The following morning, Akorsa woke early and headed out in search of Fionn. The two had been friends since they were but babes and that friendship had only grown and flourished since then. She did find him out by the large sheep pen at the corner of the village, sitting on the wooden fence, watching the sun rise slowly in an extravagant array of colors.
Fionn was an interesting character, to say the least. He was the only person with wit enough to match Akorsa, so the two provided constant entertainment for one another. Akorsa smiled with gladness at her accomplishment and moved up onto the fence next to her dear friend. She looked in the direction of the sunrise silently, knowing that something was on her friend�s mind by the way he sat with his shoulders hunched forward.
�This will be the last sunrise you will be able to watch for a long time, Akorsa,� Fionn said, finally.
�I will always make time to watch the sunrise,� she assured him softly. �Why were you not present at the meeting last night?�
�I went to visit Kayode last night. I have not gone up to see him in a good while. After all of the violence and bloodshed of yesterday I realized how desperately I needed to,� Fionn replied, referring to his younger brother who had drowned down at the river in an accident several seasons before. Akorsa nodded and moved a hand to rub Fionn�s back gently, offering him what comfort she could.
�I know how you miss him,� she told him. She had never lost a sibling, but she and Fionn were so close that she had felt nearly as much of the anguish as he had when Kayode had died. Likewise, she had been there to hold his hand when they were both younger and his mother had passed on. For all intensive purposes, they were truly inseparable, as they were always around one another, and always knowing where the other was or what they were doing.
�Must you leave? Can no one else go in your stead?� Fionn asked with a near-pleading tone.
�Aye, I must go. I would suffer none other to fulfill this task. This is something I must do myself,� Akorsa told him.
�Allow me to come with you, then? I would see you safely, I swear it!� he said.
�I know you would, Fionn. I would love for you to journey with me, but you must remain here. I need someone to take the flock out and to watch over the village in my absence. You are the person I trust the most for that task,� she said, gazing at the sun as it rose higher into the sky.
�I shall miss you terribly,� he sighed.
�But surely you can survive without me for the time I am to be away?� she joked.
�I do doubt it. The very beating of my heart might cease with your departure!� he said dramatically.
�Fionn, you are a farmer, not a poet. Do not say such things, they make you sound so dreadfully ridiculous,� Akorsa laughed.
�Could I not be a farming poet?�
�I am quite certain that you could be both! Though the rest of the village would think you to be mad and your father would have a fit and tell you to get your head out of the clouds and get to work!� she exclaimed, thinking of Myron, Fionn�s gruff old father. �I am sure you can find another to be troublesome with in my absence, regardless.�
�You are quite right, indeed. He would tell me I am quite the fool! Though I do doubt there would ever be a substitute for you in the midst of my troublemaking!� he laughed. �But come, let us see to some of the details of your journey, and you can tell me of these great ideals of yours for when you go before the Proctors. They must be interesting indeed, for we all know you are mad and wish to be thrown into prison,� he quipped playfully, hopping off the fence. She carefully jumped down next to him and they headed towards the slowly waking village.
- - - -
The rest of the morning was spent preparing and packing for Akorsa�s upcoming journey, which she was to begin upon the early morrow. Having never actually been to the Walled Cities, no one was entirely certain how long it might actually take one to get there on foot, and what supplies might be needed therein. Erring on the side of caution, it was decided that Akorsa was to be stocked with all the rations that her pack could possibly carry at once. Some clothes and other necessities such as a water skin had been prepared for her as well, and by early afternoon she was nearly fully prepared to disembark.
Meanwhile, Akorsa had undertaken the task of fixing the Maseriff axe she had made use of during the attack on the previous day. She generally only had need for her staff, but without being able to determine what lay on the road ahead, she wanted to have a real and more dangerous weapon at hand. Fionn had insisted on cleaning it and sharpening the blade for her. He claimed that allowing her to go out into the world in any other manner might be likened to sentencing her to death.
The axe was heavy and quite enormous, with the twin blades spanning out far past Akorsa�s shoulders and being about seven hand�s-breadths from the top to the very bottom. She had a very difficult time maneuvering it, but that would take far more time and practice than she had to give it right then and there. However, she was conveniently able to fasten it to her back it would not hinder her during the forthcoming travels.
With the villagers taking the initiative and assuming the responsibility for a majority of the preparations, Akorsa was left to spend her last day in her home village with those she cared about above all else; her family. The morning was spent working with Fionn. After a brief visit to Myron, Fionn�s father, the two made it a point to spend the midday hours with Akorsa�s little brother Keihl and her nephew, Wyllim.
Keihl, having the intellect of one who had not yet seen his fifth winter, knew that his elder sister was going off to do something important, but the �something� of that was beyond his comprehension. Children are not wont to think so deeply into matters as do not directly concern them, or that prove to be so thoroughly beyond them, and so Akorsa�s promises of a swift return sufficed for the young lad. As for little Wyllim, the dear green-eyed child who had not yet seen his second winter, knew no more than his father�s sister had taken him out to play on a wonderfully sunshiny day.
