Sash had been flabbergasted when she first realised it was the princess she was standing before. But now, walking away from the city, she wished the princess had a bit more backbone. She didn't have anything against the monarchy (which was why she accepted the offer as foot soldier) unlike her fellow old clan members who despised the conditions of all of the rich in the lands. But Sash felt so tired and wished for someone, who wasn't a pile of scum, to break the silence and give her something else to think about than the biting cold of the night.

The landscape of The Pebbles was clifflike with edges of stone pointing out of the ground in random directions, in sizes from as tall as a pinepear to the size of a fully grown man. These cliffs formed in slight groupings and created a hill like formation unlike the one the capital was built on which was a single sharp cliff. And no matter where Sash looked, she always saw the damned tiny pebbles. It was the thing she hated the most in this land.

They had followed a winding path that strayed from the main road, (the main road that lead the city to the capital and vice-versa, that is). Sash had sneaked down this path many times with her barrack mates searching for the taverna hiding among the cliffs. It was a relatively unknown place that had mediocre food and music.

The thought of a hot meal in Sash’s mind, seemed to make the cold even more harsh against her she thought. She prayed a fast prayer towards God in hope to make her more resilient in the cold and dark night.

As Sash was about to open her cold lips to sigh when she heard one of the dark figures next to her speak complainingly "How many bends does this path have left?" It was too dark to know who had said anything and her brain was too stiff and freezing to decide whose voice had spoken.

"We'll see it soon" Sash answered for she knew that the tavern wasn’t that far away from the main road. And so it was for just around the next bend of the almost indistinguishable path, a light appeared from what seemed to be a house not so far away from where they were. Immediately the whole company started to move faster, not being able to wait to get out of the cold.

"Wait." Sash spoke and the rest of the gang turned towards her. With the slight light of the tavern she could almost make out who was who.

"Wear this princess" Sash said as she handed over The White Rose a brown tattered chemise that Sash had been wearing. With weary eyes the White Rose looked at it and reluctantly put it on. Now Sash only had a thin tank top and her pants left as protection towards the cold, but she felt slightly joyful since the princess had accepted her disguise. Now The White Rose looked like a simple seamstress or of some other profession with her white pants and hair rag. "Thanks" The White Rose uttered as they kept on moving towards the homeliness of the tavern. Or at least that’s what Sash thought she heard her say.

Once they reached the porch that had a single oil lamp on it emitting the light that they had seen from afar, they knocked on the thin tin door. Sash could distinguish some sounds from the other side of it.

A plump middle-aged woman opened the door, eyed them quietly and led them to a counter at the end of an airy room with tables packed with food and people eating from it. Once the slightly obese lady was behind the counter Sash told her "Three tacked horses please." The lady viewed all three of them briefly once again and asked, "What kind of payment?" with a rough eastern accent. Sash turned towards The White Rose who was facing the musicians at the end of the room, and gently tugged her hair rag off and handed it to the hostess. The White Rose turned around, surprised that her substitute hair was on the wooden counter.

“Would this work?” Sash asked, pushing the fabric towards the hostess.

"It's made of silk." Sash said as the hostess started to study the textile in her hands, trying to sell it off as well as she could. "Do you see this fine pattern? It is made of experienced hands and the finest materials." Sash stated, hoping that the hostess would believe her. It was not like she was lying anyways. The lady across the counter raised a sceptical eyebrow at her words but kept quiet while fingering the rose pattern.

"Two horses." The lady said as an answer after feeling every crease and furrow of the rag. Her offer was way below what they needed so Sash resorted to bartering. She was not going to share a tiny, underfed pony with another person only to get a sore backside at the end of the day.

"Three horses" Sash responded. "Two horses." She got as an answer.

And so it went back and forth until the guard scum whispered close to her ear: "This is taking too long, just take the damn horses." Sash shoved him frustrated away from her close vicinity with her elbow, before answering to the hostess: "Two horses then. But with some food, tack and clothing." The old lady shrugged, also bored and in need of helping other customers. She whistled for a young stable boy and spoke to him in a foreign language before leading them out of the tavern to a tiny shack where they apparently kept their horses. The lady picked out two meagre horses (with muddy brown and black coloured pelts), saddled them and handed Sash a bag containing some mushrooms, dry meat and tattered wool coats that the stable boy had come in running with. Then she shooed them out claiming that they had already disturbed enough of the peace in her "humble business."

