Translated From Sarconian Scout

Jasper had thought that he knew what great amounts of mud had looked like, but know he realized that he hadn't.  The squelching sound that the two unicorn's hooves made in it became familiar, and Jonathan and Jasper tuned them out, now alert to the other sounds around them.  They soon came upon the tracks of a raiding party.  

"They're headed for Black Bow Scout Station," said Jonathan.   The boys rose from where they had looked at the tracks, jumped into the saddle, and galloped to help defend the station. 

The station appeared to be locked down as they came in sight of it, the porch railing barricaded with tables, hay bales, and logs and shutters clamped over the windows.  A few dead raiders lay on the steps and over the railing.  No smoke rose from the chimney; the fire had been put out so that the Aranara would not be able to smoke out the people who had taken refuge in the sturdy log station.  Already there was a fierce exchange of arrows as the Aranara sought to overwhelm the station.  Arrows hissed from small slits in the shutters, most of them finding their targets.  Jasper glanced at Jonathan, wondering what they would do.  A dash to the house would be suicide, he knew, or at least so he thought.  Jasper didn't know what Jonathan was thinking about doing.

"We'll leave the unicorns here," said Jonathan.  He dismounted and grabbed his saddlebags, slinging them over one shoulder.  Jasper followed his mentor's lead, wondering that this was coming to.  They moved silently through the forest to a clump of trees, which they climbed.  Once they were in position, they started shooting at the Aranara who were trying to approach the house.  Arrows came in their direction in return but the boys ignored them, trusting their mud-stained cloaks to hide them, at least to an extent. 

Slowly, the raiding party retreated, drawing back beyond bow-shot and into the trees.  Jonathan and Jasper went back to their unicorns and rode swiftly towards the station, not knowing when the Aranara would return. When they got to the station, they put the unicorns in the stable and knocked on the arrow-pierced door.  Once Jonathan had identified himself, they were allowed in to the gloomy interior of the station.

Like most Scout Stations, the front door of Black Bow Station led into the main room.  Most of the time, there were tables and chairs and a store counter, behind which were supplies and weapons.  Inside Black Bow however, the tables had been pushed back and the chairs were stacked on top of each other.  There was blood on the floor from those who had been shot when arrows would come into the station through the arrow-slits in the shutters.  One Scout was dead, and five others were wounded.  Jonathan and Jasper went to empty places next to a window and carefully used a small mirror to look outside.  The Aranara were coming back, and they had reinforcements. 

This battle was much more intense than the first.  The sun began to go down, and the fighting did not terminate.  The Aranara made their camp just out of bowshot and watched the station from afar, blocking in the defenders.  The people inside the station conferred with each other and decided to try a night raid.  Before Jasper could even figure out how he had been chosen to be on the raiding party, he was slipping out of the door with four other Scouts and creeping up on the sleeping Aranara. 

They hit hard and fast in the darkness, slipping away before the raiders could gather themselves, regrouping in the forest, and striking again. There were more Aranara than they had reckoned on, and they did not creep back to the station until almost dawn.  The station-master's wife gave them food to eat, and Jasper went back to his post by the window with Jonathan.

Jonathan glanced over at Jasper.  "You did well last night."

"Did I?" asked Jasper shyly.

"You did," said Jonathan.  "You can move very quietly for one so inexperienced."

"Well," said Jasper, "I think that one moves quieter when they know their life depends on it."

"You are quite right," said Jonathan, smiling grimly. 

The fracas continued all day and into the night before the Aranara finally gave up.  The station was madness during that time.  Jasper got a small cut on his cheek when an arrow came though his slit and grazed him, but otherwise he was unharmed.  When the skirmish was finally over,  Jasper wrapped himself in his blanket and half-fell to the floor, fast asleep before he had even stretched out. 

Jonathan awakened him a few hours later.  "Come on, Jasper.  We've got to trail these villains and make sure that they don't catch anyone else by surprise."

 

Jasper slogged along the trail next to Thunder, skimming the tracks one moment and the edge of the road the next.  His eyes were rarely still, but they felt heavy, like there were rocks on them.  He staggered, caught himself, and went on a few more paces before he went to sleep on his feet and fell full-length in the mud of the trail.   This woke him up quite abruptly.

