It had been two months since I have been working at the bakery. I found a bachelor apartment that had a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Though it was run down I was adept enough to give it a little facelift. It was amazing what a little bit of paint can do. I even found some house plants fill it with, it was a very nice touch. I still do not have a bed, but I was able to find a fold up mat for a good price, it was made more for outside furniture, but it is a whole lot comfier than the bare floor. I even have my own personal shower! I feel like I am slowly beginning to get a grip on certain things here in England.

Today was my day off and I wanted to go for a nice walk around town. The sunlight danced on the apartments' old wooden floors while the tv was blasting through the wall from the next door neighbor. I let out a small sigh as I locked the door behind me and began to walk down the stairs. The struggles of living on the top floor is that it never ceases to cool down. Walking outside was a little less humid, I breathed in the smooth warm air that carried the scent of grass and wildflowers. Perhaps I should drop by work with some sweet iced tea from the coffee shop down the road. I can imagine that the bakery is hot, nevermind having to work while ovens are blasting off heat. Everyone would do good from something cold and refreshing. Smiling to myself with the clever idea, I began to walk downtown with my red t-shirt, my oversized purse, and jean shorts. I listened to the sparrows twittering and the cicadas humming as the unforgiving sun beat down on the sidewalk. The wind was languid and just barely moved hot air, even the sky was bare; offering three clouds in the sky that barely attempted to shade the town from the sun. After getting some sweetened iced tea and escorting myself to the bakery, the door had been left wide open; it left me to be greeted with the warm scent of bread and pastries. Walking into the bakery was like walking into a sauna, Thomas was almost as red as a tomato while the other coworkers were shimmering with sweat.

"Oh please tell me that you're not thinking to drink all that by yourself!" Thomas begged.

"Well, it may have crossed my mind." I smiled.

"You're a god sent." He said as he caught his breath. I put the drink tray down as everyone began thanking me one by one as they proceeded to drink and relish in the refreshing sweet tea.

"There is supposed to be a storm tonight eh" one of the workers stated.

"Ah, we need the rain!"Another chimed.

"So what are you up to today?" Thomas tilted his head in curiosity.

"Oi! Thomas, you should think of getting air conditioning in here! It's dreadfully muggy in here!" Father Simon walked in.

"We just turned off all the ovens for the rest of the day." Thomas gasped in defeat and drank more sweet tea.

"What brings you to town?" Thomas prodded. He was incredibly nosy and needed to know everything.

"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood, thought I would make sure you weren't working Chise too hard in this heat."

"Gah! I decided to give her a day off, yet she just came in and with treats." He grumbled and winked at me.

"It was really nothing." I felt a bit abashed.

"Oh, Chise! Are you doing anything as of now?"Thomas asked as if he just remembered something.

"No, not really."

"It must have slipped my mind, but I needed to pick up some medicine for my wife, you see. You think you are up for a little hike?" his eyes had a glimmer of hope, though he knew I couldn't say no to a request like that.

"The money for the medicine is in this envelope. Everything else should be taken care of." He pulled out a small envelope of money and held it out before I could answer.

"I thought you gave her the day off?" Simon raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, I don't mind grabbing the medicine. I wanted to go for a walk anyways," I smiled. "It's really no trouble."

"I really appreciate your help." I grabbed the envelope and put it in my purse.

"Do y' know where to go?"

"No."

"I will give you some directions"

"It's okay Chise, I will take you there myself. If Thomas were to give you directions, you'de surely get very lost" Father Simon teased.

"Suppose it's true. I'm pretty bad at directions." Thomas admitted as he went another shade of red as he let out a sigh.

"I was going to be going there later anyway, but I now have a craving for something cold now. So let's grab something refreshing, shall we?"Simon looked at me with his goofy grin. "We should leave before it gets even hotter." Father Simon panted.

"Thank you Chise and thank you, Simon," Thomas waved and went to the back.

As we began to set out on our journey, I began to feel bad for Simon; since all he wore was black. I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable he must feel.

"So, is this a pharmacy we are going to?"

"I suppose you could say that. " Simon replied thoughtfully. "We actually don't have a pharmacy here. I suppose we do not exactly need one since we have someone who makes effective medicine. The whole village swears by his medicine y' know."

"That must be nice."

"I have gone to this guy for 10 years, and his medicine is the only medicine that soothes my cough. I'm surprised no one has told you about him yet."

"So, is he some sort of herbalist then?"

"Mage actually, we have become something like friends over time actually. He is quite friendly, you'll like him."

A mage? Like Magic, spells, and charms? Could all that be true? And a priest is friends with a mage? I can't imagine how that friendship is supposed to work. I suppose if a priest is saying good things about him he can't be all that bad. I was really interested in meeting this mage now. I have never met a mage before.

As we walked Simon made small talk, he talked about this and that, the weather and what not. Nothing worth mentioning since it was just talking to get by time. Lately, we have been looking into ways to make me legally able to live in England. There are a few options that we were able to look at. Since I am an orphan, I will most likely need a legal guardian, though that requires finding someone who wants to do that. I would rather not burden anyone and make them go through all of that. Thomas even recommended a few schools that use correspondents, the program doesn't require me being there unless I need help or have questions. Though there are also some online schooling I can take, but then that would mean I need to purchase a computer and get internet.

We continued to walk on dirt paths, crossing a small bridge that crossed over a stream, we were shaded by the trees for most of the time. The wind felt cooler and sweeter somehow. I could smell the shrubs, the fragrance of the leaves and the earth. It was the type of air that filled you with some sort of infinite peace. The trees were tall and majestic in their own way, they stood proudly with branches soaring high and still. It was almost a scene from a fairy tale how evenly spaced out they were. The grass stood lush and was softer than ever. I held my hand out and let the tips of grass tickle and lick my palms and fingertips.

