The snowfall lightened up near the top of the mountain, and with only a day or so longer to journey, the weary trio made their way higher up the mountain.
“Remind me again, why did we have to bring Throndir along?” Hadrian groaned. His dark skin contrasted with the snow-white cloak he wore, his armor gleamed a little too much for a man who’d seen as much battle as the Sword of Samothes, and for once on a journey his eyes didn’t show him carrying the weight of Gods atop his shoulders. As soon as he finished his question, a nearby pile of snow burst apart from the force of the biggest dog he’d ever met in his life, although not for the first time.
“Because, that’s why,” answered Lem King.Throndir began to interject, but Lem continued, “And also Emmanuel loves dogs.”
Lem’s tusks had gathered frost and despite all his best efforts, continued to sprout small icicles as they trekked further up the mountain. He wore heavy winter clothes, including a hood with a drawstring to help close it, and carried his violin case on a seperate strap from his regular pack. Throndir counted himself lucky he hadn’t worked off all of his pudge yet from his latest adventures because it helped keep him a little warmer. He was used to the snow, but still wore heavy clothes and a hat with a brim so wide the sun never hit his face. Kodiak refused to let any clothing be put on him for cold weather short of a blizzard, but still had a small satchel fashioned to strap onto him to carry some supplies for everyone else.
“First of all, who doesn’t love dogs?” The paladin’s rhetorical question was answered by two hands raised and a deep bark. “Second, it’s not like he’s going to die, again, just because he hasn’t seen a dog in a month. Fourth, was it still necessary to drag more people into this practice?”
“What happened to three?” Lem was never one to miss a detail added or omitted.
Throndir found his chance to truly join the conversation, “Three’s company.” Hadrian didn’t have a response ready and Lem blushed as much one could see through the green skin.
Lem took a breath to compose himself. “Also, who else do you know that has experience with both wilderness travel and lots of snow?”
Throndir answered, “Lem, they gave us a map. They even helped make a trail. This pattern must be important, but I’m with Hadrian. I don’t think I was really required for this either.”
Hadrian and Throndir paused to look at Lem for answer. Lem thought for a moment, tried to think of a reasonable excuse besides just having a friendly face to make sure Hadrian didn’t enact some lost creed of Samothes involving undead boyfriends and making them just dead, then turned to Throndir and spoke just three words to sway him. It worked. “Crêpes for dogs.”
A lonely baker stared out into the snowy landscape, double-checking his calender to make sure it was indeed the right day, gazed upon the empty tables that had served no person yet in the month they’d been installed, and wandered back to his oven. The sign above the door read “Emmanuel’s Eatery,” which he hadn’t picked for himself. It was the second bakery he’d run, but this would only have a single purpose that he didn’t really get but was going to have a hefty sum of coin for after this ended.
He set the large table (oak from a tree that was 56 years old is what they told him) that was placed off-center in the undecorated room so that the cold couldn’t get at it from the door. His heart would have been racing if it still beat. According to the schedule, the group should have been arriving today but with traversing mountains, who could say how accurate those estimates are? He gazed out one of the windows and thought of the lonely weeks he’d been on the mountain. There were books and supplies to try out new recipes and to experiment (to say that his Over Hard Boiled Easy Eggs were a bad experience was an understatement) but company was something that objects couldn’t be used for the same purpose.
He heard rustling outside that snapped him out of his daydream, and when he looked, he caught a glimpse of a bear, except bouncier. He ran to the back to grab his sword and edged himself next to a window to get a decent view while still maintaining cover. “When you aren’t really alive, you forget to breathe but not how to hold your breath,” he thought. For minutes he stood anxiously, scanning the edge of the hill. He sighed in relief when he caught sight of the beast again and realized it was one of the few non-bipeds he’d ever served and opened the door with a great shout.
“Kodiak! Do you want another crêpe?”
The dog bolted straight at him and tackled him through the doorway. A bone felt like it might have cracked but Emmanuel couldn’t care less if it meant seeing a friendly face or 3 if he counted Throndir and Hadrian. His boyfriend, however…
“Welcome to the new shop, you two,” he said, fumbling a little over words. “I didn’t realize you would be coming along, but where is Lem?”
Throndir made a gesture to the side and Emmanuel saw his boyfriend trying to sneak around the back. To expect the multi-talented Lem King to show up casually when this was finally a planned meeting was foolish. Throndir answered, “It’s good to see you again, Emmanuel. As you can see,” he lowered his voice a little more as he approached. “Lem wants to surprise you.”
“Well, I certainly don’t know what he’s thinking this time but at least he isn’t showing up under cannon fire. Or starfire. Or any sort of fire. I’ll start heating the oven, then.”
