Shade

Thought of Home

She woke before them when the sun was just curling tentative fingers of orange over the horizon. She was curled up among dog and elf limbs, sprawled out with them on the bed. She smiled, petting drowsily lifting heads as she slipped from the literal dog pile. Stretching, she found her bag and wiggled into short cutoffs and a fresh tank top before leaving Talyn’s room with a silent hum.

She padded barefoot through the empty Tavern and out into Rustberg proper – the sleepy seaside port waking as the docks rumbled to life and birds call echoed. Tying up her hair into a ponytail, she began to run. 

It was an easy lope of a run over cobbled and hard packed dirt streets. Past the dark shops and the just opening stalls. Fishermen and sailors shouted and sang on the docks as she ran past them, waving up at her as she ran along the high seawall. She waved back as she rounded the corner and headed up the cliffs.

There was an empty house there on the ridge, overlooking the docks and the open sea. The garden was a mess of overgrowth and neglect. The fencing needed some help. It had clearly seen better days.

It was perfect.

She stared up at the severely peaked roof, the slopes of tiles mossed over. The birds’ nest crowning the chimney. Vines crawled up the chimney and the south end of the house, though what they were she’d not know until spring. They looked like roses though.

There was space for a forge in the small yard along the natural rocky seawall. She hummed, folding her fingers behind her head and contemplating the place. Lars had said she’d be welcome. And maybe she would be – she hadn’t seen a smithy in the village, so perhaps they could use one. And it would be easy enough to work here as it was in the City – portals were always viable.

The thrum beneath her feet made her close her eyes and sigh softly.

The leylines here were open and deep. They called for her to bathe in them in the way all wild magic called to her. They were so welcoming – unlike the rigidly closed off and regulated lines in Silvermoon.

She could continue her work, she could be close to Talyn and Audemus and Meli.. her new friends and her new job, she could be close to Sera. Though that last bit might be more wishful thinking on her part. 

Shaking her head, she noted the lot number carved into the weathered lamp post marking the entrance to the place. She started to run again.

She would finish her run, start breakfast, and ask Lars when the woman came down.

Maybe this would be the place that finally felt like home.