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Start of a routine

When Mary looked at everyone who worked to set up camp, she once again felt guilty for not helping. She just stood there next to Tariana talking to Kopa and Nihal. Mary turned to Mildy.

“Is there anything I can do? I feel like I’m just in the way” she said. Mildy smiled at her and nodded because she knew what Mary meant. Then she seemed to think for a moment before speaking to one of the grey-clad women.

“Mary this is Sinhera, she’d appreciate it if you could help her with the distribution of the packs” Mildy said. Mary greeted the unknown woman who looked to be a couple of years older than Mary.

Like most people, she was dressed in dark grey riding pants, a lighter grey tunic, and a grey robe. Her hair was dark and lay in a long braid along her back. Her eyes were brown and full of energy.

Mary followed her towards the storage carts.

“We are responsible for organizing, packing and then distributing all personal equipment” Sinhera explained as they walked.

“Every company has a wagon, and the Lady, and her closest companion have one as well. There are four wagons in total.” Mary nodded to show that she was listening.

“Every wagon has the corners painted in a specific color” Sinhera continued, and Mary noticed that four of the wagons in the large cluster of storage wagons had corners painted in yellow, blue, green, and white.

“On each wagon are the belongings of the corresponding group of people. The white is the easiest, it belongs to the Lady and her company. There are different chests and trunks, easy to tell the difference. That wagon almost takes care of itself. Those who carry out the packs already know where the different things on that cart belong. We just make sure it’s packed properly.” Mary nodded again.

“The other waggons contain all the packs that belong to the riders, they are standard issued and look pretty much the same. But each pack has a skin patch sewn at the top.” They had reached the yellow waggon and Sinhera pulled down a pack to show Mary. Indeed, it had a leather patch sewn clearly visible at the top.

“The top symbol shows which campfire the person belongs to. Each company has three fires, round, square and triangle. The next symbol stands for the degree within each company the owner has. A line for private, stars for officers. Lastly there is a personal mark that is unique” Mary nodded again and realized the simplicity of the system.

“The packs are handled as follows. At each wagon there are two of us. One who’s down here and one who’s on the wagon. The person who needs their pack will go to the person standing on the ground and state their sequels of symbols. The person on the ground calls the sequel to the person on the wagon who pulls out the correct pack and passes it down to the person on the ground who double-checks that the sequel is correct and gives it to its owner,” Sinhera continued.

“I usually work with Colan but he managed to cut his hand the other night so right now I could use some help. Do you think you can stand up on the wagon and hand me the packs?” she asked Mary.

Mary was just happy to be able to be helpful and nodded before she climbed onto the waggon a little uncertainly.

It wasn’t long before the first person came in need of a pack. Mary was a little worried at first that she would be working too slowly. But soon she had picked up the pace.

She noticed that Sinhera had probably had to pack the waggon by herself in the morning, there was a lack of a real system in how the packs were stored. Mary concluded that it would have been something completely different if Sinhera had received help.

When the last pack left the wagon, the camp was almost completely set up. Sinhera helped Mary down from the wagon and thanked her for her help.

“I would have gone crazy if I had had to do everything myself,” she said. Mary smiled a little.

“It’s nice to be able to be helpful”, she replied and then saw that Kopa stood a bit away and waited for her. She apologized and approached him.

“You did good work” he said.

“Thank you,” Mary replied, smiling.

“I was going to ask if you’d like to join in my round today as well.”

“Please wait so I can tell the …, Tariana,” Mary said correcting herself, and hurried off to tell her that Kopa was taking her along on his round so that Tariana would not have to worry about Mary.

Mary received a smile in response from Tariana and soon Mary went with Kopa and to talk to the different groups. This time no presentation was needed, some of the men and women even recognized her because she helped them bring out their pack from the yellow waggon.

While walking from one small grou to another, Kopa questioned her on the new words and phrases she had learned during the day. This time she accompanied him for his entire round, and then they went together to eat supper with the others in Tariana’s and Mary’s tents.

As the previous evening, the conversation seemed to be about the trip and which route was safest and shortest. When Mary was sure everyone had eaten their food and it was okay for her to leave the table, she went to sit down at Tariana’s desk and started adding new words and phrases to her list.

After a while, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and Mary turned around to discover that Tariana had left the table and come over to her.

“What are you writing, my friend?” she asked.

“A list of the new words I’m learning, so I can practice them,” Mary said, holding out the paper. “But I can’t spell them, so I’ll write them as they sound,” she said with a frown. Tariana read through the list in amazement.

“We don’t use the same alphabet as you do in Domne” she told Mary.

“You don’t?” Mary was surprised, she had thought there was only one way to write.

“No, but this is a very good attempt to write the words you’ve learned. If you want, I can teach you how to write them in our language,” Tariana offered. Mary nodded eagerly, so Tariana picked up a chair for herself and sat down next to Mary.

“I think you can start on a new list” she told Mary. Mary was hesitant, it felt like a waste of paper.

“Don’t worry about the paper, we’ve got plenty of it,” Tariana said as if she had read Mary’s thoughts again.

“If you start on a new list, I will first write on my own paper how the word is written in our letters. Then you can write it on your list, then you can write it in common writing, so you know how to read it and last what the word is in common, does that sound good?” she asked Mary.

Mary nodded and they started. Mary had to concentrate hard to succeed in emulating the beautiful writing that appeared on Tariana’s paper. While Tariana was writing, she explained the different signs.

Mary realized that it was a more fluid way of writing, it looked like long waves instead of individual letters. When they finished the list, Mary was clearly pleased. Her words were far from perfect, but Tariana assured her that it was fully legible.

When they joined the others, the topic of conversation had changed and now they were talking about the weather. Apparently, it seemed like it would continue to be chilly, but the others didn’t think they would get any snow.

Mary was grateful for that. It wasn’t long before they retired to sleep. Mary crawled down under the blanket and pelt, whispering her prayer and falling asleep almost right away.

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