by Pirateaba
“Get off of her.”
The Gnoll hesitated. Then she leapt off of Erin, her needle claws digging into Erin’s flesh one last time. She ran to Ryoka and circled the girl anxiously.
Slowly, Erin stood up and looked at Ryoka. The other girl met her eyes. The anger that had been smoldering in her gaze was suddenly gone, extinguished by the brief fight. She looked down at Mrsha, and then back at Erin.
Neither girl seemed to know what to say. Erin stood and stared at Ryoka, still feeling the pain in her chest from where the girl had poked her. Her ears were still red, and she was angry—
Until she looked at Ryoka’s fingers. And Ryoka’s fury was gone too. She sagged, and suddenly seemed a hundred years old.
“I’m sorry, Erin.”
“No. I’m sorry too.”
Awkwardly, Erin walked over and helped Ryoka sit down. The Asian girl winced as she sat and touched her chest.
“What was that?”
“Uh, [Minotaur Punch]. It’s…a skill. I shouldn’t have used it. I’m sorry.”
“Strong. If I hadn’t blocked it would have cracked my ribs. Nearly did anyways.”
Ryoka took a few deep breaths, wincing. She nodded at Mrsha as the Gnoll circled her legs.
“I’m sorry Mrsha bit you.”
“No—it was my—”
“It was my fault. I shouldn’t have said any of that.”
Ryoka stared blankly at the table. Erin didn’t know what to say. At least, Ryoka looked up.
“Strong. I guess that’s what levels give you, isn’t it? Power.”
“Yeah?”
Erin didn’t know what Ryoka meant, but the girl nodded. She stared at the table again, and her hands.
“If I had levels, I could have saved them. Maybe.”
From an army? Erin opened her mouth and then closed it again. Ryoka’s eyes glistened as she looked at Mrsha. The Gnoll was just staring up at her. Slowly, the girl bent and patted the Gnoll on the head. She curled up around Ryoka’s feet. Shivering.
Silence fell as the two sat with each other. Mrsha’s rapid breathing slowed as she curled around Ryoka, and as time passed by, her body relaxed. Her breath came more slowly, and then crawled. Mrsha slept.
Ryoka stared down at Mrsha’s slumbering body. She looked at Erin, and saw the other girl was barely hurt. But Ryoka could feel her lungs still working for air, and felt the pain from that one punch in her chest. She smiled bitterly.
“I guess I’m weak, huh?”
So weak. Even Erin was stronger. Ryoka stared at her hands. They shook. The bloody bandages around her stumps were coming loose. Erin watched as Ryoka raised them.
“I’m so weak. I couldn’t save anyone. I just watched them die, Erin.”
“I know.”
Erin knew what Ryoka meant. The girl looked at Erin. She was shaking all over now. Ryoka was coming apart at the seams. Her eyes were full of liquid. Tears.
“I tried—”
“I know.”
“I really did—”
“I know, Ryoka. I know.”
Ryoka grabbed at Erin’s arm. Her grip was strong, but she was shaking.
“I couldn’t do a thing, Erin. Not one thing. They’re all dead because of me.”
“It’s not your fault, Ryoka. It’s not.”
“It is. I caused this.”
“No.”
“I couldn’t do anything.”
Erin hugged Ryoka. She felt the girl freeze up, and then Ryoka broke down. She began to sob, slowly, and then into Erin’s shirt. Erin held Ryoka as the tears came at last, the dam breaking, the unshed sorrows spilling out in the safety of Erin’s inn at last.
In the silence of the night, Erin held Ryoka as the girl cried into her arms. Tears rolled down the other girl’s face. She grabbed Erin, clutching at her shirt as if she were hanging on for her life.
“I couldn’t do anything, Erin. I couldn’t—”
“I know. Shh. I know.”
From the staircase, another girl stared down at the two girls sitting in the common room. She spoke not a word. Out in the snowy landscape, a skeleton prowled, hunting, killing. He did it to feel alive.
And on the floor of the inn, a small Gnoll slept. She didn’t hear the agony in Ryoka’s voice or even notice the tears that fell onto her snow-white fur. She slept, not caring if she lived or died when she woke.
