Empath

by Evans, S. Usher

  The sun was high in the sky by the time she finished bringing all of the laundry baskets to the river. The heat beat down on her mercilessly, making an already difficult task even more so. She paused on the banks of the stream with the last basket and collapsed next to the rushing water. It was actually quite beautiful, with clear water rushing over well-worn rocks. She dipped her hands into the chilly water and took a long, luxurious sip.

  She turned to look up at the mountain. If she didn't get started soon, she'd never make it up there.

  Her arms were still protesting when she turned to grab the first shirt from the nearest basket. She dipped it into the stream, letting the running water dampen it before pulling it out and grabbing the washboard and soap. She wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was doing here but could make an educated guess. She rubbed the bar of soap inside of the shirt and then ran the shirt up and down on the washboard in the stream. As she worked, she became lost in the methodical movements, not stopping until the water ran clear of soap bubbles.

  She held the cold, wet shirt in her hands and was unsure of where to put it. She stood there with the shirt dripping down the front of her dress for a few moments before deciding to just lay the clean clothes out on the riverbed. Shrugging, she worked on two more men's shirts.

  She wondered if she was washing Cefin's clothes, and she supposed his was probably mixed in there somewhere. After all, with him up on the mountain all day protecting the village from a stupid, not-real monster, he probably had no time to worry about trivial things like cleaning his own damned shirts.

  She laid the clean shirt next to the other damp one, and pulled the next thing her fingers landed on out of the basket, a bed sheet. It became heavy when she dunked it in the water, sopping her with more water.

  She worked and thought about bedsheets, and things people do on sheets, and suddenly she was remembering the last time she and Josh slept together, a few days before they broke up. With an annoyed growl, she tried to banish the thought from her head, but it played over and over. She paused in her ministrations over the sheet and sat back, hating herself for the way she still thought about him.

  "Think about something else, Dailey," she whispered to herself. She had more control over her tongue than her mind. "Stupid Cefin and his stupid mountain. Aerona and this stupid laundry."

  "She's talking to herself!"

  Lauren nearly dropped the sheet in the river as the two red-headed imps appeared out of nowhere, bouncing and bobbing along the riverbank. Their faces and hands were dirty, presumably from working with the farmer all morning.

  "What are you two doing here?" Lauren asked, placing the sopping wet sheet on the ground next to Cefin's dripping shirt.

  "Baltes told us to go," Eddy said, dipping his hands into the river and taking a long sip of the water. "Said we's causing more trouble than help!"

  Lauren chuckled; Eddy seemed to have mastered the art of not working. Mairwan, however, promptly plucked the next cloth out of the basket and, with a sisterly smile, began washing it in the stream next to Lauren.

  "Where's the line?" Mairwan asked, looking around.

  "What line?" Lauren asked.

  "The drying line?" Mairwan grinned. "Where are you…" she spotted the shirts lining the ground and began to giggle. "Why are they on the ground?"

  "Where else am I supposed to put them?"

  "You've never done laundry before?"

  "Yes, but in my Maytag," Lauren muttered under her breath.

  "Where's the string?" Mairwan said, digging through the baskets. She procured a ball of twine from one of the baskets and set to stringing it across two nearby trees. Scampering over to the clothes on the ground, she dipped them into the river again, scrubbing them in a matter of seconds, and brought them over to the line.

  "Thanks," Lauren said stupidly. She was being shown up by an eight-year-old and it was a bit embarrassing. Even though she was new to this world, she should have known how to do laundry, at least.

  "You're taking too long," Mairwan said, scrubbing another shirt fast and quick, before standing up and wringing out the suds and dipping it in again. "You'll be here until nightfall!"

  Lauren watched her pick up another cloth with an expertise strange to someone so young. "Do you do this by yourself often?"

  "Aye." She nodded. "But Cefin brings the laundry basket down to the river for me on his way up the mountain." She paused thoughtfully. "I wonder why he didn't bring it for you?"

  "Because he's a son of a bitch," Lauren muttered darkly. "And he's trying to keep me from going up the mountain."