"Four days of tracking can take alot out of you, Jasi," said Jonathan.  "It'll get easier after a while, though."

"Uhhhh,"Jasper moaned, rolling over.  "They'll never see us coming, Thane," he said dryly.

"Of course not,' said Jonathan.  "We blend in with the mud too well.  We'll just hunker down under our cloaks and pretend that we're rocks."

It would work, Jasper realized, as their cloaks were spattered with mud.  He found a tolerably clean place on the cloak, wiped the mud from his face, and plodded along next to Jonathan.  They and the other Scouts were tracking and harassing the Aranara raiding parties, who had at last come into one large group for safety.  They were headed back towards Aranar now, tired of the night raids and constant presence of the Scouts.  They reached the border that night.  The Aranara vanished into their own country, and the Scouts camped together - a group fifteen strong.  Jonathan and Jasper finished their duties the next day and returned to the north, proceeding to White Rocks Scout Station.

When Jonathan pointed out White Rocks Scout Station, Jasper was stunned.  It looked like little more than a huge heap of  enormous white rocks.  They rode up into it, dismounted, and entered a cave.  It was then that Jasper realized that the entire station was underground.  They rode down a tunnel and were met by the station master's daughter who promptly flung up her hands at their appearance.  As a station master's daughter, however, she had seen far more gruesome things than two boys covered in mud and quickly took control of the situation, sending them off to the bath-house to wash off the layers of mud and change into clean clothes, telling them that if they tossed their muddy clothes outside the room, she would pick them up and see that they were washed.  Even Jonathan, who was used to a rough life, was dirtier than he was used to feeling at the end of a week; Jasper was dirtier than he had ever felt in is life, and so neither of them was inclined to argue over the subject of bathing.

They emerged from the bath-house half-an-hour later, scrubbed from head to toe and dressed in clean clothes.  Jasper's overall opinion of station-master's wives was that they behaved very much like mothers.  This opinion was bolstered by the fluttering station-mistress at White Rocks who would not let either boy sit down to eat until she had assured herself that they had washed behind their ears. 

The chicken casserole (the first hot food that they'd had in days) was beyond wonderful in their eyes.  The station-master's daughter served them as much as they wanted and loyally kept their mugs filled with cool lemonade.  Jonathan's eyes followed the girl almost non-stop.  

Jasper, eating in silence, watched the change that crept over his mentor with amusement.  The station-master's daughter moved easily about the room, tending to the needs of the various persons there, but she could obviously feel Jonathan's eyes on her and turned away from her tasks every now and then to look over at him.  Whenever she did this, Jonathan would look as if his attention was occupied elsewhere, but as soon as she looked away, he would resume watching her.  Then it happened - Jonathan didn't look away fast enough, and their eyes met.  Jasper stifled a laugh and choked on his food, for Jonathan's ears were turning red.  The girl's eyes sparkled with silent laughter for a moment, then she turned away and continued in her duties.

 

That night, Jasper realized that Jonathan was not in the room.  Soft voices drifted from the hallway.

"Why did you blush, Thane?  The way my mother gossips, everyone who's gone through the station since your last visit knows that we are exchanging letters, and you are seeing me whenever you can."

"I suppose so, Justyne, but  you know that this is a little awkward."

A laugh.  "Awkward, Jonathan?  How?"

"Well, I hardly ever see you."  Jasper sat up in surprise at the tone of Jonathan's voice.  It was almost agonized.  "I'm only around here once a month at the most.  It's not a proper courtship."

"Tush, Thane," said Justyne.  "I'm a station-master's daughter.  This is as good as courtship gets for me."  The tone of her voice changed.  "I...I suppose you'll be leaving tomorrow?"

"No," said Jonathan.  "This is Jasper's first mission, and he's exhausted.  And you're...here...obviously.  Those are reasons enough for me to stick around for a few days."

Justyne laughed again and said goodnight to Jonathan.  Jasper quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep as Jonathan stepped back into the room.

"Possum," Jonathan whispered in Jasper's ear, swinging up head level with the top bunk.

Jasper opened one eye and grinned.  "You could do worse," he said, referring to Jonathan's budding courtship.

Jonathan playfully pulled a fistful of Jasper's hair, then dropped back to the lower bunk with a  happy sigh.