Chapter Two
Lillian shifted nervously in front of the door, the key clutched in her left hand, and her bags from her horse cart sitting on the ground next to her. Her nerves were finally catching up with her after the busy day she'd had.
"Go on, Lil, open it." Hiro encouraged from behind her, more bags in his hands, he had been inconspicuously sent with her by Ayame to be sure she didn't overexert herself. Ayame had gotten to know Lillian a little too well. Lillian was certain that somebody would be keeping a close watch on her crop growing for the next couple months. Nosy townspeople…
Lillian stared down the normal looking wooden door in front of her, the key shaking slightly in her grip, Lillian wasn't sure if it was how nervous she was, or another effect of her accident and lack of muscles. Whatever, the girl thought, it didn't matter, what mattered was opening the door.
Something Lillian couldn't find the courage to do. Lillian sighed, twisting the key with her fingers- what if it wasn't everything she was hoping it was? What if it wasn't as great as she thought it'd be? She voiced these thoughts to Hiro.
"Well," Hiro started, the words easily slipping out of his mouth, "You'll never find out if you don't take that risk."
Lillian nodded at the surprisingly encouraging words, and stuck the key in the lock, jiggling it like Ina had told her to do, hearing a click before stuffing the key in her pocket. She picked up her bags, and opened the creaky door.
Lillian gasped as she stepped in- it was small, but the space was used well, the way things were set up in the room made it seem like it was bigger than it actually was.
Lillian dropped her bags behind her, ignoring it when Hiro grunted after tripping on them, and looked around in amazement that the whole place was hers and hers alone, well, with time- after she paid off the deed to Ina. Ina had been more than understanding when Ayame had talked to her about it, and eager to have a new villager, especially one so already well liked. She had also seemed kind of smug that Lillian had chose to live in Konaha ,and had quickly shuffled Lillian and Ayame out with the key, saying giddily that she had an 'old geezer' to gloat to. Whatever that meant. Ayame had laughed, but Lillian had been confused as to why that was so funny, so she just smiled and pretended she got it, too excited over the prospect of her new place.
Lillian continued her examination, twirling around the room while Hiro collapsed onto the couch that was stuffed in the small space between an arm of the kitchen cupboards, and the wall to the right of the door, a pale red in colour. Like a lot of things in Konaha, red seemed to be their colour.
The kitchen took up more than a quarter of the main room, with an extension of the cupboards extending from the wall to the middle of the room, on the other side of the kitchen was a closet, presumably for cooking ingredients, Lillian had noted that they seemed pretty serious about their cooking. This setup was nothing compared to the one Ayame had at the clinic, and that even paled to the one in the Town Hall. It was a shame Lillian couldn't cook to save her life.
In front of the storage closet was a smaller closet, with a rung running across it horizontally at about eye level, and a small matt beneath it, probably for shoes and coats Lillian concluded. There was a welcome matt in front of the door. Directly ahead of her was a white door, which Lillian immediately headed into, the door swinging shut behind her. It was a bedroom, obviously, Lillian figured as soon as she entered the room and spotted the bed, this room almost as big as the other room in the house.
In the upper left-hand corner was a small, wood framed, bed with red sheets tucked under the mattress and two white pillows sitting at the head. Beside it, was a small wooden nightstand with a little cloth sitting on the surface, an empty vase resting on top of that. Lillian frowned; she would have to do some remodeling, all that brown was going to kill her eventually. She loved bright colours.
There was a window on the wall Lillian was facing, with the red curtains pulled back to expose trees, and lots of them. To the right of the window was a dresser, again, wooden Lillian noted with dismay, and a large circular mirror hanging on the wall above it. Lillian walked up to it hesitantly, running her fingers along the smooth wood and looked at her reflection for the first time in Goddess knows how long, surprised to see how much she had matured over the past season. She barely recognized the girl in the mirror, she looked so sickly and pale compared to how Lillian usually saw herself. Feeling sick, she turned away after making a face at her reflection, realizing why Ayame had refused to let her look in a mirror, she could only imagine how much worse she had looked before. And she had wondered why people thought she wouldn't make it. Well, she'd just have to show them just what a healthy Lillian looked like.
