After the fall

Chapter 10

The night passed quickly and the sun took its spot on the sky as Lapisa woke up from her slumber. Her bleary eyes scanned her surroundings and lifted her body up to a sitting position. Lapisa felt sluggish all over and when she got off the bed every step she took felt like it weighed a ton. Despite this, Lapisa made her way towards the door and walked out of her room. What greeted her was a bowl of stew on the table as well as a piece of bread. Both Lan and Matilda were sat by the table eating away on their own meals. At Lapisa's entrance, Matilda looked up from her bowl and turned to look at her. "Good morning to you darling, did you sleep well?" Matilda said, practically radiating enthusiasm. Next to Matilda, Lan sat grumbling to himself with an impressive bedhead. "Don't mind him, he's not much of a morning person." Matilda said with a smile on her face. "I slept fine, thank you for asking." Lapisa replied as she took a seat at the table. "I know you only got here yesterday but would you be a dear and make a delivery for me as a first task?" Matilda asked over the meal. "You won't go alone of course, Lan will accompany you so that you can get used to this [town/place]." At the mention of his name, Lan perked up from his slouched position and scowled. "wha-?", "Lan, be a dear and take Lapisa with you to see good ol' Dan by the town square when you finish eating." At that, Matilda stood up from her seat and walked away from the table holding her empty bowl. As Matilda left the room, Lan finished his meal and leaned back in his seat staring lazily at Lapisa who was still in the process of eating her food. "Finish eating your food and I'll meet you downstairs." Lan said as he stood up and walked out. Lapisa took one last bite out of her bread and quickly finished up before she began making her way downstairs to meet up with Lan.

Even though it was still early morning, just past dawn, the streets outside the inn was bustling with people, filled to the brim with energy ready to take on the day. Lapisa made her way down the stairs and pushed open the doors with her shoulder, hands occupied with carrying her bowl that she ate breakfast from. She made her way towards the bar counter where Matilda stod working and serving a man with raven hair. Without a word, Matilda stretched over the counter and took the bowl out of Lapisan's grasp and in its place she put a basket covered with a thin sheet. "This is for Dan by the town square. Be careful, it's quite fragile."

Carefully she took a hold of the basket with the unknown fragile content, thanked Matilda and turned around to go to where Lan was standing. While Lapisa turned around she caught a glimpse of the raven haired man sitting by the bar counter, there was something quite familiar about him but Lapisa couldn't put her finger on what exactly.

How could this stranger in a completely different world from hers seem familiar to her? Tilting her head in confusion she was left standing in her place for a few seconds before Matilda's voice brought her back to reality, "Don't worry dear. You will do great, Lan will help you. Just trust him." At that Lapisa gave her a small nod and a smile before going up to Lan standing in a corner by the door, "I'm ready," she said coming to a quick stop in front of Lan before reaching out to open the door. "Took you long enough." he said in a sarcastic tone while rolling his eyes, before Lapisa had the possibility to grab the door handle, Lans hand came in the way as he opened the door for her while saying "ah-ah, how could I, a gentleman, let a fragile lady like yourself open the door, especially when she's carrying something?" It was quite clear to Lapisa that Lan only did that to annoy her but she still muttered a monotone "thank you" to him while walking out of the inn.

While they were walking to the town square to give the contents of the basket in Lapisa's grip to the man called Dan, Lapisa kept looking around trying to get familiar with the town as well as teach herself her way around it, so that she in the future would be able to do favors for Matilda by herself. While looking around at the environment, Lan who had been walking in front of her came to a sudden stop, not being prepared for a sudden stop Lapisa bumped right into Lan's back. A yelp left Lapisa's mouth, not because she felt pain anywhere, but rather out of fear of accidentally destroying the fragile content in the basket. At her sudden yelp Lan quickly turned around to check up on her "oh shoot, did you get inju-", before he could continue speaking he noticed he couldn't see Lapisa behind him. Looking around in a bit of a panic he finally noticed a crouching Lapisa carefully lifting the thin sheet covering the basket she had previously held tightly in her hand. Upon noticing that the content seemed to be whole, Lapisa let out a sigh of relief as she looked up at Lan, "I didn't destroy it" she spoke softly. A small chuckle left Lan's mouth, "Was that what you were worried about? I thought you had fallen again or something like that." "Of course I was worried about the content of my first delivery," Lapisa answered while giving Lan a slight glare as she stood up. "Now let's continue shall we? Where is this Dan?" she said and motioned for Lan to keep going, but instead of continuing to walk Lan just looked at her.

"What? Did you not hear me? Or... are you trying to annoy me?" Lapisa said, looking at him doubtfully. Instead of giving her an actual answer Lan just chuckled and pointed at something across the town square, Lapisa's eyes followed Lan's finger across the square, past the fountain spitting out water in the middle, gazing all of the stalls around it until her eyes landed on the sign above a store with a stall outside that read Dan's Steelwork. "Oh... it was right in front of us" she said with an embarrassed tone as she started walking trying to hide her embarrassment. Behind her she could hear Lan chuckle once again before hurried footsteps were heard, "do you know what you're going to say? Have you perhaps done this before?" He said slightly teasingly once he had caught up to her. As an answer to Lan's teasing Lapisa gave him a slight glare before she took a deep breath and entered the store while Lan waited outside. Once inside, she walked up to the wooden board that acted as a counter and said to the man behind it "Good day sir. I'm here to deliver this basket to Dan from Matilda the innkeeper. Is that perhaps you sir?", a smile spread on the man's face "Ah, has Matilda gotten herself a new stray?" he said slightly chuckling while he took the basket out of Lapisa's hand, "Well let's see what Matilda has sent with you today." He lifted the thin sheet to examine the content, he then looked up at Lapisa as he handed her an envelope, "Take this back to Matilda and thank her for the basket." With a smile on her face Lapisa took the envelope and softly said "Thank you. Have a nice day sir." Before she walked out of the store.

She walked up to Lan with the same smile she had had in the store still on her face, "Judging by your expression I'm guessing it went well." Lan said once Lapisa had gotten close to him. "Yeah I think it did, now I have to give this envelope to Matilda. So let's go back now." Lapisa said, showing Lan the envelope, "Well I'm sorry to break it to you, but you'll have to find your way back by yourself," he said, making Lapisa look at him with a shocked and somewhat worried expression. "You know I gotta make money somehow, and as you probably also know time is money. But I'm sure you'll be fine, you looked around a lot on the way here right?" with the same expression on her face Lapisa could only give a nod as an answer. Before he left Lan gave Lapisa a reassuring smile "I'll see you back at the inn at dinner." After Lan had left Lapisa was just left standing still with a lot on her mind for a while until she snapped back to reality. "It's now up to me to find my way back," was the only thing on her mind as she started walking around the town square, even though she had looked around while walking there she hadn't actually done it to remember her way there, she had simply been impressed and fascinated with the look of the small town she somehow had found herself in.