Trek For Survival

"Gia, that hurts! Please be more gentle," said her father, wincing as she helped him change into a clean shirt.

"Sorry, dad. I didn't mean to hurt you," she said, as his nimble fingers quickly did up his buttons.

"It's alright, I didn't mean to snap like that. Did you bring any good wood today?" he asked.

With a grin she set her basket down in the small table next to his chair. His fingers danced over the wood scraps inside of it.

"Some of these feel very nice, others are small. We don't bring in as much money on the little pieces," he said, picking up one of the smaller pieces.

"But you carve the smaller pieces faster," she laughed, picking up the stir-spoon and stirring the soup she had going all the time. It was starting to get warmer, so that meant winter was losing its grip. She couldn't wait to be able to visit the city walls and look out on the forest with Vonn.

"Thinking about Vonn, again?" teased her father as he turned the wood over and over in his hands.

"How do you always know?" she asked, tapping the spoon on the side of the small kettle and setting it aside.

"Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't hear a girl's heart start thumping harder," he laughed, setting the wood off to the side and picking his water cup up gently.

"Oh, you!" she said, shaking her head at him as he laughed, then snatched up his dirty clothes. They would need to be washed before he could change again. Spying a small tear in one seam she held in her sigh. No reason to worry him. She had thread and a needle to stitch it.

"Found where that seam split, didn't you?" he asked softly as she stepped towards the sewing box.

"It's nothing a quick stitch won't fix," she said lightly.

His face tightened, but he didn't say anything.

"Gia! I got six this time!" cried a young boy, barging into the small shack they called home.

"That's wonderful, Mikey!" she exclaimed, setting the shirt down and gingerly taking the six giant rats the boy held up by their tails. "That gives us two for the soup pot and one for each of us to eat."

"Can I have some salt on mine?" he asked, jumping from one dirty, bare foot to another.

"I'll see if I can find some," she said, ruffling his hair with her free hand. "Why don't you go wash up and fetch some water from the fountain? Make sure you don't wash in the drinking water!"

"Alright," he grumbled, snatching up the pail they kept by the door and dashing outside again.

Spying her father's taut face, she sighed.

"If I wasn't..." he began, but she jumped in.

"We have meat to eat, which is more than the other families get. You know that we would have a hard time affording meat even if you weren't blind. Being poor just gives us an excuse to eat meat that other people would turn up their noses at."

He shut his mouth and picked up his carving knife. Gia watched in excitement as he made the first little cut in the wood. It always amazed her how he could do that without seeing what he was doing.

Placing the rats into the scrap bucket, she grabbed her own little knife and sat down to clean the meat. She had to keep reminding herself it was just meat, and it would keep them healthy when everyone else was sick. She wasn't entirely sure how, but an old woman had told her that once, before she died. Gia had loved that old woman, and tried hard to follow all of the little bits of wisdom she could remember from her.

They sat together, silently working for a while, before her father cleared his throat. "There should be a little bit of salt in the cabinet still."

"I know. I'll put some on his," she said softly.

"You should accept his offer," said her father. "Vonn's."

"I won't leave you and mom alone. Mikey isn't old enough to help out like I do. Vonn will wait. He understands."

He sighed again. She knew he wasn't going to give up on the topic, but neither was she. Vonn wanted to leave the city, and she wasn't willing to leave her family. They would die, she was sure of it. Life in the city was too harsh and unforgiving for a blind man and his family.

"Hey, Mikey! Did you have any luck today?" came a female voice outside as Gia slid some of the meat into the soup pot and set the other on the cook plate over the fire coals.

"I sure did, Momma! Did you?"

"Of course!" she laughed, pushing the door open for Mikey to set the bucket of water down inside. Her face, however, quickly showed just how tired she was.

"Sit down, Mom. I'll make you a cup of tea," said Gia, quickly grabbing the special tea her mother had brought home the night before.

"Thank you, Gia," her mother said, hanging her cloak on the peg by the door and moving over to her chair. She watched as Dad carved on the small chunk of wood while Gia prepared the tea. Mikey added wood to the fire and threw himself down on the scrap of a rug in front of it, before noticing the pee pot. Wrinkling his nose, he glanced at Gia who raised an eyebrow. With a sigh, he climbed back to his feet and took the pee pot outside.

"Wash your hands again, when you're done!" Gia called after him.

"You're so good to him," said her mother, taking the cup. "More of a mother than I am."

"Now don't you start, too!" groaned Gia.

"Oh? Your father's been after you to marry Vonn again?" she asked, breathing in the hot liquid.

"You know he has," Gia said, picking up the shirt and going over to the sewing box.

"Carla, you know she can't stay here taking care of us forever," said her father in the silence as she sat back down to stitch the shirt seam back together.

"I know Tom," she answered softly, sipping her drink. "When will Vonn be back this time, Giavanna?"

