Cast Mending - Part 5

Sonya and Erica both smiled and walked forward really quickly and both of them hugged Samuel at the same time. It lasted way longer than Samuel thought it would, he started feeling weird about the scenario, but maybe they had just really missed him. Neither girl had paid attention to his face yet and had only assumed he needed some extra support however.

Samuel cleared his throat slightly and both the girls took a step back, they had slightly shameful expressions which made Samuel even more confused as neither of them faced his gaze directly. Sonya looked at him with the corner of her eye before looking down a bit again thinking about what to say.

When her mind seemed to snap to attention. 'Wait a minute!' Her inner voice spoke and she looked directly at Samuel... it was Samuel, wasn't it? Sonya looked at his face for a few seconds before she laughed loudly. He didn't look like his usual self at all, he looked healthy and well. Samuel just smiled nervously at her, still having no idea what was going on.

Erica forgot about everything as soon as Sonya laughed and quickly took a good look at Samuel and her jaw dropped slightly. "You look... good!" She surprisingly said and Samuel took a step back and folded his arms.

"Shouldn't I be looking good?" He asked with a raised eyebrow which made Erica giggle slightly at his silly joke. Standing at a distance was Ulma still, she had no way to face him, no idea what to say or do. So all she could do was pretend like she wasn't there. But Sonya's laugh had made her get a better look at Samuel instead of averting her gaze and what she saw almost made her start crying.

He looked good, he looked healed and he looked well. She had to bite her lip really hard to stop it from quivering and from her tears to start flooding.

She had been living several weeks in pain after all, trying to figure out a way to apologize and explain herself, but even though she could come up with a dozen different ways to go about it, ultimately she was too afraid. Afraid of rejection.

Samuel looked at her and saw that she was looking away perhaps she was still angry at him, but Samuel didn't care because he was also angry with her. So he ignored the fact that she was there and turned his attention back to the feast prepared. Some of the older people noticed, but there was nothing they could do about it. It wasn't their place to get involved.

Alsian took up a mug filled with some wine and raised it. "It's still a week left before your second year officially begins. But I still want to congratulate all of you on passing the first year! You have shown grit and resolve and have the progress to prove your hard work."

"Each and every one of you!" Alsian looked them all one by one in the face to make them realize he wasn't jesting but being serious with his congratulation. "Now as much as I would enjoy to stay here, I have a lot of work to return to, so you will haveto enjoy Lady Triss as your host! She certainly doesn't have as much paperwork as I do. Even if she has more paper to deal with!" Alsian said with a grin and pointed at all the trees making everyone laugh.

He then excused himself after taking a minute or two of enjoying a drink and some light food. The rest all had taken seats and were enjoying their food talking about all kinds of random things to pass the time in a light mood. "Still a week before the start so make sure to enjoy yourselves!" Tere'he reminded them.

"I don't know about you guys! But I have had too much time spent home the last few weeks." Sonya exclaimed loudly as she put her arms around Samuel and Erica and put one of her legs in Ulma's lap with a grin. "So I am going to stay in our house the last week." Sonya let them go from the hug after a little while when she realized she was squishing them.

"Well, In that case I will join you! Even though I will be busy most days with mom!" Erica replied and Tere'he smiled widely, their relation had been mended and they had grown even closer instead. Ulma nodded and quietly said that she would also stay there but be busy with Triss in the forest during most of the time.

Some silence later they all looked at Samuel, even Ulma although she was only taking glances at him. Erica and Sonya looked expectantly at him and he looked from his plate to them several times before he realized 'oh right my plan' and smiled at them. Giving them a genuine smile which almost made their hearts beat faster. Now that he had stopped looking so spiteful and annoyed all the time, his previous slightly creepy smiles had become killer smiles that made you want to squish his face like an adorable puppy. (At least if you asked either Sonya or Erica.)

"I am going to be staying at my new home, at least until the college year starts. I got too many things to work on back home!" Samuel replied and all the people present that knew about his past at that point raised an eyebrow except for Bregane who chuckled.

"Yeah it must be difficult a responsibility to take up.... Oh Lord Samuel Gillfall." Bregane said with a sarcastic jab and half winking grin. Unfortunately Sonya was seated in front of her on the other side of the table and she had started taking a sip while Samuel spoke...

Bregane looked less pleased when his entire shirt and face was drenched in everything Sonya had started drinking. She looked apologeticaly at him, shrinking down a bit as soon as her coughing stopped. Before her curiosity got the better of her again, "What does he mean by that!" She quickly asked while Bregane took a big towel and slowly dried of his face.

Samuel sighed while giving them the rundown of how Faleah had come back to meet him and wanting to adopt him, and how he had accepted and whatnot. There wasn't much for Samuel to tell. But each person at the table were intrigued by his short story nonetheless. To half of the table he had become an official noble after living as an unofficial one all this time, and to the other half of the table he had gone from commoner to noble just like that.

To Samuel's knowledge only Trisphyra and Ulma knew about the unofficial part though. Unbeknowst to him he had a surprise coming up for sure about that in the future.

The rest of the day went by with them only chatting and enjoying themselves as best they could. Even Ulma slowly crept out of her shell and became a bit more chatty. But soon enough their mentors started excusing themselves, they all had things that needed doing which left only Triss and the students. A small silence hung in the air as they were taking some time just calming down and enjoying the silence.

"Well, I will be going inside the tree and do some meditating in peace. Just come tell me when you are 'all' ready to go back. You should do some team talking first though." Triss said and excused herself and left the four in peace. Which left a slight awkward silence in the air, funnily enough Samuel was the first to break it.

