Ch 2.14: Departure


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina thought about asking whether or not there was time to go back and find a change of clothes, but a carriage cresting over the hill quashed that desire, obviously toote for that now. She shrugged to herself, wondering if she’d be able to borrow anything from one of the other girls. Shirts from Tira and Flora were out for obvious reasons, and pants from Carline would likely be too short.


    <i><span style="font-weight:400">Does Carline even wear pants?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> It was a question ina hadn’t thought about before, but thinking on it now she wasn’t sure what Carline would wear outside of school. Shirt and pants made sense for Tira, and the sundress certainly fit Flora, but she could see Carline wearing just about anything, from long dresses to pants to skirts. Anything would make sense really, so long as it was somewhat modest. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Though immodest would be better…</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“ina, I think she’s pointing at you,” Tira said, looking off in the distance.


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina looked back up, breaking up her thoughts of a less-dressed Carline and trying to find who Tira was talking about. There was only one person, the carriage driver, with dark brown skin, long and flowing curly hair. “Wait, that’s Char!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina took off in a run, barely remembering that she needed to go slower than she could to not make Char suspicious. “Hey, girl,” the carriage driver said as she pulled up, slowing the carriage and climbing out of the driver’s seat. “Didn’t expect you were the one I’d be ferrying today.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina crashed into her, perhaps a little too hard, but she grabbed onto the woman and made sure she didn’t get knocked over. “Char!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Damn, ina, what’re they feeding you?” the woman said as she hugged back. “Or is that just what an Awakening does to you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No, just excited to see you again,” ina said as she let go.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well,” Tira said, walking up from behind, “this isn’t how you greeted me the first time we met, so I’m assuming you two know each other?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t know, she was pretty friendly to me when we were formally introduced for the first time,” Flora said, smirking at ina with her eyes.


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina did her best to ignore Flora’sment as she answered Tira. “She drove me here all the way from back home. She’s practically family.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Charughed, waving ina off. “I’m not that important, just a hired cart.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina shook her head, still beaming at Char. “You helped a lot, even if it was only for a week. What’re you doing here though? I didn’t think I’d ever see you again!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What am I doing here? I live here, girl. In town, anyway. I normally just do local stuff like this, but I’ll take the long haul trips when theye up.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, alright,” Tira said, “d you two are happy, but we do have a schedule to keep.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Flora groaned, shaking her head. “Do you <i><span style="font-weight:400">always</i><span style="font-weight:400"> have to think about business first?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes,” Tira responded, ring at her. “We only have two and a half days for this mission, you know. We’re expected to be on time for sse Firstday.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Girl’s right,” Char said, hopping back up on the carriage. “I’m not even taking you all the way out to where you’re going is my understanding, so you four have some walking to do besides. No need in waiting for the sun to get any lower, so hop in the back.” She nced at ina once more. “We can do plenty of talking on the way, just like before.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The four girls got in the back, Carline and ina facing towards the front, Flora and Tira looking back at them, and ina introduced the others to Char as the cart rolled along. It was nice, being able to catch up with Char again, remember the encouragement she’d given ina on the trip to Endrin. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Might not even have even had the nerves to walk through the gate without her…</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“By the way,” Char eventually said, “does she still have that habit of embarrassing herself out of her mind at least once a day?” Carline snorted as Tira and Flora also tried to hold backughter, ina herself going a deep shade of red. “Guess that answers my question. You know the day we arrived at school, she dressed herself and had the whole back of her skirt tucked into her underwear? Would’ve walked all the way into the castle if I hadn’t told her, I bet.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Char!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Everyone except ina burst intoughter as she bowed her head, doing her best not to think of that morning. Her best wasn’t that good though, and she could only imagine herself actually walking up to Endrin like that, how her first impression to the others would have been if her whole ass had been showing itself.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Stuff like that doesn’t always happen to me, you know!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Could’ve fooled me,” Tira said.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I distinctly remember something simr happening when I met you after your fencing ss,” Flora added.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Please, you two have seen nothing; I actually live with her!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">A smallugh escaped from ina’s mouth, and there was no stopping the chorus that came after, from Char, her friends, and even herself. Maybe it was just Carline’sment being so out of character as she got caught up in the moment, but even ina had to admit some of the situations she got herself into were at least a little funny.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Okay, okay, I’m a bit of a klutz, big deal.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sweetie, klutz is when you nudge the table when you’re getting up, not when you lose your pants when you’re standing up at breakfast. And yes girls, that actually happened on the trip here.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">They allughed again, and ina was even pretty sure they all believed that was a genuine ident when she told them she’d forgotten her belt that morning. Conversation moved along to less humiliating topics thought, and continued until they finally crested the hill between school and the town.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wait,” ina said as she looked out the window, “is that…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, right,” Char said. “You didn’t get a good view of it when we came in, did you? Well wee to Castletown!”


    <i><span style="font-weight:400">A town?</i> <i><span style="font-weight:400">This has to be what a city is, right?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> It wasn’t like ina had a great frame of reference being from what she understood to be a small vige, but the sprawling expanse of buildings in the valley below was certainlyrger than anything she would call a town. She’d seen the tops of some of these buildings as they rode in on the other side of the hills, but she didn’t realize how low those hills went on this side, how the roofs she was looking at weren’t just those of normal buildings, but giant wooden towers, surrounded by a whole valley’s worth of smaller buildings, more buildings than she could even count.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s enormous,” she said, mystified.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Eh,” Char said, “it’s a town. Nothing like the capital or even the smaller cities.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina couldn’t even imagine a bigger ce. The tallest parts of the castle were still bigger than the tallest towers in Castletown, but overall the school looked tiny inparison. “I can’t believe this has just been tucked away here the whole time and I didn’t even know.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, I kinda always hated that,” Tira said. “It’s not defensible at all.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s the point though, right?” Carline said. “So it can’t threaten the castle.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Pfft! Like anyone would ever try attacking you all,” Char said. “Most people can’t even get through your gate, afterall.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I mean,st week—” ina started before Tira stepped on her foot, shaking her head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not now,” Tira mouthed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">ina was confused, but she did as she was told. <i><span style="font-weight:400">What did I do wrong though?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> She nced out the window as the rolled down the hill, her mind being overtaken again by thoughts of the countless dwellings below her. She was so enthralled that she almost didn’t notice the sound of singinging from Flora. <i><span style="font-weight:400">She really does have a nice voice,</i><span style="font-weight:400"> ina thought right before her eyes widened in realization.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She’d heard Flora sing that tune before, and from the look of horror on her face Carline knew what the song meant as well. Only Tira was oblivious to the meaning, a look of bewilderment on her face as Flora’s nymph-grin grew, her singing still carrying on as blue sparkles of crystal started to form around her body.