Tara went to the tavern down the street and inquired to several people until she found the man Emma was talking about. He recalled seeing a dark haired sith who traveled in the company of a du sith, a Human and a cait sith. The human, Sir something, had told stories very well. No one really knew where they were from, but someone thought they might be from Bran.
Tara left the city of Brita the next morning. She noticed that Emma followed her a small distance and then turned around. Tara waved goodbye to the little girl, who waved back. She thought briefly about asking the child to come with her but, since she did not know where she was going, it was probably for the best that the girl to go back to the city.
The road stretched out before her. Two days of walking and she started calculating how long her money would last if she bought a horse. If only her mother had given her one, her feet were aching. She concentrated on the scenery around her rather than on how far she had walked and how much further she had to go. The forest grew thick, blocking out a lot of the sunlight. The days stretched out and blurred together. She passed small settlements and villages. Sometimes she stopped for food. When her money began to run low she began to take on odd jobs at these settlements, often employing her magic. At times her magic was not needed and she would do farm work or house work. At first she was not particularly good at any of the chores she was paid to do, she had never done any such work before in her life. But eventually she began to learn to take care of herself, to cook, forage in the woods, and earn her keep. Sometimes she would stay with families that employed her for several days, especially if they had children to take care of. Some asked her to stay, but she always refused. Part of her wanted to settle down, it didn't seem likely that she was going to find Eldan any time soon, and the constant travel was wearisome. But she kept going. She had been raised to believe that her only purpose in life was to marry Eldan and she was going to go through with it. The only time that she had ignored that purpose had not exactly turned out well, so it was best to just keep going.
At some point along the way she took a wrong turn. By the time she was aware of it she was hopelessly lost. Asking for directions, she discovered that she had gone in circles and was still days from Bran. After that she gave up trying to get to Bran. She didn't even really have any solid evidence that he had ever been there. She began to wander aimlessly. Picking random paths and taking work where she could find it. The weeks stretched by. Occasionally she would hear stories of a sith who matched Eldan's description. Once she even heard him referred to by name, but following the trail seemed impossible, he had been seen in the underworld and she did not know how to get to it.
One day she decided on a whim to cut through some woods, leaving the road behind. The woods soon engulfed her, as though she had entered a different world. The road disappeared completely from sight and she was surrounded by green. She liked it here, she felt safe and hidden.
A day or two passed and Tara had still not come within sight of another road. She did not particularly care, there was plenty of food to be found in the woods. The winter had been mild and now that the snow was beginning to disappear survival in the woods was easy. |
