Chapter 13 ( Fletcher )

  "Kaliah wake up." Yashir shook me awake.

  "Yeah I'm up I'm up." I claimed turning over and covering myself back up with my blanket. A moment later I realized I was in the air. "What are you?" I had very little time. to brace myself as I dropped. back down to my bed as Yashir dropped me.

  "I said wake up." Yashir's voice echoed with his mischievous laughter.

  groggily I jumped up and dusted myself off. "Yeah but you didn't have to pick up and drop me."

  He poured a cup of tea for himself, after a year and a half and I'd grown accustomed to Yashir's fondness for tea. However, since we'd run out of our tea supply, he began gathering herbs from the forest to make his own brews. He turned to me and asked, "Would you like some tea?"

  "How many times do I have to tell you I don't drink tea, old man!" I scolded, the memory of Melody's betrayal has forever spoiled the drink for me. Yashir frowns furrowing his brow and quivering his lips as if he's going to cry.

  " How many times do I have to tell you I'm not an old man!" It's true, if I account for my previous life, he's only about seven years older than me. Such mental gymnastics gets exhausting though and it's easier to just call him old.

  Finally getting up, I went down to the creek to freshen up for the day. Returning to our camp, I noticed Yashir packing some of our belongings. Curious, I asked, "Where are we going?" We often moved our camp to avoid overhunting and over-foraging an area.

  "We're headed to Fletcher,"

  "You want more tea don't you?" I asked, grinning wide. Fletcher was a small town in the North of Gratam, with the season changing to spring, they were bound to have plenty of herbs for tea. We'd been to the town a few times to resupply simple things like salt and new equipment.

  "Yes… among other things." Yashir said, clearing his throat. “We need to resupply there for the next part of our journey.” The prospect of visiting the town again after four months of winter in solitude was exciting. I couldn't help but think about taking a real shower, and eating something other than whatever woodland creature we could find… With actual seasoning on top of that.

  "We'll stay in Fletcher for a week and then we'll be heading back out." He said as he started walking expecting me to follow.

  The journey to Fletcher doesn't take long, only a day's trip through the woods until we reach the main road and then another day of travel by the road. The sight of the town nearly brought tears to my eyes. Once again returned to civilization. Many of the people in Fletcher wore hats with wide brims much like cowboy hats except many of them have an extra flap that comes down to cover the ears to help against the cold.

  "Where are you coming from?" a guard stationed at the town's entrance asked, his hand raised to halt our approach. His uniform was immediately recognizable as that of the Gratan Army.

  He wore a heavy, grey-white greatcoat with a high collar, built for service on the road. The lapels and inner lining were a startling flash of persimmon orange that stood out against the muted tones of the rest of his uniform. His trousers were a crisp white, tucked neatly into sturdy, dark leather boots. Atop his head sat the traditional wide-brimmed Gratam hat, its felt a deep forest green. He held a musket, the butt of the weapon glowing with a soft green light, and his compatriots held their own weapons at a ready state as we approached.

  "We are coming from Vectis." Yashir spoke up, he sounded different from usual and I couldn't help but tilt my head confused.

  "Ah very well then. I imagine you're trying to escape the fighting?" The guard asked, his face taking on a solemn expression.

  “Truthfully we camped out in the woodlands throughout the winter. I hadn't heard anything about fighting until now.”

  The guard looked at the two of us and our disheveled states, amused. “Oh wow, you must be pretty hardcore.” He said with a laugh as Yashir took out his charge card and held it up to the gate terminal paying our entry fare.

  “Yeah I guess so, we're going to Man's Drop in a week if that tells you anything."

  The guard let out a low whistle. "You lot be careful out there. A young girl such as her can get hurt pretty badly if you're not.” Yashir looked down at me and smiled warmly.

  "She can hold her own pretty well.” I smiled back appreciatively despite having no idea what Dead Man's Drop was, and was quickly losing any desire to learn anything about it.

  The stationed guard wished us well, and with a familiar "Welcome back, you two," he waved us into the city. There was another pair of guards on the other side who gave us a knowing nod as we entered. In fact, there were many men stationed all over, more armed guards than we'd seen either of the two other times we'd visited.

  Despite this, Fletcher’s citizens seemed as though they were in high spirits. People were laughing and cutting up with one another on every corner. As we walked through the town, friendly greetings were thrown our way, some even calling out to me by name.

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  As I followed closely behind Yashir, my eyes constantly scanning our surroundings, a familiar shout cut through the cheerful noise. “Kaliah! You’re back!”

  I looked up to see a group of boys kicking a rudimentary soccer ball. Harry, the boy with the dark brown hair, waved enthusiastically before kicking the ball in my direction. “Show us that trick again!”

  I stepped out from behind Yashir, receiving the pass easily. Flicking the ball up, I started doing a simple juggle, kicking it back and forth between my feet. The kids watched, still impressed even though they’d seen it before. I did an ‘around the world,’ then kicked it from knee to knee, shoulder to shoulder, and finally balanced it on my head to a series of appreciative “woahs.”

  Smiling, I dropped my head, let the ball fall to my feet, and kicked it back to the group.

  “You’ve gotten even better!” Harry said, trapping the ball. He flicked a stray lock of hair from his eyes. “Hey, we were talking about your game, ‘soccer,’ and we had a question.”

  This caught my interest. “Oh yeah?”

