Origins: A Deepwoods Book - a Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories (Deepwoods Series 0) (29 page)

Spinning on her toes, she reached up, grabbed Wolfinsky’s
left arm, and then put a flat palm on his upper arm. Standing tall, she took a
step forward, leaning her weight into it as much as she could.

“Whoa,” Wolfinsky exclaimed, slamming toward his knees. “Ow,
owowowowow.”

“Not that much force,” Fei corrected, pulling her gently
back. “Remember, you can break his elbow, or dislocate his arm, if you put too
much force into this.”

“E-even with him?” she spluttered, amazed.

“Anyone, Denney-gui, with anyone.”

Denney stared down at this giant of a man that she had
literally forced to his knees. She had never seen anyone larger than Wolfinsky.
Had never actually seen a man his size until meeting Deepwoods. If she could
subdue
him,
then….

“Can I get up now?” Wolfinsky asked plaintively.

He really was waiting for her to let go of him. Was this
what confidence felt like? Denney felt like she could fight off a dozen Wolfinskys
in that moment.

“Come on, Denney, let him up,” Conli urged. He was only
half-serious, as he was enjoying seeing the sight as much as she was. “I want
to try.”

“What am I?” Wolfinsky muttered toward the ground. “A toy?”

“A very fun one,” she surprised herself by saying. Then,
giggling, she let go.

“I heard that giggle,” he informed the world at large as he
regained his feet. “Fei, you’ve created a monster. If she goes around after
this knocking men to their knees, then I want it understood, I had nothing to
do with this.”

She’d do no such thing. But she could if she wanted to. It
was that knowledge that made all the difference.

“SANDSTORM!”

Denney barely registered the warning before Wolf grabbed her
around the waist and hauled her bodily into the cart. She scrambled to get her
legs under her, and was barely able to move closer to the interior before
Siobhan and Sylvie both hopped inside. Denney tried to squeeze further into a
corner but was thwarted by two different boxes and a large jar of water that
dug into her back.

In a minute flat, the entire guild was in the cart, the last
being Beirly as he pulled the thick tarps over their heads and tied them shut.
Each person took care of the straps directly over their heads, tying them as
tightly as possible to keep the sand out. Tran coaxed the head of Kit the
reinmal through a specially made slit in the tarp and kept a hold of Kit’s head
with the halter. Denney’s first priority was getting Peter and Pyper into the
wooden crate with the protective wrap around it. Only when they were securely
settled in did she breathe easily.

“Goggles and masks on, everyone,” Siobhan ordered, already
reaching for the bag and handing them out. “Whoever is done first, help your
neighbor.”

Denney accepted the goggles and mask handed to her,
recognizing that Siobhan had handed her the very set she’d bought in Vellshire,
and put the goggles on without a problem. The mask, however, tied in the back
of the head and she struggled with it as she kept getting strands of hair
caught into the knot.

Without a word, Beirly reached over and took it from her
hands, smoothed down her hair with a flat palm, then tied it securely. She bent
her head to give him better access, feeling a little awkward this close to the
man, but grateful for his quick actions.

Worried about Kit, she looked over and found that while she
wasn’t looking, Tran had put a protective gauze around the reinmal’s head,
covering him completely from ears to nose. With that on, there was no way any
sand could penetrate and cause the animal problems. Relieved, she sank back and
shifted as people stretched out legs and tried to get comfortable.

“Are we all set?” Siobhan couldn’t really shift much in this
narrow space crammed with people, but she did try and see everyone for herself.
“Yes? Good. Beirly, Fei, check our guests’ masks and goggles to make sure
they’re secure enough.”

“They are, Shi,” Beirly assured her.

“Good, good.” It was hard to see any expression under the
goggles and mask, but Siobhan was clearly disgruntled judging by her tone.
“Well, we made it five whole days before one hit. That’s something of a record
for us.”

“Have we ever made it entirely across to Goodliffe without
getting caught by a sandstorm?” Sylvie wondered.

“Not once,” Grae grumbled. “Although we came very close to
it before you joined us. I think we were literally four hours away from the
city before we got caught by the edge of the storm.”

“That was particularly annoying,” Beirly reminisced,
although he sounded like he was amused at the memory. “Dratted thing lasted all
day, remember that? So there we were, almost in sight of the city, and forced
to camp outside in a sandstorm instead.”

“I remember being hungry all that night,” Siobhan
half-groaned, half-laughed. “No one dared take their masks off in order to eat.
So many stomachs were growling, it sounded like a chorus of ghouls.”

“Is it really that dangerous, to leave your mouth unprotected?”
Conli levered himself up with his legs long enough to scoot more to the right,
gesturing for Denney to get comfortable and branch out a little from her
corner.

