The Fateful Heart

Evaline could feel Reed's gaze fall on her, and she didn't like it. These were innocuous questions, but she felt like she was being interrogated. It wasn't normal to ask these types of questions to a sketch artist, right? Or was it? Was he only asking because she looked suspicious? Did he knew she was associated with James?

She had to force herself to end the thought there before she could get any more anxious. It was showing in her drawing, but thankfully Reed didn't seem to notice.

"I'm from Lettera," she said, drawing one small stroke at a time. "From a small village near Lake Ithica."

She was suddenly thankful that James had once randomly discussed what she should say to others if they were to ask where she was from.

"Lettera," Reed echoed. He looked her up and down for just a moment before looking back at the picture. "What brings you so far from home? I've never been up north, but I hear it's a lot prettier than these parts."

And once again, she was glad James prepped her on what Lettera was like.

"It is," she said while drawing slowly. "But it was rather cold. I traveled south for the sunshine and money. There are more job opportunities around here, especially near the Outlands."

Reed hummed in what sounded like interest.

“Fair enough,” he said. “I assume you’re out here traveling alone?”

James didn't exactly prep her for this part.

"I am," she said.

There was so much more Evaline could've said. Maybe she liked to travel by herself, or she had gone town-to-town, or she hoped to eventually settle down into the Moonlight Kingdom.

But she was afraid he would dig deeper if she said any of these things, so she left it at that.

Reed looked a little relieved to hear her answer, and his face brightened up a bit. He pulled away from her seat and stood up straighter.

“Well, if you’re staying in town for a little longer, this evening would you like to get a drin—“

“Reed!” Brooks snapped. “Stop harassing my sketch artist while she’s trying to work.”

Reed lifted up his hands innocently. “Was just makin’ some small talk.”

“You can small talk when she’s done,” Brooks said.

At that point, Butch strode back over to Reed and patted him on the back.

“We should get going, anyway, Reed,” Butch said. “Tiberius can’t be too far off.”

Reed sighed and glanced back at Evelyn before following Butch out the door without another word.

The fear slowly started to melt away as Evaline realized why Reed was asking her all these questions, and it wasn't because he was suspicious of her.

If the memory of him putting her in a choke hold position with a gun on her head wasn't replaying in her mind, she may have blushed. But at this point, it was only barely comical to her. This was not a direction she expected, but one she welcomed because she was so relieved that this meant he wasn't suspicious of her.

They didn't know. She had to keep reminding herself that they didn't know.

She didn't even look up when Butch and Reed left the building, and it took everything in her to not slouch back in relief that the stressful part was over. Now she just had to finish up these sketches, do whatever other sketches Brooks wanted her to do, and then quickly shop before returning back to James. With Butch not being too far away from him, she needed to return back to him as quickly as possible.

Forcing the nerves back down her throat, Evaline blocked out all noise around her, even if Brooks was talking to her. She didn't want to hear him say another word about Butch or Reed. She just needed to finish this quickly with minimal distractions now.

Time passed as she made the updates to the sketch. Brooks expected her to make the changes that Butch recommended, and so she did, but in a defiant way. He said short hair, so she gave him even shorter hair than he had right now, and parted differently. He said thicker hair, so she gave him hair that was too thick and too much, but still looked wild enough to be passable. He said thinner, so she made him thinner than he really was. He said too sickly, so she made sure to give him a bit more muscle than he actually had. He said a scar, which she also knew he had, but she shaped it differently and put it on the wrong side of his temple.

Reed also said angrier. And so she made all three posters look angrier, which she didn't know was possible until she did it.

She dropped the pencil when finished, shaking her hand again from any incoming cramps. All three posters with three variations, finished.

"I'm done," she said, still looking at the papers.

Brooks walked over and looked at the sketches with an approving nod. "I think these look great, Evelyn. I got two left that in sore need of updating if you don't mind sticking around a little longer. I'll be paying you for your time and skills, of course." He pulled out two more posters, one of a man with a round face and one of a woman who looked far too happy to be on a poster.

