Mand awoke a little before dawn.
Confusion washed over her as she opened her eyes. An unfamiliar ceiling in an unfamiliar bed made her question where she was.
Shaking her head, the memories of the last 24 hours crashed over her like undulating surf beating itself against a cliffside on a windy day.
"I think I finally understand Val's desire to stay in one place every once in a while," Mand thought. She stayed in place for a few moments, watching the dark shadows of the night slowly fade from the bare trussed ceiling that made up the very upper reaches of the barn. "All this could have probably been avoided with we just spent a little extra time at the farm where we crashed the dragon."
"How is it that I always seemed to end up on farms anyways?" she questioned herself.
She was just about the swing her legs out from underneath the covers of the bed when she heard a door slam shut. Remembering Brenda's word to stay quiet if someone approached the barn, she decided that it would probably be more prudent to stay in place.
After a few moments, Mand heard the crunch crunch crunch of footsteps making their way across the still frosted ground. They paused at one point, and Mand heard a very masculine grunt before the footsteps continued towards the barn.
The downstairs door swung open and Mand heard heavy booted feet shuffle inside, with the sound of the door closing shortly thereafter. The footsteps closed the distance from the door towards the back of the barn and then stopped again. From the sound of it, Mand guessed that the man had stopped by the ladder that led up to the loft.
Mand held her breath. Did Brenda's father somehow find out that she was hiding in the building? Was there something about the ladder that gave her away?
A loud series of... what Mand would politely describe as bodily noises trumpeted through the barn. This was rapidly followed up by a very content sigh of relief.
Mand had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing. She then chided herself, if she wasn't careful, she would give herself away.
Sounds were coming from beneath her now. She heard the horse below blow and whinny. She imagined that the farmer stood in front of the stall that held the animal.
"Easy there Jackie! Easy boy!" The farmer said in a voice that was somehow gruff, but also very calm and reassuring.
The sound of the gate to the horse's stall came next. She heard the animal shift around some.
"You're due for some new shoes," the farmer said after a few moments. "Can't have you messing up your legs just before planting gets started."
As the farmer continued to work below, presumably to get the horse ready for a journey into town, Mand did her best to keep still.
What came next surprised her.
At one point, the farmer began whistling a tune. Mand couldn't make it out a first, as the farmer wasn't the most talented whistler, but after a short while, she was able to pick up on the cadence. It was the same lullaby that Brenda had been humming yesterday! The one that Mand's mother used to sing to her and her sister!
A memory came to Mand then, something that she hadn't thought of in a long, long time.
**
In the memory, she was very young. It was a beautiful sunny morning and she was sitting on the wooden floor of a small house, occupying herself by looking at pictures of animals in a very old book.
One room over, her mother was working in the kitchen while a toddler-aged Val sat in a highchair playing with whatever food that had been set in front of her.
Her sister started fussing in the chair and Mand looked up from a page in the book. The animal on that particular page was one that completely fascinated her - a gorilla. Her sister continued fussing, almost falling into a cry. This would not do for young Mand - now cross that her annoying little sister was making such a fuss and distracting her.
Mand's father was teaching her how to read, and at this point, she understood a lot of the words in the books. She wanted to memorize what she was reading and impress her father with the knowledge that she had gained when he got home this evening.
She began repeating the words that she had just read, attempting to keep them inside and safe before the inevitable bawling of her sister would make any retention of such knowledge impossible.
Gorillas live in the forest on the south-eastern continent. Gorillas live in the forest on the south-eastern continent.
Mand wasn't sure what a continent was, but she got most of the other words in that sentence. There were other paragraphs- one was about a thing called biology, but most of the words contained in those paragraphs were a jumble. Regardless of what the rest of the page said, Mand knew that her father would be proud that she picked up that bit of information from the book.
And then the bawling started. Mand closed the book in a huff, part of her hoping that her mother would notice. She was about to stomp into the kitchen and complain about the noise her sister was making when she heard her mother sing:
Hush now my dear sailor lad
May you grow up and be strong like your dad
And find a safe harbor when you're far from home
And never will you be alone
Mand stopped in her tracks at this. Her mother's voice was a combination of smooth, beautiful, and calming. She was enthralled, frozen in place. The anger over her sister was ebbing away.
Her mother picked up her sister from the high chair and repeated the verse a few more times, carrying Val around the room. Eventually Val settled down and Mand's mother returned her sister to the high chair. She then turned and looked to Mand who was standing in the threshold to the kitchen.
Just as her mother's face was about to meet hers, just when Mand thought she would be able to recall the long forgotten memory of what her mother looked like, everything, her mother, her sister, the house, the book, were all enveloped by flames.
**
Mand felt tears rolling down her face. She had to do everything she could to keep from sobbing at the memory and alerting the farmer who was still below her. It would be a long morning.