Solitude in Company

"Hey, Xavier! Glad you could make it!"

"Aha, thanks, I'm glad I was able to come," he - Xavier - replied. He shook the woman's hand, stepped into the neatly kept shop, and shrugged off his coat. He looked at a nearby mirror to fix his auburn hair. "I absolutely love this weather. It's gorgeous."

"It sure is!" the woman chuckled. "Anyways, Spira and I are so glad to have you!" she said and took Xavier's coat and placed it on a rack.

"Aw, thanks Crito," he repeated.

"It's not a problem!" with her shoulder-length hair hurrying to keep up, she turned around and skirted into the dining room. Xavier followed.

The table, lined with beige tablecloth, was adorned with sandwiches, fruits, and an assortment of crackers. It was a pleasant meal for a pleasant lunch, in Xavier's eyes.

"Hey Spira, how have you been with your new Historian job?" Xavier asked the woman, Spira, who already sat at the table.

"Oh, it's the busiest I've ever been, but it's worth it," she answered. She sighed and tucked away a strand of hair that strayed away from her typical bun. "How about you and your shop?"

Xavier shrugged. "Ah, slow as usual, but my daily customers help me make a living."

"I'd imagine," Crito said. "It seems difficult to keep a regular salary relying solely on mallet percussion instruments. Then again, Chilith is probably the best place to be for that. You can't go two blocks without finding households filled with musicians," Crito laughed as her brown eyes beamed.

"Yeah, I guess I'm lucky," Xavier said. He took a seat when he saw Crito take one herself.

Xavier tried to pay attention to the conversation around him as he started to munch on a sandwich. "So I've heard that the Perissian government had to surrender all the kingdoms they've captured," he said.

"Really?" Crito exclaimed. "That's quite a lot of territory to give up in one lost war. Didn't they take over eight kingdoms? That'd be nine including the peace treaty they've made with Chilith. How many years did it take them to get all of them?"

Spira looked up in thought. "I know they conquered their first foreign kingdom thirty-eight years ago, since I was only six years old at the time..." she thought out loud.

"Jeez, that's - like - longer than you've been alive!"

"Yeah, I know, it's crazy."

That struck Xavier. Six years old... That means I was only five... That was around the same time I met him, right?

He remembered that day like it was yesterday.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dark clouds casted over the skies above. A faint rumbling bumbled somewhere away. Xavier's nose was stuffy, just like it always was whenever the springtime came. He never liked going outside during the spring, but he didn't have a choice; his older cousin was determined to teach him how to deal with people at the market.

Ew...

His older cousin was ten years older than him and tall (as he remembered it, that is). He was almost as tall as his father, who was a giant in Xavier's eyes. Xavier believed he was short, though his parents always told him he was average for his height. He didn't believe it. Everyone he met was taller than him. Except for babies, but he didn't grasp the concept that babies were also tiny humans. He'd always imagined them as their own species. They were small, plump, and couldn't walk anywhere on their own. They simply didn't look human to him.