Trying to get her mind onto something happier, Lillian continued her exploration, quickly poking her head through the door on the right side of the room to confirm that it was a bathroom, deciding to explore that later, Lillian turned around and almost ran into the near empty bookshelf she hadn't noticed before, quickly flipping through one of the few books to see it was on crop growing, figures. Nothing interesting to read here, she'd have to go bug Ina to see what she had. A book that looked different from the other caught Lillian's attention, it was a spiral bound notebook, she flipped it open eagerly, hoping to see juicy gossip or something, but was disappointed to see blank pages, though it did look like something had been torn out from it.
She continued turning, surprised to see the door, along with a desk she hadn't seen in the corner a few feet away from her bed. Shrugging, she went through the door, she could go through it more in depth later, and Hiro was probably boring himself to death right now. Or amusing himself, which was a more terrifying thought. He probably brought some kind of medical pocket dictionary and was making notes on it or something.
"What's the verdict?" Hiro asked as soon as Lillian had stepped through the door to enter the main room, sitting up from where he had been slumped on the couch. Ayame had told Lillian that he never usually slumped, but Lillian just exhausted him and she should be proud of that.
Lillian made a face, plopping down next to him, careful of where her arm was. "Too much wood, not enough colours. I don't look pretty." The last part slipped out, but Lillian didn't regret it. She had long since learned that regretting things you couldn't take back wasn't worth the trouble.
Hiro deadpanned, before chuckling at her. "Figures, I can see why Ayame wanted you out of the clinic, she is quite fond of her neutral colours. And you look fine… for someone that's been unconscious for the better part of a season recently. Though I don't see what physical appearances have to do with anything."
Lillian rolled her eyes at him and hit him with her good hand, laughing when he feigned injury. "Well, she's just lucky I didn't find the paint before she got there, or there'd be a lot more than one red line on the wall. And you're lucky I can't hit you very hard right now, that's not how you comfort a lady with confidence issues. You have a lot to learn, my friend."
Hiro grinned. "Not anymore, she made me repaint it today when you were packing, it's like you were never there. And I'm perfectly capable of comforting a lady, but, alas, you are not one."
Lillian ignored that comment, "Hey, speaking of paint, can I borrow?"
Hiro shrugged, before smirking, "You'll have to take it up with Ayame, I'm not permitted to answer that."
"You're useless," Lillian moaned, faking exasperation, the doctor in training not falling for her petty act.
"Well," Hiro said suddenly as the two relaxed, "I should probably get going- you know Ayame…"
Lillian smiled sadly, meeting Hiro's eyes; she hadn't been alone in a long time. "Yeah, you better run. She might have something for you to study." She said mercilessly.
Hiro got up to leave with a small chuckle, and Lillian followed him to the door.
"Oh, there's some food in the cupboard for cooking, and there's a recipe book in your room somewhere, or at least Ayame said, but you can always come over, if you would like to," Hiro added, scratching the back of his neck. "Ayame won't mind." He smiled sadly. "It's gonna be weird without out our little mooch there…" He trailed off, smiling when he saw Lillian's face.
"I'm a big girl, Hiro, but I'll be sure to visit you tomorrow?" Lillian said over the frog in her throat, she hated goodbyes, even if the person was just going down the road, literally. Well, of course, only when she liked the person in question, hence why leaving the city for good hadn't been too bad of a problem for her.
"Okay!" Hiro said happily, opening the door and heading out with a quick goodbye, Lillian standing awkwardly in her living room for half a minute before realizing she should probably unpack.
Sighing, Lillian cast a hopeless glance towards her enormous pile of luggage, she had literally packed up her life and left, which resulted in a lot of crap along with the stuff she actually needed and liked.
Lillian set off, grabbing the bag off the top of the pile and towing it to her room, ready to open the next chapter of her life. It was finally time.
Lillian froze, her breath catching in her throat as the large white pony ambled towards her, its dark eyes watching her closely, or horse as Kana had told her, apparently it was just the right height to be a horse, whatever that meant. Lillian didn't understand half of what Kana had been saying; she'd been too distracted and just agreed to whatever he said. Probably shouldn't have done that, Lillian thought.
