The Teacher

Suddenly young Thom saw someone standing in the hall. He blinked but this person did not fade away. And then a voice spoke out and a young woman in a blue dress entered. With slight embarrassment, young Thom quickly took a firm pose. As she came closer, young Thom observed the pale skin of her long neck, her silver earrings, her purple dress with bronze buttons – not a woman from the village for sure. She courteously introduced herself as the school teacher and – as an excuse for her sudden appearance – explained that from the classroom she had seen him enter the Inn. While saying all of this, young Thom noticed there was a little smile on her cherry red lips and all he could think of was how long she had been standing there watching him.
Not giving him a chance to ponder on it, she invited young Thom to walk the building together and while doing so, she explained that the Inn had been abandoned after a tragic fight with the innkeeper’s son. More she did not know, but it had been reason enough to drastically change the atmosphere in the whole village – it had not been the same since. Although the Inn had been given back to the village, no one had dared to claim it. The teacher stressed that it was thus free to take for anyone. Anyone.

At the gate of the Inn, the schoolteacher said goodbye and went of to a nearby village for the afternoon class. As if she knew what young Thom was about to ask, she shouted she’d be back in two days.
As she went out of sight, young Thom turned around and walked towards the barn where he’d slept the night before. He had decided that from now on he would stay in the old Inn.

Next : The Blacksmith