Caught by a Hunter

Chapter 17

It was early morning like usual and Alderoth was already at Ashura's inn, helping around with everything he could.

"Camping out in Bahari Bay? That sounds like fun", Ashura chuckled.

"I doubt I would do it if I had to do it alone", Alderoth confessed when he carefully cleaned another frame of one of the many paintings, before reaching it back for Ashura who then hung it back on its place. "But Hassian knows that area well so there shouldn't be any problems, right?"

"I'm sure everything will go just fine", the innkeeper assured. "Hassian is an excellent hunter, he won't let anything bad happen."

They finished cleaning the rest of the paintings and Ashura grunted, rubbing his back when he got down from the stool he had used.

"That should do it for a while", he said. "I'm embarrassed how long it has been since the last time I cleaned all the dust from those frames. Now they look so bright again", he smiled, crossing his large arms when looking at the paintings. Alderoth agreed, they sure did look great. "I wonder where Reth is?" Ashura said and he looked at the kitchen.

Usually Reth would already be here by now, preparing foods for those who might want to come over and have breakfast here.

"Maybe he overslept?" Alderoth asked. He wouldn't be surprised, the man did look really tired most of the time.

Ashura sighed and he shook his head.

"Sometimes I'm worried about that boy", he confessed, sitting behind the counter that was beside the stairs and he took out some papers he had to arrange. "I feel like every passing day, he just looks more and more tired."

Alderoth hummed, looking at the old man who was starting to read through the papers. He too was sometimes worried if there was something wrong with Reth... He knew it was none of his business and he shouldn't intervene, but he couldn't help it he was worried. Reth was his friend!

Just when he turned around to go and check if there might be something he could do in the kitchen, suddenly Reth appeared through the doors.

"Morning!" the man said. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Ashura!"

"Well, you're here now", Ashura said and the man laughed. Alderoth knew he was just relieved to see Reth was at least alive. Ashura cared about Reth and Tish both a lot more than he showed. "It's not like it's busy here right now so I guess that's fine."

"Where were you?" Alderoth asked.

"Nowhere, just taking a small walk around the village and didn't notice what time it was already. I'll start working on breakfast right away", Reth chuckled, carefree like nothing was wrong and it made Alderoth curious. It was like Reth was trying extra hard to seem like nothing was going on.

It immediately made him extremely suspicious.

So he followed the red haired man in the kitchen where the cook took out a kettle and vegetables and other stuff, skillfully starting to cut them.

"Where were you really?" Alderoth asked, taking out a smaller knife and he started to peel potatoes.

"What? I just told you, I was walking around, that's all", Reth assured and while his smile did not fade, his voice did sound weirdly... high pitched.

"Somehow I feel like I don't trust you."

"You're hurting my feelings, Sweet Tooth!" Reth gasped, like he was utterly shocked when looking at Alderoth. "I would never -"

"I don't like it when my friends lie to me", Alderoth snapped and that made Reth go quiet. "You don't want Ashura to find out? Fine. But you're going to tell me what's going on", Alderoth frowned.