Chapter 2

Aco continued her journey west and a bit south without too many interruptions. The one time she had a problem was when a farmer demanded that she turn away from his farm. He was afraid she would bring bad luck down on him if he allowed her to stay on the road. Aco did not turn back, nor did she try to injure the poor man.

“Good sir, I am a traveling entertainer. The masks are my hallmark feature, for I have no face that is safe for mortal eyes to view,” she said, hoping he would let matters drop. She just wasn’t in the mood to deal with fools of this sort.

“The masks are a sign of evil, go away!” He shouted at her, pushing a pitchfork at her to try and force her to turn away. He stepped towards her and jabbed again. This time she sidestepped and grabbed the long handle of the fork. She easily yanked it from his grasp and tossed it into the drainage ditch that ran along the road.

She turned back to the stunned farmer, “I will go now, the way I was going, so move aside, lest I be forced to do you harm in my defense.” As she spoke, she changed masks several times, each reflecting the mood of the moment and giving the words force. The last mask was a deep, somewhat angry frown. Without a word, he stepped aside and Aco continued on her way. When she was past him and had moved a few more yards down the road, she said loud enough that he heard her, “What a sad little man he is.” She could hear him scrambling around in the ditch to recover his discarded pitchfork. “I do hope he is smart enough to not try and stab me from behind.” She switched to the mask that was the teeth and threat of death, then spun around to face the man as he started to charge her with the fork aimed at her belly. “I MIGHT HAVE TO HURT YOU!” she screamed.

He didn’t stop and was suddenly wondering how he was lying in the ditch, head at the bottom in the mud, his feet hanging over the top slightly with his wife looking down at him with a look of thunder clouds in her eyes. Aco had jumped, summer-salted over him, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and tossed him in the ditch in a single smooth motion. She returned to the rickshaw as a woman came running down the path towards her. The woman was crying and begging Aco not to kill her foolish husband. Aco shook her head sadly and continued on her way, not looking back again as the woman climbed down to find her husband just regaining his senses. Aco finally smiled when she heard the woman tear into him for being such a stupid man sometimes. Aco doubted he would learn from this event though.

Aco continued on her way and stopped for the evening near a stream to make a simple camp. Having lived her entire life on the road traveling tends to make one aware of good and bad places to set up and what sort of camp was best for any given spot. She was out of sight from the road, protected from sight by a heavy tree line, had water that seemed to be fairly clean, and a supply of burnable wood from dead-fall from the trees. Her fire was small but hot enough to heat water in a small cook pot. She added dried meat and a few tubers and a pinch of salt, then let it simmer while she set up the rest of her camp. She removed her heavy travel hood and let her head cool down while she worked on the tent. Her ground cloth was fairly new and thick from a full, heavy, stretched cowhide. The rest of the tent went up easily once she had a few stakes driven into the soft dirt around the cover. With her hood off, she had her face off as well. She was never comfortable like this, but it was necessary if she was to keep her hair clean and bug-free. She checked the pot and decided it needed more time. She dug out her small soap pot and a towel, she walked down to the stream and saw it had a fairly level spot onshore she could clean herself up at. She also brought her water bag and a small bottle of strong wine. She added some of the wine to top off the bag giving the water a bit of a better taste and helped kill the most of the things that would make her sick in the gut.

She released the ties that held the heavy robe closed and let it drop to the ground. She stood naked in the sun for a few minutes, letting the last of the day’s heat soak into her tired body. When she stepped into the stream, she was suddenly not as happy. It turned out the stream was cold meltwater, bone freezing cold meltwater from the mountains to the north. She quickly rinsed herself down then stepped back onshore. Using a washcloth and soap, she covered her body, scrubbing at the spots on her arms and legs that picked up the worst of the dirt. She also soaped her hair and scrubbed it hard. To rinse off, she re-entered the water and began scooping up on to herself to get the soap off. She had to kneel down to get her hair and face rinsed free of the suds. By the time she finished, she was shivering from the cold water, her hands blue, and her body covered in goosebumps.

