As I was dragged into the bakery, the tension I expected to be there was absent from the room but fully present in the form of lead in my stomach, what was there, was a table full of food, and five people, Mr. heart at one end, then sitting on the bench were Mr. Haleson, and Robert, on the other side of the table from the two on the bench was, Old Man Allen, and Mr. Manderbeck
Manderbeck is this towns sheriff, and a retired magic knight, he loves telling stories of his 'glory days' but he also taught me a lot about what I know of magic.
As we entered Ms. Hearte patted my shoulder and went to sit with her husband. I shuffled to the only unoccupied part of the table, now sitting opposite to the Hearts, it wasn't just Robert staring at me like I had two heads…
But, it seemed to only be in my head as everyone began small talking with each other, though neither me or Robert contributed, it seems we got into another impromptu staring contest without my real say so..
As I stared into his eyes, I once again saw that darkness, that but that should never be seen in a child, one that told of an exhaustive trauma, though, to my knowledge he hasn't gone through something so, terrible…
It was without losing the eye contact that I grabbed a roll, and began to munch on it, his eyes used to be a steely grey, and now their an Azure blue, though, with how scrunched up his eyes had become, the color of his eyes were diminished to the point that unless you were looking closely, you wouldn't see…
I decided to look away first, entirely aware I had lost, but I simply didn't care as I went and looked at his father before saying "'ow's he been since tha 'njury?"
Mr. Dervish Startles outta his thoughts and looks back at me and says "well, why don't ya ask 'I'm yer self?" As he says this, he gets a bit of a confused look on his face
I scoff and gather some spaghetti and meat balls onto my plate, "if ya haven't noticed, Mr. Dervish, yer son is too busy staring bloody holes in me at all times ta talk." I then gather some onto my fork and eat it
Mr. Manderbeck then speaks up, "'s tha' why yea've been so quiet as o' Late? ya 'aven't bothered me in a few weeks... got me suspicious." as he says the last bit he squints at me.
Rob cuts in, finally looking at the food and not at me, "I Have been fine." He begins to gather some of the food as well.
I pick at my food and say. "I've got me own 'tuff ta worry 'bout..." I look around the table, making sure to have eye contact with all the adults at the table "'pologies 'bout bein' distant, 've, gotten a lot 'n my mind." I then go back to eating the divine cooking of Ms. Hearte.
old man Allen scoffs in response and says " I'd 'preceiate more o' 'n explanation, but, apology accepted.." as he says this he makes eye contact with me, conveying a want for more information but also a respect for my not wanting to talk.
Mr. Hearte scoffs and grumbles out, "ya ain't tha 'nly one 'ith too much ta do, just 'member, yer apart a this community. that means 'f yer 'verwhelmed with somethin' ya can come ta any o' us."
I look around the table, I am met mostly with nods of agreement, but Rob speaks up "I've been told, you saved my life, how?" Mr. Dervish side eyes him for a bit, before he and the rest of the table begin to look at me with curious gazes.
I gulp down my food and then look him in the eyes and say "found yer tracks, walked into the Alderbeste's territory to follow you, dumb move, by the way. got attacked by a dog thing, killed the thing and placed a marker on it. Continued to follow yer trail, found the book you were reading, I already gave that back to ya." I took a breath before continuing "I heard a hiss in the distance, I wasn't able to get ta ya before yer were hurt, but, I distracted the Alderbeste by blinding it with an over charged mana bullet, I then gathered ya up and ran as quick as I could, it wasn't really fast enough, the blinding effect wore off quickly, had to cut a tree down onto it…" I took another breath, and found my thoughts getting reliving the panic induced run.
"I managed to slow it down with that, but it didn't stop it, and just as I was about to cast a disorientation curse at it, i accidentally fell into a hole I didn't see." I then recomposed myself so that I could give some half truths for this next part.
"That hole ended up leading to some kind of burrow, deep under ground, I spent the next of what could have been minutes but was probably hours searching around in that place for an exit, I eventually did find one, it was annoying, dragging your unconscious body with me. The exit I had found left us near where I had left that mark, so I went back to the mark to try and find my way back to town only to find that the dog thing had been taken from the spot, with the fumes I was running in at that point I managed to make it to the end of the forest before collapsing. And that's the whole story." I shrug and then say "was mostly luck and quick thinking that saved yer life, only a small part did skill play."
The table was silent for a moment, Mr. Manderbeck slumped into himself and muttered "I'll be damned…"
That codger Allen then crossed his arms and said "an' what did ya learn fro' tha experience?" As he said this his eyes narrowed.
I huffed, disgruntled that everything had to be a lesson, but said, "I guess I learnt ta make sure I know tha environment, and the location o' tha enemy, not that I din't already know that but, 'ts a lesson best learnt through repetition…" I mumbled the last bit as I stared once again into my food, then realizing I still had food on my plate I started to devour it in gusto.
'That's not really the true lesson I learnt. The real lesson I learnt was to always analyze a situation as much as I can before making a decision, if I hadn't decided to recklessly sacrifice that rock I… I wouldn't have to leave them…'
As I was eating I heard old man Allen grunt in affirmation, then, the rest of the uncomfortable silence inside of my chest and around the table slightly abetted, and was replaced with the sound of all of us eating.
- - - -
Shepard and the rest of the people at that table continued to eat in silence, though intermittently interrupted by someone saying something and sparking some small talk.
The dinner past quickly after that, and Shepard bid farewell to the Heartes, Halesons and Mr. Manderbeck as the sky continued to rain snow down upon the land.
Due to the fact that they lived in the same direction, she and Mr. Allen walked together.
They chatted a little bit, but mostly just walked in silence, they stopped at Mr. Allen's house, he asked Shepard if she wanted to spend the night, but she declined, and with a heartfelt goodbye walked out of the town, down the path, and fifteen minutes later, she made it to her little log cabin.
As she made it to her home, she wiped her snow covered boots off on the mat and walked inside.
She then plopped all of her things into the corner, changed into her sleeping clothes, and unceremoniously flopped into her wool cot, and was out like a light in moments…
- - - -
That's all for this chapter, I hope it was at least in character.
Remember, if you have constructive criticism, give a comment! Thank you for reading and good afternoon, good evening and good night!