Chapter 2: The Next Day

Lianna stood in the main living area of her home, making two plates of breakfast. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy, just something basic to start the day. All the while, she had her ears listening for a certain addition to her morning routine. Naturally, it being a new addition, how it would fit in was an open question. Lianna’s ears twitched as a soft set of footsteps came bumbling from the guest room.

“Who… where…?” said Samuel.

Unaware would be a good description of Samuel’s look coming out of the guest room. Lianna chose not to point that out, instead acting as normal.

“Good morning there,” she said.

Samuel stopped moving as he looked at Lianna and the table with two breakfasts on it. Then, he looked at the room around him. Then, back to Lianna. Then behind him to the room he just came from.

“Oh…” he sighed.

“There’s breakfast here for you,” said Lianna.

Lianna motioned with her hand at the plate of food across the table from her, complete with an empty chair in front of it. Samuel looked aimlessly for a brief moment, then suddenly looked at the plate of food with no one in front of it.

“O-okay, thanks…” he said, as he moved and sat down to eat.

Lianna watched him do this, checking to see how much of a limp he had walking to the table. It was noticeable, though not as pronounced as when they found him the day prior. Lianna passed into thought, thinking about how they had found him outside the village.

“What was your name, Lianna?” Samuel asked.

Lianna turned her attention back to Samuel in a sudden motion.

“Wh- oh, yes. That’s right. Lianna Miradottir, if you want to be exact.”

Samuel paused for a moment to think. A memory about the Foch came to him.

“Mira…dottir? Isn’t that something to do with your mother’s name?”

“Yes, that right, my mother’s name was Mira.” Lianna answered.

“Which means that Lianna Miradottir is ‘Lianna, daughter of Mira’?”

“You’re well informed for someone who ran into the Wildwood unprepared at the start of winter. Who taught you that?”

“My… father.” Samuel said.

Lianna paused at the strangely solemn tone of his answer, and elected not to pursue further on that. Instead, after having more of her breakfast she decided to ask more about his knowledge of the Foch.

“What else do you know about us Foch?” she began.

Samuel stopped eating his food and began answering the question.

“Well… my father told me about you as a ‘fox people’, who lived in a forest of massive trees. It always seemed like a really cool place when I was younger.”

Lianna smiled. “Well, I suppose that much is true. Though, don’t you humans see all sorts of places in the world?”

Samuel looked down slightly. “I didn’t get to see too much. The schism caused a lot of breakdowns in the routes we ran.”

Lianna tilted her head in confusion. “I’ve heard whispers about this ‘schism’, but… routes? I’m sorry, I’m not very familiar with the lifestyle of humans.”

Lianna shook her head. “I grew up north of here, in the main settlement for the Foch. By the time I could remember really what was going on, the only humans were ones stranded there by the schism,”

Lianna turned to face the door that led outside. Samuel followed where her gaze went, curious what the matter was. Samuel did not have the benefit of experience, or Lianna’s ears.

“Elenora, is that you?” Lianna called out.

The door swung open, and Elenora came in.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you two,”

Elenora closed the door behind her, to prevent too much cold air from coming in. She looked at Samuel, who still had a little bit of his breakfast still to eat.

“I already ate. Don’t stop on my account,” said Elenora.

Samuel realised that yes, no one was going to complain about him eating, he resumed. Elenora leaned herself against the side wall by the front door.

“So, heard anything interesting, Lianna?” asked Elenora.

Lianna gave an annoyed look at Elenora. What frustration she felt about Elenora’s less-than-formal entrance didn’t make it into her words, however:

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“Nothing today, anyway. There was a little from yesterday, though. Something about a ‘Fredericka convoy’, I think.”

With that ending line, Elenora’s look went from casual interest to serious interest. Even Samuel seemed to notice, as he stopped eating and turned to face her. Samuel spoke up first:

“Do… you know of that convoy?”

Elenora looked at Samuel and responded, “...yes. They used to come by these parts. I met with them before the schism forced them to pull out. Say, would you happen to know a Maxwell Fredericka?”

Samuel nodded.

“He was my father. Did you know him?” he asked.

Lianna looked at Elenora. Elenora looked at Samuel. Samuel looked confused. Samuel faced Lianna, who seemed as expectant of an explanation as he was. Elenora closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened her eyes again, she began:

“Before the schism with humans - this was before you got here, Lianna - the main convoy that ran the route through our land was the Fredericka convoy. Maxwell Fredericka was the captain of the entire convoy. The route was abandoned because the convoy had to help with fighting in the schism, so I haven’t seen him in years, though before the route was abandoned, he did bring by his son once, which was you, Samuel. Though, I don’t think you remember me.”

Lianna didn’t fully understand how convoys worked, but she knew enough to trust that Elenora had familiarity with who Samuel was from.

“So, you’re familiar with Samuel’s father?” Lianna asked.

“Well, not recently. It’s been years since I last saw him. The schism within the humans screwed up a lot of the trading routes, and given how far away we are from most things of note, I can’t exactly blame them for not stopping by until it was done.”

Elenora turned to face Samuel, only for her face to grow concerned over the darkening look on Samuel’s.

“Samuel?” she asked.

“No, it’s just… he died last spring due to illness.”

Several seconds passed as the mood in the room was dampened by the news. Lianna gave Elenora a look that wordlessly said, “this one’s on you.” Elenora walked towards the table in the direction of Samuel. She put her arms around him to give him a hug.

“I’m sorry for your convoy’s… no, sorry for your loss. I don’t know what circumstances brought you here… but consider yourself welcome here.”

Elenora released Samuel from the hug, and walked over beside Lianna.

“Officially, consider Samuel a guest on my behalf,” Elenora said.

She then leaned over, and added in a quieter tone in Lianna’s ear:

“Unofficially, can you be a big sister to him?”

Lianna’s head made an abrupt turn at the comment to face Elenora. Enelora gave a quick smile to Lianna and stood up. She started to head for the door, only to pause to make one last comment.

“Samuel, I think I’ve had enough heavy news for this morning. If you want, you can have Lianna show you where things are in the village,” Elenora said.

Samuel nodded to acknowledge. He turned to face Lianna.

“Is that okay?” he asked.

Lianna sighed.

“Yes, it is.” she answered. “Not going to go against Elenora,”

Lianna stood up, grabbing what was left of her breakfast from the table.

“Let me clean up things, and I can show you around. Figures I should do that eventually, since you seem to be stuck here for the time being. Oh, I’m probably gonna have to carry you, aren’t I?”

Samuel's face bloomed red with an embarrassed look.

“I don’t think that’s really necessary,” he said.

“I saw you trying to hide that limp. Besides, it’s not that much of an issue for me, anyway.”

Lianna looked at Samuel. Samuel looked back. The staredown continued for a moment until Samuel realised that him being carried in some way wasn’t a question but a certain fact of the near future.

“Fine… just, not like yesterday,” he said.

Lianna chuckled, and resumed cleaning up from breakfast.

“That’s fine. I’ll finish up soon.”

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