Ryoka felt the world spinning around her. Nothing was right. But there was someone hugging her, her one anchor in a world full of pain. She cried into Erin’s arms, letting all of the pain out, sobbing and wishing the past few day shad never happened. Wishing she had the power to change the past. Wishing she were stronger. Remembering the dead.
Outside, the snow began to fall again. More and more, until it seemed the world would be covered in it. On Izril, Terandria, and even Baleros and Chandrar. The snow fell as Ryoka wept.
2.33
Erin woke up to the sound of snuffling. She opened her eyes fast; when you hear something large and unfamiliar moving around your face, sleep tends to be a lesser concern.
To Erin’s relief she wasn’t being attacked by mutant caterpillar pig monsters. Instead, she saw Mrsha, the small white-furred Gnoll rooting around her cupboards. She was pawing through Erin’s meticulously organized shelves, sniffing at what she found.
“Hey.”
Erin said it softly, but Mrsha still freaked out. The Gnoll turned and scampered out of the kitchen, fur standing straight on end.
“No, wait, I didn’t mean—”
The young woman rolled out of her blankets, tried to stand, tripped, and smacked her toe against cupboard.
When Erin had stopped whimpering she found Mrsha in the common room, hiding under a table and staring at Erin. It was like having a wild animal in her inn, except that Mrsha’s eyes were far more intelligent than any animal Erin had ever seen. She stared at Erin warily as the girl halted.
“Hi Mrsha. You’re awake, aren’t you? Are you hungry? Do you want food?”
Erin kept her voice low and soothing. Mrsha made no move, but she backed up a bit as Erin stepped forwards. The girl stopped.
What should she do? Ryoka was currently upstairs, sleeping, and Erin had no desire to wake her. Carefully, Erin walked back into the kitchen and looked around.
Mrsha’s nose twitched as Erin came back out a few minutes later with some fried sausage and scrambled eggs. She stared fixedly at it, but she retreated to another table, hiding between the chair legs as Erin approached.
Carefully, making no sudden moves, Erin put the plate on the floor. Mrsha stared at it, and then watched as Erin retreated to the kitchen. Erin hid herself behind the door frame and waited.
After a few seconds of staring at the plate and Erin’s half-visible head, Mrsha made her move. She darted out from the table and stopped at the plate. She began to gobble down the food on the plate, licking her paws greedily as she scarfed the food.
It was adorable to Erin the way Mrsha licked the plate clean with her tongue and washed her paws and face. Adorable, and heartbreaking. Ryoka had told her what had happened to Mrsha’s tribe. She was all alone now.
What was she supposed to do next? Mrsha burped and Erin decided to attempt contact once more. Her ankle still hurt from Mrsha’s bite yesterday, but she had been punching Ryoka at the time.
When Erin approached again, this time with a glass of water in her hands, Mrsha tensed, but didn’t run.
“Hey cutie. Here’s a glass of water. Are you thirsty?”
Mrsha peered suspiciously up at Erin. She accepted the glass of water and drank messily. She was still clumsy enough that she slopped a lot of water onto the floor, but Erin didn’t care. Mrsha flinched a bit as Erin sat next to her, until Erin offered her a hand.
“I’m sorry I kicked you last night. Ryoka and I just had a fight. But I’m not mean, okay?”
The Gnoll child blinked at Erin’s hand. Then she sniffed it. Erin kept very still as Mrsha’s whiskers tickled her skin. The Gnoll
grabbed Erin’s hand with her own paws, and Erin was relieved not to feel the sharp claws, but instead the much softer pads on the Gnoll’s paws.
Mrsha inspected each of Erin’s fingers with great interest, flexing them, pulling them apart and together, even patting them. Then she hesitated, and licked Erin’s skin.
“Hey! That tickles!”
Erin laughed and pulled away. Mrsha looked alarmed, but when she saw Erin laughing something changed. The Gnoll put her paws on Erin’s leg and looked at Erin inquisitively.
“Go ahead. I won’t move.”
Erin did her best, but she wasn’t prepared for Mrsha’s curiosity. The Gnoll prowled around her, poking at Erin’s body, her sides, even patting Erin’s breasts which elicited a yelp of surprise. The small Gnoll was soon all over Erin, and Erin was laughing as she finger-combed Mrsha’s hair when Ryoka walked downstairs.
