Red Roses - (FCRAs 2016 Winner)

Wise Men's Words

"Would'ja quit your fussing, lassy, it's good for me lungs."

"Of course it is, like a knife is good for the gut," Lorelie said without looking away from her bag as she pulled out the last of the small bottles she'd be leaving for Old Groby to help with his cough – the village's old merchant, man of mystery, and permanent tobacco cloud.

"Eh, ye'd be surprised what yeh can survive t' the gut," Old Groby replied, adjusting himself in his chair by the fire and taking another puff from his pipe.

Lorelie frowned at him then set the bottles on the usual shelf and collected the empties.

"How are ye finding the woods then?"

She glanced back at him and he was eyeing her, slowly puffing away at his pipe.

"The woods?"

He chuckled. "Yeh think Old Groby doesn' know what's going on around these parts?"

She just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Find anything strange in those woods?"

Lorelie pursed her lips. "Strange like what?"

"Things that can make grown men run screaming fur their lives, perhaps."

Lorelie looked away, shaking her head and letting out a breathless laugh. "Alright," she said, "How is everyone seems to know something about... strange things into the forests?"

"Oh not ev'ryone," Old Groby said, shifting in his chair again to get more comfortable as Lorelie came back to sit beside him. "Well, ev'ryone knows there are strange things in those forests but not ev'ryone knows what those strange things are."

"Yet you do?"

"That'd be because I know ev'rythin'," he said with another chuckle, "Just like yer Nana, there are perks to being old, yeh know."

"Alright, well what do you know?"

"Do ya remember Kilan Denny?"

Lorelie looked blankly at him. "Who?"

"Few years back, a young man worked a short while at Rose Castle. A Storyteller, nice lad, only worked a few months."

"Oh, I remember, I never spoke to him though," Lorelie said, "What about him?"

"And ye know the lovely Lady Rosalia, of course?"

"Of course, she's still kind enough to be friends with me," Lorelie said.

"And of course, Captain Beldon."

"Is there a point behind all this?"

"Have ye ev'r visited the Rose Castle portrait gallery?"

"Are you feeling ill? Is this the inane ramblings of a man in the midst of a fever?" Lorelie asked and he rapped her over the knuckles with his pipe.

"If yeh want to be rude, then I won't tell ye anythin'," Old Groby said.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, just thought I'd check," Lorelie said, rubbing her hand.

"Since yeh clearly not interested, I won't help yeh then."

"I'm sorry, Old Goby, I was just teasing."

"Lassy, teasing yer elders does not help yer situation."

"What did you want to tell me? What would it help me with?"

"Who knows?"

Lorelie glared at him and he took another puff of his pipe.