After waking up Thera wiped herself down with a warmed bucket of water before getting dressed, donning her cloak, and preparing to start her day. Having made her promise with Falk she headed over to the shop and prepared to spend the morning with Ben at the market as he tried to sell his wares.
Honestly she was a little excited for it. It wasn’t often that she would actually go to those sorts of things since there tended to be more people around than she could deal with, but the few times she had been to one in her homeland she had fun seeing all that was available. Of course, as a local market it would be smaller, with people selling their foods and handicrafts and whatnot, but it would still be a new experience.
She also didn’t want to admit it, but she was beginning to enjoy the company that Ben provided. Having worked together for a month now, it was the longest she had ever lasted in a party, usually once other members saw how she struggled with her magic or heard the rumors about her they would be quick to drop her, leaving her to adventure alone even if that was more dangerous. But Ben had stuck it out. Sure he had an agreement with her uncle, but for the most part he seemed to be enjoying himself, and it was nice to have the company.
She was still a little worried that he was being affected by her presence, even if it was nice, just receiving two small gifts was enough to put her on edge. But if Falk insisted he was fine then she would believe him for now.
But Uncle should be done with his project in another month or two, so I guess he’ll go back to being the one to make me staves. I guess that means we’ll stop working together. Although he also said I need to adventure with his apprentice until I can find a new party to join. Gods know I’m not going to have any luck with that in this town.
So maybe they would be working together for a while longer still. As these thoughts floated around her head she entered the shop and found Ben, sweeping the floor with a dead look in his eyes.
“Um, Ben? Are you okay?” She didn’t know why she asked, he clearly wasn’t at the moment, but she was caught off guard and didn’t know what else to lead with.
Hearing her voice he jumped up and threw on a smile, as if he were going to greet a customer instead of talking with someone he’d been working with for a while.
“Thera! Good morning! Sorry I was lost in thought and wasn’t expecting you here so early, didn’t we have plans to meet up after noon?”
“Uncle Falk asked me to come help out with your table at the market so I came early. Are you alright?”
“Oh yeah I’m good, I just didn’t really sleep last night so I ended up getting too focused on my cleaning, but I would love to have the help. I actually just finished loading a cart if you want to come set up with me, I was told there would be plenty of chairs there so I don’t think we need to grab any.”
“Alright sure.” It looked like her uncle was on to something, but she was no good with these sorts of things, she would just have to try and find a way to broach the subject as the day went on.
With him already packed and ready to go they headed out to the town square where the event was being held and found the table he had been assigned and started piling his items on top of it.
About a dozen yoyos, thirty or forty frisbees, three small lutes and a bucket of tops were placed on top of the table, with the kites being stored underneath to save on space. Once that was done he started piling up the sculptures he had been making in his spare time, there must have been around fifty of them, all around the size of a hand, with the details more well defined than what he had given her after his first attempt.
“You’ve gotten better at this.” She expressed after picking one up and giving it a look. “Though I’m not sure what this is supposed to be.”
“Thanks but my actual technique has only improved a little, I’ve just cleaned up the ones you see with a file and a small chisel to get some of the details right. As for that…” His expression slipped again. “It’s an elephant, I guess there aren’t any around here.”
She looked at the little sculpture to examine it. While there were similarities to other creatures it definitely didn’t look like anything she was familiar with, having a round body, thick legs, large thin ears, and one of the most unusual noses she’d ever seen. “How big are these supposed to be? Is it like a pet?”
“Ha oh man I can only say probably not, I’m sure there's probably some eccentric out there that would keep them but they're way bigger than I am, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to look after one.”
“Are all of these creatures from your homeland?” While plenty resembled animals she was familiar with, there were also a few that were foreign to her.
“Some are, some are just from stories.”
She saw the sad look come to his eye again and decided not to put it off any longer.
“Ben what’s wrong?” Now that her uncle made her notice it was more and more obvious something was going on with him, and before she knew it the words had slipped out.
“Hmm, nothings wrong though.” He told her, giving a confused look.
