By the North Star | An Odesta Fanfic

Chapter Seven

The windows in Mags' kitchen were wide open, letting in the sea breeze and the warm, late-summer air. Annie was humming to herself as she closed the oven and set a few plates out on the table. It had taken some time to convince Mags to take a break and let Annie cook dinner instead, but after spending the whole day taking care of a few sick families down in the Dunes, Mags was hardly in any state to argue. She was almost asleep even before she sat down in her chair on the porch and Annie had won out in the end.

Annie cleared off the counter and carried the last of the dishes over to the sink. She stopped at the open window, looking out at the ocean in the distance. A few kids were playing down by the shore, and she could hear their shouts drifting up towards the Village with the roar of the waves. The scene was familiar. She had watched it a dozen times before from this window, and many more back from the window back at her old house.

A couple of barks pulled her away from the window. Annie looked up to find Sammy waiting by the front door. He was scratching at it and whining to be let out.

"Weren't you just out there?" she asked him.

Sammy just barked at her again.

"Alright, I'm coming!"

Annie piled the dishes in the sink and followed Sammy to the door. He squeezed through as soon as she cracked it open and was running down the front steps and out into Victor's Village before she could stop him. They had trained him well enough to keep him from running off and out of sight, but that didn't stop Sammy from pushing the boundaries of his freedom, running circles in front of the house as if he hadn't been outside in weeks.

Mags was still sitting out there, rocking slowly back and forth in her chair on the porch. Her eyes were closed, but they flew open as soon as Annie stepped outside.

"Do you need help with anything?"

Annie laughed. "I've got it all handled, Mags, don't worry." she said. "Everything's in the oven. It'll be ready soon. I just had to bring Sammy outside."

They both looked down into the Village where Sammy was still running around happily, apparently content to do nothing but chase his own tail and bark at the seagulls passing overhead. Annie wiped her hands on her apron and took a seat on the porch steps.

"I think I might have made too much for dinner." She told Mags. "It's hard to make food for just the two of us. I was always so used to cooking for –"

She stopped and thought of the five table settings in her old kitchen, and the noise of her brothers talking over each other at the dinner table. Were there only three places set there now, with Annie and Kai gone? How quiet had those dinners become without them there?

"You know," she said, rather loudly, trying to speak over the noise of her own thoughts. "We should invite some of the other victors over for dinner sometime."

Mags cracked an eye open to look at her. "You think so?"

"Like Celeste, and her family. Or maybe Nelson." Annie counted the houses on the street. "Who's the other one?"

"Ryder," said Mags. "He doesn't get out very much."

"But we could invite him."

"We could."

"I think it would be nice," said Annie. "Maybe be a little less lonely for all of us."

Mags nodded. "It would be nice."

In front of the house, Sammy stopped suddenly, his ears perking up. He tilted his head, as if listening to something, then let out a couple of barks and took off down the road. Annie jumped to her feet.