Wild Gourmet: Chapter 14

Darvon found him after most of the others had taken their food and spread out to eat. He didn’t dig into his skewer right away, which was unusual enough in a hungry town that it caught Brand’s attention.

“Hey.” Darvon kept his voice low. “I wanted to say thanks. For going out there.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I was the obvious choice, and I couldn’t very well leave her there.”

“Maybe. I couldn’t do anything about it myself, at least.” Darvon crossed his arms. “I just stood at the gate and watched you run off to do the work. That’s all I contributed.”

“That’s fine, Darvon. Really.” Brand set down his own skewer and faced him properly. “You built the smokehouse in a fraction of an afternoon. You’re putting a roof over my head. Shou made my weapons. Remm grew the vegetables. None of us can do everything. We just do the part we’re good at. That’s how we survive.”

Darvon nodded, but Brand got a sense he wasn’t hearing what he was saying, really. Or he was hearing it and it wasn’t enough. He looked at Darvon for a few moments, and watched his eyes drift over to where the town’s source of lumber was eating and laughing with Moira. It wasn’t a voluntary look, Brand felt. There was more to this conversation than just not being part of a fight.

“Darvon.” Brand lowered his own voice to match. “What’s going on with you and Shemi?”

Darvon went very still.

“Nothing. Yet. I haven’t spoken to her about anything, if that’s what you mean. I don’t even know if there’s anything to talk about. I just think she’s nice. And I like listening to her talk.”

“She does talk a fair bit.”

“Yes.” Darvon smiled, broad and bright. “Isn’t it great?”

Brand didn’t laugh. He just nodded. Darvon’s voice dropped even further to a volume just above a whisper.

“Keep that to yourself, would you? I have no idea if she feels any of that back. But she’s not hurt or worse, and that’s all something you did, so thank you.”

“It stays with me.” Brand crossed his heart with his finger, indicating he’d keep the information safe. “Now eat something before it gets cold. You earned it today. I’d have never known she was in trouble without you. I mean it.”

Darvon grabbed a skewer without another word and walked off to find a place to sit. Brand watched him go, then turned to eat his own food at long last.

It was good. Brand wasn’t really starving at the moment, but even a big lunch didn’t keep a person full forever if it was immediately followed up by carting an enormous monster into town. He dug in, ripping through the tender potatoes and cooked carrots until he was truly stuffed again.

“It was good work you did, today.” Remm settled in next to Brand, leaning on the wall beside him. “You know, I was going to give you the cart I used to transport my plants here. Looks like I won’t need to anymore.”

“I guess not.” Brand said. “I’m just glad I got there on time.”

“You want some advice about that?”

Brand looked at the older gardener. He wasn’t old, by any means, but he was married and had seen likely a full decade more of life than Brand had. Most days, Brand suspected he didn’t know anything about adult life outside of having learned to follow orders in the military. If this man wanted to give him pointers on anything beside that, he was all ears.

“Sure.”

“Right now, you are the only person in this town who could have gone to save her. And I guarantee you that you aren’t thinking about that right. I was as young as you once, and even at my age I feel like it’s my job to keep this entire town fed. That if I don’t, it’s me that let them starve.”

“That’s not how it is. Everyone has a responsibility to take care of themselves.”

“See, I agree.” The man said. “I’m just making sure that applies to you, too. Because some day you won’t get lucky. We are all going to be roving the land around this town, and not all of us are going to be perfectly safe as we do it. You aren’t this town’s guard, Brand. You also aren’t its only source of food. You have your own path to walk, and if you freeze yourself to trying to take care of every aspect of the town that’s up in the air, you won’t ever get around to walking it.”

The gathering didn’t last much longer after that. It couldn’t. The sun was dropping fast, and the last of the light was already fading behind the wall by the time the final skewers came off the grill. People had work in the morning, and most of them had been up since dawn. One by one, they thanked Brand for the food and drifted back toward their homes.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.