"Teressa do you think you could reach those berries up there?" asked Arya as he pointed at the glistening red berries atop one of the tree branches. "I could try." replied Teressa hesitantly, to a barely 1.2m girl the 7m tree looked daunting, but she had to suck it in if she planned on eating.
As Teressa began scaling the tree Arya heard a sound coming from behind them. "Someone's here." whispered the voices in Arya's head. Arya continued looking at Teressa climb the tree trying to keep a semblance of normality, however deep inside he was terrified. The idea of being captured and sold as a slave haunted his mind since he first laid eyes on the distraught slaves that were caged on top of the wagons.
As Teressa neared the top of the tree the branch she was stepping on snapped causing her to lose her footing. "I'm okay!" shouted Teressa, saying it more to herself than to Arya, as she was able to hang on to a branch at the last second. She pulled herself up and managed to reach the branch with the berries.
She plucked off a handful of berries and looked at them longingly. "Don't eat them yet, we have to make sure they aren't poisonous!" shouted Arya as Teressa was about to pop a berry into her mouth, much to her dismay. "For a four year old he sure is cautious." whispered Teressa under her breath as she threw the berries she was about to eat to the ground.
As Teressa got off the tree a black figure from behind charged at Arya. He was facing her so he couldn't see the attacker coming, Teressa pushed Arya out the way and the man bumped into Teressa knocking all the air out of her. Arya reacted quickly and threw the berries at the man's eyes praying to whatever gods existed on Merrum that they were poisonous.
The man shouted in agony as he began scratching his eyes vigorously, his face had turned a few shades redder due to irritation. Arya quickly helped Teressa off the ground and they began sprinting, however Teressa was limping, it seemed that she had gotten injured in the little skirmish.
"We won't be able to get far with you limping like this." said Arya as the voices in his head contemplated on whether to leave her or not. Even without her injury Arya doubted they would've been able to carry on much longer. Between hunger and exhaustion it was only a matter of time before one of them collapsed.
As they were making their way through the grove they came across a shed, it was about 6m by 4m with an oaky brown color. The windows didn't have any glass panes and some of the wood was rotting from old age which gave Arya the impression that it had been uninhabited for a long time.
"Over there!" Arya pointed as he made his way towards it. "What you can't be serious Arya, you want us to go in there." said Teressa with a scared look on her face. She was naturally afraid of scary places and her fear had worsened ever since they were taken to the old warehouse but before she had time to voice her complaints Arya was already at the front door. "What kind of four year old isn't afraid of spooky houses." thought Teressa to herself as she limped towards the shed reluctantly.
Once Teressa got in Arya shut the door behind her. The shed had little furniture, all it had was an old rotting rocking chair and a single desk that was covered in cobwebs and dust. Arya looked around to see if he could find anything useful to use against their assailant.
"Who was that guy?" asked Teressa once she had caught her breath. "Beats me, but my guess is that one of those slave traders thought we looked a bit too profitable to be running around alone." said Arya voicing the theory that the pessimistic voice in his head told him.
"Slave traders! No we can't let him catch us!" said Teressa holding Arya by his collars. "Relax! It doesn't matter how tough you are poison is still poison, he won't be able to look for us for a while." said Arya as he pushed Teressa off.
"Then we have to get going before he recovers!" said Teressa as she limped for the door. "Be my guest. Let's see how far you get with that leg of yours, or maybe you'll die from exhaustion first." replied Arya sarcastically as he tried making out what was on the desk.
On the left corner of the desk lay a single book with a brown cover that was turning green due to mold, a few quills and a nib with dried out ink. Arya picked up the book and scraped off the mold, the smell of it made him want to barf, but this was nothing in comparison to the years spent in the orphanage.
Arya could barely make out what the title of the book was , "Le'drande's Jordum" whispered Arya reading the cover of the book. The first page was stained brown but the words were still comprehensible, it read "To all those who seek the truth but are blinded by the illusion of reality.". "What an obnoxious foreword." thought Arya to himself as he went on to the next page, however he found that everything was written in a foreign language. As he continued paging through he saw that some pages were torn out as well.
"Teressa do you know what language this is?" asked Arya as Teressa came over to where Arya stood. "Wait you can read?" Teressa asked staring at Arya in shock, it wasn't just that it was uncommon for someone so young to be able to read, it was uncommon to be able to read at all. Reading was a skill reserved for scholars or nobles, people of the low and medium classes didn't need to know how to read to perform their daily tasks, they only required simple mathematics that wasn't even taught to them in the first place.
Before Arya could answer they heard footsteps outside. "We've been caught we ha-" Teressa tried saying but was interrupted by Arya as he put his hand over her mouth. "HFKKS JSDKSNDF WSJDNS" Teressa tried saying however all that came out were muffled sounds. She pulled Arya's hand off and whispered loudly "YOU USED THAT HAND TO SCRAPE OF THE MOLD FROM THE DAMN BOOK." , however Arya was focused on the two men who had arrived outside the shed.
"Did you find them?" asked a man with a gruff voice, "No and one of the little shits threw acclavia berries at me and ran into the woods." replied a man with a lower pitched voice as he rubbed his eyes. "You better find them, Hasar won't be too happy to hear that you let go of free money. Did you check in that shed?" asked the man with a gruff voice.
"Of course I did, what do you take me for?" lied the man with a lower pitch voice. Rumor had it that the shed was home to a powerful witch so the man was hesitant to go in there, but he couldn't let his colleague know that he was afraid of such silly things. Little did he know colleague was just as afraid of entering the shed, "You really went in there?" asked the man with a gruff voice in disbelief as the two continued walking into the forest.
"Did I stutter? Anyways why would kids go into that thing? Aren't children afraid of scary places?" asked the man with a lower pitch voice in a dull manner that made Arya assume that he had been dropped as a baby at least a dozen times.
"Okay lets get out of here." whispered Arya once the coast was clear. He slipped the book into his pants much to Teressa's dismay and bolted out the shed heading in the opposite direction from where the two thugs were heading.