Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Springtime had done Abby a lot of good after suffering all winter. It felt like she had come alive again so she spent as much time as humanly possible outside.

A lot of that time was spent directing plays. Their dumb little recreation of Lord of the Rings that had been put on for a second time during the festival celebrating the mountain spirits' breathing life back into nature at the beginning of spring had been universally popular.

Even people from Raisha had been present because the festival was celebrated throughout the entire clan. Several children from the other village wanted to be a part of it too and put up quite a fuss.

It was decided that a different play would be put on that they could participate in. All they had to do was find a place to stay in Ilmir for about a week for rehearsals before the performance.

Abby settled on recreating Alice in Wonderland for that play and everyone loved it so much that people began demanding that plays continue running as long as the weather permitted. The children loved being a part of it and the adults enjoyed watching it so plays became the most popular form of entertainment, surpassing even Katie's homemade board games. contemporary romance

With people going back and forth so often between Ilmir and Raisha it became difficult to find enough places for everyone to stay. An inn was currently under construction to fix this problem. Because visitors to Ilmir were so infrequent, it hadn't been a problem before.

A woman from Raisha who was interested in the concept of performing arts decided that she would get a stage built in her village and managed to convince Abby to make copies of scripts for each of the plays she put on to bring back with her. She hoped to be able to have their own theater program running by next summer.

Right now they were in the middle of practicing a play based on the Harry Potter series. Lian, the boy she and Blaise met whose father led them to Ilmir in the first place, was playing Harry and was having a hard time getting the emotion right.

"No, no, you need to be angry! What makes you mad?" Abby prompted.

Lian scowled. "When Nadiri eats all of the cheese buns before I get a chance to even have one."

Nadiri, his younger sister who was playing the role of Hermione, was nearby and stuck her tongue out at him before returning to rehearsing her own lines with the boy playing Ron.

Well, it was unconventional but Abby could work with that. "Okay then. When you say your lines, think about Nadiri stealing the cheese buns and how that makes you feel. Channel it into your acting."

He nodded very seriously and turned to his friend, who was playing Dumbledore and had been listening in on the conversation. The two of them had been going over a rather emotional scene together but Lian had been reading his lines so flatly that Abby had to intervene.

This was only Lian's second time being in a play. In the first he had been a variety of background characters and had done a good job so she thought he was ready for this. It wasn't like anybody else was doing all that much better; these kids weren't used to theater.

"Hear that, Razo? I need to pretend you stole my cheese buns," Lian said seriously.

Razo raised an eyebrow. "I could always take the jerky you have hidden in your pocket if that would help."

They began arguing more seriously now and Abby was in the middle of trying to break it up with Al walked over. "Hey Abby. Sorry to interrupt play practice but could you take over watching the little ones for me on the playground? The Shibatsu Warriors are here and I have to take care of them."

Her heart skipped a beat. Shibatsu Warriors? Was Blaise among them?

She had done her best to forget about him while he was gone and sometimes even managed to be successful with how busy she was. She desperately tried to keep her cool and continue listening to Lian and Razo talk about their scene (they stopped fighting the second Al showed up) but her traitorous eyes couldn't stop seeking him out in the crowd.

Over time she had gotten more used to telling the Kanta apart. While she was in Shibatsu all of that silver hair and those purple eyes blended together but now she could spot Blaise in an instant.

Their eyes met and Abby froze when she realized he had already been looking at her. What was she supposed to say?

In the end she couldn't say anything because Lian was repeating a question to her and by the time she answered it and looked back, Blaise was walking away with the rest of the Warriors.

Her heart continued to beat erratically even as she continued talking to them and interacting with other children on the playground who wanted a bit of her attention. He actually came back. She hadn't been positive he would be able to make it.

Abby knew she would be able to see him again sometime soon but right now they each had their own responsibilities to attend to. Yes. She would see him soon.

She desperately wanted to tell him all about what had happened since he was gone. Aza's birth, what it was like living in the snow, starting up the school, and how she had unintentionally gotten involved in nearly every aspect of life in this village.

In addition to becoming headmistress, chief storyboarder in the printing office, and the head of the newly former theater she had also worked a lot with Sia to adapt recipes from home. On top of the potato chips they had successfully recreated several condiments and a bunch of other junk food type snacks and simple dishes such as pasta.

The merchants found these new foods so enjoyable that they pressed for a cookbook to be made. So the printing office got its first request for a non-picture book and it sold out within months. They had to do a second printing.

Abby wanted to tell him all of this and more…and hear about what he had been up to since the last time they talked. She couldn't wait.

done.co