Ryoka Griffin was still numb, but better. Incomparably better than yesterday, in truth. She remembered the empty bleakness in her soul like a nightmare. Now she was still hollow, but there was something inside of her. Something warm that came from a full night of sleep in a warm bed and hot meal.
She walked softly down the stairs and saw Mrsha sitting in Erin’s lap as the young woman ran her hands through Mrsha’s soft hair. Erin was humming a song under her breath, and Mrsha was swaying to the sound.
Ryoka paused and watched the scene for a little while. Erin was singing the doe rei mi song.
“Me, a name I call myself. Fa, far, a long, long way to run…”
Mrsha’s eyes were closed. The child wasn’t smiling, but her face was…peaceful. Ryoka wiped her eyes and waited until finished stinging before she walked into the room.
“Ryoka!”
The Gnoll’s eyes shot open at Ryoka’s name. She leapt out of Erin’s lap and ran on all fours around Ryoka.
“Mrsha. Hi.”
Ryoka raised her hands as Mrsha leapt around her like an excited dog. Mrsha stood up and reached for her. Ryoka hesitated.
“Here.”
Erin lifted Mrsha up. The Gnoll squirmed, but then started licking Ryoka’s face and sniffing her. Ryoka recoiled, but held in place as Erin stared at her.
“Morning, Erin.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Ryoka scratched at her hair. She avoided staring at Erin. The two stood awkwardly until Mrsha wriggled out of Erin’s hands. That broke the spell.
“You want food? I’ve got lots.”
“Sure.”
Ryoka sat awkwardly at a table as Erin disappeared into the kitchen. Mrsha tried to follow Erin in, but Ryoka called her back. Mrsha sat on the floor and fidgeted until Erin came back with crepes of all things. Ryoka stared at the steaming food until Erin plonked down some butter and a bowl of sugar.
“How…?”
It wasn’t that Erin had made the crepes; it was that she’d been in the kitchen for less than twenty minutes and she’d already fried up a stack large enough for Ryoka, Mrsha, and Erin herself. And she’d managed to cook some more sliced sausage up on another plate.
“Oh, I’ve got [Advanced Cooking] and I figured out how to make pancakes earlier. Try some, they’re really good!”
Erin handed Ryoka a fork and then dug into her own plate. Mrsha was already patting one of the hot crepes with a paw, waiting until it was cool enough for her to eat.
“No, here, darling.”
Gently, Erin wrapped Mrsha’s paw around a fork and showed her how to cut and pick up the crepes. Mrsha was clumsy, but she soon began to spear oversized bites of crepe and dip them into butter and sugar before transferring them into her mouth.
Normally that kind of excessive gluttony would be remarked on—at least in Ryoka’s house. But Erin was doing the same and Ryoka herself put back quite a number of crepes before she even began to feel full.
“That was good. Really good.”
“I’m glad. You ate more than I thought, but we’ve got leftovers. I guess Lyon can eat them.”
Erin covered the plate with a cloth as Ryoka frowned.
“Lyon? Who’s that?”
“Oh—oh, right! I forgot, you haven’t met Lyon! She’s probably still sleeping upstairs.”
Ryoka’s eyes flicked to the stairwell. She hadn’t even noticed there were other people in the inn. But now that she was finally thinking again, a hundred questions and thoughts were pushing through her mind.
She couldn’t help it. It was her nature. But part of Ryoka felt she shouldn’t be wondering and planning. Everything she did hurt people. What good were her opinions?
But then Ryoka looked at Erin as the girl laughed at Mrsha’s attempts to steal sugar from the bowl. Flawed as she might be, she could still help Erin who sometimes didn’t think enough.
“So this Lyonette is a new employee? Did you hire Ceria too, or is she in the city?”
Erin paused.
“Um. No. Ceria’s gone north. She’s gone back to adventuring.”
Ryoka held quite still as her thoughts paused. She didn’t swear, and she clamped down on her immediate response. Because Mrsha was sitting in her chair, happy and bloated. Ryoka would slice off the rest of her fingers before she disturbed the child’s moment of peace.
“I guess a lot has happened. You’d better tell me all of it, Erin.”
“Oh—sure. But uh…”
Erin’s eyes slid sideways to Mrsha. The kid was staring at a crumb on the table.
