--- Elise

"It is time."

Elise grabbed the bottle of sanctified oil from Lod's hands. As their eyes crossed, the man seemed on the point of helping her, like she was unable to remain on her feet. She hadn't slept much during the previous nights, so her gaze must have reflected it a lot. Yet, the look she got from the priest was uneasy, almost fearful. The girl tried to ignore it as she brought the liquid to the pyre and soaked Dominic's body with it.

You're dead. I still can't believe it. You seemed so well just a couple of months ago...

Now the farmer was nothing more than a corpse, wrapped with the sheets of his death bed. Elise held back the tears, watching the oil dripping through cloth and firewood. She addressed a last, silent prayer to the Makers and took a step back.

I won't shed any more tears, I promise. I'll be strong and take care of these people, just like you told me to do. I won't disappoint you, Dominic.

Elise walked until she felt Roric's hands gently grabbing her shoulders, but she shrugged him off. It was true that the boy had been there to help her after Dominic's death, but she didn't want to be protected anymore. The pain she felt, every second of the heartbreaking feelings she had experienced in those days, the girl now saw them as a lesson. Despite what her friend and her guardian could have thought of her, she couldn't afford to be weak from that point forward.

After we are done here, there will be many things to figure out. But I won't be scared.

Lod grabbed the torch and lit the fire without a single change in his expression. Being a priest, he had probably taken part in countless funerals despite his relatively young age. The detached way he behaved that day was almost unnatural compared to his usual attitude. Flames and smoke enveloped the pyre in mere instants, consuming the old man's body in less than half an hour. Only the three of them were present, so there was no way nor need to speak. Elise had already enough to reflect on.

He... Wished for me to stay here, I can tell this much. But for what purpose? Now that he's gone, he can't expect from Roric to spend his entire life between these mountains. Why didn't he simply taught me to take care of myself, if he knew to be so close to death?

Elise observed her friend from the corner of her eye. For what she knew, he didn't have anywhere else to go. There was nothing for him outside of the valley. But what if... She had been the one leaving?

Would he come with me if I asked?

Still, the girl couldn't abandon Fradot after what Dominic had said before dying. There was no way she could dishonor that promise. Maybe, just maybe, it was all a plan set by the old man to keep her safe there, but she was sure that a piece of the story was still missing.

Dominic didn't want me to leave, but at some point I'll have to... He knew I would search for my father, I'm bound to. If I can't find him, I'll just go back to my people and perform my duties, but until then...

Roric tapped her arm, calling her back to reality. The last embers were dying, and it was time to go home. After one last glance to the pyre of her late guardian, Elise turned around and followed the others.

--- Roric

After Dominic's death, there was a sudden shift in Elise's behavior.

The girl wasn't so cheerful as before and at a first glance it was just like she was busy healing from her loss, but not to Roric's. He had lived close enough to her to know it wasn't that simple. There was a spark in his friend's eyes, telling him that she had something big in mind. At times she would sit on the bench outside, gazing at the fields, lost in some deep thoughts. Maybe it was a side effect of living in that farm, without the beloved guardian who had raised her. The farmer wasn't there to hold her hand anymore, so it was just natural that she felt lost. Roric, however, had been tasked to keep her safe and was unsure of what to do.

The way she talked about taking care of Fradot's people after the funeral... For a moment, I couldn't believe she was thinking of joining the village council. But it looks like she has lots of friends, and despite her age and those who oppose her she won't give up. How does she do it? It's like Dominic passing away lit a flame inside her.

Sometimes Roric would try to convince her to go for a walk, but she was always so distant that he soon gave up on that idea. The only thing Elise seemed to be interested in was training with the spear and have frequent trips to the village. The boy joined her in several occasions, witnessing in first person as the girl solved practical problems all around Fradot. She was changing, for good or bad. He began noticing that literally everyone stopped to hear what Elise had to say like she was some sort of leading figure. He already knew that she was well respected before, but the shift in her behaviour seemed to have reduced them to mere listeners. After two or three weeks, her reputation had raised so much that she could be considered almost influential in Fradot.

People started coming to the farm on a daily basis, in search for help and advice. And every time Elise was so good in taking care of their problems that Roric couldn't refrain from thinking about someone from his past.

