Here is the next scene after last weeks. It stops rather abruptly, but it is after midnight and I must go to bed, if I am to function tomorrow at work. This is a rough draft (a very rough draft- I just finished writing it), so don't copy, don't steal, or I'll send psycho kitty after you (you're scared, right?). Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.
“How would you like some company? Since I so generously brought lunch.” Campion grinned, hefting first one than the other saddle bag. “I swear she packed enough to feed an army.”
“You’re welcome to join us, but it will be a while before we stop for lunch.” Adhara warned, looking to Selene first and seeing her shrugging in agreement. “We’ve got a ways to go today, I want to get there in two days.”
“We usually make the trip in three days,” Selene admitted, “Of course, we usually don’t get on the road as early as we did today. Sometimes I think he does it deliberately.”
“Oh, he does,” Adhara agreed, “We’ve known this for a while. Makes the Traders think his farm is farther out than it is, so he doesn’t have to do business with us. For some reason, he doesn’t want us to visit this farm of his.”
“I don’t know why, there isn’t anything special there.” Selene shrugged, taking the opportunity to look around at the passing terrain, with Adhara at the reins. “None of the plants will be up yet, even. It’s really pretty in late spring or early summer with the trees all blooming, and the annuals just coming up.”
“I’m sure it is.” Adhara surprised herself by actually meaning it. Usually when other people talked about plants, she would just nod her head and think about knots or name the sails on her mother’s rig, but when Selene described the fruit trees in the orchard or the flowers that she’d planted just for the honey bees, she could actually picture it, and it almost made her sad to miss it. “I wish I could see it then, but we’ll be out to sea by then. Although with us leaving Winter Quarters so soon, maybe we’ll still be here. Mum didn’t say what brought us out, just that we needed to be here.”
“Sounds like your mum and my da have a lot in common.” Selene snorted in disgust, “He makes all of these plans, but does he tell any of us? The ones who will have to do the work? Of course not.”
“Oh, mum’s not like that at all. She’s really good about telling me what she’s planned and why we’re doing something. She wants me to be Captain of the Intrepid after her, so she figures now is the time to teach me.”
“What about you? Does your Captain tell you things?” Selene turned to Campion, who had switched sides and was now cantering along leisurely on Selene’s side of the wagon. “Is he preparing you to take over after him?”
“The Navy works a little differently than the Traders.” Campion smirked as Adhara choked on her coffee.
“You could say that.” She agreed, making a face at him in return.
“How so.”
“Well, our chain of command is different, and ultimately we take our orders from the King, while they answer to a higher power.”
“Who doesn’t worry so much about chain of command.” Adhara shook her head, laughing ruefully, “After all, it’s not like we’re going to say no when she asks us to do something.”
“A fact for which we are all heartily thankful, I assure you.”
“Yeah, it’s not wise to tick off the woman who controls the weather and the seas just before heading out in a sailing vessel to spend several weeks at sea.”