She got out as fast as she could and began drying herself off. Getting her thick hair dry was always a chore. Even though she kept it short, it was hard to care for with it being covered by the hood all the time. She walked back and saw the pot was steaming and the food hot. She used a strong stick in the handle to lift it off the fire and set it aside to let it settle down. Rather than dress right away, she gathered the clothes she had been wearing and checked them for damage. She quickly found that the thin costume would not last long while walking out in the wilds. One seam on the left leg had already begun to come apart and several snags on the arms threatened to rip open if stressed. She had some clothing made of a heavier fabric the colder months and would have to make do with them until she could obtain better. Her first destination along the long road happened to be the city of Planes Guard. She knew she could set up and do small performances near the markets while there to earn extra money. One thing she would be lacking though would be a musical accompanist. She could earn more coins legally that way, but could do well enough without with just the acrobatics. One skill she had been practicing was juggling. She wanted to be able to fold herself down, head facing back and her arms out while she juggled. So far, the confinement of her arms by her legs had prevented her from getting that to work. She also had more than a little training in the skills of the street from her previous jobs in the cities, but knew to work without the permission of the guild, well, she liked having two hands.

The contents of the pot had finally settled down and cooled enough to eat by then so she squatted and spooned the thin soup from the pot. Her dinner done, she took the pot to the stream and used a heavy cloth and some clean sand to scrub the pot clean. She finished this chore and put the cooking tools away and banked the fire for the night. She didn’t think it would last until morning but she wasn’t too worried about that.

As she crawled into the tent, she brushed her nipples on the coarse rawhide, sending tingles down between her legs. Aco hadn’t been with a man in some time as few would have her. She had become quite good though at relieving the ache that sometimes plagued her at night. When she finished with that need, she slept and the night passed quietly.

The morning came and woke Aco suddenly with noisy violence. The sky opened up on her and soaked thrue her tent in seconds. She had been warned the the hide had not been fully oiled and waxed to render it waterproof, but she had taken it anyways. She scrambled out and pulled up the stakes with the ropes and rolled the tent for travel. She would need to dry it at the first opportunity or the material would begin to mold and rot. She hauled the wet material onto the seat and pulled the cover down over all her property. She was getting ready to start when she realized she had not put on any clothes. She was standing there naked and soaked by the heavy rain. She pulled her cart under a nearby tree to reduce the amount of rain hitting it and went back out into the heavy rain downpour. This rainstorm, thankfully was actually on the warm side. Aco considered her options for a moment and decided to wait out the weather. She started doing her morning stretches and warm-ups to try and keep her body warm and limber. If anybody could see her, they would have thought she was dancing to some silent music only she could hear, and in a way she was. As she went through the motions of stretching and flexing her muscle and tendons, she did hear faint music playing in her head as she moved. When she reached a point in her mind that was a state of calm and peace, she ended the dance and stood in the rain, waiting. What she was waiting for she wasn’t certain, but she would know it when she found it.

When nothing changed for a few minutes, Aco lowered her upstretched arms and returned to the tree she had pulled her little cart under. She found a towel that wasn’t too wet and managed to dry off enough to dress in a clean robe. She looked out at the rain and up at the clouds. She didn’t see any sign of a break coming soon. She decided to take the robe off and put it away, ‘Better to keep it dry for later,’ she thought. Gathering all the clothes that needed washing, she went back to the stream and proceeded to wash everything in the ice cold water, while the rain soaked and chilled her further. She knew she would spend another day here to get everything dry once the weather broke. It wasn’t until just before sunset that the rain stopped and the clouds began to thin out. The temperature had started falling as darkness fell. Aco finally put on the dry clothing to wait out the night. She attempted to get a fire going, but the moisture in the air and all the wood she could use was soaked, making a fire impossible. She checked the road and returned to her soaked camp. The road was a solid pool of mud as far as she could see. Not having a choice, she wrapped herself in a cover for the tent and hoped to stay warm. Becoming ill this early in her journey would be a very bad sign. She drifted off to a troubled sleep and dreamed.

