XVII-2 Adventure
Rose?" Sussie looked uncomfortable, standing in the doorway. Rose looked up from the book she was reading, keeping her finger at the word she stopped. "DoyouwanttocomecampingwithmeandKarel?" Sussie said in one breath, stringing the words together in an almost incomprehensible stream.
"Yes, that sounds like fun. Where are we going?" Rose answered after she slowed down Sussie's message in her head. "To Germany! Around the castle Burg Linn, is a flax market with all kinds of fabrics; linen, cotton, leather, wool, felt, silk most of them traditionally made, in ALLL the colours, and sewing supplies, as well as other medieval stuff. I want to get some more things for my sewing projects and just look what they have." Sussie exploded in to an excited rant.
"And after that we can go to another castle, or actually it's a ruin called Frauenberg, but the woods around it are supposedly very pretty so if we park to this town I now forgot the name off we can hike there in something like three days."
"Sussie, I've never been camping, nor hiking. I'm not even sure what the last one is. I guess I need a tent and other camping stuff?" Rose interrupted Sussie when she finally stopped to take a breath.
"Oh.. I promise you'll like it! Don't worry, I'll arrange the camping gear." And with that Sussie ran off through the corridor of the castle, leaving Rose mildly surprised, but excited.
"Dad? He is your father?" Rose asked surprised.
"Yeah, foster dad, I grew up with his family in Fryslân." Sussie responded.
"Hello Captain Oak, good to see you again." Pieter-Jan Egberink greeted Rose.
"CAPTAIN?!" Sussie and Karel shouted out surprised together.
"Commodore" Rose greeted Pieter-Jan back with a nod.
"I gather they don't know?"
Rose shook her head with a slight smile.
"It's your story to tell." Pieter-Jan turned back to Sussie. "You can trust miss Oak."
"What was your dad doing here? And why didn't he stay for dinner?" Karel asked. "He brought the camping gear we'll need. And he had to go to do something for his work. Rose how do you know my dad?" Sussie answered. "I danced with him once at a party." Rose answered. "And why did he call you captain." Karel added. Rose looked up. "Please don't ask me that again."
"My father dances?"
"He's quite a good dancer actually."
Sussie was sitting uncomfortably on the wooden chair in the corridor. Her feet just didn't make it to the slab stone floor, and kicking her skirt had already become boring minutes ago. The rungs of the back had begon to be uncomfortable in her back. The Magistrate had forbidden her to go on the camping trip. She had said that Sussie's school results were not good enough for that. Well, the magistrate was not entirely wrong in that.. But it was quite unfair as it was holiday time, and Sussie had actually finished all her projects. And with most of the tests still to come, she had argued she had plenty of time to catch up. But the magistrate had put her foot down, or so she had said. Rose had become angry when Sussie told her and had marched down the castle's halls to the office of the Magistrate. Through the closed door, Sussie could make out the voice of the magistrate, which had become louder and angrier over time. Rose didn't appear to be shouting back though.
Sussie shot up in her chair when the door of the office suddenly flew open. Rose stepped out and first looked like she would slam the door closed, but at the last moment held herself and pushed it close at an almost normal speed. "Let's go, we're going camping. One day I'll kill that vixen."
"James can we take the Volvo on our camping trip, or do you need it soon?" Sussie asked. "I don't need it now, nor tomorrow. I never know what the upper bees have in their mind for the future, but we have enough cars. You can take the Volvo."
Not wishing to push their won dispute with the Magistrate, the trio had decided to leave the castle as soon as possible, pulling their departure day forward.
"Catch!" Karel shouted while he tossed the car keys to Rose. "You can drive first." Seemingly effortlessly, Rose caught the keys and then tossed them back. "I'm sorry Karel, I can't." Karel missed the catch, and while picking them up from the courtyard. "What do you mean you can't?". "I don't know how to drive a car, and I don't have a license to do so." Rose admitted. "But Sussie can't drive either, wait is this why you two asked me along, to be your chauffeur?" Karel responded with a fake upset tone. "No silly, it's because I want my big brother to have a fun holiday too." Sussie said with a smile and gave him a smack on his cheek.