Trying to calm herself, using a technique Kana had shown her earlier, closing her eyes for a moment and taking a few deep breaths to try and calm herself. Honestly, she really hated Kana and Hiro right about now; they, well, mostly Kana, had decided it would therapeutic for Lillian to 'get back in the saddle,' of course figuratively thanks to Lillian's fragile arm, and all three had been shocked to find Lillian's newfound fear of horses. Or more specifically, her horse. When she had first entered the field with the horse about a week ago, she had ended up terrified, and Hiro had had to escort her back to her farm that night. Kana, the persistent bugger, had promptly researched how to bond with a horse when you were scared, and now here Lillian was; trying to not drop dead in the middle of the field, Kana and Hiro too far away to help if the stupid horse decided to go berserk and kill her in cold blood.
Of course, Kana denied any possibility of that happening, but Lillian, having been watching as the horse skittered around her for the better part of an hour, had other ideas. Lillian would have been glad to sell the stupid thing to Kana and move on with her life, she didn't need a horse. Lillian chided herself, it probably wasn't helping her that she kept mentally insulting the horse, who still didn't have a name, despite that Kana kept asking her, and she would always reply that he could name it if he really wanted to. He shut up after that.
A light fluttering on her arm awoke Lillian from her thoughts, the girl's eyes snapping open to see the horse in question standing next to her; it was poised to run and currently sniffing her arm, lifting its head to meet Lillian's gaze as the girl tensed up. Lillian breathed out slowly, forcing herself to relax and allowing herself a small, wavering smile when the horse went back to sniffing her with cautious eyes, butting her torso with its speckled black nose.
Despite herself, and ignoring her racing heart, Lillian lifted her hand cautiously, watching the horse's reaction carefully, before running it along the horse's nose, trying to ignore the way her fingers shook as she did this. Thankfully, the horse didn't react much, only sighing and lowering its head. Cautiously, Lillian continued petting the huge animal running her fingers through its snowy white mane. Maybe it wasn't that bad of an animal, but she still didn't want it.
"Keep going, Lil." Kana whispered encouragingly, although the girl didn't hear his words, watching the scene with a wide grin as Lillian petted the horse, the closest she had been to the animal in weeks. This was exactly what Kana had been waiting for, maybe after this Lillian wouldn't be so rash with her decision to get rid of the horse, not that Kana didn't want it, but he knew Lillian would be better off with the horse. And if that meant he lost a good deal, then it was worth it to the salesman. He was Lillian's friend first; his job came second to his friendships. Any friend of Hiro's was a friend of his.
Beside him, Hiro sighed as he watched the scene unfold, curtained in the golden glow of twilight- it really was beautiful. It was times like this Hiro wished he had artistic talent, the way Lillian and the horse were silhouettes against the falling sun… it was truly breathtaking, he thought as he leaned against the wooden fence he and Kana had but up so long ago after the old one collapsed due to old age combined with a snowstorm; granted, Kana had done most of the work, but Hiro had been there to remove the many slivers Kana received that day, along with emotional support for the horseman in training. That was, after all, what Hiro did best.
Lillian looked at the horse carefully, finally seeing that it wasn't just pure white like she had initially thought- it actually had a small light brown spot around its eye, and was spotted black all over its coat. Its mane cascaded down with slight curls to the ends, obviously having been carefully attended to by Kana over the past season, something that would probably fall to Lillian to do eventually. Lillian fell back when the horse hit her with its nose again, staring in shock before realizing she had stopped petting it.
"Alright, bring it in Lillian, that's enough for today." Kana called out, opening the gate to the field and slipping in, leaving Hiro on the other side.
Lillian jumped when Kana called out to her, having become focused on the horse as time passed, she looked around and was shocked to see the world around her encased in a golden light, she hadn't realized it was so late.
