{"id":152,"date":"2023-11-21T02:49:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T02:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/?page_id=152"},"modified":"2024-02-13T22:54:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T22:54:27","slug":"assistance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/the-letter\/assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The fire was crackling peacefully, and an aroma of pleasant cooking filled her nostrils. A warm blanket was nestled all around her, and before she could even ask she noticed a glass of fresh clear water sitting on a small table just beside her. As she leaned up, she noticed her hound sitting calmly on a small bench, gazing with obvious concern. The creature perked its ears up and stood a bit as Teauria sat up further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She began to feel unsettled suddenly. Where was she? She must be safe. No need to worry. Right? Obviously someone was caring for her. But who? It must be a woodswoman, she decided. Maybe even a druid. Who else would take such care as to nestle a wounded young woman in a thick cozy blanket? And also her wounds were bandaged. Who but a caring woman would tenderly clean the blood from her body but some caring mother of the forest? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her imagination was interrupted when a strong woodsman with one of the largest beards she’d ever seen stepped in briskly, closing the door and locking it behind him. He stamped off his boots, slung a powerful looking bow and quiver on a rack by the door, then removed a thick jacket of hide and fur. This complete, he walked purposefully to the hearth, took a kettle from a nearby shelf, and was soon boiling water for tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I expect you’ll like some warm tea, since your awake.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hadn’t realized he had even noticed her, and was almost sure he’d forgotten she was here. She was too surprised to answer right away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His gaze swung over to meet hers. “I’ll make the tea. You can drink it. We’ll talk when you feel like it. You can eat soon, but not yet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then he walked to the other side of the room and began preparing ingredients for a simple meal. He was silent as he worked.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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After a few minutes, she leaned herself down and fell back to sleep. She ended up sleeping a couple of days, waking only briefly for sips of water and soup, or to get rid of sips of water and soup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, she was actually well enough to remain awake long enough to hold a conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So…you saved me from those monsters<\/a>?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I did. I had some help, of course. There too many to fight alone. You were brave but foolish to put yourself in that situation.” Really he had fought them all himself single-handedly, and with ease, while also finishing off a leg of roast turkey and a flagon of ale he’d been snacking on before hearing her screams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well I owe you my life then. How could I ever repay you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You owe me literally nothing. Its my job. The mayor of your little village hires me to watch the woods. I watch the woods. I watch the people in the woods, and I watch the animals and trees and the monsters. When things go wrong, I deal with it. It’s literally my actual job description, from when I got hired.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What…” Teauria was puzzled again. If there was a woodsman looking after the woods, how had the wounded man come to her farm? She asked him of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Impossible. I would know. I won’t bore you with how, but trust me. I know ever beetle in this wood, every owl’s nest and every fawn’s first step. I don’t know what you’ve been dreaming, but that’s not possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was possible. She felt sudden panic. The letter! Now it was her being rescued. Her clothes being gone through! Had he seen it? Would he know? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Anyway, you and your cat should be ok to go back to your farm soon. There’s no point in keeping on down this trail, it will only get worse from here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s a hound.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s a cat, she’s clearly a cat. Large cat, very cute.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s a fierce and mighty hound! She slayed a goblin!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She bit<\/em> a goblin. Are you ok? That is a cat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hound.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Whatever. You got hit on the head. Someday you’ll realize its a cat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hound.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stood up. He wasn’t used to this sort of battle from squirrels and oak trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She soon fell back to sleep, dreaming<\/a> of mighty leaping warhounds battling bloodthirsty trolls. The woodsman layed an extra blanket on her, ramped up the fire, and filled the cat’s water bowl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fire was crackling peacefully, and an aroma of pleasant cooking filled her nostrils. A warm blanket was nestled all around her, and before she could even ask she noticed a glass of fresh clear water sitting on a small table just beside her. As she leaned up, she noticed her hound sitting calmly on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157,"parent":111,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-152","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/152\/revisions\/348"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mleyartanddesign.com\/state\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}