Hadrian walked in but Throndir waited at the doorstep a moment. He asked from outside, “Is it alright if I come in?”
Emmanuel knew Lem made odd friends but it seemed some lacked sense in the weirdest places. The Nacre native agreed and the elf gently stepped in. From the back of the shop, a few pots fell down, a swear let out, and then a plate shattered on the ground.
Hadrian looked to the baker. “I’ll give you one guess.” Another plate shattered and the large thud of a case hitting the ground and then the clicks of locks opening rang through the small building. Hadrian chuckled. Kodiak would have been sniffing at the cabinets if he wasn’t still playing with Emmanuel, and Throndir was just happy to be in a building again.
A few notes played off a violin. Emmanuel picked himself up and walked over the table, pulled out chairs for the guests and filled up a bowl of water, which he placed on the ground. They all sat down and stared at the door to the back room. A few more notes hung in the air as the room settled down. A tune slowly formed and then a lanky orc wielding a violin as beautiful as any creature in the building stepped out from the back room. He had started to find a rhythm which quickly became disorganized when his eyes fell on him. The baker, shop owner, former pirate, undead beauty, boyfriend. Emmanuel. Lem blushed and if Christmas existed, his face in that moment was the two iconic colors of the holiday. He took a minute to compose himself before saying anything, and then started up the tune again.
An ivory sword for a fragile throne
A king sits atop, alone
Longs for the day when he can away
Until he can sire a replacement to stay
No seat beside him, or pedestal below
Only a great hall, lit by the moon’s glow
He wakes during the nights
And reads by candle lights
The confessions of those before him
And seeks to learn from them
Soon he will write lines too
Adding something entirely new
But he won’t leave or resign his position
Even when life changes his disposition
Presenting companionship and extended legacy
He’ll evaluate a new life, his life choices,
And then he shall see
That what he wanted in the end
Was to find a wound inside to mend
All he ever really sought
Was the victory for which he fought
But his battles were tough
And his exterior turned rough
A childhood sold for power
Now aged in his throne, his tower
He reflects on his life, and looks to his side
And next to him, smiling, his teary-eyed
Love
Lem finished playing his instrument just before the last word. He’d kept his eyes closed during the performance in order to convey as much as he could through the song alone. He hadn’t seen the seated trio’s teary reactions.
Emmanuel didn’t realize the song had ended and continued to stare at the performing adventurer extraordinaire. The archivist. The runaway orc. The king of violins. The man who stole a baker’s heart. Emmanuel felt the emotional release of a soul in need of comfort. Of a man whose only desired home was with another person. Of Lem King, the love of his life.
How a man without a beating heart could blush is a mystery, but it happened nonetheless. He had a smile warm enough to heat the building atop the frozen peak. He had enough love for the two of them to continue through a dozen lifetimes. He had enough happiness to forget the hardships he’d faced.
He had also been so lost in love that Lem opened his eyes to see a frozen audience, except for Kodiak who now had begun searching the house for food, and feared he’d performed a pattern without realizing it.
“Oh, no. Oh, no, did I do that song wrong? Oh please don’t have been that, oh no.” Lem continued babbling and approached the table to see if they truly were frozen. Throndir and Hadrian started to applaud and Emmanuel rose to finally hold the musician in his arms once again. They embraced and as their heads came closer together, Emmanuel felt some resistance in the form a bony tusk, and a second one, before tilting his head back and maneuvering between the tusks.
Lem apologized, “Sorry, yeah, if you don’t do anything for a while you forget how to-”
He was cut off as Emmanuel found the right path and kissed his love. He stopped for a moment to say, ever so gently, “It was perfect.” They resumed. And continued. And Hadrian averted his eyes. And Throndir didn’t, but Hadrian noticed and escorted his companion to the back to unpack and wrangle Kodiak before he destroyed the rations.
After a considerable amount of time, Emmanuel posed a question that had been on his mind now for some time. “Lem. Dear. I just need to know.”
“Yes?” he answered nervously.
“Was me being up here alone for a month necessary? Like, I get the pattern needed so much but couldn’t you have found a loophole? Or done that other thing? It was so agonizing.”
Lem reflected on his past mistakes with breaking the pattern, and tricking the pattern, and thought long and hard for the right words. Emmanuel watched the gears tick inside him. Lem’s eyes lit up when he found the answer.
“Sometimes, even when we know the path is hard, the wait makes it worth it that much more.”
Emmanuel blushed, and wrapped his arms around the man he’d longed for during the cold nights. In a few hours they’d get dressed and he could make food, but for now he had the real reason he’d agreed to this right next to him.
Bamboo Shots of the Mind 