"D'you got the time? I know you're here offering your services. I'm not sure how long you're planning on being in town. I can tell you're a bit of a drifter by looks, but if you wanted to come back tomorrow I might have more work for you."

"No, I'll do it today," she said, glancing at the window. The sun looked to be high in the sky. She had plenty of time to work on this before nightfall.

"These two, you say?" She slid the posters closer. "I'll get right to work."

Brooks did his usual speech on the criminal before moving on to what she had to update, and Evaline was glad that he didn't seem to notice that she wasn't as interested in these people as she was in James. Maybe she would have tried a little harder to stay invested in the conversation if she wasn't so emotionally drained right now. Seeing Butch and Reed triggered too much adrenaline she didn't need, and now her body was crashing. She just needed to focus on these two sketches and leave now.

Time passed, and she found herself getting engrossed in her work. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but by the time she finished the second poster, she glanced up at the window and noticed that the sun was a little lower. It was still daylight, though. She had time.

"Okay," she said, finally getting up on the chair to stretch. Her body was getting sore from staying so still for so long. "I'm all finished now."

"Impressive," Jeremy commented. Brooks was somewhere near him and walked over, looking at the new drawings.

"These'll serve us good and well, I think," Brooks said, patting her on the shoulder. "Jeremy, you've got the payment figured out, right?"

Jeremy grunted and opened a drawer in the desk, and it slid like it was heavy. He lifted a sizeable pouch and it clattered onto the desk.

Brooks smiled and grabbed it, bringing it over to Evaline. "Alright, this should take care of you for all the work you did. Again, we really appreciate it. Hopefully these will help get these outlaws caught so they won't be hurtin' anybody no more."

He plopped the pouch in front of Evaline on the desk.

"It's 80 gold," Jeremy said plainly.

Brooks smiled and nodded. "I like your work."

He gave her another firm pat on the shoulder.

"Go take care of yourself now," Brooks said. "And if you're ever hurting for work, always feel free to stop by."

Evaline forced a smile as Brooks patted her shoulder like a kid, but she didn't say anything more besides a mumbled thank you.

Then he dropped the hefty bag of money in front of her, and Jeremy said eighty gold.

Eighty.

She stared at the pouch as the gears in her mind slowly moved. James told her ten gold, right? Maybe fifteen? Twenty? This was so much more than that. She suddenly felt elated.

She made money for the first time, and it was (probably) a lot.

Evaline strapped the saddle bag across her chest and put the pouch in the bag, offering a genuine smile to Brooks this time, but mostly because she was proud of herself.

"Thanks, Sheriff." She nodded to Jeremy as she headed for the door. "And Jeremy. It was my pleasure doing the work. I'll come back if I'm ever around."

Which was likely never.

Brooks waved her off. "Bye now. Keep a look out for any criminals you might see."

She left the station and sighed as the door closed behind her. Although it was tough with the whole situation of drawing James while Reed and Butch entered, she managed to come out okay. Now she had to quickly get the items they needed then leave, especially now that she knew Butch was nearby. How much time did they have before he would find out James was at the edge of the town? She didn't know, and she didn't want to find out.

A part of her wondered if she should have cut her losses at the station and not go through with the last two drawings so she could immediately head back to James, but she figured that would not be the best move. It was a sunk cost fallacy to go through with a plan that was doomed to fail, but this plan hadn't failed. And it may have very well failed if Butch or Reed were watching her nearby and saw her marching out of town immediately.

Wait. Were they nearby?

Paranoia zipped through her as she frantically looked around, but everything looked normal.

She sighed, swallowing the burst of paranoia and deciding to finally walk forward in search of a shoe shop. She'll go through this as fast as possible.

There were shops that lined the street next to the station, and she glanced around to see if any were a shoe repair shop. There were a few shops that did catch her attention—mainly a book shop—but she didn't want to waste any time on things she wanted when she should be getting the things they needed now. She did pass by a shop that looked like it sold hygienic things, and she made a mental note to come back after the shoe repair shop.

