The Forestwalker

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5

• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10

• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15

• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20

• Epilogue

Chapter 5

The summer passed by in a blaze of heat, without a drop of rain to relieve the drought. Despite the field slaves' hard work, the crops all withered and died; the forest at the edge of the plantation turned as dry as kindling, forcing Master Teskar to arrange patrols of slaves and overseers to keep fires from starting or spreading; and the family and the household staff all suffered miserably in the heat. Gareth got the dubious pleasure of spending his days in Kastor's classroom waving a large fan back and forth to keep the room slightly cooler; Kastor claimed not to be able to concentrate on his studies otherwise. That was possibly true, though it had escaped no one's notice that Kastor had been the perfect student since his temporary lapse just after Gareth had been returned to him. Master Teskar, Celise, and the others all took this as a sign that Kastor had finally learned his lesson, that he was no longer punishing or hurting Gareth without cause, and that he had finally turned over a new leaf. Only Gareth knew the truth, and unfortunately he was in no position to disabuse the others of what they believed.

Because Kastor hadn't changed; if anything, his torments had gotten worse. He had just chosen to be more hands-on since his father's last lecture. Gareth no longer dared to relax around his young master for any reason, but it didn't seem to matter whether he did things right any more or not. Kastor had stopped talking to him almost completely, and ordered him around now with slaps, kicks, and blows to the head. He never left any visible marks, so as to not have to explain himself and be lectured by his father, but he still knew how to cause Gareth pain. And it wore Gareth down emotionally as well as physically. He found himself dreaming of home almost every night, and fantasizing about escaping whenever he had time alone in silence – something he had never done before. Sometimes, when he could barely breathe in the stifling heat of his tiny room at night, much less sleep, he would lie awake for hours studying Shanna's drawings of his forest home, wishing with all his heart for a miracle to take him there.

He didn't get a miracle, but he did get something close as the summer was coming to its end. Master Teskar was gone for most of the summer, trying to save his failing business and spending as much time as he could with his wife, whose health was waning faster in the summer's heat. So it was a great treat to the entire household when he returned, and an even better one – at least for some of them – when he came with some good news.

“Kastor, Shanna, I have some wonderful news for you,” he said at dinner, looking unusually happy. “Your mother's doctor has been in consultation with a number of his colleagues and other specialists from around the world, and he just recently spoke to a doctor in Pan'sho'Ke who has some experience with illnesses similar to hers and may be able to help her. All hope is not lost for us. She is on her way there right now with her doctor and his staff, who will see her safely to the hospital in Tik'ra, and we will be leaving to join her in a week's time with the first of the harvest caravans.”

“For how long?” Kastor asked, sounding excited about something for the first time in ages.

“Indefinitely,” Master Teskar said, sounding a little less joyful now. “I'm afraid not all the news is good. The company has not been doing well, and no one seems to know when this drought will end. So I'm turning the plantation over to them, stepping down from my position for a sizable severance package, and we are moving to Pan'sho'Ke for the duration of your mother's stay. I've already found us a house there. I'm sure you'll like it; it's not quite as big as this place, but it's on the ocean, and the weather there is much more pleasant than it's ever been here. I think this change will be good for all of us.”

“But what about everyone else?” Shanna asked.

Kastor snorted. “They're slaves and staff. Who cares about what happens to them?”

“I do!” Shanna shouted at him, casting a brief panicked look at Gareth before turning to her father.

“It's alright, Shanna. We will be taking most of the household staff with us... the slaves, anyway. The servants will have the opportunity to relocate with us, but some of them have lives and families here. Don't worry, though. I will make sure they are all well-compensated for leaving our service and will do my best to help them find work if they choose to stay.” He smiled at his daughter and patted her hand comfortingly. “So, what do you think about a change of scenery?”

“I just want Mama to get better,” Shanna said, “and I wanna be there when she does, so I don't mind moving.”

Kastor voiced his agreement with his mouth full, and as the family finished their dinner, Gareth kept his silence despite the excitement that he felt bubbling up inside of him. A real, permanent change of scenery would be good for everyone, and a long trip would give him a respite from Kastor for a while. Even better was the distant hope that this big a change would serve to precipitate other changes... such as Kastor's treatment of him.

Reality intruded slowly, starting with the realization that Celise would not be coming with them. She had a home and a family here in Shasta, and she wasn't going to leave them and travel all the way across the world just to be a cook. The second blow reality dealt him was the realization that moving to Tik'ra, which was on Pan'sho'Ke's northernmost island, would put him closer to his former home than he had been since being stolen from it five years ago. That led him to begin desperately hoping that Kastor would change, because the temptation to run would become too great once his home was only a short trip across a channel rather than halfway across the world.

Fortunately, he was kept too busy to dwell on many of these details during that week. Packing up an entire household was a lot of work, even with the entire staff pitching in, and he still had his regular duties on top of ensuring that Kastor's things were packed and organized and loaded into the wagons on the last day. He was barely given a moment's rest, but he did manage to slip off briefly the day before they were going to leave to find Celise, who was helping Shanna pack for the trip.