“Uh, what are you going to do about her, Ryoka?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said she’s by herself? Does she have any…anyone…?”
Ryoka closed her eyes. Something dark squeezed her heart.
“I don’t know. I…doubt it. And I have no idea who to ask.”
Memory flared in her head.
“What about that Gnoll you know? Krshia, right? Could we ask her for help?”
Mrsha’s ears perked up at the word ‘Gnoll’. She looked over at the two Humans. They exchanged a glance.
“Um, well, the food was good, right Ryoka?”
“Right.”
“How about I find something for Mrsha to do? Hey Mrsha, you must be bored. Do you want to play with uh, some things, sweetie?”
Mrsha cocked her head at Erin. Ryoka stared too, raising her eyebrows silently. Erin hesitated, and then ran into the kitchen. Both Gnoll and Human heard banging and doors opening, and then reemerged with an armful of ladles, rolling pins, and other cooking equipment.
As a ploy to distract Mrsha, Ryoka thought it could never work. But she’d forgotten that Mrsha wasn’t a child in a first world country, and she’d probably been banned from hanging around the cooking pots in the Stone Spears tribe’s camp. She immediately scooted over to the cooking equipment and began inspecting it with interest.
Erin sighed as she and Ryoka relocated a few tables down to talk. They kept their voices low, in case the young Gnoll was listening.
“Good thinking, Erin.”
“I guess she’ll play with those for a while. But I don’t know what to do, Ryoka. She needs someone to look after her, and proper toys and stuff. Not…”
“I know.”
“And she’s so sad, Ryoka.”
“You can tell?”
Ryoka stared at Mrsha as the Gnoll inspected the various cooking utensils Erin had brought out. She was half like a normal toddler in that she tasted everything, but she was clearly older and smaller. It must be a Gnoll quality to want to smell and taste everything.
Erin nodded.
“She’s just like a kid. I mean, a Human kid. She’s really curious, but every now and then when I was playing with her she’d…how bad was it?”
“Bad.”
Ryoka saw the Gnolls falling around her, and the Goblins screaming and cutting both Drakes and Gnolls apart. She shuddered. Erin stared at Ryoka, and then looked at Mrsha.
“What should we do with her?”
We. It was just like Erin, to imme
diately put herself into the problem and look for a solution. Ryoka half-smiled.
“I guess we need to talk to Krshia. She’d probably be willing to help, right?”
She vaguely remembered Erin having a good relationship with the Gnoll, but now Erin hesitated. She looked at the table and twiddled her thumbs.
“Um. There’s this thing with Krshia. ”
“What thing?”
“Well—”
Erin began explaining in a rather confused way a story about Gnolls and burning shops when Ryoka heard someone moving upstairs. Ryoka turned, and saw Lyon.
The young woman stood staring down at the room. Mrsha had gone silent as she appeared at the head of the stairs, but Lyonette’s eyes were fixed on Ryoka and Erin. She stared at the two girls, and then spoke in a haughty voice.
“I am awake. Where is breakfast?”
Ryoka watched Erin’s face change in a second. Her bright smile disappeared and she sighed. Ryoka stared at the other girl.
“Who the hell is that, Erin?”
“Oh—that’s Lyon.”
The other girl had heard her. She descended the stairs with chin raised.
“That is Lyonette de Marquin, peon.”
She was wearing somewhat ragged travelling clothes, and her hands were dirty from work. But she still conducted herself like some of the haughty girls Erin had sometimes seen, those born into money.
“Ryoka, meet Lyonette du…something. She’s uh, an employee I’ve hired.”
“I am pleased to meet you, Ryoka. I trust you will conduct yourself with the appropriate manners in my presence?”
Ryoka eyed Lyon as Erin scowled. She shrugged.
“Perhaps.”
Lyonette’s brows flashed together, but before she could speak, Erin interrupted.
“I’ve got some crepes in the kitchen, Lyonette. You can have them or some porridge. Or cereal. Help yourself.”
The haughty girl sniffed, but she went without another word. Ryoka stared at Erin.
“An employee?”
“Sort of. I mean, yes, but she’s not a good one.”
Erin rubbed at her eyes as Lyonette poked her head back into the common room.
“Where are the forks?”
“The drawer next to the cutting board.”
