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CHAPTER 3

The village was like something out of an old movie. Back when people kept chickens and...yup those were pigs in their back yards. The buildings looked to be constructed of a dark gray stone, supported with timbers rather than the wood and drywall that she was used to. Other denizens strolled along the street, but it was hard to make out anything about their character or dress from a distance.

She had no idea where she had come to be or how. Every few minutes, she could feel panic rising up inside her and Blackbeard would drop back a few steps and place his hand on her arm, quelling the feeling before moving on.

They skirted the settlement, avoiding the main road in and, instead, slipped through a smaller alley on the river side. Tianna marveled at the buildings; they were like nothing she had ever seen. Smaller constructions appeared closest to the riverbank. She would have suspected that they were nothing more than storage, or livestock sheds, but chimneys rose into the darkening sky and the smell of woodsmoke filled the air. Sounds of people murmuring and moving around proved that they were occupied.

When she stopped, trying to peer into one of the openings and get a peek inside, Blackbeard tapped her arm and shook his head disapprovingly. Fine. She supposed it was probably rude, but she was curious.

Her drive to snoop was quickly assuaged. He led her along a row of progressively larger buildings until they came to one that sat directly on the edge of some sort of town square. They didn't expose themselves to the square, however, but edged along the back of the building until they came to a solid wooden door. Blackbeard pulled out a set of metal skeleton keys and wiggled one into the lock, unlatching the door and waving her inside.

The interior was pitch black, but it wasn't like Tianna had a choice. If someone had told her that morning that she would be fired, fight Bigfoot and then follow an odd pirate into his blackened lair, she would have made a note on their chart to up their psych meds. But here she was.

She should be terrified. Especially given that she had known Blackbeard for all of two hours, most of which they spent silently since neither could understand the other. Yet, somehow, she wasn't afraid of him. Indeed, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, he laid a hand on her arm again and smiled encouragingly. Feelings of well-being emanated from him. She stared at the hand for a long moment, an impossible suspicion rising within her that he was manipulating her emotions.

Seeing that she hadn't moved, Blackbeard entered the building first. She could hear him fiddling with something. There was enough light coming through the door that she could make out a table at which he stood, and then a light blazed into existence. Blackbeard turned, holding up a lantern, and moved to the door to gesture her inside once more.

Tianna entered to find a well-appointed space. Several hooks lined the wall near the door, one of which held a swath of fabric aloft that could well have been a coat. A set of older boots were placed neatly beneath. There was a small hand-made chest against the opposite wall and what looked to be a woven rug in the center of the floor. Blackbeard waved her inward and disappeared down the hallway with the lantern, forcing Tianna to follow or stand around in the dark. They moved deeper into the building and she got a curious peek at shelving lined with small glass bottles, labels neat and organized, but unreadable before Blackbeard pulled on a rope dangling from the ceiling and pulled down a set of stairs that led to the upper level. He traversed up them first, and she followed dutifully.

Upstairs, the rooms were more like a living space rather than a shop of some sort. The ladder had placed them in the middle of what must have been some kind of sitting room. Soft looking furniture - chairs and a settee - sat along another rug that was held down with a solid looking table. Blackbeard moved along the walls, lighting more lanterns like the one he held. The space revealed by the growing light was cozy. An old wood, or maybe coal, burning stove interrupted the space between the sitting area and a small dining room. Cupboards and shelves held a meager amount of dishes and what looked like cast iron pans. An opening in the wall beyond the dining room suggested that more of the apartment existed. Bedrooms, and perhaps a washroom. Oh God, if this village was really so far behind in technology would there even be a washroom?

Blackbeard soon answered her internal questions by guiding her through the hall with three doors. The first was reminiscent of an outhouse. She gathered, from its position in the wall, that the little room actually stuck out from the side of the building proper. It was just large enough for a bench seat that sported a gaping hole. Ok, a little gross, but since she had been picturing chamber pots emptied out of open windows, she would take it. At least there was something resembling toilet paper set to the side. She had spent plenty of time in campgrounds and such with worse accommodations. At least it was clean. In fact, the entire building seemed to be meticulously so. Was Blackbeard the neat freak or did he have a significant other that took care of the cleaning for him?

