Washcloths, a Chibera story -5minutefreewrite (but really longer than that)

For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-336-5-minute-freewrite-thursday-prompt-washcloths

I'm writing a story set in the Chibera world. With each entry, I grow more and more excited about Chibera. Here's the story so far:
Prologue, The World Tree:
https://steemit.com/chibera/@improv/chibera-the-world-tree-s-call
Chapter 1, Inkpot:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/door-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 2, Shabron:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/kit-5minutefreewrite-wcnh32z4
Chapter 3, Holly:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/visit-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 4, Shalgarth:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/dragon-breath-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 5, Pumpkin:
https://steemit.com/chibera/@improv/pumpkin-a-chibera-story
Chapter 6, Shabron:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/death-on-the-table-a-chibera-story-5minutefreewrite-500-words-really

The road was nothing more than beaten dirt between high grasses. Cadlen couldn't imagine that they weren't lost, but he hadn't a clue how any direction but forward and backward were viable. Holly kept striding forth, her arms swinging comfortably and loosely by her side. Gah, she's so CONFIDENT Cadlen thought. He felt the pommel and hilt of her dagger. She kept insisting that it was still hers but not taking it back. She'd gotten him far enough from Holbruth that he wasn't sure he could find his way back, even though it had just been this one dirt road the entire way. Something about how the world looked different, all open grasslands and no trees to give you familiar landmarks, made him feel as lost as if he'd been climbing a willow tree and found himself among the branches of a spruce.

Anyways, he was a little glad that she had tricked him. As a Whydah, he'd never been sure if the people raising him really thought of him as their son, or if they were just being polite. As a small child, he'd not even really known. After all, these people fed him and kept him safe. But when he reach 8 years old, the humans he'd called his parents sat him down and told him that they'd found him one day in their crib. He would have realized on his own someday, of course. He had a penchant for long jackets, and a habit of borrowing without asking and returning things threefold in value. Complicated traits, that somehow all Whydah's shared. His voice also never deepened through puberty. But in that moment, when they told him, he was crushed. Holly never made him feel bad, and she treated him like her little brother. Why she was okay leaving behind her folks, he couldn't fathom, but she was more family to him than they from that day forth, in his mind at least.

"Look!" Holly pointed with both hands, as if presenting a magnificent cake. Cadlen looked down the long dirt path that led away from everything he knew. A long puffy cloud was all that broke the horizon.

He said, "Oh, yeah, sure." not sure at all if he should express the same enthusiasm for a long puffy cloud that Holly apparently felt.

Holly looked at him. "Cadlen. That's smoke from a chimney. There's a building up there."

Oh. thought Cadlen. Now at least the enthusiasm made sense, but he was even less sure if he shared it. At least being lost was familiar. Would Holly expect him to be clever or to to to to... He took a deep breath as his thoughts threatened to overwhelm him, and said out loud, "Yeah, I know. Sure."

Holly shook her head, smiled back at him, and then let her grin broaden until all her teeth were showing. "Race you." She grabbed a handful of seeds off the top of the nearest grasses, stuffed them in her mouth, and took off.

Cadlen, caught flat-footed, sprang after her. His thoughts stopped racing as his feet took him faster even than Holly. He passed her, put his head down and plunged forward. Before he could even think about looking back, he heard a horse whinny, and he stopped. Looking up, he saw a Shadland, a horsehair line running from a pearapple tree to a horse hitch that didn't bother to have the equine hitched to it covered in wet washcloths, and a cottage with a cheery little chimney puffing white smoke.

Holly, breathing harder than Cadlen, gasped, "The back. Our path led to the back. Ha. We're going in Cadlen, so do it before you get nervous again."

Photos taken by me.

Also for https://steemit.com/chibera/@chibera/chibera-tell-us-about-characters-story-usd200-in-rewards