  "Why d'ya want to go up the mountain?" Eddy asked, not helping either of them, but choosing instead to hop on the rocks by the river.

  "Because if I go up there, I might be able to find a way to get home," Lauren said, adding under her breath, "where there are things like washing machines and dryers."

  "Wha's that?" Mairwan asked.

  "Don't worry about it," Lauren didn't want the little girl to know that there existed such a land where shirts could be tossed into a box and cleaned automatically.

  "Cefin's got a good heart," Mairwan said, putting her fifth shirt up on the line, while Lauren still worked on her third garment, a wool dress resembling the one she wore now. "He's just worried about the Anghenfil."

  "Well, it's not like I'm going to go bother it or anything," Lauren replied. "Have you ever seen it?"

  "Nah," Eddy said. "Never got far enough up before Cefin found me."

  "EDWARD!" Aerona's voice echoed across the valley and Eddy nearly slipped into the stream. He turned to face Aerona, who was storming down the road with another basket of laundry against her hip. Lauren was impressed at the ease with which she carried it as she thumped it down next to the other piles.

  "I just had a nice visit with Baltes," Aerona seethed dangerously towards the boy, who had shrunk down to the size of a mouse. "Says that you left to gather water for the potatoes an hour ago and never returned. Says you do this a lot."

  "Aye, Ma," Eddy said, rubbing his hands. "Mairwan wanted to help Lauren—"

  "Mairwan, stay here with Lauren," Aerona ordered. "And these clothes are filthy, do them again."

  Lauren realized with a sour face that Aerona was looking at the ones she had washed.

  "Edward, with me," Aerona said, grabbing the young boy by the arm and dragging him down the path.

  "Here." Mairwan said as she gently helped Lauren scrub the dress. "You gotta scrub harder to get the dirt out of it."

  ***

  If Lauren thought that Aerona was done giving her tasks to do, she was sorely (literally) mistaken the next morning, when she was poked awake by a broomstick, and ordered to help Eddy and Mairwan at Baltes' farm. Lauren saw the look that Aerona gave Eddy and knew this was as much about keeping an eye the little boy as it was about Baltes keeping an eye on her. After sucking down another goopy breakfast of porridge again, she followed the two sleepy children down to the other side of the village, where they were met by the jolly face of the farmer.

  Baltes was middle aged, with skin darkened and leathery from too much sun exposure, and straw-colored hair that was turning gray. He seemed to be a nice man, greeting Eddy with a hearty clap on the shoulder and giving him a good-natured wink about his escaping the day before.

  "And you'll be the empath, yes?" Baltes grinned to Lauren, who yawned and rubbed her sore arms. "Cefin says you've got a mind to head up to the mountain."

  She grimaced and cursed his handsome name.

  "It'll be best to keep that thought out of your head." Baltes smiled at her, clapping her on the back as he had Eddy—

  It's a beautiful morning, and the children better get to the yams now before the sun gets too hot—

  Lauren heard herself take a deep gasp in as she came back into herself. She also realized she was on the ground, looking up at Baltes and the two kids.

  "Ya can't touch her," Mairwan said plainly.

  "Sorry about that, then…" Baltes hel
d out his hand to help her up. After Lauren gave him a look, he retracted it, mumbling something about being thickheaded. She pushed herself to her feet and dusted the dirt off of her dress.

  "So, to the yams?" Lauren asked, ignoring the look of surprise on his face.

  Unfortunately, gardening was about as physically intense as laundry had been the day before. Lauren and the twins crept through the rows of small plants, Baltes pointing out which of the sprouts were the beans or the potatoes and which were the weeds. Lauren's back, still protesting from laundry, was nearly screaming in agony every time she sat up.

  The sun was high overhead when Baltes called them out of the garden to help feed the livestock. The twins seemed unaffected by the work of the morning and raced over to the paddock where an old brown horse was swatting flies with its tail.

  "That's Bessie," Baltes said, patting the horse on the side as he brushed it. "She's an old one but still good enough for farm work."

