Escape from the Witch Hunters

"There we are!" Ryia bit the thread and tied it into a knot.

"Finally!" Gillian muttered.

Ryia rolled her eyes at him and held the dress up. "Do you have any leather strips I could have?"

"Why?" he raised an eyebrow.

"You'll see." she grinned back.

He unlatched his satchel and started pulling out a long string of black leather and handed it to her. "I still don't understand why you need it for a dress."

Ryia laughed and shook her head. "You wouldn’t."

Gillian groaned again. "How much longer is this going to take?"

"I'm almost done, so stop your bellyaching." she chastened.

He mumbled something before becoming silent.

In, she pulled the leather through a hole the size of a button, out. She pushed it through another opening and kept criss-crossing the laces all the way down to the bottom.

"There. All done." she smiled satisfactorily. "Now, is my back healed enough for me to put this on? Or will I get blood on the dress?"

Gillian's ears perked up at the word done and he sat up from his reclined position. "Let me see." he crawled on all fours until he was close enough to Ryia.

He carefully untied them and unbound her back. "Hmm." the pungent smell of old medicine mixed with stale skin met their noses.

"Is it alright?" Ryia looked back at him.

"It's starting to scar over but they could possibly be opened again." he shrugged. "You should be fine."

Then he grinned. "And if the wounds do open up, the blood will match your dress."

Ryia scowled. "I don't plan on ruining this dress."

Gillian shrugged indifferently. "Well, you're probably safe. They shouldn't open up unless you do some strenuous exercising. Which I don't think you will."

"Good." she got to her feet. "I'm going to change, so turn your back."

He turned around and she wiggled out of her clothes and putting on her scarlet dress and trying to tighten the laces.

“Gillian.” she frowned. “I can’t tie the laces.”

“What’s that mean?” he was glad that she couldn’t see his peachy colored face.

She didn’t say anything for a minute. “Can you help me please?”

He turned around to see her slim frame in the red dress, filling it out much better than he had, the material falling gracefully from her waist, the leather lacing up the back of the dress, causing the material to gently hug her.

“Gillian?” she asked again.

Gillian shook his head to clear his mind and his fingers grabbed hold of the strings tightening them. “Is this too tight?” he asked.

“No.” she shook her head.

He tied them at the bottom, letting the ends hang.

“Thank you.” she turned around to see Gillian looking at her dress. “Does it look alright?” she looked self consciously down at her dress.

“No,” Gillian shook his head. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had never seen anyone look so good in a dress before, “you look fine.”

Ryia blushed and looked at the ground. "We can go to the village now."

"Right." he grabbed his blanket, rolled it up, and put it on Red.

He swung up onto Red and offered his hand to Ryia. She took it and carefully tried to get her leg over Red before hopping back down on the ground.

"I can't do it with a dress, unless I sit side saddle or hike my dress up." she almost pouted.

Gillian pursed his lips for a moment. "Just sit side saddle in front of me. It'll be uncomfortable, but you won't fall off."

Ryia looked skeptically up at Red. "Oh. Right."

She took his hand once more and got onto Red, sitting side saddle this time.

Gillian's arms wrapped around her small body and grabbed the reigns.

Ryia could feel her face flush. Stop it! It was going to be a very long and uncomfortable horse ride.

They trotted down the dirt packed road, every once in awhile a wagon would pass them and stirring up bits of dust.

"What's the story?" Gillian spoke up.

"What story?" she furrowed her eyebrows.

"We can't travel like this with no story." he explained.

"Oh." she paused. "Um, could we be brother and sister."

Gillian snorted. "I have dark hair, blue eyes, and I'm tall. You have light hair, mismatched eyes, and you're," he paused for a minute, as if evaluating his next words, "short. I don't think many people would believe that."

"Well when you put it that way..." she sighed. "Could you be my father?"

Gillian's eyebrows shot up. "I never thought I looked that old." his mouth twitched.

She pursed her lips. "Um...what does that leave us with?"

"We'll have to be a couple." he told her.

Ryia's eyes got wide. "A what?"

Gillian rolled his eyes. "A couple. Don't looked so horrified. It'll only be for a day or so. At least until we move on."

She nodded but her eyes were still just as wide. "Right."

They continued in an awkward silence.

Soon a small but bustling village came into view, displaying carts with different varieties of colorful scarves, shawls, and plain cut material, carts with canned berry jams and jellies, carts piled high with this and that, fur pelts, recently laid eggs, hot pies, and fresh cakes.

The smells wafted into Ryia's nose, making her mouth water.

They continued down middle of the road, bypassing every stand until they got to the heart of the village where they could see a variety store, an inn, a letter drop off, and a law office.

Gillian stopped Red in front of the variety store, hopping off the horse before helping Ryia down and walking inside.

Tiny bells chimed, signalling the arrival of Gillian and Ryia.

A short, round woman came out of the back room and smiled, causing the edge of her eyes to crinkle. "Good day to you good sir," she turned to Ryia, "and to you my lady."

Ryia shifted uncomfortably and stealthily made her way behind Gillian's back.

"I'm here to get a new knife." he told the woman.

"Alright." she bubbled, opened one of the display cases and grabbed a knife. "Is this the type of knife you'd be looking for?" she didn't wait for an answer and took it out of its leather casing. "It's about twenty five sovereigns, but it's great quality. Why would you be needing a knife, if I may be so bold as to ask."

Gillian discreetly rolled his eyes at the woman's chatter. "We were traveling and my hunting knife broke so I needed a new one."