Sash handed out the coats as the guard helped The White Rose on a horse (the black one) and asked the princess if she knew how to ride. She didn't, so he jumped in the saddle right next to her while holding reins for her. Sash felt a twang of jealousy for not being able to ride with the princess, but when she put her trench coat on and sat in the saddle, she immediately felt better.

Sash's horse was a bit feistier than the black one, so she rode in front as they took the path that lead east. The moon had come out properly now from behind the mountains in the shape of a crescent circle. With the natural light Sash could see the others better than before. The White Rose looked a little funny without her hair rag, but Sash kept that thought to herself. She would prefer to keep herself off the princess’s bad side but as far Sash could see she didn’t really have one.

Calmly Sash rode forward touching the horse's side slightly and intwining her fingers in its long mane. Sash enjoyed the feeling of the smooth gait of the horse which tilted the saddle left and right with every stride it took. Up in the trees they didn't have horses so riding one had always felt quite exquisite to Sash. She felt a tiny sting of home sickness which then filled her head up with thoughts of trees and elemental lessons.

"What are your names?" Sash heard The White Rose say from behind her, breaking her train of thoughts along with the silence of the night. Without taking her eyes off the road Sash shouted "Sash!" Then she heard some murmuring behind her before the black horse cantered up next to her. "Is your name really Sash?" The White Rose asked, her eyes gleamed prettily in the moonlight. For half a second Sash forgot what to say in response for her mind stood still. Collecting herself she nodded without really saying anything.

"A bit thuggish." The guard shrugged. Rage boiled in her even though he was technically right. She had picked it off the streets by the border. But she still felt mad at him for embarrassing her in front of The White Rose.

"Tell me yours and we’ll see if it’s any better." Sash answered harshly. She wouldn't let some guard scum get the best of her.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He said coldly yet taunting. Sash had the sudden impulse to push him off his horse but quickly dashed it away. "Yes, actually what is your name?" The White Rose turned towards him, still stunning but slightly nervous looking in the moonlight.

"Cha-el" He answered neutrally but he cast an angry glare in her direction that she gladly returned before cantering in front of them, to get back to the formation that they had before.

The White Rose started converse about how she had been here before but then she had been in her horse drawn mahogany carriage with the windows shuttered. Sash listened and asked questions then and then to keep The White Rose entertained and awake in the night, while the guard simply kept quiet for a change. The White Rose did seem a bit jittery though.

The landscape slowly transformed around them going from tall, jagged and unfriendly cliffs shaped like an angry sea to being more smooth and less extreme. This whole country had a definite lack of plants and greens which at first had made Sash feel so exposed, as if anyone could just see her from miles away, and that there was nothing surrounding her except air. It is true, it's a lonely land with hungry and desperate inhabitants with nothing to live for but the tiny pay they get from working in their great mines, but at least they had taken her in. An outcast was what she was, but at least she was an employed outcast with comrades in the barracks back in the castle. Sash missed them even though she didn’t have any really close friends there.

Sash had to keep her eyes on the road even though it didn't really help that much in the dark, but sooner than anticipated the sun started to peek over the jagged horizon behind them. Sash took off her trench coat after only a few minutes, for the heat started to get too hot for her to bear. Sometimes the sudden change of temperature in The Pebbles had made her sick on patrolling duty a few times, simply since she wasn’t allowed to take her jacket off. Instead she rode with only her thin shirt which felt much cooler.

As Cha-el and The White Rose started to chat lazily Sash started to notice that in between some of the smooth cliffs there were often deep indentures. Some of these had been filled up with rainwater and were now shallow lakes or ponds hiding in the shadows. Sometimes Sash could even glimpse a few dormant black moon crabs or newly awoken orange blossom hummers beneath the water. These were delicacies of the harvest and spring moon festivals Sash recalled.

After a while, The White Rose started to complain about being hungry and thirsty. Sash could also feel hunger gnawing open an emptiness in her stomach that was almost as insufferable as it was annoying. She slowed down her horse to be able to ride side by side with Cha-el’s and The White Rose's black horse. "There's a cliff ahead big enough to give us a bit of shade, so we can rest for a while. There's also a pond next to it where the horses could drink. Should we stop there?"

