Adjustments

Noah was completely exhausted. For almost an hour now, he had been running with Lynn in his arms away from the decimated village. The girl he held and the terror he witnessed unfold at the village weighed heavily. What was he going to do? Luckily no one saw them escape, but the issue is what to do with Lynn when she woke up. There was no telling what kind of mental state that she would be in when she eventually comes to. As Noah finally caught glimpse of the village, to the right of him he saw David and a few other villagers running along the path.

Noah: "DAVID!"

David turned to the voice that called him. He bolted towards Noah and Lynn the instant that he saw them.

David: "The village? What happened?"

Noah: "The knights attacked it. I was able to get Lynn out, but... there's no saving anyone else."

David: "Damn it. Sarah just got to me not to long ago, she mentioned that you had run off towards the village but..."

Noah: "Clayton is gone for sure, that much I know. I doubt anyone else is going to survive that."

David: "Let's take Lynn back to your place."

The group of villagers went back to what they were doing before as David offered to try and get everything situated. Noah went into the bedroom and put Lynn down in Ellie's bed.

Edna: "I heard the village was attacked! What happened?"

Lawrence: "Don't tell me..."

Noah clenched his fists and held back tears as he started to let what happened truly sink in.

Ellie: "Dad... is everything okay?"

Noah: "She'll be using your bed for a while if you don't mind."

Ellie: "I'll just sleep with you so that's fine."

Noah: "Thanks kiddo."

Noah gave Ellie a pat on the head for being understanding in a situation that she didn't understand completely. Everyone then went into the dining room to sit down and discuss what steps to take next.

Lawrence: "Before we start, we're more than willing to take her in. At this point we're pretty much pros at it and I'm sure Noah was going to suggest that regardless."

Noah: "Right. For now I think it's best that I'm with her. We should keep her housed for right now, she was already pretty emotional, I don't want her to do anything crazy."

David: "I know the talk should be about her, but are you okay Noah? You look like you've seen a ghost and your sword is gone. You've been through all those nightmares, and I hate to put it this way, I doubt seeing someone die would be enough to shake you this much."

Noah: "I had to kill someone... I didn't want to, but I had to. If I didn't he would have killed Lynn and he would have found out about the eye covers. I left the sword with Clayton to cover it up."

Edna: "I'm sorry you had to go through with that..."

Noah: "It's fine. Lynn is what matters right now. It'll take a little more than killing someone to break me. Also, she should wake up relatively soon I would assume. She didn't pass out or anything, I had to knock her unconscious to get her out of there."

David: "If anyone is going to be there when she wakes up, I think it needs to be you, Noah."

Noah: "I don't know how happy she'll be to see me considering what I did."

David: "She'll come to understand your feelings in that moment. I'm sure of it."

Noah: "Okay, no one else in the room then. I'll talk to her and then once I calm her down I'll try to help her adjust to life in this village. I'll ask all of you to be with her during the day, I don't think I'll be sleeping until I'm confident she won't try anything rash."

David: "Seriously?"

Enda: "I know how you feel, but I think that action itself is rash as well."

Noah: "I'm tired of losing people. I won't let something insane happen that I could have stopped. I'll just sleep during the day. My workplace is closing down anyway."

David: "Fine then. I'll make sure she doesn't do anything insane for you during the day."

Noah: "I'm heading back into the room then."

When they heard the door close, the discussion turned to Noah.

Lawrence: "I'm worried about him right now."

David: "We can trust him to stay safe as well as keep her safe. I'm sure he'll open up his heart to her eventually, we just need to wait."

Noah after entering the room pulled over a chair from his desk to the bed that Lynn was in. He grabbed her hand and just sat there, waiting for her to wake up. About twenty minutes passed until she woke up screaming. Shocked by her sudden awakening, Noah tried to calm her down.

Noah: "Lynn, Lynn. You're okay. I'm right here. You're okay."

She looked at him with tears running down her pale face.

Lynn: "HOW COULD YOU! I WAS TRYING TO HEAL HIM!"

Noah: "Even he said it, there was nothing that could be done."

Lynn: "I'M SURE I COULD HAVE! I'm sure... I."

She started to break down into more tears as Noah embraced her.

Noah: "I'm sorry... I know it hurts, but please be strong for me."

Lynn: "Dad... why..."

Noah: "Get some sleep. I'll show you around the village tomorrow."

Lynn pulled the covers over her as she sobbed into the pillow.

Noah left the room to find Ellie and David standing outside.

Noah: "I doubt she'll do anything tonight, so I can handle being with her tonight and tomorrow, then our deal will start."

David: "Alright. Don't hesitate to get me if something goes wrong."

Noah: "I won't."

David then left the house to return to his forge. As night approached everyone went to bed with a certain unease lingering. Ellie now slept in the same bed as Noah since Lynn was going to be occupying Ellie's.

Noah woke up from his nightmares, miraculously not waking Ellie in the process. He decided to stay up for the rest of the night from that point. As morning came, everyone, including Lynn gathered at the breakfast table.

Lynn: "Thank you for having me..."

Lynn tried to be courteous, but it was obvious the kind of mental state she was in. Her words were so mellow and monotone that you could easily tell the lack of meaning behind them. After breakfast was over, Noah took her hand.

Noah: "Come on, I'll show you around."

Lynn: "Yeah... sure."

Noah took the same route that Lawrence did when he showed Noah the village. The villagers were showing her a considerable amount of care and sympathy, but that probably hurt more than helped. She needed to be treated as normal so that she could fit in.

Noah: "Last up is David's place. He's good to talk to. He's the one that helped me fit in here at the village. I owe a lot to him."

Lynn: "Yeah I know. My dad knew him for a while."

The two walked in.

David: "Sup."

Noah: "Sup? When did you start saying that."

David: "Just now, actually."

Normally random banter like this would get some giggles out of Lynn, but nothing could make her react. The two didn't stay at David's for long since there was no real need to do so. They walked around until dark and then went back to the home. Everyone went to bed apart from Noah. He sat at the door all night so Lynn couldn't leave. Before everyone woke up, he would climb in bed and sleep, putting faith in David to make sure Lynn did nothing to herself. While this was done with the best of intentions, it hurt Lynn. Noah was the one she felt most comfortable with, and she wasn't able to talk to him except for the small amount of time between when he woke up and everyone else went to bed.

Noah would need to do something else to get things to be more normal. Just what that was would be hard to come up with, but as it stands, this way of living just won't work.