Chapter 6: Stormglen Village part 2

A/N: Hi all, as promised this chapter is up relatively quickly (a week, just as promised). Anyway, here it is!

It's so crowded here! How in hell do people even walk here? Well, it was crowded. Nathaniel chose to walk right through the heart of the crowd, near the carts in the middle of the plaza. You can't swing a cat here without hitting ten people. I was having trouble keeping up to Nathaniel because I had to duck and weave around people to get to him. People seemed to pause slightly and give him a small path to walk through. Maybe it's because of Ven. He is a giant wolf. For me, they didn't even seem to see me. Jeez this is annoying… just like being back in middle school.

I ducked to the side again to avoid being hit by a basket filled with… is that silk? O so pretty… I shook my head. Shut it girly mind! Because of my pause, I completely lost sight of Nathaniel and Ven. Ah… I looked around. Well this is bad… I looked around again, looking for any sign of Ven, because it's so much easier to see a white wolf in a horde of people.

I felt a little hand on my wrist just as a happy voice simply said, "You're lost." I almost jumped in fright because the touch was so unexpected, and I almost didn't hear her voice in the loudness of the crowd. Looking down, I saw a little girl with eyes like charred wood and light brown hair looking up at me with a smile. She looked like she was around seven years old, and she was wearing a simple dress of faded blue and white. It was splattered in mud. How didn't she get trampled in this crowd? "I can help you," she said with a large grin. "But," how did I know there'd be a 'but'? "You have to buy me a cookie!"

"But, I don't have any money," I said with a slight frown.

"Ask Nafaniel," she said with a happy expression. She had a lisp, so instead of saying 'Nathaniel', she said 'Nafaniel'.

"I'm not sure he'll buy a cookie… but I'll ask," I replied.

She pulled on my hand, "Come on."

Following a little girl that was pulling on my hand through a bunch of shopping people proved to be a new level of difficult, but, at the same time, it was easier than trying to keep Nathaniel in sight.

Before long, we cleared the bulk of the crowd, and I saw Nathaniel, looking annoyed, and Ven, looking smug like he won a bet again.

"Can you keep up, please?" Nathaniel asked.

"I was trying to," I shot back.

"Nafaniel, Nafaniel," the girl was trying to get his attention. He seemed to have noticed her already before, but the girl didn't seem to know that. "Nafaniel."

He sighed softly and crouched so that he wouldn't have to look down much to see the girl, "Hello, Nenny." He almost smiled, but he still looked annoyed with me.

"You have to buy me a cookie!"

"Why?"

"'Cause I helped fhe lady find you again," she said in an almost sing-song voice, happily before she looked at Ven. "And, I helped Venny, again." Nenny seemed to be enjoying the annoyed look on Nathaniel's face. Ven seemed to be suppressing a wolfish laugh. It didn't take a genius to figure out why everyone was laughing, so I, also, chuckled.

"Fine." Nathaniel finally said. "Let's go."

"Yay!" She cheered.

Before we actually started walking again, Nathaniel turned to me and added, "Try to keep up."

I smiled just slightly, "I will. I will."

After that, Nathaniel gave Nenny a silver coin to buy her cookie. Before she skipped away happily, she said, "Granny says to duck when Genn asks. She also said to come for tea again soon." I was a little confused at that, but I shrugged it off when Nathaniel didn't comment.

Then, we (Nathaniel, Ven, and I) then went on. At least I'm keeping up with him. I thought with a smile. Then again, there aren't as many people here… They're all giving me strange looks. I felt a little self-conscious then, which was really rare for me.

We stopped at the doorway to the second largest public building. An inn, maybe? The sign above the doorway had some large, familiar letters, which I couldn't really read, above a picture of a tankard overflowing with some… beer? I never drank alcohol you see, so I wouldn't know.

"You wait here. You, too, Ven. Make sure she doesn't get lost." Nathaniel said right before he went inside.

I rolled my eyes a little. "I'm sure I won't get lost if I just stand here," I mumbled to myself.

"Who knows," Ven's voice echoed in my head. "Strange things have been happening lately. I don't even know how I ended up in… wherever I was."

"Hmm…" It was like this world wanted me to know what strange and—probably—dangerous things have been happening here, but I was still trying not to know. I sighed and just listened to group of young women gossiping not far from here. God… this is boring. Now I see why I didn't have too many girly friends. How could they talk about one boy for… ten minutes?

Ven snorted next to me, "Five, actually."

Close enough! It's boring enough to be counted as ten.

He snorted again, "I'm simply going to assume you were never infatuated with anyone."

Eh… My cheeks grew a little warm. Of course, I was…

Ven was grinning from ear to ear and on the verge of laughing again.

You enjoy teasing people. Don't you?

"Don't we all?"

I smiled a little. True.

I went back to listening to the girls, but I missed most of their words because I wasn't really paying much attention until, "Via…"

Immediately I perked my head a little up, listening more. The girls were agreeing on something, but I still missed some of the words. I also heard, "Missing… skulking… is… the…crows…"

I wasn't even sure that was what I heard. Ah, well… I might find out eventually.

Just then, Nathaniel came out of the inn and quickly walked toward the heart of the people. "Wait there," he called back.

"Okay…" So, I slumped back on the wall. I probably shouldn't slouch… Heh, I can actually almost hear what my mom would say if she saw me slouching. I miss her…

I sighed again and let my mind wander away from sad thoughts. That was the way I stopped myself from feeling too sad. Somehow, my mind wandered to a song that I—still—remember how it was stuck in my head for two months when I was in middle school. Oh no. If I start humming or singing it in my head now, it'll be stuck there again… But, it's such a good song… Well, I have nothing better to do. So, I started humming Greensleeves until Nathaniel came back holding a long, dark gray coat.

"'Ere." He said, handing it to me.

I blinked, "Eh? For me?"

He smiled a little, "Who else is 'ere?" Ven attempted to bark (wolves can't bark), "Other than Ven." He paused a little, "You wouldn't want to catch a lurgy."

I smiled, "Probably not." Then, I took it from him and put it on top of my jacket. "Thank you." The long coat was very snug on me, and it reached a little below my knees. I immediately felt warmer, and the inside of it felt soft but just a little scratchy. I looked down at it to examine the material more closely. It shone cleanly and smoothly… like silk, maybe? There was a small, simple, golden, embroidery pattern near the ends. I felt a little opulent, and I smiled at the thought. I looked back up, "Thank you," I repeated, "but it looks expensive."

"Not at all. It just cost three gold coins." He replied with a smile. Ven seemed to choke back a cough when he heard the amount.

Eh… I didn't know the currency here, but that still sounded expensive. "Ehm… Well, thank you nonetheless."

He seemed like he was about to say more, but Ella appeared behind Nathaniel with two horses. One looked like a great, fat, brown, spoiled pony. The other one looked like a proud (maybe a little too proud) warhorse. "I have wonderful news, you two." She was grinning. She's going to say something mischievous now… oh no…

"We no longer have to walk all the way to the city, meaning we can get there in half a day."

"But, there are only two horses," I said.

She grinned even more, "You two will be sharing the pony."

Eh… EH?

A/N: And here we go. Hope you enjoyed it. Review, please. I'm going to sleep, now. G'night!