Taena was up early the next morning. She built a fire, using only wood that didn't smoke. The last thing she wanted was to have Kerr alerted by a ill-built fire.
By the time Teegan had woken, Taena had a good fire going, and also, two six foot long staves with bent tops like shepherd's crooks lay by the tent.
"What's with them?" Teegan asked her sister, waving a hand at the staves. Taena walked over and picked one up. She opened her hand, exposing two blood-red stones and two lengths of clear string.
"When we left, Traer gave me these. He said to wait until we neared the fortress to make them." Taena threaded a stone on the string, then tied the string through a hole in the bent end of one of the staffs. When she stood the staff up, it looked like a shepherd's crook with a red stone dangling from the end of the bent bit. Teegan could think of no way that the staff could be useful.
"What's it for?" She asked. Taena didn't answer. Instead, she handed Teegan the other stone and bit of string.
"Just do what I did." Teegan did, wondering if her sister was go a bit funny in the head. Perhaps it was the heat, she thought. Then, slowly, she got it.
"Wonderful," she said to Taena, "Sukrae is gonna die when he sees this."
14-Dec-2006 01:25:52
