Red River Fan Fiction ❯ The Happening of After the End ❯ On the Road ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Seis! Yo voy a hablar en Espanola para esta chapter. JK! That was probably all wrong. Anyway, let the fun begin!

 

Note: Anything in italics is supposedly Japanese. All a translator does is give me boxes. Some help that is.

 

Two weeks later, after Sayuri had decided her father was a safe distance away Tito found a note on his bedside table when he woke up.

 

I love you as my best friend, nothing else. I'm sorry.

Sayuri

 

It said. It was a short note and it and the flustered boy knew not one word of what was said, only knew it had to be from her. They hadn't spoken hardly at all for the past two weeks and whenever he managed to get anything out of her she always ran away afterward. She'd never been nervous around him before and it hurt him to see he so timid now. The letter, if it could be called that, wasn't in his language and he didn't know what tongue it was in anyway. This could only mean one thing now; she had runaway, to Hattusa no doubt. There was no way she could get there on her own and if by some miracle she did there was no chance that she would survive; she'd be picked up by a brothel.

 

Tito imagined her being forced to entertain men and he shuddered uncontrollably as he sat on his slept in bed. Then he realized there was no way she'd let some unwanted man touch her. If she was willing to leave that note, he was going to let her take care of business first.

-

 

Kneeling beside a glistening river a young woman timidly picked up a simple iron dagger. Gradually, as if still not decided, she brought it up to just below her earlobe and with her other hand grabbed a large chunk of silky black hair. (Heehee, reminds me of Mulan!) Sighing in defeat she sliced her hair off cleanly and gazed at it in her hand. Watching it with utmost intensity she let it slide through her open fingers and fall into the running water. Cutting the other side the same she stared at her locks till they rounded a bend and disappeared from view. If by the grace of Ishtar they made it back to the stream behind her small adobe cottage she would be thankful.

 

Too much had happened since her father had taken his leave. Not only did Tito confess and she reply but the moment their lips touched a sea of knowledge had entered her like a shockwave. It was as if a piece of her had been unlocked. She could now speak and write fluently inn an entirely different language from her own without knowing the country of which it originated.

 

Gracefully she got up and brushed off the dirt and grass that clung to her plain clothes. In order to make this work Sayuri had to be a boy and that was a tough feat for a girl, not matter how unfeminine she was. All she carried on her was a concealed sword, change of clothes, food, and a little money.

 

Picking up her things she strode back over to the road and started to walk south till she spotted a caravan a ways up heading in the same direction. Grinning with happiness she began to sprint as fast as she could toward it until she finally reached the last wagon. She ran a few up so she wasn't the last and saw a woman walking beside it.

 

“Excuse me ma'am, are you heading for the capitol?” she questioned, trying to be polite while also trying to lower her high voice.

 

“Yes we are.” She answered directly and honestly and though Sayuri had thought she'd seemed like a kind woman now she wasn't so sure. The woman had immediately ignored her after that and begun walking as if she wasn't even there, but she had to try.

 

“Is there any chance I may ride with you till we reach Hattusa?”

 

“No. I need no tag a longs so you can just leave and find someone else.” She sneered and went back to her shunning attitude.

 

At a loss for words Sayuri stopped walking and watched as the others passed by around her. Though she had been raised in a rural town she still hadn't expected to be treated so harshly on her first interaction with anyone. The outright hostility had surprised her. Maybe it was because everyone in her village liked her or because she wasn't used to it but it bothered her a bit. She stared without really seeing till she felt a slight tug at her sleeve and looked down to her right to see a small boy trying to get her attention.

 

“My mother will let you stay with us.” He said and immediately walked off without waiting to see if she was going to follow him. At first she stared blankly at his retreating form but soon shook her head and ran to check up with him quickly. The small boy looked to be about seven and had dusty, curly, blond hair that got into his eyes. Scrambling to his side she tried to be friendly in her gruff, “manly”, voice.

 

“What's your name?” she asked.

 

“Juran, and you?” he rebuffed.

 

“Ah… my name…” she panicked. She hadn't come up with one yet. No one would believe Sayuri to be a boy's name, despite how odd it was already. Shaking her head she blurted the first thing that came to mind.

 

“Clayon!” she spat out at last and sighed in relief.

 

“Clayon…I thought that was a boy's name?” the child spouted back at her, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

 

“I- it is! I am a boy.” She tried to act appalled that he'd had made that misconception instead of acting surprised that he'd seen through her. Juran also seemed startled at this new discovery but willingly believed the lie and let it go. She could barely fool a child, how was she supposed to trick an adult?