She reminds me of my father. And I'm not sure that is a good thing. There's a lot of the same charisma and trust I used to see in Spjaldir, just in a much younger person. Give her one or two years, and these folks will name her mayor. Such skill with the people... Is that the danger Dominic wanted me to keep her away from?

Sad for him, Elise didn't seem to mind about his feelings on the matter. The boy was concerned that working so hard might have been harmful, so he tried to dissuade her a couple of times. In the end, anyway, he chose to resist that urge because he didn't want to seem too stern and overprotective. It wasn't like that girl was doing a lot of good, yet... There was something intangible, almost an instinct, telling Roric that what she was doing wasn't safe at all. He still remembered the farmer's words, those only he knew, and the old man clearly didn't want her to be involved with the village too much.

Without forgetting the fact that the young warrior himself felt a bit excluded. There were days when Elise looked completely normal, but even he could tell that her mind was partially somewhere else. It was like she had grown from child to adult in a very short timespan.

***

Since he couldn't understand what was going inside her head, one morning Roric decided that it was time to do something by himself and went hunting in the northern part of the valley, near the mountain range he had crossed months before.

It was summer and game should have been plenty, but for some reason he didn't catch more than a couple of birds. At first he guessed it was just bad luck, but he soon realized that his thoughts were in another place. Since when he had started being so concerned about that girl? He had been thinking about her constantly from the day Dominic had told him of his illness. Maybe now he felt responsible for her fate, but...

Is she... Family to me? Or something else? Why do I think that what she's been doing might become a peril?

Roric sat on a collapsed tree, and spent a couple of minutes reflecting on it. There was something in Elise he couldn't completely understand. That unconditional love for the people of the village, for starters. The way she always strove to prove they could trust her, at any hour of the day or the night. The way the elders respected her, and the youth looking up to her as a role model. Why was he so upset? Had he talked about that matter to anyone else they would have probably said that he was just obsessed, maybe in love, but he was pretty sure that having a romantic interest for someone was way different from that. There were worry and attachment in his heart, but no love of that sort. Maybe a bit of jealousy. But just a bit.

Dominic told me to keep her safe, but until what? Until something happened, I guess? There's also the issue of the letter. Where did the priest send it? What was written inside?

He hadn't peeked, and was almost regretting it now. Wherever that small piece of paper was headed, the boy thought, there was a good possibility Elise's father was involved. And at that point Roric already knew that the man was alive somewhere.

What if Dominic sent a message to someone who can take care of Elise in his place? What if he brought her to these mountains to hide her from her father? I'll have to play along with that, until that day comes... If it comes. I'll just stay here and... Try to be a family for her.

Roric gulped. A weird feeling took control of him whenever he thought about that word. The idea of asking his friend if she saw him as a relative had crossed his mind multiple times, but in truth it was one of the few things he would have rather avoided talking with her, between Dominic's death and all the rest. Having a family, and he knew that better than anyone else, meant that you could lose it. And he didn't want to repeat the experience.

For what he could see, Elise didn't seem to dislike having him around. She was just occupied sticking her charismatic self into Fradot's boring everyday life and there was nothing wrong with that. It wasn't like she was going to leave.

There's still time, am I right? Sometimes I wonder why I'm always feeling in a rush.

After that short pause, the young warrior stood back up and kept searching for animals, this time more carefully. He found many tracks, but all were heading away from the piece of forest he had chosen for his hunting trip. Strange, he thought, I picked this place after asking a local hunter and nobody was using it. Alt the end of the day, his arrows had only caught a rabbit and a couple of birds. He made a mental note of that. Maybe, he would have come back to take another look.

***

--- Elise

Elise shut the door and sat on Dominic's old armchair.

She was exhausted, after spending the entire afternoon in Fradot with some farmers. The main concern, that week, was the redistribution of the fields that belonged to the farm. Her objective was to be so useful to the village that they would have accepted her into the council. Once a part of it, the entire Fradot would have listened to her. And she would have been in the right position to take care of her people.

That task, in the beginning, seemed nearly impossible. Even if she was liked by the majority, some elders and a bunch of others would have been skeptical about her sudden entrance into the organization of the village. Moreover, there was the issue of her age. Like it or not, Elise was just fourteen and there were many who still needed to be convinced. So, she had taken the previous weeks to reinforce the trust between her and her people, accepting to solve any quarrel or issue she could find. It was a hard job, but it was going to pay off in the end. She knew it.

