She slowly took her mother’s hands and rested them across her chest, closing each of her eyes before gently kissing her forehead. “May you rest in peace and bask in the Creator God’s glory forever” she whispered.
Erin slowly stood and took one last look at her mother before turning and quickly exiting the room, a look of determination on her face. David followed quickly behind, sorrow building deep within his chest. He never knew what it felt like to lose a loved one, but he could see his friend was hurting and wished nothing more than to console her. But now was not the time for consoling, he thought, there would be time for that later.
David followed Erin down the hall and into another room, which from the bed in the corner and the style of clothing sprawled out on the floor, David realized must be Erin’s. He watched as she grabbed a bag and began stuffing in items of clothing and other essentials for their journey. Then, much to his surprise, she began taking off her robe.
Underneath her robe she was dressed in a loose-fitting white shirt, and tight, brown slacks. He quickly realized he had been holding his breath and let it out slowly, so not to attract her attention. When Erin realized he was just standing there, she threw David another pack and told to him to go downstairs and start packing a small cooking set, along with flint and steel, and to grab some dry food items for their trip.
When he went downstairs, he was able to quickly find the items Erin had mentioned, along with a fresh loaf of bread, half a wheel of yellow cheese, a few sticks of what looked like dried beef, and a small bag of dried fruit. By the time he was finished gathering what goods he could find, Erin was already downstairs and rummaging through the mess of books on the floor, looking for something.
“Whatever it was it must have been important; they tore through everything. They must have been in a hurry.” replied David, looking around wide-eyed at the mess that lay before him.
They looked around at all the papers and books lying carelessly on the floor trying to determine the source of the intruder’s intent but could find nothing apart from old scribes and parchment all seemingly disconnected from one another. None of them seemed to be important.
“What do you think your mother meant when she said that they found ‘it’” asked David.
“I’m not sure…” replied Erin, still looking through the stacks of books and papers, “I never knew my father, and my mother never spoke of him much. She just told me he was a traveling merchant. He stopped visiting after I was born. He would send us money and gifts every so often, to take care of us, but that was it…Ah, here it is!”
She grabbed a stack of papers bound in a leather strap and quickly stuffed it into her pack. Seeing David’s confused look, she explained that it was a collection of maps for the Northern Kingdom.
She continued explaining to David as she looked through the wreckage that her mother was a maidservant at the Royal Palace and had been her whole life. That, according to her mother, she had met her father on a night out after a long day and one thing had led to another and the rest was history. A pretty common story for a lot of people in the city, from what she had said.
Erin walked into the kitchen and started opening cabinets, one after another, before slamming them closed in frustration. She finally found what she was looking for and quickly pulled out a small purse of what David could only assume was money. It was a brown leather pouch, tied off at the top, that had been hidden in a small ceramic pot in one of the cupboards. Erin quickly stuffed it in her pack, knowing she would need it to purchase more supplies when they reached West Post.
She also threw David a new set of clothes to better suit the outdoors. It was a brown leather vest and white cloth tunic, along with a pair of dark brown pants and boots to match the vest.
“Here, change into these. They are better for traveling in. They were left here by one of my mother’s late-night suitors. She chased him off with a kitchen knife while he was still in his underpants” She said, lightly smiling. “He apparently got too rough for her liking and never found the courage to return for his clothes!”
After sizing up the clothes and deciding they should fit, David went into the next room and quickly changed into his new outfit before joining Erin in the common room. They were a close fit, much to his satisfaction. “They aren’t perfect, but they will do for now I suppose.” David said, unsure of how he felt about his new choice of garments.
“Right, now we just need to find you a weapon. In case we run into any trouble.” she said.
Erin led David into a connecting room and opened a long wooden chest that was filled with blankets. She took a couple of them out and stuffed them into her pack before throwing the others on the floor behind her. When she reached the bottom, she lifted the wooden planks to reveal a hidden chamber. She pulled out a couple of short blades roughly the size of her arm that were each concealed in a leather scabbard on a belt, handing one to David and keeping the other for herself. She then fastened the belt and scabbard to her waist and, after seeing how it was supposed to be fastened, David quickly followed suit.
I hope I’m not expected to use this! thought David, as he felt the heavy blade hanging at his side.
Erin quickly inspected everything in each of their packs, making sure they had everything they would need and enough food to last