Kana pushed past Lillian, getting between her and the horse and clipping a lead on the horse's halter, Lillian watching dumbfounded as he led the horse away, still trying to catch up to the present. What had she just been feeling, everything else around her had just disappeared, until it was just her and her horse. To be honest, Lillian kind of missed the feeling as she was thrust into reality once more. But that didn't change the fact that it had been weird.
"Coming, Lillian?" Hiro called, gesturing towards her from where he stood on the other side of the fence.
Lillian nodded, quickly jogging out of the pen after shaking her head, trying to get rid of the attention consuming thoughts she was having and pushing them away for later. "Yeah, I'm coming."
Hiro and Lillian set off for the main part of town, after Hiro closed the gate behind Lillian, the girl too deep in thought to realize what was happening at the moment.
"Hey! Wait up," Kana called, returning from dropping the horse back off in the stable at Lillian's new farm house and hurrying to catch up with Lillian and Hiro, walking between the two and wrapping his arms around both of them, pulling them closer. "How's that for evil?" Kana asked, nudging Lillian with a smirk.
Lillian rolled her eyes, slipping out from underneath Kana's arm, Hiro taking the time to do the same thing.
"You guys are no fun," Kana pouted, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You still haven't answered my question, not-farm girl."
Lillian's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, and the girl looked straight ahead, refusing to meet Kana's knowing gaze. "Shut up."
Hiro elbowed Kana, effectively telling him to shut up about the issue.
Kana just grinned at him, but the big brute complied anyway, knowing there would be many more opportunities to tease Lillian about him being right.
Soon enough, the trio arrived at Yun's teahouse, which was their new unofficial hangout place.
"Ladies first," Kana said, mockingly bowing in front of Lillian, who pushed him as she went by. This, of course, didn't even budge him because he was roughly twice the size of Lillian. Kana just laughed at her before turning his gaze on Hiro.
Hiro stood with crossed arms, staring at Kana as he tapped his foot as he waited for Kana to move out of the way.
Kana smirked, bowing again, "Ladies first."
Hiro rolled his eyes as he made his way in, soon locating Lillian at a table in the corner and sitting next to her on the floor, leaving Kana to sit on his own on the other side of the table. Kana strolled in, hollering a greeting to Yun before coming and, quite literally, crashing down across from Hiro and Lillian, his manners at their finest.
"Not nice, guys, don't play favourites." Kana said, crossing his arms and attempting to glare at the two, cracking a smile in less than a minute due to the fact that both Lillian and Hiro had raised their brows at him. Lillian even managed a giggle, falling out of the funk she had somehow gotten herself in that afternoon.
"You're not very menacing, y'know." Lillian said, propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands, her hair falling forward.
Kana shrugged. "I get that all the time, but you know what I give to others?"
Lillian humored him, asking him what he got.
Kana made an exaggerated gesture of strength, flexing his muscles for Lillian. "Pow, and pow."
Lillian just rolled her eyes at him, plucking a napkin off the table and folding it in boredom. Hiro, however, broke out in definitely unprofessional laughter at Kana. Ayame would be proud, Lillian thought with a smile.
Yun finally appeared, wielding three menus and cutlery for the group.
"How are you feeling. Lillian? Is your arm healing alright?" Yun asked, focusing on Lillian as she handed out the menus.
Lillian smiled at the elderly woman, and moved her arm a bit, showing off the mobility. "It's coming along well; it'll be good as new in no time." She had had physiotherapy this morning, and it was a tad sore.
"That's wonderful news! Will you be able to head up to the cooking festival tomorrow? It's the first one in a while; they've been cancelled because the gourmet fellow's wife had a baby, a girl I believe." Yun said, chatting with Lillian as the girl browsed through the small menu.
Lillian looked up from the menu, thoughts of what to order falling from her mind. "Cooking festival?" Hiro, or anyone really, hadn't mentioned anything like that before…
Yun's eyes widened as Kana simultaneously face-palmed and Hiro gasped, realizing they hadn't told her about it. "Hasn't anyone told you yet?" Lillian shook her head. "Oh my, I never would have thought that would happen, well, it's a festival in which both towns, Konaha and Bluebell, meet on the mountain top to compete in a themed competition, to see which town can make the better dish. There are about four different festival days a season, the past two being the only exceptions."
