The Last Story

The Monastery

"There's nothing left here, you already took it all," says the woman, leaning against the wall while she continues to look down.

"What are you talking about?" Asks Kate, who is clearly just as confused as I am.

"There is nothing here, go take a look, you took everything last time and left us with nothing," she says with a hint of anger.

"What are you talking about? Do you live here?" Kate asks her.

"I don't know, I used to, but I don't think I can after what happened," the woman responds more calmly.

"What happened?" I ask, still very confused as to why she thinks we've been here before.

"You don't know? What are you doing here then?" She asks as she looks up.

"We don't know, we are not from around here," I tell her.

"Are you a nun?" asks Kate before she can say anything else.

"Yes," she quickly responds as she removes the hood of the blanket from her head, takes off a wooden rosary, and hands it to Kate.

"So you two really don't know what happened here?" she asks, still showing some suspicion.

"No, we are just traveling through here, we have never been here before," Kate tells her.

"Then how did you find this place?" She asks.

"Someone told us it was a good place to spend the night, he said that it was abandoned," I say highlighting the last word.

"I am sorry I attacked you, I thought you were one of the town's militiamen when I saw the gun," she says.

Town's militiamen? is there a town nearby? Maybe I can go there and deliver Hoffman's book if it doesn't turn out that this lady is a ghost talking about a town that no longer exists.

"I don't think she is a threat," Kate whispers to my ear.

I nod as I lower my rifle following Kate, who already lowered hers.

"Where are you living exactly?" Kate asks her.

"The room over there, it's clean and has a stove," She says pointing at the room she charged out of.

"Do you mind if we spend the night here? It's getting very cold and windy lately," I ask.

"Yes, of course, but do you have any food you can spare? I have some fuel for a fire in the stove, but I am starving," she tells us.

I look over at Kate, she nods and I agree, many people have given us food now, I figure it's time we gave something back, and she doesn't seem to be a bad person.

"Yeah, I think we can have dinner together," I say.

"Can I stand up?" She asks.

"Yeah go ahead, just remember my gun is always loaded," I say giving her a hand.

I don't think she is that dangerous if she is a nun, or was a nun, but I'll only believe her for good when she tells us what happened here. Then I'll know if attacking me was justified.

She slowly stands up with my help and walks into the room she came out of while Kate and I both keep our eyes on her.

"Stay here, I'll go get our things, just make sure she doesn't grab a weapon," I tell Kate.

I then go down the stairs and leave the building. Calling this place a mess would be an understatement, whatever happened here was undoubtedly bad. Was it a battle of some kind? Did the monastery even have a garrison? Maybe it was just a pillaging by the town's militia the girl mentioned. It could have been anything though, I won't know until she tells me. I walk back inside with our stuff, taking one last look at the horse as it drinks water from a puddle, and another towards the descending sun as it goes down under the cover of clouds causing the sky to darken slightly.