Assassins of Heretrua

Chapter Eleven

Clanging metal woke Nik with a start. "Rise and shine!" Priscilla yelled, banging a wooden spoon against a metal pot over Nik's head. "Get up, it's time to go to work."

"Okay, okay, just stop it." Nik put his hand over his ears.

Priscilla yanked his blanket off. "Out of bed. Now."

She marched out of the room and Nik begrudgingly pulled himself out of bed to follow her.

As soon as Nik reached the kitchen Priscilla held out a bucket. "There's a well down the road. We're going to need water."

Nik stopped rubbing the sleep out his eyes and gave her a blank stare. "Those guys tried to kill me yesterday. I'm not too keen on the idea of giving them another chance to finish the job."

"Stop your whining. They won't dare touch you as long as I'm alive."

She wiggled the bucket impatiently and Nik took it, grumbling to himself as he walked out the door into fresh morning sunlight.

"Down the road, she says. Well which way down the road?"

A young girl stepped out of a house a little ways down the road with a bucket of her own and started off down the road away from Nik. He followed her until she reached a well that more people were gathered around, waiting their turn to get water.

"Great," Nik muttered. He sucked in a breath and approached the group.

Most people openly glared at him, but none spoke to him. The air was tense, but everyone gave Nik space, got their water, and marched off to their own houses as fast as they could. Nik waited for everyone to clear out before attempting to fill his own bucket.

What should have been easy turned out to be ridiculously difficult for Nik. He struggled with the bucket for several minutes before a youthful voice from behind him spoke.

"Having trouble getting your water?"

Nik swirled around to face the girl he had followed watching him flounder with his task.

"Erm... yes, just a bit."

She stepped forward and silently began showing Nik how it worked. She handed him his newly filled bucket. "You're the guy who showed up out of the forest yesterday."

"Yeah."

"Where are you from?"

"Um..." He shrugged. "Priscilla says I'm from another world."

She cocked her head. "Then why are you here?"

"I wish I knew."

"A lot of people here don't like you."

Nik rolled his eyes. "I noticed when they tried to kill me."

"You don't need to worry about them. They won't hurt you now that Priscilla's taken you in. They'll get used to you eventually."

"Here's hoping." Nik started back down the road and the girl trotted after him.

"Are you going to stay here long?"

He shrugged. "I don't know how to get back."

"I'm sure Priscilla knows some way. She knows just about everything there is to know and then some. Most people think she's gone mad in her old age."

Nik gave her a curious look. "What do you think of her?"

"She's always been nothing but kind to everybody. And there's no denying that half the people in this village wouldn't be alive if it weren't for her talent as a healer."

"But do you think she's crazy?"

"Even if she is, whatever she does works. If that's what it is to be crazy, I'm all for it." The girl stopped walking alongside Nik. "This is my house. I guess if you're stuck here for a while, I'll be seeing you around town more often."

"Probably." Nik felt some of his tension melting off. It felt good to have at least one other person in the village besides Priscilla who didn't hate him. "Thanks for the help with the water."

"No problem." She smiled and waved at him. "See you later."

"Okay." Nik started walking down the road and the girl almost had her door closed before he realized he had forgotten something. He turned around. "Hey!"

"What?"

"What's your name?"

"Oh!" She giggled. "I'm sorry. I'm Adelina. And you?"

"Nik. Well actually, Nikolai, but everyone calls me Nik."

"That's odd. No one shortens names around here."

"Well you can call me whatever you like, so long as it's not completely terrible."

Adelina smiled. "What would people shorten my name to if I lived in your world?"

Nik mulled it over a minute. "Probably Addie."

"Addie?" She felt how it sounded coming out of her mouth. "That's neat. I like it."

He laughed at how fascinated Adelina was with the concept of nicknames. "Me too."

"Evelyn." Ren rolled over to face her. "When are you going to go to sleep?"

"If this was your brother, would you sleep when you could be learning about what happened to him?"

"Whatever happened to him happened. You staying up to read the book isn't going to change that. Besides, it'll still be here tomorrow."

"That doesn't answer the question."

He sighed. "No, I probably wouldn't want to stop reading it."

"Of course not."

"But it's time to go to sleep. We have other things to worry about that we need to be awake to deal with."

Evelyn put the book down on her lap. "You have no right to tell me I should be more worried about the problems of this kingdom than my own brother, who I'm never going to get to see again in my life because this world decided it needed me. I've worried about this place enough. Let me worry about my real family for once."

"This family is every bit as real as that one," Ren replied defensively.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't my first one."

"Fine." Ren rolled back over and put a pillow over his head. Evelyn huffed and tried to go back to reading, but she couldn't focus on the words.

After a few minutes of trying in vain to get back into reading the book, Evelyn gave up. She slapped the book shut, laid it on the table by their bed, and blew out the lantern.

"Thank you," Ren mumbled from under the pillow.

"It wasn't for you," she replied, tugging the blankets up over herself and turning her back to him.