"ANTI-SHOTGUN!" Sussie shouted, while she ran to the car, her long light blue skirts flying around her legs.
"What?" Rose asked surprised.
"Shotgun is when you want to sit in the forward passenger seat." Karel explained.
"yeah I know that, silly. Never heard about an Anti-shotgun before."
"She's claiming the back seat."
"Whe're with just us three. What is stopping Sussie and me from leaving you in the front alone?"
Karel actually looked a bit sad after that response from Rose.
After quickly packing the car. All their stuff easily fit in the trunk of the big Volvo station wagon. And half an hour later, the trio were driving down the highway going south. Luckily for them, James gave them the car with a full tank so they wouldn't have to stop for fuel first.
"I can see up your skirt, Sussie!" Shouted Karel suddenly while he was eyeing the rearview mirror. "No you can't! My skirts are way too long, you can't trick me with that." Came Sussie's muffled reply. Rose looked over to the back couch and saw Sussie sitting with on her knees on the back couch leaning over the back rumbling in their luggage. SUSSIE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! Get your ass back on your seat and fasten that seatbelt. Are you absolutely insane?! You don't go climbing around in a driving car!"
Karel looked at Rose, glanced in his mirror, and back to Rose. “You didn't need to be such a Bitch about it."
A few miles further, Karel pulled into a picnic spot. "Time for lunch. But first I need to visit the toilets." He announced when he parked the Volvo next to a free picnic table. In silence, Rose and Sussie grabbed the food stuff and set opposite each other at the table.
"Do you know why the commodore called me captain?" Rose asked. Sussie didn't answer, but at least she looked at Rose now instead of staring blankly at something over her shoulder. "I met your dad at The Victory Ball after the ABC War." Rose hesitated, looked over to the toillet block on the otherside of the picknick area, Karel wasn't insight. "I was the captain of the pirate ship that resqued the Zr.Ms. Willem Barentsz."
-"I heard about that." Sussie responded with interest. "As the captain, I was responsible for the safety of the crew, and the ship. I had to take care of them all, make sure they did their job rightly. I cannot turn that off. It became a part of my personality. And as a captain of pirates, I had to be hard. I'm sorry you got to experience me like that."
-"But Karel can drive very well."
"He might, but can you say the same about all the other people on the road?"
-"I guess not.."
"Please don't tell Karel what I just told you."
When Karel came back, he spread out the map on the picnic table between the food they had taken out. "So we are here" He said between taking bites of a raisin bun. "and need to go here. We could follow the highway, but I think that's boring, and want to propose that we go sightseeing."
"Fine with me, I like to see pretty things." Sussie responded. Karel looked at Rose, who shrugged. "I don't mind, seeing the countryside is nicer than the highway, that's for sure. But why don't you use your phone to make a route?"
“Pfft where is the fun in that? I know how to read a map."
When they were packing up, Susie whispered to Rose "We are not where Karel pointed."
"I saw, and neither do we need to go where he pointed."
"Better visit the bathroom here then, while we still can."
"Any objections to some music?" Sussie asked, but she was already unpacking her violin, and before Rose or Karel could answer the question, the bow was on the strings and the car filled with music. Rose was trying to keep an eye on the road signs and place names they passed, as she was sure Karel was still not going where they actually needed to go. But she tried to not say anything.
Karel steered the car off the small road that was unpaved. "Are you sure we need to go this way?" It was Sussie who spoke first. "Yes, we have to go over this hill and then we are on a paved road again. And then we're almost there." Karel had barely finished his sentence or the path the Volvo was bouncing about on, ended in a muddy mess and then spread into three directions, no pavement in sight.
"You were saying?" Rose said.
"Shut up."
"There is no harm in admitting you made a wrong turn." Rose tried politically
"Or just say we're completely lost." Sussie pointed out more bluntly.