He pulled out his money bag, prepared to pay for the knife.

"So you two are married, eh?" she grinned, showing her crooked teeth.

Gillian blushed. "Um uhhuh." he stumbled over his words.

"Where are your rings then?" she pryed.

Gillian looked stumped and so Ryia interjected. "I have my ring," she pulled hers out of her dress pocket, "but he doesn't have his because, well...you see, my family didn't aprove of his family, so we had to run away. My parents gave me my ring when I was little, but he hasn't been able to get his yet, and we aren't quite married yet, but will be soon."

"Oh!" the woman's eyes filled with compassion. "You poor dears. Let me help you. John! John dear!" she called to the back room. "Come quickly! And bring that silver ring we were talking about with you!"

A thin man stumbled out of the back room. "Eh? A ring? What you be wanting a ring for?"

The woman whacked the poor man's ear and went into the back room for a minute, then reappeared with a ring.

"This young couple have been wantin' to get married but haven't had the means. We could surely help them a little." she looked fondly at him.

"Help them what?" he turned his ear to her mouth.

"Help them get married!" she yelled in his ear.

Gillian and Ryia looked at each other in horror. "Ma'am, it isn't necessary, we can just go-"

"No!" the woman protested. "John and I will help you. Here." she handed Gillian the silver ring. "No charge since you two make a lovely couple and John and I love helping young lovers."

"Excuse us, we need to talk this over." she dragged Gillian over to a corner and looked at Gillian with a look. "Do we tell them the truth?"

Gillian shook his head slightly. "That would be even worse." he whispered. "They wouldn't let us travel together if we weren't married."

"Couldn't one of us go out to the woods, and then the next day the other one would meet them?" she pleaded.

Gillian frowned, disappointed that she was so against the idea of getting married, even though he didn't necessarily like it himself. "No. I'm not leaving you, and you are not leaving me. We have to stay together."

Ryia frowned as well. "What are we going to do?"

"You didn’t have a," he grimaced, "you didn't have a husband, did you?"

"No," she answered then paused for a minute before continuing, "you didn't have a sweetheart back home, did you?"

He scoffed. "Hardly. I wouldn't marry anyone in my village for ten thousand sovereigns."

She sighed.

He hunched slightly. "We'll have to go through with it, but once you get to Carenthia then I'll just leave and we’ll just hope that you and I never fall in love with anyone." he looked into her eyes. “You won’t, will you?”

She nodded. She wouldn't fall in love with anyone else. She was sure of that. "I won’t."

What have I gotten myself into? she was horrified at how the events of the day kept getting worse. More importantly, what have I gotten Gillian into?

They walked back over to the expectant older couple. "Okay."

"Great!" the lady grinned and started to drag Gillian and Ryia out the door towards the law office.

Ryia's eyes grew as big as saucers and she turned to Gillian. "I can't go in there."

"Shh. They probably don't know about you. Not yet anyway. Don't worry." he grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"What's your names?" the woman turned to Gillian and Ryia.

"I'm Gillian, and this is Ryia." he told her.

"Ahh." she nodded and opened the door to the law office. "We have a couple that need to be married, Matthew!"

Ryia hugged Gillian's arm.

A younger man with blonde hair was sitting at a desk looking over some papers. "What's that, Bessie? A couple wanting to be married?" he looked behind Bessie and John at Gillian and Ryia.

Gillian and Ryia nodded.

He stood up. "Let's get it over with then. What're your names?"

"Gillian McCormack." he told Matthew.

Ryia searched her brain frantically for a last name. "I'm Ryia Mugglesworth."

Gillian gave Ryia a funny look as if to say, Why Mugglesworth?

"Take eachother's hands." Matthew told them.

Gilliana and Ryia faced each other and held loosely onto eachother's hands.

"Gillian McCormack, will you protect this woman, care for her, tend to her needs, and love for as long as you shall live?"

Gillian looked at Ryia regretfully agreeing to keep promises that he couldn’t keep. "I will."

"Ryia," Matthew winced visibly, "Mugglesworth, will you honor this man, help him when he needs help, do what he tells you-as long as it he isn't abusive- and love him as long as you shall live?"

She looked at Gillian. I would do anything he asked of me. "I will."

"The rings." Matthew looked expectantly at them.

Ryia pulled hers out and gave it to Gillian.

Bessie handed Ryia the ring for Gillian.

"Put the ring on her finger." he motioned to Gillian.

Gillian's rough hand held hers as he put her ring on her finger.

Matthew nodded to Ryia. "Put the ring on his finger."

She put the ring on Gillian's finger. Surprisingly, it fit almost perfectly. It wouldn't slip off, but it wasn't hard to get on.

"I pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Gillian McCormack." Matthew stated and Bessie erupted into cheers while John just stood there, probably wondering what was being said.

"You may kiss the bride." Matthew stood there patiently as if it were the most normal thing to ask.

Only it was a very normal thing.

"Do I have to?" Gillian frowned.

Matthew gave Gillian a look. "You don’t want to?” Gillian didn’t answer. Matthew just shook his head. “Technically, no, but tradition calls for it. It is, as some would say, the sealing of the deal."

Gillian scrunched his nose for a minute before a smug smile overcame his features. He held up Ryia's hand and pressed his lips to her delicate fingers.

The contact sent chills through Ryia's body.

Bessie rolled her eyes and muttered something that Ryia supposed to be, "shy couple," but she wasn't sure.

How did this day turn out to be so wrong? she gazed into his blue eyes. If only they had been married for love.