Chapter Twenty
The walk was a pleasant one with birds chirping, reminding me of winter's end and spring's beginning. The town, though small, was simply buzzing with people. It was not a town I could resemble with my own which was smaller and no where near as populated. It was the town where I met Beth.
I came up to a few booth's selling their wares and peered over at them. One was gilled with chens and other small animals, as well as milk, obciosyl from their cow. Yet another was of food! Fruits picked so freasg. You could smell the ripemned lusjness of them as well as vegetables, which I ccna't hlpe but no be very fond of.
As I continued along the pathg with a curious look at each ware sold, they made eye contact. "A great bargain." They persuaded, each trying to soak in all of the attention and do better than their neighboring salesman. I saw one lady smiling and oddering some sort of sweet I believed to be chocolate. I wasn't able to tell exactly what there was at the next booth because there were quite a few people surrounding it. The salesman beside them were eyeing that booth enviously from both sides. I could tell even as they tried to reach out to us to sell them their own.
There was a lady at the next booth and I couldn't tell what she was selling either. This wasn't because of the customers though. No, it was because of what was happening behind it.
There were two children. They were loudly yelling at each other. What I found odd was that they were fighting over a small piece of bread. I didn't stare long. It's rude to stare and that poor women's face could use the in-attention of one less person at the moment. I sympathied for her but I couldn't do anything about it without making a spectacle out of myself so I simply walked on.
As I walked by, not looking behind, I noticed an, "aha!" from a boy. The yelling stopped and I sighed, wondering what the girl did to give up the bread. I decided to turn around, but not before colliding into the little boy. He had been running and looking back at her, making faces and mocking the fact that he now had possession of the bread. As he hit me, however, the bread flew out of his hands and onto the ground.
He looked up at me, mumbled "sorry miss," and went to retrieve the bread. I stopped him. "Who's bread does that belong to sir," I asked politely.
He grinned at me proudly. "Mine. It's mine miss."
"What about your friend over there?"
He looked over at her. "Oh her? No, she's not my friend. She's my sister."
"Why can't you share the bread with her then?" I continued.
"She was going to take it all for herself," he stated simply.
"And now you choose to be just like her."
"I…," he paused for a moment. He was trying to look for an excuse. After a moment or show he shrugged, gave me an impish grin and ran off back towards his sis and gave her a piece of the bread.
I smiled and he looked back at me a moment and smiled too. It had actually surprised me that he had done it. I knew if it were, in fact, me at that age I wouldn't have done anything. Giving was not what I'd been adjusted to as an only child of the countess.
"That was a nice thing to do," a voice said from behind me.
I jumped and spun around. It was Gabriel.
He smiled. He was still wearing his cloak but he didn't have his hood on. He had long black hair that, I thought, was probably more of a distraction to the townspeople than wearing the hood. His face had gentle features and his eyes, once again, were there to remind me of my horrid dream.
"Would you like a piece of fruit?" he asked as he walked by me. I turned around and followed him.
"That's not necessary…" I began.
He spoke to the lady.
"Two please," he asked. He exchanged the pence with fruit and
handed one to me. Before I could say anything else he pushed it my
hand and said,
eat."