Working Title III: You Meddling Mortals

Chapter 7 - It's So Beautiful Here

A cold dew coated Sinn's face and the fur under which he slept. Adeline laid neatly in the bend of his legs, as she always did. Aster, Bon Qui-Qui and the Patches lay in around the fire in their bedrolls.

He shifted his legs to wake Adeline. She gave him but one eye open.

"Papa!" Her wagging tail gave away her excitement at his waking.

"How long have you been awake sweetie?'

"Oh! Uh...since the sun was asleep? It wasn't that bad though. I did like you told me to do when I'm done sleeping and you're not. I rested my eyes and pretended to sleep."

"Good girl sweetness."

"Yeah!" She turned to face him. He tail continued to beat against his sleeping fur. "...Papa?"

"Yes, Adeline."

"We've been following these people for awhile now. They're really nice."

"I know."

"Are...are you gonna...?"

"No, Adeline. I don't think so. I think there's something afoot here."

"A...foot?" Adeline rolled onto her back and extended one of her front paws. She opened her mouth in anticipation. Sinn scratched her chin and smiled.

"Do you remember how your Mama died?"

Adeline paused and rolled back onto her stomach.

"I miss Mama."

"I think these people are tracking down who killed your Mama."

Adeline paused in thought. "...I miss home. But it isn't home without Mama. It's just an empty house."

As Sinn stared at Adeline, his heart broke. A strange day, he recalled. A shrine at a cliff side ransacked and pillaged, a priestess of {God of Nature} dismembered and strung up for all to see within miles and poor Adeline, hiding in a wicker basket previously used to hold dyes. Stranger when he realized that the voice he was hearing came directly from her.

"Don't you want to know who did it?"

"I don't know." Adeline twisted her neck to look at Bon Qui-Qui. She squinted. "The big one wants to know. And I think the man with the cloud on his head wants to know too."

"Will we help them?" He asked her.

Adeline turned her head back toward him and gave a slow blink. "Yes. Yes we will."

"So it's settled."

"Yes Papa. We're the good guys now." She nestled back into the bend of his knees and closed her eyes. Her breaths were slow and measured, and a content look was stuck on her face.

Sinn watched the sun rise. He'd thought about it; it was curious that anyone had discovered that shrine, save for him. Even better, why kill an old hermit of a priestess with a congregation of one? He'd let that woman set up in his woods, he'd had a soft spot for men and women of the cloth though he himself thought the gods ignored him. Perhaps by being good to the members of the clergy, he'd find his way into some deity's good graces before it was too late.

Patches stirred.

"Sin."

"Patches."

"Puppy Dog." noted Patches. In response, Adeline opened one eye and gave one wag.

A silence stuck in the air. After just a few moments too long, Patches shrugged and asked "So...breakfast?" Sinn gave a nod in exchange and silently walked over to the fire to get it started.