Theodoric Branden Marlon & Laila Bellwood
C-rank Support
Some days after the Harvest Festival, Theodoric found himself having a day all to himself for once. With no pressing obligations and having already been exhausted from a rather strenuous training session the day prior, he decided to simply take the day off.
Thus, he found himself sitting by a river outside monastery grounds, whistling merrily to himself as he simply whiled the day away fishing, a warm campfire at his side. Already, there were a few carp caught up and placed in a basket next to him. Doric smiled as he cast his line again, utterly relaxed for once.
The day off was nice. Laila certainly felt like she could use one. And it was in good timing too, because she was beginning to run out of wood to use for carving. She didn't need large piece like how they normally sold in the market, but small branches. So she used the chance to go out and begin collecting some after noon. Even if she initially went under the trees, doing it without too much heat on her head was better.
After she had already collected a few branches, Laila noticed a bit of smoke coming from the distance. It was a small trail going upwards, but it still made her curious. Coming closer with the branches in her hands, she soon saw someone sitting by the river with a small campfire by them. Going even closer, and she realized it was Doric, who appeared to be busy fishing. Without so much as a word, she went and sat down by the fire, just looking at him as he fished. She remembered something about silence being good for fishing.
Doric raised his head as he heard footsteps behind him, only to see Laila. What was she doing out here? He gave her a smile and a nod, noting the branches in her arms. Gathering wood? Well, she'd tell him if she wanted to. Otherwise, it likely wasn't important.
"Afternoon, Laila." He said companionably as he turned his attention back to the water.
"What brings you out here-" A tug on the line.
"My apologies. Hold that thought."
It took some effort, but Theodoric managed to reel this catch in, pulling a loach off his hook. While not what he was hoping for, it'd have to do. Loaches weren't bad eating, after all. Still, he'd have liked to reel in a bigger catch.
"In any case, what brings you all the way out here, Laila?" Doric smiled in satisfaction as he set the loach in his bucket of catches before fixing more bait onto his hook.
"May I ask what all those branches are in aid of?"
"Afternoon Doric. I-" Laila started before stopping and watching him bring in a loach. The way he did seemed pretty impressive in her eyes, without much struggling. Watching it be dropped into the bucket with the other catches, she almost missed his questions
"O-oh, well, I needed branches. I like carving on my free time, and I ran out to carve with. I don't need to ask what you're doing here." She said with a nod.
"Been fishing for a while now? You seem to have a few catches in there." Laila said, putting aside her branches except for one, before taking out a small knife from her pocket and beginning to carve away at the branch she held
"And you look like you have quite a bit of experience in fishing too."
"I've been here for most of the morning so far, yes." He cast his line out once more, watching Laila start to work on her branches.
"Carving, you say? What exactly do you make out of branches? The only thing I could think of that could be worked on with a branch would be arrow shafts."
"You'd be surprised what you can make with a little imagination and care." Laila had her eyes fixed on the branch now, which lost its skin and only had the wood exposed now
"It can't be big, sure, but it isn't meant to be. Just a hobby to make small things. Why do you fish?" She decided to ask him with a brief glance towards him.
"I find it soothing." Doric replied easily as he nodded at Laila's explanation.
"After all that's happened with training, the Harvest Festival, and all of that, it's nice to simply sit and relax. My father used to take my sister and I out for excursions like these when I was a child."
Nodding as she listened, Laila grew a small smile
"That sounds nice. I didn't really get to do, well, any kind of excursions. My dad had to work all the time just to provide for us. No rest for the poor. But he still encouraged me to find something to do in the time I wasn't helping him around the smithy, and I ended up just cutting sticks until it became carvings."
Stopping for a second, Laila looked up at Doric
"I'm sorry." she said, the smile going away.
Why did she...oh. Right. The food situation in Galbia. Well, now he just felt like a cad, bringing his father up. No wonder she seemed distressed.
"Don't be." He shook his head, trying to give a reassuring smile.
"Have you heard back from him ever since the debacle with the trade embargo has started?"
