A First Date

I woke up to a familiar warmth and orange light shining over my bed. I immediately noticed that I was no longer fatigued. I laid in bed, turning over on my side. Thinking back to yesterday, it all seemed like a dream. So much had happened, so much had truly almost gone wrong. I looked at my hands, they still had flakes of Tiaria’s blood on them. I gripped my fist tight. I felt the sudden urge to take a bath. I sat up in bed, adjusting my robe. I had a lot of things on my mind, among them was the slowly returning feeling of memories. While I couldn’t yet make out images or sounds in my memories, I could now make out emotions. Joy, sadness, anger, I could feel them in my lost memories. I held my head with my hand. I took in a deep breath and stood up from my bed.

I walked down the stairs of the Inn towards the restaurant area when I was met by the usual peppy Carie.

“Morning mister!” Carie said as she waved at me.

“Morning Carie, is there somewhere I can take a bath?” I asked

“Sure! I can have a bath ready for you in your room if you would like.” Carie happily replied.

I gave Carie a thumbs up and she ran off to the back room. A second later she came out with a large wooden barrel and began to roll it up the stairs. As amusing as it was to watch her struggle, I walked up to the barrel and helped her push it up the stairs. Once we got up the stairs Carie told me she could handle it from there and rolled the barrel to my room. She set the barrel opening-side up and then started running back and forth up and down the stairs with buckets of water slowly filling up the barrel. Perhaps I had asked for something quite troublesome.

After around fifteen minutes Carie managed to get the barrel filled about halfway with water.

“Alright, feel free to take your bath, once you are done let me know.”

“Alright, thanks again.” I said.

Carie waved at me and then left the room, closing the thin door behind her. I waited a moment before taking my robe off. I stepped into the barrel and sunk myself into the luke-warm water. The water rose up to my neck. I laid back in the barrel, relaxing my muscles. It had been a crazy week. So much had happened, having a few moments to do nothing and clean myself was nice. I scrubbed my skin and hair, trying to get as clean as I could in my small bath.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but at some point I decided that I was done bathing. I felt clean enough, and at that point staying in the bath water would only make me dirty again. I stepped out of the barrel. Carie had placed a towel on my bed and I grabbed it to dry myself off. After I was dry enough I placed the towel on the clothes line situated across the top of the window and put my robe back on. Surprisingly my robe didn’t seem dirty at all, despite everything that it had been through.

I walked down the stairs, heading towards the restaurant area of the Inn. I wasn’t quite sure what time it was. As I reached the last step I locked eyes with Carie.

“Done with your bath mister?” She asked.

“Yes, thank you. It was nice.” I said with a smile.

“Okay, I will go empty the bath water when I have a moment.” Carie said with a professional tone.

“Sure thing.” I responded.

I took another couple steps before I scanned the area. Sitting at my usual table was Tiaria, looking at me. I gave her a wave and started walking over to her. I placed my hand on her head and gave her a pat while sitting next to her. Tiaria delicately guided my hand away from her head.

“Let’s not do that in public.” Tiaria whispered. She almost seemed sad to have said that.

Carie ran up to us with two soup bowls in her hands and placed them in front of us.

“I hope you don’t mind, you were taking longer than usual so I asked for soup for us both.” Tiaria said as she started eating the soup.

“That's fine.” I replied

“Did you finally bathe?” Tiaria asked.

“Yes, was it that obvious?” I asked with a worried face.

“No, I just noticed last night when I helped you into your bed that you had some dirt on you.”

Tiaria and I shared small talk for a little while. I asked her a few times if she was okay and she swore she was more than fine, and thanked me profusely for healing her. She almost sounded guilty, which I was curious about, but didn’t push into. She also had a new dress on, with no hole. It was peach colored with the same make as her other dress. After we had finished our meal I decided to ask something that I had on my mind.

“Let’s go on a date.” I said while looking at Tiaria.

Tiaria looked at me frozen for a moment before turning beat red.

“A date!?” Tiaria started with a yell but quieted herself to a whisper by the end of her question.

I looked at her with a completely serious face. “Yes, a date.”

Tiaria blinked a few times before looking down and to her side.

“Sure, what do you want to do?” She asked.

“Let’s go shopping and then get dinner, how does that sound?” I asked.

“That sounds fine.” Tiaria paused for a second before looking back up at me with a conspicuous look on her face. “But, why a date?”

“I like you, and want to go places with you.” I answered completely honestly.

“Oh.” Tiaria said, not expecting such a direct answer.

The truth was that my memories were coming back to me slowly. They were mostly still just feelings, but one thing I had begun feeling recently was that I shouldn’t waste time telling Tiaria about my developing feelings for her. I stood up and put my hand out towards Tiaria.

“Well, should we get started?” I asked.

Tiaria gave me a smile before taking my hand.

“Alright.” Tiaria stood up next to me.

“Can we get you some more clothes first?” She asked with a laugh.