Book 1, Verse 18

“You’ll sleep in the main hall, understand?” Niels asked.

“Yes. Thank you again Niels.” I walked over to a few of the chairs and began pulling them together in order to create a makeshift bed for myself.

The sun had already set, and there were only two candles lighting up the entire establishment; the one Niels was holding, and the one he had left burning on top of the counter to his bar.

“Don’t mention it.” He yawned, then turned away and went towards the back of the tavern. I watched as the little candle he was holding disappeared into the darkness, and soon after I heard a door shut.

Once he was gone, I took the little candle he had given me and set it on top of the table nearest to my chair bed. As I laid there in the near-complete darkness, I noticed a strange smell.

Sitting up, I sniffed the air a few more times. It didn’t smell good.

Holding up the candle, I slowly walked around the tavern in the dark a few times, trying to find the source of the smell; but no matter where I went, the smell was the same strength.

“Oh, right.” I stopped wandering around the tavern and sat back down on my chair bed, placing the candle on the nearest table.

I hadn’t bathed in two days. Of course I was going to stink.

Maybe we’d pass a river during the trip and I would get the chance to bathe. I wasn’t an exceptional swimmer, but I could handle myself in a small stream.

I thought about Vivian, then immediately smacked myself in the head.

With that out of the way I took hold of the little candle that Niels had given me and blew it out.

I wasn’t concerned about Vivian finding her way to Niels’ place. She’d been in Clearwood longer than I had; if she wanted to stay out late, that was her business.

I drifted off to sleep relatively quickly.

~~~

I awoke to the sound of chairs scraping across a wooden floor. Even when I opened my eyes, I could barely see anything in the near total darkness. The only light present was the very dim moonlight sneaking in through the windows next to the front door of the tavern.

“Mmph, Vivian, is that you?” I mumbled.

The sound of chairs moving around continued unimpeded.

“Yes.” She replied quietly.

I yawned and nodded, then turned over only my chair bed. Even though it was made of wood, sleep had an amazing way of making hard surfaces seem like pillowy heavens once your eyes were closed.

Remembering that I had resolved to ask her about what she was doing, I decided to ask at least one question.

“What kept you out so late?” I yawned again.

The sound of chairs moving stopped.

“I was just wandering.” She replied absently.

Her vague answers would normally have made me more curious, but I was too sleepy to care at the moment.

“Alright. If you say so.” I tried closing my eyes to go back to sleep, and then my nose caught a whiff of the salt pork. As soon as that happened, my stomach rumbled.

The sound of a cloak rustling made me convinced that Vivian was now laying down on her own chair bed.

“Um, Vivian, is it okay if I have some of that salt pork?” I asked quietly. “Niels only gave me a few biscuits when we chatted about him helping us.”

“N-no, you can’t.” She replied quickly. “It’s for the trip.”

I groaned internally.

“I could consider it your church tithe for the month.” I said, only half-joking.

She laughed awkwardly and didn’t respond.

I frowned and lay there as I eventually heard Vivian’s breathing even out and fall into a steady rhythm. My stomach grumbled again.

Sitting up, I glanced over to where she was sleeping in the darkness. I could just barely make out the shape of her cloak that she was now using like a blanket.

Carefully, I crept off of my chairs and snuck over to her, then started patting the ground around her chairs gently, looking for the waxed piece of linen cloth that had stored the salt pork when we had left the butcher shop.

After a few hungry minutes of searching, I couldn’t find it anywhere near her. I forced myself to stand up as quietly as I could and slunk over to her.

I let my eyes roam over her sleeping form, hoping that I’d find the waxed package anywhere on her figure; but despite my efforts, it didn’t seem like she was hiding anything on her.

Then again, she was a thief; she probably knew all sorts of ways to hide things in plain sight.

I briefly considered trying to remove her cloak to see if she had hidden it between her body and it, and ultimately decided that it would probably only serve to wake and upset her.

With an empty stomach I walked back to my chair bed and laid down once more.

“Oh, right.” I muttered.

Since my eyes were already closing, I put my hands together and curled myself tight on the chairs while I slept, and I prayed that tomorrow I would get a good meal.

Maybe it would work; that would be a nice thing, waking up and having a good breakfast for the first time in two–nearly three–days.

My dreams were strange.

Very strange.

There was a crowd of people standing in an open field.

They were all looking at someone who was standing on a large rock that jutted out of the ground.

The sun was beating down on the crowd mercilessly, and yet they were all singing and smiling.

They were singing hymns, and there was one crystal clear voice that cut through all the others and was guiding them through the song.

It was Vivian.

She stood near the rock, in front of it, and was singing like an angel. Her wavy brown hair was long and, despite some dirt on her face, she looked radiant.

The singing finished, and the crowd hushed as the man on the rock led them through a prayer of some kind.

I’d never heard a prayer like that; I’d heard the words before, yet the conviction in them and the steadfastness that they were spoken with made it seem like the man wasn’t speaking only for himself, but for the entire congregation.

When the crowd opened their eyes, I realized who the man on the rock was.

It was me.

“Shinko, are you awake yet?”

My eyes flew open, and the dream vanished as quickly as it came.

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a spirit.”