  “What about our Gifts or Arc abilities?” he asked. The question stopped me dead in my tracks. When I first explained the game, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of Arc-induced soccer. What would the rules be? What if people used their abilities to cheat? But if it was part of the game, that wouldn’t be an issue… right? I had to decide, on behalf of a non-existent FIFA, the rules of soccer for this world in a matter of seconds. I said a quick prayer to the soccer gods, asking for forgiveness.

  “Uhhh, you can only use Arc energy to enhance your bodies. All Gifts and other abilities are outlawed and will result in you getting expelled from the game!” I declared firmly, pointing at the boy as if asserting my authority on the matter.

  “Sweet! I like the sound of that,” Harry acknowledged, and the others nodded in agreement. “Otherwise, some people’s Gifts would make it unfair to the rest of us.”

  “Yeah,” a boy with black hair named Wayne chimed in. “I could use my gift to just throw the ball into the goal.” We all couldn't help but laugh at his honesty.

  “Ewww, Harry’s talking to his girlfriend!” the biggest boy of them all jested, making Harry’s face redden.

  “She’s not my girlfriend, you jerk!” Harry barked back, kicking the ball at him. He dodged it and ran off laughing.

  “Maybe you can ask your dad if you can play with us later!” Wayne called out.

  I couldn't help it as my face shifted from one of happy high spirits to one of dejected grief at the mention of my father. I looked down so as to hide my face.

  "We were actually going to get some clothes so now isn't a good time," Yashir stated, speaking up from behind me while rubbing my back gently. "Let's go Kaliah."

  I nodded and allowed Yashir to guide me along. He moved his hand from my back to just in front of my face. I took it in my own and walked beside him as we left the boys behind.

  "What is this soccer?" Yashir asked, bringing my thoughts out of the clouds. Jerking my head up, I started scanning around me again, feeling like I needed to make up for the time I’d spent with my guard dropped. "It sounds interesting, but how come I've never heard of it before."

  My heart skipped a beat as I tried not to panic. "It's because I made it up!" I stated simply.

  "Ah, you're quite a creative kid," Yashir praised. I found it rather funny and couldn't help but laugh. It was nice taking credit for someone else's idea. I just hoped there wasn't some sort of universal enforcement agency that would sue me for it.

  Yashir and I found a tailor shop which claimed from their signage to specialize in children's clothing. We walked through the store for a while and found myself a couple of solid outfits. My current one was made up of a pair of stitched-together black pants and a greatly mended blue shirt, although now it was less blue and more so green and brown from whatever other color strands I had to use to fix it.

  I also got myself a new bag and some extra materials in anticipation of having to mend my clothes more in the future. Fortunately, I'd gotten really good at sewing, much better than I was in my previous life.

  As we walked out of the store, I spotted Yashir eyeing an armory shop, and I immediately proceeded to beg him to take me into it. He succinctly responded, "No."

  Since I didn't get my way, I found another thing to beg for. I spotted a merchant's stall which seemed to sell some kind of sweets. "Oh, let's get that!" I pleaded, pointing and looking up at Yashir with my best puppy-dog-eyes technique.

  A slight smile slipped onto his otherwise rigid face and he nodded in agreement. "Alright, just one, but you can't have it until after we have dinner."

  I didn't really know what I was asking for until we made our way over to the stall. Its owner wore a dark blue suede-colored hat and jacket with a golden-colored shirt. He was a bit plump but greeted us happily. "How are you folks doing today?"

  "We're doing well, thank you," Yashir reciprocated. Now at the stand, I struggled to even see what was being served as the counter was too high. I reached up to Yashir, silently demanding for him to pick me up. He obediently obeyed my command, allowing me to see what the man was selling.

  Served in bowls were these soft, cake-looking things, each colored differently and drizzled with various toppings. "What is this?" I asked, looking over the selection in amazement.

  Yashir and the merchant laughed at my ignorance. "You mean you asked for these despite not knowing what they even were?" Yashir asked teasingly.

  "I could tell it was something sweet but didn't know what it was," I clarified. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's sweets.

  "You're certainly right about these being sweet. They are Cream Cakes. Filled to the brim with a sweet cream flavored to your liking and then topped off with whatever you want," the man revealed as he pushed forward a menu with his different flavors.

  "Ah, so it's like warm ice cream," I mused to myself. "I want the strawberry one with chocolate drizzle!" I requested after quickly reading over the menu.

  "I'll take… the chocolate one, if you don't mind," Yashir said, speaking up as well.

  Yashir paid the man, who called himself a confectioner, and we walked off with our treats in hand. It felt evil, though, for Yashir to tell me to wait to eat this delicious-looking treat until after we finished dinner.

  We ended up going to an inn, much like the one back in Vectis. Its main floor was full of people who seemingly frequented the place, marked by their degree of friendliness with one another. Yashir ordered two plates of meat I hadn't heard of before and two other plates of sides, which we then split between ourselves. It was a mix of veggies and carbs like rice and potatoes.

  We ate, and it was good, but I was too excited to try my dessert to even really remember the rest of my meal. As I dug into my cream cake, it felt as though it melted in my mouth. The cream was much lighter than I expected it to be, and the cake was good and moist. The chocolate drizzle tied everything together, making it a confectionary masterpiece.

  After we finished eating, we headed up to the room Yashir rented. It was spacious and rather empty, with two beds and a nightstand. After putting away some of our stuff, I took a shower. It felt as though I was cleaning off a lifetime of dirt and grime from that disgusting forest.

  Getting out of the shower, I headed to sleep, once again finding the bed far more uncomfortable than it should've been, considering I spent a full year sleeping on the forest floor.