"Sorry!" Was the first thing he said which made everyone look at him. "Ever since a few year back I didn't realize what a burden I was still drying to drag with me. It probably made me...." Trying to find the words, Erica and Sonya spoke up for him "An ass? Hard to deal with? Unapproachable?" They both replied and started chuckling. "But you made up for it, with your neverending kindness!" Erica quickly stated and Sonya nodded in agreement.

"Well, most of my burden has been left behind! What you see now is... just me!" Samuel nodded at the two women with a small smile. "Gosh ain't you the cutest now that you don't look so angry all the time!" Sonya chuckled and started pulling his cheek. "Pweashe Shtop" Samuel said after a short while and the three laughed and Ulma giggled.

"From now on, If I am a bad teammate I have no excuses!" Samuel pulled away from Sonya so she couldn't try anything funny again. "So be sure to knock me in the head if I do something stupid." Unaware he brought a hand to his head which made it look him look like a small child apologizing for something bad. But none of his teammates saw it that way, they were just happy to have him by their side.

"Hah! I think I drank too much... Eri, can you take me to the bathrooms!" Sonya suddenly giggled and started stuttering as if she was drunk and pulled Erica up and Erica smiled and shook her head while pretending to take the drunkard away. "Looks like someone got drunk on happiness!" Erica sighed as they were walking away.

As they left a very awkward silence was left in the air.

The silence annoyed Samuel as it went on so he started tapping his finger on the wooden table and swallowed the rest of his drink while looking at Ulma who was looking straight down, refusing to look up for even one second she could still feel his gaze.

Samuel was annoyed and angry with her. So he was starting to lose some of his cool when she was still sat there refusing to do anything else. "For all the different planes that exist, would you just look at me!" He said in a raised voice after a while.

Ulma flinched from his voice and slowly started looking up to look upon his face.

Samuel was prepared to chew her out, but the moment he laid eyes upon her face every annoyance and feeling of anger faded instantly. Her eyes said she was suffering and they were watery as if she was going to start crying.

'Here we go. I get what I deserve.' Ulma inwardly thought as she saw the annoyance in his eyes and started looking off to the side again, it was ok because she had done something really stupid and never apologized for it. She almost jumped up when she suddenly felt a hand being placed upon her closed fist on the table.

She quickly turned her eyes to once again look at Samuel and she was shocked to find no anger or annoyance. Only a worried look, much like the ones he used to give her. It was enough to break the shell Ulma was hiding in as tears started streaming down her face and she tried to hide herself in her other arm as she started sobbing.

There was no way Samuel could held on to anger when he saw her pain, not only that but he could also remember everything that had happened the day he had died a second time. She had unleashed the rage of nature for his sake. So the moment he saw Ulma start crying he could no longer hold on to any spite and climbed over the table and sat down next to her. Pulling her into his embrace.

Ulma was confused and sad and angry at herself at the same time, when he pulled her into his embrace she just shrunk down clutching with both hands on his chest to find that there was no hole in his chest still and just started feeling him to make sure he was actually there and that she wasn't dreaming.

"I thought I would lose you forever!" Ulma somehow managed to sob and Samuel found it amazing, the wrath of nature she could bring forth made her much stronger than anything he could do, her rage was powerful and dangerous, but here she was... someone this strong was crying into his chest. But it made sense as he thought back, she was a person just as broken as he had been, although she had healed a lot of her pain and wasn't holding on to as many chains of the past that Samuel had been doing.

The recent events must have been extremely hard for her Samuel realized. He had been ignorant because of his own situation. "C-c-can I remain selfish and just have you hug me for a while?" Ulma stuttered in between sobs and Samuel nodded.

Soon enough her sobs had stopped and she was breathing gently towards Samuel refusing to let him go. "Any other selfish requests you have my queen?" Samuel joked with a small chuckle and Ulma sat back and stretched her back to sit closer to his height.

"Yes!" She said in a decisive voice which threw Samuel back a bit. "Elaborate then!" He quickly said when he noticed she was hesitating. She hadn't meant to blurt it out so fast. But she looked him in the eyes again. "Will you love me again and never let me go? No matter what stupid things I do or say? Will you stand by my side? Unconditionally?" Her heart blurted out through her mouth the words her mind was too afraid to speak.

She turned almost purple from the awkward feeling but she remained strong and stared into his eyes. Samuel found himself staring back into her eyes, The deep green eye and brown eye of hers were truly beautiful, he certainly had not been prepared for he questions at all so he leaned back a little finding himself deep in thought.

"At the end of the week I will give you my answer. Because frankly my feelings are still a bit annoyed at you for what you said. Because it hurt, but a part of me also felt that it was true. I don't know if those were your hidden inner feelings or just something you said in the heat of the moment. But seeing you now, I realize there must have been more to it!" Samuel sighed out.

Ulma quickly started opening her mouth to explain what had happened but she was stopped by Samuel placing a finger on her lips. "I don't want to hear it. Because it's not what matters to me. I have realized so much more ever since I let go of my burden." Samuel stood up from the table and gave her forehead a gentle kiss before he finally pulled away from her embrace.

"In five days, you can come visit me at Gillfall manor. Alright? I will prepare for your arrival, so you better not miss it, if you really meant everything you said. Then prove it to me with your actions!" Samuel pulled her up from the table before taking a few steps back and started walking towards the house where Triss was.

Ulma followed him slowly, still taking in everything he said with a beating heart. He had put his faith in her, even after the stupid things she had said. He had given her a second chance. "Oh and one more thing!" Samuel added and turned to face her again. "Stand with some pride!"

His words made her open her eyes wide in shock. Even after everything, he cared so much for her and wanted her to stand strong. It was enough for her tears to slowly start streaking down her cheeks again, but now they were of happiness instead of anything else.