"He should be back tomorrow. With the lingering cold, there's a big order for firewood he has to fill."

"Good, then we can talk about this some more tomorrow, and enjoy the rest of our evening," she said, winking at Gia.

"Why do I feel left out of something? Are you two girls doing your secret girl talk again?" Tom half-complained, looking back and forth at them with his pale empty eyes.

Both Gia and her mother broke out laughing as Mikey came back into the room, hauling the emptied pee pot with him.

"What did I miss?" he asked, looking around excitedly.

"These girls are ganging up on me," Tom laughed, shaking his head.

"Well, dad, they are girls," said Mikey, as if that answered everything. Throwing himself down on the rug again, everyone laughed at his answer. "What?"

"Oh, child, don't ever lose your innocence," said Carla, taking another sip of her tea.

"I don't know what you mean. Hey, Momma! Could you tell us about when you and dad first got together again?" he asked, getting up on his knees and holding his hands clasped together in front of him. "Please?"

"Oh, child! Well, okay," Carla said, settling into her chair and spreading her blanket over her swollen legs.

Gia noticed how bad they were and set the sewing aside to fetch the stool Tom had made for her to prop her feet up.

"Mom, you need to find another job that doesn't keep you on your feet all day," chided Gia.

"That inn is the only place that would hire me. The owner Bob told me that if I started drinking this tea my legs would get better by next week. He pays really well, too. I got a whole silver today!"

"What?" exclaimed Gia and Tom together. Mikey only gaped at her, unable to say anything.

"That should be enough to get something good tomorrow, and he said he'd give me another if I came back tomorrow, but for some reason he didn't think I would make it. I told him for pay like that I would definitely be back."

"I should say so! Do you think he would hire me?" asked Gia, excitedly.

"We can definitely check."

"How bad are her legs?" asked Tom, his fingers twitching to feel just how swollen they were.

"Not that bad," said Carla, giving Gia a warning glare.

"They've been worse, dad. Let her rest them some."

"Mom! The story?" whined Mikey, frustrated that everyone was talking about something else.

"Oh, yes, sorry. Let's see."

Gia sighed and went to check on supper. It wouldn't be long before the meat was done. Taking a pinch of the few remaining grains of salt, she gently sprinkled them over one of the pieces of meat. There wasn't enough for everyone, but Mikey was the one who had provided it, so he got the salt.

"We lived in a very small village further south of here," started Carla, holding her cup to her. "Your father was a woodcarver and had just inherited his father's woodshop. We were going to travel here to the big city to get married and open a new one, and leave the little shop for his younger brother. When we got here, your father made arrangements with his inheritance money and got us a big beautiful house that had two bedrooms in addition to the family room. However, the day he went to make arrangements to open his shop, a horse kicked a little dirt into his face. By the time he got home that evening, both his eyes were nearly swollen shut. By the next morning they were swollen completely shut, and nothing the healer lady did could open them back up."

"And by the end of the week we had lost everything," Tom jumped in, setting his things down. "Gia, how's supper coming?"

"Oh, Dad, you always interrupt and stop the story there," whined Mikey.

"Then you should know not to ask for that one," said Gia, handing him his bowl of meat and soup. "I put salt on it."

"Oh! Yum!" he cried happily, taking his bowl over to his spot at the table and sitting down.

"I think I'll just eat mine here," said Carla, wincing as she shifted one foot.

"They're really bad tonight, aren't they?" asked Tom, standing up and moving carefully over to her.

"I'm afraid so," she said, sadly.

"I'm so sorry, dear," he murmured, making sure her feet were covered and tucking the blanket around them with the softest touch.

"It's not your fault. This tea is making them feel better already. I trust that Bob. You'll see, by the end of the week, they'll be like when we first got married."

"Ha! Maybe I should go see him myself," laughed Tom, moving over to the table and sitting at his spot.

"That would be a miracle," Carla said softly.

Tucking both her parents into their beds that night, Gia banked the fire, and made sure Mikey was asleep in his spot. Checking that the door was securely locked, she finally climbed into her own bed. As much as she hated the thought of getting a job, something no woman should have to do, the thought of them getting two silver a day was exhilarating. Surely Vonn would understand?

"Gia?" came a voice at the door, jerking her wide awake. "Gia?"

It was Vonn! Rolling out of bed, she wrapped her blanket around her like a shawl and opened the door a crack to let him in.

"I need to talk to you right now! It's important!" he whispered, pulling her out into the frigid cold instead of stepping inside.

Wrapping his coat around her, to keep her warm, he glanced up and down the street as if worried.

"What's the matter?" she whispered back, trying not to chatter her teeth.

"We have to leave the city now! There's not time to waste!"

"What do you mean? Vonn, I'm not leaving my family!"

"Gia, there's an army! We have to leave, even if we have to take your family. They're going to lay waste to everything outside the city walls. By this time tomorrow, this whole area is going to be destroyed!"