“Don’t lie, both me and my uncle can see something’s been bothering you.”
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He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “Am I really that obvious? It’s nothing really, I’m just a bit homesick. I realised the other day that my little brother's birthday must have passed by a couple weeks ago and I didn’t even realise. Then it just got me thinking about how my family’s been is all.”
Homesickness. It was something she thought she could understand. Even if she came to a town where her aunt and uncle were she would still miss her parents from time to time. “If that's what it is then can’t you go see them? I don’t mind if we can’t hunt for a few weeks and I’m sure Falk would let you take the time off if you asked. It’s not like you’ll be running the shop while he’s gone so now would be the perfect time for a visit.”
He looked about awkwardly for a few moments and tried to figure out what to say before answering. “That's not really in the cards for me. I’m not really keeping it a secret or anything, Falk should know since I’ve shown him my card, but I guess we haven’t actually talked about our races.”
Her blood ran cold and she tensed up. Why did this have to come up? Was his problem a racial one? She had heard some peoples would send their young on journeys of growth and self-discovery, but was that what was going on with him? And now that he was bringing it up did that mean he was going to ask about her too?
As if he was reading her mind he let out a small chuckle. “ Wow, how thin is that cloak? I could actually see your shoulders tense beneath it. Anyway, relax. I kind of figured since you never take that thing off that you have your own circumstances you don't want to talk about and I won’t ask.”
She felt herself relax even as she flushed from embarrassment. Was she really that obvious? “Thank you. So why does your race keep you from seeing your family then?”
“Have you heard of humans?”
With hundreds of races in the world, it was easy to never learn about or encounter members of certain races, let alone the endless potential mixed-breed groups. The world was large after all and not all of them would form mixed towns like the one they currently lived in, but the name sounded familiar. Weren’t people talking about that one a lot a few months ago? But why…
Oh.
She remembered why she had heard of them, when they first appeared in the world almost a year ago they were all anyone in the town was talking about. Thera hadn’t really cared herself but there was a lot of excitement when some passed through to get to one of the nearby gates. Souls of the recently deceased summoned from their world in the hopes they could help save this one.
She didn’t know what to say to that, of all the possibilities that had crossed her mind, this wasn’t even something she had considered. Why would he be in this town? Shouldn’t one of the nations have taken him in? Didn’t her homeland take one or two in? If he went through all that, why was he alone here?
No wonder he missed his family. She immediately wanted to reach out to him. To try and support him if she could, but she didn’t know what to do, what to say.
“So you’re…” She didn’t know what she was going to say, she couldn’t find the right word, but Ben ended up picking one for her.
“Dead. At least as my friends and family are concerned. Hell, I guess as far as my world is concerned too.”
What does one even say to that? “I’m sorry,” Was all that ended up coming out.
“Don’t worry about it.” He told her, using a smile to hide how he was feeling. Did he always do that? “I like this world. I’ve gotten to do and see all sorts of things I never would have experienced in my own. Seeing magic and using skills has been incredible. It can just be a little lonely from time to time.”
Of course you’d be lonely. I can’t imagine… and I’ve just pushed away any attempts he’s made to be friends. Would it really be so bad? Falk says I don’t need to worry about anything happening with him and I know he’s a nice guy. Can’t I open up a bit myself?
On an impulse she was about to speak up about her own life, to try and reveal why she tried to keep a safe distance, but he spoke up before she could and her resolve passed.
“Anyway that's a little bit about me, it looks like things are starting to pick up here, think we should play with the tops or yoyos at all to try and catch some people's attention?
“...Sure. I have some experience with string instruments too so I could try playing if you’d like?”
“That would be great! I actually still haven’t heard much music in this world so I’d love to hear you play, not enough bards come through the town.” His happiness seemed so much more genuine at the thought compared to when he was talking before.
She picked up one of the lutes and started plucking out a tune from her home as she lost herself in her own thoughts. Her life was always something she tried to keep private but her uncle told her to try opening up and she trusted him, she would at least think about it.