East of Nowhere Part 4- Meeting Winter- Revised

After a few hours of walking, Sasha and Grayson arrive in Hartford with the girl in the wagon. After walking a few blocks, they turned down a side street and Sasha hears Grayson yell “There is my shop! We’re almost there.” He points to a shop, about partway down the next block. His family was standing in front of it waving, his kids were jumping up and down in excitement. The wagon hits a bump and the supplies tumble around the wagon causing the girl to wake up in alarm. She looks out of the wagon to Sasha, and Sasha looks back to her and says, “We are almost there.” As the cart begins to slow down the closer they get to the store, the girl hops out of the back of the wagon and stretches and proceeds to follow close to Sasha.

The wagon finally pulls up to the shop, Grayson immediately jumps down and embraces his family in a huge hug, exclaiming “How I’ve missed you!” as he kisses his wife quickly and hugs each of his kids. Turning, he motions towards Sasha. Sasha then turns to the girl, and says “Wait here, I’ll be right back.” As the girl is waiting next to the back of the wagon, Sasha walks over to Grayson and he introduces her to his family. “This is Sasha, she’s the knight who escorted me all the way here.”

His wife says, “Thank you for bringing my husband safely home to me.” Grayson hands Sasha a pouch of coins, saying “I removed one coin, in payment for the bread the girl ate. You understand?” Sasha agrees and says, “I understand, I’m not happy about it, but I’m not going to complain or make a scene.” Grayson then asks her “If you ever need work in the future for anything, I will gladly hire you again.” She says thank you and she starts to walk away. As she turns to go back around the wagon, Grayson asks her “Would you be available in a couple months for another job? I have a big shipment coming in the next few months. I will be leading a whole caravan of merchants and goods back to Hartford, if you know anyone who would like to be a caravan guard for an escort, please let me know. I will have more details about the escort in a month or so. I will even throw in a little extra coin for you, if you would like to return to work for me again.” Sasha says, “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” She bids him and his family farewell.

She returns to the girl, and says “We passed an inn a few streets back, what do you say we get something to eat and some rest?” The girl nods in agreement, and they start heading back down the street to the inn.