Both of the riders of the black horse nodded exhaustedly and without complaints. She noticed that both their dark skin was cracking and flaky but the princess's looked worst, unlike Sash's pale skin that only gotten a slightly pink tone from the sun. "Come on, let's canter." Sash declared as she tightened her reins and booted her horse gently in the side. Sash's horse jumped into canter and although the brown horse she was riding was tired Sash kept on urging her on until they came to the big cliff. Then Sash jumped off and led the horse to the pond so that both of them could drink their fill of water. The black horse was somewhat slower and came cantering up a while after Sash had gotten there. Cha-el climbed down the horse and then lifted the White rose down to the stony ground.

The sun was already half ways across its path in the sky and it was insufferably hot. Luckily the pond was under the shade of the quite big cliff, so the water was quite chilly. The White Rose (who looked half dead) walked towards the pond, threw off her shoes and dipped her feet in it. She seemed more laid back after a few seconds in the water.

Sash lead her horse into the shallow pond water (not even five inches deep) to dust off and cool her worn hooves. The horse was obedient and lifted her hooves, to let Sash pick out any pebbles that this land was so famous for. But the fur around the hoof seemed sticky in the water Sash noticed. Sash started to study the fur that the horse seemed to be shedding in the water on her knees. As she brushed the fur with her chapped fingers, she realised what had happened to the wet fur. This horse’s fur wasn't actually brown... It was dyed brown with mud!

But what was the fur's real colour then? The fur was still too muddy to make out what was underneath it. She started to pour water over all of its leg with her cupped hands to wash off the mud.

She heard the guard's voice not far from her "On your knees, as you should be with the company you're with now."

Sash sneered up at him. She was fully aware that she was on her knees in a now slightly brownish pond and she could see the satisfaction on Cha-el's face as he saw her do the dirty work. Sash had the urge to throw some of the brown sludge on her fingers at his boorish face. "Shouldn't you be feeding The White Rose?" Sash countered with a scorning tone. "The food's in my horse's pack by the cliff."

"Yes, yes," He said curtly before walking swiftly away with his head held high. Once again Sash had the impulse to throw mud at the back of his foolish head. Who did he think he was? Promptly Sash kept on scrubbing aggressively around the horse's hoof hoping to make some further discovery.

Eventually, at the top of the horse's leg, some of the strands of fur turned white. At first Sash thought that it might just be a way that the old hostess had scammed her into getting an old horse. But as she kept on scrubbing, more and more of the pelt turned out to be white. This was actually a white horse, she concluded. She was quite confused, for white was the colour for the rich and the royal (one of the reasons the firstborn princess of The Pebbles is called The White Rose). Who would hide the fact that they are of higher class and/or leave their horse at a cheap taverna? Did the hostess even know that this was a white horse? Probably not, for she had seemed like the type to sell such a luxury off for money.

The White Rose approached her from behind, munching on some dry jerky. "That's weird" She said, eyes scrunching up to see it properly from the pebbly shore. Her eyes widened when she realised what it was. "White horses are so rare. What use would you have of disguising it?" She said earnestly.

"Exactly my thoughts." Sash responded, leading the horse back to the shore. The White Rose looked as if she wanted to say something else but instead, she kept quiet and walked away nibbling thoughtfully instead of enthusiastically on her jerky. Cha-el was watering the black horse by the pond so Sash felt comfortable with taking off her wet and muddy pants and letting them dry in the hot sun while chewing on a strip of (what she guessed was) rough sheep jerky.

The brown/white horse stood next to her in the shade with her left back hoof resting. "I think I'll name you for the moment. It's a bit confusing calling you first brown horse and then white horse." Sash said mostly to herself. The horse's ears turned front and back detecting her voice, but it did no other movement. After a bit of thought Sash came up with a fitting name.

"Chimalmat. That will be your name." Sash said once again to no-one but the horse. "It means blessed baby girl. Well... You aren’t really a baby but the blessed part fits." She said with a slight smile to her lips. Chimalmat was the name that her mater and pater had given one of their pet birds (who wasn't either a baby, but that's beside the point). She remembered her pater shifting the wind currents so that the Chimalmat could do tricks in the air. She would laugh herself dry when he would do a trick that made Chimalmat look like she was dancing. But that felt like another lifetime ago that was better left in the past.

Once Sash's pants dried, she put them on and rolled them up to her knees. She walked out of the shade to the guard and The White Rose, whose hair now was loose and less bald looking than before but now took form in fro chunks in whack angles. Sash ignored it and instead walked up to the guard, who was sleeping, and nudged him awake. "Time to leave" She said loudly enough for both of her companions to hear. "Unless we want assassins on our arses we should pack up and get moving."

