Chapter 51: Conflicted Heart
With the dying light of the already dim day fading rapidly, the makeshift cooking area was alive with activity. Fires crackled beneath suspended pots, casting dancing shadows across the faces of the women who worked diligently to prepare the evening meal.
The smell of roasting dire wolf meat, enriched with the scant quantities of mana that permeated their flesh, mingled with the aroma of wild herbs that had been foraged from the surrounding woods.
Among these women were Tara, Hema, and Rhonia, the middle-aged woman with the Cook class who had arrived along with the Lumberjack and their son. Rhonia's hands moved efficiently as she stirred a pot of stew while her somewhat plump face flushed from the heat of the cooking fires.
Tara was preoccupied with cutting chunks of meat for the stew, while Hema sorted through various herbs she'd collected, adding pinches of this and that to the cooking pots to enhance the flavor of the otherwise gamey meat.
The settlement had been in a state of heightened energy since the battle with the Hill Giants and the arrival of Starius. News had spread quickly, and it seemed everyone wanted to hear more—especially from the woman who apparently knew the Hero personally.
"So," Rhonia began, as she cast a glance towards Tara. Like many others, she had already heard about the apparent shared history between Starius and Tara. She could no longer hold back on her questions. "How do you know Starius? Mind sharing the story?"
Tara's knife hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing its rhythmic chopping. "We grew up in the same village," she replied simply, not looking up from her task.
"Oh come now," Rhonia pressed, not satisfied with such a sparse answer. "You don't just 'grow up' with someone who becomes a Hero. What was he like? What was your relationship like?"
A few of the other women nearby slowed their tasks, clearly interested in the gossip.
One of the nearby women, a relatively new refugee with a slender frame, asking with measured suspicion, "Is he really a Hero? I mean, aren't all Heroes of Goddess Selune quite well known? Yet, how come I've never heard of this Starius before coming here?"
It was a reasonable question. Heroes in this world were like celebrities. Any Ruler who had a Hero staying within their borders would do all they could to make sure the other Realms knew of this. Starius, however? He was relatively unknown even within Selune's Divine Domain on Warnath.