Elrich Saga Yellow Springs Book One

Chapter 23 I See Red

Chapter 23 I See Red

I met Crue at the bakery the next morning. My butt was dragging. I was still so tired, even though I'd slept longer than usual. I would give a small unimportant body part for some coffee in this world. I stood by Crue sipping at the strongest tea the shop had as he picked out sweets.

Personal cakes, things covered in sugar, some sticky looking rolls with nuts, all went into my inventory. Crue was excited about the new fall collection and made sure he picked up some for all of us. They did look good, but I couldn't bring myself to get enthusiastic about the pumpkin pie smelling fritters. For some reason, the smell made me a bit ill. I'd probably never be able to eat pumpkin pie again thanks to Amoris.

We met Illia at the temple and began our now daily run. It was just as bad for me today, if not worse since I was still so exhausted. Why wasn't my body recovering like it normally did? It was probably because of the MP drain from yesterday, but my MP had fully recovered overnight.

Crue led us through the odd Tai Chi and we ran back to the temple. After our baths, Tuck had breakfast waiting for us. The problem was I didn't feel like eating. Smells were making me queasy.

I did manage to eat some apple slices and plain toast.

Illia and Crue expressed some concern, but I told them I was going to go back to the inn and nap for a few more hours. Crue gave me some powder to take. He said it would help. I opened it up and sniffed it. How could something good for you smell so sickly?

Illia offered to postpone the gathering for another day, but I told her that we should wait and see how I felt later. I would meet her after her shift and we could discuss things at that point. She agreed and ran off to work. Crue went for his shift at the clinic. I went back to the inn.

Once in my room, I took Crue's powder and fell into bed. I didn't even bother to take off my boots. I didn't have any issues getting to sleep, I was so tired.

My dreams were muddled and made no sense. They were disturbing though. I woke with cold sweat and my heart beating fast. What had I been dreaming? It was something bad, very bad, and for some reason, I could remember the smell. Rotten roadkill in the heat of summer. There was something sickly sweet about the smell of rot that lingered on in my mind even though I couldn't remember the rest of the dream.

Besides my rude wake-up, I was feeling a lot better. I was also hungry. That was a good sign. While not exactly refreshed from my nap, I wasn't dragging anymore. I splashed cold water all over my body to wake myself up more and made my way downstairs.

I ordered some bottles of ale from Marge with the promise I would bring the bottles back when we were done. I guess she reused them. Not something I would have thought of doing back home. When you bought bottled beer you tossed out the empties. You could recycle them, but I'd never heard of anyone reusing the bottles for re-bottling more product.

Enough ale to get the three of us nicely sloshed that night, I decided I wanted more of that strong tea from next door. I had some time before I had to meet Illia and a little bit of pick-me-up wouldn't hurt. I was fairly certain at this point that their dark tea had the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. It was only a bonus that it tasted better than coffee.

The sun was so bright when I stepped outside. I had to wait for my eyes to adjust. Still a little sun blind I headed towards the bakery. I was surprised to see Ave sitting at one of the cafe tables.

She looked troubled, her forehead was wrinkled and her lips where pursed. She hunched a bit around her cup and was picking at the edge of the open-faced sandwich she had.