 

“Mother!” the boy called as they reached a wagon and a female's heads poked out from in the wagon. “Can Clayon stay with us till we get to Hattusa? He has nowhere to go and the old lady turned away another traveler.” He asked and Sayuri bowed courteously to the woman. The woman smiled warmly and Sayuri felt her heart glow, not everyone was rude it seemed.

 

“Sure! Where are you from Clayon?” she asked and both she and Juran jumped into the back of the wagon. It was full off crops and jewelry that were all wrapped up in bags. Traders they were, like her father.

 

“A little town a day or so north of here. I'm headed to Hattusa for the recruitment.” She explained, smiling at the prospect of getting what she wanted and was happy she could truthfully say that that was where she was headed.

 

“Oh, really, well you're welcome to stay here till we reach the capitol. It will be nice to have a man around here.” She said and Sayuri giggled to herself, adults were more gullible that children.

 

“Thank you ma'am.” Sayuri dropped her pack and rested her head down on a sack of potatoes before drifting off to sleep, thinking of what lay ahead for her.

-

 

“Clayon, look! There it is!” Juran exclaimed from the other side of the wagon. Sayuri rushed around the horses from where she was walking to see the little boy gleaming and pointing at something in the near distance. She saw what he was looking at and grinned.

 

Huge walls that stretched up to the sky lay before her. The color of red mud, the gateway stood as the one barrier to her goal. Through the afternoon haze she felt the strong adrenaline rush racing through her veins and the warm sweat clinging to her back. The prime test of her competence on whether or not she could infiltrate the infantry was now upon her and was causing her chest to rise and fall heavily. The only way she reckoned her plan would fail was if they asked for hard proof of her masculinity and no amount of clothing could hide that.

 

“That's Hattusa!” he yelled gleefully. In the day that they'd been together, Juran previous attitude had worn off and Sayuri had come to see him as an adorable younger brother. When he opened up he was cute and funny in a child like way that caught her motherly eye. Kora, Juran's mother, was especially appreciative since any time Juran spent with her was time Kora wasn't having t6o watch him and for that she'd given her some pie for dessert. She would be saddened when she left them at the gates.

 

“We'll be there by mid-afternoon.” Kora peeked over the side to tell them. She had been very kind and accommodating to Sayuri as they traveled together and despite not being able to feed her, besides the pie, she'd been very apologetic. After the cold confrontation from the previous trader her view was surely prejudice and the kind generosity of the family had helped her stay optimistic; open-minded.

 

Juran had told of how his father had died and so now it was just he and his mother. They were traders, as she'd presumed, and spent most of the year planting and harvesting crops and the other part selling them. It was a constant stream of work but they got on all right apparently. Once Juran had asked what her father did for a living. The innocent question wasn't meant to be hurtful but the memory of her father still stung. He was somewhere in the vast orient: doing whatever he truly did to earn their way without so much as a whisper of her current doings. She wondered if word had gotten to her father yet, or if it would at all since she doubted that Kikkuri knew his chartered route. But then again her mysterious sire seemed capable of just about anything.

-

 

“Thank you for letting me stay with you till we got here.” Sayuri thanked the two gratefully. The small group had finally arrived inside the mighty gates of the Hittite's capitol, Hattusa. They departed sadly, Juran and Sayuri watching each other till they couldn't see past the crowd. The market had quickly turned into frenzy because of the caravan's arrival and people were bustling about trying to set up their stands in the best spots. Pandemonium reigned as she fought her way through the fray toward where the army was supposedly stationed. There was where they were taking new recruits.

 

Caught up in her own little world Sayuri failed to hear or sense the whispers aimed at her. After all, she wasn't suspicious, was she? Carrying only a bag and a sword she didn't seem to be a fraud acting as a man. The giant city never ceased to amaze since having lived I a small town all her life she was now being thrust through a city life crash course.

 

Trudging up to a building Sayuri read a sign reading. “Recruitment Station” and walked through the open doorway. Inside the dimly lit room was only a cheap desk with a soldier sitting lazily with his feet on the table. As she strode in he quickly put them down and tried to recover his business-like composure so as to get a good report.

 

“I'd like to enroll in the infantry.” Sayuri said strongly as if trying to convince him with her voice of her manliness and her willingness to put her life on the line for her country.

 

Watching the girlish man talk brought an arrogant smirk to the officer's face. This scrawny child wanted to be in the army, the possibilities were endless and yet all far-fetched.

 

“You want to be in the army? Can you even pick up a sword? Go home, we don't need kids.” He laughed heartily at her while her face turned beet red in anger and embarrassment at the jab.

