Melancholy wasn’t something that Salliento was often inclined towards. More often than not, she’d push the negative feelings down until they stopped bothering her. With a warm smile and a friendly demeanor, she could somewhat easily convince people that she was fine. Maro had once joked that Salli used magic to help her out, only to get an eye roll in response.
Today, however, the mage’s usual attitude had been waylaid by a powerful empty feeling. One that was all too familiar and distracting for her to do anything about. She knew she was lucky that her group had stopped at the town for a couple days’ respite. Otherwise she might have wasted even more time. Salli had already spent most of a day just sitting near one of the windows in the inn, staring out into the bustling crowds. The mug of ale that she’d been nursing had been empty for hours.
She wanted to get up from her seat, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Shopping was always an option. Or looking around the local library. Salli could even see what her friends were up to. None of those mental suggestions were successful in getting her to stand from the table.
It wasn’t until a hand tapped her shoulder that she’d even noticed the passage of time. A warm golden light was hitting her full in the face as the sun started to set. Salliento rubbed at her eyes and turned to face the intruder. It was Amara, her friend and one of her companions on her journey. The warrior’s face was pinched into a very concerned expression. Salli gave a small smile and made to get up. “Sorry about that. I must have lost track of time. Thanks for waking me up, though.” She gave a wink to try to dispel any tension around them.
It didn’t work.
Amara sighed and took Salli’s wrist to drag her away from the sunset filled window. The mage, for her part, blinked in the change of light source as she was led to another small table, this time tucked away into one of the corners of the inn. Amara made her companion sit down before taking a seat directly across from her. “What’s wrong?” Her rough voice was oddly quiet. As if she was trying not to be heard by literally everyone in the inn. “You’re not acting like yourself. We’re all worried about you.”
Salli’s smile froze on her face. It was easy to forget, as caught up in her own head as she had been, that her three travelling companions had traveled with her for a long time. They might not be used to seeing her upset, but if Amara was the one talking to her about how she wasn’t acting right, then Maro and Kera definitely noticed something. No one could ever say that her archer, warrior, and former thief friends were unperceptive.
Still, she tried to put up her usual facade. “I’m not sure what you mean,” Salli lied, trying not to make eye contact.
She felt a rough hand under her chin move her head back to facing forward. Instinctively, the mage locked eyes with the warrior. Those clear green eyes were captivating in their seriousness. “I’m not going to make you tell the truth, Salliento,” The use of her full first name made Salli flinch from how rare it was for Amara to use it. “But I must know if there is anything I can do to help. I care for your well being.” There was a pregnant pause before the warrior added, “And so do Maro and Kerakan.”
For all that she had been trying to hide her emotions, Salli’s immediate instinct was to periodically clench her hands into fists as she thought of a response. Eventually she sighed, letting her shoulders droop as her careful guard dropped. Better to say it and be done. She’d done enough damage with this funk as it was. “Today’s the anniversary of the day I left home. I suppose you could say I’m feeling very homesick.”
Letters could only do so much. Salliento was missing moments in the lives of her family while she was out on the road, and the day only reminded her of their absence. She loved her friends, but she missed her family. That ache in her chest gave a spasm of phantom pain as she let her loneliness wash over her.
Before she could wallow in her misery for too long, Amara grabbed at her arms. The sudden pull into the present left her disoriented, though not for long. The warrior was beaming. Salli couldn’t think of why her friend would be happy about homesickness. “Of course you’re feeling upset, then! We haven’t been celebrating this wonderful occasion!”
“Celebrating?” Salli repeated, confused.
“I can’t believe I didn’t think about it before, we could have been marking the occasion for all of us if I had.” Amara roughly patted her friend’s shoulders before hopping out of her seat and taking Salli with her. “Come! We need to gather the others!” The warriors’ voice boomed through the inn’s interior, making the mage wince about it. Her own protests were drowned out under Amara’s loud planning. “We’ll drink the night away and tell each other stories about what we were doing before we met each other! It’s the perfect way to chase off homesickness.”
