As they turned, Keyak finally spoke up.  “Tall order.  Tell him I will need two months minimum.”

Belor turned back around and faced him confidently, emulating his father to the best of his ability.  

“That won’t work.  One month, maximum.”

The sound of blade raking against wood stopped and Keyak sat a little straighter to look at him.  His old, aged eyes, had taken on a bluish hue as they assessed him.  Belor did what he could to steady himself against the powerful gaze.  After a long moment, the wooden stag and knife were set down upon the counter.  Keyak took up the plans and gave them a proper look over.  He softly hummed and hawed as he shifted the paper this way and that.  Eventually, he finished his assessment and set the plans back down.

“One month.”

Belor watched as the old master’s attention moved to the girl beside him and felt Sasha shift under the attention.  Without a word, Keyak reached behind the counter and pulled out a little whittled female forest lion.  The animal was rearing up on it’s back legs as though in the middle of a fight with another lion.  Powerful claws spread out to slash at the invisible foe.  Care had been taken to stain the wood grain such that it looked like fur.

Belor was surprised but fought not to show it.  It wasn’t exactly rare when Keyak chose to honor people with his work, but it wasn’t often either.  This had been a new piece that he hadn’t seen before and he found himself enthralled with it.  Idly, he wondered if his father would like a new mantle piece.

When Sasha didn’t move to take the offered item, he gave her a light shove from his side.  She appeared to get the message as she took the lion in her small hands and held it before her.

“Thank you very much sir.”  The demure girl from before had returned once more.

Belor could see now the intelligence that his mother had attested to her having and he found himself more interested in her.  How was it that one as young as her already understood the more complex interactions between people?  He made a mental note to bring it up on their way home after she lowered her facade.  

With a gentle wave of his aged hand, Keyak subtly asked that they leave.  “I’ll see to it.  Best get on.”

With a nod, Belor turned to leave.  The steady small steps behind him told him that Sasha was following him.  He didn’t look back to check though, unwilling to tend to her as a hen does their chicks.  Only once they were outside did he even dare to look in her direction.  She kept pace with him, the little lion held tight in her grasp.  She had raised it up in her hold and was looking it over intently.

“Do you like it?”  He asked gently, more amazed with her interest with the lion than an actual need to know her opinion.

Her nod was a soft one as she fought to keep pace with him.  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He smirked despite himself.

“Keyak has a talent like that.  I once watched him carve a bear that looked real.”  He caught sight of Sasha giving him an incredulous look.  "It's true.  Originally he carved it for father but it kept scaring people that would come to visit.  So father moved it to the marketplace so that everyone one could see it any time they liked."

As he finished speaking, the marketplace came into view.  He took in a deep breath and picked apart the different scents that were carried on the wind.  This was one of his favorite places to be when he could manage to get here.  So many things coming and going through this little place on the map.  It humbled him if nothing else.  It reminded him that they had so much more to strive for to make this village into a proper town or even something greater than that.

Belor showed her through the bustling section of the night market.  Though this village was just above a hamlet, it did have a steady stream of travelers.  He took pride in the fact that his father had made it a point to build so much of the village this close to the main road.  It was a risk, that was certain, but the benefit they were reaping from it was unmistakeable.  Currently, their little home was on the map as a place of true comfort between the larger cities.  Someplace to get a warm meal, soft bed, and rustic wares.  

Truly, at the moment, it was Keyak’s wares that really sold.  People travelled to see the wooden roaring bear statue at the center of the marketplace; daring one another to touch it.  When they weren’t testing their mettle, they were wandering the marketplace to see what of his goods were on sale.  Though his father had conscripted a decent weaver, furmaster, and potter, their goods did not hold a candle to the wooden effigies of animals that Keyak produced.  His work of the wood seemed to produce living things frozen in time.

He glanced over to Sasha wondering just which of the vendors would catch her attention.  He had often seen the girls in town fawning over various cloth at the weavers stall or clothing at the tailor stall, but he could see plainly that her attention was not on either one.  Instead, her attention was firmly fixed on the line of stock being paraded through the streets, all tightly bound and roped together so that no one stock could run free.  

Opening his mouth to say something, he stopped as he noticed the look of her.  Her whole body seemed to be tense as she white knuckled the lion in her grasp.  Without a word, he took her by the wrist and led her to the nearby inn.  Once inside, he ordered them a couple of warm glasses and found a table.  She was still gripping the lion tightly when she took the seat across from him at the little table.  