 

“I am sixteen! And I can to hold a sword, see,” she pulled out her sword and the soldier noticed she held it the right way, which others rarely did, “I bet I could beat you!” she shouted at him and calmed down as she watched his surprised face. This little rat thought he could beat a hardened soldier. It was laughable but as lazy and cold as he was, he wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to take the boys bait like a buffoon.

 

“Okay, okay, I can't stop you. I'm just going to need a name and a place of residence in case we need to tell your family you died.” He said, turning serious once again. If Sayuri had hackles they would have risen as she panicked once again. She'd been using Clayon but it would be best to change it again in case Kikkuri tracked her to the caravan. She had too tell him where she lived too? There was no way she'd be able to tell him either one! She had t come up with something but what could she call herself?

 

“My name?” she repeated, her face glazed over and expressionless. The man raised a bushy eyebrow at her, waiting. The boy kept getting weirder every minute.

 

“Oh, my name! It's…Kurone!” she said brightening. It would work for her immediate purposes and it wasn't a particularly uncommon name so why not?

 

“All right, and place of residence?” he said.

 

“Um, Katapa.” She answered; picking the first town that came to mind. Wait that might not be such a good idea seeing as how she could die. She was just used to making things up now and the town from the stories of Ursula immediately came to mind. Oh well, the damage was done now, and she couldn't change it without looking odd.

 

“Got it, take your things and go to Unit 3. That's where you'll be staying till you're deployed to the front.”

 

“Yes, sir.” She stated triumphantly and shouldered her pack before walking out the door. The sky showed signs of darkening since she saw the tops of the houses clothed in pink. Knowing she didn't have much time she started to run toward where she knew the infantry would be staying. Slowing to a walk she came into the settlement and received curious stares from many of the soldiers ready for bed.

 

“Excuse me, I'm new, where do I go?” she asked one of the nearest soldiers politely. He had black hair and at first seemed to be the welcoming sort.

 

“Ask someone else, kid.” He said grumpily and turned away. This always seemed to happen to her, why couldn't she ask nice people?

 

“Excuse me, I take it you're new right.” A young man, maybe eighteen, asked her coming up to her with a smile as she left disheartened. She had to find out what she was supposed to do before it got dark but she was at a loss.

 

“Yes and don't actually have any idea what to do at all.” She explained, shrugging and grimacing in distress. The man chuckled at her expression; apparently it was amusing.

 

“You're just in time! We're leaving tomorrow for Ugarit so you aren't going to have to stay till the next group like I did! Come on, you can set up by me.” The boy said cheerfully and Sayuri couldn't but help grin, his smile was contagious. Maybe he could be her friend while she was here, though she knew it wasn't smart to get close to anyone when it would take one swing to kill him or her.

 

“Thanks, I will, what is your name?” she asked as they went down the rows of never ending tents.

 

“Nairek, you?”

 

“Kuron.” Sayuri answered, At least she'd remembered that, so that was one less thing to worry about.

 

For the rest of the short walk to Nairek's tent they stayed in a comfortable silence. Already Sayuri saw that they had a nice rhythm and could get along with each other easily.

 

“Well here it is, home sweet tent.” He said with a short laugh and opened the canvas flap obscuring the entrance. At first Sayuri objected but the boyish man with sandy colored hair didn't know her secret and so therefore she was safe.

At last ducking under it she saw the area inside was actually more spacious than she had imagined. Looking around she saw two spots where people could sleep and room for luggage and weapons.

 

“Do you have a tent mate?” she asked, gesturing at the space beside what was clearly his bed since he went and plopped down on the floor.

 

“Oh, technically to save space we are supposed to be two to a tent but many came with their friends so I don't have one. I was wondering if you would care to be mine?” he asked innocently and looked up at her for an answer. She knew there was no deeper meaning behind it; he was just being friendly. There was no way he could havce figured out that she was a woman so it wasn't as if he'd try something.

 

“Okay, so I'll just put my stuff here then.” She said hesitantly and started to sling her single bag off her shoulder.

 

“Yes, of course!” he laughed excitedly. “Then I'll just run you through how we do things. We get up when the sun rises and we go to sleep when it sets. This is how it will be on the road, though right now no one listens to that. We'll learn our schedule when we get to Ugarit. Is that all you have?” he asked pointing to her sack and sword, that she'd finally revealed. Nodding she laid out a blanket and laid down on it to rest.

 

“We have to get up at the right time so we might want to go to sleep now.” He suggested and Sayuri nodded. “Then have a good sleep till tomorrow.” He said cheerfully as he too lay down.

 

“Same to you.” She responded. Closing her eyes swiftly she allowed her overwhelmed mind t wander until she fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.

 

Well? Bueno? Mal? Heehee! Next chapter I love so hope you do too!!!!!!