"Let’s check the map." Karel said while folding it out over the steering wheel. "We went from here, to here and then I wanted to make this turn". "I'm sorry Karel," Rose interrupted, "But we passed this village, and then that town, we just left road 12 here." Rose pointed to a place on the map, the edge of the map. Quite the distance away from where Karel was pointing.
There was a moment of silence, "I think, you're right." Karel admitted.
"Give me the map, and try to see if we can get back out of here. I don't think should try to go through that muddy puddle." Rose took the map from Karel, folded it in a more handsome way, and started directing Karel along the countryside roads. And just before nightfall they arrived at the campsite.
They had spent three nights at this first site, exploring the village a bit, and taking it easy. Happy to be away from Doorwerth Castle, and a change of pace. Now it was time to pack up and move to the campsite near Burg Linn, and the market. Because of their hasty departure, it wasn't open yet. This time Karel didn't get lost, and in the afternoon they had their tent pitched and had a look at the Burg, it was a smaller castle then Doorwerth, of a different design, apparently it had been ruined before and was rebuilt in the 20th century, and had a bit of a fantasy flair to it. If you'd ask a child to draw a castle, you got what the Burg looked like.
There weren't many other campers yet, and the field they were on was almost empty. The manager had said they were allowed to make a small fire and Karel had delightfully pulled a shovel out of the Volvo and taken a few sods of grass out of the field, and was now attempting to light a fire, it wasn't going well. Everytime he had a small flame it went out again. Rose and Sussie were sitting on the otherside, giving helpfull advice and tips.
"If you know so well, then why don't you do it." And with those words he tossed the box of matches to Sussie, who couldn't react fast enough so the small cardboard box bounced off her forehead in a comically cartoonish fashion. "Ow. you didn't have to trow it at my head." Sussie gathered the small box from among the grass, and pulled a knife out of her pocket, expertly cutting curling shavings of one of the pieces of Wood. A minute or so later, she had two hands full of the curls and she rearranged the pieces of wood in the small fire pit, a big log on the bottom, the curls and small sticks on top and two bigger pieces of wood on top of that. She lit one match and placed it among the wood shavings. A crackling sound soon rose from the pile of wood, and carefully she placed more branches and logs around the flames. The fire had caught on, and she tossed the box of matches back to Karel. "You're welcome brother."
The market was amazing. There were more vendors than Sussie had expected, and she was happily buying fabrics and ribbons and buttons, chatting with the people in the market stalls about the finer aspects of sewing. Michael would know what it was all about, Rose suddenly thought. With a spark of pain, the memories of her old crew made her uneasy. Rose had lost Karel and Sussie, and wondered the market alone. There was a weapons seller, but she didn't like the sabres he had. They weren't bad. But hers was just better, even though she had it not with her now, it was still in the storage locker she had rented before she got arrested, might be time to go collect its contents.
Rose her eyes were caught by the sign, 'flag fabric' it said. Flag fabric. Rose first dismissed the idea, but then walked back to the stand. "What kind of colours do you have for the flag fabric?" Rose asked.
-"All of them, what are you looking for?" The vendor returned.
"Black, with white and red."
-"Like a pirate flag? I got some pieces of black cut to flag sizes here." The vendor started turning over piles of fabric, and then showed Rose, some bare black flags, with the ribbon already attached to the side for connecting it to the flag hoist. "I got it in most standard flag sizes, one by one and a half. Twenty by Thirty. Oh, and even one of two by three meters."
"I like the two by three meters." Rose answered.
-"And then you wanted some white and red. As flags or to make designs for on the black base?"
"To make designs, the red only covers the top corner, but the white is quite big going diagonal." Rose described her wishes.
-The vendor nodded and cut some pieces of a bright red fabric and a large swath of white. "Do you want thread with this as well? I have thread that is the same as the fabric, with matching colours."
"Yes please" Rose answered, not even haven thought about thread before she was asked about it.
It was the second day of the market. Sussie was still looking at sewing supplies after filling up half of the Volvo already. But being more picky with her choices now. Karel and Rose were mostly hanging around, trying out some of the foods and drinks, and enjoying the performances that were on the stage.
