Confronted and Comforted

The cave was quiet, the three friends sounds of breathing intermixed with the gentle splashing of water as they drifted along the pools surface. One could have thought that they had been asleep with the Haedians of the Caregiver clan closeby monitoring another pool of water which projected the friends memories onto it, yet the truth was quite contradictory, whilst the magic of the pool had lulled the three friends into a deep state of relaxation, it had also disallowed them to move their bodies as their memories were laid bare before the caregiver clan. Sure, they could choose to hide certain memories from the Caregivers, but it was still a very vulnerable and uncomfortable experience for all of the three friends.

Especially once their mind had time to wander and took them to less savory memories, or- were their thoughts being guided by what the Caregivers were looking for in their memory? If it had been the caregivers influence then it would have been a gentle nudge into the direction they wanted to probe in, without being intrusive enough to be noticable. Katholes flinched and Maple looked like she wanted to vanish right on the spot with her body tensing up, Varos was the only one to maintain a smile onto his face, until his expression turned blank and progressively turned into a frown.

„Im sorry Maple.“ said an all to familiar voice to the tyrian, whereas she had just been reexperiencing the picnic with Varos- one of her dearest and happiest memories, once she spun around she was face to face with her ex best friend, Umendo. She had felt a honest connection to this slightly fuzzy tyrian in the past and had thought that they had been on one wavelength. Maple blinked knowing what followed all too well, she turned away to return to the happy memory with Varos but found herself stuck in this memory that still haunted her at night at times.

„A Reosean being a chef? Are you delisional? What humans wants to find a piece of fur in their dish? Can you even hold knives? You are probably just an accident waiting to happen, Vayrons shouldn‘t have chef‘s knives anyways, give that here before someone gets hurt.“ Varos froze as the scene before him faded to one he had pushed to the back of his mind for a long time. It had been a normal day, having heard of a cooking competition taking place in a town over where a noble from Warrenfall was looking for a personal chef for their kitchen and intended to turn it into a spectacle. Varos who had practiced his culinary craft diligently had been excited at the idea of cooking something for someone so important and to see all the different dishes being cooked.

Katholes who had taken respite from the barrage of negative emotions by clinging to the happy memory of them meeting Maple and Varos for the first time like a lifeline- soon found that this was merely the calm before the storm, it wasn‘t long until the haunting memories returned, intensified now by the stark contrast created due to their friends presence having had them lower their wall's.

„Maybe this time it won‘t hurt as much, I know what she is going to say.“ the tyrians arms came up to give herself a hug, claws digging into her upper arms as she tried to ground herself and cope with the situation. „I dont think we can be friends anymore. You are too much, too loud, too energetic and I can not cope with it anymore. I have tried, trust me, but you are so annoying and draining to be around, I have to cut ties with you for my sake. I can‘t do this anymore.“ There it was- those dreaded words Maple had once heard from her best friend Umendo, it still stung, piercing straight through her heart, causing tears to run down her cheeks. 

The tyrian had burried the resulting self-doubt and anxiety behind layers upon layers of positivity, pretending, no playing that everything was okay for their friends sake to not show that anything was wrong, to not show that she thought of herself as a burden. The tyrian had tightly clutched her upper arms, almost as if she was holding on for dear life- it had been years since she had lived through this situation, she had time to process it, she had built walls up and pretended to still be her old self despite everything, yet why did it hurt so much, why did these words from her friends lips manage to tear her down once again just as if she had just heard the words for the first time?

Yet the moment he tried to sign up for the competition that only had humans attend he was put into focus and bombarded with criticism, painting him as incapable of being a chef, as if he was a daydreamer- a wannabe pretending to be able to cook.

Nobody listened to his pleas and wishes to just allow him to enter the competition grounds so that he could show them that he really knew how to cook. „I love cooking more than anything! Please you must trust me, I know how to perfectly cook chicken and even make the most grainy meat tender! Its been years since I cut myself on a knife whilst cooking!“ but nobody listened to the chasers pleas, instead he was chased out of the competition grounds, turned into laughing stock for the competitiors and the noble holding said competition.

Suddenly they found themself back in the city, deep within a shady alleyway. They knew this place well- an apothecary ran an illegal hospital in these parts, giving those who were poor and unfortunate a chance at still getting treatment even if the likelihood of a botched operation was high and pain killers were a luxury. Katholes was well acquainted with these shadier sides of Vitalus- a continent that often to travellers inspired awe and wonder in them due to the wild magic that permiated the continent, yet Katholes also knew that with magic being amplified here it also had the possibility to turn volatile, a simple argument frequently ending in a fight with fangs, spells and unrelenting ferrocity. Due to this it had been incredibly important for Katholes that the Apothecary could keep their hospital open, ensuring that those injured in these intense exchange of magical blows could be patched up again.

The thieves guild Katholes worked for to amass riches was one that had continuously extorted the Apothecary for their protection services as they had put it. Yet this time- Katholes was supposed to make the Apothecary pay up and he felt that this was going to be at the detrement to all those less fortunate souls stuck in a circle of crime like they were. He had confronted the Apothecary, but noticing they couldnt pay and hadnt been able to for some time, Katholes warned them to go into hiding as this time the guild might be prone to more drastic measures. 

The puller watched with sadness as the scene unfold before their eyes knowing what consequences this action had brought with it. 

Perhaps Maple had to do more healing, perhaps it hurt her more than she had initially realised, but she knew one thing, she now had friends that genuinely cared about her, so whilst she mourned the loss of this past friend, she knew she wasn‘t alone anymore, this fact alone helped her fight back against the stream of tears and wave of sadness that had overcome her.

Varos still sometimes thought back to what would have been had he only been given the chance to cook for them, would they have finally seen him as capable then and allowed him to share with them what he loved the most?

The apothecary would be found deceased the next day when Katholes came to tell them that the guild had stopped looking for them, turning all their effort for naught. Worst of all there was a letter addressed to Katholes that lay on the Apothecary informing them that they would from this day on be hunted by the thieves guild until they would be able to strike them down, they warned Katholes to not trust anyone as they had their pawns everywhere. „Welcome to your new life, filled with paranoia, dread and a constant need to be distrusting to stay breathing. Just know that we will be there to end you the moment that you even allow the smallest misstep. We might play along for some time but the moment you let the wrong person too close to you your fate will already be sealed.“ the words were haunting, correctly predicting how Katholes life would look like from that point onwards. They ran, changed their name, never drawing too much attention to themselves all in an effort to stay alive and not fall victim for the thieves guild sick game of manipulation.

The three friends stirred in the pool all of them awakening with a gasp, they shared a glance amongst themselves almost as if to confirm that what they just experienced was something all of them had been through. They were quiet, a lot on their mind, the memories they had relived still at the forefront of their minds, as they exited the pool, helping each other to get on land again, the Tyrian silently pulled the chaser and puller into a tight hug, none of them objected, leaning into Maple even. Their silence spoke volumes, and this comforting was welcome after what they had just been through.