319.
Claudius perked up his ears at the sound of a voice. He recognized it was Liliana’s and he was glad he had decided to stop here before roaming around the village. He waited for a second, wondering if she wanted him to go inside. He poked his head in the stable nervously and retreated quickly. There was a huge horse outside of its stall! He took a step back and then another and shuffled his feet as he waited in place. Liliana spoke again, much to Claudiuses relief, indicating that she would come out to meet him. He felt relief wash over him when she said she’d be right out. He shifted his bag, pulling it farther to the front in anticipation of her arrival. Once she emerged from the stable, he would be able to offer his services as a dyer and maybe even show her what he did. While he would have liked to exchange information, he would rather not know what she did; the horses were far too scary!
She emerged after a few minutes; Claudius hoped in the elapsed time, she had put the horse back in its stall. He didn’t want to have to deal with a huge monster on the loose, after all.
He laughed quietly and awkwardly in response when she greeted him. He wished it were true – he really didn’t think she was pleased to see him, but maybe if he was a bit nicer this time around, another day she would be.
“Ocèane s-s-should be o-o-okay soon. Just, uh, getting s-s-settled and stuff,” he replied awkwardly. “U-uhm I c-c-came here today to… t-to a-apologize. Since I wasn’t v-v-very a-a-acc… accommodating the l-last time a-a-and I felt bad about it. So I brought yousome dyesand maybeIcouldd dyeyou somethingIthought.” He rushed through the last bit in an attempt not to stutter and to actually say what he needed to say. Talking was so hard.