Nanowrimo 2021 Day 19 - Word Count and Favorite Bit

Today I added 2172 words to Seek the Oasis, bringing my total word count to 31,000!

The crowds did not bother her in the same way they did the first time they stepped into the city, likely because this time they knew where they were going. They followed the same path as before away from the busy city center. They relished in the way the noise faded as they made their way to calmer, quainter lanes.

They froze, horror stealing away their joy, when they saw the looks of exhaustion and sorrow on the faces of the innkeepers when they stepped through the door.

“What happened?” Aysel demanded. “What’s wrong?

“I-it’s the children,” the wife sobbed, holding a crumpled piece of parchment in her trembling hands. “They disappeared in the night n-not long after you left. They l-left a letter, but I don’t understand what it means.”

“Let me see it,” Leonidas said, his voice a gentle rumble. The wife passed it over quickly, as if touching it burned her. Leonidas looked at the paper, reading it aloud. “Dear Mister and Missus Innkeeper, thank you for letting us stay and being so nice to us. We love the clothes you bought for us, and the dolls you helped us make. But we have decided we want to follow Mama. If she comes back, please tell her we will be waiting at the spot we first met.”

Silence fell over the group, fear an icy chill over the whole house. Aysel’s hand tightened into a fist against her chest, fingernails digging into the still-sensitive flesh of her palm. They’d left. The children had left. On their own. Into the desert.

“Mama?” Kinri murmured. “Who could they mean? The witch?”

“No,” Leonidas said. He slowly looked up from the letter in his hand, his eyes landing on Aysel. Pain and warmth flooded her chest in tandem, fighting for control of her heartbeat. No. He could not say it. Please, she silently begged. Do not say it.

“They mean you, Aysel.”

A sob wrenched itself, unbidden, from Aysel’s throat. Why did that fill her chest with such a gentle ache? Why did that give her so much happiness and fear? Her heart felt so full, but her blood ran cold in her veins.

“Then…the spot where we first met...” Kinri looked to Aysel, lavender eyes wide with concern. “Could they mean…?”

“The gate,” Aysel whispered. The realization hit her harder than the monster in the mountain spring. She turned on her heel. The sounds of her companions and the innkeepers shouting after were muffled behind the blood pounding in her ears. She swung herself onto Sonnak’s saddle, no longer caring about the sting of sand against her scares or the ache of her thighs. She looked to Kinri and Leonidas, mouth set in a determined frowned.

“I’m going. Gather what supplies we need and then follow me. Rest if you can, but I will not be stopping.”

She waited a moment, to see if they would argue. To her surprise, they did not. Leonidas stared her down, his ruby eyes meeting her own golden gaze.

“Go.”