Fiora was not looking forward to the conversation she needed to have with her dad. She had thought about this very scenario a few times during the months that she had been speaking with Daegal, but now that she was here, all the plans and things she thought she might say to him were thrown out the window. At the moment, Emil was at a loss for words, trying to come to terms with what he had just witnessed, and what his daughter had been a part of.

  She hesitantly approached her father, who seemed to be steadily coming out of his stupor the closer she got. By the time she stood in front of him, he had changed his expression from stupefied, to angry.

  “Fiora, what in God’s name did you do?”

  She sheepishly grinned while fiddling with her hands in front of her. “I... I made a friend. I admit that he’s not exactly normal, but-”

  “Not norm- Fiora!”

  “Okay, look, I know you’re upset, but I promise that this isn’t a bad thing. Like I said, he saved both of our lives just a few minutes ago.”

  “That’s...! That is not what you should be focused on right now! Do you have any idea how this looks? Do you have any idea how much trouble will come our way for associating with that... that thing?”

  “He,” she made sure to emphasis, “is not a monster or a devil or whatever else you want to think of him.”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think of him, Fiora. All that matters is that he looks like a devil straight from the pits of hell itself! I can’t... what am I supposed to do if someone comes with accusations to that affect?”

  Fiora shrugged in an exasperated manner. “Tell them the truth. I don’t know what he is, you don’t know what he is, he doesn’t even know what he is. All I know is that he acts just about as far from a devil as you can imagine. He’s anxious, shy, afraid, and worst of all, lonely. He hasn’t talked to anyone before me in years, and he said that he has lived in the forest for thirteen winters. If he was evil, wouldn’t you think that he would have done something to reflect that at some point during all that time?”

  “Fiora, I understand that you have nurtured a favorable opinion of it, but-”

  “Him,” she interrupted.

  Emil sighed. “Him, but others won’t be as understanding. I have no idea how I’m going to protect you if they can’t be convinced that he isn’t a threat, which by all logical measures, he is.”

  “Well, I suppose we’ll have to put in the work to make them see him for who he really is and not just what he looks like.”

  “Easier said than done.” Emil sighed and rubbed his face. “How did this even happen?”

  Fiora smiled bashfully. “Remember that little project I mentioned some time ago?”

  Emil’s eyes widened again. “Fiora! You promised me!”

  “And I kept that promise. Like I said, he isn’t dangerous.”

  Emil looked to the sky, shoulders sagging as he lost the will to continue. “God, give me strength in these trying times.”

  Elsewhere in the village, Daegal was currently experiencing the most uncomfortable tour he could have possibly imagined. Eira was leading him down the roads between buildings, pointing out a few notable locations as they went. That was all well and good, but where the real problem came in was the few dozen people following at a distance, their weapons still in hand as they scrutinized his every move. Their stares were prickling the back of his head with the intensity in which they looked at him. He didn’t dare move more than he needed to follow Eira as it felt like even an errant twitch could set off the crowd.

  Eventually they arrived at Eira’s house. It certainly had been improved upon from the simple thatch hovel that he originally met her in. Like most of the village, it had been rebuilt with sturdier material. Solid planks of wood were placed upon a stone foundation, ending in a shingled roof that topped the building in a prominent point.

  Eira finally let go of him as she opened the door to her house, inviting him in as she dipping inside. Daegal, however, experienced a problem. The door was small.

  Standing there, he tried to work out the mechanics of how he was going to enter the home without breaking her doorframe in the process. He hunched over nearly in half, twisting his body and head as he tried to fit both his wide shoulder and horns through the narrow entrance. At first, it seemed to be working, but when he tried to adjust to take the next step, his shoulder bumped into the frame, getting wedged. He made the mistake of attempting to look back and ended up knocking his horns against the wall. Everything went wrong after that point as he lost balance and end up slipping, landing on his side with a heavy thump, half in, and half out of the building. He let out an exasperated, and embarrassed, huff as his body went slack in defeat, tail falling with a smaller thump against the ground outside.

  Eira had heard him fall, and only just seemed to realize the problem that she had completely overlooked. “Oh, my goodness, I’m so terribly sorry. I never considered the possibility that you might not fit. P-Please, don’t force yourself! Uhm... Oh! There’s a window out front. Maybe you can sit down by it, and we can talk like that while I’m cooking? That is, if it’s agreeable to you?”

