Mr. Sander," the two children said. They walked through the barn door and back to their small home. Maya started a fire in the wood burning stove while Tobias greased a pan and cracked four eggs into it. In a matter of minutes, the fire was hot enough to cook on and Maya set the pan atop the stove.

They ate their breakfast contentedly and soon went about with setting up for the festivities later. Everyone in the small town was coming so there had to be lots of food, but everyone else was bringing that, so Maya was left with the decorating. She and Toby headed out to the town hall where her three best friends said they were going to meet her, and where the party was to take place.

Laren and Amyrillis were already there, but Ashleigh was nowhere to be seen. Laren was a tall girl with flaming red ringlets and brilliant green eyes. She was permanently smiling, sometimes happily but mostly mischievously. Amyrillis on the other hand, was short with deep brown eyes and hair. The two of them seemed an odd pair, but somehow worked very well together.

They were both working on putting up strings of wildflowers around the pillars when she entered. Laren beckoned to her, telling her to come and help. She had a pin in her mouth and another in her left hand while the string of flowers was in her right. She was standing on a chair and trying to wrap them around, but she couldn’t quite hold it all. Amyrillis was doing better.

Maya pulled a stool up and grabbed the end of the flowers. She wrapped
and looked around. All the pillars had wildflowers spiraling up them and there were more hung over doorways and on the fireplace. The chairs were covered in fabric and had plush cushions on them. Everything looked absolutely exquisite.

"It was all Amyrillis," Laren said wryly. She had a bright voice that Maya had always found stunning. "I told her not to get too carried away but…" She gestured hopelessly around. Maya rolled her eyes and looked at Amyrillis.

"Nice job, Am," she said, calling her friend by her nickname. "It looks amazing in here."

"Thanks," Amyrillis replied, smiling. She was setting up center pieces on the tables. Laren rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Here we go again," she mumbled. "I knew you shouldn’t have put her in charge of the decorating." She smiled slyly and added, "I have to do my own decorating though, so I’ll see you later." She turned and walked out of the hall, singing and skipping.

"Watch," Amyrillis said, "It’s going to be something to do with fire."

"Oh, probably. That girl is a serious pyro-maniac," Maya said. She walked over and began to help with the tables. The centerpieces that Amyrillis had made were daisies and buttercups surrounding a single white lily. She placed them in the exact center of the round tables on a white table cloth. When they had finished, she looked about and nodded with approval. Maya’s party would be very nice with her expert designs.

The two were straightening tables and pushing in chairs when Ashleigh walked in. She was a tall, willowy girl with long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She had perfect complexion and, according to many of the boys in the village, was the exact description of beauty. She smiled as she walked in.

"I see I missed the fun then," she said. "Ah well, sleeping was probably much, much better. Except maybe for Am." She laughed and stretched.

"You only just got out of bed?" Maya asked.

"About twenty minutes ago. I barely had breakfast too."

"You never have breakfast anyway," Laren said behind her.

"Touché."

"I do wonder about that too. How is it that you can even keep going without food?" Laren put on a very false puzzled expression that looked like she was trying to read Ashleigh’s mind. All the girls laughed and went back to decorating for Maya’s Manchay Party, her fourteenth birthday. People began to show up with food soon after.

~*~


At five o’clock that night, all the people of Red sat down to eat at Maya’s feast. She was "crowned" and the people offered her their blessings and their love. She had seen this happen so many times in her life that it would have been like a ritual, but she was getting butterflies just thinking about what she could do now. It was a tradition that when a child turns fourteen they are officially an adult and can start a new life. It is also the age that they are allowed to start courting.

Most often, people will simply marry a childhood friend and stay in whatever community they lived in, but Maya was not one of them. She was the youngest of her friends, and they had all been waiting patiently for her to come of age so they could all move to Milly and she wasn’t going to have made them wait for nothing. So they were leaving in two days.

It was a grand party with delicious food and a variety of drinks. A few of the middle aged men got drunk and began singing songs while everyone danced around and laughed. It was nearing midnight when Laren announced that she had a surprise show to put on for everyone. Everyone gathered around on the grass outside and waited. They were everything but silent.

