Eli sensed her worries and said, "You said there were fish?"

She nodded her head.

Eli walked towards the old wood fis.h.i.+ng pole in the corner and grabbed it.

He said, "The least I can do is fish..."

"Can you even do that?" she said with a furrow in her brow.

"If it's too much for me to reel it in, we can both reel it in." He said with a smile on his face.

She sighed, clasped her hands upon her face, and said, "Alright! We can survive! We just need some courage!"

She carried herself towards the door and out of it. A few moments later, she came back in with a grin and said, "I forgot about the fis.h.i.+ng pole."

"And me?" He said.

"Oh, I was just teasing you," she giggled.

She brought his arm around her shoulder and took the both of them to the edge of the water. The river was calm, and the water was clear. Eli and Rachel saw almost every minute detail of the river. In the corner a crawdad scuttled about, and fish swam to and fro. The salmon swam against the current, and the trout swam with it.

"Where does the river empty out to?" Eli asked.

"I'm not sure," she said, "I think... a Lake... or an ocean..."

"There's a pretty big difference between the two..." he quipped.

"Details, details," she said.

They sat down at the pier. Eli fumbled with the pole.

"You really are a n.o.ble, aren't you," she said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he said.

She sighed. Rachel dug through the dirt for some worms and placed them on the hook of the rod. She then washed her hands in the river, while Eli sat at the pier with the fis.h.i.+ng rod. Rachel thought about checking on the others in the village, but she decided not to, when she recalled how clumsy Eli was with the fis.h.i.+ng pole... She didn't want the pole to get swept away with the current, because she didn't know if the bandits had left anything else so conveniently like that fis.h.i.+ng pole, as that was the oldest on in the village. So, she sat down next to Eli on one of the stumps that supported the pier and talked to him.

"This is a st.u.r.dy pole," he said.

"Well," she said, "It belonged to my husband's grandfather."

She said this in a quiet voice. She seemed uncomfortable talking about her husband, because he must have been the dead man she stared at when they walked into her house.

He said, "I'm sorry about your husband."

She said, "Don't be."

He continued, "You know... it could have happened to anyone, especially these days. When I was still a n.o.ble, I remember hearing about how entire villages were raised overnight, because a kingdom collapsed... Political reasons of course. Not that you would know about that sort of stuff. I mean all of this to say, 'I'm sorry for your loss.'"

"Really, don't be..."

"No, I mean it. He should've lived. The whole village should've--"

She cut him off, "You really weren't listening to me this past year, not at all..."

Eli was at a loss for what to say. He realized that Rachel's relations.h.i.+p with her husband might not have been the picturesque version he grew up with. He realized there might have been pain a.s.sociated with her husband, pain a twenty-year old like him could never dream of. Or at least, that's what Eli thought.

He said, "Sorry about that. I'm only twenty."

"I'm only twenty-one..." she said.

They returned to silence.

"You know," she said, "I liked you a lot better when you were sleeping for that year."

He said, "I'm sorry to hear that."

Suddenly, something tugged at the fis.h.i.+ng line.

"I got one!" he said.

"Quick!" she said, "Reel it in!"

It was an arduous task. The fis.h.i.+ng pole curved from the fight with the fish. They saw the salmon twisting and turning in an attempt to escape from their bellies.

Finally, after a good five minutes of struggling and Rachel's help. The two caught a fish.

Then, they turned to each other. He looked into her eyes, and she looked into his. They burst out laughing.

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Rachel then de-boned the fish in her house's kitchen with Eli's sword (The bandits took most of the kitchen ware), and Eli dragged, with what little strength he had the body of her dead husband. The two thought about eating on Rachel and her husband's bed (The bandits broke the table), but Rachel decided she didn't want to be anywhere near the bed where her husband slept with her (She didn't tell Eli that). So, the two ate in the shack, pa.s.sing the rest of the day there for the most part. They also rummaged around the neighbors house to check for survivors. They found none, and Rachel had a smile on her face for the first time since she arrived at Little Vicious Village all those years ago on her wedding day.