Valerie
Mrs. Manson accompanied me to the gates the next day. When I bid farewell to everyone, a small family of humans watched from outside the gate.
A mother, a father, and two young girls. They all wore hand-sewn clothing and knitted hats. Surely, they weren’t from the city.
Villagers? I thought.
Mrs. Manson explained that they had come to thank me, but that they didn’t want to speak to me directly. I wasn’t sure if they were afraid of the wolven guards at Salmere castle, or if it was fear for something else.
Maybe they were afraid I might regret it. That I would turn and run and all their hopes would disappear. That if they praised me for this deed, then it was showing me that what I was doing was treacherous. That they might scare me away from my task at hand.
I smiled at them,