Salli blinked a few times as she was taken out of the inn and into the streets of the town. When she had time to think about it...well, the idea wasn’t so bad. At all. She smiled as she let Amara lead her to where Maro and Kera were. It was time to let someone else lead for the moment. When her heart wasn’t so heavy from loneliness, Salliento could lead again. Her friends would help her with that, she realized.
Amara tapped her fingers on the table in front of her, too distracted to eat. When asked about what was wrong, her only response was “Something in the air.” It was the same response she’d had for the past two days. She didn’t know the words to describe what she was feeling with any accuracy, but it was bad enough that she hadn’t slept. It would be frustrating if she could focus on it long enough to be distracted from the oddness she felt.
Since they were in an inn and not out in the open, Marosen was relaxed enough to try a joking tone of voice. “Maybe she finally broke? I mean, how long can Derar live outside of the desert anyway?” Salliento “accidentally” smacked him with an elbow as she came back from the bar with hot drinks. “Ow, what was that for?”
“Being rude.” Salli glanced over at Amara as she placed the drinks in front of each respective drinker. It was very hard for her to NOT notice such a thing. Amara knew without needing a reflective surface that her eyes were in between their normal green and a bright yellow. This was natural for her race, the Derar: the yellow signified that danger was near, and the world seemed to be slower around her while the danger was still close. But there was no danger present now, as her companions had told her time and again. Amara couldn’t help what her instincts were telling her, though. Something very odd was going on around her and she had no defenses for it.
Kerakan, the elf, spared her a glance before looking out the large window the inn sported. She didn’t have energy to spare to bark something mean spirited at him. She didn’t even want her slightly cinnamon smelling drink. The humans chatted among themselves, though both spared glances in Amara’s direction every so often. She started to wonder if this would be how she died. Not in glorious battle, but from thinking that danger was around every corner.
Finally, the oddness faded just as suddenly as it had arrived. Amara could feel her muscles shudder and loosen as the tension left her body. She nearly collapsed into her lukewarm plate of food, except that Kerakan had already left his seat and held her up. Maro and Salli scrambled from their own spots to help him.
Once everything had been settled and she had eaten and drunk, discussion went around the table about the cause of her odd feeling. “Well it certainly wasn’t magically based,” Salliento pointed out. “I would’ve been able to detect it. Not to mention how exhausting it would be to keep up a spell like that for two and a half days.”
“Well if it wasn’t a spell then maybe she DID break something,” Marosen cut in. He was rarely ever serious, but his expression told Amara that he was especially so at this point in time. “I mean, we’re way out in the middle of nowhere. There’s trees and grass and flowers and EVERYTHING that a Derar isn’t used to. Amara could be sick for all we know.”
“I feel FINE,” Amara tried to protest. Before she could say anything else, Kerakan interrupted.
“Your answer is outside,” His quiet voice silenced the other three. The elf didn’t speak very often, and it was even rarer to see him cut off someone as they were speaking. Amara got up from her seat to see what he was talking about. As much as she instinctually distrusted Kerakan, he had proven himself worthy of a begrudging respect. So, she would investigate his cryptic answer.
As she neared the window, she spied flecks of white fluttering from above. Confused, she took her first proper look through the window when she was close enough to touch the glass. The sight took her breath away. Marosen, who had sauntered over to see what she was looking at, had a disappointed expression that Amara could see reflected in the glass.
“Oh. It’s snowing.” Amara couldn’t believe such a thing could be said without any emotion attached to it. Her eyes flickered from the flakes to the white-covered view and back, again and again. She pressed herself against the cold glass to have a better look and only managed to fog it up with her breath.
Salli shooed Maro away and patted her companion’s shoulder. “Since it’s snowing, we’re probably going to stay here for a while longer than planned. In the morning I’ll take you to get a proper look at the snow, alright?” The answer came with a bold, sharp toothed grin and a sudden embrace.
There was so much more to the world than Amara had ever imagined. Once again, she was ever grateful for her companions and the journey they were on. She couldn’t wait to see what else was in store for her.
