Elira stepped off the narrow farm path and onto the wider dirt road that wound through the valley toward the village. The early sun had begun to burn away the mist, and the road was already alive with movement. Wagons creaked slowly along the ruts, farmers walked beside their mules, and travelers with baskets and bundles headed toward the market. Elira adjusted the shawl around her shoulders and lifted the basket of bread a little higher on her arm.
Ahead of her, she spotted two familiar figures walking carefully along the road.
Carolina and her younger sister, Eguine. Elira had known Carolina before she knew what the world was she lived in. They shared a birthday month, only days apart, and in a few short months both girls would turn nineteen. Eguine had only just turned twelve, and the world still held a bright kind of innocence.
Even from a distance, Elira could see they were struggling. Both girls carried so many baskets that their arms hung stiff at their sides, trying to balance the weight. Eguine wobbled slightly with every step as if one wrong movement might send the entire stack tumbling.
Elira grinned and quickened her pace.
"Carolina! Eguine!" she called cheerfully. "Do you need an extra arm to carry those?"The moment the words left her mouth, little Eguine stepped squarely into a muddy puddle hidden in the road.
Her foot slipped.
With a startled squeak she lost her balance, and the baskets flew from her hands, tumbling into the air before landing in the dirt around her.
"Elira!" Carolina gasped.
Elira rushed forward just as Carolina dropped her own baskets to help her sister stand.
Eguine sat in the mud blinking in surprise, her cheeks turning bright red.
"Elira," Carolina said between breaths, trying not to laugh as she looked at the scattered baskets, "I think we will accept your helping hand. We appear to be in a rather desperate situation." Elira laughed softly and began gathering the fallen baskets.
"Are you hurt, Eguine?"
The younger girl shook her head quickly.
"No… just wet," she muttered, staring down at her muddy shoe.
Thankfully the baskets had been tied shut with cloth and leather cords, so none of their contents had spilled into the road.
Within a few minutes the three girls had everything gathered again.
Carolina and Eguine were the daughters of the village leather seamstress, a skilled woman who crafted not only fine coats and gloves but also the polished saddles and reins used by the Western Royal Guards. On busy market days the girls often carried their mother's finished work into town to deliver to customers.
After redistributing the baskets between them, the girls began walking together along the dirt road toward the village market. Eguine walked between them now with careful steps, her muddy shoe making soft squelching sounds in the dirt as they continued down the road.
"Mother says if we sell the dark riding gloves today, we might have enough coin to buy new dye for the leather," Eguine said excitedly, shifting the basket on her arm. "The deep blue kind! The one that looks almost black."
Carolina glanced down at her sister with a small smile.
"You are not supposed to tell everyone our business before we even reach the market!" Carolina shaking her head.
"But Elira is not everyone!!," Eguine protested quickly with a pout the followed on her lip.
Elira laughed softly beside them.
"I promise I will not steal your customers."
"You could never," Carolina said confidently. "Our customers want saddles and gloves! Yours want bread!"
Elira lifted her basket slightly and adjusted her eyes forward to look ahead.
"And today they will receive the best loaves my mother has made this season." The warm scent of baked wheat drifted faintly from beneath the cloth covering the basket.
Carolina inhaled deeply. "If you say that too loudly, Elira, I may become your first customer."
"You always become my first customer!," Elira said proudly trailed with laughter from herself and Eugine.
"That is because your bread is worth the coin!" Elira and Carolina exchanged smiles at each other.
Eguine glanced toward the mountains and lowered her voice slightly. "T Wulfric said the guards rode through the eastern pass last night."
Carolina sighed.
"Wulfric says many things." He was one of the stronger farm boys here in our village. Tall, muscular, with brown shaggy hair but the ego of a king. He had just turned 20 this year and planned to join the royal guard. Which royal guard is unknown.
"He heard it from the miller!," Eguine insisted. "He said riders were seen on the ridge!" Elira's steps slowed for only a moment. Just a moment. Then she continued walking.
Carolina noticed. "Probably smugglers," she said dismissively. "Or traveling merchants cutting through the pass early."
But Eguine's voice dropped even lower. "Or vampires."
Carolina immediately reached over and nudged her sister with the basket and rolled her eyes. "Do not start that nonsense."
"But the mountains belong to them," Eguine whispered stubbornly. "Everyone knows that...."
Elira said nothing. Instead, she found her gaze drifting toward the distant eastern ridge where the mist still clung stubbornly to the valley of slopes. For a brief moment, she remembered crimson eyes watching her through the fog.. A gloved hand lifting a strand of her hair...he whispered a soft threat"Be careful, Elira."
Her grip tightened slightly around the basket.
Carolina noticed Eliza in a deep thought with a grim face. "What is it?" she asked.
Elira quickly shook her head snapping herself back into reality. "Nothing!!" She forced a fake small smile.
Carolina studied her for a moment longer.
"Elira," Carolina said after a moment, glancing sideways at her again, "You're alone walking to market… Are your parents already at the market?"
Elira shifted the basket on her arm. Nervousness returning back to her body.
"No," she said. "Little Edward fell ill again last night, so my mother stayed home to watch him. And father has an appointment with a lord today in the south." She forced a small smile, trying to hide her true emotions. "So it's just me."
Eguine looked up at Elira immediately with an excited face. "You can stay with us today so you are not alone!!" she said earnestly.
Carolina hearing this shook her head at once. "No, Eguine. Elira has her own customers to tend to, and ours are different." Her sisters face developed a soft frown while looking down at the path. "But we can walk back together this evening." Carolina said nudging her little sister with a basket.
Eguine's eyes lit up. "Yes!!"
"We can meet at the bell tower," Carolina continued, clearly pleased with her plan. "And if I make an extra coin today, Papa said we can even take a carriage home!" Her voice carried a spark of excitement!
"Well," Carolina said, turning back toward the road ahead, "we will simply have to make us rich by noon!" All of the girls giggled loudly as they continued walk.
Carolina had always been confident, the sort of person who naturally took charge of any situation. Elira had always admired that about her. Even now she walked ahead slightly, leading the way down the dusty road as if the path belonged to her.
Carolina never seemed afraid of the future. She spoke often about the bigger towns beyond the valley, about villages with tall buildings and cobble roads where merchants wore silks, fur and jewelry made with gold. She believed, with complete certainty, that the small village life they lived now was only temporary. One day, she often said, she would not be walking dusty roads like this at all.
"Let us survive the market first." Elira said with a hint of nervousness still in her stomach.
The village rooftops were just beginning to appear ahead of them now, rising slowly over the crest of the road.
But far behind them.. hidden deep within the thinning morning mist.. something moved silently along the eastern ridge.
Watching the valley.
Watching the road.
Watching her.