A concerned stranger

"Slow down" I instruct Quinara as I try and keep with with her strides through the city, I was barely holding it together and my legs were screaming at me to stop. Quinara looks back at me "come on runt, you can't be that exhausted" she says completely unaware of how unathletic I was compared to her. "Please" I plead to her I couldn't keep up this pace for much longer, Quinara groans "fine, geez you're such a complainer".

Thankfully it's not much further till we arrive at the tavern that Quinara had in mind for food, I told myself that she was making these decisions because she knew the city but deep down I knew there was more to why I was so willing to have her in charge. "Runt you have to get the roasted mutton leg, it's soooooo good" Quinara emphasises as we walk in, we find ourselves a table and Quinara beckons over a barmaid. "Can we have a couple of menus and a pitcher of water please?" Quinara asks the bar maid who nods "sure I'll be right back".

Once the barmaid returns we order our drinks, I opt for a raspberry tea wanting something refreshing after the intense workout. Quinara has an opposite thought process as she orders a pint of stout, possibly the least refreshing type of beer I wasn't much of a drinker but I do remember trying stout as it were the preferred drink of lord Baxter, it wasn't for me. We peruse over the menu but ultimately it was pointless as Quinara was set on the leg of mutton and I wasn't going to turn down her recommendation.

Once our drinks arrive we place our food order and begin to talk about our next moves, "so we're gonna follow the river south for about a week or so before we'll head west. Our next big stop is probably Gryant", Quinara details. Gryant was one of the few free cities, situated nearly dead centre of the continent, bordered by four kingdoms each of which that had at some point owned or attempted to claim it, before it fully gained independence. "Gryant? The free city? Isn't that like the most populous city?" I ask befuddled why we would go to such a dense metropolis. "Yeah it's not ideal but I know some people who can help us and it's worth the risk, we will just have to be on guard" Quinara explains.

Our discussion is interrupted by our food arriving, two huge plates containing a full roasted leg of mutton, a handful of potato scones and some carrots and cabbage. I grab my cutlery and begin carving away some tender pink strips of meat from the leg, taking my first bite I knew Quinara's recommendation was well earned as the mutton was divine. While I carved with my cutlery Quinara had picked up the mutton via the bone and was biting into the meat like an animal would tearing meat away in chunks, juices from the meat was dripping down her chin. Quinara catches me staring "what?" She asks her voice muffled from having a mouthful of food in maw, I shake my head "nothing" in my mind I was thinking about the girls in Hearthwood, they were all raised to be prim and proper, none of them would ever dare to perform such a blatant lack of table etiquette. "Go on you're thinking of something" Quinara observes before shoveling a couple of the potato scones into her mouth with her bare hands, "oh it's nothing it's just you're so different to every other woman I've met" I explain while I continue to eat my meal with my cutlery. "Mph slopsh" Quinara begins trying to respond with a full mouth, she takes a second and swallows before saying what she wanted to "is that a problem?" She asks before taking another hearty bite, "no not at all, it's just different" I retort honestly yeah sure she wasn't lady-like but that didn't bother me, "in fact I actually really like how unique you are" I state repackaging my stance as a positive.

We eagerly devour our food, Quinara more so but I was also ravenous, as for the quality of the food it was delicious. The mutton was tender and flavourful; the potato scones buttery and flaky a lighter element to what would otherwise be a more heavy meal. Even the carrots and cabbage were tasty, it was clear they had been roasted in some type of animal fat that had imparted a great deal of flavour to the vegetables. I am wrapping up my final mouthful while Quinara cracks the bone of the mutton on the table to suck out the marrow, "ok that's kinda gross" I say as she sucks on the bone
"actually it's tasty... I would say give it a try but I don't think you could crack that bone" she snaps back, she was right I lacked the muscles to crack any bone much less one as dense as the one on my plate.

We sit in silence both feeling satiated by the meal, "I gotta go piss, hold the fort" Quinara announces to me getting up to leave, I watch her head away from the table. "Huck" I hear a soft spoken male voice from eerily close behind me, before I even have a chance to turn he issues a command "face forward, talk softly, let's not make a scene", my heart is pounding in chest with fear. "You here to kill me?" I ask the stranger complying with his demands
"no, I'm here to help you" the voice replies the calmness in his inflection was almost chilling
"Help me? How? Who even are you?" I ask whoever was behind me.
"I'm just a concerned stranger" the voice replies, I try and recollect if I had heard this man before but I come up blank, the voice then continues "been having strange dreams as of late?" How did this stranger know about my nightmares? What was going on? Who even is this guy? My brain was a flurry of questions, questions that I assume wouldn't be answered by this stranger "yeah, you could say that... Can you make them stop?" I ask, the voice lets out a chuckle, "no I can't and trust me you don't want them to stop. If I were you I would start paying closer attention to them" he replies.
"Ok well why am I having these dreams?" I ask, this time thankfully I get a somewhat straight answer from the stranger "no one who goes to the beyond comes back unburdened", I feel a cold embrace surround me as I recollect my time in the river beneath the ice. "I died?" I ask the stranger shocked by the revelation that I actually drowned and came back, it honestly seemed too far-fetched to be true, I was struggling to believe it myself but what could I do beyond hear the stranger out. "You stepped into the beyond, if you consider that dying then yes I suppose you did" the voice says, I mean it wasn't a straight answer but at least I could infer that as a yes, "and how did I come back?" I ask the voice wanting to know what resurrected me, I am met with silence.

I turn to see who was talking to me only to find no one behind me, or well no one close enough to speak that softly and be heard by me. I am slightly startled by Quinara sitting across from me "A-oh it's you" I say to her, she looks at me puzzled "yeah it's me where you expecting someone else?"
"No..." I then think Quinara on her walk back from the bathroom faced me head on she would have seen anyone who was behind me "hey weird question there wasn't a guy behind me like a second ago?" I ask
"no no one was behind you.... Are you ok?" She asks somewhat troubled by my odd behaviour
"y-yeah I'm fine, just thought I heard someone that's all" I say putting her at ease for now, I didn't know how she would take the news that I could be hallucinating strangers who told me I died and came back to life so I figure for now at least I would have to keep this under wraps. "Ok well runt are you ready to head back? I think you need some rest" Quinara says, she wasn't wrong even if I wasn't imagining strangers from my exhaustion, I was still tired, "yeah I am but can we stop by a smith on the way back?" I ask her.
"Of course, what for?" She asks back
"I need a razor" I say with a wink.