“You can’t target the stock.  All the stock that comes in is managed by the Barduk and if you take some then father might lose the contract.”  He was stern and honest with his words as the cups arrived and he thanked the server.

“I didn’t…”. It was all Sasha could say before her grip shifted to the cup and she quickly began downing it.

“You’ve got a hunger.  It’s normal.  But you can’t just eat anything.  Didn’t your old parents teach you that?”  

She clearly couldn’t bring herself to stop drinking long enough to answer.

“I get that you probably didn’t have to worry about being hungry before.  But here.  This isn’t where you grew up.  There’s no servants.  There’s no one constantly working in the kitchens.  There is us and the ties we keep with this.”  He pulled out one of the coins as he motioned to a server that he needed another cup for Sasha.

With a little gasp she finished the cup and wiped her mouth on the back of her arm.  The second cup arrived and she set herself upon that one as well, slower this time though.  He couldn’t stop himself from watching her down the cups and decided to wait until she finished to continue the discussion.

“So…”. He said as he second cup hit the table once more.  “I heard you were trying to kill your older brother…. Why?”

Her eyes suddenly bore into his and he steeled himself, unwilling to be scared off by her antics.

“He was stupid.  Every time I saw him…. I just…. I’d get so angry…”. Her voice was soft but held no hint of being ashamed.  “And then he tried to fight back and it just….  Made it worse.”

Belor mulled over her words a moment.  “And me?  Do you think I’m stupid?”  

He had to be certain that he wasn’t going to wake up in the future with this girl trying to choke the life from him.  To his surprise, she shook her head.

“He was a different kind of stupid.”  She seemed to stop and try to choose her next words carefully.  “He liked to pretend to be things and he was bad at it.  You’re not pretending.  You’re like your father.  I like that.”

He could see plainly that there was no hint of misdirection or malice in her words.  As far as he could make out, she posed him no physical threat.  Her hunger on the other hand, would have to be dealt with in one fashion or another.

“How long have you had hunger like this.”  He motioned to her two empty cups and was rewarded with a shrug of uncertainty from her small frame.  “Well we will have to figure this out.”  He pushed his untouched cup towards her so she could have that as well.  “Because I cannot have you making our lives more difficult.”

He watched as she reached for the cup but made no motion to bring it to her lips.

“I understand you know.  I used to hear them talk around town.  But they all didn’t see what I saw.”  Her voice was small this time as she stared into the depths of the offered cup.  "He was a liar and I didn't like it."

Belor listened as she spoke, absorbing the weight and possible meanings of what she was trying to convey.

"Don't worry about it anymore.  You're my sister now and I'm not going to lie to you like he did."  Their eyes met and he held her gaze.  "I'm also not going to be easy on you for any mistakes you make either though."

He watched as she finally took a sip from the cup he had given her.  It wasn't an erratic movement that resulted in gulping.  Her movements had calmed and it appeared as though she were truly sampling the blood as intended.  

"Firstly, if you get hungry like that again you let father, mother, or myself know.  Don't go trying to deal with it on your own.  Second, if you start feeling like you need to hunt for a meal, you definitely say something about that too.  If you go hunt something that you're not supposed to, it'll mess stuff up.  And not just for father, but for us."  

He motioned between the two of them as he leaned in to whisper a bit.

"If we lose face with the people here, we won't be able to stay."

He didn't know if she understood the true weight of that comment.  He had seen first hand the power of a mob and it sent a chill down his spine as he looked upon her small frame as he imagined her at the other end of it.  As confident as she was, they would have torn her asunder without warning or remorse.  No doubt that was part of the reason she had been sent away from her old home...  

She sat there for a long moment, sipping her blood and thinking quietly.  On occasion her head would move this way and that as though in deep contemplation over various topics.  Belor waited all the same to see how she would react to all of this.

"I will...  tell you when I am hungry and if I want to hunt.  I will try not to get sent away...  again."  Her words were spoken slowly, and with purpose as though she were trying to emulate a woman of high status and character.

Belor smiled as he was reminded once more of her quick mind.  And, though he couldn't say for sure, he imagined that she was wasted in her old home.  Perhaps her side of the story had more truth to it than the rumors had let on.

"Finish up.  We'll go get you something new to wear and then we'll head back."  He motioned casually to the almost empty cup as he spoke.

He watched as she made quick work of what remained in the cup and stood in time with him.  There was a little glimmer of warmth in his chest at seeing her so eager to follow and keep pace with him.  Perhaps having a little sister was not all that bad of a thing after all...