It's all in order to protect them. That's what Dominic said. I still don't understand why he didn't want me to stick my head out sooner... Maybe he didn't think I was ready? But I'm doing more than alright, for someone so young. I pacified those two who were arguing over the donkey the other day, and were threatening each other. Speaking of which, was I always this good of a negotiator?

Naturally, Elise had been so busy to completely forget about Roric. The boy was always very patient, gentle and supportive with her. From time to time, she could clearly feel him trying to win her attention, taking her mind away from all the things she was doing, but she could never completely figure his true intentions. The way he tried to hold her back... He and Dominic hadn't shared any more secrets, right?

If you know the name of my father and you aren't telling me I'll kill you, I swear. Oh, what am I thinking? Of course he couldn't hide something that important. No, that must be just my imagination. I'm so tired lately...

The girl couldn't help but feeling sorry. She was probably acting in a way that was impossible to understand for him and needed to explain herself properly. Maybe then Roric would have even offered to help, because he lived in Fradot as well and there was no way he couldn't enjoy making the place better. Especially taking into account his personal story.

That day Roric came back with some animals he had hunted and the two had a good dinner. Since it was a warm August night, Elise seized the opportunity to join her friend on the bench.

"So... What are you doing these days?" he asked. "In the village, I mean."

"We are talking about the fields. Many are just left there unused. If we want a better future for the village, something needs to be done. I even considered moving in another house and giving this one to some farmers."

He made a surprised face, but replied with a hasty smile.

"That's fair. They would know what to do with all this space."

Come on, tell him you are sorry.

"What about you?" she said instead. "I didn't know you were also a hunter."

Roric took a couple of seconds to reply.

"I learned it from a friend, a long time ago. Sometimes I do it... But you probably never noticed. That reminds me, today I found something strange. A lot less game than it should be. I'll tell the hunters when I have the chance."

"Why don't you come to the village, then?" Elise proposed. "Some of the council members are gathering at the tavern tomorrow. They are the ones I'm closer to, those who might help with the first steps of my plan. A good word from me and they'll take you very seriously."

The boy chuckled, but it was clear that he was nervous.

"Huh, you are behaving more and more like a leader. This plan you always talk about... It's odd, at times."

There was a brief amount of silence, then the two turned to face each other and spoke at the same time.

"Elise, I'm worried about you-"

"Roric, I've been distant-"

They spent a couple of seconds just blinking, then they burst into laughter. Even if they hadn't cleared up anything yet, admitting that there was a problem was enough. As something close to a family, after all, they could just figure things out. Elise and Roric were letting themselves go for the first time in weeks, and the feeling was liberating. Even the boy was noticeably relieved.

"You first. You are the man, right?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"We haven't really talked for so long, have we?" he answered. "The thing I meant is... I'm worried because you seem too busy, lately."

It's just like I thought. He must have been so concerned...

"I know how it seems... And I'm sorry for that." laughed Elise. "Say, why don't we start spending some time together from now on? If we move to Fradot I can help you find a job among my people. You can teach me to hunt in return."

Roric frowned. "Your people? Now that you make me notice, you have been calling the people of Fradot like that for a while."

The girl blushed, recalling her last moments with the old farmer.

"It's something Dominic told me before dying. Take care of your people, he said."

"He told me to take care of you as well. That's why I'm worried and..."

"And?"

"No, it's nothing. I just thought of something."

Strange. It has something to do with Dominic, obviously, but... I don't have the right to pry anymore. He isn't hiding anything from me. I can feel it.

"However," she went on. "Will you come tomorrow?"

"Yes, sure," replied Roric. "Maybe I'll even understand what you guys are up to this time."

The two went on laughing and speaking some more time, under the stars.

"Roric?"

"Hm?"

"If you were still in your village and somebody threatened it, what would you do now?"

The boy sighed. "I would tell them to give the bandits what they want or run away."

"Even as strong as you are?"

"Yes. At the end, it's better to avoid any conflict if you can. That, I believe, is the right way to protect those you care about."

Elise was a bit surprised by his straight, sincere answer, but remained silent because she didn't want to ruin the mood. She would have acted very differently, anyway.