Chapter 11: Family Stories, Part 2

Freyja, having carried Samuel over to the cooking area, plopped him down and released him from her grasp. She ruffled his hair and asked,

“You’ve been here a few times. Do you have any ideas about what you’d want to cook?”

Samuel looked around. He thought about some of the things he’d been helping Freyja cooking, and then moved to things he’d had when he was younger. Then, he had a thought.

“Do you know how to make a stew?” he asked.

Freyja gave him a stare.

“Of course I do. Who do you think I am?”

Samuel went red in the face, and turned to look away from Freyja.

“I- I … don’t know,” he said.

Freyja abruptly moved to give him a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, and picked him up.

“I’m kidding, sorry! It’s okay, I forgive,” she said.

She looked at the kid’s face, buried in her chest. A melancholic smile grew on her face.

“My sister is right, you are still just a kid,”

Freyja put Samuel down, and knelt down to meet him at eye level. She looked him in the eyes, and said:

“Can I tell you a story, Samuel?”

Samuel looked at the mess of people in the eating hall.

“Can it wait a bit?” he asked.

Freyja nodded.

“Gotcha,” she said.

 

A little while later, the scouting team with Hannick in tow left to guide him back to the edge of the Wildwood. Freyja had also convinced Leon to take Lianna with them, so remaining in the eating hall were Freyja and Samuel. Elenora was also present, though content to simply listen in and let the other two do what they wanted.

“So, what was my story…” Freyja said.

She looked up into space, trying to remember what the story she was going to share was. She made an abrupt noise when she remembered her story.

“Ah. I remember. I was going to tell you about when I played a prank on Lianna,”

Freyja had a smug grin as she looked at Samuel. She began her recounting of the story:

“So, this was before we came here to the village, back in the capital. My sister was in a phase where she was obsessed with caretaking her tail. It was nuts, complete overkill. Of course, our dad didn’t get it either, because he was a human, so we hatched a plan.”

Freyja was excited. She wasn’t sharing a story, she was sharing her recollection of an event in the festive sense.

“So the plan was we’d take a bucket of water, and dad would lift me up so when she came out of her room, we’d dump it on her after she’d done one of her grooming sessions. Simple enough, get her tail all damp and wet after she’d put so much work into it. So she comes out, right? She’s all, ‘oh my tail is so nice’, and then BAM! Water all over.”

Freyja had a wide smile from telling the story.

“Did she get mad about it?” Samuel asked.

“Oh she was livid. She was so mad. Mom was mad too, and she made me fix up her tail later. She gave both me and dad a good scolding, but it was totally worth it that one time.”

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Freyja radiated an energy of nostalgia. Samuel had also enjoyed the story. However, he realised something odd about it.

“...wait, you said your dad was a human?” he asked.

“Wha- oh, yeah. Dad was a human. Mom was a Foch, so that made me and my sister Foch as well,”

Samuel looked into space. Freyja wasn’t entirely sure what he was thinking about. Suddenly, from the back of the room, Elenora spoke up.

“Do you have any funny family stories, Samuel? Anything you’d like to share?” she asked.

Samuel turned to look at Elenora, and then looked down. His downcast face hid a forlorn look.

“Only the ones my father shared,” he said.

“That’s unfortunate, though I guess with the schism it’s a little hard to make those,” Elenora added.

Samuel walked over to the ingredients gathered in the cooking area. He was going to help Freyja make a stew for lunch.

“Though, I do remember him telling me about when he first met my mother,” Samuel said.

Freyja’s ears perked at the notion of how Samuel’s parents met. She knew that his mother was probably the future head of the convoy, and that his father had passed last spring - but she didn’t know how the two had met. Human convoy relations were still quite an unfamiliar subject for Freyja.

“He was in a marketplace in the capital of the Wildwood, if I remember him telling me correctly,” Samuel began.

“He’d tell me about how he was looking at some goods that had just been brought in from down south. The thing he’d always joke was that the thing he found most valuable was my mother, though.”

Freyja gave a stifled snort at the thought of someone describing their wife as “valuable merchandise.”

“...he was a good dad.” Samuel said.

A saddened look grew on Samuel’s face. Mai appeared from seemingly nowhere, looking for Samuel. She seemed to pick up that Samuel’s mood was trending downward - or was here because of that. Freyja caught on right after.

“Hey…” she said.

Freyja walked over and knelt down to give Samuel a hug. Samuel didn’t protest.

“I’m… I’m sorry, I just…” he trailed off.

Freyja leaned over Samuel’s shoulder. Mai situated herself on the floor in front of Samuel.

“I’m sorry… but it’ll be okay, I know you have… reservations about the new captain. But put some trust in your mother. If you trust your mother as much as your dad, I’m sure she’ll work something out,” Freyja said.

Samuel turned his head in the direction of Freyja’s.

“...okay,” he said.

Mai jumped up to float a little closer to Samuel’s face.

“...Hmm…” she said.

Mai looked at Samuel, while he got himself back together to start working on lunch.