"Ok," Laren began, "I’ve been working on this for a long time so, hope you like it." She grabbed a flaming stick from the outside fire and carried it off to the other side of the lawn. It was dark out and the only thing people could see was her torch, until she lit another stick on fire, one that was stuck into the ground. All of a sudden there was a hissing sound as the pitch on the stick caught fire.

Laren crossed her fingers and hoped it would work. She had tied oil doused strings to the stick which led to others and then would meet up at one large pole. The strings caught and fire raced along them. Each flame slowed slightly as they reached the second stick and there was a sudden boom as brilliant colored sparks shot into the air.

She had been experimenting with powders and minerals and found that if you ground certain rocks to different levels, you could make explosions in different colors and the more you added, the bigger the explosion. Each stick was coated in a different powder and so each detonated into a different color. Everything was going perfectly. She heard the gasps of awe coming from the crowd and was thoroughly pleased.

At last, the flames hit the final pitch soaked rod, licking hungrily at the minerals that coated it. They ran up the shaft and exploded into a brilliant light show. The children stared in rapture and the adults wondered how it all worked. Maya, Ashleigh and Amyrillis were all jumping up and down and giggling at it. It was the most exciting present that Maya had gotten that night.

Just when everyone thought it was over, two cleverly concealed piles of dust exploded into blue and purple flame and ran to an old deer hide which Laren had doused in liquid minerals. But it wasn’t just randomly sprinkled; Laren had spelt in flames the words "Happy Manchay, Maya", each letter in a different color. Everyone cheered and laughed and the party was resumed. Fresh rounds of ale were brought out and everyone seemed a little more enthusiastic about the party.

Two hours later, the party had died down and there were only a few people left. Amyrillis, Ashleigh, Maya and Laren sat at a table and talked about the brilliant show that Laren had put on and how lovely the hall looked. The conversation eventually turned to Milly though, and it became slightly more serious.

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Amyrillis had asked them all.

"I don’t know," Laren replied. "We’ll find something though."

"We can stay at an Inn for the first while," Maya suggested. "Then we can look for jobs. I wonder what I’m going to do with Toby though." Her voice took on a worried note.

"Don’t worry about him," Amyrillis said "My parents will take care of him if no one else does."

"I’m pretty sure that everyone will look after your brother," Ashleigh added.

"That’s true, I guess. But it will be pretty hard for him. I mean, we did lose our parents when he was pretty young and that was a hard blow to his life. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to make it through me leaving too." She sounded as though she were about to cry and they knew she was wondering how she could live without him.

"We can always come and visit him," Laren said. "Or you don’t have to come."

"No," she said, "I’m definitely coming. It’s just going to be hard, that’s all."

"It’s gong to be hard for all of us," Ashleigh added. "We all have to leave someone behind."

"You know what I think?" Laren said, "I think we should leave tomorrow." They all looked puzzled. "Well, if we leave in two days it’ll be harder to say good bye and there’ll be this big sense of foreboding and none of us will want to leave. But if we leave tomorrow, everyone will be so happy, including us, that we’ll hardly think about it." The other three girls thought it over and one by one agreed to it.

"Besides," Ashleigh added, "If we leave tomorrow, it’ll give us more time there and so more time to find a place to stay." They all nodded in agreement. "But if we’re doing that, we should probably get some sleep." Again, they nodded.

"We’ll see you in the morning then," Maya said and she walked to her house.

~*~

Ashleigh woke the next morning with the butterflies. All night, she had been dreaming of what it would be like once they moved to Milly, and all of them ended with her marrying and settling down. She liked them, but they seemed a little bland in comparison to her feelings. She slipped out of bed gracefully, threw on some clothes and went to tell her parents. They had been sleeping when she got home, so she couldn’t tell them last night.

Her mother and father were sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. There was an extra piece of toast on the table for Ashleigh and she hungrily devoured it. Her mother was eyeing her suspiciously as she ate and finally asked:

"What’s gotten you so happy?" Ashleigh looked up and smiled.

"I’m moving today," she replied, smiling broader. "We decided it last night. It’ll be easier to say good bye this way and we’ll have more time to find a place to stay in Milly." Her father was smiling brightly.

"Why didn’t you tell us this last night?" her mother asked, frowning.

