Interlude: A Happy Respite
“Ashton...”
A pause. “Mrm...”
“It’s morning. Would you get up already?”
Ashton felt someone shaking him awake. He opened his heavy lids halfway and saw Claudia, wearing a frilly white apron and a look of resignation. Ashton sat up, then yawned widely. “Good morning...”
“Bad with mornings as ever. Breakfast’s almost ready, so hurry up and get dressed. You’re teaching me how to fish today, right?”
“Oh, yeah. That was the plan, wasn’t it...”
The previous night at dinner, it had happened to come up in conversation that Claudia had never gone fishing even once in her life. A plan had come together with all haste to go on a fishing trip.
“Now get a move on downstairs before it gets cold.” Claudia strode from the room. Ashton watched her go, then scrambled to get his clothes on. He jogged down the stairs, sliding one hand along the banister; then, drawn by the aroma of fresh-baked bread, his eyes found a basket on the table.
“This looks great,” he said as he sat down. The maid put a generous helping of cream stew in front of him and flashed him a smile.
“The cooks are living in terror of the day your lady wife gets any better at cooking, lest they become unneeded.”
“Ah, well, I can see where they’re coming from. With apologies to the cooks, the food Claudia makes really is delicious.” Ashton and the maid laughed, just as Claudia came in, having removed her apron, and sat down opposite Ashton.
“Stop talking nonsense,” she grumbled.
“I’m afraid I can’t. After all, it’s all true.”
“Shut up and eat your breakfast. The best time for fishing is before the sun reaches its highest point, right?” Claudia handed him a bread roll. Ashton thanked her, then took a bite. The crust let out a delicious crackle. Chewing contentedly, he reached for his stew.
Two hours later, Ashton and Claudia arrived on horseback at the lake in the forest to the east. Right away, Ashton handed Claudia a rod with bait on the hook, then got his own rod ready with practiced ease.
“You’re good at that,” Claudia said, impressed.
“Well, you know, I did it a lot as a child.” As he spoke, he turned to the lake and flicked his rod. “Everything comes down to regular practice.” Seeing how proud Claudia looked, Ashton suppressed a smile. Claudia was probably equating fishing with her own swordwork drills, but in truth, fishing was no more than a bit of fun. It made him ashamed to hear it compared to her grueling training.
“Seeing as I’m here, I’m going to catch the biggest fish you’ve ever seen,” Claudia declared. She threw her line out into the lake with enthusiasm. Fishing wasn’t such a walk in a park that a first-timer could catch a whopper, but seeing her so motivated, Ashton couldn’t bring himself to put a damper on her spirits. He decided to watch quietly.
“Ashton! Something’s tugging like crazy!”
“Huh?” They had only just begun when Claudia’s rod flexed dramatically. Ashton tossed aside his own rod, then put his own hands over hers.
“Don’t rush. Pull it in slowly.”
“A-All right!”
He could tell from her sweaty hands just how determined she was not to let her catch escape. They struggled together for a while, until at last a great shadow began to emerge from the water’s surface. At a glance, it looked to be more than half as long as Ashton was tall.
“It’s big...” he breathed. “It might even be the master of the lake.”
“Forget that! If this keeps up, the rod’s going to snap!”
“You mustn’t panic now! Keep cool!” he said, trying to reassure Claudia. As he did so, he took one hand off the rod to mop the sweat from his brow.
“Agh!” Just as he did so, the fish made a desperate bid for freedom with a tug that sent the two of them falling into the lake.
“I can’t swim for some reason! Help!” Ashton cried. Claudia, who had climbed out of the lake, was grinning for some reason, staring at him as he drowned.
“Wh...What?!” He had no idea what was happening. Slowly, his consciousness slipped away...
“—you’ll catch your death if you sleep there.”
Someone was shaking him lightly. Ashton’s eyes snapped open. There was Claudia in her armor, peering at him. He looked around and saw the familiar campground. Here, at last, Ashton understood that it had all been a dream.
“You look exhausted. Are you all right?” Claudia asked.
Ashton sat up, smiling weakly at her. “I mean, we’re all tired,” he said, remembering as he did so the glimpse he had caught of Claudia’s grin as he drowned.
Right. There’s no way Colonel Claudia would ever smile if I were drowning in front of her. Ah, and... Ashton smiled in spite of himself.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Claudia asked, worried.
“What?” Ashton replied vaguely. “Oh, no, this is something else. For some reason I dreamed that the two of us were married.”
“M-Married?!” Claudia’s voice cracked violently. “What a— What a crazy dream! Why would I...” She broke off into incomprehensible muttering, turning quickly away from him. They both fell silent for a while, until—
“And?”
“Huh? And what?”
Claudia stared at him. “I’m asking you what it was like.”
“What what was like?” Ashton demanded, wishing she’d stop beating around the bush.
Claudia squirmed where she stood, then, a little desperately, burst out, “I want to know what being married was like!”
“Being married...?” Ashton repeated. “It was nice, ser. The breakfast you made was really delicious. And we went fishing together.” Having gotten this out, Claudia clammed up once more. With a puzzled look at her, Ashton went on. “But now I think about it, I should have known it had to be a dream. Only for some reason I didn’t notice anything off.”
“How so?” Claudia asked, her back still to him.
“Well,” Ashton replied, a smile creeping into his voice, “your cooking was delicious.”
By the time the words were out of his mouth, and he had realized his dire mistake, it was far too late. Slowly, Claudia turned around, her lips stretching from ear to ear in an enormous grin.
He knew it then, beyond a doubt. The yaksha of Olivia’s nightmares was come.
“What,” Claudia said slowly, “did you say about my cooking?”
But Ashton was already running from the camp so fast he could hardly believe it himself. If Olivia had been there, she would undoubtedly have done the same. As he went, he prayed for the wrath of the yaksha to subside by morning.
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