The next thing he showed her was an empty room. Well...it had a small bed and a wardrobe that had seen better days, but they were empty. A small window stood above the bed. She peeked out of it, but the view mostly consisted of darkness and the stone wall next door. Next, she investigated the bed. She could see that the mattress was stuffed with something, straw maybe. It didn't look very appealing, except that it was private. She felt a wave of relief that he didn't seem to expect them to share a bed. As she pondered the room, Blackbeard slipped back into the hallway and returned with several warm looking blankets. He set them in a neat pile at the foot of the bed.

“Thank you,” she told him, because, for whatever reason, he seemed keen on caring for her. Despite having what must be a relatively better situation than some of the others in the village, she knew another body was going to be a drain on his resources, even if only for a night or two until she could figure out how to get back to that arch. He might not have understood her words, but the intent seemed to get across to him just fine. He smiled warmly and nodded, then patted the blankets once more and left her to herself in the room, closing the door behind him.

She felt numb. She knew she should be panicking but it just wasn't there. She suspected it had something to do with Blackbeard's comforting touch, but her thoughts were clear enough to know that wasn't possible. Then again,* none* of this should be possible. Still, he had offered the only logical choice, which likely saved her life; not to mention the shock he had tempered.

Staying in the woods wasn't an option and if Blackbeard had a way to help her see through her panic enough to save herself, then she wasn't going to be angry. Though, she decided, she was going to avoid letting him do it again.

She spent some time organizing the blankets and then, with nothing else to do, she made her way back toward the living space. Blackbeard had started a fire in her absence and was placing something on the stove. She wandered to the front of the sitting room. There were windows there, as well, small though they were. The front of the building looked upon the square. Darkness had fallen but it somehow didn't seem late to her. When she had gone through the arch, it had been late morning, so she calculated it was probably only mid-afternoon at home. Nothing moved in the square and it was almost eerie to see the lack of street lights; the only light in the settlement came from inside the buildings themselves.

Blackbeard said something softly and she jumped, turning to him. He smiled a little and gestured to the settee and chairs. Well, why not? She decided to concede and sat down. Blackbeard sat across from her.

“Thanlos,” he told her pointing at himself. Ah, she supposed she couldn't keep calling him Blackbeard forever.

“Tianna,” she told him and repeated his action indicating herself. This pleased him to no end and Tianna decided Thanlos was a genuinely jolly fellow. He gestured to the air around him and said something else, but she didn't catch his meaning. He tried again, twice, varying his word structure. She wasn't sure if he simply wanted her to repeat what he said so she imitated him to the best of her ability.

He shook his head but smiled at her wryly.

Probably not what he wanted then.

He seemed to decide on a different tactic, leaping up from his perch and pulling a cup down off of a shelf in the dining area. He said a word and pointed at the cup. This she understood. She repeated the word and pointed at the cup.

They had gone through the words for most of Thanlos' place settings, when a delicious smell permeated the living space and reminded Tianna how very little she had eaten that day. Her stomach rumbled loudly and Thanlos chuckled at her and then made way to the large pot, which he then removed from the stove. Picking up a ladle, he scooped what looked like a hearty stew into a bowl and passed it to her, indicating the spoon they had left sitting on the table after she had learned its name. Tianna dug through it and could make out chunks of meat, what looked to be carrots and potatoes, and some type of herbage. She waited politely for Thanlos to serve himself and when he did, she took a tentative bite. Fortunately, she found it to be very similar to stews she had eaten before, and it didn't turn her stomach like she feared it would. She adamantly pretended it was a meal she was used to and finished the entire bowl. Thanlos took the empty vessel and spoon and went to the dining area where a bucket of water was waiting. He washed and rinsed everything, put them back in their place on the shelf, then hauled the water to the gaurdrobe. When he returned, he took a kettle off the shelf and filled it with a smaller bucket of fresh water, hung it on the hook and placed it on the stove.

He seemed content to sit with her in silence while they waited. Tianna spent the time going over the events of the day in her head. How on Earth had her life come to this? She distracted herself a little by trying to remember the words Thanlos had taught her, but she was getting tired and she felt like she was trying to pull them through the cotton of her mind. Tea appeared before her. She blinked. Had she nodded off a little? Thanlos said nothing, just handed her the cup...copala, she remembered the word for that one. She smelled it and the familiar scent of mint wafted up to her. Mint tea. She took enough time to sip the brew and then made her way back to the room she had been shown. Maybe she would wake to find this all a very strange dream.

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