  It certainly sounded like the most efficient way of doing this. He didn’t much fancy the idea of squeezing into her home. He was liable to break something if he tried.

  “That’s fine,” he replied simply. He started to shimmy back out of the door from the awkward position he had fallen in. It was a slow process, and not at all dignified, but he emerged from the doorway, sighing in relief as he had his freedom again. Just as he started looking for the window, he noticed the crowd again, and they were looking at him differently now. Some of them looked confused, others like they were amused, but all together, many of them were regarding him as less of a threat.

  He felt embarrassed, something that he wasn’t used to. With stiff posture, he moved over to the window and sat down in front of it, trying to ignore the constant stares as he focused on Eira. She was looking through the window on the inside and smiled as he came into view again. He was at just the right height for looking inside while sitting down, so it worked well enough as Eira started moving about her home while preparing to cook.

  He looked around inside her home while he sat there. Her house wasn’t that different than any of the others he had seen on their way, at least from the outside. Eira’s home was a single story tall, and it looked like she kept things neat, if busy, on the inside. There was a small table near the center of the room with three chairs surrounding it. Across the surface of the table, and scattered about her home, were clothes or strips of fabric alongside supplies like thread and needles. She appeared to work as a seamstress, as far as he could tell. He could only see into this main room from the window, but there were two others in the back of the building besides this one. As she worked in the kitchen portion of her home, she started a conversation.

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  “I apologize for the belated introduction, by my name is Eira. Do you have a name, and would you care to share it?”

  “My name is Daegal. I... uhm... It’s n-nice to meet you?”

  She tittered a little at his awkwardness. “I suppose when it comes to late introduction, we both are unmatched in that regard. Ten long years...” She trailed off for a moment, eyes lost in the past before she returned to the present. “What have you been doing in that time? The last time I saw you, you dragged the bodies of the deceased out of the flames before disappearing into the woods without so much as a word. I admit, I was still rather hesitant about being near you at the time, but I couldn’t move much as my leg had a fracture in it from the falling debris. The pain was rather fierce and made it impossible to walk.”

  Daegal started to feel a little guilty about leaving her with an injured leg. He didn’t see anything wrong on the outside at the time, but that was a poor excuse.

  “I’m sorry. I... I didn’t see-”

  “Oh hush now,” she interrupted him. “You had no way of knowing, and it’s not like it was your fault.”

  Yes... but... I should have got there sooner.

  He always hated remembering that moment, that pain he felt, but Eira wished to continue along that line of conversation. It made sense, in a way, as it was the only thing that connected the two of them.

  Eira started to season a cut of meat while continuing the conversation. “There is a question that has been on my mind for many years now, if you would humor my curiosity?”

  “I... I can try to,” he responded hesitantly.

  “Fair enough. I certainly can’t force you to answer me.” She chuckled at the very idea of trying. “What I wanted to know was why you were there that day? It didn’t make much sense to me when I thought about it initially. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that you must have had something, of someone, you cared about. Did you?”

  That question had been one that he had been trying to avoid talking about, or even thinking of. He didn’t want to delve too deep into his past, but not answering her question seemed rude when she was doing so much for him right now. He decided to answer as briefly as possible.

  “Yes.”

  Eira paused her work, an empathetic sorrow overtaking her features. “I’m terribly sorry to hear that, Daegal. That day was a tragedy that few could comprehend. I lost my husband in the attack, but I thank God that my children were old enough to seek work in the city when that happened. My sons helped me rebuild my home into what you see here, and my daughter even convinced her husband to assist as well.”

  She turned toward Daegal, looking at him through the open window with a gentle smile. “I thanked you as well, after a time. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that you had saved me with no ulterior motives. When I eventually did, though, I was incredibly grateful that your actions allowed me to be there for my children. I’m a grandmother now, three times over.” She laughed while shaking her head. “That certainly makes me feel old just thinking about it.”

  He had never really thought about her after he saved Eira that day, but now that he faced the past and saw that she was happily living her life with her family, he felt an odd sense of pride. This was a life he had spared. Amidst everything that was lost, all that he had failed to save, Eira was a small light that he had preserved. Seeing her now made him feel warm and happy that she made the best of her life, despite everything that had happened.

