ONE POINT FIVE (1.5 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 31

Sarphi's POV

The following days were incredibly stressful. Not only did we have to resume our usual bakery business, but we also had a child following our every move. Ka was lovely, but she was distracting. The other kids weren't kidding when they mentioned that she enjoyed dirt and worms. We practically had to wash her down every time she entered the bakery. I knew this probably wasn't her fault, due to her father's profession, but I still wished she would do that before coming.

Prin told me about Darman. She had somewhat broken down one night when we had a particularly tough time trying to get bread to rise. She'd begun kneading the dough and ranting about everything which happened at Ka's birthday. She let it slip that Darman had given her warnings and advice, which led to her bursting into tears and explaining everything. We learned that Prin hated secrets that day, and ranting whilst kneading produced the best results.

Niko and Cade were fine, although both were a little embarrassed. They were happy that they missed out on the disaster, which was the birthday party, yet somewhat upset they couldn't help us. We gathered some information about Darman from them. It turned out that he'd pretty much been a lurker in the village. He didn't really do what we tried to do, fit in. He was a mysterious guy, and nobody knew where he came from.

Queenie remained a problem, giving us more work than we could possibly do. We hadn't needed to use much magic in the bakery, but we did have to try and keep the ovens warm and at a consistent temperature. That was relatively difficult when there was a constant stream of breads and desserts which needed baking. So, Prin and I had decided to duplicate as many logs as we could. Though Queenie hadn't done much more than that, we knew there was something stirring. If she wasn't, then Prin and I were just extremely paranoid over nothing.

I had expected it to be another normal day, going about our lives baking and worrying about my siblings. But the day had gotten to a very unusual start, with Prin and I waking up to banging on our front door.

"One moment, one moment!" I called as I hurried out of bed, hissing at the cold floor, and opened the door.

Cade stood there with a worried expression. "Sarphi, come quickly, it's...what are you wearing?" His cheeks turned red.

I looked down with confusion. "Sleep clothes, surely you don't sleep in full leather armour?" I questioned sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. "What's wrong?"

He snapped out of the thoughts that he was having and shook his head. "Come on, we found something strange." It was the middle of the night, so I was very suspicious at the fact that he had found something strange. Anyone sensible would be sleeping soundly in their beds right now.

"Should I get Prin?" I questioned, but I was already being pulled out of the building, not even able to lock the door before I left. "Cade, you're worrying me."

"Prin's probably awake by now," he commented. I didn't know if it was my sleepy state of mind, or if our conversation was generally disjointed. "Just hurry up, your legs aren't that small."

"You're one to talk," I grumbled. I was short for a human, but the dwarf who was berating me for having small legs was very short himself. "Why don't people use their words to explain what's happening instead of just telling me to follow them or to do what they're asking? It's very inconvenient for both of us." I didn't know if that grammar checked out either. I didn't even know if I'd complained about the same thing to him, even in the past five minutes. I had gotten far too comfortable here. If this had happened on the road, I would've been on high alert, thinking our camp had been attacked.