It was mundane labour, lifting and carrying beams of wood from the cutter to the piles of newer pieces for rebuilding. But it got him out of what was left of his home and those painful reminders of what was lost. Normally Sascha would look forward to the end of his shift, with the opportunity to go back to his slumbers to escape reality for a few hours, however today he had that meeting at the Well with Veert. Lifting a heavy beam of wood from his knees and up, he thought to himself about the possibility of actually having some fun for once. Would that even be possible now she was gone? As he strode carefully over to the pile of timber that was being inspected by another worker, Sascha denied his mind from taking him there again and he placed the cargo down carefully.
“Nice work, Wynd.”
Wiping his brow with the back of his hand, he nodded at the inspector and panted into the air to regain some composure and strength before going back to carrying more over.
“Veert told me you're going to meet us at the Well later.” Sascha blinked in response, swallowing dryly and fumbled in his pocket for a bottle of water as they spoke to him over a clipboard. “That's really great news. It'll do you good to get out of that house for a while.”
He didn't know what that was supposed to mean. Nobody in the town stayed out at night anymore, it wasn't safe anymore. Ever since the attack from the kryken, the surrounding forests' occupants had discovered an easy food source as anyone that survived was injured and homeless. Too many nights the howls of their pack descending upon them, haunted the survivors. His reaction was being studied carefully.
“Take a break, you look exhausted.”
“No.” He shook his head and turned away to get back to work, well aware that the timber inspector was watching him walk away. If there was work to be done, he would do it but knew that when it came to working on his home, it was too painful. He didn't want to risk changing anything too much from how she liked it. Sascha looked at his gloved hands before picking up another beam. He recalled how he would hold her and tickle her sides, how much she hated that but would always encourage him to do it again. Sighing a stifled smile as he recalled her laughter, Sascha nodded solemnly and got back to work.
By the time it was the end of the working day, the sun had already set and wisps of dusk clouds were decorating the evening sky. A slow line of tired men and women made their way out of the doors to the mill and filtered out into their own journeys to wherever they were heading. Among them, Sascha, Veert and the timber inspector, Fru. Talking amongst themselves in a merry manner, Veert and Fru walked ahead of Sascha towards the Well, allowing him to prepare himself as best he could for whatever the evening held in store for him. Several other mill workers were trudging along behind him and he listened in to their conversations, mostly the usual chat you would expect among co-workers; complaints about the hours and feeling exhausted. He could relate a little but found himself disagreeing on the hours, they weren't unreasonable considering the workforce numbers. Maybe eight on the floor at a time, so a lot of beams were remade and moved. It would have been worse with just two workers-
“C'mon Sascha, what're you drinking?”
The quiet man looked up and over to Veert's cheery face and shrugged. He didn't drink so asking him what he wanted to hold for the next hour or so was a complete enigma. Looking about the bonfire that was burning brightly to keep everybody warm, Sascha spotted steins of what could be beer? Fru went to the bar, which was basically a wooden wagon with some aged kegs on the back of it and placed an order. Veert stood next to Sascha and nodded.
“Let's go take a seat, we've hardly sat down all afternoon.”
Not disagreeing as he was right, Sascha followed him over to some chairs around the fire and sat down, Veert taking a pew on a neighbouring chair.
“Quite a gathering tonight, I wonder why...”
From what he'd seen of the Well during walks home before, Sasha agreed it was busier than usual.
“Party?”
Veert looked at him and smiled.
“Possibly,” he pulled out a box of tobacco and some cigarette papers of his shirt pocket, “maybe someone's birthday...”
Sascha looked away and watched a young woman dance near someone he couldn't see too clearly. She was smiling and laughing as she held his arm in her hands, trying to get him to join her by the look of it. The stranger to his eyes was laughing too and shaking his head but wasn't being let off easy. Veert followed the gaze and chuckled to himself as he licked the cigarette paper to seal it.
“Might've guessed he was in town,” scratching his bearded chin and lighting the cigarette with a match, Veert nodded as Fru approached with three drinks, “the town always goes into party mode when he's around. A real charmer, well, so I've heard!”
“Is that Jolark?” Fru handed a stein to Sascha and smiled at him. “What's he doing here?”
Cradling the surprisingly cool beer, Veert shrugged as he suggested trading with someone in town. Sascha listened and watched this Jolark give in and allow himself to be dragged over to dance with the young woman. He seemed familiar now his face was visible from the light of the fire but Sascha couldn't think why; perhaps he knew him from previous visits to the town...
“Cheers.”
He looked around again to his two co-workers and to some level he supposed, his friends. They were holding up their drinks and smiling at him in the firelight. Returning their kind consideration, he cracked a smile and toasted their outing with his drink next to theirs.
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