"Guardian Of The Moutian (Chapter 2)" by Samantha L. Papworth

After finishing his beer Wye stood up ready to lead her to his small house.
“There is something I need to tell you,” Rohze said as she followed him to the tavern door. He gave her a confused look as he held the door open for her, but he nodded slightly to encourage her to continue.

“Well there is someone else that I came here with, who needs a place to stay as well.”

Wye’s expression turned to a cheerful one, “Of course they can stay too, but you two would have to share a room. For I only have one spare room, but luckily I have two beds in there,” he continued to ramble on, but was interrupted when Rohze spoke again.

“They do not need a bed, Wye, for they are not human,” she said as she bit her bottom lip to stop from giggling.

“Oh I see, so they are a dog. Well you should have said so. They can still share a room with you but he can sleep on the floor next to your bed.”

“Wye he is not a dog, but a unicorn, so can he stay in your stable?” Rohze asked just as Indigo walked up and joined them, while they stood there in the middle of the water soaked village.



Wye stood there as though he was contemplating saying no, and with his mouth wide open no sound came out, he was not denying it. He was completely speechless for the first time that night.

Indigo nickered quietly to Rohze, he wanted not to scare the man but to also get her attention. Rohze turned to him and rubbed her hand around in a circle upon his neck.

“Are we all set or do we need to wait a while longer?” Indigo asked Rohze though the question was aimed more towards Wye.



Wye swallowed a number of times then found a few words to make up a sentence, “Yes we go,” he stammered.

Pulling her now dried cloak hood up over her head Rohze walked on in the direction Wye was walking, Indigo following close behind.



After a short yet brisk walk the three of them arrived at a shack like house. Its roof was caving in at certain corners, the wood and brick was missing in places upon the walls and the garden under the cracked and broken windows was savage and unruly. A number of aging fruit hung helplessly upon the twisting vines crawling up the walls that covered a few of the holes. An old dish sat on the window sill, probably once filled with sweet-tasting pie, that had been carried away in small pieces by hungry ants and birds. Next to the dilapidated house sat a rather mouldy, dusty barn. All of its surface was covered in a colourful mould or fungus. Every one of the funguses was a different shade of red, from a deep purple to an almost orange colouring. The only part that wasn’t covered was a section around the door frame where continuous opening of the door had caused a break in the fungus. Leaning against the barn door was a fungus camouflaged pitchfork which was barely recognisable, along with a fungus smothered shovel.



Indigo snorted at the site, he hadn’t been planing for a castle, but this was far from his expectations of a reasonable shelter.

Wye had recovered from his speechlessness and was now beaming with pride.

“I hope you like it, and find it comfortable. I haven’t done much housekeeping for a while but it is clean enough for me anyways,” Wye supposed.

Trying to hide her mingle of disappointment and disgust, Rohze said, “I think it looks very homely, thankyou for letting us intrude on you like this.”

Wye’s face went all red in an embarrassed way, “That is the most pure and kindest thing anyone has said to me, and I would rather have company tonight then none.”

Wye’s eyes where puffed up with large soggy tears. Using his soiled sleave he wiped them away, though not before Rohze and Indigo noticed.



Deciding to change the subject as not to embarrass him more, Indigo said, “How about I go into the barn for the night and you two walked up to the house and get ready for bed?’

Wye answered, “Sure, but I’ll just open the barn door for you.”

He walked over to the fungus smothered barn and tugged hard on the door. It slid slowly across the hard packed dirt, until he opened it wide enough for Indigo to walk through.



After Rohze watched him she picked up the mud soaked skirts of her cloak and walked forward to the slanted house door. Wye trotted after her and they walked into the house together, leaving Indigo to find a place to sleep in the barn.

Rohze and Wye had stepped into a cluttered kitchen, the pie dish was just visible on the window sill under a tower of old jars.

“Your not hungry, are you?” Wye asked in a way like he was hoping her to say no.

Rohze ignored her rumbling stomach and replied, “No, I’ll be quite fine till morning.”



Wye lead her to the back of the house, and out of the kitchen to where there stood a termite eaten door.

“This will be your room,” he said to her as he pushed it open to reveal a small and surprisingly clean room.

“It’s mine naturally but I thought you might like it for the night. As the spare room gets cold during the night and I don’t want my new guest to go through that,” Wye explained.

