Sabrina – Part 5

Sabrina enjoyed the company of Brock throughout much of the early hours. She began to feel relaxed in the emptiness of the feasting hall, despite the fact she had only been conscious a few hours. The guild felt lonesome and private here beneath the city and that offered Sabrina comfort. She asked Brock how long she had been in the infirmary (under the watchful eye of Thana), and he seemed to think it was only a day. He even let her drink as much as she wanted and eat as much as she asked. The rat stew was not half bad, and Sabrina had her fill with it that morning.

“You eat more than your puny figure lets on,” he said to her when she was halfway through her third helping. She only smiled and continued to eat greedily, when you were given a ration a day from the orphanage for a few years, you learned to take the food when the goings good. The ale she drank was cheap and strong but went well with the hearty food. By her second mug, she already began to feel its effects as her head grew cloudy and pleasantly uplifted. She almost loathed the thought of returning to the orphanage under the tyranny of Tabatha.

When a couple of hours transpired Sabrina began to hear the hustle and bustle from a few of the guild members as they entered the hall. Some were still waking up, no doubt arriving from their rooms that resided down one of the many corridors that snaked from the feasting hall, while others seemed to be returning from their night of work up in the city; both groups looked sleepy as they walked in.

Brock had to butcher another giant rat he had hunted to burden the stew with more than just chopped onions and carrots after Sabrina’s indulgence. No one spoke to her as they lined to collect their stew, and few even looked at her. It must have been normal for new faces to arrive within the guild as of late she assumed. Sabrina curled her toes around the wooden stool she sat on when the men passed her, she could smell their vibrant scents of sweat and dirt, some had blood on their scent.

She was thrilled when she saw Theo arrive at the feasting hall and for the first time noticed how much shorter he was than her, and lean. He looked more like a boy than a man to her. She stood and gave him an assuring smirk as he approached. Sabrina’s pearly white hair flowed like liquid moonstone and her eyes bore a twinkle of amethyst in their blackness.

“You look much better,” Theo said smiling.

“Yeah, I feel much better too” replied Sabrina.

“You hungry pointy ears?” asked Brock over her shoulder.

Theo gave him a contemptuous look but smiled.

“Sure, and some ale if it isn’t too much trouble flat nose” he replied.

The three of them sat there at Brock’s bar and Sabrina helped herself to another helping of the rat stew.

“Eats like forest Troll this one” Brock remarked. Theo only glanced at her and smiled, cleaning what was left of his own stew with a heel of bread. Before they were finished, the feasting hall sang with the voices of the guild’s member’s and it reminded Sabrina of times when she attended the children’s school in Leeside when she was seven. The noise was that of life like the noises you hear in a forest on a warm summer’s day; the different forms of life shouting their existence.

“Sabrina,” Theo said quietly after he sipped at his ale. “I need to talk to you in private if you don’t mind”

Sabrina remembered the last time a man said he needed to talk to her in private, it ended in him receiving a bloody nose and a few scratches, but she didn’t consider this to be the same type of situation.

“Sure,” she said meekly, knowing full well what stuff he’d want to talk about, and grew anxious at the notion she would answers most of the conversation with: ‘I don’t know, it’s all just happening’.

Theo rose and thanked Brock for the stew and ale, to which he replied by pushing his ears outward in a jest. She followed him out of the feasting hall, every now and again he stopped to greet some of the members, who all respected him and congratulated him on defeating a demon? Sabrina knew Theo could not have defeated a real demon, those things were hunted by only the most experienced Paladins, who spent their entire lives honing the purest of magic to combat such evil. An elf-like Theo could not hope to tangle with one of them and come out the other side alive.

She took one last look at Brock who watched her leave with interest, his watery eyes looked ready to cry and she hoped to see him again, at least before she had to return to the orphanage. Perhaps she could return to the guild every now and again when she was able to escape the clutches of Tabatha, maybe she could even join when she was old enough. No, the idea seemed stupid the more she thought about it.

They continued to walk in silence together, her slender legs effortlessly keeping up with Theo’s pace, and after a few corridors, he eventually opened a door leading to a bed-chamber. Sabrina entered it without respite and took a seat on the bed, his bed perhaps; she took in the many scents of soap and salt that clung to the sheets.

Theo checked they had not been followed and closed the door behind him, sealing the two of them in the room together. It was small and tightly confined, allowing little to no free space between the furniture. Theo looked her over for a second then approached.

“It's not safe to talk down here,” he whispered, and she could feel his hot breath on her face, it smelled strangely of coffee. “I have information for you. Can you meet me in the feasting hall tonight?”

“Okay,” Sabrina said. “But Theo I have to tell you, I have no idea what happen—” Theo cut her off by placing two fingers on her lips, they were calloused but at the same time gentle.

“Not here,” he demanded. “go and enjoy exploring the sewer a little but stay close. There are things that lurk down here you wouldn’t want to meet”

Sabrina accepted the advice with a token of silence, and Theo quickly turned without saying another word and left. Sabrina remained on the bed and knew now this bed was indeed Theo’s. The scents were so similar, and she lay there absorbing them. She wondered what Theo had to talk about except the obvious, she wondered if he knew more about what was happening than she did. Was he not watching her that day in the street? Did he just see a pretty girl and stole a glance, or was he following her like she believed he was?

She rose from the bed and stretched, yawning a hollow gasp when suddenly she heard a squelch from inside her mouth. It reminded her of when she accidentally stood on an orange in the street and heard its juices squeal out from under her foot. Then something shot from her mouth, a white thread, congealed in some sticky liquid like honey. The thread struck the door with a slap and Sabrina reared backward in fear, breaking her fall on the bed behind her. The thread pulled taught and then pulled the door open with force. The thread was attached to the inside of her mouth and hung between her and the door. She coughed, thinking she could choke on the sticky string before she saw it tumble out her mouth, fortunately.

She sat there, frozen in shock at what just happened. She quickly probed the inside of her mouth with her index finger and halted when her finger met glue. Inside her mouth where her tonsils were, her index finger poked at the sticky substance that coated them. This string (spider silk) had shot from there when she yawned.

Sabrina stood and stared at the spider silk that still clung to the door, its tail now trailed down to the floor and stuck stubbornly to all its touched. Sabrina felt as if a door in her life had opened, and whether she liked it or not, she had been pushed through it, to endure whatever events may follow in succession to this new phenomenon.