Lillian frowned, not really understanding the point of the whole thing. "Why?"
Yun stammered, not sure exactly how to answer that question. "Well, hmm, it's more of a tradition thing than anything else, but I'm sure Ina would be able to give you a more in depth description of the events that started it and such. Now, what can I help you three with?"
Lillian nodded, filing that away for things to do later, adding that to her list, that seemed to be getting lengthier and lengthier, she still hadn't even visited Bluebell, something she had wanted to do since she had found out about the other towns existence. The problem was, nobody would go with her for some reason and she wasn't exactly enthusiastic about going across the mountain alone again. She would have to just suck it up then.
"Well, I'll be having the spicy curry, I don't know about those losers, though." Kana said. He folded the menu he had been pretending to look at it and gave it to Yun, who took it with a glare, not appreciating name calling in her restaurant. Not that she expected anything less from Kana though.
Lillian was just dismayed that he was too far away for her to hit, instead settling with an icy glare, one which Kana returned.
"I'll have the gratin." Hiro said as he handed the menu back to Yun, the woman turning to see Lillian focused on Kana.
"Oh, I'll have the… uhm," Lillian stammered, glancing through the list on the menu before saying the one that sounded most appetizing, "Gratin, I guess?"
"Alright," Yun smiled as she collected the menus, "I'll be right back with your orders." With that, Yun shuffled back to her kitchen, leaving the trio to amuse themselves. A very bad idea indeed, especially because Kana was a member of the trio.
The instant Yun left, Kana focused on Lillian. "How did you not know anything about the cooking festival?" He asked incredulously, throwing his hands in the air. "It's like, the biggest thing around here besides, you know, me."
Lillian rolled her eyes, her cheeks tinted pink. "It's not my fault nobody told me," she said defensively, "Besides, that gourmet whatever hasn't even been here in how long; it's not like anyone's participated in a cooking festival or whatever they're called, or talked about it. So don't be rude about it."
Kana sighed, not really knowing how to respond to that, still shocked at learning that Lillian didn't know about the cooking festival; the festivals were such a big part of their town and heritage. The tradition of the festivals was almost as important as… Well, the cooking festivals were the most important thing in their village, and Kana had a feeling it was probably the same over in Bluebell. That was probably the one thing they had in common.
Suddenly, something dawned on Lillian, and she cut Hiro off before he even began to speak. "Hey, is that why nobody ever goes to Bluebell? And why Ayame didn't want to tell me about moving to Bluebell as an option? I thought it was because she didn't want me walking over the mountain alone or something."
Hiro nodded. "She had been talking to me before, but it was more that you'd be more suited to Konaha due to your injury, you'd have a hard time dealing with animals like cattle and sheep with your arm, whereas crops are easier on you. But I'm sure all of the villagers preferred you to stay in Konaha, we've all grown accustomed to your presence."
Kana rolled his eyes at Hiro's in depth explanation, before meeting Lillian's gaze. "What he means is Bluebell sucks, end of story. Most of our village agrees, and if you go against our opinions, we'll break out our pitchforks and torches and chase you up the mountain."
Lillian giggled at Kana, trying to imaging him as part of an angry mob; the only pictures forming in her mind were ones of him being the one chased by the mob. "Why do you guys hate Bluebell so much?" Lillian asked, trying to figure it out. "Not saying you're wrong or anything, but what did they ever do to you."
The silence that followed her question only proved Lillian's point, which she had been making as soon as she heard Yun mention 'tradition,' the girl thinking that none of the Konaha villagers, except maybe Ayame, had ever personally been to Bluebell and vice versa.
"Well," Kana said, stroking an invisible beard as he thought, "I uhm… ask Ina. There's your answer. I'm pretty sure you were already told to do that though…"
Hiro shrugged, "I don't really know either; I never really understood that. I'm not really from around here, I just never asked because that's the way it was told. I assumed nobody wanted to remember or know exactly what went down."
Lillian frowned, determination in her eyes. "Well, I do. And I will find out, even if I have to visit Bluebell to get some answers, it can't be that bad."