The guard looked annoyedly at her, but The White Rose said jokingly "Yes, commander" and did a salute. Cha-el looked even more sour after that. Sash started to clear up their prints by evening down the slight indentures in the pebbles around the lake by stepping on the lightly on them with the tip of her shoe. Sash was the only one here (as far as she could see) that had sheep leather shoes which left no noticeable footprints. They were made by and for the military and everyone in the foot soldier’s barracks had a pair for emergencies or simply for work. Sash always used hers for work since they were the only pair of comfortable-enough shoes that actually fit her quite big feet.

Once Sash didn't detect any more prints of neither horse or human shape, she walked to Chimalmat and got ready to mount her. The guard was tacking up the black horse next to her and when Sash was also done with the task of getting her horse ready, she noticed that the flakyness of the guard’s skin had gotten worse. She turned towards the princess and saw similar symptoms on her pearly sienna skin. Up in the trees it wasn't unusual for small children who weren't accustomed to the bright sun to get cracked skin as well.

Once The White Rose came closer to them to mount her horse, Sash walked over to her and Cha-el. "How's your skin?" Sash asked The White Rose nonchalantly.

"Like shit." Cha-el interrupted from left side of the horse, while hooking his scythe in a hoop at the front of the saddle before mounting the now shiny onyx looking horse, who had rolled around in the shallow pond. "I wasn't asking you." Sash responded harshly.

"Well it's very painful" The White Rose said affirmingly whilst fingering her shoulder where the sun had burnt her the hardest.

"Smear some of your spit on it.” Sash said. “It'll soothe the pain but won't stop it from cracking. Don't put water on it for it'll make it worse." Sash informed trying to be casual but inside she felt proud for knowing that piece of information. The White Rose looked at her with surprised eyes as big as moons, but Cha-el just clicked the black horse into a slow walk as he complained "Hurry up."

To Sash's surprise The White Rose walked up to Chimalmat with the half whitewashed legs, and mounted her before spitting in her palm and smearing it on her shoulders with her left hand. Sash just stood on the pebbly ground with the bag with provisions in her hands. What did they expect her to do? Walk?

The White Rose realised and said "I'm sorry..." with big dark glossy eyes in the mid-day sun. "But I would really like to learn how to ride properly now that I think of it. It would be good to know in case of an emergency... Would you mind sitting on the black horse instead?"

Sash didn't respond but instead walked up to the black horse and fastened the bag with provisions in it onto the saddle. Then she managed to swing herself in saddle without touching the rude guard, before turning around so that her back would be against his. She might as well take the role as lookout she thought to herself, while taking a sturdy hold around the end of the saddle with her hands as the black horse started to walk. Once again Chimalmat was in the front so Sash had a clear view of the road behind them.

"Take off your scythe, it's poking me in the back" Cha-el whispered to her from in front. Sash jabbed him in the ribs from behind with her elbow and snickered when she heard him release a whimper, but out of common remorse she still slipped off her scythe from her back and hooked it in the loop next to the Cha-el's. After that no-one spoke for a while.

The road winded into a tinier path after they passed a crossroad with a few weather bitten signs that pointed towards the different borders. Since the riverbanks were east, they headed in the direction that the sign that said “Ost border” pointed in.

The teeny path crossed through big stones/boulders for they had left the cliff county behind them. The stones were flat and shaped like the pebbles the country was named after although the only properly sized pebbles here were those that the path consisted of.

Sash now with nothing to do, (except to get on Cha-el's nerves on purpose but that was like annoying a brick a.k.a. no response) started to try and reach down inside herself just like she had been taught by the lesser masters in their treehouses. When she got a slight grip on it, she focused on the dirt on the pebbles and eventually the dirt started to pile up on the pebbles after the horses had walked over them, concealing their tracks. Sash became proud knowing that she was still able to use what she had learned such a long time ago. When was the last time she had used her knowledges? Two or three months ago, Sash remembered, and it was to blow out a candle. Sash laughed internally at the ridiculousness of that.

Up ahead she heard The White Rose shout back at them "We're at the border!" Sash turned around and looked across Cha-el's shoulder to see what all the commotion was about. Cha-el's mouth was hanging open and so was Sash's when she saw the great silhouettes of the dusky blue mountains just above the horizon. They really had reached the border.

End of chapter three.