About six days ago, she had set out from her humble farm house in Bad Aisling with a cart full of pumbles and sippa berries bound for Old Rose Harbor. Once she had delivered these to a buyer in Trader’s Market, she made her own investment and purchased some plants that might earn her back some money in Vienda. All of this had been planned out to hide the true purpose of her visit to the Rose.
Recently, the Resistance had finally given Raelin the chance to prove her worth to them. Based on her current trade and skillset, she had been given the task of transporting a fugitive. Most details of the situation were not relayed to her, as she had not yet earned the full trust of the freedom fighters and she dared not ask. She was inwardly excited to be chosen for this part in their operations, and had no intention of ruining her big chance to enter the rebellion by asking too many questions. She even made sure to say very little to the fugitive the short amount of times they had spoken on this trip. Answers would come as she gained more of the freedom fighters’ confidence. All of her focus was on safely delivering their cargo to her homestead in Bad Aisling until they could be moved to another safe house.
Her cart now carried crates of potted middero and rainbow ivy, which she had covered with a canvas tarp to keep the plants from drowning. Not her normal choice of product, but close enough to her area of expertise and worth the camouflage. And though the tarp covered the entire cart well, Raelin had reasoned that it was highly possible she would be searched at some point on the road by officials or even thugs. It was better to give prying eyes something to see, or else the cart might be at risk.
The decorative plants sat on the false floor of the cart, beneath which was a hidden compartment. Locke installed the false floor herself in her barn in secret shortly after offering her services to the Resistance. It was difficult to find just the right dimensions – big enough to fit most cargo, but also small enough to keep the cart from looking suspicious. Her labors paid off, and the result was an average looking, poor human’s cart with the capability to smuggle an array of items…or people.
Admittedly, it was not a comfortable fit, but long enough for a person to lie flat on their back. Raelin had tried to help the poor girl by laying blankets on the bottom of the compartment back in Old Rose, but she knew this provided very little relief. After all, the trip was four days long by carriage, and this wretched weather was not making the trip shorter. The only real relief either of the young women had felt was at night when they stopped to camp in the darkness. It was nearing the end of the second day, and Bad Aisling was still at least two more days way. Raelin had strategically set her horse, Bruce to a pace that was slow enough to not raise suspicions of passers-by, but fast enough to make her deadline. At least Bruce seemed comfortable in this weather, with his bulky frame and extra fur around his hooves. Even in this weather, he pulled the full cart with relative ease.
Still, Locke was uneasy about making it back to Bad Aisling within the time limit set by the Resistance. A tinge of anxiety made Raelin sigh through her nose. At this rate both the young women would arrive in Bad Aisling with a mean case of pneumonia. She pulled the hood of her cloak lower over her face and shifted in her seat in an effort to lessen the stiffness in her limbs. She hoped her stowaway would forgive her for the deplorable conditions in which they were traveling.