They arrived at the inn both tired and soaked. The owner of the place must have seen them coming through the window, as he quickly went out to greet them. He helped them with their suitcases and accompanied them to the living room near the fireplace. Four guests, who were in the room playing cards in a corner, followed them with their eyes, surprised by their appearance.

“Are you ok? We were worried about you. We were afraid you were already on the way…”, the owner explained, with visible concern, as he brought some towels to dry themselves.

“Luckily not”, replied the father, as he brought the luggage to the fire to prevent the water from damaging the suitcase or its contents. “When the storm broke out, the transport had not arrived yet.”

“How lucky, because we’ve been told the river has overflowed by Lyorn’s height… You’d better have stayed, otherwise you’d be lying in the middle of nowhere, with all this rain.”

Nayla joyfully approached the fire, searching for the heat of the flames to warm her body. The mother hurried to cover her with one of the blankets they had let them, before she got too far away. She handed another blanket to her son, who, absent, too tired due the race for speaking, thanked her mother with a nod. She then followed her daughter to make sure she did not get burned, as the fire burned hard inside that metal fireplace.

"You must be tired", said the innkeeper, seeing how the brother was still trying to catch his breath. “I will go to the kitchen to see what I can prepare for you, rest for now, then we'll talk about what you plan to do.”

The family thanked him and settled in as close to the fire as they could. While they waited, some of the guests came to ask, and the father, sitting in a chair, answered them, so that the rest might rest. The mother had caught Nayla, and for a while held her still in her lap, as she sat on a low stool. The brother was still on the floor, and he was about to lie down. He was not used to having to run so fast.

Even though it had been a great holidays, all four of them were already looking forward to going home, to the routine of their farm, to the countryside, with the animals and the smell of straw. It had been a different week, an exciting dream in the middle of a peaceful sleep that their lives were. All this time they had had to work hard, but although they had never lacked for anything, they had not been able to save either. When the brother won the prize, he could not agree. Neither he nor the rest of the family. They lacked time to seek help from neighbors to care for their property during their absence. Part of the weight was so much for the gifts they had been able to get in order to thank them for the effort.

The place where they were at that time was the village of Kleir, the last stop on the journey. It was a small and traditional village, famous for its gastronomy. This caused many tourists to stop there. A river crossed it transversely, dividing it into two parts more or less symmetrical. Unfortunately, the income of the people and the distance from the economic capital Dakara, meant that Ether technology had not yet been imposed, as in most small villages in the Free Lands. As the Ether technology was not available, there was a strange balance between complex tools, such as a pressure cooker that could be heard whistling in the kitchen, and medieval elements such as oil lamps that illuminated the room.

Accompanying the sound of the pot, a delicious aroma began to reach the room and make all four return from their contemplations to reality. The brother's belly roared.

“The truth is that we haven't eaten for many hours”, he admitted, a bit embarrassed.

“Let’s give him a hand, then!”, the father exclaimed, rising with a commotion. "Stay here, let the girl rest", he said to his wife, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. “You must be tired too, so rest”, he smiled at her and kissed her on the lips. “Now we are back!”, he shouted as he went to the kitchen with the boy, curling up.

As the mother redid the tail that Nayla was wearing in the upper right, with a string finished with two red balls, the hotel’s tabby cat entered the room and curled up near the fire. Nayla looked at it for a moment, and when her mother had finished fixing her hair, she jumped down from her lap and approached the cat, on all fours, little by little, to prevent it from startling. The feline raised his head, and with a look between bored and curious it stared at her with his yellow, penetrating eyes. The mother stared at them, amused, from the stool.

Suddenly the girl noticed that some hands were lifting her off the ground, grabbing her by the armpits. She had been so distracted by the cat that she had not noticed that her mother had gone to help her brother and father set the table and bring the food. The woman carried the girl in her arms to the table for dinner.

“The cat…”, Nayla articulated as she recovered from the surprise, trying to get rid of her mother, without much success, “I want to keep playing with the cat…”

“We have to go eat now, Nayla, you'll play with the cat later”, she tried to make her understand. “Also, look at how good the food looks!”

On the table there were a variety of simple dishes, mostly vegetables and boiled potatoes and broth, accompanied by some bread and cheese. The girl, however, was still stunned by the cat. Her eyes watered with tears and she began to cry.

The mother, as the best she could do, sat her on a high chair that the innkeeper had brought them, as the table was too high for the girl. The brother tried to calm her down, but it was in vain. On the other hand, the father, before intervening, signaled to the owner, who nodded and went to the kitchen. He then approached Nayla, who at that moment was crying with all her might and took her in his arms, trying not to get hurt as the girl was in full rebukes. Her mother and brother let her do it and sat back in her seat, waiting for what her father would do.

“Shhhhh, shhh!”, - the father did to the girl. “Nayla, little Nayla, what’s wrong with you?”

“I… I want to play with the cat! And… and mum will not let me”, she said between sobs, pointing to the cat with her finger and as she looked at her father with glassy eyes and tears running down her cheeks.

“So, you want to keep playing with the cat?”, the father watched as the owner of the hotel returned from the kitchen with a plate in his hands. He smiled and started walking towards the cat, which the girl interpreted as being able to enjoy the feline for a while longer. “Well, if that's what you want…”, he left her a couple of meters from the animal and she, no longer crying, happy, started walking towards the cat. “Well, I will eat the so good baked apple that they just brought here…”

It took Nayla a second to understand what she had been told, but as soon as she realized it, she completely forgot about the cat. There was nothing she liked more than the sweetness of a freshly baked apple. Faced with this blackmail, she immediately turned around and grabbed his father's leg, begging him not to eat her apple. The man winked at his wife, who smiled as she shook her head, thinking about how much she liked her husband to do this to the little girl.

With a commotion, the father grabbed the girl, which caused a scream of drowning and surprise to escape from him, and brought her back to the table, making her fly with her arms and laughing with her. There, there was a delicious apple waiting for Nayla in the oven, still smoking slightly, which gave off a sweet smell that invaded her nostrils, making her see an inevitable saliva. Without waiting for permission, she began to eat. No one told her anything because everyone was tired and hungry.

It was a delicious dinner. Once everyone had finished eating, they were chatting for a while with the owner while Nayla played with the cat again. It was not even an hour before the little one fell asleep.