Finn's eyes widened. The city? She'd never set foot further than the forest and fields surrounding the village. She wasn't sure she wanted to set foot outside her house at all after the wolf attack, let alone take a journey through unknown country to Klain, the capitol city of their region. While injured! She wasn't sure she could take a few steps, how would she walk the miles upon miles to the faraway city? They didn't have a horse to spare; their two mares were both needed for farm work. And how would Father and Gabriel cope with her absence? She practically ran the house by herself. What would they eat? Who would make sure they had clean, mended clothes? Such a journey was not short by any means.
"I see your thoughts in your face," Amelia said, "Don't worry about your father and brother, I can adopt them for a time. What we need to work out is how to transport you. Who can travel with you and protect you? I would send Riley, but the two of you alone for so long would not be proper." The last part was said with her eyes slightly glazed as she thought out loud. "If only there was a traveling party of some kind. An extra woman would be best to help you keep the wound clean and provide you any... personal assistance you might require." She tapped her finger to her chin in thought. "Mayra could join you, I suppose. She's fifteen now and would love some adventure." Amelia's only daughter was indeed keen for some adventure, despite being one of the quietest, sweetest tempered girls of the village.
Finn smiled. She loved Mayra as a little sister, and having her along for such a journey would help dilute the teasing Riley was sure to toss her way. She frowned at the thought of Riley as a traveling companion, but knew a protector of some kind would be needed, and none of the men of the village could be spared. Riley had enough brothers to pick up the slack. Amelia nodded to herself, interrupting Finn's mixed feelings about the proposed traveling party.
"Riley's been fixing up the old covered cart the peddler no longer wanted. It may not be a smooth journey, but you could do it with one horse instead of three, with no need for you to try riding in your condition. Yes, I think that would be best." Finn hid her mild amusement over the fact that Amelia had told her she 'had some decisions to make' and then immediately made them all for her. She'd barely been consulted throughout Amelia's external monologue.
"What would be best?" Father asked, walking in the door with Riley and Gabriel behind him.
"Hey there, Hero, how goes it?" Riley winked at Finn, causing her eyes to roll. He set down two buckets of water on the floor, knowing his mother would likely want extra water for either cooking or medical care.
Ignoring Riley's question, Finn turned her attention to her father and began slowly, "Well, Father we were talking about--"
"Travel arrangements. The girl needs more advanced medicine and care than I can provide and she can only get it in Klain. We've decided she'll leave in the morning in our wagon with Mayra as a caretaker and Riley as a guard. It's what's best for her and I don't want to hear any argument about it, Phillip!"
Amelia felt it best to get all the information out before Finn's father could interrupt or argue with her about it. During her little speech, his face turned several shades of red and green, his worried eyes scouring his daughter for signs of her imminent demise. Finally, he sighed in a mixture of worry over his daughter and relief that he was being told what was best instead of having to make a difficult call on the right course of action. As long as he knew what was best, he could implement plans accordingly. His judgment was somewhat skewed by emotion when it came to his daughter, but when it came down to it, he loved her and would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
"Shouldn't I go with her?" He asked relatively timidly, voicing his only concern about Amelia's proposed plan. He would have to leave his son behind rather than take him on a dangerous journey, so either way he would be parted from one of his children. Neither option seemed ideal.
"You could, but my boys would have to work double-time to take care of your fields and ours. It's better that you stay in the village so that when Finn comes back safely, she doesn't starve next winter when you have no crops." Amelia settled the objection with finality.
Finn watched the interaction with interest. Amelia had always been adept at handling her father, but to see it in action on this scale would be amusing if not for the serious nature of the topic. He gave a heavy sigh and then began gathering things that might be needed for the journey. He retreated outside to enter the root cellar where preserved foods were kept.