  The first part of the meal Eira was preparing was finished, and she worked on the second half as she asked another question.

  “So, what have you been doing for the last ten years? I’m quite curious how someone like you lives their life.”

  The answer to that question would have been a whole lot of nothing. Most of the time Daegal was just doing what he needed to in order to survive one day to the next. It got rather repetitive after a while, and many of his days simply blurred together with nothing significant happening. He had very little he could actually talk about with humans, that is, without going into the gritty details of what animal he hunted today or how he skinned them for his personal use. Both topics didn’t exactly feel like they appealed to her profession.

  “I just did what I needed to survive.”

  She gave him a curious glance. “Do you have any parents or family?”

  “No,” he answered simply.

  The look on her face was one of profound pity and sadness. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through all that alone. I had my children to support me, but even then, it felt as if I was barely holding on. That is a different kind of strength to cope with the loss of someone close to you on your own. You would have my respect for that alone.”

  He didn’t know how much he could consider his time alone as ‘respectable’. Daegal was nearly certain that he was on the brink of losing his mind completely from the solitude, that is, until Fiora showed up and crashed through his life like a storm. Speaking of, it seemed his thoughts had summoned the crazy girl as he heard a voice call out.

  “Daegal, I’m back!” Fiora was moving at a brisk pace toward where he was sitting outside of Eira’s house. She arrived with the man he recognized as her father, though he stayed back, watching with clear anxiety. He was relieved to see that she was alright, but it was obvious from the stares of the other villagers that she had become distrusted at the very least. Eira was not one of those people, though, and she leaned out of the window to welcome Fiora.

  “Hello dear; nice of you to join us. I expected that you would show up, so I prepared a little extra for you as well. Would you care to have a meal with us?”

  Fiora beamed a smile at the older woman. “I would be incredibly thankful, Mrs. Eira.”

  “Oh, just call me Eira already, you silly girl. How many times must I visit your father’s apothecary before you stop being so formal with me.”

  “It’s out of respect, I assure you,” Fiora argued with a grin.

  The two women chatted for a minute, catching up on what they had been doing the last few days. Daegal was feeling slightly baffled at the two of them. He wasn’t exactly the most social person, but these women just went through a raid and now they were talking about what they had done two days ago. Daegal was now of the opinion that girls were scary.

  “Food’s nearly ready,” Eira said. “Would you like to come inside to eat, Fiora?”

  Fiora thought about it for a second, looking through the window at Eira and then at Daegal sitting down outside. “I think I’ll keep Daegal company out here, thank you.”

  Eira adopted an understanding smile. “You’re a good friend, Fiora. Well, it may be a little chilly out, but I suppose we can have a meal outside. I’ll bring some chairs.”

  Daegal eyed the chairs in question, and the flimsy little platforms balanced on the equivalent of twigs did not spark a sense of security in him.

  “Uhm, I don’t... need one, thank you. I wouldn’t want to break it.”

  Eira looked at her chairs now with a different kind of scrutiny before nodding her head. “Yes, I see what you mean. Probably for the best, and I apologize for not being able to provide one for you.”

  “You don’t have to apologize so much,” he said.

  “Well, I feel like I must in this instance, especially because of the way some people are treating you.” She raised her voice during the last bit, directing it out the window and at the crowd of onlookers who were shuffling about, keeping a threatening eye on Daegal. The men grumbled a little at her, but they were chastised enough to form their own little social groups and not pay so much attention to Daegal once it was clear that he wouldn’t be moving for a while.

  Eira shook her head. “Honestly, some people just can’t be reasoned with.” She complained a little while moving the chairs out to the front of her house. A minute after they were placed properly, she emerged once more with three plates of steaming hot food. It was a largely meat-based dish with mushrooms and herbs as an accompaniment. Daegal did notice that his plate was stacked high with meat while the two ladies had a much more modest serving for themselves.

  They started eating together, and the girls did most of the talking amongst themselves, occasionally asking Daegal a question that he would often struggle to answer. It was nice, in a way, as this was the first time he had a meal with more than one extra person, and in such a conspicuous location. He ate slowly, nervously, never opening his mouth too wide or showing off his teeth for more than a moment. While they ate, he pondered, and a single thought rang repeatedly in his head.

  What happens now?