Quiet Burdens

Chapter Forty-Seven

(I think of this town looking like the Old Wild West type of place, so ah... look it up)

(Also, your Lace quote of the day; "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" For I have been wanting to write this part for... *Checks* HOLY- 11 Months!!!! WHAT!? Yeah, so I'm happy to bring this to you~ FINALLY! (It warms my heart~)

Chapter Start!

When they walked into the small town of Wakefield, they noticed the large Mill next to the River.

The people where walking around, the men's clothes where mostly sleeveless coats, and shorts, it was in the warmer part of the continent, and most people had shorter clothes on.

The group was actually pretty hot in their normal clothes.

The girls clothes was mostly medium skirts with crop tops or sleeveless tunics.

The people didn't wear boots like most other places, they had water shoes, as well as flats that didn't go past the ankle.

The town itself was mostly houses for the people, but in the middle there were lots of shops.

And right in the middle was a small Inn.

The Inn seemed to have been there forever, and the paint was falling off, a poster on the side read; "Donate gold to fix up our beloved Inn!" in cute bubble letters.

Cole stopped the group, and told them to continue, he wanted to paint the Inn, so he could capture the inn before it changed.

Gil nodded, and headed in with everyone.

When Gil went in he recognized someone standing there, Rita stopped next to him when she saw.

"Captain Roland?"

~~~

Cole sat there alone, drawing the Inn, his pencil drawing done; he had already pulled out his paints.

People didn't really stop by him, they just kept walking, some of the older people stopped to look at him for a moment, only to shrug it off and keep going.

Cole sat in the dry, slightly grassy dirt, his paints spread out next and around him.

As he sat there, a woman walked over to see what he was doing.

When she got there, she looked over his shoulder, looking down to the old booklet, clearly used.

It was the one Cole has since he was in the Island of Crytinia; it had somehow survived the journey.

Cole rolled his eyes, continuing to paint.

"The Inn?" the woman finally spoke.

"Yeah, I like it, it seems familiar, but I can't put my finger on it" Cole spoke back, not looking at her.

The woman looked at him, "...Your hair..." she said finally.

"Yup, it's blonde" Cole sighed, still not looking at her.

The woman was quiet for a moment, the smiled "Can I play with it?" she gave a small laugh.

Cole stopped, this question took him off guard, only Rose, his adopted mother, would play with his hair, the boy finally looked at her; the woman had long light brown hair, pulled to a braid, handing over her shoulder, she had a green tunic, the sleeves where frayed by the shoulders. She had shorts on, but it looked like a gray shirt, her flats where a light yellow, with a green ribbon tying them on.

Cole just looked at her, his green and gold eyes met her emerald ones, their eyes were almost the exact same.

"Sure" he shrugged going back to what he was doing. The woman gave a large smile, and went behind him, plating with his golden locks...

As she played with his hair, the woman noticed the burn, that had now fully scared over on his neck.

She frowned.

She decided not to ask about it, and continued to mess with the boy's hair.

(L. Note; he hasn't cut his hair sense... like Daisy's house)

~~~

Back in the Inn, Turns out Captain Roland and Victoria where there, they had taken the last two rooms... But Roland had told Gil that he knew a place they could stay the night.

But before they left the went and sat down in the Inns small dining room, Roland treated them to a snack, as in Cake.

At one table, Daisy sat with Jaylen, Hector and Emmy, the boys where messing with the necklace Emmy gave them, she was showing them how to use it, Daisy was happy for them.

At another table Silvia was asking Ryan for tips on mixing magic with her arrows, because she uses wind, maybe she could make them shoot faster, Ralph was there as well, trying to give ideas of ways to train, with figures made of stone.

At the last table sat Gil and Rita, they were talking to Roland and Victoria.

"So! How did the mountains go?" Victoria smiled, "well..." Gil started, then looked at Rita, wondering how they should tell the story...

"Well we went to the Can Bell hot springs, and that was fun, then we went and got lost" Rita spoke, eating her cake.

"Oh! Then! We met this guy, his name was Susan! He... talked weird..." Gil nodded to himself, "Then when we got to the Earth Shrine, Captain Trials-" Gil stopped, finally realizing what he did...

"What?" Roland looked at Gil, Gil gave a nervous laugh.

