Dwellers of the New World Chapter Nine ( Pt 7 ) Not Welcome

By the time Brad returned to the wagon, Cinnamon was asleep. He picked up her wet clothes and the damp sheepskin and some wooden pegs, then made his way over to one of the fires.

The wind was still quite strong, as he hung the girl's clothes on some nearby branches, along with the bedding. 'The heat from the fire, along with the blustery wind would soon have the clothes dry,' he thought.

Warming himself by the fire, Brad felt the heat relaxing his muscles in his tired body. His mind started to wander, as he thought of his time with the travellers, realising how well his son Simon had settled in with these people. The boy had become attached to many of them, including Ida, who he now regarded as his adopted grandmother.

He'd never meant to stay as long as he did. The travellers had only meant to go as far as the stones, to celebrate the festival of memory,
for the crystal ships, but then he had persuaded them to come further South, where they could get a lot more for their wares.

Just at that moment, there was a tap on Brad's shoulder.

“You okay Brad?”

He looked around to see Joe. “Oh yeah...you made me jump, but yes I'm fine.”

“You looked miles away.” Joe remarked.

“Yeah! I was just thinking about things in general. Simon's excited about seeing the ocean for the first time, I know he'll be waking early in the morning. I was about to go to bed myself, before River ran off.”

“How is the girl now?” asked Joe, feeling his cheeks flush.

“Oh...she's dead to the world, I think she'll be fine after a good nights sleep.”

“She's quite a looker, don't you think?” declared Joe.

“I hope you're not getting any thoughts of desire for the girl,” Brad declared worriedly. “She's not one of your own, you know what people are like about keeping themselves to themselves.”

Joe stared down on the ground, then back up at Brad. “Yeah I know, but it doesn't stop me wondering what she's like and yes I do kind of fancy her.”

Brad caught a glimpse of Tawny his owl, flying through the trees. The bird finally swooped down, landing on a branch, close to where the two men stood talking,” he seemed agitated, as if danger were around,
but none could be seen.

“I'm just going to get something warm to drink, do you want some?” asked Joe.

“Yeah that would be good, before I turn in, think I'll get some meat off the spit too,” replied Brad.

The two men made their way over to where some others were eating and drinking. As Brad cut some meat off the pig, Joe returned with two wooden mugs. “Here you go...something to warm you up.” He passed him the warming mead.”

“Ah! Great.” Brad took a sip, feeling the heat slip down his throat.

“It's a cold one tonight,” said one of the other men, whose name was Rue. He was a middle aged man and wore skin breaches and skin knee
high boots, which was traditional for all the travelling men. A deer skin tunic was worn over the top with a belt, and a skin bandanna around his head.

“It sure is,” replied Brad, “I'm going to have some food and drink, then turn in, got a busy day tomorrow.”

“Whose that girl you were carrying? She didn't look like one of ours,” remarked Rue.

“Don't really know much about her, other than she lives locally. River went running off barking wildly, he was standing over what at first I thought was a dead animal, but then discovered was a girl. Her name's Cinnamons, she got trapped in deep brambles.”

Rue looked unsure. “You know you shouldn't really bring strangers into the camp, you know it's dangerous.”

“I know,” said Brad. “I couldn't very well leave her in the forest, she was lost and injured.”

“Well I would make sure you get her home, before anyone realises she's missing, you know what outsiders can be like, we don't want to be accused of kidnapping,” Rue said, a worried look on his face.

Just at that moment torchlight could be seen coming through the thicket of trees. “Who's that coming?” declared Brad.

“Not sure,” replied Rue.

Suddenly some of the young people came running over shouting,
“There's men coming...what do we do?”

“We'd better wait and see who they are, and what they want, let's not jump to conclusions, it may be nothing,” replied Brad.

“It can only be trouble at this time of night, I'll wager it has something
to do with that girl,” remarked Rue.

Then they saw a band of men on foot, striding between the trees. The horses became restless, bolting as if they knew trouble was coming.

River jumped down out of the wagon barking, swiftly followed by
Simon. The dog sensed something was wrong.

“Father...father, what's going on?” shouted Simon.

Brad beckoned his son over and whistled to River to come. The dog had become a companion to Brad and his son, ever since Brad had rescued him from drowning, which was how he became named River. The dog was distressed to begin with, fretful of Brad, but once he was healed, Simon took care of him and so began a friendship, a close bond that could not be broken.

“Quickly...go tell the women to stay in their wagons.” Brad said to Rue.

“No!” declared Rue, “if there's to be trouble, the women and children need to be out here, we all need to stand together and hear what these people have to say.”

“Okay!” responded Brad, “but leave the girl Cinnamon to sleep, we don't want them knowing she's here.”

Rue nodded in agreement, feeling anxious as to what was coming, fearing the worst.

“Daisy!” called out Brad, beckoning the girl over.

She sauntered over. “Yeah! What is it?”

“Could you go over to the wagon the girl's in, she's sleeping at the moment. If she wakes, tell her to keep quiet, that there's trouble coming and we don't want people knowing she's here.”

Daisy agreed and made her way over to the wagon, just as the men appeared at the boundary of the camp.

Brad and Rue couldn't count how many men there were, it was too dark.

Two of the party stepped forward, torches in hand.

“Okay,” said Brad, “let's go and find out what these men want.”

As Brad and Rue and some of the other travelling men went to meet
the strangers, women and children began jumping down out of their
wagons. Babies cried as mothers nursed them, unaware of what was going on and why they'd been summoned from their beds.

Talking amongst themselves, the night air cold and threatening, sending shivers through the camp.

Simon stood with Ida, watching as his father approached the two men, he'd never seen his father look so worried, it scared the boy and he hugged River, looking for some comfort.

Standing opposite one of the men, politely Brad spoke to the stranger.
“Hi...is there a problem? We weren't making too much noise were we?”

The stranger stared deeply into Brad's eyes, a menacing expression on his face. “You can't camp here...you have no rights being here.”

“Who says?” replied Rue, feeling anger build up inside him.

The man's eyes turned to gaze at the man who questioned him. “This forest belongs to Gregor the master, he doesn't allow travellers to camp here.”

“The forest belongs to everyone, what gives this man the right to say he owns it?” remarked Rue. The other men nodded in agreement.

Brad then spoke up, before the stranger had time to reply. “Look...we'll be gone in the morning, you won't even know we were here.”

The stranger looked at his men, then back at Brad, smirking smugly to himself. “You won't be staying till the morning, I can promise you that, if you don't leave now, we've been instructed to burn your wagons to the ground, so you'd better just pack up and leave now.”

Dwellers of the New World Chapter Nine ( Pt 8 ) Moving On | ABCtales