"So... I'm taking Finn to Klain? Tomorrow? And Mayra's coming? Am I the very last to know?" Riley spoke slowly, emphasizing his lack of information and the fact that his mother had made all these decisions on his behalf without consulting him. At 19, he considered himself a man and did not appreciate being left out of the loop. However, having watched Finn's father fall into line just now, he could hardly argue too hard about not being treated as an adult.
"I'm exactly as excited as you are," offered Finn with a halfhearted smile. She wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but sometimes it slipped out when Riley was around. She winced at her rudeness to her soon-to-be protector.
Riley was about to give a sharp retort when his mother gave him a warning look, conveying with her eyes the weighty nature of the journey he was being asked, or rather told, to take. He swallowed and turned a radiant smile towards Finn. "Ok, but I actually am pretty excited. I've just finished reading every book in the village and have heard there are entire shops filled with them in Klain!"
Amelia smiled. "Go tell Mayra and then start packing. Check the cart tonight to make sure it can handle the journey." The peddler's cart was probably the only thing in the village that had ever been to Klain and back. The villagers tended to stay put and rarely traveled beyond their fields and orchards. Peddlers or others usually visited around harvest time to buy crops either to take home to use themselves or to the city to sell. It was the one season in which much news of the outside world circulated to the village.
Riley obediently filed out the door, tousling the hair of the almost-forgotten Gabriel sitting in the corner. When the door shut, the ladies were alone with the 6-year-old.
"Why are you leaving, Finn?" Gabe's eyes welled up despite his big-boy efforts to keep tears at bay. Now that the other males had gone, he finally was brave enough to speak out and reveal his fear and sadness about the sudden change in this world.
"Don't worry, Gabe," Finn opened her arms and Gabriel ran into them, sitting on the bed beside her. "Miss Amelia thinks I need some special medicine and care, so I'm going on an adventure to the big city to see a doctor there. I'll be back before you know it, with a whole new crop of stories to tell you for bedtime! I bet there's even some sort of shop that sells sweets. I'll bring you the best I find."
Gabe sniffled against her. The jostling made her leg wound twinge, but she wouldn't reveal that for the world to her sad little brother. Having no memory of their mother, the boy depended heavily on Finn for his emotional care and well being.
"Promise?" He asked.
"I'll do my very best in all the world." She replied, looking over his head at Amelia, whose face again slipped into an expression of worry. Suddenly realizing she was being observed, her face brightened.
"I want sweets as well! Gabriel, I have some sweet roll dough rising at my house, what do you say to coming over and helping me finish baking it to send with your sister on her journey? I could use an extra taste-tester. This way we won't even have to wait until Serafina gets back to have something yummy."
Gabe sniffed again, and wiped his nose across his sleeve. "All right," he agreed.
"We'll let your sister take a nice nap and rest. She's got a big time coming up and this may be her last night in a while to sleep in a good bed." Amelia moved the boiling pot away from the fire to prevent it burning, then took Gabriel's hand to usher him out. "Your father is still nearby if you should need anything, Serafina. I'll prepare everything else for the journey."
Finn nodded and watched them leave. Finally alone, maybe for the last time in a long time, she gave into the tears that company had held back. The memories of snarling and teeth and lunging shadows swirled around in her head as she sobbed, laying backward and trying to breathe through it all. Focusing on the ceiling above her head, she tried to mentally stow what she would need for a journey. A task instead of a memory. It would be better if she could get up and bustle about, but the sting of the wound would hinder, not help, her efforts to function in spite of her recent trauma.
She finally settled on making a shopping list for things she might buy in the city, assuming the doctor's fee did not take all of her money. She imagined newer, stronger fabric to make shirts for her father and brother, delectable sweets that Gabriel would love, and maybe some trinket for herself as a memorial of this sudden, exciting, daunting, unwanted journey. She had some money saved from the peddler buying her knitted blankets to resell elsewhere, which despite the occasional missed loop, were fairly high quality and had pretty designs.
She finally drifted off wondering whether she ought to bring her latest batch of creations with her to sell herself. If the peddler made money off of her things in the city, surely she could as well...