“Could you find a place among the young mistress's things for this, miss?” he asked, holding out the box she had given him that contained his only possessions. “I would pack it with Master Kastor's things, but I'm afraid of what he might do if he finds it.”

“Of course, dear. I'm sure Miss Shanna won't mind, will you, dear?”

Shanna, who had rushed at Gareth and was now clinging to his waist, shook her head. Gareth let her hold onto him as he watched Celise take his box and pack it in the last of Shanna's trunks, then he gently extracted himself from the little girl's grip. “I'm sorry, miss, but I have to go. I have other duties,” he told her when she began to pout. “But you'll be seeing a lot of me starting tomorrow.” Mollified, she gave him another brief hug, then went back to putting her toys in boxes.

Her distraction made it easier for Gareth to say his goodbyes to Celise. “Thank you, miss, for being so kind to me all these years,” he said awkwardly, looking at his feet so she wouldn't see his face turning red. “I... I'm going to miss you, Miss Celise.”

“And I you, Gareth,” she said with a smile, and she gave him a brief hug and ruffled his hair affectionately. “You take care of yourself, understand? And look out for the young mistress as well; she'll need a friend in a strange new place.”

“Don't worry, miss. I will.” He looked up at her with a smile – his farewell – and then he turned and left.

The next day, Gareth and the other slaves loaded all the boxes, crates, and trunks into the small fleet of wagons and carriages that lined up in front of the house to carry the Cranes to their new home. Most of the luggage went into two large wagons, but a few full of necessary daily items were strapped to the top of the carriages that Master Teskar, Kastor, Shanna, and their personal slaves would be riding in. The rest of the slaves were riding in a third wagon, and the servants that were joining them had their own less well-appointed carriage to ride in. Their caravan would be traveling to Esgard, on Shasta's border with Eshara, where they would be meeting up with Master Teskar's company's harvest caravan for the journey north to Devrost, Eshara's capital city. That trip would take several weeks, and from there they would take the newly-constructed railroad that crossed the central grasslands to the coast, then take a ferry north across the ocean to the island that would be their new home. The trip would take close to two months, and though Gareth was looking forward to it for the most part, there was one thing that he was not relishing.

After he had helped the others load the wagons and seen Kastor and Shanna comfortably seated in their carriage, Gareth stood in front of the door to the carriage and waited patiently for Master Teskar to finish chaining the other slaves up in their wagon. Once he was done, he came over, and Gareth held his arms out and didn't look up as his master locked a chain between his wrists and another to the collar around his neck. Then, he shortened the hobble chain between Gareth's ankle shackles and helped him into the carriage. As Gareth sat down on the floor of the carriage between the two long benches where Kastor and Shanna sat, Master Teskar handed his leash to Kastor, who locked it to a ring in the back wall of the carriage. Gareth knew that there was a good reason for restraining him and the other slaves like this when they traveled, and he was used to it, but all of his trips since coming to the plantation had been short, lasting no more than several days. To be chained up like this for weeks was not going to be pleasant, nor would spending long days in the carriage with nothing to do.

But it wasn't so bad, especially since he got the reprieve from Kastor that he had been desperately needing. During their trip to Esgard, they spent their nights in local village inns, which meant he got a relatively comfortable pallet in the slaves' quarters every night, and once they joined up with the merchant caravan and began camping each night, he slept on the floor of Kastor and Shanna's tent between their cots. Unfortunately, though, this was not to last; one cold night, Shanna took pity on him and covered him with a blanket in the middle of the night. When Kastor woke up the next morning and found his slave sleeping under a blanket, he was furious, and he banished Gareth from the tent and insisted that he spend his nights during the rest of the trip with the other slaves, who slept on the hard ground in the open air, chained to the axles of the wagons so they could not escape.

This loss of his one small comfort made his days spent idle in the carriage much more difficult. Kastor spent all his time reading and never spoke to Gareth; Shanna played with her doll or drew pictures with her crayons or read from the book of fairy tales that Celise had given her as a farewell gift, and though she often looked longingly at Gareth as if she wanted to say something, she didn't dare speak to him while Kastor was around. Gareth, unfortunately, could do nothing but stare at the opposite wall of the carriage; from his position on the floor, he was sitting too low to even see out of the carriage windows. He wished he could have watched the scenery going by, especially since they were traveling through a forest now. The southern forests were small and sparse, the trees mere saplings compared to the massive giants that he had called home, but it would have been a comfort and a way to pass the time nonetheless. He passed his time instead by listening to the bumps in the road and the rattle of his chains, which were loud in the heavy silence, and trying to imagine what the landscape passing by the windows he couldn't see out of looked like. He would have slept, since he was finding it difficult to do so on the cold, hard ground at night, but Kastor, in an effort to continue to abuse Gareth in the only way left to him, refused to let him do so.

“Why don't you just leave him alone and let him sleep?” Shanna finally burst out one day after watching Kastor kick Gareth awake for the third time in less than an hour. “It's not like you need him right now, and I don't think he's gotten a good night's rest since you made him start sleeping outside with the others.”

