TRASH - Act 1: The Spinner

There were not enough curses in Maddison's tongue to describe the scene he had landed himself in.

It was still early morning, and Sariel had surprisingly kept to a healthy pace keeping up with him. They had gotten free of the forest without incident, and were at the cusp of the rolling green fields that spread throughout most of Millstead. The only obstacle was a slithering ravine that split the ground wide from Frostlock to the Southern Sea Pass. It was eased by sturdy modes of crossing it, like wood and rope bridges, and some steel and stonework where more money and merchants traveled. Maddison had crossed the ravine this way less than a week ago. The rope and polished wood were strong enough to stand against the howling winds that often ripped through the scar in the ground. And yet, someone, or something, had carelessly ripped the roping off one side, and sent the entire thing down into the trees and rocks below.

He pressed his forehead with a sigh. "This is a nightmare. Damn crow could have said something."

Maddison pulled out his map, flattening the thick parchment on the smooth bedrock they were standing on. He pinpointed their spot, lifting his head to grab Sariel's attention, but stopping himself. She was holding one of the masts of wood that had grounded the broken bridge while she gazed out into the ravine of thick trees below, trying to keep her mess of black curls from covering her eyes as they whipped in the wind. Her eyes were filled with wonder at the sight below, like a child that had seen the coast for the first time, or a little boy gazing out in wonder at the skeleton of a full-grown dragon. She had likely never seen something so grand in the cover of her village, and was undoubtedly conjuring up a line of questions in her head.

Maddison cleared his throat, waving Sariel over to the map once she had her fill of sightseeing. He gauged her confusion when she looked at the map, landing on the conclusion that she hadn't seen one before. "This is a map, it's a drawing of where people have been, to help them, or others, go back to the places they visited." He tapped a little black unnamed dot that he had marked himself. "This dot is your village." He traced his finger along a squiggly inked path to a bigger black dot, tapping the name Stonesong etched above it. "This is the town we're going to." He backtracked on the paper until he hit the little lined sketch of a bridge. "This is where we are right now."

He waited for any questions but took Sariel's silent curiosity as a sign to keep going.

"Now because the bridge that was here, is down there instead, we have to use a different bridge." He traced his finger up to a similarly drawn bridge. "It's going to detour us about half a day."

Sariel stared at the map, tracing her finger along Maddison's description a few times. She checked the trail they had come from, her eyes growing wide with excitement as she stared at the broken bridge while tapping the drawing. "Wow, Mr. Maddison, this piece of paper is incredible!" She ran her finger along the path they had walked, nodding to herself. "They even have the way the path squiggled a little while we were walking on it! Now I definitely like this paper more than that Corian fellow's. My village should try something like this!"

Maddison eyed her with intrigue, wondering if she had memorized the path enough to make a claim on the map's accuracy. He had seen that bright-eyed look before, on a woman he had called his partner, and a child they had raised together. An itch of excitement hiding a wish, a wish that she could make something just like the object in his hands. Do something, just like the characters in a grand tale told across the lands. Though he tried to fight it, Maddison felt a smile slip its way onto his face. "The town will have some cheap parchment, and maybe some inks. You can try to make one."

Sariel's excitement died some as she traced her finger along to the little black dot that was her village. For the first time in their journey together, she looked genuinely sad. "Medila wouldn't like it."

Maddison watched her slowly rise, her excitement growing again as she walked over to Horse to deliver the news of their detour to the animal.

They continued their journey along the great ravine, a quiet and encounter-less walk spare a distant animal, or swooping flock of birds. By the time the evening chill settled its cold touch upon the land, Maddison's optimism was burning thin with irritation. No less than three hours prior, Sariel had taken up a love for music. Humming the same three notes repeatedly with a hop to her step. As soon as Maddison saw an intact bridge in the distance, he took the milestone as an opportunity to snap.

He patted Sariel's shoulder, taking the lead from her hands. "Can you hum something different?"

"Oh! You don't know this tune?"

"Well, I do now."

She nodded, her face screwing up with irritation as she knocked on her own skull with her fist. "Been stuck in my head all day."

"I can tell."

Maddison's tone flew so far over her head it was doing loopity loops to show off as Sariel nodded, "Soldiers were singing it dead drunk about thirty sunrises ago." Her voice lilted to a songlike thrum as she finally let out the lyrics. "Have you seen the witch of late? A jealous evil crone. Fell in love with a married mate, so she caught his wife alone." She quickened her pace, belting out the last of the rhyme as she skipped across the bridge. "Cursed her dead, slept in his bed, and as the story goes - we chased that wicked woman to the woods, and after that, nobody knows!"

Maddison forced a smile and a little clap as Sariel finished, hoping that was the finale of her three-hour performance. He'd heard at least thirty nursery rhymes on witches in the past year, but hadn't run into many that were the source of the songs. Most of them had to do with the Witch of the Westlock, making merry a monster that had felled thousands.

After a quick skim of the bridge for any damage, he joined her on it, slowing to stare at the new scene that had captivated her. The sun had half sunk into the horizon, its light skirting a spotty sea of clouds to paint the sky a vibrant pink. The vantage point was as strategic as it was pretty, and Maddison took the opportunity to skim around for an ideal clearing to pitch a tent.

He eyed a small outcrop of trees, assessing the promising candidate until Sariel tapped his shoulder.

She pointed at the sunset when she had Maddison's attention. "How far away you reckon that sun is? Must get hot where it touches the ground. Does it just drop into a big hole?"

He had to run her question back in his mind as he silently stared at her. But even with a few repetitions, he could only manage one response. "Huh?"

"Well it ain't invisible, so that sun there is closer to us than the mountains at the edge of the world."

"I-" Maddison paused, gazing out at the sunset in deep ponderment. He rested his arms on the edge of the bridge, watching its glow ripple with an illusive haze where it touched the distant tree line. The way it made the horizon dance sent a shiver up his spine. The sheer thought of flames of that magnitude pitted his stomach. "You'll have to ask the gods where the sun goes at night, Rathlen owns the daylight, and talking to higher beings is above my pay grade."

"Right, someone ought to ask him. Cause a big fire if it touched the ground, wouldn't it?"

"I doubt he'd care," Maddison growled, tugging Horse to follow him off the bridge. "If you're truly curious about where that sun goes, you can ask the Elaren he made. They're called Sun Eaters. But if you're ever unlucky enough to cross paths with one, I'd skip the questions and run."

Sariel quickly hopped after Maddison, soaking in the view for a couple seconds more.

She didn't know the sun was edible - was it spicy?