Evaline ended up asking a street vendor, who told her it was down one street over. She followed their directions, and sure enough, found it.

A little bell rang when she entered the store. It immediately smelled like leather.

"How can I help you, miss?" a man greeted at the front of the tiny store.

Evaline placed James's broken boot on the counter in front of him. "I'd like to repair this boot," she said, cutting to the chase. "How much money and time would it take?"

The man seemed to like her way of getting to business. "Five gold pieces. We'll be done in thirty to forty-five minutes."

Evaline had no idea if this was a typical amount to fix a shoe, but since she had eighty coins and she was in a hurry, she figured it didn't hurt to just give it to him.

"Thanks, see you then," she said, leaving the store to go to the next one.

She found a rhythm as she blended in the town. Evaline walked back to the previous street to enter the store she noted before that sold cosmetics and hygienic items. Immediately she was greeted with all sorts of pleasant smells, and although she wanted to spend some time to stare at everything they sold, she cut right to the chase and purchased two bars of soap. She did almost buy regular scentless bars of soap, but at the last second, decided to buy a bar that was scented as spearmint and rosemary, and another scented as lemon and basil. They both ended up costing one gold piece each, which she wondered was too high, but she didn't care as she had many gold pieces left anyways. It also excited her that the two of them could actually smell pleasant after a dip in the water rather than permanently smell like nature.

Evaline stopped by the nearby food stands, picking out whatever she thought would be good, while also splurging a little to increase their quality of life. Fruits and vegetables lined the bag. Some zucchini, squash, carrots, broccoli, peas, tomatoes, pears, oranges, and more. She focused more on nutritional variety rather than quantity, especially since this wouldn't last too long between the two of them anyways. When they ran out, they would only be limited on finding what was around them, so she bought some things that could balance their diet. Namely proteins and fats, which would be assorted nuts, beans, seeds, and lentils. It occurred to her that, maybe, James wanted savage protein. As in... meat. But then it also occurred to her that she hadn't seen him eat meat ever since she told him she was a vegetarian. Did he change his own diet for her?

She pushed the thought away as she paid for the items, and finally landed on one last stand. Spices. She felt bad that he went through the dare to swallow a spoonful of black pepper, so she wanted to stock up on that. She also figured he may want to stock up on some salt as well. And just because she could afford it, she purchased some other things that could flavor their food. Garlic, basil, oregano, and rosemary. It wasn't much, but a little could go a long way.

Evaline waited for the vendor to give her back her change as she looked up at the sky to gauge the time. It was probably later in the afternoon now. She had some time to pick up some things she wanted, and then she would swing by the shoe store again before heading back to James.

James was pacing back and forth in the grass, while Elliot stood nearby, grazing. The sun hung high in the sky, piercing down through the trees. The trees had started to look thinner, and their leaves weren't as thick and full. Some trees were browning from too little rain, and the underbrush was more dirt than anything. They'd said goodbye to beds of clovers and moss about a week ago, but as the rest of the plant life seemed to follow, James knew they were at least close.

Close to the desert. That meant progress in something.

In hindsight, it was wise that they got new supplies now since they wouldn't be running into any civilization for another week, and the terrain was about to get far less comfortable. But James still worried.

He'd drawn back into the woods more than enough to have plenty of cover, but he wasn't worried about being hidden. No. What he couldn't stop thinking about was all of the things that could be going wrong for Evaline.

His bare feet padded over the dirt.

"It's gonna be okay," he said out loud, talking to Elliot (even though Elliot hardly looked like he was paying attention).

"We’re not there. The last people who saw us were in Riverside, and they couldn't have gotten news that soon to Woodhearst, right? Well, if they were hurting ahead of us and taking the main roads, they might've. But it didn't seem like anyone recognized us. Eve did mention a poster... but I think that was a lie to distract from the note, and there was the whole thing with the dream that I'm honestly still trying to piece together and—

Elliot snorted.

