The Green Dragon Inn #11 - The Last Chapter

[Salacia Deloresista]

Mirelle sucked in a sharp breath and slowly, very slowly, let it out. A little boy's head popped up over the top of the ladder, and the little girl scrabbled towards him. Mirelle could only sit wordlessly and stare.

The very much awake, very excited little girl chattered away to the boy on the ladder, but he paid her only enough attention to shush her gently before turning back to Mirelle. "Who are you?"

"Mirelle. Who are you?" The words came out as a sort of croak. So she tried again. "Mirelle. Who are you?"

"I'm Tim, and this is my sister, Wren. You new here?"
Tim smiled. Mirelle smiled back.

"Yes," she answered. Then she burst into tears.

[Thinlómien]

The "ghost" turned out to be a frightened girl. Brith sighed, both relieved and disappointed.

She heard when the frightened girl presented herself Mirelle and the boy presented himself as Tim and the other girl as his sister Wren. Just normal, ordinary, boring life, Brith thought. But I don't have even that left, she thought despite the fact she knew she was melodramatic and started to sob again.

But after a bit of familiar conversation she heard a girl crying on the loft. She wiped away her own tears. One crying female is enough for one house, she thought. And though she was a bit drunk she understood that she was old enough to cope with her problems without crying. And the girl was probably younger than she was.

Brith decided that she should help. She walked carefully to the other end of the building. "Can I help?" she asked as she emerged from the shadows. Her eyes red from weeping and cloudy from drinking, she knew she wasn't very impressive. Even worse, she hiccuped.