Simone's cooking was improving. Even Shayn couldn't deny it now. She'd managed to make a passable venison roast after Walter had shot and cleaned a deer while scouting ahead for the little expedition.
Victoria had praised it as if it were the best meal she'd ever had, and Walter and Kyler were similarly encouraging. Shayn merely grunted his approval, but had seconds.
He'd never had seconds before. Simone had worked hard to keep the pride off her face. They'd been traveling over three weeks now, and of course everyone was hungry. Starving, even, after she'd burned or ruined more than one meal.
It was natural for him to eat more of something that she'd managed not to mangle beyond recognition. She had seconds, herself. Her chest filled with satisfaction over the accomplishment, even though Victoria had probably achieved the same depth of flavor in her cooking by the time she was ten years old.
Simone received the praise with muted thanks, determined not to let the success go to her head if she could help it.
"You'll have to learn some desserts too, I expect," Victoria mused quietly beside her.
"Desserts? Don't those usually need an oven or special tools?" Simone was skeptical of her ability to produce any kind of sweets.
"Some, not all. There's a thing the Cetoans use to bake bread and desserts. It's like a metal pan with a lid, and they bury it in the ground with hot coals. My friend Quilina told me about it. We don't have one, but it seems so interesting, don't you think?"
"That sounds extremely interesting and difficult to work with," Simone replied. "I have enough trouble cooking food that I can see the whole time. How am I supposed to keep something buried in the ground from burning?"
The group laughed, but on the whole it was good-natured. Even Shayn seemed to be laughing with Simone instead of at her. The evening was pleasant, and the group lingered around the fire instead of heading immediately to their tents.
"Tell me a ghost story, Kyler. You always had such good ones when I was little." Victoria spoke up.
"Why should I tell stories, when we have a librarian here? She probably knows the best stories there are to tell in the world." The man defended.
"I don't know about that," Simone tried to back out of being pushed into an entertaining role.
"Oh, please! Please Simone! Tell us a story!" Victoria begged.
"Yes, please do," Shayn teased with raised eyebrows, clearly not expecting much.
"A ghost story?" Simone chewed the side of her mouth. It wasn't the type of book she was usually interested in and tried to recall one or two tales that she'd encountered.
"Yes, a good and scary one!" Victoria's eyes shined in the darkness of twilight.
"I can try, but I don't promise that it will be anything good," Simone grimaced and took a deep breath. She leaned forward and thought for several moments, putting her face closer to the fire, both for its warmth and inspiration from the dancing flames.
"Once, quite a long time ago, two miners, a man and wife, had a young boy. They mined diamonds, and spent their days underground, leaving the child on the surface. Though he begged to join them, he was refused. One day, he tried to follow them down into the mine, when a tragic cave-in killed both his parents. The loss of their lives affected the boy deeply. He felt that their quest for wealth had eclipsed their love for him, and so he wandered the lands alone, seeking neither friend nor companion. He mourned and wailed that he was worth less than diamonds, and not so much as a bit of gold. As he traveled the countryside, he collected shiny rocks of all kinds, putting them in his pockets everywhere he went."
Simone clasped her hands together as if holding something. Victoria shifted next to her.
"The boy had seen death, and knew its face. They say he could see it coming a long way off. Whenever he did, he would find the person who was to die, and place the shiny things amongst their possessions, in their pockets, causing them to disappear just before their deaths.
"They say he hoped the soon-to-die would carry the precious stones with them to the next life, and give the gems to his parents. Since they cared more for wealth than for him he wanted to make sure they had plenty in the next world…"
Simone slipped her hand into the pockets of her skirt.
"And so, if you ever find yourself rummaging amongst your things or in your pockets and find a shiny stone or precious gem, you should beware, lest that orphan be near, and wanting you to make a delivery for him."
Simone paused, looking deeply into the fire in contemplation, waiting for the dramatic quiet to reach its natural conclusion. She wanted to sneak a glance at Victoria, who hadn't been paying close enough attention to Simone's hands while she told the tale.
"oh–OH!" Victoria squealed, pulling a shiny bit of quartz from her pocket. "SIMONE!"
The little rock got thrown at the librarian, who dissolved into giggles.
"I'm sorry! I couldn't resist! I found it earlier and it fit so well into the tale, and you did ask for a good and scary story!" She chortled.
Victoria glared at her for several seconds as the men joined in the laughter. At last, she couldn't hold back her own guffaws, and the group laughed until they were wiping tears from their eyes.
"That's a great story, who's it by?" Kyler asked.
"It's from a book of fairy tales and ghost stories. Queen Serafina has an affinity for stories no one else believes, and so I went searching for everything of the kind to pull out for her to read. There were all kinds of books, but mostly things on mythical creatures were her interest. Ghosts, not as much."
"But the ghost story made a lot of references to 'the next world,' didn't it?" Victoria asked. "Now that we know there are many other worlds… doesn't it make sense that it might be an important detail? Other worlds, that dead people go to?"
"I don't think that's how it works," Shayn said skeptically. "When people die, they die. Their bodies get put in the ground. They don't go anywhere."
"But the life. The part of them that's who they are. You think it's just… dead? Disappeared and gone? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to go somewhere else than just be snuffed out like a candle's flame?" Victoria was verging on a pout, and Kyler cut in a little more softly.
"Thinking about these things is difficult, and we understand. We lost our father when we were young. To have him back would mean a lot to us, but that's not how things work. You can't just open a portal and let the dead come back to life. It wouldn't be right. How would our father feel to see mother remarried now?" Kyler's voice was soothing yet logical, and Victoria sniffled at him.
"I just think it's a beautiful idea that we could have them all back someday." She defended herself.
"It is a beautiful idea, I just don't think that's how things work," Kyler stood with the help of his crutches and stretched. "I think it's time for bed, what about you? We should be getting closer to our destination. Any day now!"
"Really?" Simone asked. On the one hand, it seemed like they had just left Klain, but in another way it seemed like they had always been on this journey together. The rhythms they had adopted were now second nature to each of them.
Like a small, working society with a common goal. Sure, she and Shayn still fought like cats and dogs, but there was less blood drawn now than at the beginning. Mostly, they could rein it in before feelings were seriously wounded.
"Don't you feel like you've been with us forever? You're surprised we're almost there?" Shayn asked with a smirk.
"Time does seem to flow a little differently around you, I fully confess," Simone replied mischievously. Let him take that as an insult or compliment, whichever he wished.
"Now now, kids, it's a little late for an argument. Bedtime!" Walter declared, beginning to bank the fire for the night.
The younger people were growing used to being called kids, and it really only bothered Shayn anymore. He shrugged off the condescending direction from the other surveyor and moved towards the men's tent.
Before he went in, he turned back towards Simone for a moment with a calculating look.
"Hey, catch!" He said, flicking something towards her with his thumb like a coin. Caught off guard, Simone reached out both hands to catch the small object. Opening them, she peered down at the bit of quartz Victoria had thrown at her a few minutes earlier.
How had he found it and picked it up without her noticing?
"Just don't die or disappear or anything," Shayn grumbled as he turned away to enter his tent. "Finn would get mad at me over it, and that's a complete pain to deal with."