Laila was confused for a moment, before it dawned on her what he meant
"N-no. Not yet. But that wasn't why I was apologizing." She said "
I'm sorry for breaking formation when you were leading the charge." Laila explained and lowered the branch and knife.
"Ah. That's what you meant." Doric paused, looking out over the water.
"To be frank with you, I'm not particularly bothered by it. Not that I condone breaking ranks out of hand, but...looking back over it? It was likely the best solution in hindsight. In truth, I wasn't quite sure whether to commend you for quick thinking and good initiative, since I don't exactly want to be seen as encouraging disobeying direct orders."
"So, in short, there's no need to apologize to me. It worked, and the important thing is that no one died or was seriously injured. If they had..." He let a shuddering breath loose, unwilling to think about it too much.
"Forgive me. It didn't happen. That's the important thing."
As she listened to him, her head lowered slightly. Commend her for that? It felt like such a stupid move after. But after he finished speaking, Laila raised her eyes and looked at him
"R-right. No one died." She repeated after him. Moving her gaze to the bucket with the fish, Laila thought of something
"What are you going to do with the fish? Bring them for the kitchens to cook?"
"Most of them, yes. Though I was going to grill a few right here after a few more catches." Doric replied as his line tugged once more. He made an attempt at reeling this one in, but the hooked fish managed to escape from him this time.
"Well. Perhaps that's a sign to quit while I'm ahead." Theodoric chuckled, setting his rod down as he turned back to Laila.
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Only ate a small snack for a light lunch before heading out, so I haven't really eaten anything yet." Laila said as she moved to carve at the branch once more
"I hope you don't want me to help you roast the fish. I can do a decent job at descaling fish, but I always burn them. Guess you can say I like them hard like coal." Laila laughed at her own silly remark.
"Hard to separate a smith from their forge, hm?" Doric smiled as he pulled a hunting knife from his belt, starting to descale a few carp.
"In any case, don't worry about it. It would be rude of me to have you help when I made the offer first. I may not be of much use in a kitchen, but I can at least prepare food over a campfire."
With the fish descaled, he started to set up a makeshift grill over the fire before laying the fish down upon it. While they waited for the fish to cook, Doric spoke up again.
"We've not spoken much before, have we? How have you been settling in at the Monastery?"
Laila kept on carving as Doric worked on descaling the fish and then put them over the fire, with the piece of wood becoming smaller and started to gain a more specific shape. As he asked his question, she briefly glanced up before looking back at the branch
"It still feels a bit weird. Not needing to do manual work every day and instead study so much. And I am certainly not used to reading so much. Makes my head hurt a bit."
She stopped carving once more and looked up at Doric
"And we really haven't spoken much. Maybe that should change." Laila smiled towards him, before resuming the work on the piece of wood
"But how has it been for you? Anything that caught you off guard in any way?"
"Aside from our professor being an alcoholic?" He joked, fishing out a pouch of salt and herbs he'd brought along before starting to sprinkle it over the cooking fish.
"But in all seriousness, our professor, yes. Before the last battle, I'd learned more from her in two weeks than I have from some of my old instructors in a month."
"That so? I would've honestly never guessed." Laila said, before sniffing the aroma that now started to rise from the fish.
"They're start smelling really good." She added, before beginning to do some much more precise carving
"And I'm actually almost done with this."
Doric looked the fish over one last time, checking to see that both sides were cooked through before spearing each of them with a stick.
"They should be finished now. Feel free to take one." He said, grabbing a carp off the grill himself and taking a bite. Hm. Hm. Ah, it was good to taste fresh-grilled fish once more. Between bites, he looked to Laila's carving, curious to see what she'd made.
Finishing her carving, Laila looked up and grabbed a carp as well. Quickly diving in for a bite, she looked at Doric with amazed eyes
"This is so good!" She said, before taking a couple more. Before she continued to eat, however, she passed the carving to him. It was a small wooden fish, eyes included and even some gentle signs of scales
"You can have it. I used to make fish all the time. My dad once told me I could make a lake filled with them." Laila told him with a smile, before taking another bite.
"So good!"
