Side-Story – Interludes: Volume Two – CH.116.5 – Renn – After Meeting The Clothed Woman

Vim was plucking weeds.

Leaning against the windowsill, I found myself oddly… calm. Happy, even. Though it was so weird to be so while watching the protector of the Society do something as silly as plucking weeds in a garden.

It's become rather obvious that most of the time Vim did only little things when visiting members and their homes. Stuff like fixing up furniture, checking the city for dangers, or even just… plucking weeds.

Did members not find it weird, I wonder? I mean… he was the protector, in more than title, wasn't he?

He was strong. Wise. Ancient, even. He was capable of so much, things beyond reason, yet… most members only saw him like this, didn't they?

Though I suppose this was better than the alternative… I'd much rather have weeds and a broken fence be the most pressing matter for our members. If Vim's real worth, his real abilities, were needed… then that was actually a bad thing. For it meant people were hurt. Or in danger of being so.

Yet all the same I found it silly. Even more so because of how calm he looked while doing such menial tasks.

I was in the kitchen of the Clothed Woman's home, leaning out the window as to watch Vim work. I'd just had breakfast with the Clothed Woman and now she was in her church praying, so I was alone. I had joined her in her prayers a few times… but honestly I felt rude doing so since I didn't have her faith. She didn't seem to mind me kneeling next to her before that weird cross, but it felt… wrong for me to do so all the same.

So instead of joining her this time I simply… was doing this. Being bored.

Usually I'd help Vim during such moments. As I had when he had prepared those smoked meats for the Clothed Woman. But right now I'd chosen to just stand aside and watch, mostly because Vim wasn't really working hard. There weren't many weeds to pluck in the first place. Vim was just… like me, likely, and was bored.

He'd fixed the fence around her main garden. He moved some fallen trees and cut some more for her, filling her little lean-to of firewood for her. He fixed a window and a door… prepared a large batch of that meat, and has done random work around her gardens and this area. He had even gone to a nearby lake for some reason, checking whatever he had needed to.

Watching him work made me wonder how he was so efficient. He didn't appear to work quickly, at least on first appearance… but there was no denying his speed. Sometimes you'd glance at him, seeing him build something, then look away for what felt like only a few moments only to find he was finished. Like the fence he had repaired… I had noticed him starting on it one morning, then before the day was even half over he was off doing something else and the fence was finished. Making a fence that quickly wasn't impossible, but it was when you had to consider he had prepared everything himself. He had chopped the trees down for wood, cut it and prepared it… then put it all together…

Maybe it was just his efficiency. It wasn't that Vim worked quickly, or just quickly, instead it was because he was proficient at it. He has likely built countless fences throughout his long life, for all our members and whatnot, and as such was just… good at it. So it felt, and seemed, as if he was working faster than possible because of it.

It made me wonder how quickly Vim could build a house. A real one, a full-blown one. Could he get it done in a single day? And if so to what extent…? Would it be empty inside, or would there be furniture too? Rugs? Shelving?

And to take it a step further… how effective would Vim be if he actually tried?

For instance… say a field of wheat. It could take dozens of humans to properly tend to and harvest a full field. And it could take them days, if not weeks, to do it properly. Could Vim do it alone…?

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In theory thanks to his strength, and strange capability to not need sleep or much rest, he could likely work for days on end without issue… and do so well, at that.

He was basically a work-horse. One of limitless energy, and capable of finer work beyond even the greatest craftsmen…

It was almost a shame he was wasted on such basic things as he was. Maybe instead of being the protector he should instead be building us all homes, or something.

"Bet he built this one, too," I whispered as I tapped the windowsill I was resting upon.

The Clothed Woman didn't seem to care for material things. At all. She kept her home tidy and clean, but it didn't really feel like a home to me. It was kind of empty… lacking, in a way. There were only the bare essentials within it. Nothing too personal. Nothing… well…

I glanced around the kitchen, frowning softly at the sight of it.

The small kitchen in my own home, the cabin Nory and I had built a long time ago, had been far different. There had been random junk everywhere, and although it had been cramped in a corner it had still felt… homey, I guess? We had made nail-like hooks to hang utensils and cooking items on the wall. And Nory had decorated them a little in her own way, by painting and carving things around them into the wooden wall. In fact most of our cabin had looked… cluttered, in a way, simply because of all the stuff Nory or I had made or done to it.

This home though reminded me of some of the inns Vim and I have stayed in during our travels. Bare rooms with just a single bed, half the time without even a rug or a chair in them.

That was how this place felt. This was not a home, but a temporary inn. A place to stay for a moment, nothing more.

But… she's been here for years.

"Want one?"

I stood up straighter, slightly startled. Turning back towards the window, I frowned at Vim who stood just beyond it. He had a soft smile on his face, telling me he had noticed I had been startled. He had his hand out, offering…

Taking the flower, I smiled softly at it and him. "You said that as if it was a snack," I said. It was a pretty yellow thing, with petals that rolled and widened outward then back inward.

"Anything can be a snack if you want it to," he said simply.

I huffed at that as I glanced him up and down. He of course didn't look dirty, even though he'd been working in the gardens for the last few hours. Which was praiseworthy for him. "Where'd you get it?" I asked. There weren't any flowers around here, as far as I could tell. Its color was bright enough that I should have seen it, especially since I'd just been watching Vim like a hawk.

He only shrugged as he glanced to the left, in the direction of the church. "She praying?" he asked.

I nodded. "Morning prayer. She's very dutiful," I said. Not even Rapti had prayed as much.

"Hm… did she kick you out or something…?" he asked.

Smelling the flower, I shook my head. "No. I just felt it was rude to bother her too much. I don't even know who her gods are; let alone how to properly pray to them… so…" I said with a shrug.

"You don't want to know those ones."

I smirked at him as I pointed the flower his way. "You say that as if you'd be okay with me knowing others or any at all," I said.

Vim frowned as he slowly nodded. "Yes. If you're to have any gods, choose ones that are kind and instill morals. At least."

Oh…? Was he saying that the Clothed Woman's gods were… evil? Or something like it? "Are there a lot of gods, Vim?" I asked.

"Many. And even more off-shoots, variations and whatnot. At least, I'm assuming your question was of the number of faiths and not the gods themselves," he said.

"Both…?" I asked. Was he saying he knew how many real gods there actually were…?

"Hm… then yes, there were thousands."

Thousands…!? "Really…?" I asked, almost not able to believe it. Such a number was…

Vim sighed at me and then pointed at the flower. "Eat that before she returns. In her religion flowers are… impure. She'll burn it in a ritual if you let her see it," he said as he went to turn away. He didn't wait to give me a chance to say anything or ask another question.

Watching him go, obviously ending our conversation on purpose, I frowned as I glanced down at the flower I held.

Burn it…? I wonder what he meant by ritual? How were flowers impure? And did he actually want me to eat it? Maybe it hadn't been a joke…

Well… considering this was the first flower he's ever given me, I might as well enjoy it, I guess.

Taking a bite, I found myself a tad upset at how tasteless it had been.

But at least it wasn't bitter.

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