Sacrifice

[The Writing Owl]

Ana thought for a bit before nodding. "Alright, well, let me tell you about a certain harvest festival." She started putting the pieces of the bed together as she got ready to tell the story. "Now, a few months ago, the village had a very good harvest. So this festival was a promising one. The lights shone like the stars as everyone got ready to have a wonderful night. Dances, music, even a few fire-breathers performed. However, it was extra special for me. It was my last festival before I was to be sacrificed." Ana stopped, a feeling of nostalgia and regret falling over her for a small bit. She continued anyway. "Everyone was having fun, and for once we didn't have that looming threat of the forest or other responsibilities. The whole village was smiling and happy for once." Ana paused in her working, remembering the few happy memories that she had in the village.

 

[York]

Hendrik smiled, listening to Ana's story for a while, for a few moments there, it felt like he was actually back at his village, or at least the village from the little he could remember anyways. Though when she stopped for a moment, Hendrik looked over at her, noticing she looked a little regretfull before she continued, it seemed she too was reminiscing on her memories of the village. "It's a shame I don't remember as much as you... I was young at the time, blissfully unaware of what was happening around me." Hendrik thought for a moment before he remembered something "Did they ever send books or something down into the forests? I found a few random ones laying around, even a dictionary." he said, laughing a little at the thought of that despite not knowing why... So far, there were only 5 he'd found though as he never really saw signs of anymore afterwards.

 

[The Writing Owl]

Ana shook her head. "Oh heavens no. Sometimes our librarian got a bit clumsy. She cried for nearly a fortnight afterwards." The girl giggled a bit as she thought of the poor old woman sobbing over the missing books. "Her son had to keep the library in check while taking care of the sick with his mentor. I visited quite a lot. He always had something new to tell me or something to show me." Oh those feelings crashed harder and faster as Ana looked down at her hands. "We were to get married, if I had not been chosen." She tried to whisper it, make it unnoticeable to the young man listening to her story, but it often felt a bit too painful.

 

[York]

Hendrik smiled a little too realizing the Library was rather fortunate he had gotten to the books before any of the beasts did, though he grew concerned again when she mentioned that she had someone she wanted to marry... Despite knowing the definition and the importance it was to the people involved, he still wasn't sure what the feeling that brought them together was, despite knowing it was called love, he hadn't been in close contact with other people like Ana long enough to feel anything like it. However, he wasn't sure if that was changing, sure, he felt something, but the problem was, he wasn't sure if it was love, or even the right type of love, all he knew about those types of emotions were the definitions he'd read in that dictionary. Looking towards Ana with a sad expression, he could only think of one thing to say "I'm sorry..." he said quietly, he did feel genuinely bad for her, but he found that he couldn't relate to her in that experience...

 

[The Writing Owl]

Hearing the apology, Ana shook her head. Now was not the time to be pitying herself. "Don't be. Now, let's get that bed finished." The rest of the time was spent in quiet, the brunette not really talking anymore. She sighed as they finished, standing back to admire their handiwork. "Alright, well that's a good job done. What else needs to be done?" She turned to Hendrik, curious what he would say.

 

[York]

Hendrik nodded, he seemed to have fallen a bit silent himself as he started working on the bed, eventually finishing it rather quickly thanks to Ana's help, though when Ana asked what else needed to be done, he realized something. "I haven't gone hunting for a while..." He said, glancing towards the roughly fashioned bag he'd kept his food in, it was slumped over, clearly almost empty.