A large stone house.Leo woke inside a warm bed. The day still kept light in the world, and he tried his best to orient himself.
He winced once he moved his toes. Leo didn"t know how to respond to the new surroundings.
"Definitely not the merchants," he said aloud.
He heard someone knock the door and decided to scan his surroundings for clues about his current location. He knew not how long he had been asleep, but he needed a quick look at the room he was in; it brought him comfort.
He saw a painting with children dancing on the plains inside the tall gra.s.s. He saw a bedside table to his right and a chair in the corner. His attention, though, was drawn to the painting.
A young woman entered.
She had curly hair and a average sized head that curved at the chin. Her nose was thin, but not long, and her ears were quite large. She wore her hair in a bun, and she looked curiously at Leo while he was laying down in the bed.
She wore a simple pale red dress with floral patterns. The dress was handmade, and it was a bit faded. She had a towel in her right hand and a bucket in the other.
As Leo stared with his head t.i.tled toward the door, she said, "Oh, where are my manners. My name is Rachel."
Leo stopped staring and glanced at the painting.
She said, "And your name?"
Leo said, "Eli... No, it"s Leo. Leo Lionsmane."
"Is Eli your middle name?"
"Something like that."
The two stood waited in silence, when Leo brought his attention to Rachel. He took a closer look at her face and thought to himself, "She would be a beauty in the Seven Mountains... if it weren"t for her ears."
"How old are you?" She said.
"Twenty."
"I"m nineteen! I guess we"re not that far apart after all."
"I guess we are."
Leo couldn"t help but think of Hannah from Little Vicious Village upon hearing the name Rachel.
He also thought about the children from Ahab"s city whenever he looked at the painting.
A wistful expression appeared on Leo"s face.
"Oh," Rachel said, "My mother said she wanted to speak with you once you awoke. But you can"t leave the room since your feet are broken, so why don"t I get her. Yeah, I"ll get her. Wait here!"
"Sure thing," Leo said.
After Rachel left the room, he couldn"t help but cry.
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He didn"t know where he would end up next. These were uncontrollable tears. In fact, he didn"t even feel the tears coming. He stared at the painting and thought of Hannah; and he couldn"t stop his tears. He didn"t feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow. He just felt an enormous sense of loss.
He lost his home. He lost Hannah and her children. He lost Solomon and the children of that city. He lost a lot of things lately, and he held in his tears, until he broke.
Then Deborah came.
She walked over to the side of his bed, sat down, and brought the upper half of his body into her embrace.
She said, "As long as you need. As long as you need to recover."
"And then?" He said.
"Well, that depends on you. There are no free meals in this world, but you can stay as long as you want. Consider it a gift from the Supreme Fairy."
Leo had a complicated expression on his face: he didn"t know how to respond.
Deborah laid Leo"s upper half back on the bed gently, and was about to exit the room, when she said: "Oh and one more thing. Once your bones heal, you need to get a job if you want to stay here."
Deborah left Leo. She came like a wind pillar and left just as quick. Leo didn"t know about the position she had in Sodom. He didn"t know just who he was talking to, but he felt jarred by her mention of the Supreme Fairy.
"What does the Supreme Fairy have to do with you helping me?" He thought deep in his heart.
He didn"t know what kind of people rescued him from the merchants; but he wasn"t about to thank the Supreme Fairy. He made a promise in his heart. He thought to himself: "Why should I thank something that can"t even save a few children? Ludicrous!"
And so, the wind blew the gentle gra.s.s that grew near the edge of Sodom, while waves landed on the beach only to retreat. The clouds rolled, and Leo fell asleep.