Taking Stock

When Alexei woke the next morning he was, as expected, filled with renewed purpose.

Risa and Neave were already up and sitting out in the spring morning sun, they clearly hadn’t wanted to wake him or the men from the village.

He got up carefully so he would make as little noise as possible and joined the two outside.

“Hey you two,” He whispered, “Nice morning, all things considered.”

The sky was mostly clear, though there was a strange haze in the air that Alexei could only assume was smoke drifting over from the destroyed city of Estie and the volcano that now dominated it.

“Yeah, out here it’s almost possible to forget what happened yesterday,” Risa sighed, “I think I’d like that, you know, to be able to forget.”

Alexei nodded, he knew exactly what she meant. Neave seemed to as well if the way she latched onto his hand was anything to go by.

“Well, unfortunately, I’ve got some more things to tell you that you’re probably going to want to forget,” Alexei sighed.

“What do you