Sussie was wondering around alone now. She'd left Karel and Rose and was looking over at the armourer's booth. She wanted to get Karel a gift. After already got Rose something nice earlier. A knife? A sword? Would Karel like that? When her eyes fell on a crossbow, now that was a marvellous idea! She picked one that was not too big, and could be loaded with a tool the seller called a goats foot.
"I"m sorry miss, but I have to ask to see your passport. I can't sell to a minor. I'm sorry but I have to ask."
"No problem at all." Sussie had seen the policeman that was on the other table looking at knifes too. She dug around in her bag for her passport, and handed it over to the seller.
"Ah that's okay." The seller said, and then he looked again at her passport. "Jvr? Jungfrau?" He asked. Sussie nodded in confirmation. "But mylady, then I cannot sell you this, it is not good enough. Please wait." Surpised, Sussie watched as the seller moved some boxes around behind the counter and pulled out a similar sized bow. "This, please take this one."
"I'm sorry, but what is the difference?" Sussie carefully asked.
"That" The seller pointed to the first one, "is a toy. This is a work of art. The bow is a special alloy spring steel, the same strength, but it moves faster. The bow is much better balanced, so it will shoot straight. The bow string is reinforced at the notch, the stock is carved by hand and not engraved by a machine. It's just a much better bow."
While the seller pointed out one after another difference, Sussie could not deny that the other even looked like the better option.
""Hey brother, you organised a fine barbeque."Sussie called out to Karel. They had gathered a dozen people around the fire on this last day of the market. Everybody was happily chatting with each other, friends for the night. Tomorrow, they'd all go their separate ways. Or most of them. Alonzo, and the couple Seti and Puck, would accompany them on their hike to the Frauenberg castle ruin.
Rose didn't mind Seti and Puck. They were friendly and good spirited, but Alonzo was kind of annoying, but she would endure him as it looked like Karel made a friend in him, somehow.
Rose woke up to a smacking sound. It was sometime early in the morning, not completely dark anymore, but not yet light either. After blinking her eyes a few times, she could see quite well inside the dim tent. Leaning on one elbow, she looked over Sussie, who lay with her back to her, and saw that she was sucking her thumb. On the other side of Sussie, Karel was awake and watching. “If you ever say this to anyone, I will hurt you.” She whispered to Karel. Rose carefully pulled the thumb out of Sussie's mouth, who responded by hugging Rose's arm and moving closer to Rose. Not entirely dissatisfied with the new situation, Rose made herself comfortable, and dozed off again, with her arm around Sussie. Soon after, the smacking started again softly.
The six of them had parked the cars near a small field at the edge of the forest, they had left the market early in the morning, and were now with their backpacks with camping gear underway trough the forest, it should be two days to the ruin. And Rose was already silently swearing at the fact that she agreed to this. Why wasn't she on the deck of a ship? The trees, she hadn't noticed before, but they came so close to the paths the group took. Also there were so many of them, and the darkness between them frightened her. On some stretches of the path, she couldn't even see the sky. The leaves hid the sun from them. But it appeared she was the only one feeling like that. Sussie was basically skipping in front of her. Seti and Puck were happily chatting about some rare bird they had seen. Alonzo and Karel were in the back. Karel had once again got tricked by his own desire to prove he was a man and had taken both the tent and the cooking gear in his backpack.
"Look how lovely!" Sussie shouted out. She was the first to arrive at the top, the ruins scattered around the hilltop, with grass growing in between the old stones. "At least we have a place to pitch the tents here."Seti laughed. The first night in the woods had been a bit of a problem. The space between the trees had not really been enough. Sussie, Rose and Karel had the biggest tent, and had it squeezed in between four threes, with the trunks pushing into the tent fabric. Rose had been tired enough to sleep anyway, and Sussie loved it all, regardless. Karel had complained about tree roots in his back. Same as Seti and Puck, who had woken up in the middle of the night as their tent was being explored by a family of squirrels.
