Oh The Places We Go It was a beautiful day at the end of summer, and Sayashi Riho was skipping out on chores to rest in her father's apple orchard.
It was too splendid a day to be wasted on little things like tending to the gardens or mending tools. Riho had seized on attending to their modest herd of horses, putting them out to pasture in the field next to the orchard as she kept one lazy eye out from underneath the flowering apple trees. As the eldest she supposed she should be setting a better example, but it was a good day and she would really rather be relaxing instead of slogging under the intense heat of summer.
Plus it wasn't like she wasn't doing anything! Their horse herds were a significant source of income, and Riho kept a particular eye on the mares that were going to foal soon. That she could do so from under the shade of her favorite apple trees was just a helpful bonus. She did not envy her little brother, who had just been apprenticed to her uncle, a blacksmith by trade. Had she been a boy, that role would have been hers, but Riho gladly begged off on such an honor. Blacksmithing might be an honorable trade, but getting trapped behind anvil and bellows while sweating like a stuck pig at the fires was not an ideal life for her.
She learned her letters, helped with the accounting, dealt with the traders when her father was away, and generally learned how to manage a small estate while doing as little as possible at the same time. She worked hard, no doubt, but also learned how to take time for herself. They were not nobility, just burghers who had risen to a modest living and built on the ancestral holdings of land bequeathed to them by some distant artisan of an ancestor who had performed meritorious service for a lord of some kind. Every generation had learned some kind of useful trade, and the Sayashi clan had grown strong from trade and craft. They had prime lands, but were not so centrally placed that others would covet them. They had a good name, a strong estate, and their sons and daughters were usefully employed. Even Riho, who at the tender age of 14 was more literate than others older than her, and could add up numbers better than others twice her age.
There is no better way to live! Mused Riho, as she munched idly on a blade of grass. She wanted for nothing, was usefully occupied, and there was nothing more she loved than the fields and forests of her family lands. Her father was always busy, but always took time to stop and teach her the business in his gruffly affectionate manner. Her siblings tormented her, but she tormented them right back, and more than once had to settle disputes between her younger siblings. She loved her family above all, and could never imagine leaving them.
Something hit her head with a dull thud, and she yelped, before grinning as she picked up the offending object. It was still too small and a little green, but the apple was crunchy and sweet, with a tang on the tip of her tongue reminding her of its unripe state. She couldn't wait for autumn to come, when Father had promised to show her how to make cider from their annual harvest. She adored cider, and looked forward to coming up with new ways of making her favorite beverage.
So it was while daydreaming about cider that her life took a decidedly dramatic turn, shattering the peaceful idyll of her life up to then.
~*~*~
"Thief! Stop, thief!"
The girl wondered just how exactly she had gotten into such a situation. Her, daughter of a knight of the realm, with no lands perhaps, but raised at court at their Lord's table. She had grown up with the Duke's children and ran wild with the sons and daughters of other vassals and servants. She picked up swordplay along with skills suitable for a lady, though she generally preferred to be out in the sun instead of knitting or crocheting. Cooking was a practical skill though, and the cooks had since learned to put up with her barging into the kitchens and throwing together ingredients on a whim. Surprisingly, her efforts were not only edible, but quite delicious to boot. Unfortunately, she never remembered to note down the ingredients used, and many a great dish has sadly been lost.
So what was she doing in the middle of nowhere, caked in the mud of travel and being hailed for a thief despite her semi-noble birth?
An image of the princess flashed before her eyes in memory. Oh...right. The Princess! Who was kidnapped (of course) by an evil witch (what else?) and held prisoner at the edge of the kingdom, in the Unmapped Fens. Many a knight was rumored to have gone in search of the witch's lair, but none have returned.
When her own father had left the Duke's castle (for the capital city he assured her. She was not convinced), that was when she decided that something had to be done about the situation. You see, she always wanted to be a knight, but no one ever trained girls in the knightly arts. She might have picked up some skills over time by roughhousing with the squires and kitchen boys, but she would never get the chance to apprentice to a real knight and practice the way of chivalry. She knew it disappointed her father that she wasn't a boy, but there was no help for it.
Unless! Girls were taught to read, and growing up the way she had, she read a great deal of epic tales of adventure and romance. While girls her age tended to favour tales where fair ladies swooned in impossibly high towers built on equally impossible terrain, all the while waiting for some brave knight on a quest to rescue her and live happily ever after, she was more interested in the stories where knights distinguished themselves on the battlefield and were thence honored for their valor. It gave her hope that one day, she too could break with tradition and do something so glorious that they would have no choice but to knight her. She could make her father proud! And save princesses! Achieve fame and eternal glory in song and tale!