Aco was standing in front of the dragon again. He seemed amused by her condition. ‘So much ability and no way to tap into it.’ It faded and Aco didn’t remember any more dreams that night.

An hour before dawn she awoke shivering, her skin feeling cold and damp. She worked the muscles and joints hard this morning to loosen them up and generate enough body heat to feel comfortable. She had hung a long tunic from the cover poles on the cart overnight to help it dry out a bit more. It was still slightly damp to her touch, but it wasn’t soaked anymore. She took care of her morning ablutions and ate the last of her dried meat, loaded her cart, and started toward the road. She stopped, looked down, and realized she had forgotten to pull on her sandals. She had hung them up to dry and they were now mostly wearable. Once she made it to the road though, she could see it was still a soft and messy mud. She took her sandals off and hung them back up to continue drying. ‘No point in losing them in the mud,’ she thought.

Aco started down one edge where the grass had grown thick enough to keep the mud a little firmer. This worked for a while, but she tired quickly from having to fight the sticky mud the wheels and her feet would sink into. She knew she was in good shape and strong, just not strong in the ways needed to do this sort of work for long periods. She pushed on and farms began to become more frequent as the day wore on. This was almost always the sign of a village or town in the area. It took several more hours for her to make it to a large town that was situated on the Plains River and a set of crossroads heading off in several different directions. She was tired, covered in mud, hungry, and cold from her clothing being damp early in the day then sweat-soaked by the time she arrived. She had no trouble finding a caravan yard with the facilities for the crews. She had enough coin for the moment to take care of her laundry and herself. The bathhouse was one of the rare ones that had full-time hot water from old heaters that had been built generations in the past. The heaters were coal-powered as the barges from further north mostly carried coal to the major cities further south so fuel was almost never an issue.

She paid the girl on duty to take care of her clothing while she bathed. By the time she finished cleaning herself, her clothing was nearly dry in the tumbling barrel dryer. She gave the girl a small tip for doing this for her when all the clothing being washed was finished. The tent and ground cover proved to be a problem for Aco. She was able to hang them up to dry, but they had gotten a good caking of mud on them. She asked the laundry girl if there was someplace she could hang the ground-cover and tent to let them finish drying and scrape the mud off.

“There are several pole and hanger rods around the side of this building, just go right from the door. You can’t miss them, at least one is in use every day that the weather allows.” The girl asked the inevitable question, “Why do you wear those masks? I mean, it is fun to watch as you switch from one to the other as you speak to reflect your feelings, but why hide behind them?”

Aco considered, then said, “Thank you, miss. I was a performer in a traveling show, and the masks are part of my act. I also hide my face so I don’t scare people with my real face. I just wasn’t prepared for this when I left the show.” Aco looked around and sighed, “Who can I talk to for advice on what I really should have for a long time on the road alone?”

The girl smiled, she thought she had an idea of what she would be asking, “The caravan is building and will be heading to Terin’s Crossing in a few weeks. Ask around there. Most of the men and women are travelers and can answer your questions.”

“I’ll do that, thank you.” Aco picked up her basket that held her clothing and took it to the two-wheeled cart she pulled. It had a seat centered over the wheels and a small sun canopy over the seat. It had proved it could do little to stop the rain from soaking everything. She set the basket on the seat and pulled the cart around the corner and saw what she was looking for. She struggled, trying to lift the soaked and muddy ground cover over the bar that was just over her head in height.

“Would you look at that, “ said a man’s slurred voice behind her as she struggled with the heavy leather cover. “Nice ass there.”

