Lucidity

Chapter Twelve: Uncovered

The village had a new found appreciation for the travellers and indulged them, the woman and the two children in a free meal in the public house and the core group in rooms as well. While he was in the town's favour, Dale managed to get free supplies to make a temporary linguistic brew that would lead to flawed translation but would facilitate communication. This made both Oburon, who now could talk in a language with his least disliked kind of pain, and Caitlyn, who no longer had to battle with Thestian grammar, extremely grateful. Especially since there was a lot to discuss and even those who wanted nothing to do with the village were grateful for some grub and a bed.

"I was a merchant's wife," admitted the woman, who was called Lin, "And almost everywhere we went there were raiders, so it was crucial I knew how to defend myself."

Junior and Hjalmar brooded together, Lin's ableness in a fight not exactly compatible with the Surtrenan ideals they'd been raised with. Hazhil, on the other hand, was enjoying the access to children. "Are they yours?"

"I adopted them," Lin curtly responded, not wanting to go into much detail about it. Anwyn now chimed in, "One of them protected me. I've tried to thank him but I don't think he's listening to me..."

"That must have your imagination. You were stuck in an illusion, so it's wouldn't be surprising," shot back Lin, letting out her aggression on her steak. This didn't stop Anwyn from saying, "But I heard him talk to me. He said he was protecting me."

Lin sneered at her, "Exactly. At that point in time, you and he couldn't have communicated. It was all a figment of your imagination."

Anwyn still wasn't convinced but there was no way of proving she was correct so she gave up. Instead, she started feeding bits of food to Nokia.

At a different section of the table, Yaz leaned over to Junior, "Were you hurt in the battle?"

"Why're you asking? Were you scared for me?", he asked, coyly wrapping an arm around her. She shoved him and replied, "I was worried about all of you. I would've come but they pointed out someone needed to look after the supplies. Besides, it was a good chance to get to know Caitlyn and Oburon."

Well, not really getting to know them. They weren't exactly talkative. But she liked Oburon a great deal, he seemed nice. Caitlyn also seemed to have nany virtues, but Yaz felt like something was distancing her from the others. It felt as if she were concealing something, but then again, Yaz didn't exactly feel comfortable spilling out her entire life story infront of these people so she couldn't blame her.

"Well, you needn't have worried about me. Hjalmar needed it more. Or Kosa. She almost ended up Corpsa," Junior dryly joked, still sore from Lin having stolen his final target. Once upon a time he would have been glad. He used to hate combat and fighting in the war, but time had healed wounds and made him stronger. He wasn't that weak little boy anymore.

"Look, I never wanted to have to do this or anything and it's kind of against my standard moral code but... Can you teach me how to fight? Just some basics but I don't want to be so helpless again. I want to be able to help protect people," said Yaz, a sombre expression on her face. She'd never been one for fighting or combat but today had made her realise; if she wanted to be able to roam Lypera without getting hurt, then she needed to know how to defend herself. In Surtren, she'd always had her brothers and friends to protect her, though it was rare anything ever turned nasty. But there was a difference between trusting family with your safety and trusting Junior with your safety. If he ever had to choose between saving Hazhil or Hjalmar and her, she had no doubt he'd leave her to rot. As he should, those two had known each other for a long time now.

Junior looked at her, surprised and impressed, and nodded. With a tight smile, he promised, "Tomorrow."

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