After a night full of snowfall, the streets were covered in a blanket of snow today. Many of the local shops and homes nearby had shoveled a lot of the snow out of their entryways and a few young boys outside even now helped out by shoveling it for people. Most areas were covered in it however even with shovelers out and about. He had no choice but to leave an imprint everywhere they walked for the most part.
“I love when it snows,” she said. “It’s always a hard time of the year but I just love it anyways.”
“It has a certain charm to it.”
A pair of guards came walking by on the opposite side of the street. Their gazes met theirs and Della raised a hand to wave at them.
He would be a liar if he said that it didn’t make his heart jump just a little. They just kept walking not even thinking he might be someone worth apprehending or questioning.
Della’s love for winter and snow guaranteed that he had little choice but to follow along as they journeyed through the streets. They began to walk across a bridge with a frozen river down below it.
“Oh let’s go in there.” She pointed towards a green-painted shop with a snow-covered roof. As they approached the shop, his mouth salivated as he began to smell cinnamon and a variety of spices. Della began to squeal adorably as she became enamored with the variety of drinks and foods inside.
There were buns made with cinnamon. An assortment of butter and sweets made by the baker. All he could come to realize was that this was an incredibly dangerous place to be at. He had hardly any money, and his hands were in both of his pockets ready to throw coins at the woman baker behind the counter eager for their business.
Della bought a sweet cinnamon loaf with a good heaping of butter slathered on one side. They sat down near a window and waited for the baker to bring it to them.
“You look like you’re ready to buy everything in here,” she said.
“If I had the money I would.”
He hadn’t eaten all that many sweets since being in Liall. He had cherished the few times he had but he thought he would easily lose himself in those wondrous delightful treats. It would be alright to enjoy one for today, however.
The baker brought the loaf and sat it down for them. Without a delay, Della grabbed a piece of the bread and began eating it.
He tore a piece and could smell the cinnamon as it neared his nose. This is going to taste good, isn’t it?
The insides of his mouth became pleased enormously so. The texture of the bread was just right with a bit of crisp on the exterior and a soft buttery inside. And the butter on top was a bit sweet and salty adding a nice bit of contrast as well. As for the cinnamon, oh the cinnamon. He didn’t even want to get started on how it added to the overall experience. It was, simply put, amazing.
“Where else do you have in mind for today?” he asked.
She chewed and swallowed a piece. “Well,” she said putting her hands in her lap, “there are a few other things we can do around the city. There’s also a play going on tonight that we could go see.”
“What will it be about?”
“I think it’ll be a play depicting the queen’s heroism in saving and securing our city a century ago.”
“You don’t mean the same queen that rules today, now do you?”
“I do actually.” He was a bit taken aback by that. “I know it’s strange. Normally we mere mortals never make it even to a hundred years of age, but the queen is different. Many believe it has to do with the armor she always wears and is said to never take off. It’s said that it keeps her from fading away and helps retain her youthful beauty even in old age.”
“Armor that prolongs life and beauty no less? That’s quite the powerful armor. Although I’d imagine wearing armor nonstop for over a century would grow old after a while assuming she can’t take it off of course.”
“Maybe so, but it’s her duty. Or it’s at least the duty she has decided to uphold.”
“And what do you think about the queen?” He started to speak more softly so others would not hear them. “Do you like her? I don’t know all that much about her besides that she’s not well-liked by certain kinds of people, including the people I’m associated with.”
Della thought for a moment and eventually clasped her hands together on the table. “I think she does a lot of good. Historically she has at least. The city would’ve likely fallen if not for her efforts. That fog has greatly suppressed the amount of monsters that are able to spawn preventing further major assaults against Liall like the one the play depicts. There’s a lot to be thankful for in regards to the queen when you stop to think about it.”
When they finished eating the last remaining bits of sweet buttery cinnamon bread, they left the baker’s shop and headed off to take care of a few other errands around the city.
Della was normally so busy working at the inn that she didn’t have a lot of time to go out and do things or see him for that matter. So whenever they got the chance, they would do practically everything together for an entire day. Days like these were his favorite.
Sometimes he thought about what he would rather have. To regain his memories and his past, or to settle down and just live life here in Liall with Della in peace. If he chose the former, he thought the latter would not be attained. It was a hard decision and one he had fought within his own mind on numerous occasions in recent days.