“Very dangerous,” Tran answered somberly. “The sand can be
tiny, so small the naked eye cannot see it, and it will pour through any
opening, mouth or nose. We had stories in my home village of people that had
suffocated because they walked through a sandstorm without protection on.
Without goggles, the eyes can be torn to shreds by the sand as well. It’s why I
insisted you have all these things.”

They felt and heard it when the storm actually hit. It felt
almost suffocating, the air harsher and drier than it had before. Kit’s head
jerked a little, eyes rolling. The puppies started whining too, uneasy and not
at all happy to be in the box away from their people.

“Easy, Kit, easy,” Tran crooned. “You’d think that with as
many sandstorms as you’ve been through, you wouldn’t react to them anymore.”

The reinmal rolled his eyes again, shifting, head jerking a
little harder on the halter as if he were fighting the urge to run.

Denney recognized the signs well enough and knew that in a
minute, perhaps less, Kit would do his best to bolt. This was not good, not at
all. She leaned over Beirly without a second of hesitation and grabbed Kit’s
halter to balance herself. Then she reached underneath and found a particularly
sensitive spot between jaw and neck and gave it a good scratch.

Kit was still uneasy but he couldn’t resist having his
favorite spot scratched. He blew out a gusty sigh and settled more firmly into
her hands, tilting his head for a better angle.

“Well now.” Beirly shifted to the side so that they could
switch places. “I think it’s better you sit there. How in the wide world are
you doing that?”

“There’s this one spot between his neck and his jaw that he
just loves scratched,” she explained. “I’m giving him something else to focus
on.”

Tran tilted his head to see exactly where she was touching.
“Ahh. I see it. Tell me when your hand tires, I’ll take over.”

“It’s like magic,” Siobhan marveled. “I knew he adored you,
but I figured it was due to the watermelon you kept sneaking him.”

“We bonded over watermelon,” Denney informed her,
mock-seriously.

“Is that right.” Siobhan shook her head, amused. “Well, keep
that up. I was afraid Kit would bolt in this storm. It’s a little more intense
than usual.”

“What are you expecting with this storm?” Conli asked,
worried by that last sentence. “How long will it be, do you think?”

Siobhan waved to Tran. “I defer to the sandstorm expert.”

Tran grinned, not denying this, and responded, “Most of the
time, they’re a few hours long. They can move quick, but not generally. The
worst storms are fast and last for days but this one doesn’t strike me as one
of them. It moved slow enough for us to get under cover without too much bustle
and it’s barely rocking the cart at all. So, I’d say it’s good for two or three
hours, and then it’ll wear itself out.”

“I didn’t get more than a peek before Master Wolfinsky threw
me in here, but it was like a wall of sand straight to the heavens was coming
our direction.” Denney had to pause as Kit demanded more of a rub from her.
“Are they always like that?”

“Always. But like I said, this one was slow enough for us to
get under cover. Sometimes they’re too fast and we barely get the top over our
heads. Even if we didn’t have the tarp up like this, it would be rather dark.
Too much sand blocking out the sun.”

“And this is common?” Conli said in dismay.

“In this stretch of the desert,” Grae confirmed sourly. “The
conditions of the sea wind coming in from the coast, with nothing but flat land
and sand to greet it, means that this stretch of desert gets sandstorms quite
often. It’s a pain going through here. Most escorting guilds avoid this stretch
completely.”

“It gives me a lot of negotiating room when caravans come to
us,” Sylvie added, tone cheerful. “And we can ask the nicest prices.”

Denney had only shopped with her twice, but once was enough
to know that Sylvie got what she wanted for the price that she wanted. Anyone
that entered negotiations with her was to be pitied.

With nothing to do, people got more comfortable, changing
positions as needed, and storytelling started. Conli surprised her by speaking
up twice, sharing a story from their own experiences, which gathered a great
deal of interest from the rest of the guild. Even Denney switched places
completely, coming in to sit snugly against Tran’s side, as that way they could
both handle Kit if he became restless. Conli gave her several anxious looks but
in truth, while it felt a little odd, she was perfectly at ease where she was.
Tran had no ulterior motives with this position. She knew that without a shadow
of doubt.

The hours did not seem like hours. More like minutes. Denney
scratched at Kit, listened to stories, laughed at the jokes, and felt as if
this whole situation was normal. Bizarre, to be caught in a sandstorm in a
desert, but all the same normal. She didn’t feel out of place with these
people. In fact, it felt more like she had finally found where she was supposed
to be.

