home

search

C52: Exploring Granitehill 2

  A while ter, a young womaered the room, her attention focused on the four bowls oray that she was carrying. Setting it down as she reached the table, she looked up, gng at Niphru a moment lohan at the humans and tilting her head to the side slightly.

  As she began spreading out the bowls and spoons, revealing several extra spoons, she questioned in a ral tone of voice, “Is that a fox? It looks somewhat simir to ohat almost attacked me as a child.”

  Seeing Dawn’s gaze harden, she quickly tinued, “If it is, I mean no harm. I know the differeween a twisted creature and a normal animal.”

  Dawn sighed and rexed before responding, “Sorry, I’m getting tired of people thinking the worst of him. Niphru here is my friend, and he is a fox, but he isn’t normal, he is Awakened. Unfortunately, he hurt himself while saving my life, otherwise he would tell you so himself.”

  The young woman’s eyes lit up at that statement as she sat dowing her elbows oable and using her hands to support her . With an Niphru, she excimed, “Really?! I thought that it was impossible fe Awakened, sihey don’t live near mage towers. That is so cool!”

  She then looked towards Niphru before tinuing, “I am sorry if I offended you by calling you a normal animal, Niphru, it is just extremely rare to meet an Awakened like yourself, and I’ve never heard of a fox being Awakened.”

  Even as she finished addressing Niphru, she turned back to Dawn and tinued, “Anyways, thank you for visiting us, I hope you enjoy my cooking! My brother is still making some sad, but he told me that you were worried about whether the food was safe, so I prove it for you! Oh, and my name is Elena, pleased to meet you!”

  Dawn shook her head at how excited the woman seemed, and while watg her use the extra spoons to eat a spoonful from each bowl, she replied, “Thank you for apologizing, and Niphru seems to be a special case, as he was living in the wild when he Awakened. The mage from the capital said he had never heard of that happening before. And you appear far more eic than your brother does, is that normal or just him feeling bad?”

  After finishiesting of the stew, Elena responded, “Oh, that is normal, he always says I got all the energy between us. And that sounds really iing, maybe more Awakened will start appearing, that would be great! Well, as long as they could avoid the idiots who hate them. We, at least, think they are people too, the st toere in had an Awakened wolf who outlived the mage he bonded with, we liked to spend time with him.”

  Dawn nodded and stood up, walking over to Elena to shake her hand as she said, “I’m gd you are such a nice person. My name is Dawn, and I hope things go better for you here. I heard your brother talking about what happeo drive you here.”

  After shaking hands with Elena, she returo her seat before carefully pg Niphru oable and beginning to feed him some of the stew. Meanwhile, Lara and Elena begaing theirs as the young maurned, carrying several ptes of sad and asking if anyone else wanted some. her Lara nor Dawn did, so he simply set the other two ptes to the side, remarking, “Well, that just means more for us! I hope you like the stew.”

  Dawn finished feeding Niphru and began having her portion of the food, finding it someicy, but quite good, though she didn’t reize most of the ingredients in it. After several spoonfuls, she said, “This is very nibsp; What do you use to make it?

  “Err… I’d rather not say, I don’t want ao be able to copy it, in case we set up shop again here,” Elena replied while looking down.

  Dawn nodded as she responded, “ht, I totally fot about that possibility. I’m sorry for asking in that case.”

  She then turo Lara before asking her, “What do you think of the stew?”

  With a nod, Lara replied, “It is a lot better than I was expeg, I think it is on a simir level to the high-eaurant, I fet their name, I was only there once.”

  Elena smiled at her and excimed, “I’m gd you enjoy it! I’ve always taken pride in my stews, though I’m not nearly as good with anything else.”

  Following this exge, the rest of the meal was rather quiet, though the brother did get some weird looks from Dawn and Lara when he poured some of the stew over his sad.

  Elena finished shortly before Dawn or Lara, and began gathering up empty dishes to return to the kit, making a few trips as the others fioo. As she finished, Dawn asked, “Would I be sidered enough to verify you to the guild?”

