The Pearl Of Vynes - Chapter 32 A Changed Daughter

The one thing Alice never thought she would feel was cold. Not the cold of a storm on a summer’s day and a brief chill, but the bone deep freeze that the North had constantly. The bright sheen of snow dotted the mountains as they continued onwards into the country. Miles had picked up some furs when meeting a trader along the route, the fluffy coat made the chill bearable however it didn’t seem to affect Tane or Miles at all despite their light clothing.

“I don’t understand how you can bare the cold, you’re barely wearing anything more than when we left the capital” Alice said frustrated, the chill wind had picked up again and she shivered in her heavy coat.

“Magic, my dear. Any Brave worth his salt knows magic when they’re in the top hundred. If you’re curious you can get Miles to teach you, he’s definitely a professionally of keeping magic usage to a minimum” Tane said, sitting upas he looked at both Alice and Miles.

“That’s where I’m hoping you could help me Tane. She can’t seem to learn any of my magic, even the basics seem to be out of her grasp” Miles sighed.

“Woah, hold on so when you attacked me in the woods a couple of days ago that was just your body?” Tane said amazed.

“Yeah, it’s a bit of hard thing to explain at the moment but she has the potential I can tell but she’s been unable to focus her mana. It’s fluctuating to wildly do anything useful” Miles said.

“Hmm, in the meantime definitely getting used to combat would be the best way to get you ahead for now” Tane said, a hand rubbing his chin as he thought over how to get Alice to to be able to use magic.

“I might have an idea” Tane said, “When we stop I’ll see if we can get something going”.

The three of them went quiet as they travelled along, the occasional whistle of the wind broke the silence. Alice for the first time in a while thought of home, the warmth of the sun back there. The ease of her day cleaning and helping farm with her dad. She could still clearly remember his smile and she felt a little empty without him. As she turned over to sleep she thought of home. Suddenly she felt like she had nothing solid beneath her, opening her eyes she landed hard in the dirt with a sudden breath of air knocked out of her. Scrambling to get up Alice realised she was on a dirt road. Miles and Tane were nowhere in sight, looking around the scenery seemed pretty familiar to her. The small wisps of smoke and air brought back a wave of memories, Alice was home.

Joel was shodding the earth, prepping for the winter and turning over the soil to keep it warm as it was going to be colder very soon. Despite the illusion of the hot summer, fall became a miniature winter in itself and had brought the village to hunger times before. As he wiped the sweat from his brow he could see a figure running down the road, dust being kicked up from the amount of feet ripping the dirt off the surface of the road. As the figure got closer Joel stopped and squinted at the figure. The gear the person was wearing was odd to say the least, draped in furs despite the hot summer sun. As the person came closer he noticed what he thought was a man, was actually a woman. Easily as tall as him, and muscles he could see rippling underneath all the coverings. As the person ran past him she paused and stopped. Suddenly running at him, Joel was taken a back as the woman pulled him into a strong hard.

“Dad, I’ve missed you so much.” Said the woman. After a moment Joel finally realiased this was his Alice.

“Alice!” Joel said excitedly, bringing Alice into a tight hug and swinging her around as he held onto her. He took a good look at her face and could see she was covered in dirt, and her growth was beyond surprising to him but she looked healthy.

“Come, let’s go back home. Nadine will be so happy to see you again” Joel said as he took his hoe with him. Alice followed on Joel’s side, as they walked back home.

“So what happened to Miles?” Joel asked.

“It’s a bit of a long story Dad, I’ll explain it later” Alice said unsure of herself. As they continued walking to the village, Joel waved to the other villagers as they walked along. A few of the villagers whispered to themselves as they passed by, Alice felt a little odd in the home she was so used to being in. As they arrived to the house, Joel ran inside first. Alice entered the home and realiased it was a lot smaller than she remembered, her head already at the doorway. She tuned her eyes to the faint noise of her father talking to her mother.

“Nadine, Nadine! Alice is back!” Joel said, several footsteps followed out and both Nadine and Joel ran out. Nadine came in for a hug, her head coming underneath Alice’s shoulder and Alice held her back.

“It’s so wonderful to see you again Alice” Nadine beamed at Alice, “And you’ve grown so much. Come I’ll get a bath ready for you” Nadine escorted Alice out to the back of the house. Alice noticed quite a bit had changed, Joel had already expanded out the house out to incorporate a private bath area. Nadine heated some water that was already collected from the nearby well that had finally been finished for the village. Pouring the buckets of water over and over into the bath, the rising steam felt luxurious for Alice. Nadine helped her out of the heavy furs and clothing she was wearing when she was back in the north.

“Oh dear, what’s happened to you” Nadine said as she looked over the number of scars and cuts along Alice’s body. Tracing her hands over the bruising as well she noticed the spots of rainbow shimmering on her hands. Nadine placed her hands over Alice’s and could the warmth emanating from the spots on Alice’s hand.

“Who did this to you? If it was Miles I swear I’m going to drag him from his entrails” Nadine said between gritted teeth. Alice briefly shocked formed her words in rebuttal.

“No Mum, a lot has happened and unfortunately this is probably permanent. Miles has been looking out for me the whole time” Alice said, a brief flash of his death still held deep guilt over her as she looked down.

“Take your bath sweetie, after that we’ll talk more” Nadine said patting her hand and leaving Alice to the steaming bath. Alice stepped in and relaxed as the water started to ease the tension and knots in Alice’s shoulders. She grabbed a hard brush that was lying next to the bath and scrubbed away at all the dirt and grime clinging to her skin. The water started going dark with all the dirt that came off. Turning around she noticed Nadine had left her a towel, one of the ones she knew was used for guests and made her grin. Drying off her body, Nadine came around with a dress and undergarments.