Having regarded her nephew from the day of his birth, Akorsa could say that the child was nothing short of being entirely normal. In the meantime, everyone else in the family and round and about Arimythia thought the child was nothing short of enigmatic. Akorsa had questioned that idea the very moment it arose, but then her mother had informed her that she had been even odder as wee babe. It essentially had to do with how the child hardly ever made noises; rarely ever crying or fussing. He watched everything with his large green eyes and appeared to take everything in. What was so odd about this Akorsa could not understand in the slightest, but she appeased her conscience in allowing the villagers to think as they might.
As the midday sun rose to its zenith, Fionn and Akorsa sat with their backs up against a big and shady tree, watching the two young lads roll around in the grass as they played. Fionn was watching the clouds loll around the bright blue sky in a lazy sort of motion.
�Would you ever stay there?� he asked suddenly.
�Stay where, Fionn?� asked Akorsa, looking at him curiously.
�Stay within the Walled Cities was what I meant to say. Would you ever contemplate staying there? Giving up this life entirely for another one?� queried Fionn.
�Not unless I could help it, you know that just as well as I do!� she said with a reprimanding tone. �I shall never prefer those stone walls over these small timber houses and open fields. My heart and soul dwell here, and I cannot live being thusly separated from them, you know.�
�I am sorry. I just have this aching feeling deep inside of me that you shall never return to us,� he admitted.
�Never is a very long time, Fionn. Besides, you know I could not bear to be away from the lot of you for so long a time. I would most assuredly perish from such a boring manner of existence!� she laughed. He smiled lightly.
�You do still risk your own arrest. All that you have suggested is forbidden and will surely land you in a dungeon for the rest of your days,� Fionn reminded her.
�A risk well worth taking and you know that. As I have said, I would see children like Wyllim and Keihl grow with the rights of the people of the Walled Cities � a world where the peoples of Arimythia, Ilyana, and Uljaya are all equal. You might think it nonsense, but I have great hopes for such a thing,� she said.
�You say that with such eloquence I feel inclined to believe you, Akorsa,� he said with a grin. �Perhaps the life of a politician suits you?�
�I hope with the greatest of hopes that this eloquence will last long enough for me to get my point across to the Proctors. As for becoming a politician�I think I am better suited to watch sheep,� she admitted.
�I am certain you are suited for other things,� Fionn said with a mischievous type of certainty that Akorsa knew far too well. He was up to something that she could not quite be certain of. She did know that the last time she had seen him do that he had shoved her into the river when she was washing her family�s clothes. That was leaving out the minor fact that it had been the middle of autumn at the time, and the parts of the river were nearly frozen.
�Fionn son of Myron, I would know what secrets you hide!� she demanded with a playful yet dangerous tone.
�I have no secrets, Akorsa daughter of Alvis and Aroha! My heart and mind and soul are barred open to you now. They cannot escape your scrutiny, so there is no use in hiding! You shall find none of these secrets there, only surprises, I assure you,� he said surreptitiously.
�Surprises?� she laughed. �More than likely shall I find your terrible works; you are a troublemaker and a wretch, Fionn!�
�Yet you still willing act a s a friend to this troublemaking wretch?� he asked with a grin, prodding her in the side with a finger.
�As the stars do shine in the night sky, I do, indeed,� she smiled.
�Then as those stars yet shine and as the sun and moon do rise and set, do be assured that my existence shall be a terribly dull one without you here!� he said with a laugh.
�Fionn, I fear you shall never become a serious man! I beg of you, do not jest so when you begin taking my sheep out to pasture!� she pleaded. She was not being entirely serious, but she knew that fooling around in such a manner when being as vulnerable as one was while out at pasture could have dire consequences.
�I had no idea of your true feelings! I was so sure that you trusted me, dearest Akorsa!� he said with a mock hurt.
�I trust your good intentions, not always your actions,� she admitted with a clear earnestness.
�Would you think of me such a fiend as to do such a thing?� he asked, leaning back against the tree. �That I would so lightly risk all you live and breathe to protect? You would deserve better than that, I do think.�
�I do not think you a fiend,� she assured him. �Though you can be one from time to time if you so choose!�
�Well, the, simply return to us in one piece and we will have no troubles,� he said.
�I have told you that I shall return again and again,� she said, positively exasperated and partially amused by Fionn�s underlying doubt. �You need to trust me a little more!�
Fionn shrugged with a laugh just as Wyllim crawled across the soft grass up onto his lap. The child looked over at her with a smile as he always did, being a relatively jubilant child. She smiled and leaned forward to hug him tightly.
�I do fear that I shall miss you something dreadful, little one! You always have the most wonderful hugs!� she exclaimed, eliciting a giggle from the boy. Lifting Wyllim up off Fionn�s lap, she stood. �We ought to head back now,� she said to Fionn, who nodded and rose to his feet as well.
�Keihl, what say we head back now?� he asked the young boy, who was running around.
�Can we visit the sheep?� asked the boy with a grin.
�If it suits you, then aye, we shall visit the flock,� said Fionn as they headed back towards the village.