Gareth was grateful to Shanna for sticking up for him, but Kastor didn't care about his comfort. “He's my slave, and I'll do what I like with him,” he snarled, kicking Gareth again for good measure. “Now shut up and mind your own business or I'll throw your precious 'Dolly' out the window. Let's see him get it back for you then.”

Shanna turned very pale at that, and tears filled her eyes as she clutched her doll tightly. Gareth wanted to comfort her, but he couldn't. She found her own source of comfort after a few minutes, though, and she spent the rest of the day drawing furiously on her pad of paper and glaring daggers at her brother every time she looked up. From the glimpses of her drawings that he caught – all of which depicted Kastor being tormented in a number of horrible ways – Gareth began to suspect that the fairy tales that Shanna was so fond of may not be the most wholesome of stories for a little girl to be reading.

The next day, though, she was back to her cheerful self, and she seemed to have decided to channel her energies towards positive action rather than negative reaction. As soon as the caravan began to move that morning, she lay down on her stomach across the long carriage bench so that her head was on a level with Gareth's, then she took out her book and her doll, set the doll across from her, opened the book, and began to read aloud. Kastor looked up from his own book, annoyed, but he had no cause to stop her, so he let her be. Shanna read her book of fairy tales aloud to her doll all morning, but Gareth knew from the sidelong looks that she was giving him that she was actually reading to him, to help him stay awake, and thanks to her stories he did not close his eyes or get kicked by Kastor once. When they stopped at midday and got out of the carriage for a brief luncheon, he smiled at her and squeezed her hand briefly while helping her down, to show her that he appreciated what she was doing for him. Kastor glared at them both as he ate, possibly suspecting what his sister was up to, but he didn't say anything, and he ignored them both and curled up on his own bench to nap once they had gotten back in the carriage and the caravan was moving again.

Gareth was sorely tempted to doze himself when he noticed that Kastor had fallen asleep, but he didn't dare, even though Shanna was napping as well and he no longer had her stories to keep him occupied. Instead, he tilted his head up so that he could see the tops of the trees going by the carriage window above his head, and lost himself in daydreams about living in the forest and seeing his family and climbing trees again. He got so lost in his own thoughts that when the caravan stopped again he was sure he had dreamed the day away, until he let his eyes focus on the trees and the sky outside again and realized that it was only mid-afternoon.

Kastor and Shanna were both awake now, sitting up and looking nervous. As awareness of his surroundings returned to Gareth, he realized why they were spooked: there were shouts and the sound of running men and horses outside. Suddenly, the carriage door opened, and Master Teskar appeared outside, riding a horse.

“Children, I want you to keep your heads down and stay silent. Slave, keep them safe.”

“What's wrong, Father? What's happening?” Kastor asked.

“A tree is down across the road, and the lead driver suspects bandits. We'll take care of it, though, and we'll be on our way before you know it. Bandits wouldn't dare attack a party of this size, but we have to take precautions nonetheless.”

Kastor was on his feet at the sound of the word 'bandits.' “Can I help? I wanna kill bandits!”

“No, son. You're going to stay here and look after your sister.”

“But I thought that's what he was for,” Kastor whined, indicating Gareth. “I can fight!”

“Kastor, I said no and I mean no,” Teskar said shortly. “Now do as I say. Remain here and stay quiet.” He closed the carriage door. Kastor glared at it, cursing under his breath. As soon as his father's horse's hoofbeats had faded away, he slumped back into his seat, looking furious.

Shanna, on the other hand, was terrified. She glanced at her brother, but he would be no comfort to her, so she turned instead to Gareth. Clutching her doll, she slipped to the floor next to him and tugged on his shirtsleeve. When he looked sideways at her with a reassuring smile, she climbed into his lap and wormed her way into his arms between his shackled wrists.

“It will be alright, miss,” Gareth whispered in her ear as he held her close and comforted her. He kept a close eye on Kastor, in case his young master got angry at him for comforting Shanna, but Kastor was preoccupied. He was leaning forward and had his eyes fixed on the carriage door, his hands were balled into fists, and he seemed to be listening intently to every muffled sound from outside.

Suddenly, the world outside erupted in shouts and screams. Kastor jumped, and Shanna screamed and clung to Gareth. Feet and hoofbeats could be heard running in every direction. Then, there were gunshots and a twang and thrum that Gareth recognized as bows and arrows. The carriage rocked as the door was pierced by one just inches from Kastor's head. Gareth reacted without thinking. “Kastor, get down!” he shouted as he reached out and grabbed the back of Kastor's shirt. He pulled Kastor to the floor, and as he saw his young master turn to look at him with murder in his eyes, he knew he was in for the beating of his life.

But before Kastor had the chance to react to this violation of his person, the carriage gave a mighty lurch. Gareth heard a horse's scream, a man's shout, and then suddenly the carriage was rocketing out of control. Gareth clenched his jaw to keep his teeth from biting off his tongue, closed his eyes, and held Shanna tightly. He could hear her screaming, and Kastor shouting, but there was nothing he could do for them as the carriage plunged through the forest. It went faster and faster, wood cracking and metal deforming as it bounced off trees and rocks, tossing its three passengers around like leaves in a whirlwind. All of a sudden, there was an enormous crash. The entire carriage exploded around them, and everything went black.