"Almost there. " Simon said with a grin on his face. We were approaching fields as we began to stare down the declivity of the winding dirt road. It really was a lovely little hike. We began to approach a lovely old English style home made out of stones, it was an older house but very well kept. It wore vine plants that tangled and climbed amongst themselves on the sides of the house. You could see shrubs growing randomly here and there on the front lawn, then there were some bushes that were neatly folded beside the house. In all, the property was lavishing and very well kept.

As we approached the house I began to grow in my curiosity and excitement. Simon knocked on the door, it took only a moment till a lady answered the door. She wore a nice pink Victorian dress, her sleeves tapered down to her elbows as she wore a matching shawl and a bonnet with yellow roses on each side. She wore white gloves and had a pair of big sailor red eyes and blonde hair.

"Hello, Silver Lady is the usual ready?" She simply nodded, Simon then motioned to me "Thomas also has someone to pick up medicine for his wife, Meredith." Silver looked at me for a long moment and opened the door for us to come in.

"Hmm, she must really like you. " Simon observed. We were led into the main room. Simon took a seat and sighed. I followed him and sat on the opposite end, sitting tightly and looking around. The room was decorated with shelves full of books, a desk, a couple couches, a chair and a large low coffee table in the center of the house was very quiet, I could hear the clock ticking and the silver lady rummaging through the kitchen. I wonder what kind of books a mage would want to read, poetry? Novels? Perhaps most of these are spell books. I began to observe the creatures in the room, they all were beginning to hide for some reason. Odd. They usually will stay out and do their own thing. Simon let out another sigh and stretched his arms up in the air. It was then, that I heard footsteps approach the room.

"Ainsworth, I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to show up." Simon blurted out.

"You didn't have to wait. Your order is done." I kept my eyes glued to the ground.

"Heh yes, I know but Chise here decided to take it upon herself to lend a helping hand to Thomas and fetch his wife's medicine."

Looking up, there stood a creature, the creature then paused and turned his head towards me. He wore a long black robe with white threads carefully woven into his sleeves, a black vest, with a pure white undershirt, and a blue gemstone bolo necktie. His face was covered with a long red cloth, though one could clearly tell he wasn't human. His eye sockets sunken, you could see that his head was a skull. It was a k-nine skull perhaps. The creature had about an arms-length of spiraled horns that bore the color of reddish-bronze. I was enthralled and almost in awe of this creature until I realized why I was in awe. I began to wonder how his outfit was strikingly identical to the man I met at that bookstore. Even his voice was the same and that is when it hit me. It's because he was the man from the bookstore. Perhaps I have met a mage before. That was no bookstore, as I went back into my memory I can recall seeing many gems and tools, not to mention the types of creatures that swarmed the shop. My stomach sank, as my heart skipped a beat. That creature didn't want to even set foot in that shop because it must have been a store of a sorcerer. That is when his name suddenly fluttered back to mind and sat on my tongue "Elias?"I mumbled.

"You know this bonehead? You've only been here for a couple of months and the likely hood of meeting this old man outside of this house is a rare thing."Simon smiled as I began to blush profusely. I was sure I wasn't going to meet him ever again, yet out of all places we basically live in the same town.

"Tell me, did you run away scared? It's okay if you did, I'm here to comfort and support."Simon snorted.

"Die."Elias plainly said as he sat down. I looked down in shame. It hadn't been exactly the proudest moments in my life, though being called out in an unfamiliar place was quite unexpected.

"Chise? You alright?"Simon questioned. I wasn't sure how to answer his question.

"I'm fine, no need to worry." I looked up and smiled. Silky then walked in with tea. She gave one to Simon as she pretty much glared at him and then turned to me with a warm smile while handing me a cup of tea.

"Thank you." She then came up behind me and put her arms around me from behind the couch. "Oh." I squeaked. This was very odd. I relaxed and tried to pretend everything was normal. I could feel Simons gaze on me.

"I feel like I'm missing something... how did you guys actually meet?" Simon asked

"At a store." I smiled coyly.

"Go on, what kind of store?" Simon encouraged.

"Well, I'm just trying to figure that out... I was just running from someone... or rather something. I suppose at the time I ran into the closest store that I could find and didn't leave until... I had to catch a train."

"Until you had to catch a train?" Simon was a bit unconvinced. His voice was rather unimpressed.

"That was the excuse I used to leave, so yes." Almost shocked with my bold truth, I let out a nervous smile.

"And whom were you running from?" Simon began to raise his eyebrows.I wondered if he was hinting Elias.

"I don't know, a big black glob-by thing with hundreds of needle-like teeth. It stunk like rotting flesh sort of, musty and damp that is when I ran into the closest store and it didn't come in." I shrugged with a smiled as I felt Silky embrace tighten. It was a bit quiet for some time. I could feel myself becoming uneasy, why do people have to know everything? Why am I now talking about something that I have always had to face? Everyone used to think of me as a freak, a burden or some sort of alien.

"I don't really talk about these sort of events in my life, sorry if I said too much." Maybe I did speak too much.

"Hm," Simon mused.

Authors Notes:

I am rather interested what you all have to think.

At the time I uploaded this chapter I did it on my phone. I did go back and reword somethings and updated some grammar.

I hope this helps you see the beauty of options I am now faced with! I could really go on an adventure with you all!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or any ideas!

What do you think is going to happen next?!

Take care!

Peaches-and-tea