Snippet #2488307

She had been late, and when you are late and the bread is colder than normal which makes it more stiff than average...

Bristol bit the very cloth that had been used to cover the bread. Her cries were gagged, the tears were silent physical attributes to the pain she acquired for this particular mistake, but her mind was elsewhere. No, she was not here in her father's care being punished. She was running out the door, slamming it in her wake and rolling a barrel to keep it that way. She was pulling her fur off the railing of their porch and throwing it over her shoulders. Bristol was pounding the dirt over graves so hard and fast, the crying outrage of her father over ruined bread was so far gone.

When it stopped, Bristol came back to the reality of more ale bottles than she could count on the bedside table - the one next to the bed that they shared. She pulled down her ratty dress shirt and tied back up her pants over the battle wounds - something she'd someday acquire from being out in the world on an adventure.

An adventure like the one waiting for her.

"I am so sorry, papa." The tears that rolled this time were for the part she had to play to get out. "You can have it all. I'll go, then.."

"You might as well stay out there! Tell me how the cold weather turns your skin so that you may better understand what it does to soiled bread!" A broken bottle hit the door behind her.

In hindsight, Bristol would cry over the locked door, but for now.. Her illusion became a reality. Out the door she went, past the gravestones and every dead soul who witnessed whom she called family in the place she called home every day since they arrived as caretaker of Aethlvohl's grave grounds.

Bristol rounded the corner to the small clearing behind the building - the place she'd met him before. She didn't see him now, though. Where had he gone? Had he left? Was he hiding? Maybe he didn't think she was serious. Suddenly, what she had to go back to rounded on her and her decision making skills as a young girl. She bit her lip, pulling on her pigtails to cover her ears against the cold. She called out to no one, "You didn't leave, too.. Did you?" She had tried to be there on time. She really had.