"You were sleeping when I got home and I didn’t want to wake you."

"This is wonderful news," her father said, taking her hand. "I’m so proud of you. Our only child is finally getting out on her own." He stared pointedly at her slightly frowning mother. "This certainly is a very happy day for us, isn’t it dear?" She smiled warmly and embraced Ashleigh.

"It is a happy day," she said. "You should go and pack though. You’ll want to get out of here pretty soon. Then you can at least make it half way before it gets dark." Ashleigh hugged her back and hopped up to her room.

In fifteen minutes, all four girls were awake and ready to leave. Amyrillis’ parents were supplying them with a cart and Laren had the horse. They had been planning for about five months. The only part they hadn’t planned out was where they were going to stay. Ashleigh had family in Milly, but they didn’t want to bother them unless they got really desperate.

Tobias was giving them the last bit of food they’d need for the two day trip. He handed it to his sister and tried to look mature, but she saw through and hugged him. When he let go, there were tears forming in his eyes. The other girls’ parents had done the same thing. It always seemed to happen that way.

"You can come with us," Maya told her brother. "It wouldn’t be too hard to keep you around." He didn’t speak, just shook his head. She hugged him again and let go when Amyrillis called her. "I’ll see you soon then." She kissed his forehead and turned to the wagon. She wondered how hard it would be for him and pointedly avoided asking herself if it would be hard on her. Ashleigh helped her onto the cart and a new sense of excitement washed over her in a tingling wave. She looked over to Laren and saw enthusiasm shining in her eyes.

Laren was trying to resist the urge of jumping over the side of the wagon and running all the way to Milly. She waved to her brothers and her parents, who were heading out to the fields. When Ashleigh finally started going, she thought the horse was trotting far too slowly. She decided that it might help for her to watch the scenery, but when she turned, all she saw was the plain receding into the red lake and then the sky. Memories flooded back to her of how they would all go swimming during the summer or climb the giant Redwoods of the Great Forest. She looked over to Amyrillis, who was smiling warmly at them all as if she could read their thoughts and knew that they all wanted to stay a little longer.

Amyrillis looked out at the plains on either side. They seemed to stretch forever but for the lake behind Laren. She could see Red diminishing in front of her and on Maya’s side was open grasslands. They were spotted with wildflowers and patches of horse grass. In the distance she could faintly make out the fields where the men of the town worked all day to get the grains the town needed. She knew from past experience that it would be a long and monotonous ride. She looked to the front of the cart and saw nothing but the dirt road and more plains.

Ashleigh had the reins of the horse and watched as the road stretched out before her. She knew that in a few hours she’d see the North Mountains rise up from the plains and couldn’t wait. They would camp at the base of the mountains and continue on to Milly the next morning, entering the city at around noon. There was a very uncomfortable silence that settled over the girls, and Ashleigh decided to break it.

"So," she began, "Where do you think we should stay?" The girls thought for a moment.

"We should just stick to our plan and find an Inn to stay at," Laren said. She had never liked last minute changes, even if she didn’t like schedules.

"That’s kind of a vague plan, though, isn’t it?" Maya countered. "I think we should just bother Ash’s relatives and stay there until we find somewhere else to stay."

"But I haven’t seen them for such a long time," Ashleigh explained. "They might not recognize me. And besides, wouldn’t it be pretty rude to just come up and ask for a place to stay when we’re not even desperate?"

"That’s what I was trying to say," Laren added.

"Then wouldn’t it be rude to go to an inn?" Amyrillis asked them. "You do the exact same thing."

"Yes, but they do that to make money. It’s completely different," Ashleigh said.

"How so?" Maya asked.

"Well…. Uh," Laren tried to answer.

"It’s exactly the same and besides, your Aunt’s house would be a lot cleaner and safer because you wouldn’t have people coming and going all the time." Amyrillis nodded in agreement. Ashleigh sighed.

"I suppose you’re right. At least that way we could have a tour guide. I’m sure my cousins could help." Laren looked around helplessly.

"But, but, but, we had a plan!" she spluttered.

"Plans can change you know," Amyrillis said. Laren looked around for help, sighed, and nodded.

"Then it’s settled," Maya said. "We’re heading to your Aunt’s house and we’ll get help from there."