Which brought her to her present predicament. So there was a princess to be saved -- the Princess was amazing, she saw the lady one year ago at the Solstice feast in the capital, and had never forgotten her since. Had she told anyone they would have laughed it off as a crush. She didn't tell anyone, and believed it to be love. The love of her life was in danger! And it was the duty of every right thinking knight to rescue a fair maiden, particularly the object of their affections!
Never mind that she wasn't a knight, that she was a girl, the Princess doesn't even know she exists, and she had no idea where to start looking. But every quest begins with a first step, and she had sneaked out of the Duke's keep in a spare set of practice armor (a bit big, but all those sewing lessons came in handy for readjusting those infernal leather straps), her father's spare blade (heavier than she was used to), and a tired old pony (really a mule, but it's hard to steal a warhorse). She also sensibly packed some spare clothes, food, and a bit of money she had squirreled away for emergencies.
But things Went Wrong, as they are wont to be, where an encounter with bandits left her without her steed -- that poor mule accounted for itself bravely, sending two brigands off a sheer cliff -- and she almost drowned after falling into a river, forcing her to discard her armor or drown ignominiously, and she had used up most of her funds about two weeks in.
About the only thing she had left was her father's sword, her boots, and a few rags that passed for clothes. She had had to hack off her long hair after it got unceremoniously tangled in a thorn bush following her emergence from the stream that had almost drowned her, and as a result she looked nothing like the knight's daughter playing at being on a quest, but rather more like a street rat with a nice sword (that she finally had the sense to disguise with crude wrappings in order not to draw any undue attention to it).
In short, she was hungry, tired, miserable, and never happier in her entire life. For what quest would it be without Trials and Tribulations? Galahad would have suffered no less for the Grail, she was certain.
Still, starvation was distinctly unattractive, and thus it was that she found herself being chased by a little kid waving a saucepan around with considerable fervor. It was just a piece of bread! She didn't have to act like the bloody crown jewels had been taken. Shoving the bread down her throat with unseeming haste, she put on another burst of speed, her longer legs allowing her to outrun the brat behind her.
It wasn't very honorable to steal bread, but she made a note to return the cost of the bread following the success of her quest. She justified many actions that way. A knight, even one who has not actually been knighted yet, has a sense of honor, and pays their debts.
So, really, she was going to pay for the horse too. They were just out there in the field! She was pretty sure she was still within the Duke's fief, so it was right for the freeholders to contribute to her noble cause. She was going to pay them. Eventually.
"Sis!!! That thief is getting away!"
Damn, that brat really was persistent. She risked a look behind her shoulder as she mounted bareback onto the most docile looking steed. The snot nosed kid was standing next to a taller girl, who was dressed sensibly for the outdoors and had a rope in hand. From the not inconsiderable distance she couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the taller girl was frowning.
Pursuers aside though, there was the smaller and yet very crucial business of getting away. On a horse that had obviously not yet been broken to saddle, because its reaction to a rider was to buck violently and try to throw her off. Whoops.
Clinging on bareback with your face buried in horse mane was not the most enjoyable experience, particularly while your life is on the line. With a deafening whinny, the horse reared back on its hind legs in a futile attempt to dislodge its unwanted passenger, and when that failed, the poor beast chuffed angrily and burst forward in a flash, running wildly with no apparent direction. And she'd thought this one looked docile?
I'm going to die I'm going to die Father save me!There was a high whistle and the wayward horse turned back towards the sound, still bucking madly with the girl clinging on for dear life. There was the snap like a whip through the air, and they jerked to an abrupt stop as the horse reared upwards again. This time she did fall off, and landed on her ass. Fortunately, she also had some presence of mind to roll away, avoiding the thrashing hooves that would have made mincemeat of her.
Her vision spun, and she gave thanks to every single deity out there that she was alive. Cracking one eye open, she made out the blurry figure of the girl next to that monstrous beast of a horse, her rope lassoed around its neck as she rubbed affectionately at the frightened beast's jaw, offering what looked like an apple to calm it down.
Minutes later, she could not be sure, she heard the crunch of boots on grass next to her as she lay sprawled on the ground, too sore and exhausted to move.
"So thief, who are you and why were you trying to steal from us?"
Oh the shame. She knew she could not give her family name, it would shame her father and herself forever. The name Ikuta might not be old and respected, but it still held some measure of honor. She could not disgrace herself any further...
"Eripon...just call me Eripon."
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I was in a whimsical mood. Lmao. It all started with Riho under an apple tree, I swear. And then Eripon happened.
Fun fun!
Topic: Estrea's Sandbox [6/4 - Treat] (Read 239091 times)