“Yeah, they would. Oh well. We can just drink out of the bottle. Mom doesn’t need to know.”
“That she doesn’t.”
Sasha had been right to wrap the pocket pies. It was chilly this morning and the cloth and towel had kept the pies hot. Legon looked down at the four pies. Three of them were made with eggs, bacon, onion, and cheese, and he knew the fourth would be fruit-filled.
“Sash, did you make enough? There’s only three breakfast ones here.”
She looked down at the food. “Yes, I think so… there are two for you, one for me, and a strawberry one that we can split.”
“You’re just going to have one? I can split the third with you, I don’t mind,” he said sincerely.
“No, that’s fine. I only need one.”
“Oh come on, you’ll be hungry by ten if you just have one,” he said as if he were pointing out the obvious, which he was. One pie was nowhere near enough.
Sasha laughed. “I’m not a bottomless pit like you, brother. I can eat one and be full, whereas I don’t think I could make enough to ever sate your appetite.”
A smile crossed his face. When he thought about it, he had to admit that he did eat a lot. He was big to be sure, but not fat. He was all muscle, but even for his size he ate a ton. He remembered once going over to Kovos’ house for dinner. Kovos’ older brother was supposed to be visiting with his wife, but had been unable to make it. By the time the family found out that their oldest son was not going to be there, Kovos’ mom had already made a huge dinner. Legon remembered with some satisfaction the looks on their faces as he went for a fourth helping.
Now, sitting on the top of the hill with his sister, he thought that maybe he did eat too much. Or perhaps the rest of the world didn’t eat enough. That sounded right.
Sasha and Legon sat enjoying the pies and cedar together as they watched the sun rise. The pies were incredible. It seemed that everything Sasha touched tasted good. Legon had finished both of his by the time Sasha was done with her pie. They drank from the bottle of cold cedar, which was sweet and good with the pies. Sasha leaned over the basket and uncovered the last one.
She had saved the best for last. It was filled with sliced strawberries in sticky syrup, which covered their fingers with sugary goodness. Legon wished there was another when he finished his half of the pie. He was sure to tell Sasha what an amazing cook she was, and that it was possible that no one in Airmelia could compare to her, which made her smile.
They talked about how much they liked the early spring and how beautiful all the new life was in the reddish orange sunlight. There were thin clouds in the sky that were turning from dark blues and purples to pink and orange. They looked out over the small town where they lived. It looked peaceful and serene, bathed in soft colors. The town sat in a valley with tall mountains on all sides. There was no town wall, which was strange for a town in Airmelia; most towns had large stone walls and keeps in the center of town. This was done for many reasons, the most important of which was to discourage bands of robbers from trying to loot the town, and to give the people a general feeling of safety. There hadn’t been a full-on war since the queen took control, and that was almost fifty years ago, but many towns still kept the walls intact. Most towns could not withstand an attack from a large force, but even small villages would have stockade fences surrounding the village proper. However, this was not the case for Salmont.
The town’s people were not amazing fighters, but Salmont was remote and the people lazy. Salmont was in the middle of the Empire and was surrounded by mountains; most people didn’t even know that it existed. The town had no exports and was not a center of trade. This meant that robbers were not apt to come because the pickings were too slim and the mountain passes restricted the routes they could take.
Legon once thought that he lived in the most boring and uneventful town in all of Airmelia. “Even the name of our town is boring,” he told