By the mid-morning light we stood upon the foothills of Mount Jalilsi and gazed out across the great mountain. Dunja lead us up an old game trail that seemed to have a great deal of stones. During one of our rest stops I looked down at one and discovered that it was a very old cobblestone. So we were travelling on an old road. Well at least that meant that we were probably on the right path. Biser still hadn't spoken since Coing slapped him but I could tell that he thought this trip was a waste of time.

In an attempt to lighten spirits Aya started up a conversation and quickly dragged Cognassier into it. Everyone knew Aya and Cognassier even I who pretty much kept myself isolated knew them. Well them plus Biser were pretty much everyone I knew in the whole town.

Aya was having a nice time of bringing up spirits with talk of home. She really was doing a good job. I'm really not sure if we would have ever made it up to the temple at all if she hadn't given us hope and light that day with her stories.

She was drawing in more people though now Quitte was talking about the bakery and how fresh bread smelled. Ah fresh bread what a taste. We hadn't eaten anything but the deer and rabbits I had been able to catch the evening before. So we started taking about Quitte's now spectacular bread since we had none, and the Sennani farm. Kvitten and Kotogne's father and mother worked that farm along with the girls and their now-deceased brother, Gitone.

"He always managed to bring a smile to my face with his charm," Kotogne began...

"and he always had an excuse for why he was late," Kvitten finished. "That was him."

"Not always, more often than not he just didn't mention his lateness unless you prodded for a reason," Kotogne continued. "I remember one time when he left me and Madam Valentine alone for three hours at your shop Aya when he was off chasing that sheep with the black and orange stripes."

"Ah but that was such a hoot when he came waltzing in after you two had been waiting two hours for him without giving so much as a word to where he had been," Aya laughed.

"Wait two hours? I thought you said he was three hours late?" I asked puzzled, "what do you mean was he two or three hours late?"

"Ah Sento, you blissful ignorant," Kvitten said, "whenever Gitone gives you a time to meet him the standard procedure it to show up an hour late so you only have to wait about 45 minutes for him to show up."

Kotogne started laughing at this and I shook my head. Why anyone would wait around so long for a friend was beyond me. Don't these people have lives I thought? Why would they wait so long for someone who obviously wasn't interested in caring about the time he was wasting. "Some people are takers," I said, "without any regard for those they think below them. They don't care about you or anyone else."

Kotogne started laughing even harder. "No," she chortled, "that wasn't him. He wasn't being mean or disrespectful; he just had a horrible sense of punctuality. We would see him at breakfast and he would leave for the fields before us."

"Then," Kvitten continued, "we would get to the fields twenty minutes before him only to have him arrive later. He didn't get lost or go do anything else he just wandered around in circles as he approached the fields. He was always so late it irritated father to no end."

"It was the same with temple," Kvitten began, "he would always arrive twenty minutes before the end."

We smiled and laughed and the sisters chatted about their brother more while I dropped back. It was confusing. We were on our own little quest to avenge our families yet we found time to talk about the old times and laugh. Aya truly was amazing with her words a true friend could bring out joy in even the bleakest of hours. I started as I noticed Kvitten dropping back to walk with me. When had she broken off her conversation with her sister?

"Hi," it sounded pathetic and I knew it. But I just couldn't talk to her outside a group without my throat catching.

"The forest scenery is nice do you always see such sights outside the town," her voice was soft and sweet. It was nice to listening to but it forced a response from me.

I saw a lot of the forest as my job was hunting. I only wish I could have shown it to you under more pleasant circumstances." Wow that sounded really stupid. Not minorly stupid but really really stupid.

Despite the horrible comment from me Kvitten smiled. "You could have brought me out here before you know I would have come and you could have showed me all the beauty that is here."

I quite nearly stopped walking from shock. Kvitten liked me? "Um, I ..." I cut off unable to speak.

"Oh look the hunter lost his tongue."

I was too stunned at her teasing tone and her last comment to say anything. Instead I kissed her. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. Her mouth was soft and sweet in direct contrast to her bitter tears.

"Don't leave me Sento," she whispered.

"I won't."

"Everyone else left me. Gitone, oh Gitone." Her voice was soft and mournful.

We clung to each other for a few minutes. We had both just experienced loss and now we were trying to cope with it. We were sad and we were in love.

"Lo and behold! The Lord and Lady's temple. May all fall in wonder and in awe." Dunja's voice brought us back to the world. There was only one word for the temple, beautiful.