“Thankyou Wye, but I don’t want you to go to too much trouble,” Rohze said automatically, from listening to the manners of her parents and servants.

“Don’t think that, I’ll be fine I’ll just get this extra blanket here,” he grabbed a roughly folded blanket lying on the floor near the door, “and leave you to it.”



*



Rohze forced open her eyes and sat up looking around the strange room she was in. Remembering she was in Wye’s house and not her parents castle at home, she lay back down and turned on her side. In the eerie shadows she could make out her cloak and other belongings in a pile on the wooden floor.



Groaning she peeling her blankets off, she slid out of her warm cocoon. As a wave of home sickness washed over her, Rohze gently put her cloak on and scooped up her other belongings. She headed back down the hall and into the cluttered kitchen. Searching for the exit by the dull moonshine from the window. When it was found she pushed open the unlocked door leading outside, and made her way in the fusion of shadow and moonlight towards the barn. Wrinkling her nose at he smell of the fungi, she let her self in.



It didn’t take Rohze long to find Indigo’s equine form lying on the straw covered ground. As she stepped over to him, she noticed that the straw was a fresh yellow like at the castle barn, not mouldy like she would have expected.

Indigo lay next to a small lump, which at first glance she would have called it a lumpy sack, but as she came closer it was just in fact a rather small full grown cow. Its coat was a dark brownish colouring, and shone silver in parts where the moon’s searching fingers reached.



She was standing in front of them casting eerie shadows down upon them when Indigo woke up.

Blinking heavily to adjust to the light, Indigo spoke, “What are you doing here, my Princess? Surely he gave you a room to stay in?”

“Yes Wye gave me a room, a really informal one for that matter, but I couldn’t sleep so I came out here to see how you were doing,” she said as she knelt down next to them, and as she did the cow startled by her presence, awoke, but soon found comfort, resting its head on her lap.



They were quiet for a while, Rohze stroking the cow’s face gently, which reminded her of her cat at home. But then Indigo suddenly twitched and whispered, “I can smell it again, my Princess. The stench we ran away from earlier, its back.”

Rohze quivered, Indigo’s voice though bold carried a hint of terror in it. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried hard not to burst out crying, she had to be strong. For she couldn’t show Indigo that she had caught onto his fear, for who would be strong if the leaders of the world weren’t.



Her world had changed forever, over one day, everything she once called home was far behind them, and she didn’t know what to think or expect. She was use to the simple life of a princess, where everyone else made the decisions, did the quests and solved the problems. With a life turned upside down, the bitter and cruel pieces showing, and all around was endless darkness with only a few tiny flares of light, how could Rohze find hope.



She sat there for a few moments longer, contemplating. And as she did, her head began to droop, along with her eyes.

How can I be falling asleep at a time like this? She thought, I am suppose to be worried about my parents and my future, but before she could think anything else, Rohze nodded off completely, lying her head softly on Indigo’s silky warm neck.



Indigo, still awake, too began to fall asleep but as he did he had one last thought. Rohze’s parents, where they safe? Where they still alive?

The cow had one last feeble look around at it’s company’s sleeping faces, then too retired to the dream world.



*
The room trembled, bales of straw where falling from the sky, creating a shower of dry hay. A lamp swayed on its hook banging against the wooden wall with a thud and outside on the town screams could be heard. The cow who’s head was resting in Rohze’s lap, was shaking with fright, as they cowered.

Rohze was sitting up, her arms over her head, her eyes squeezed tight shut. At the first tremor, Indigo was up, standing over Rohze to protect the princess from any falling matter.

The screams were growing louder every second, and the shaking of the barn more monstrous. There was nothing they could do but sit and wait it out, but it seemed to Indigo and Rohze that the people outside didn’t share their view.



Then just as suddenly as it began the tremors stoped. The three of them stayed there in silence for a moment, trying to get a grip on what had just happened. The peace was only broken when the brown cow, who they had found in the barn, called out a long loud moo, to her owner who had just thrust his head in through the barn door.

“That’s never happened before,” Wye said.

At his words Rohze lost her composure and broke down into dry sobs.

“If you think what happened in here was bad, I think you should all see what went on out here.”



Indigo nudged Rohze up, and with the cow on their tail, they followed Wye out to the morning light.

Rohze’s jaw dropped at the scene, she had never witness anything like it before in her life, and even with the life of a royal, she had never heard of such a thing.