Cheers

Their tankards were beginning to look dry.

Uncertainty clouded her thoughts again, making Avelyn shift her weight as she willed it away. She could do this. She was doing this. Wasn't she?

The skein in her grip shook despite the strength behind it. Why was this so hard? All she had to do was walk over with the ale skein, offer them a drink to talk over, and that was it. That was all she had to do! Yet she'd found herself standing like a dumbstruck foal, wobbling knees and all, for as long as it took for each one of them to finish off their drinks.

Since being freed, she'd found it difficult to approach others for anything outside of directions to where the next group of new soldiers would be training, or when supplies were to be gathered. She'd kept herself physically preoccupied, most days to the point of near exhaustion after the first week of freedom. The thoughts that kept her awake and the nightmares that followed were so deeply riddled with guilt, she would have done anything to avoid them.

In turn, she realized she'd been avoiding everything else, too. Socializing with her fellow soldiers, for example. Except the seasoned ones who guided her to where she needed to go, she'd just watched from within herself, feeling during these months as though she'd been watching everything that went on around her from leagues away.

That had to change. And she was the only one who could do it.

As one of the group she'd been watching tipped their mug upside down, she took her chance and moved towards them. Damn near tripped over her own hooves, too, though she forced a casual smile as she lifted the large skein when she reached them.

“Seems you could all use a refill,” she said, hoping no one had noticed the anxious crack in her voice. “Mind if I join you? I've been itching to crack this thing open for a while, now.” She let the skein hover between herself and the group in a silent offering.