They had arrived early enough at the ruins to enjoy some sunshine, to lounge around in the grass, and explore the remains. They happily made up stories on what might have happened to the castle, what all spaces would've been used for, and set up their tents on what once might have been the courtyard. With a small fire, they heated up sausages from tins held on sticks above the flames. Alonzo tried to flirt with Rose again, but she ignored him, happy to talk with Puck and Sussie on what it would be like to be mothers, while Karel and Seti were in a deep technical conversation about cars, that was almost theological.
The way down the mountain was easier. Rose didn't know if that was due to the fact they were going down, or if that she had got used to being in the woods. She still felt uneasy among the dark trees. But they were taking a different route this time, and managed to find a more suitable spot to pitch their tents. Having made it very late among the ruins, they didn't bother with a fire here, and all went to bed early. It was still quite the hike to the cars.
"I'm really happy you two agreed to come with me on this trip." Sussie said after they had all settled into their sleeping bags. Rose and Karel mumbled some agreement noices. "Maybe next time we could do something you pick." Sussie said to no-one in particular. Rose chose not to respond, but she thought about the ocean and sailing a small boat, Karel and Sussie did fit that image, but on the background she saw her old Pirate crew.
Seti and Puck had packed and said their goodbyes after they'd come back to the cars. The rest of them decided to spend one more night. Sussie didn't know where Alonzo had to go after, but they liked a bit more rest before they drove back to Doorwerth.
Rose turned pale, Sussie saw it, white as milk perfectly reflecting the flames of their campfire, Karel happily to continue to chat with Alonzo. Sussie thought back on what Alonzo had just said. She hadn't been paying much attention, but something about Rhodes, ah, Knights of Rhodes. Well, what were they? Rose, her complection had returned to a normal colour. "All okay Rose?" Sussie asked, and when Rosie looked up at Sussie her eyes shocked her, for a second it was as if Sussie stared straight into the soul of the devil, then Rose blinked and it was gone. "yeah, I'm good."
Karel got up, "I need a moment." As he walked off into the darkness. Alonzo's attention shifted to Rose. "Rosa, are you enjoying the evening?" To Sussie's surprise, Rose turned from the strong woman she got to know into a giggly girl who blushed in her neck as she whispered things in Alonzo's ear. When Karel came back, he observed the scene for a second and then went to sit on the other side of their campfire, sulking, and complaining about the smoke.
A while later, Rose got up, excused herself and walked towards the darkness of the forest. Alonzo grinned and ran after her. "Fucking Bitch" Karel muttered, which prompted Sussie to kick his legs, a bit harder than she intended. "You don't exactly make it worthwhile for her to pick you, brother." Sussie crawled into their tent to grab something, "What do you mean by that? Sussie? What do you mean?!"
"Shut up Karel, go get the shovel from the car, and follow them into the woods." Sussie came out of the tent holding the small crossbow she bought at the fair and a dagger. As she threw a black cloak around her bright dress she walked into the same direction as she had seen Rose and Alonzo disappear.
"Sussie?"
"The. Sho-vel." She whispered back.
Rose yelped and spun around when she felt his hands catch her waist. Alonzo pushed her against a tree, the rough bark and a broken branch were poking in her back. First, he kissed her on her cheek, but Rose turned her head away from his searching lips. "Lets get a bit further away, I don't want them to hear us." She said, while over his shoulder she could still make out the glow of their small campfire.
Fuck where did they go? Sussie was staring into the dark, looking for moving shadows among the dark trees. A laugh, whispered voices and the breaking of branches to her left gave away their location, and with careful steps she chased the sounds. Behind her she heard the Volvo honk when the doors got locked remotely,I guess Karel finally found the shovel.
