The Lake

Chapter 4: Settled

As they eat their food, a knock on the door is heard.

"Excuse me, I'm going to go answer that," Says Elias as he gets up from the table and walks towards the front door, opening it.

Salre continues poking at his fish, eating small bits of it, trying to preserve its goodness.

He hears the voice of a man, a dark, husky voice at the door, he sounds worried. His ears perk up, trying not to eavesdrop, but does so anyways.

"*mumbles* It's gone! *more mumbles* Please, my family!" The mysterious yet familiar voice says. He can't fully hear what Elias is saying, so he gets up from the table, and walks towards the front door, curious of who is here.

He gets closer, and the voice becomes more familiar.

'Mr... Freid?' He walks into the living room, where he can see the front door from, and sees the short bear, wearing dirtied clothes, with his wife and two children behind him.

"Mr. Freid? Is that you?" Salre asks. Elias looks behind him, looking like he needs help.

"Salre, is that you?" His booming voice asks, before he laughs loudly. "I can't believe you are alive! I'm so happy! But please, convince this man to let us stay for a while, we lost everything."

"Wait, what's going on here?" Elias asks, confused. "Wait, are YOU Mr. Freid, that one shopkeeper Salre told me about?"

"I could be no other," Mr. Freid says loudly, smiling.

"Well I- I guess if you are a friend of Salre's, you may come in. I'll bring you all some extra clothes, make some food for you, and tell you where you can sleep," Elias says in an annoyed tone, sighing softly before letting the small bear family inside.

Angie is wearing the same clothes as she was the other day, but had a small scar on her face, and lots of bruises on her arms. Her mother, Mrs. Freid, also has dirtied clothes, but no bruises or cuts. The other child, who Salre has heard of, but never met before, Tony, is holding onto his mothers' skirt, looking scared.

Elias leads them inside, telling them what rooms are where, and leads them to the bathroom to help get them cleaned up, given proper medicine and bandages, and brings them a pair of clothes.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any clothing for you, sir. But I'll go into town and find something for you, or I could make some clothing tonight. I have a sewing machine that used to be my mothers, I could use. Would you like that?"

"Sure, I'll take anything. And thank you very, very much for taking me and my family in, we should only be here for a week, I'm applying for some long-term jobs tomorrow in the closest city nearby, and using our spare money to afford a new home. Luckily, we have lots of money left. Thank goodness for these banking systems, they are very helpful. And don't even get me started on the..." The big bear goes on, as he can easily be heard from upstairs, he's very loud.

An hour comes by, and Elias had left them upstairs to get settled and cleaned on their own, as he cooks up more food, not expecting more people.

"Hey, sorry about that. Mr. Freid is very... invasive. He doesn't take no for an answer, he will listen to me and leave soon, I-"

"It's not that, I don't mind him staying. Well I do, but I know I shouldn't. They need somewhere to stay, they explained their whole story about how raiders came in through the roads of the town, putting everything on fire, and things falling on them and stuff. And then they tried to find refuge in nearby cities, but they were all full, and he went to find the nearby one, but came across here instead, asked me... and he's here now. I just hope he gets back up on his feet again, I don't like having the house fully occupied unless it's people I'm close with or that I know, you know?"