“You've got a clean slate. Don't try to redraw the pictures that were there before. Use it to start a new masterpiece.”
He had long since gone. A passing figure in Carria’s life, as many were. But his words rang in her ears as if they had been spoken only days before. Carria sat alone, staring out across Everslade from the house she had called home for mere months. She had missed her eighteenth birthday, spent it sleeping in a ditch in the Lone-lands as she chased down those who had dared assault her sister in her own home. It had been a long road, and after almost getting caught in their camp, she had found herself on the run from those same people. But as she stared over the town that she loved, she couldn’t help but smile.
“This is my masterpiece.” She said to herself, the Rohirric words falling through the empty night air. Since she had invested her stolen funds into rebuilding Everslade, nothing but good had come of it. She had saved Rhody and her sisters, given homes to many including Odelina, and for the first time in her life, she was happy with it. She resolved to visit her friends and Ashwyneth in the morning, if they were home. With a tired sigh, she rose from the bench, strolling silently up the steps to her front door. As she opened it, she glanced back over the town with a fond smile. “And I’m not done painting yet…”