Now wasn’t that a strange thing to think? Crammed in with
people she’d known six days, legs and shoulders overlapping with at least three
other people’s, with sand raging in a storm around her. But Denney couldn’t
think of a time when she’d felt more at ease than this moment. Strangely
enough, not even the storm worried her, as she had complete confidence that if
something happened, the enforcers in the group would do something about it.
Silly thought, that. Were they more powerful than a force of nature?

Denney gave Tran and Wolf a study from top to bottom, their
muscles especially. Yes, in fact, if she had to place a bet on who would win,
it would not be on the storm.

They all felt it when the storm ended, as the oppressive
feeling to the air and the battering against the tarp abruptly ceased. Tran
cautioned them to wait a few more minutes, which they did, but then he deemed
it safe and they all climbed out of their protective gear and stood up in the
cart to see how much the landscape had changed.

The section of road they were on was still somewhat clear,
although there were deep piles of sand mounded here and there. Off the road
section, there were new sand dunes strung out for spans and spans in every
direction that Denney could see.

“Why is the road still relatively clear?” she couldn’t help
but wonder.

“It’s the highest section,” Grae explained, already climbing
down. “This became the road because it’s the only part of the desert that
remains mostly clear even after the sandstorms come through.”

That made a great deal of sense.

“Alright, everyone, check on the caravan.” Siobhan put boots
to ground as she said this. “Miss Denney, if you would, hitch Kit back up and
give him a good drink of water. Then see to the puppies.”

“Certainly,” she agreed, happy to be relied upon.

Taking Kit’s halter in hand, she tied him to the cart
temporarily and gave him a long drink of water, almost as much as he wanted, although
she made him take mini breaks in between so he wouldn’t founder himself. With
him satisfied, she re-hitched the reinmal to the cart. Only then did she
finally free the dogs, who were beyond happy to be out of that box. They
immediately tried to run around, which was why she had done everything else
first, as it took concentration on her part to make sure she didn’t lose one of
them. When dogs got in their head to run, they could be very quick on their
feet.

Conli came back to stand next to her, although his eyes were
trained on the stretch of caravan ahead of them. “Everyone seems to have
weathered the storm fine. Then again, they all seem to have experience in this
sort of thing.”

It struck Denney that she had a rare opportunity to talk to
her uncle without anyone listening, as the whole guild was up ahead and out of
earshot. “Conli.”

“Hmm?” He glanced back, only to turn completely to face her
as he realized she had something serious to say.

“I know we’ve only been with them for six days, but…” Denney
bit her bottom lip uncertainly. “Deepwoods fits what we’re looking for, doesn’t
it?”

Conli’s expression softened. “You really do like them, don’t
you?”

“More than that.” Denney struggled to put the feeling into
words. “I feel comfortable with them. I feel more of a sense of belonging here
than I’ve ever felt anywhere.”

“They are charming,” Conli agreed, eyes crinkling up. “And
certainly good at protecting you. You don’t feel uneasy at all? Not even around
Tran or Wolfinsky?”

“Not anymore,” she confirmed, meaning every word. “They’ve
both been kind and considerate, and both have taken the time to teach me
something about my heritage, which wasn’t something they needed to do.”

“I saw that. I thought better of them after seeing how they
treat you.” Conli got that taut line in his forehead that suggested he was
thinking hard. “It’s true that it would be safer for you if we had a female
guildmaster. And Siobhan Maley is one of the best guildmasters I’ve ever seen.”

That sounded like a ‘yes’ to Denney, and she couldn’t help
but bounce on her toes in excitement. “Can we ask?”

“It won’t hurt to try.” Spying Siobhan and Grae coming back
their direction, Conli lowered his voice to tell her, “Truth is, I was hoping
you’d become comfortable with them, as I’ve grown fond of this guild as well.”

So it wasn’t just her? This relieved Denney as Conli had
made too many sacrifices for her sake already and she hated the idea of
foisting a guild onto him that he didn’t particularly care for.

“We weathered the storm better than I expected,” Siobhan
announced. “We’ll be moving again in a moment. Miss Denney, how’s Kit?”

“Perfectly fine,” Denney assured her.

“Good, good.”

Conli cleared his throat. “This might not be the time for
it, but I have a question for you, Guildmaster.”

Siobhan’s mouth stretched into a slow smile. “I have a
notion of what it might be. Or hope I do. Out with it, man.”

“By chance,” Conli’s tone was deliberately off-hand, “have
you room for a surgeon and a girl who’s good with animals in your guild?”

“I thought you’d never ask. As it happens, I do.” Siobhan’s
serious demeanor lasted two full seconds before her control broke and she flung
her arms around both of them, bringing them in for a tight hug. “You’re both
staying.”