Chapter 107: Did you love this girl? (3)

We were packing our horses. Pula had come out with various supplies, dried meat, energy cakes and a full water bag. Pula was chatting with Kerrass about something and Saffron approached me.

There was a distance now, between us. We were no longer lovers and I no longer looked at her with any kind of desire beyond the aesthetic of knowing that I was looking at a beautiful woman. We were friends but I knew that we would, never again, be closer than that.

She grinned as she approached.

“So this is goodbye.” I told her with a smile.

Alright, we were close friends.

“It seems that way.” She told me.

“Do I get a hug?”

She laughed and threw her arms round me and kissed me on the cheek. “Of course you get a hug.”

“Can I ask a question?”

“Sure.”

“How did I do?”

She laughed. “Why did the creator give men their pride?” She grinned at me. Before tipping her head over onto one side to regard me, considering.

“Better than I expected.” She told me after a minute or two before smiling a more gentle smile “Much, much better than I expected to be fair.”

I nodded acceptance. “Then I will take that.”

“You should. Kerrass had told me that my expectations should be pretty high.”

We laughed before she hugged me again. “Come back and see us again Lord Frederick.” She grinned wickedly and the desire flashed across me for a moment. “Maybe you can show me some more of the tricks you pick up on the road,”

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Ok, so we were close friends with the potential of some benefits at a future date.

“I will.”

She walked away to say her farewells to Kerrass and help him pry a weeping Sally from the Witcher's leg.

“High Praise,” Pula told me as he approached and held his hand out which I took and shook firmly.

“Really?”

“Oh yes. She doesn't often invite people back. Normally it's me that has to do the inviting. Just for the record though, you would be most welcome. Come back and see us when you're in this area of the world.” He smiled at me. “Listen though, could you do me a favour?” He asked.

“You mean other than making sure that you get a copy of my notes?”

He laughed as I had intended.

“Well obviously that. But Kerrass.” he pointed to where Kerrass was accepting his own hug from Saffron. “Don't judge him too harshly. Believe it or not, he likes you.”

“You are joking,” I told him. “How can you tell?” Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“Because you're not lying in a ditch somewhere with your throat slit.” He said. At the time I wasn't convinced that he was joking. Now I'm more sure. “But seriously, you're the first person he's ever brought here. He respects you enough for that. Just....Be gentle when you come to write all of this up.”

“I will.”

He left. Sally had been avoiding me but when Pula had walked off a little way Saffron tackled me from behind with a hard and fast embrace. The godling was crying. “Will you come back and see us?” She asked through the tears.

“Of course I will.” I told her and smiled as I remembered our arrival. “I'll even bring you a present.”

“YAY!” She did a little dance. I laughed at how fast she had gone from tears to laughter before climbing on my horse moving to go. But I hadn't realised that Kerrass wasn't following yet. “

So answer honestly Saff.” He said to her from the back of his own horse. “How did he do?”

She laughed for a long while before considering him in the same way that she had looked at me earlier.

“Pretty good.” She told him as though she was saying it grudgingly. “”Top twenties. High Top twenties.”

A look of comical horror crossed his face.

“But you told me that I was only in the top thirty.” he protested.

“Did I?” She was fighting to keep a smile from her face. “So I did.”

“Son of a Bitch.” Kerrass snarled as he kicked his horse past mine and onto the path.

I was laughing and bowed my gratitude to Saffron who blew me a kiss.

I waved again and turned my horse to follow Kerrass.

It was later that night when he made me promise not to write about that library and the people guarding and maintaining it.

-

The three of us gathered in front of the three graves. The horses had been resupplied as Kerrass knew where Pula's hidden cache's of food were. We had refilled our water skins and Ariadne had gone off to make contact with the various people that she wanted to make contact with.

I didn't want to leave. But there was absolutely no reason to stay.

Once Ariadn'e's contacts arrived she would go back to carrying out her own research and fulfilling her own feudal duties. Not mention getting ready for a wedding. The place was a mess and all that would be happening would be that we would be reminded of happier times while at the same time being confronted with the bad.

But I didn't want to go.

It felt insulated against the rest of the world. The rain didn't help. The constant noise of water on grass, earth and the leaves drew the ear so that I couldn't, or rather my brain couldn't wind itself up to dealing with anything else. It was soothing and gentle in the way that Sunshine, wind or cold is not.

I decided then that I quite like the rain. It's when you combine rain with wind that you tend to get into trouble.

I turned to Kerrass. “Do you want to say anything yet?” I asked him.

“Hell yes.” He said, before taking a deep breath. He was still in that phase of his little episodes that I called “wobbly,” there was a slight tremble in his voice and in his hands. “Goddess but there is a lot I want to say.” He said after a few moments. “But not here. First I want to find the bastards that did this and then I want to kill them.” He said it through gritted teeth. “Then I will say the things that I want to say.”

We stood a bit longer in silence.

Kerrass turned away abruptly and without warning, from the sounds of it he had climbed up onto the back of his horse. Ariadne turned towards me. We had been standing with our arms round each other as we looked down at the three graves. It wasn't comfortable yet and there was still quite a bit of shifting around while we tried to stand together.

My arm over hers? Do I put my arm round her waist or her shoulders? How about the reverse? Both of us with our arms round each other's waists or shoulders or opposite.

Awkward? Yes. Also wonderful.

“It seems like we're heading off.” I told her. “You ok?”

“I am.” She said. “Be careful Frederick.”

“I will, you too.”

We stood facing each other for a moment through the rain. We were already parting again and I didn't want us to.

“I love you.” I told her.

She laughed.

“I had just opened my mouth to tell you the same thing.” She said before her face became subdued again. “I love you too Freddie.”

We looked at each other for a short while again before we turned away. Me to climb on my horse and for her to go back inside the cabin.

“You ready to go and kill some monsters?” I asked Kerrass.

“Goddesss yes.”

We rode away down the hill and I looked back.

I want to say that I saw the spirits of those three people, standing together. Pula and Saffron with their arms round each other in a way that spoke of much practice that Ariadne and I had not yet achieved, with Sally chasing after us waving and laughing.

But I didn't.

Instead I saw a ruined house and three graves, the earth already being beaten flat by the rain fall.

Last time I left here I was followed by Sally's laughter.

This time I was followed by the rain.

Time to go and kill some monsters.