Chloë by Marcus LaGrone Page A

barely.  You can’t make a living
teaching two dance classes a week.  You need to comb your fur, straighten
your ears, and get out there and look for what you want to do for
work.   You need to find out what your calling is and embrace
it.  With that in mind…”
    “Oh,
crap…”
    “Yes,
Heather?  Did you have something to say?”
    “No,
Mother,” sighed Heather, “I’m sorry I interrupted.”
    “Very
well then.  As I was saying: your cousin Ellis has agreed to take you in
for two weeks or so at her inn there in Edmundshire.  It is a much larger
town than here and there would be a lot more opportunities to find another
teacher or someone to apprentice with.”
    “Two
weeks?” asked a truly flustered Heather.
    “With
as much idle time as you’ve had lately, I should imagine the time will fly by,”
replied Maria with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
    “I
know I need to be looking harder, but Edmundshire?”
    “It’s
only a half day travel, you’ll do fine.”
    “It’s
not the travel…,” murmured Heather.  “What of Chloë?” she asked as she
looked for an out. “I mean the poor girl’s just gotten here; it wouldn’t be
right just to go off and leave her at this point.”
    “I
could go with you,” offered Chloë as she stepped into the threshold of the
room.  She caught Maria’s eyes and apologized, “I’m sorry to have been
listening in, ma’am.  I was just trying to find Heather and I didn’t want
to interrupt.”
    Maria
smiled broadly, “No, that’s fine.  I’m just glad you are willing to stick
up for Heather.”
    “That’s
what friends do, ma’am,” replied Chloë evenly.
    “Ugh,
stop with the ‘ma’am’ already,” grinned Maria.  “Both of you, go, back to
the kitchen and eat breakfast.  We’ll talk more of this once you two have
eaten.”
    Heather,
happy for the release, bolted from the room grabbing Chloë’s hand as she rushed
past. “Girl, you didn’t have to do that.  I’m pretty sure I could have
talked Dad into letting me stay here.”
    “Uh,
no,” laughed Chloë.  “At this point I think your father’s entire attention
span is devoted to Moira.”
    “Males,”
groused Heather melodramatically before she grinned back. “Yeah, but you are
probably right.  That and I guess I am just prolonging the inevitable.”
    “Is
Edmundshire that bad?” asked Chloë.
    “Nah. 
It’s a fun place to visit.  It’s just the idea of looking for a new
teacher to apprentice under that just makes me want to paint my fur blue.”
    “And
you have such a lovely coat!  Wouldn’t want that!” laughed Chloë. 
“Oh my word!” blurted Chloë suddenly. “I just realized that not only did I
volunteer myself, I also imposed on your cousin Ellis.”
    “Oop! 
I didn’t think about that either,” remarked Heather.  “Maybe…”
    “Maybe
Ellis won’t mind since it is the slow season and we are picking up the tab for
your meals anyway,” interjected Maria over their shoulders.  “You will
have to work harder than that to escape!”

9            
     
     
    Chloë
giggled as she tried on her backpack, “I’ve never gone on a trip like this
before.  So it is a half day trip to Edmundshire?  It looked pretty
far on the map.”
    “Well
it is about a two hour walk to the river.  From there we catch a barge and
float the rest of the way down to the city.  The good part is that it
means we will only have to lug these packs for those first few hours,” replied
Heather.
    “I
thought the river flowed south?” asked Chloë a little confused.
    “It
does,” grinned Heather cryptically.
    “And
Edmundshire is to the north… So are we skipping out and going to another town?”
asked Chloë fairly bewildered.
     Heather
laughed, “No, not really.  There is a Gatehouse in the town to the south
that connects directly to Edmundshire there in the north.  Thus we can
either walk six hours north over rough terrain, or take a casual float