On the way to Ximax

It is past dawn, when Talia awakes. The soft, warm bed, the undisturbed silence and the relative darkness of the room compared to a night under trees have let her sleep much longer than she would normally. For some minutes she stays in bed, thinking about what all has happened in the past days, but then her unrest is too great and she rises from the bed.

Nobody is here, she is alone, and as she realises this, she sits down again on her bed. Terra, she assumes, is with Ta‘las, and while thinking at the two, a smile crosses her face. At least something which can lighten the heart. But there is no Terri either, and she misses her dearly. So many of their companions of their journey are now elsewhere. And she had thought always, they would stay with the group till the end, where ever that end would be, or when. Only Capher, the leader of their group and Terra are left from those who initially started out in the Herald. Later Ta'las was sent.. by the gods, to rescue her an she dearly hopes, he will not vanish as so many before. Capher. Her heart gets heavy again. Hopefully he is alright! Hopefully they can help him.

She is about to fall in a very dark mood again, sits on the edge of her bed and stares into the nothing, but then her stomach rumbles, she shakes her head, being angry with herself. Finally she dresses to get down to look for a breakfast and possible Terra and Ta‘las.

And there, in the common room, she finds in a corner, on a stool, a red, curled up fox and close to his belly, protected by its legs, a tiny white little person. And Talia blushes. How could she have forgotten Roosje! Has she not already fought with them for their lives! Has she not slept near her heart to warm up.

She knees down to observe the two a bit closer. She wants to caress the Fox and the tiny white hair of the brownie, but her hand hovers over the fox and she dares not to touch one of them in their sleep. The fox finally opens an eye, but only looks shortly at Talia. It realises, that there is no danger and closes its eyes again. Talia stays a little while to look at both and promises herself, that in future she would not neglect that lovely little person anymore. That is not, what she deserves.

Her stomach reminds her, that food is an essential for living and so she leaves both, fox and brownie to order a breakfast for a human and a brownie. Terra and Ta‘las would have to do it themselves, the danger, that a hot breakfast might be cold when they arrived seems Talia to high. And again her heart gets lighter.

All will be well with Capher soon! And then we search with new power for the anvil!