Rita looked at him, "oh" she said, like an "AH HA!" moment, "yeah... do you want to tell it?" she gave him a look, and Gil looked back at her, "Well, Yeah!" he gave a smile, but his heart was racing at the thought, he cut off the hand of the Captain of Clyden's Royal Guard.

"Well" he smirked, sitting up strait, "Captain Trials had gotten a group of Soldiers together, and was guarding the entrance to the shrine! So, Ralph, Susan, Cole and Jaylen and Hector went in, and the rest of us stayed to fight off the worriers!" Gil stood speaking with his hands.

Roland loved it when Gil told stories, he reminded him of a kid.

"We fought! Beating back the men, then! It was just Trials and I!" Gil spoke heroically, "He and I crossed blades, he was all like 'you're still weak!' and I was like 'HA! Please~' and we fought! And then! Right when he was going to kill me! I Cut Off His Hand!" Gil basically yelled it across the table of the small inns mess hall.

Captain Roland took a minute to process this.

"You Cut Off His Hand!?" Victoria yelled.

"Yeah!" Gil said proudly.

Roland looked at Rita, "He did?" Roland's eyes were wide.

"He did, one clean cut" she put up one finger.

Roland looked at Gil; "Wow" was all he said.

Gil was happy, but worried what Trials might do to him if he were to come back for revenge.

So when the excitement calmed down, he asked Roland to help him with his swordsmen ship, wishing for some tips, and maybe if he was lucky new skills.

Roland gave a small smile, knowing he didn't have much to teach the boy, but agreed.

After some time Roland thought of something; "Where's Cole?"

Gil and Rita were both hit with a sudden realization, "We left him outside... he wanted to paint the inn" Gil gave a small laugh.

"Maybe we should go get him..?" Rita looked at Gil, "He didn't get cake..." Gil's voice was small.

Then he thought of something, "Alright!" he stood, "Guys!" the rest of their group turned, "Because we forgot to give Cole some cake... Don't tell him we had any! Got it?" everyone looked at him, and nodded.

Roland and Victoria laughed, but everyone wrapped up what they were doing, and everyone headed out the front door.

When they got out there, Cole had a few people standing around him as he quietly pained the inn.

There was a woman playing with his blonde hair, a man looking over his shoulder, to woman talking about his painting, another two ladies talking about his hair, some men talking about the Inn, and what to do about it, a few people had gone over to the inn to give it money to get it fixed up.

Cole had sparked something in the hearts of the people in this town.

Cole sat up suddenly, and looked at what he had done, turning his head a little, then looked at the inn one last time, he saw his friends and Captain Roland and Victoria, he gave a smile, waved, and went back to his painting.

"I'm happy he hasn't changed much" Victoria smiled slightly.

Roland looked at the boy, the noticed the woman playing with his hair, and stopped, sighing, he walked over, "Hello Sky" he smiled to the woman, who looked over to him, "Ah hello Walter" the woman smiled over to him.

"You know Roland?" Cole turned, and looked at her, "Yes, he's an old friend" the woman, Sky smiled to the boy, then looked at Roland "What brings you here?" she looked at him.

"Oh, just some busyness to talk about, Oh! And I was wondering if some friends could stay at your house..? If that's fine..?" Roland asked, Sky gave him a look, "Alright" she shrugged.

"Who is going to be staying? And how many?" she stopped playing with Coles hair.

Roland smiled, Then pointed to Gil, Rita, Silvia, Ralph, Daisy, Jaylen, Hector, Ryan, Emmy then pointed to Cole.

"And that one" he ended it, "Hey" Cole looked at him, the crowd looked at Roland as well.

"It's alright! We can head over when 'this one' is done" she smiled.

(L. Note; Roland never actually said Cole's name, so... she doesn't know)

Cole gave a laugh, "Its Cole, and I finished, it should be dry by now..." he looked back at it, poking it with the back of his brush, then checking if there was paint smuggling on it.

"Yeah, we can go" he stood, and the people dispersed.

After the group headed over to Sky's house, it was a larger building, and she lived alone at the edge of the town.

The team went in along with Roland and Sky, Victoria stayed back to get stuff ready for what she and Roland came there for.

And so, night fell.

Chapter End!

IT'S GETTING TOO LONG! 1,600 words! More Than Usual! I'll continue next week!!!!!!

Ps. I have been setting up a joke sense the beginning of this book, and I'm finally going to do it!

I'm so happy...

Until next week!