A Little Rain... and a Teaser!

At 3PM today, thunder could easily be heard in the Jeff City area. And the temperature was 105. An hour later, nearly .1 inch of rain had fallen (a good start!) and the temperature had receeded to a mere 84.

More rain is predicted all day tomorrow! Woot!

And to celebrate the cooler temps and the RAIN! Here's another teaser from Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls!

So, as Galena began to mix up the batter, Patrik thought of something to talk about to insure that she would not ask him about the dream.
“When your mother and I,,,” He paused to wait for her reaction. “ When we began to talk seriously about our relationship.” But she continued humming one of those childhood tunes as she stirred the batter, “Please feel free to stop me if you've heard this already. For the life of me, I cannot remember if I have ever told you about this before,” he added.
“Relationship? Between you and mother?” she asked.
“Yes, your mother and I... well... for the most part... even though she was just about the prettiest girl in Noran at the time... I can't say that I had much interest in her. That is...,” he paused again, anticipating that she would interrupt. “Until that day she came to the house delivering that wonderfully hot soup and freshly-baked black-bean bread. It was then that I realized I had some... feelings... for her. But I wasn't... I didn't know how... how to tell her I how I felt.” He stopped to watch as she tested the thickness of the batter and then sprinkled in a bit more flour. “A few days after I was feeling better, I even asked Pieter how I might tell her.”
“Uncle Pieter? What about Uncle Pieter?” she asked. It appeared that she was barely paying attention, so he determined to make the story more interesting.
“Yes, your Uncle Pieter,” he said. “He suggested – and you'll probably laugh when I tell you – that I sketch a portrait of her and then give it to her... what I had drawn... as a symbol of my affection.” Galena didn't laugh; she didn't even smile. But she did glance in his direction.
“So did you?” she asked.
“Did I what?”
“Father!” she exclaimed as she shook the batter-covered wooden spoon at him. “Did you give her what you had sketched?”
“No, I didn't. I drew nothing. At the time, I was very...” he struggled for the right words, “I was quite shy about my artwork and basically wasn't showing it to anyone except Mother... and whenever he pestered me about it... to Pieter. A few days after he shared his idea with me, he challenged me again to follow through with it. He was certain that once I showed her the evidence of my talent, she would fall in love with me.” He then scowled but only to emphasize the point of the story. “But I didn't do it.”
“Uncle Pieter wasn't serious,” Galena said with a smile. “He really didn't expect you to give her the portrait. He always was such a kidder, don't you know?”
“Yes, he surely was.” Patrik had to agree. “And then one day...  not too long after that... the two of us... Pieter and I... we went hunting.” The innkeeper didn't realize that this new topic was hardly related to the first, but that didn't hinder him from continuing. “We grabbed our bows and arrows and headed into the bean field east of town. We didn't have to wait long before a huge buck came within range. Oh, he was massive, I tell you! At least a 10-pointer, he was! I was certain that this was the beast that I had been scouting for more than a few years. Amazingly, he stopped not more than twenty yards from us. Oh yes, this was going to be the day! I quietly loaded the bow and pulled back on the string – ”
“And you shot him dead where he stood! Slam! Right into the heart!” she exclaimed. He was so startled by the excited interruption that he had to reconstruct his thoughts.
“No, not even close,” he mumbled. “Just as I was about to release, Pieter let loose with a scream that would rival the war-cry of a crazed Haarigoian axeman. And I never saw that buck again!”