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December Free Fiction: Advent Story: Thear Collection: Orla: 1053 words
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Mounting a horse was one of the few things Orla did know how to do. She didn't know much about the saddle or the other bits that he had put on the poor horse, but that didn't mean she was totally ignorant about horses. There had just been no real reason to learn about everything, although she wished she had. Being with him made her feel stupid and she didn't like feeling stupid. Sighing, she stood on the bucket, because it would make things easier, and swung her leg over the horse.
Once Orla was on the horse all she wanted to do was get off again. Having a breathing animal underneath her made her feel weird, but she knew she needed the horse if she was going to get to North Square. Gently she patted the top of the horse's head and looked over at him. She hated not remembering his name, because she felt like she should remember it. There had been something about him and... she sighed.
When he was finally on the horse he looked at Orla. Their eyes met for a second before he lifted the reins and started riding towards the stable door. Orla followed him, because she owed him already for all the help he had given her. She kept looking at him, trying to at least remember which class they had been in together. It had been some time ago, when they were both still under twelve she thought, because she didn't remember him being quite so tall. Most Tein-Igni males reached their full height by the time they were twelve, so it made logical sense.
Orla didn't look around when they had left the stable. Being on horses would draw attention to them, but as they were together she thought it might just seem like a couple going for a nice winter solstice ride so they could be alone. She hoped it would. That would give them a few hours before someone, probably Yannis' father, realised that she was gone and not coming back.
It didn't take long for Orla to remember why she hated riding. Every movement the horse made jolted her back, her legs ached where the horse was between them, and all she wanted to do was get off. Walking to North Square seemed almost logical by the time the sun began to set. She pulled her cloak tighter around her, which didn't help. Instead she started shivering and wished that she was somewhere warm. Back at home in front of the fire sounded nice, but she knew that she would be putting her family in more danger if she'd stayed.
Tears rolled down Orla's cheeks as she thought of what she'd left behind. Her parents would be worried about her, because she hadn't stopped to tell them that she was leaving. She should have done. They didn't deserve to be kept in the dark, but she knew that not telling them was probably keeping them safer than they would have been in she had told them. It would have taken hours to even get them to believe that she was really the priestess of Artemis, because her father believed that a Tein-Igni priest or priestess would only be chosen by Bast or Anubis, and hours were something she didn't have.
Of course Orla didn't know for sure that Yannis' father would have hurt her, but it was safer to leave. Artemis had told Orla that if one person she didn't trust found out about who she was then she would have to leave. Priests and priestesses had ended up dead, and dying wasn't something Orla really wanted to do. That didn't stop her from feeling like she had let her family down by running for her life.
“Why were you leaving?” she asked, needing to take her mind off her problems.
“I wanted to.”
“Aren't you leaving behind family?”
“When my mother died in childbirth my father passed me onto my uncle because he couldn't cope. I haven't seen my father since. My uncle already had three children, so I was just a burden. He'll be glad that I'm gone.”
“That's...” Orla shook her head. “I can't imagine how difficult that must have been.”
“I don't need your pity.”
“Who is your deity?”
“Epona.”
“Is that why you're so good with horses?”
“Possibly.”
Orla sighed. “My deity is Artemis.”
“I really don't care.”
“Maybe you don't, but I feel like I should at least talk to you. You did help me.”
“The best thing you can do is not talk to me. I'd much rather be alone, but Epona told me to wait for you because you'd need my help, so that's what I did. I don't want to answer your questions or talk to you about anything.”
Nodding, even though he couldn't see her, Orla wrapped her arms around herself once more and tried not to think too much about what had happened. It was hard. Yannis had betrayed her, so she'd had to leave behind everything she knew. She knew she would have to leave at some point, but she'd always believed that she would have had time to make proper plans, and there would be time to convince her family to travel with her. Instead she was with someone she couldn't even remember the name of, who didn't want to be with her, and the only things she had were the things he had packed.
More tears streamed down Orla's cheeks and for the first time she realised exactly what it meant to be a true priestess. Ever since Artemis had chosen Orla she had been in real danger, but she had never really believed that someone would hurt her. Part of her still didn't. If it wasn't for the knowledge that people had died before she probably wouldn't have left. She would have stayed and waited to see what was going to happen, which would have been a mistake. Until she got to North Square she would continue to be in danger. People would be out looking for her once they realised she hadn't got back and she felt guilty that he was with her, because being with her meant he was in danger even if people didn't know he was a true priest.
© K A Jones 2011
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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