Rose found herself on her back on a comfy matrass of forest moss. Alonzo's left hand was sliding up her thigh, pushing under her skirt. His right had her hands pinned above her head. Rose was just thinking about how to move into a better position when Alonzo's hand stopped his exploration and suddenly grabbed her around her neck. "I don't like that." Rose protested. "I don't care, because I do." And he tightened his grip. Rose tried to struggle, but he had her pinned down good. As a last option, she wrapped her legs around Alonzo's waist and squeezed, hard. It worked. Alonzo grunted and let go of her hands to punch her in the chest. Freeing her hands. She grabbed one of his ears and pulled hard. Prompting him to let go of her neck. "You picked the wrong pirate to play with, knight." Alonzo laughed, "oh this just got much better. What's your name, love?" A struggle followed, a punch, a kick, more punches, biting, but Alonzo was stronger, and this was a fair fight. Rose realised she wasn't going to win this one. Fuck.
Sussie waited for Karel to catch up and set the crossbow by feeling around. The sound had gone, or actually there were too many sounds, all kinds of forest night life just decided that they needed to move leaves, bite branches, squeak, scream or howl at this very moment. Even the trees seemed to moan in the wind. Where did Rose go?
Alonzo was bleeding from his nose, his shirt was ripped to pieces. Multiple bite marks showed on his left arm. But he was sitting on top of Rose, with her hands pinned above her head again. A knife resting on her neck. Her face was already swelling and showing blue from where the punches had landed. "I just told your friend I was a knight. Why did you go into the woods with me?". "To kill you." Rose managed to say through her bleeding lips. "Well that failed spectacularly, Now what is your name?" Rose hesitated for a moment, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, but by giving him her name, maybe someone would someday find out what happened to her. "Rosalind Abigail Oak, Pirate Captain of the Sunset Dawn." Alonzo's eyes grew wide. He knew that name. He wanted to say something when the clouds moved across the sky and the moon shone down on them.
Tsjungk.
Alonzo suddenly went limp, he fell down on her chest, a warm liquid spread throughout her shirt. Shaking, Rose looked down. An arrow had pierced Alonzo’s skull, going in on the right, coming out bloody on the left.
Sussie suddenly spotted Alonzo to her right in a clearing in the woods, lighted up by the moon as if it was a theatre spotlight. She was not even three meters away from them, but would've walked right past in the darkness. Without thinking, she had lifted up the crossbow and shot away the bolt, the snapping of the string seemed awfully loud in the forest, and all the sounds the wood and its inhabitants made just before was gone, the world went completely silent for a second.
Karel flicked on his flashlight. The sight of Alonzo made Sussie sick. "Well, now I know why I had to get the shovel. Guess I'll start digging then" Karel pulled the now dead body of Rose and pushed his shovel into the soft forest floor. "Can you walk?" Sussie asked rose, whom only moaned as she tried to sit up. With Rose leaning on Sussie, they struggled back to their campsite.
Sussie had first brought Rose to the creek that ran behind their tent, where she made Rose strip off her blood-soaked clothes and washed her with the stone cold water from the creek. She just finished bandaging some of Rose's wounds by to the fire, when Karel came back. Without words, he pushed a bundle of Alonzo's clothes into the fire, and loaded some more logs on top.
Rose woke up on the backseat of the Volvo. When she peered out of the window, they were driving down a main road. Karel was driving and Sussie was asleep in the passenger seat. When Rose groaned as she tried to sit up, Karel looked into the rear-view mirror. "Two hours more and we'll be at another campsite. I called the Magistrate, saying we're extending our trip because it's too much fun. Can't bring you back all black and blue."
Rose laid back down. It hurt everywhere. "Did you actually call the magistrate? And the witch agreed?" Rose asked after she had realised what Karel had said.
"Well actually I talked to James. He said he would pass on the message, and then I turned my phone off." He answered back.
"HA! ow that hurts"
"Wait what did you do with Alonzo's camping gear?" Rose asked.
With her eyes still closed, Sussie answered; "We burned it all, and then took the ashes and unburned things in a trash bag and dumped that in a trash can an hour back. You've been sleeping all the time."
"We did save this, though. Maybe you know what it is." Karel said, as he held his hand out to Rose, and dropped a necklace in her hand, the hanger was a small shield painted in the coat of arms of the Knights of Rhodes.
"I know." Rose answered.
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