The water seemed oddly quiet as it babbled on by, as did the roar of the waterfall in the distance. Maybe Rick was going deaf? Or maybe it was more to do that he was enchanted. Not with the beautiful scenery that this little nook of Trestlebridge had to offer, but with the pretty girl that lay asleep with her head resting on his leg.
With a smile creeping across his lips, he leaned back against the rock face as he picked up some rope and began wrapping it around each other in a tight braid, pulling it at the end before repeating slowly and surely using just the dying light of day as his candle. He glanced up to the bridge; mighty and proud, standing still as strong as it had hundreds of years prior when it was first built. However the town was not the same, far from it really.
An orc raid happened not long ago, devastating the town completely with buildings burned to the ground, including the family home of the Woodruff’s. A sad smile crossed his lips, pulling the two ends of the rope around each other. What then did the Mayor decide to do? Hire sellswords! Armoured folk bringing their weapons and steel from the South to the small quaint little village of Trestlebridge, just after it was in it’s worse time.
Food was already a shortage with the raids to the farms on the Kingsfell getting burned down and pillaged, and with more starving mouths to feed life was hard for the townsfolk. Rick felt his eyes swell up, growing water as he thinks of starvation..
Maria Woodruff. His youngest sister, aged only eleven, now no more from malnutrition, finished off with a simple cold. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, setting the net-in-progress to the side. He took in a long breath and composed himself.
What good did all of this bring? It was simple. The woman that lay asleep beside him. Bietrix Wheeler, a refugee from the farms in the Kingsfell area, living with her uncle Severin and her sister Tilly--a funny one herself in the tantrums she was capable of, more like a child who lost a toy than to a fully grown woman of his age. Bee however, was much more reserved but still had that fire within her, something that he couldn’t help but admire.
Now since her arrival, not even that long ago, they were courting and kissing like a couple that had been courting for months would be doing! But, it was worth the rush, for she’s worth a lot to him, she’s his jewel in the ashes.
