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Krampus went to feed Snowdrop. I couldn’t wait for him to be back, but I understood there were certain routines that needed to be done at certain times. I was going to get used to it soon enough. For the past year, I’d only had to take care of myself, and I wasn’t proud to admit that my life had become a little chaotic because of it.
Krampus made his way back inside, but Frost stayed outside with his crow friend.
“King,” I said.
“What?”
“We should name the crow King. I think it suits him.”
Krampus laughed and shook his head. “I don’t know where you get these names, but I admit that crow behaves like royalty sometimes. Bird royalty. King it is.”
I finished my tea, then we started with the ground floor, which also came with the first surprise – Krampus had a workshop! It was behind a door that was always closed. I’d thought it was just another room, but when he held the door open for me, I saw walls covered in shelves that were chock full of craft materials. Various kinds of leather, whole pelts, fabrics in an array of colors, and tools that I didn’t even know the name or the use of. In a box, he had yarn. I went straight to it and made an inventory of the colors. I took the spools out of the box and lined them up on the table.
Krampus came to sit next to me. “Everything that’s mine is yours,” he said. “I know you love knitting.”
“I do. My mother taught me, and she learned from her mother. It’s something my family has done for generations. Knitting saved me after my parents’ passing, and not just financially. As my hands do all the work, my mind can escape.”
“I feel the same when I’m in my workshop. It doesn’t matter what I make. What matters is if I keep my hands busy, my mind is at ease.”
I looked at him and felt my heart swell in my chest. We had so much in common.
“I brought my knitting needles with me,” I said. “But all the yarn I had was destroyed in the fire.”
He pushed the box toward me. “It’s all yours. And you can use this space.”
“Really? You don’t mind? But it’s your workshop!”
He cupped my face with his big hands. “Aura, all that is mine is yours. You can come in here whenever you please.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I couldn’t stop touching the yarn spools. They gave me such a comforting feeling.
“You don’t have my favorite color, though,”
His brows furrowed. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Burgundy. You don’t have it.”
He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. “Well...”
“You don’t have yellow either. Or orange. Not a big fan of bright colors, I see.”
“But there are three different shades of blue.” He picked the yarn spools and showed them to me.
“Can we go buy burgundy? And the other colors we’re missing?”
It was a small thing, so subtle, but his jaw tensed. His smile faded, and he proceeded to rearrange the yarn spools, as if they went in a certain order back in the box, and that was the only order that was acceptable.
“We also need more Christmas decorations. I brought some lights with me because I’d just bought them at the market before, you know, my house burned down...”
“So, you want to go into town...”
“Yes! We need to do some shopping! It will be fun.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Aura.”
“Hey.” I got up and positioned myself between his knees. “It will be different this time. In fact, from now on, it will always be different. Because we’ll go shopping together, and the townspeople will see that you’re not scary at all. I don’t know everyone in town, but I know a few people. I will tell them how happy I am with you, and then they’ll feel sorry for how they treated you.”
