"Well just give me a shout if you need a weapon!" Blake had already understood Gaius's attitude a little better, but he didn't think much about it.
"I will! I am sure you are an incredible blacksmith."
"I wouldn't say that, I only make weapons because I like it. I have no ambition to be a master blacksmith or something like that. Now, I should keep hitting the iron, those weapons will not make themselves, see you, Blake."
"Bye, I'll keep watching a little more." And once Gaius returned to his work area, there was again the typical silence between the nervous Blake and the calm Raven. Not knowing what to do, he decided to continue with his previous apology and fix the misunderstanding from before. "Raven, I'm sorry... I think I said something before that bothered you, if you prefer, I'll leave right now."
Blake was about to leave, but before that, something happened that he would never have imagined.
"Wait..."
"Eh?" That call made him go back in his footsteps and stand in front of Raven again waiting for what she had to say. "Is something wrong?"
"Sorry..."
"Why are you apologizing? I should be the one to apologize."
"No, it was my fault, it's just that..."
"No, I'm sure it was my fault."
"I... I'm sorry..." The situation was quite awkward, the talk seemed like it would turn into an endless loop of apologies and Blake didn't know when would stop all of that.
"Okay, okay, the fault was both of us, let's leave it like that, okay? Since we have both apologized, I think the matter is resolved."
"Seem right..."
"By the way, Raven, I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me?"
"Yes, thanks for the juice from before, it filled me with energy, and it was delicious."
"You're welcome..." Although the talk had gone better this time, the silence between them re-emerged and Blake didn't know what else to say until he remembered what Shara had said earlier. He turned his back to Raven and pulled something out of his inventory.
"Raven... I..." But when he realized what he was trying to do, he got very nervous, he was giving a gift to a girl, he did not remember ever doing it, for obvious reasons, for which he did not know what to say at that moment as he began to tremble a little and his gaze met Raven.
"What's going on?"
"Well... I-I wanted to give you this." What he had given her was one of the toyherbs he got from the field, he remembered that Shara had told him they were a good gift and Raven had a special liking for them.
"Why are you giving me this?"
"I wanted to thank you for the above, besides that you are one of the first people I know in town, so I would like us to be friends and talk more often... I heard from Shara that you like toyherbs, so I thought that it would be a nice gift." Blake could only be embarrassed by what he was saying and watched as Raven stared at the flower in silence until she spoke.
"The smell of the toyherb is relaxing, I really like it... Thank you..." Maybe he imagined it, but at that moment, Blake thought he saw a small smile form on Raven's face as she brought the flower closer to her, and he could only think of something at that moment.
'Pretty.' Blake watched for a few moments until looked away from her, avoiding showing the shame he had on his face. He calmed down a bit and then spoke to her again. "I'm glad you like it."
"Yes..."
"Well then I think I should go, I don't want to bother you while you work, bye, Raven."
"Bye..." Blake said goodbye one last time and walked out the door thinking about where he should go next while Raven kept looking at the little flower in her hands and had a somewhat nostalgic look on her face.
"Friends..."
...
'I think it didn't go wrong after all; it seems that she really liked the gift... Although I still don't know how to handle that silence that is generated between us... I should try to talk a little more with her another time...'
"Crack!!" But before finishing his thoughts, Blake was rammed and thrown heavily to the ground, he felt as if a stampede had run over him. He opened his eyes slowly and could only see how a girl was on top of him.
"Ouch! Hey, can't you see where you stop? There are people running everywhere! I want an apology right now!" Blake felt strange with what he had just heard.
'What should I apologize for? But if you were the one who collided with me.' That he wanted to say, but for some reason, he felt that girl was somehow "dangerous" "Sorry to be standing in the way..."
"You see? It wasn't that difficult, right? Haha, I forgive you, but don't do it again." After the apology, Blake was able to carefully observe the figure of his attacker. She was a girl... Strange, her skin was slightly tanned, she had green hair, in addition to blue eyes like the sea, she wore a sleeveless shirt that made her skin even more visible and in her hands was what seemed to be a fishing rod. "Hey, do you like to fish?!"
That question came out of nowhere and made Blake who was about to follow his path turns his attention back to his assailant.
"To fish?
"Yes, to fish!"
"Uh... I've never done it, but I guess it would be interesting."
"Seriously? That's great!... I never get tired of it, the feeling of the rod in your hands, the force with which the fish pull from it, and the moment they bite and they come out of the water!"
"..." Blake had fallen silent because he really didn't know what to say about that description.
"Oh, sorry, haha. I tend to get carried away when it comes to fishing!"
"You must like it a lot."
"Hehe, yeah! It's a bit embarrassing sometimes!... My name is Carmen, what is yours?"
"I'm Blake, nice to meet you."
"Blake? Nice! Normally I am near the lake, you can come whenever you want, I will teach you a couple of very useful things about fishing."
"Thank you, if I get a rod, I'll go find you."
"That's right! I'll be waiting for you, right now I have to run, see you later." And before she could say goodbye, all that was left of the eccentric fisherwoman was a cloud of dust with an afterimage on her way.
"Sigh... it seems like today will be a long day."
[Progress... Saved.]