“This is for you dear, I’m not sure it’ll fit since I adjusted the clothing to your size” Nadine smiled.

“Come inside when you’re done” Alice looked over the dress, it was quite pretty and as she put it on it fitted perfectly. Though the dress would definitely get in the way if she needed to kick someone it looked wonderful on her. Alice came back inside as Nadine and Joel were chatting away at the kitchen table that she had for so long always woke up to in the mornings.

“Hello sweetheart, come take a seat” Joel gestured to the wooden stool next to him and Alice sat down, being careful of the new dress her mum had made.

“Tell us all about your travels! Where did you go? What happened while you were with Miles? Is Miles going alright?” Joel asked excitedly. Alice could swear if Joel had a tail it would be wagging in excitement.
for visiting.

“Well we went to a number of places, we had a bad knack with trouble as well” Alice giggled softly.

Alice regaled her adventures with Miles leaving out anything to do with the stone, and why her hands were as they are.

“I hope Miles is okay, speaking of which where is he at the moment?” Joel remarked.

“I’m not entirely too sure, I was with him one moment. We were travelling up into the north and suddenly I ended up here. I’m not too sure how either to be honest” Alice said heaving a sigh.

“I feel like nothing’s simple anymore, thought I’m glad I did end up back home at least”

“We’re here for you dear so don’t you worry about it” Nadine patted her shoulder.

As they rested on the table they all had a snack of dried fruit that Nadine had prepared earlier that day. Suddenly there was a banging on the door, Joel jumped to his feet and answered it. Another villager was at the door, huffing from obviously running hard to their house.

“Joel, there’s a big problem” the man said between breaths.

“What’s the issue” Joel said in a set serious tone.

“Bandits, they’re just outside the village and they want us to pay up”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll go out to see them” Joel said sternly.

“I’m coming with you father” Alice said following him out the door.

“No you are not” Joel said angrily, “Stay inside with your mother and bar the doors”

Alice pouted and turned to her mother.

“Mum, is there anyway you can turn this into travelling clothes?” Alice asked.

“Only if you promise to close your eyes” Nadine said. Alice closed her eyes, the faint rustling of fabric told her the clothing was changing.

“All done” Nadine said. Alice looked over and could she was in dark green travellers clothing. Pants and shirt instead of the long dress she wore just a moment ago.

“Thanks mum” Alice waved to mum as she ran outside. Alice could hear Nadine as she locked the house. Alice ran after Joel as she could see the villagers gather in the square facing three men on horseback armed to the teeth. Joel was standing at the front of the crowd and the shouting was now in earshot for Alice.

“10 gold pieces isn’t much for the price of everyone’s lives” one of the bandits aid, spitting between each sentence.

“You know very well we don’t have that kind of money” Joel shouted at them. The three of them laughed at each other and turned towards Joel as he was the only villager that was in front of the crowd.

“Well guess we’ll have to pillage the village again huh?” the bandit said, howling with laughter.

Joel trembled visibly with rage as the bandits laughed at him, Alice saw them start to light their torches and tapped on the shoulder of one of the other villagers.

“Do you mind if I borrow that?” Alice asked the man holding a pitchfork. The man confused handed it over willingly and Alice tested out its weight and balance.

“This should work” Alice said to herself.

As the bandits had their torches ready to throw, Alice cleared an rea around and her. Taking aim with the pitchfork she heaved it forward with her strength. It whistled threw the air as it hit one of the bandits and like a sudden push , threw him off the horse. Leaving the bandits stunned Alice strode through the crowd as Joel turned around to look at this daughter.

“You bitch” shouted the other bandit charging forward at her, dropping the torch and drawing his sword from its sheath. As the horse charged at her, Alice ran at the horse dodging the incoming sword and heaved the horse over her head and onto the ground. The horse squealed as it obviously had broke a bone and the man was trapped underneath the horse, slowly being crushed under the beast’s weight. The last bandit took flight and started to make a run for it, kicking up dust behind him at the speed he was travelling. Alice noticed on the ground a large stone that fit her hand well. Taking a step back, Alice threw the rock high into the air and the crowd watched as the stone soared into the sky and promptly drop on the fleeing bandit’s head. Dropping him from his horse and the animal continuing run without its master. Alice walked over to the man, despite the distance he covered he was definitely still alive and dazed. Alice picked him up, a little blood falling from his head onto her arm.

“Who’s your boss?” Alice shouted at the man. The man tried to break free of her grip but she held tight, furious at the man’s willingness to burn down her village. After struggling for a moment the man gave up and slumped into her hold.

“We’re a small bandit group, our leader was an ex-Brave and we thought we were invincible so long as he was leading us. We’d only come here recently but we had done so well since the guards are so far away.

“Where is your hideout?” Alice shouted again. The man refused and shook his head. Sighing Alice grabbed his fingers, crushing and snapping one. The man screamed and the crowd that had now followed her visibly winced at the mans scream.

“Where is your hideout?” Alice said again, waiting for the man’s pain to die down. The bandit was tearing up and Alice reached for the next finger. Alice broke the finger hard this time, the finger going all the way back over his hand and the man uttered another howl of pain. The crowd was starting to visibly become sickened by the display.

“I’ll talk” the bandit said relenting, holding his two broken fingers and crying in the middle of the dirt road.

“We have a camp way back in the woods, people don’t go there as they are too afraid of the stories of things that live there” the bandit said. Alice dropped the man from her grip and the bandit shuffled on the ground as far away from the terrifying woman as possible. Running down the road away from them. Joel came up from behind Alice, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Alice, what are you going to do?” Joel asked.

“Why go after the bandits of course” Alice said with a smile.