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It had been a few weeks since her run in with Draven. The heat from her face had receded from sight, though she was sure she was still blushing madly. Even as she mixed a bowl of batter for her mother she couldn’t help where her thoughts took her. Going through the motions of her baking, Aldara’s mind was thinking about what had happened. The night that the storm forced her to seek shelter and he was there. He had defended her and Soran from those who were also there. Stopped one of the patrons from tossing the poor Scorra back out into the storm. As she was lost in thought she didn’t hear her mother speaking to her.

‘Aldara… Aldara!’ her mother finally shouted, ‘You’re stirring too much, it’s not going to rise right.’

Startled, Aldara looked at the bread dough that she had been mixing and saw that it was a pasty mess that was sticking to everything. Had this happened because she was too lost in thought? Pulling the clearly stuck spoon from the mix she looked towards her mother.

”Sorry mom, guess I wasn’t paying attention.” she flushed as she went to try and scrap the mess out of the bowl to start over.

‘What’s gotten you so flustered? You never make these kinds of mistakes.’ her mother asked as she watched her daughter, wondering just what was going on. ‘Did you meet someone out there in the large world?’ she asked with a tease in her voice.

Standing straight, Aldara looked back towards her mother, her face redder than the flames in the bake oven. ”Wha… What makes you think that? I don’t think I met anyone…” She stumbled over her words a bit as she dropped the bowl and it cracked along the bottom. ”Oh no. Oh no.” This just wasn’t her day!

‘Are you…’ her mother began before she heard the bowl and looked over towards Aldara. She saw the bowl roll a little on the floor before it stopped. A crack stretching across its bottom. ‘Alright, what’s going on.’

Aldara flinched, though her mother wasn’t mad, but there was a lot of concern in her voice. Reaching down she picked up the cracked bowl and turned towards her mother. ”It’s nothing, really.” She said not looking up from the bowl. ”Sorry about the bowl mom. I will get a new one when I go to the potter again.”

Her mother walked over and took the bowl from Aldara’s hands before leaning over a little to look her daughter in the face. Aldara had little choice but to look up at her mother, her face flushed red. Was there nothing she could hide from her mother? No, she supposed not.

‘I’m not too worried about the bowl, those can be replaced. You can’t, so tell me. Did you get into trouble with someone?’ Her mother asked and Aldara shook her head furiously. ‘Or have you found someone you might like deep down and don’t know how to express it?’

”MOM!” Aldara shouted flustered, ”How can you say something like that? It was nothing like that, he was just kind to me when I was out trying to find that strange bird.” Her words turned into rambling as she looked away again, her face turning even more red.

‘He?’ her mother inquired, ‘Who is this he? Is ‘he’ the same ‘he’ that helped you when you hurt your ankle?’ Her mother pressed, which made Aldara want to shrink even more.

”No?...” She started, her mother giving her an odd look, ”Ok, yes this is the same ‘he’. But he’s way out of my league.” Her red face started to cool as she began to frown.

‘Can’t be all that bad. Does this ‘he’ have a name?’ Her mother asked moving back towards the counter. ‘Come on, tell me about him while we try and finish this order.’

Scrubbing her face with her much flour stained apron, Aldara marched pointedly back over to the counter as she started measuring what was needed for the bread. She didn’t want to speak of what happened with Draven, but with her mother staring at her the way she was… There wasn’t much she could do without saying anything, she knew her mother would press until she spilled the whole story.

”Well, his name is Draven, he’s traveling to Zena.” she began, working again to make the bread mix, her mother listening intently.

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