James paused in his pacing and sighed.

"You're right," he muttered. "I'm worrying too much."

He looked over at Elliot, who continued to calmly graze what grass he could find.

"I won't start worrying until sundown," he said, even though that was a lie. "It'll be okay. She'll be okay."

He said it a few more times under his breath to try and convince himself, but it didn't work.

With a huff of frustration he sighed and leaned forward, with the top of his head against a tree.

"I just need to wait a little longer."



Reed scratched behind Muggy's ears and patted the dog's head. He was squatting in front of the two mutts when he felt Butch's giant foot tap him in the shin.

"Wha--"

He looked up and saw Butch nod his chin to the left before looking away, back to the woman he was trading goods with.

Reed looked up, and at the very end of the market, through the thick of the crowd, he spotted Evelyn. His mouth upturned into a smile.

He gave Muggy one last pat and stood up, looking over to Butch. Butch nodded his head again, but with more insistence.

"Don't be a creep about it," Butch muttered. And for a second, they shared a quiet, wordless exchange, and Reed nodded brushing off the insult as he turned to weave through the crowds casually.

He grabbed Muggy's leash, bringing the dog with him, and Muggy was happy to follow.

As he got a little closer to Evelyn and the cart selling herbs, suddenly Muggy rushed forward, and Reed yanked back on the chain hard, scolding the dog. Muggy whined, which was enough to draw attention.

Reed waved to Evelyn with a smile and walked over.

"Hey, nice to see you're still here," he said.

The street vendor gave Evaline some silver pieces as change, but she didn't have the time to reach in her bag and put it away. The sound of a snarling dog grabbed her attention and made her jump, but the sound of the familiar voice that pricked her skin made her clumsily lose the coins in her hand, littering them around the ground next to her.

She looked up with wide eyes and saw Reed standing next to her with a dog, and it took everything in her to consciously be aware of her actions and stop it. She already messed up by gawking at Butch over at the station. She didn't need Reed becoming more suspicious too.

Why was he here, anyways? Oh no. Did he follow her? Was he actually on to her? And with a dog, too. Was the dog going to sniff Evaline out? It wouldn't actually know her scent, right? She wouldn't smell like James, right?

She pushed these thoughts away to soften her eyes and force a smile before bending down to pick up the coins.

"Oh. Hi."

She had to act natural. Just... act natural, and he'll eventually go away.

"So I didn't really get to finish what I was trying to say earlier. I wanted to offer to buy you a drink. This town has a pretty decent tavern, and they've got food too, if you're hungry. And don't mind Muggy," he said, tugging again on the dog's chain. "He's just a little overstimulated. Lots of new people, and lots of new smells."

He reached down to pet Muggy's head. "Be nice," he instructed the dog. The words seemed to register as a command, and the dog visibly seemed to relax, before looking up at Reed with big eyes.

Reed sighed.

"You mind if he says hello? I promise he won't bite."

Evaline picked up all the coins but stayed kneeling on the ground to put it away in her bag. She was glad that her face was obscured right now, because she found herself grimacing at his request.

Did... Reed just ask her out out on a date?

It felt so forward, and so wrong considering he almost killed her in an alternate timeline. She wanted to laugh and maybe pay for one of the pies on a nearby stand just so she could throw it at his face as a dramatic rejection, but she had to stop herself from having these thoughts.

She didn't know how persistent he would be. Considering his background, was the the type of man to not take no for an answer? Would he follow her around anyways? Would he follow her to James?

Evaline didn't like this.

Slowly, she stood back up and washed away the disgust, instead staring at the dog looking up at her. For all she knew, this could have been his plan just to see if the dog could recognize James's scent on her.

"I don't like dogs," she said, deciding to ignore his earlier question to her. "I'm not good with animals."

She took a small step back, glancing behind her.

"Sorry," she decided to add to soften the blow.