changing future: book 1 through time

chapter 8: life in Santoff Claussen

Katherine awoke to the smell of toast and bacon wafting in from the kitchen. She sat up in bed, groggily trying to rub away the sand from her eyes as she urged herself to fully wake up. It had been half a month since the incident with their bear, and life had once again returned to Santoff Claussen. North was now fully awake and filling his time by telling the children of his adventures. 

Quirky little stories they were, and she found herself enjoying them as she wrote them down and drew small illustrations for each one. She smiled as she remembered the latest tale the warrior had told her and a couple of the children. 

During the first days of his wakefulness, North had been unbelieving of what was happening, however the children helped him believe- along with all the magical things that had been going on around North. The floating food, the adjusting bed- everything in Big Root was magical after all! He had been most baffled when he had seen Ombric for the very first time, and for a moment, Katherine was certain that his eyes would have rolled right out of his eye sockets!

On some days, when North would come down with a fever from his aching wounds, he would grow silent and Katherine would always be there by his side, however, Katherine could hear snippets of conversation happening between Ombric and a few creatures of the forest, and she was absolutely sure North had been listening in too, even in his fevered state. 

But that didn’t hinder her awe of the ex-Cossack. In fact, it only made her admire him more! That day, she was happily getting out of bed, ready to head down to breakfast to feed North as has become custom for them. But today was special, for she had completed the tale of their adventure so far and had compiled it all in a book. So, she hurriedly got dressed in her daily clothes and signature yellow coat to stave away the cold and rushed down the stairs, only to hurry back up to grab the very book she had been so excited to show North. 

When she arrived, down in the kitchen, she hurried over to Ombric, wishing him a good morning before picking up the tray of food he had ready to take to their injured guest. Katherine was ecstatic as she opened the door and entered without knocking, she was about to speak too until she noticed North was still asleep and frowned. Then again she should have expected as much, North had had a fever the previous night and no doubt needed to sleep it off. 

Still, that didn't deter the girl for long as her smile returned, this time much more gentle as she placed the tray of food by the man’s bedside before silently slipping the tiny hand-sewn book of pictures next to his pillow before leaving to go do the rest of her chores before she could go play with the other children. She would return later to check up on him. 

After eating breakfast with Ombric and their resident Librarian GlowWorm Mr. Qwerty, Katherine was off to do her chores of clearing the snow from last night’s snowfall from the path in front of Big Root. Katherine couldn’t help but allow her mind to wander, just like Ombric had taught her and the rest of the children of Santoff Claussen. 

She couldn’t help but think back to the night of that fateful day. To the boy that had glowed like a brilliant star. She knew he was special somehow, deep deep down she knew, yet she sighed sadly for in the excitement of everything, both she and Ombric had forgotten to ask his name. But he was so fun to be around and she wouldn’t mind spending some time with him again. Maybe she could tell him some of her stories?

She smiled at the thought then it fell as she sighed. Who was she kidding? Stories were fun for her, but she wasn't sure he would appreciate them as she did. The only reason North probably even would look at the book she had made was because there were drawings. 

Out of all the children in Santoff Claussen, none really had time for stories, instead filling their times with creating new and wondrous things. Katherine never did have their ability to be able to create wondrous inventions, no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was write down stories… but what could stories do to help society? Not much…