"I think you’ll like them. I have three cousins, Deaus, Salla and Marcy. Deaus is the oldest of the three. He’s about our age. Salla is two years younger and Marcy is the youngest by three from Salla." She went on explaining what her cousins and aunt and uncle were like for about three hours. Then the mountains started to peek up on the horizon, their tips all white with snow. The girls all stared in awe at them. They had been to Milly many times, but never while there was snow on the mountains, always during the summer. They had had no idea how majestic mountains look in the fall, even small ones like the North Mountains.

"They look so much smaller in the summer," Amyrillis said, her face full of awe. "Like a bunch of big rocks."

"Yeah," Laren breathed. "They look a lot nicer now. Kind of intimidating, though." They hurried on and the North Mountains got steadily larger, looming up until they filled half the sky. They still had an hour before they actually reached the base. The terrain became rougher and hills began to form all around them. But the road was well kept and trodden. The sun began to sink from view behind the mountains in front of them*.

They reached a small town called Oaken at a fork in the road. One highway branch led north to Speese while another led south to Milly. The third kept going east to the Peaceland. Oaken was a peaceful town in the center of a thin oak forest. There was one inn and a smiths’ forge and a tavern, but those were the largest buildings. The leaves had all fallen off the trees and lay in heaps of red and gold, lining the road as the girls approached the inn.

A young boy came out of the stables behind and took there horse and cart. The foursome walked up the steps of the well known hotel and entered. They looked around at the reddish walls and breathed deep. The smell of steak and fresh vegetables floated out of the kitchen and brought a sudden hunger to them. Ashleigh walked to the innkeeper, a plump woman in her mid-thirties. All four knew her from coming in the past.

"Hello Shelsea," Ashleigh said to her smiling warmly.

"Hello Ashleigh," Shelsea replied. "Long time no see, hey? You’ll be wanting a couple of rooms then, won’t you?"

"Yes, me and my friends."

"No Parents?" Shelsea looked at her quizzically.

"No. We’ve all had our Manchays."

"That’s right. So where are you headed to then?"

"Milly. We’re going to stay with my relatives there for a while, then get a place of our own."

"Milly is the best place to start. I wish you luck. Now, we have two rooms upstairs that should fit the four of you nicely." She beckoned them up the stairs and led them to their rooms. Ashleigh and Amyrillis took one and Laren and Maya the other. They set their things down on the beds and walked down to the dining room.

They picked a table by a window and waited for someone to accommodate them in the food department. They didn’t have to wait long. A young serving maid with long brown hair and green eyes soon stood before them.

"What can I get you?" she asked, smiling.

"I’ll have some ale," Laren said, shooting a grin at her friends she added, "In fact, bring us a round." The girl nodded and left. They talked as they waited for her to bring back their drinks, mostly of what life would be like on their own. After they came, they had a bit of stew. The girls ate their fill and by the time they finished, it was getting very dark out. They headed up to their rooms for the night.

Laren sat awake for hours, wondering what Ash’s cousins were like and what would happen if they didn’t take them in or didn’t help them find a place to stay. People were still bustling around in the kitchens below, putting bread in the ovens to bake until morning and cleaning up the tables in the tavern. She listened to them as they left until the entire inn was silent. She drifted, finally, into a light sleep.


~*~


Amyrillis was shaken into consciousness the next morning by Ashleigh, who was telling her that it was time to go. She sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep from her bleary eyes. The sun was slanting through the window and a bird sang out on a tree. Ashleigh left her to get dressed.

Five minutes later, she was walking down the wooden steps that led into the dining room. Maya, Laren and Ashleigh were sitting at a small table in the center of the room. They smiled when they saw her and Maya moved closer to the window, leaving a space for her friend. She sat down and noticed that no one else had any food.

"We were waiting for you," Ashleigh said, noticing her puzzled expression.

"Ah, I see." A moment later, the same girl as the night before came up.

"What would you all like for breakfast?" she asked, the same smile fixed on her face.

"Just a bit of toast I think," Ashleigh said. "And maybe a few glasses of milk."

"Coming right up." She turned and walked into the kitchen. A moment passed and she came out again, bearing a tray. There was four glasses of milk and a pile of toast in the middle. She set them down and walked off to another table. They ate and drank it all, then walked out of the dining room and into the lobby. The manager was standing at the desk.

