The priest, seeing he would be unable to persuade his friend that night, let out a deep sigh.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t even offer you a ride back to your house.\u00a0 Lightning isn\u2019t exactly in the right condition to be riding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s alright,\u201d Maximus insisted.\u00a0 \u201cOne thing Charcoal left me was a field free of wolves.\u00a0 They must have thought he was a feast, but a few days after I put him to rest, I found a dead wolf on the northern edge of the field.\u00a0 There was a nice hoof-sized dent in its head, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCharcoal certainly had his fair share of adventurers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Lightning would tend to agree,\u201d Maximus teased.<\/p>\n
Richard rolled his eyes and shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cAnd at that, I think I\u2019ll bid you a good evening.\u201d\u00a0 He clapped his friend on the shoulder and turned to the door.<\/p>\n
Maximus took that path below all the way to the front gate.\u00a0 Before he could swing it open though, he noticed something in the distance.\u00a0 The young tinker narrowed his eyes in an attempt to see through the fading light of dusk.\u00a0 There, a carriage driven by a pair of horses barreled forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you expecting company, Richard?\u201d<\/p>\n
The priest, lingering just at the doorway to his house, peered out, and saw what his friend did.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s\u2026 that\u2019s Salvatore.\u00a0 But I wasn\u2019t expecting to see him for another two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those horses never relented, and Maximus felt a sting in his chest as he recalled his own recent misfortune.\u00a0 \u201cWhatever brought him here today, it\u2019s urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The horses drove the cart up alongside the picket fence, and the tall man hopped off to the ground.\u00a0 He wore a look that was caught somewhere between rage and sorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalvatore,\u201d Richard called out.\u00a0 \u201cIs everything alright?\u201d<\/p>\n
The older man threw up his arms in exasperation.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s getting worse, Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard arched his eyebrow.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re raising the prices of the cure,\u201d he growled.\u00a0 \u201cAt this rate, people will be forced into poverty just to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was already that bad,\u201d Richard said as he swung the gate open.\u00a0 \u201cPeople have been struggling for a long while.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say they\u2019re running out of it as well.\u00a0 People are going wild, worried that they won\u2019t be able to purchase it before it\u2019s all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s nonsense.\u00a0 When I was there, we had thousands of bottles in the underground storeroom\u2014maybe tens of thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell the citizens of Seramore don\u2019t know any better.\u00a0 None of them have seen what you\u2019ve seen.\u00a0 And if I had to guess\u2014\u201d Richard\u2019s father-in-law ceased speaking, as the third man, the youngest among them, finally caught his attention.\u00a0 \u201cMaximus?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, Salvatore,\u201d the tinker said.<\/p>\n
At once, the big man\u2019s eyes were brimming with moisture.\u00a0 \u201cIt was you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Maximus stared for a moment, confused.\u00a0 But then a flash of realism overwhelmed him, and he looked at his friend.\u00a0 \u201cYou never told him?\u00a0 You\u2019ve been back to Seramore three or four times since I\u2019ve returned, and you never bothered to tell him that it was me who found the cure for his daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never came up,\u201d Richard teased.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what this means?\u201d Salvatore asked.\u00a0 \u201cThis proves more than ever that God exists.\u00a0 Fate was constructed by Him, and we were all interwoven in it.\u00a0 My praying for my daughter at the temple; Richard\u2019s sudden arrival when I needed him most; Alice getting sick and you showing up when she needed you\u2026 I could have just as easily missed when you left your horse alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maximus bowed his head as he remembered that terrifying event.\u00a0 He considered, then, that if Salvatore didn\u2019t apprehend the equine, he might still be alive.<\/p>\n
All three men heard the creaking of the door, and turned toward the stars that led to the entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cFather?\u201d the feminine voice called out.<\/p>\n
Salvatore spread his arms out wide.\u00a0 \u201cMy beautiful girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he made his way to his recovering daughter, Maximus turned to his friend and flashed his eyebrows.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m reconsidering leaving for the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard grinned and clapped his friend on the shoulder again.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s head back inside.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The priest, seeing he would be unable to persuade his friend that night, let out a deep sigh.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t even offer you a ride back to your house.\u00a0 Lightning isn\u2019t exactly in the right condition to be riding.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s alright,\u201d Maximus insisted.\u00a0 \u201cOne thing Charcoal left me was a field free of wolves.\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-156","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4161,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions\/4161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}