For now he supposed, he need merely attend to Della’s side, and enjoy her company while they went through the snowy city enjoying the day rather than ponder on such thoughts regarding his past.
When it became dark and the central pillar did the nightly pulsing that it did whenever the sun set, the city grew quieter and the streets became empty. Except for one particular area that had a giant crowd of people all gathering around near a big wooden stage.
Nearby vendors were working their hardest to sell the crowd food. Some were successful in this regard earning a good bit of money to fill those pockets of theirs. Some were noticeably uninterested and angry having someone asking whether they would want to buy something.
They sat together alongside a row of strangers taking in the view of the stage. An announcer went onto the stage. The crowd became almost entirely silent, except for a random cough or two every now and then.
“Welcome,” they began in a theatric tone with a bit of a rowdy crowd eager to show their praises before the show even began. “Welcome my favorite people in all of Liall! Tonight, we have a daring show performed by truly, the best actors and actresses alive today. You will be shocked and awed as they bring this classic story to life showcasing our wonderful queen saving this city nearly a whole century ago. And without further ado, may you all enjoy the show and not freeze to death while doing so!”
He walked off stage with the crowd clapping. A giant flame flashed out on the stage and several actors appeared as it dissipated.
The set had a painted background portraying Liall from the outside. Whoever had painted it had done a wonderful job with the city’s white walls texture and size.
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“What is that in the distance I see over yonder?”
“Those are giants sir!”
The actors who wore guard-like attire ran off the stage and several men, who tried to look like giants, came rolling through screaming and slaughtering the actors whose job was to fall over onto the stage and play dead.
It was an amusing play. Children who were out in the audience gasped and he liked how intense the very beginning of this story was playing out. That’s right. Get straight to the action as all stories should!
“You will go no further,” a loud and triumphant voice called out. He could not see the one who said those words but as the giants looked around, they flew backwards as a heavily armed figure appeared by them with their sword thrust into the ground. “I will never let you have my city or my people. Bear witness to thine glory! You shall all regret attacking Liall!”
The giants shrieked as the sword vanquished them all. The crowd praised the queen—or well the actress portraying them. Their armor was like any other typical plate armor with green paint slathered over it in certain spots. The armor was a bit cheap looking if he was being honest. From afar it wasn’t so bad though. They had to make do with whatever they could.
In time, the play began to near its end. The story maintained a fast-paced tale with lots of fighting and brief but intense portions of dialogue shared by the queen and her most loyal inner circle.
The city had been besieged for over a year as portrayed in the play. Somehow they had managed to fight off the large swarms of monsters that desired nothing more than to slaughter every soul within the city. Her final act to ultimately win was the creation of the giant pillar at the center of the city. It acted as a conduit that she had a connection with to strengthen the outside pillars that created the green fog that suppressed the spawning of monsters from beyond Liall and its immediate surroundings.
A pair of actors brought out a miniature pillar and had a big puff of green smoke billow out the top of it. The crowd roared with invigorated applause. Even Della got up from the log they sat on and cheered. Kiran got up and joined the crowd in clapping for a relatively decent performance.
All of the actors in the play came out and began to bow in tandem. The roar only got louder and everyone was quite pleased with the show. And he quite enjoyed it too.
Everyone else knew of this history quite well. He hadn’t however and it gave him a bit more perspective on why the queen would be regarded so highly by many of the city’s people. She had vanquished a large legion of monsters that had formed an army. The fog had existed then due to previous attacks, but it was not as potent. With a more strong and more intense fog due to the addition of the central pillar’s creation, it had since that day prevented the monsters from ever growing in such large numbers to be a real threat.
The crowd dispersed with the play over. Della took his hand and led him away. “What did you think?”
“It was nice,” he said. “The performance from the actors was pretty good.”
“I know, I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. The announcer wasn’t talking out of their ass.” She chuckled a bit. Della wasn’t much of a swearer. She was a bit brave today it seemed. “I saw another performance last year that dealt with the same history and I thought back then the performance was just downright awful. I don’t know why but it seemed like half of the cast were drunk or out of their minds.”
“You make it sound like it was a great time.”
