Free The Fire and the Fog by David Alloggia Page A

she
grinned ferociously and drew out old as mockingly as humanly
possible before she too jumped onto Erris bed in a slow tackle.
    ‘Nooooo lemme sleep’ Erris tried to mumble,
but she knew when she was defeated. Still trapped in her blankets,
with a sister hugging her on either side, she gave up. Uttering a
final, muffled noise of complaint as she tucked her head into her
covers, Erris cocooned and lay still. She regretted the loss of
extra sleep, but, after a minute or so of warm hug from her
sisters, decided that maybe birthdays weren’t so bad after all.
     
    ***
     
    Time passed; hours filled with waking, food,
chores. Hours filled with a mounting excitement. The hours passed,
and finally Erris’ family was on the road. The morning chores had
been finished quickly; the animals were milked, fed, and ensconced
safely in their pens while Johan senior hitched Marmot to the
wagon. For the two hours since then Erris, her mother and father
and brothers and sisters, had all been either been walking
alongside or riding on the wagon, while fields of golden wheat
passed slowly by on either side.
    Erris had started out on top of the wagon, in
part to read the new historical text she had been given by her
father for her birthday, in part to keep her nice summer dress as
clean from the dirt and dust of the road as possible. It was a
pretty dress after all, white and hemmed with nice blue needlework.
It came down just past her knees, which left her feeling much more
free than her regular work trousers, but the neckline wasn’t low
enough for it to seem risqué.
    Time had worn on that morning though, and
concerns for her dress had lost the battle to the jostle and bounce
of the wagon, the noise of her siblings, and the dryness of her new
book. The wagon jumped with every dip and rise in the road, and the
crates of salted pork and sacks of flour jumped with it. Joahn and
Boll argued constantly, ignoring any ultimatums delivered from her
parents. And her new book, a historical text with an intricate,
blow by blow accounting of the political strife and turmoil between
Dheme and Dhome over the past century, was dry. So it was that noon
found Erris walking alongside Marmot, kicking lazily at passing
clumps of dirt with her heavy leather shoes, unconcerned about the
fine brown dust that was slowly settling onto the bottom of her
dress.
    Not that the story of Dheme and Dhome wasn’t
interesting. Two democracies at the very eastern edge of the
continent sharing everything, from religion to currency to their
capital city, yet hating each other, was just strange. It was also
confusing. Erris didn’t understand why they had chosen names so
close to Dohm, the name of the continent, or why they had named the
two halves of the capital city they shared after each other. The
capital city was split by a river, and Dheme's half was named
Dhome, and Dhome's half was named Dheme. There was even an island
in between the two cities, and it housed both the countries
governments. At the same time. They even shared the same
legislature, each country getting half of the chamber. It was just
madness, and it sounded incredibly confusing. Confusing and
interesting. Erris decided she needed to concentrate on reading
it.
    Her family had broken off into little groups
a while ago. Joahn was bothering Boll with little girls’ games in
the back of the wagon, Boll trying his best to ignore her and
failing, while Omah, Yolan and Serah sat, heads together on the
wagons front seat, whispering in hushed tones. Erris was sure she
heard occasional giggles coming from her older sisters, but
couldn’t concern herself to join them, even if there had been room
on the front of the wagon. Her father, Jayke and Johan were walking
ahead of the wagon, her father laughing loudly and frequently with
an arm draped over Jayke's shoulder.
    This left Erris alone with Marmot, to walk
and think. Her father had given her the history text for her
birthday, and she knew she would enjoy it