@Amer (Maybe Martha can show up)
Layna sputtered a protest as Lucia pushed the item into her hand, but the girl never gave her a chance to speak. She only quite registered that she had been hugged after Lucia stepped back and gave her a rushed blessing for her journey, then waved and ran out the door.
Alayna stood in frozen silence for a moment, trying to recount everything Lucia had said to her. She held up the charm, and the leather cord slipped down and hung from her hand. It was just a small silver thing, but apparently had held great value to the girl’s family. Layna finally let her guard down, and her muscles lost their tension.
“Oh Lucia,” she said quietly. The girl had become a Wolfwalker at a relatively young age. She was still quite young, but she seemed to have grown reckless when it came to her wolf form. Alayna had yet to teach her of the many dangers that surrounded the towns and forests. Her parents had been lax when it came to the education of those things.
(Sorry, I thought we dropped that because other events happened since)@Amer ?
Martha carried a tray of steaming buns and set them beneath the counter.
She knew Alayna was leaving that day. As Alayna’s employee, she would have been indifferent to her leaving, but as her friend, she was curious. Also, it was terribly depressing being alone in the bakery, and it was still earlier than most customers came to call. I shall say goodbye to her, she decided. She walked to wherever the connecting door between house and bakery was and opened it. Alayna probably wouldn’t mind the intrusion. Apart from the fact that they were good friends, there was also the fact that if Alayna were in her house for whatever reason, and something came up in the bakery, it was understood that she could be interrupted. Alayna had no husband and no children, so it was okay to break her silence from time to time.
For Martha, silence in her own house was precious. It was rare that she ever found the time to read, or to write or do anything that she might consider a “hobby.” Truthfully, she hadn’t done any of those things since she took the bakery job.
But silence in the bakery was depressing.
Martha opened the door connecting house and bakery and stepped inside. “Alayna!” she called.