Before Kana could fill her head with thoughts of monstrosities residing in the town over the hill, Yun showed up with their food- setting three, deliciously smelling, plates onto the table along with three glasses of water, before taking her leave with a smile.
The trio unanimously decided to start eating, after seeing the appetizing food set in front of the, and fell silent, the only noise the scrapping of forks on plates, and their chewing.
Lillian was in heaven as she ate, having never eaten food cooked so perfectly, they really took their cooking serious, not that she minded if this type of cooking was a by-product. As she ate, marvelling how everything was measured out perfectly and the flavours combined to create the perfect taste, she decided that she would be trying everything on Yun's menu, if not just because she couldn't cook nearly half as well as Yun. But with food having as good as quality as this, she doubted anyone did
"Thanks for coming!" Yun said happily, taking the money from Kana's outstretched hand, while Lillian watched with a smirk, feeling triumphant due to the fact that she had been able to con Kana into buying her food.
Kana smiled at Yun, waving goodbye and grabbing Lillian by the elbow, leading her out of the tea house. Hiro had left a bit earlier, with some food for Ayame.
Lillian smiled sweetly at Kana. "Thank you Kana! You're the best…Kana I know."
Kana rolled his eyes, brushing a strand of dark brown hair behind his ear that had fallen out of his ponytail. "Yeah, yeah, yeah- I know. I get it all the time."
"I doubt that." Lillian said as the two strolled down the dirt road that lead out of town, the sun long gone as they walked in the darkness.
The two walked in a comfortable silence, stopping just outside Kana's house to say their goodbyes.
"So, I'll swing by around ten to escort you across the scary mountain top, so you can see what the cooking festival is all about." Kana said as he unlocked his door, leaning against the frame to watch Lillian reply. "Make sure you feed your horse, she's in the barn and I took the liberty of putting hay in the feed dispenser, you just have to put it into the bin."
Lillian nodded, before waving as she started walking towards her house. "Sounds good, I'll be ready to watch your strange customs firsthand."
Kana laughed at her, before entering his house, leaving Lillian to her thoughts as she walked home. Tomorrow would be quite the eventful day, she would see her first cooking festival, which was apparently a big deal, according to Kana and Hiro, and catch a glimpse of the Bluebell villagers.
As she entered her property, fishing her key out of her pocket, she wondered what they would be like, from what she had heard; Bluebell had a completely different theme from Konaha, which most likely meant they'd be wearing differently styled clothing from the type people in Konaha wore. Including Lillian, the girl thought with excitement, when she had moved into the house she'd been pleasantly surprised to find an outfit similar to the ones the villagers wore in the closet for her, and had been even happier to note that it mixed and matched with some of the clothing she'd brought from her old home in the city.
Briefly, her mind wondered how her old 'family' was doing in the city, if she could even call them that. Sure, they'd been nice to her, but they were never overly nice, like some of Lillian's old friend's parents were, they just treated her like another job, another person who lived in their house. It had always been like that though, even when she was young, Lillian realized as the lock on her door clicked open, they'd never babied her, and they'd always treated her like an adult. She didn't even know what happened to her birth family, and nobody had bothered to tell her. She'd been too afraid to ask. She couldn't even remember what her mom sounded like, although her mother raised her until she was five and suddenly decided she didn't want to anymore. Lillian sighed, stepping into her house and trying to push those thoughts away, that part of her life was over and done with, it was long gone. And it was time to stop focusing on the part, the brunette though sadly, she would never get to know her real birth family, and it was about time she realized that. Goddess, Lillian thought, she was a grown woman, still missing her Mommy.
Lillian brushed away a tear she hadn't seen coming, heading for her bedroom after locking the door behind her, she was so ridiculous. She couldn't get hung up over things from the past, she had to move on to the present, and focus on her future. Of building her own family in Konaha. But still, some distant part of Lillian's mind wondered if maybe, just maybe, she would be able to find out somehow- to finally know just what happened to land her in her foster home, and what had happened to her real family. But, just as soon as the brunette thought it, her hopes were dashed as she realized how likely that was.
But still, a girl could hope.