Green Means Go

The revelation of indoor plumbing and water sourced directly to people’s homes was the talk of the village for over a week. It was a pleasant change of pace for Kyle; usually he was the topic of conversation, along with a Mad Libs with blanks for ‘new girl at his cottage’ and whatever activity they’d seen and wildly misinterpreted.

One would be forgiven for thinking of peasants as the uncleaned and unwashed masses. The truth was they did bathe. It wasn’t daily and they’d normally use water sources like nearby streams, but they understood that cleanliness led to a healthier life.

The new developments had at least helped smooth things over between Kyle and the bandits. They’d toed the line up to that point if only because they valued not having their heads punched down into their rib cage, courtesy of Fiona. After experiencing a hot shower for the first time, Benny was the lone holdout who didn’t at least give Kyle a begrudging nod.

Today’s routine was broken, by of all people, Francis. He’d called for Kyle after a hard day of work and asked to meet him at his cottage for a private conversation.

That was where Kyle got the news: between the tractor, the horses the women had brought from town, and everything else, the village was ahead enough on its work that it could bear to send Kyle on his quest to see the Prince with horses for the journey.

Kyle thought the news would’ve excited everyone. But apart from the brigands themselves, the reaction from Abagail, Kari, and Fiona was quite muted. They said they were happy to start but even Kyle could tell that their hearts weren’t in it. This was what most of them wanted, apart from Fiona – why weren’t they more excited?

“Like I said,” Kyle explained to the women, “It’s half a day’s walk through the forest to get to Trunsit, and then three or four days by horse to Castle Zoroman. If we don’t have any trouble, you won’t even spend a week on the road.”

The three women all looked at each other, contemplating something without words before Kari stared at the ground. After a long pause, Abagail spoke first. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go through the forest.”

Kyle blinked hard at that suggestion. “There’s no reason for us not to go through the forest. The normal road winds through the hills, it takes an extra day and a half.”

“What about the dangers of the forest?”

“You mean,” Kyle pointed out, thumbing at Fiona, “the bandits who are now escorting us?”

Fiona moved next to Kyle and gently put a large hand on his shoulder. “Trust me. There are worse things in that forest that I was scaring off. Without me, they might try to take a bite out of our dear princess. Isn’t that right, Kari?”

Kari looked at the two women, confused but quickly nodding. “Y-Yes, I would much prefer not to risk any further danger in the forest.”

Kyle didn’t understand it. “It’s just as dangerous going through the hills as it would be going through the forest.”

“Let’s take a vote on it then,” said Abagail. “All those who’d prefer to take the extra time through the hills?” Her own hand immediately raised. Fiona’s shot up not long after.

When Kari’s went up, Fiona grinned. “You’re outvoted three to one, Kyle. We’re taking the scenic route.”

----

“It doesn’t make sense.”

Office Kyle kept repeating that to themselves as they enjoyed an evening beer and watched the sun set.

“Why would they want to take longer,” asked Office Kyle, “if there’s no difference in how safe the paths are?”

Peasant Kyle wasn’t sure. “Maybe they want to go the long way.”

Office Kyle rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but why? That just means more chances to be in danger!”

“Search us,” said Peasant Kyle. “They like taking in the scenery?”

Real Kyle didn’t buy that for a second. “They’ve got to have a better reason. Kari’s supposed to get married to Prince Demerius.”

“She didn’t look happy when she learned what he had done to our village when we were kids,” Peasant Kyle pointed out. "Or to Fiona."

That was true. She’d been understanding up to now, waiting for Kyle to get the say-so to escort her to the Prince and not pushing to speed things up.

Real Kyle shook that off. “Abagail’s been wanting the money from the jump to rebuild her house.”

“She’s a witch,” replied Peasant Kyle. “She hasn’t been pounding the table and demanding the money. If anything, she’s been putting it off.”

That… was also true. “If she really needed the money,” Office Kyle admitted, “she’s a witch. There must be a ton of easier ways to earn some scratch than hitting up a deadbeat peasant.”

Real Kyle waved that off, too. “Fiona… okay, if she’s serious about the fiancé thing, wouldn’t she want us all to herself as soon as possible? Why would she be fine putting this off?”

Neither Office Kyle nor Peasant Kyle had any guesses.

“You two are no help sometimes,” groaned Real Kyle. “And now I’m out of beer.”

Tomorrow would be the start of their trek to Castle Zoroman. It sounded easy enough. Get there safe, get in, hand over the Princess, strike a deal to save the village, and then figure out a career that wasn’t farm work. Being good at it from a lifetime doing it didn't make him want to do it forever.

He looked at his glass again and sighed. One to cap the night off sounded a good idea. The push to prolong the trip had put him in a strange mood. Heck, for a reason he couldn’t put his finger on, he was fine with taking the long way around.

And if he couldn’t understand why he was comfortable going the long way, what hope did he have of understanding why the women he’d been living with did?