  The young man nodded, finishing his mouthful of food before replying, “It should be enough, mages are normally sidered just below those in charge in most pces we’ve been. You’re willing to stand up for us?”

  “Of course,” Dawn replied, “that is part of why I decided to e here, to try to help if I could.”

  “Thank you very much,” the man replied, before turning as his sister came bad asking her, “Sis, could you go back with them and try tister again? I’ve still got quite a bit to eat, and I don’t mind ing the dishes when I finish.”

  “Sure, I don’t mind, I was wanting to go take a walk after finishing ing anyway!” Elena responded, catg the pouch her brother tossed to her in the process and tying it to her waist.

  As they headed outside, Lara put her hand on her sword as a dozen children surrouhem gripping knives and shards of gss. One of them shouted, “You ’t take her, she didn’t do anything!”

  Shaking her head, Elena stepped around Lara, resting a hand on her shoulder, sighing before she replied, “It is okay, everyohey are trying to help, they aren’t like the bad people we told you about from the st town. Please don’t bother the good guards, they are just trying to do their jobs. Maybe we shouldn’t have told you how we got here…”

  Uanding the situatioer, Lara rexed and spoke, “She is right, Dawn here,” she waved towards Dawn, “wao try her cooking and see if she could help them bee guild members, which would make it so more people would pay for her cooking. I’m just here to escort Dawn while she is in town.”

  Hearing this, the children scrutinized Elena for a moment before accepting that she was rexed and not in trouble, then most of them apologized before scattering bato the alleys.

  “I’m sorry about that, the children here were in really poor shape whe here, and I’ve been doing my best to help keep them fed. They are a little overprotective due to that, I hadn’t realized it was to that point, though… I’ll have to have a talk with them tomorrow,” Elena said as she shook her head.

  “Please do, we ’t have them running around threatening people, especially not guards,” Lara remarked.

  Elena o her before leading the way back to the guild, occasionally turning to wave at people they passed.

  Without any further problems, they arrived aered a line, quickly reag the front aing with the man behind the ter. As Elena stated her he man frowned for a moment before looking down and shuffling through the papers beside him, finding one and questioning, “Was your brother here earlier? I had someone here earlier saying they wao open “Elena’s Eats” but cked the requirements.”

  Elena put her hand to her fad sighed before replying, “Yes, that sounds like him alright…”

  At this point Dawn spoke up, “I heard they needed someoo approve of them, would a mage be good enough?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t notice you back there. That is certainly enough, could you please prove you are a mage?” the man responded.

  Dawn nodded, holding up a hand before produg an orb of light with several small balls of fire spinning around it.

  Seeing this, the man’s eyes widened as he spoke, “That is some impressive trol. Thank you, I will firm this,” he then turned back to Elena before tinuing, “I will ighe application fee, as it doesn’t feel right to charge it twi one day, but you will o take some tests to prove you provide quality servid meals, and that requires a fee for the evaluators.”

  After thinking for a moment, Lara cleared her throat before remarking, “I firm the quality of her cooking is high enough, though I ’t say anything about her brother.”

  The man nodded before replying, “Thank you, I will mark off that test, in that case. Now let’s see how much it will cost…”

  Elena just shrugged and put the pouch of s on the ter, surprising the man, before saying, “Don’t give me that shocked look. If you folks weren’t trustworthy, the guild would colpse quite quickly.”

  Hearing this, the man chuckled before nodding, then tinued muttering under his breath as he went through the papers before him. A moment ter, he opehe poud began ting out a number of silver and copper s. As he picked up one , he frowned for a moment before pg it to the side aing another from the bag.

  Cheg to see that none of the others could view the ter, he pulled out a knife, held the , and scraped the it’s surface, a thin peel of silver falling to the ter. He then quickly pulled out a gold and a scale, paring the two before putting them away again and quickly writing a note he handed over with the pouch as he put the back.

  Elena looked at the paper with wide eyes before thanking the man and walking away, holding the pouch tightly.

  As they left the ter, Elena thahem and said they were wele to visit again before rushing out of the building.

  Shard

Recommended Popular Novels