(Co written with Kris)
The resumed bustle of preparation for the harvest festival, meant that Maricould continue one of her favorite hobbies: people watching.
Workers moving lumber and setting up stalls and decorations, Local artisans in a bustle to get local supplies, and the air filled with the smell of hearty stews and sweet spiced treats. Mari leaned against the wall, her eyes brimming with excitement herself as she viewed the amazing; people living their normal lives.
She noticed a change in the air, a nervousness or hesitation that clung to the surface emotions of people. Before quite literally a large shadow lingered over her. Mari looked up and brightly smiled.
“Come to join me for a change?” Mari said, and patted the wall beside her waiting a moment for things to finally settle back down.
The green mountain that was Grummen, ducked under the awning examined his options and sat leaning against the wall; comically bringing him eye to eye with Mari. He grunted conspiratorially. The passersby took an uneasy look to the pair as Grummen removed a handaxe and began removing the bark from a small branch he’d been carrying.
Mari giggled before resuming her people watching, noting the towns folks she saw engage back with their lives. A part of her seemed sentimental as she watched a father gently scoop up his daughter and carry her on his shoulders. “What are you making?” She finally asked, glancing at his woodwork.
Grummen shrugged “make something” he said with a definitive uncertainty. The oak peeled off in long gentle spirals as if he was carving butter. “You watching?” he gestured to the passers by “what see?”
She smiled again, and nodded. “Yeah, I am” Mari confirmed, giving a small wave to another passerby as they eyed the two nervously. “Hmm, I guess, I see people living, doing what they must think is so mundane”. She scanned the crowd before pointing out an elder carefully carrying a bundle of goods down the path. “I like imagining why they’re doing certain things…who are they bringing things home for, why they took this road, you know? “
“Road here.” he said as if answering her question and grinned a bit. The branch was beginning to look like something now, not a particular something, but it didn’t look like a branch anymore. “Why watch?”
" I like people, normal people doing normal things. It’s a way to see people as they are" Mari explained, stretching slightly before nestling back against the wall “what do you see, Grummen?”
Gummen looked out across the picturesque town which had become his home with mixed apprehension. He saw a village ripe for raiding, which of the outsiders were strongest to test himself against, which buildings to burn first to illuminate their weakness for the glory of Gruumsh…But they weren’t outsiders anymore… Murg was out that day pushing his cart. Gianno was excitedly directing people from the yard of the Celestial Nexus for the festival. Children were underfoot with excitement for the celebrations to come. Grummen pushed the earlier way of seeing aside. He did not know how to reconcile it with the people he knew, even if they had no scars and their ways were strange. His distraction nearly laid open his hand from the axe and he snorted with amusement at himself, distraction with such thoughts only brought weakness.
“Grummen see town make festival.” he said in answer to her question. “People in town normal for Mari?” as if wondering where she would have seen people who were not “normal.”
She tilted her head to onside over the other, mulling over how to express it in a way her friend might understand. “I guess, or they all think they’re normal. I guess I’m still not used to being in towns that much” Mari answered with a shrug " You think I wouldn’t find it so fascinating after three years…right?"
Grummen looked at her with some bemusement, they’d been doing this for a long time and he still found these people endlessly confusing. “Where Mari not town?”
“The woods” Mari said easily, although realized she needed to clarify “There’s another wood very far away, by a lake. My family and I used to live there…”. She seemed to pause for a moment. It still shouldn’t hit her like this, but every time she thought of home she thought of how happy her family was. And then how violently everything she had ever known had been taken away from her. The fires that burned everything she loved and cherished. She didn’t realize her breathing had quickened, or that she had slid down to the ground. She forced a smile. “Sorry about that, guess I got dizzy” Mari lied.
Grummen nodded and looked down at his friend. “Have wood, have lake, how different?” It was hard to tell if he had noticed her distress or was being his peculiar form of polite…
Mari took it either way, gracefully getting back up before settling back casually against the wall. “This is a pond, not a lake, lakes are bigger. But there was a town, we didn’t go there very often, it was always a treat” She said, a smile returning although sad and not fully reaching her eyes" Mostly my father and I; sometimes Uri and Mother would join, but only for special occasions like this". She waved her hand gesturing at the festival being set up around them.
“So I guess, this still kind of feels like a treat, a little. Going into town to watch everyone live their lives, a small piece” Mari said.
The last of the wood fell away from the limb, now transformed into a small wooden sword, a pumpkin at the center of the pommel like the winner of last year’s “best vegetable” ribbon and the grip with the fine details of fish scales. Moments later it was in the hands of a girl chasing the other children around the Celestial Nexus to mixed reactions. Grummen looked on approvingly.
Mari shook her head and smiled at the spectacle “Except I’m a part of it now, we both are”, watching as her friend nodded and grunted in agreement.