The Crucible Campaign

10: Tastes of Home

.^^ Guess Who? ^^

— Cassidy —

"So who taught you to wield a Staff in combat?" I asked, to break the silence as we walked back towards the Inn that Sandy had mentioned.

She glanced over, and smiled. "My mother, of course. All women learn the Fighting Arts from their mothers, in my clan. In this place, it is men who learn from their fathers these things, but not so for our culture... We are..." she stopped talking, searching for the word.

"Matriarchal?" I supplied.

"Ah! Yes. That. We are happy to follow behind the Chaos that is Nature." She hummed, deep in thought.

"I see... do you miss your land?" I asked, using her language again, mostly because I loved the lyrical nature of it.

She smiled at me, laughing, and slipped back into it as well. "Sometimes. Do you? Miss the desert of your lands, I mean."

I hummed. "Sometimes... there was a simplicity there. A peace, as paradoxical as that sounds. War all around, but peace could always be found, if you sat still long enough, and watched how the desert sands shifted and swayed, listened to the winds carving new mountains every day upon the golden sea. The storms of sand that would bury entire cities overnight, or uncover lost lands after a hundred years... It was never boring... never monotonous. I liked that about it. When I lost three of my limbs and got sent home to recover... I did miss it. Severely. But it faded a bit, with time. A bit." I answered honestly.

She blinked, and looked at my legs. "They recovered well! Your healers must be incredibly gifted!!! Speaking of... Is your father a healer? He said he was." She hummed.

"Not professionally... he is a teacher, a scholar who studied the why's of the universe by way of mathematics and physical sciences, and yes, he learned to heal, mostly out of curiosity... but when he'd learned too much, and there was no more to learn, he began to teach others. He took my sisters and I with him, all around the world, to so many different places. We called them 'our little adventures', because mother was off at war, with her own adventure... Those are my nicest memories, thank you for bringing them up." I smiled at her thankfully.

She smiled back. "You are most welcome. You know, you were quite impressive, back there. You deprecate yourself, but I can see you catching arrows, easily."

I laughed, shaking my head. "I'll never try it without a very good reason, though."

"Obviously." She agreed sternly, and stopped at a red door, in the middle of a small building with no windows. "Here we are."

"This is an Inn? Wow... very out of the way... is most of it underground? I do love underground caves, very cozy." I paused as she unlocked the door with her hand casually.

"No. This is my home, in this city. Renata would be angry, if she new I owned a home in the city, instead of staying with her to save money. She insists that her rent is cheaper than an Inn, but I don't mind the money, for my own slice of home, in this far-away place. Also, keeping secrets from an 'All-Powerful Wizard' is just fun." She grinned, and opened the door.

Inside, with walls and ceiling bedecked in purple, red, and gold silk curtains, was a golden sand walkway, leading up to a hardwood living area, covered in a layer of red silk, then several dozen different shag carpets. Pillows decorated the ground in heaps where she apparently slept, and a section on the back wall was left bare of carpets, where a kitchen was constructed. A curtained door next to that led into a sandstone room, likely the bathroom. Small lanterns hung from the ceiling, providing light, and also the smoke, a mixture of desert spices, which have the home a pleasant smell.