Aco switched to her annoyed look and turned to face the rude man. He saw the mask and smiled in a way that made her mad. She flipped her right hand to the inner side of her left arm and pulled the angry mask and swapped them so quickly the man missed the motion. He saw the mask change expression on its own thanks to the number of intoxicants in his blood. “May I help you, mister, if not, please move along.” She swapped to her not friendly smile and waited for him to move. His brain wasn’t firing too well so he missed the second swap as well.

“How are you doing that? The mask changes faces. That some sort of demon work?” His voice was slurring more now and he was slowly losing the fight to stay upright. He staggered off to one side and fell into the street face-first into a muddy puddle of water that was left over from the rain a few days before.

Aco wasn’t willing to let him drown so she walked over, grabbed an ankle, and pulled the man out of the water and back to the wood walkway. She left him there and returned to her struggle with the heavy, wet cover. The next time she glanced at the downed man, she saw a child going through his pockets. She could tell the child was about five or six and by the shape and hair, a girl. When her searching came up empty, she stepped around and soundly kicked the man in the head. He groaned and started to struggle to turn himself over and sit up. The girl ran away and was quickly out of the picture. The drunk looked around, his hands now holding his head like he was trying to keep it from falling off. His clothes were soaked and muddy, his short beard caked with mud. He coughed a few times, spitting up water from his brief face swim in the puddle.

Aco figured she could ignore the man for a bit longer and continued getting one edge over the rod. She finally managed it and was able to get it pulled halfway so it hung down both sides. She used the tent stakes and ropes to pull it tight so it wouldn’t shrink while she worked on getting the mud off of it. This worked so she began scraping the mud off, then she needed a bucket of clean water to rinse it off with. ‘No bucket,’ she thought. ‘That is another item I need to acquire before I go on.’ She added it to her growing list of supplies she would need.

While she worked, the drunk managed to get to his feet and made it to the nearby wall, and sat on an old crate that was filled with rubbish. He watched Aco as she worked on the cover. Aco had noted his movement and continued to ignore him. She ran around to the laundry and asked if she could borrow a bucket and where she could fill it with clean water to rinse the tent parts off.

The girl held up a bucket to her, “Bring it back as quickly as you can. If you try to run with it, the guard will catch you, the masks make you rather obvious. As to the water, grab some from a horse trough.” The girl went back to her turning a hand crank on the dryer.

“Thanks, I should have it back to you in an hour at the most.” The girl just nodded at her to go. When Aco had filled the bucket and returned to the poles, she found the drunk dumping all her clean clothes in the wet dirt. He was happy when he found a small purse that held the coins that she kept in the cart, the rest she kept on her person. She didn’t give him any warning, she jumped and flipped in the air, landing on his shoulders, driving him to his knees. She didn’t try to kill him, but her impact caused damage to his neck and spine because of the way he had been leaning over when she landed on him. He fell to the ground, groaning in pain, complaining his legs had stopped working. She grabbed the ankle she had pulled earlier and dragged him back to the wooden walkway, after making sure she had anything he had taken from the cart. She went back and picked up the clothes, shaking the dirt off of them, cursing quietly as there was so much mud was on them again. She wasn’t even aware she had switched to her totally pissed and I’m going to kill you mask when she turned back to the drunk. She stalked up to him and grabbed his head by the hair and pulled him partway up.

“I just had all those clothes washed you worthless shit,” she shouted. She could see the look of terror on his face as he looked at her. “I should finish you off fool. You will never walk again as it is, so finishing you would be a mercy to you, therefore, I shall let you continue to live.” She dropped him and walked back to the cart, having switched to the cheerful smile, not even realizing she had done so. “Oh well, back to the scraping,” she said in a frighteningly cheerful voice.

She scraped and wiped the heavy cover down and rinsed as much of the sticky mud off that she could. It was getting late and she would need to return the bucket then head back to the caravan yard to the spot she was pointed to set up her camp. The laundry had a man on duty by the time she returned the bucket, he was glad to get it back. Aco was able to set a fire in a pit next to the campsite to prepare what little she had left in her damp supplies. At least she was under a wood awning for now in case the rains started again overnight.