  "I see," Lauren said. She hadn't actually seen a real horse since she was a kid—and even that was a sad-looking pony at a friend's birthday party. She walked up to the animal and out of habit placed her hand on its hindquarters.

  There is a rock in my foot.

  She lifted her hand, coming back into herself with a quiet sigh. She had almost become used to the way it felt when she touched another living thing, but this…was different. Reading someone like Aerona, or even the children was like diving into a hurricane of thoughts and dreams and feelings. Lauren could barely even remember her own name until she lifted her hand.

  Reading the horse was more akin to sliding into a warm pool. Very matter of fact, very unemotional.

  Lauren touched the horse again to test it out.

  There is a rock in my foot.

  She still had control of her body, she realized, and slowly bent down to the left back leg. The horse lifted its leg showing a rather large pebble wedged in its hoof.

  "Oy! Bet that's hurting!" Baltes said, although she heard him more through the horse than through her own ears. Baltes pulled the rock out with little effort, and relief washed over the horse and filtered into Lauren as well.

  Lauren lifted her hand again, still in a trancelike state from feeling a non-human's thoughts.

  "I've never seen Bessie take a liking to anyone so quickly," Baltes said, tossing the rock away. "You wanna ride her?"

  "Oh, no," Lauren laughed. It was enough to just touch it; she wasn't sure if she could handle reading the horse and riding it at the same time.

  "Mairwan can teach you, can't ya?" Baltes patted the young girl on her strawberry head. "She's the best horse-woman in Rhianu."

  "That's cause I'm the only horse woman in Rhianu." Mairwan stuck her tongue out. But to prove her point, she let Baltes hoist her on top of Bessie. The young girl grabbed onto the mane and kicked at the barrel, pushing the old horse into moving forward.

  "Wow." Lauren smiled, leaning back. "You sure know how to ride that horse, don't you?"

  "I can teach ya!" Mairwan grinned, kicking Bessie into a trot.

  "No, I think I'm okay."

  A voice echoed across the open air. "Don't tell me you're brave enough to face the Anghenfil, but not brave enough to ride Bessie?"

  Lauren looked to the other side of the paddock to see Cefin leaning against the fence. He smirked happily, his spear slung around his back. He waved to Baltes, who was following behind Mairwan and Bessie.

  "What do you want?" Lauren snapped.

  "Checking to see if Aerona and Baltes have worked you long enough that you've forgotten about your foolhardy quest," Cefin said. "Appears so."

  "Aye, dear," Baltes said, patting Bessie on the side. "You'd be best staying here in the village where it's safe."

  But Lauren wasn't listening to the old farmer. Cefin's words were bouncing around in her head, mixing in the soup of too little sleep and too much hard work. Without another word, she marched up to his smug face and slapped him, enjoying the jolt of his shock when their skin touched for a moment.

  "Ow," he said, rubbing his chin. "What was that for?"

  "For being an insufferable dick.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the paddock toward the village. She couldn't stand the sight of Cefin any longer, she couldn't stand to be here anymore. She was becoming emotional, all of her anger from the past few days bubbling to the surface. She was halfway back to the village when she heard Cefin running after her.

  "Now hold on a second," he said, stepping in front of her. "There's no need to be angry with me, I'm just trying—"

  "Do you not understand what it's like for me here?" she cried. "I don't belong here! I have a mom and a dad who are probably worried sick about me! I have people who care about me! And all I want to do is see if there is a chance—a small chance that I could go home. Why is that so hard to understand?"

  Pushed to her limit, the tears burst forth and she began crying into her hands.

  "I just want to go home, Cefin," she sobbed.

  She heard him sigh loudly. "If I take you up the mountain, to where I found you, will it satisfy you and you won't try to go up there alone?"

  Lauren looked up at him, knowing that she must have looked a mess.

  "Yes," she nodded.

  "And if I take you," Cefin said, stepping towards her. He was staring at her with such fierce intensity that she suddenly remembered how damned handsome he was. "And it becomes too dangerous, will you listen to me and return to the village? And you will never speak of it again?"

