Avarein: Vant

Chapter 16: Winter

"He... really is gone, isn't he."

Jeanne buried her face into Priet's chest, the pair utop their son's old bed. Her voice was muffled from speaking into his shirt, barely a whisper to any of the children outside of the room, silently sharing in their sorrow. Outside their door, Nayte and Lyra sat and listened, shooing away the younger children from the room. Soon enough though, Nayte stood up, signing for Lyra to stay where she was and headed downstairs, directing the other children to start on dinner; enough for the usual six, plus another two. Although normally they wouldn't normally listen to the two who were of age, not seeing them as real adults, that noon even Charlotte could read the tension in the orphanage. The youngest, Ben, took Nayte's place next to Lyra, even him not making a noise as he hugged his doll of a baby brig, the four nubs that served scrunching up towards the bottom and the two small hills on the separate sides of its head touching tips.

"Well, he was bound to grow up one day, wasn't he?"

"It's... still too early. I thought that he would be able to lead a peaceful life forever."

Priet was tempted to call her out on her hypocrisy, but held his tongue. Now wasn't the time. He held her a little tighter, enough so that she wouldn't be able to see his own face if she looked up.

"You can't keep him beside you forever like that..."

His voice was barely a mumble but he was sure she could hear. Nevertheless, Jeanne didn't react.

+++

"Uhhhhh, what was your name again?"

"Nayte."

"Thank you, Nayte. The rest of you too."

Priet looked down towards the vegetable stew, silently comparing it to the meals he had been eating on his journey. The potatoes weren't all completely peeled, with spotty skin peeking through the simple creamy texture of the simmered chicken broth. The carrots and pumpkin were cut unevenly, with the amount of corn outnumbering the peas two to one. Despite that, it was warm, somewhat nostalgic and had its own charm.

"Do you guys do some sort of prayer?"

Jessie shook his head.

"Should we?"

"No, this is perfect. I've met a few nutcases that'll stab me unless I learn their specific, overly long prayer and recite it every time I want to take a bite. This was is simpler and easier."

He looked over to see one child already eating, the youngest of them all. Perhaps he had been a little too cautious with children. With two claps, he grabbed the attention of the whole table, before smiling the best he could with his wife suddenly leaning on him.

"Let's eat."

He managed to get through a whole spoonful of stew before Jeanne was staring up at him from his lap, eyes still red and tear stains flowing down to her neck. She pointed at her open mouth, expecting something that Priet didn't exactly understand. After swallowing, he asked cautiously, hoping the children around him wouldn't grow up to be like her.

"You want me to... vomit food into your mouth and feed you like a mother bird?"

Jeanne almost immediately closed her mouth and shot up, almost colliding straight into Priet's chin. She went back to pointing towards her gaping mouth and although Priet now had the general idea of what she wanted, he was certainly hesitant. Somewhat annoyed, he gathered his courage before picking up the spoon that lay next to her and dipped it into her stew. A look up told him that he was right, the smug look of preemptive satisfaction creeping up on her face. He sighed, before feeding her as if she was a child. She seemed somewhat satisfied, although Priet wasn't enjoying the attention the two of them were getting, although he was thankful her demands weren't getting to the point they were sharing spit. A moment later, the group heard a knock at the door, from a particularly annoyed sounding peacekeeper.