Rannie pushed a crate underneath the wall of the tent like she had so many times before but this time instead of a single one, this was her sixth one. Her arms complained from the effort but she could feel and see the change in her arms. She wiped the sweat from her brow, the hard work and lack of food starting to catch up to her. She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the ache in them as she picked up a water skin only it didn’t contain water.
She opened it up and poured the crimson contents over the floor of the tent and then took her walking stick. Raising it high she brought the stick down on her knee cracking it in two then quickly dropped the pieces as Rannie shoved her fist into her mouth to muffle her very colorful curses at the smarting pain racing up her knee and into her thigh. After a few moments and a few unshed tears she made her way under the wall of the tent.
She picked up the first crate and carried it to the meeting point with Sanoric, the woman who not only been meeting with her every night to take the crates but also was the one who helped plan her disguise and perfect her accent. Rannie spied a boy at Sanoric’s side, if he could still be called a boy. He was as tall as Rannie and nearly double her width. “Who is this?” she asked, keeping her accent even if it was just them.
The woman smiled at her with clear pride as she laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “This is Ryven, my son. He is strong like the aurochs though he’s only twelve,” she explained and Rannie gave him a quick nod. “He’s here to help us with the last of the crates since you said there would be more than just one” she explained and Rannie nodded and gain waving them over.
“Yes there is six in total,” she stated then started back to where the others were but paused. “Speak quietly, it’s important that they not see us,” she finished and started walking again. The boy looked at her confused as he followed her.
“We’re leaving what does it matter if they see us?” He asked in a hushed whisper before picking up two crates, one in each arm. Rannie eye’s widened as she watched him then gave him a smirk.
“Your mother is right you are a strong lad,” she tells him and dips his head in a nod. “Now I’ve set it up to make it look like the other hill men working in this camp attacked and killed me then stole the food. That way none of these angmarim will come looking to your people but if they see us that ruins it all,” she explained to him and the boy nodded to her as he walked back to where his mother stood.
They finished loading the crates on a make shift sled before quickly and quietly heading back to the village. The villagers gawked at her with surprise as she walked with Sanoric and Ryven to where the crates were to be stored. Rannie waved to some of the children and took out of her own provisions, tossing them to a little girl that looked a little to thin. The girl gave her a toothy smile before splitting it with her friends.
“They didn’t think I’d come back alive did they” Rannie asked with a smirk turning her attention back to the woman and her son.
“Some thought you ran back to your home while others thought that you simply were caught and killed,” Ryven answered, with a smile and she smirked at him some more.
“If I had a copper for every time someone told me that lad, I’d be a rich lass by now,” she told him with a laugh. Sanoric smiled as she watched them then waved off her son.
“Enough talk my son. Go take these crates to Senga,” his mother ordered him and he quickly took the reins of the horse marching off. Sanoric smiled at Rannie. “They like you” she said once her son was some way off. “The children” she added once Rannie looked at her slightly confused. “They feel safe around you and you are good with them. It makes me wonder, do you have your own back at your home?”
“I like children, they don’t let life ruin their fun. They always find some way ta enjoy themselves no matter how dark their future looks to be,” she told the other woman then felt her spirits darken at the second part of the question but she hid it behind her smirk. “No lass I don’t have children or a family of me own…the tainted one as ya call him and our friends is the closest I’ve ever come ta havin one” she explained then smiled at the woman brightly.
“But there’s lots of life ta live…who knows what luck has in store for me!” She grinned at her then tried to change the subject away from herself. “What ya man…his father?”
Sanoric smiled with that look in her face, the look everyone who’s in love gets when they speak of the one they love. “Ryven looks just like him. He was the mightiest warrior our village had but he had goodness in his heart and a gentleness to those around him” Then sadness washed over her face like a cloud over the sun. “It was an arrow from an Angmarim bow that took him away from us. It was just a scratch but the wound festered with a poison our people had never seen before. He was gone in just three days,” she explained.
"Oh lass, I'm sorry ta hear that,” Rannie said, slinging her arm around the woman’s shoulders as best as she could considering the woman was a bit taller than her.
“Yes, so am I. It was a cowardly way to attack him. They feared to face in a real battle so they skirted in the shadows taking him by treachery,” Sanoric declared with anger then sighed. “My son is the only family I have left. I fear for him greatly…I fear the shadow walkers will strike at him like they did his father. It’s why I have helped you Ratwolf and the tainted one. I believe you can help us keep our children safe” Rannie grinned at her with a determined nod.
“Aye lass, I’m gonna try ta do just that!” She told her. “Now let’s go have us somethin ta eat, that’s what we been brining all those crates here for aye. Let’s enjoy a bit of the spoils”