  Lauren nodded.

  "Then I will take you," he said heavily.

  Relief washed over her as a grin replaced her tears. She couldn't help herself and flung herself at him, wrapping her arms tight.

  She is an idiot, and I'm an idiot for agreeing to go with her. The Anghenfil will kill the both of us. This is going to end badly, I just know it, but she looks so sad—

  "Lauren?" Cefin's voice was far away, but she came back into herself, swaying slightly.

  "Damn this stupid empath thing," Lauren hissed, shaking her head, but unable to shake the uneasiness that Cefin had left in her soul.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Cefin's disquiet was a seed that grew unchecked as the hours passed. Lauren was caught between excitement about the idea and sheer panic about what lay at the top of the mountain. She barely said two words during a raucous dinner with Aerona and the twins, who argued over who pushed who into the river earlier that day. Aerona asked once or twice if Lauren was feeling all right, but Lauren forced a smile and said she was simply tired from working all day. Her old excuse worked on Aerona as well as it had back in Lauren's old world with her friends, and no more was said on the matter.

  The activity quieted down as everyone took to their beds. But Lauren lay awake in the darkness, listening to the rustling of the twins stirring next to their mother while they tried to fall asleep. After a while, everything was quiet—except within her head.

  She'd been so gung-ho about wanting to get up the mountain, that it was the right thing to do. She just knew she'd find something that would help her get home. Cefin's initial reservations about the idea only served to make her more determined and surer of her own plan out of pure stubbornness. But now that all the barriers were down and she was faced with the prospect of actually going up there, she was gripped with a panic that would not subside.

  But after making such a fuss about it all, backing out wasn't really an option.

  She touched the necklace at her chest, the texture of the stone now a source of comfort. She reminded herself why she was doing this, and imagined the sights and sounds of her home and her family. She wanted to sleep in her own bed, she wanted to take a long, hot shower.

  She even told herself that if she made it home, she'd call Josh. The idea made her chest flutter with nerves nearly as bad as thinking about the next day's journey, so she rolled over to try and get some sleep.

  She wasn't sure how late (or early) it was when a sound outside awoke her from her l
ight slumber. She sat up just as a shadow appeared in the doorway—Cefin. He put his finger to his lips, looking over to the bed on the other side of the room. Lauren kicked the blanket off of herself and followed him outside.

  "Now?" she whispered, looking up at the bright moon still overhead. "Why so early?"

  "I don't want anyone to know what we're doing," he said simply, walking towards the edge of the village.

  Lauren didn't argue with him, but she still thought it was odd that he didn't at least want to tell Aerona. Then again, Aerona might try to talk them out of it, so it was probably for the best.

  Lauren walked faster to catch up with him. "Thank you for—"

  "If it gets too dangerous, or if I say we turn around, we turn around. Do you remember your promise?" he snapped, cutting her off.

  "Y-yes," Lauren nodded, taken aback by his gruff tone.

  He grunted and walked faster as she fell behind him. She decided that he had definitely woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

  They passed Cefin's watcher's post and headed higher up the mountain trail. The trees overhead blocked out whatever moonlight was offered, and Lauren found herself tripping and falling every few minutes. Cefin seemed like a panther, tackling the uneven terrain easily. He was either deaf or purposely ignoring her. She assumed it was the latter when he paused while she pulled herself back to her feet after a particularly nasty fall, leaving her palms scratched and bloody.

  "Are you even going to offer to help me?" Lauren hissed to the shadowy figure up ahead.

  "I don't want to cause the empath any discomfort," Cefin replied coolly.

  She scowled at him, not needing her empath sense to know he was just being an asshole. She suddenly wondered why she ever thought him to be cute in the first place.

  They continued walking in silence for a while, until the faint light of the sun could be seen on the edge of the mountain range. The higher they climbed, it seemed the more treacherous the path before them. They encountered a particularly rocky stretch, big boulders that they had to hoist themselves up and over. Lauren was sweating from exertion as she struggled over the first one.