“A great time for them sure. For us all in the crowd, not at all.” She might’ve thought differently but now he sort of wanted to see that performance. Sometimes a disaster was a lot of fun to witness.
They turned around a corner and were getting close to her residence. Snow hadn’t fallen for the entire rest of the night. By the time they reached her front door, a lot of the snow had been shoveled away along the sides of the street. Big mounds of snow were strewn around and noticeably dirty. He certainly wouldn’t want to eat that kind of snow. It was undoubtedly worse than the accursed yellow snow that plagued the minds of many children and adults alike.
“Are you coming in?” she asked.
“I should probably get back before it gets much later.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I imagine you’d much prefer to sleep here than whatever place you’ve been resting at.”
“If you insist,” he said.
“I do insist!” She yanked him inside and pushed him gently towards the steps leading up to her bedroom.
The second floor wasn’t all that large. It was just large enough for a closet, her primary bedroom, and a window that was a bit high up the back wall that her bed sat up against. Some of the light given off from the city’s aura-infused street lamps came inside from that window. Beyond that however, it was practically pitch dark until his eyes at least adjusted a bit more.
Though his eyes could not make her out very well in the darkness, he saw her come up to him and begin to wrap her arms around him. She nestled her head onto his chest and her red hair brushed up against him too. He could feel the heat radiating off of her body as she kept tightly embracing him. “Thank you,” she said softly towards him, “for coming along with me today. I…I had a lot of fun.”
“I don’t know why,” she went on to say further, “but I feel like I’ve been incredibly blessed to have you in my life. It was by mere chance that we came to cross paths when we did. You were just a lone stranger walking into my family’s inn happening to anger my father and now here I am and here you are.”
“Life is strange in many ways. I cannot say whether it be by fate or mere happenstance, but I am glad that we are together.”
Heat flooded his face. He figured if there was enough light in her bedroom, he’d look like a tomato.
She looked him dead in the eyes and by then, his eyes had fully adjusted to see how truly beautiful her face was even in a dark room. The tiniest quiver existed on her lips as she chose her next words. “Do y-you, want—”
He embraced her by answering that question she had on her mind. “Yes. Yes I do.” He kissed her on the lips and they joined together as one.
Kiran had not lived with his new life for all that long. For maybe a year or longer at most. He had many memories and moments to cherish. Almost all involved Della and particularly of tonight.
They lay in the bed, under the covers, and looked at one another after having shared love for the first time. She ran her hand over his right cheek and into the black hairs that he one of these days needed to have trimmed.
“Do you ever wonder about who you once were?”
“I do. Quite often in fact.”
“And yet, you only have but the briefest of memories from that time before. Do you think you will ever get more insight into who you once were?”
“I suspect that I will. Truthfully, I am somewhat fearful of my past and the person I might’ve been. The brief and faint memories are from my own flesh, but I find myself struggling to identify with it.”
“Know that whoever you once were, you are as you are now, your own person. You are Kiran. That, is your name. Whoever that person was does not have to be who you are now and will be in the future that comes.” She lifted her hand from his face and sent it into the covers that kept their naked bodies warm.
“Your words are encouraging.”
“I would hope so otherwise that thick noggin’ of yours would have you deathly confused.”
“We can’t have that now can we?”
“Absolutely not.” She gently poked him in the forehead with her index finger. “Every man needs a woman in their life to knock some sense into them every now and then.”
He gave a devilish smirk. “You sure it’s not solely the other way around?”
She began to tickle him knowing that was one of his weaknesses. “Hey, stop it! Quit it already!”
For however long he could, he would gladly hold Della in his arms. He would cherish her, and keep her close. Protect her when protection was required. She was deserving of his affection as she had shown him plenty of her own. He had met plenty of wonderful people thus far, and yet, none quite like her.
When their rowdiness stopped, she gripped his hand. “Would you be willing to attend the winter festival happening a couple of weeks from now?”
“Of course.”
“It’s a huge event. They hold it every year and practically everyone in the city celebrates over our shared circumstances. And can you maybe bring your friends along? I’ve been wanting to meet them since you told me about them.”
“I suppose I could make that happen. I have to warn you though. Juna in particular is a bit of a handful at times.”
“I’m sure I can handle her.”
“We’ll see about that.”