"Did you have a good night?" she asked them.

"Yes. It was wonderful," Amyrillis said, paying her the money. "We’ll definitely be back." Shelsea beamed after them as they walked from the inn. They strolled around to the back of the hotel to find their wagon and horse. Their mare was in the stables, Ashleigh had found her in the first stall, and their cart was parked off to the side of the courtyard. They hitched the horse up and drove off, this time south. The country was more hilly as they went south, following the Mountain River. It was a fairly uninteresting ride all the way down and the girls were fairly silent. But that was only because of the building anticipation. They met very few travelers on the road, which was to be expected this late in the year. No one wanted to get caught in one of the surprise storms in the mountains.

They stopped at around midday for a small snack, but no one really felt like eating when they were so close to Milly. Ashleigh tried for a bit of conversation every now and then, but it didn’t really work very well, so they were submerged in silence for hours on end. Which didn’t really suit Ashleigh or Laren, as both girls liked to be talking at all times. The ride seemed to take forever, but they finally crested the tall hill above the city as the sun was going down to their left. A deep breath exploded out of Maya. The other three looked at her.

"I didn’t think we’d ever make it here," she explained. They all laughed and Ashleigh trotted the mare down the hill. They weren’t quite done their journey, though. They still had to get to Ashleigh’s aunt’s house, and Ashleigh wasn’t completely sure where it was. But she did know what it looked like and which street it was on… sort of.

"I know which part of town it’s in," She had said, "but not much more than that."

But that was a few hours ago, and she had had time to think it over. So they went into the southwest portion of town, where the town farms were. They passed by five drives before Ashleigh actually steered them down one. The drive was like a tunnel of trees, branches entwined above them and thick on the sides. It was fairly long and blotted out the moon and stars so that they were riding in near blackness. Then the trees stopped very abruptly and they were looking at a wooden, comfortable looking cottage in the center of a small clearing. The sun was setting and a golden glow fell on the little house.

"Is this the place?" Amyrillis asked. Ashleigh’s eyes shone.

"Yep, this is it." She urged the mare forward to the front of the house. She handed the reins to Amyrillis and hopped out. She walked up to the door and knocked. They waited a moment, then a shadow passed over one of the windows and the door was opened. In the frame there stood the silhouette of a plump woman. "Auntie Kialss!"

"Ashleigh?" the woman said. She had a very rich, warm voice. "Is that you?" Ash nodded. "Come in my dear girl! I’ll get Deaus to put your horse around back."

"I’ve got some friends too."

"Well, get them in here! What are you doing in Milly?"

"I had my Manchay. So did my friends."

"Really? That’s wonderful. I’m glad you decided to start in Milly. We haven’t seen you in ages." The other three got out and walked up to the door. "And you must be the rest of the group. It’s very nice to meet you." She looked over her shoulder. "Deaus! Come down here! And bring your sisters." A moment later, three people materialized behind her. "Deaus, can you go and put their cart out in the stables?" The tall boy nodded and headed outside. "Well, come on in." Kialss moved out of the way and they walked into the warm house. In front of them were two girls.

The younger one, Marcy, had curly red hair and looked to be about ten. She had bright blue eyes that almost always looked as though they were hiding something and waving the secret around in everyone’s faces. Laren liked her almost immediately. Salla, though, was a much more serious type person. She had dark, dark hair and matching eyes, but her skin was like ivory.

Both girls were instantly hugging their cousin. Ashleigh was chattering with them as she was ushered into the kitchen. There was a roast sitting on the table and five plates were set out. Kialss was grabbing four more plates from the cupboard. The four girls sat down with Marcy and Salla and, after a minute, Deaus and Kialss. Apparently their father wasn’t home yet. The four travelers were all ravenous that night, seeing as they hadn’t eaten almost all day. But now the nervousness was gone and they were welcomed into the family, so they ate.

The girls were given a large room that night, for all four of them to sleep in. It was very comfortable with a small fireplace on one side and a little square window on the other. Four beds had been hastily set up on the floor. The girls lay down on the soft mattresses and were asleep almost immediately.