Chapter 4 - Going to town

That occurred more often every night. Every time there would be a full moon, Soka would take and put Eira to sleep and proceed to shoot her arrows formed from magic into the night.

Each time, the most would simply glimmer under the moon. Although this one particular moonlit night, Eira was woken because the light was brighter.

The iridescent glow of the moon beamed on her eyes, giving an orange glow from behind her closed eyelids and she woke. Reaching out with her small hands, she rocked trying to flip over.

'𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦!' She thought, trying not to make noise that could catch Soka's attention.

Her body finally flipped over, in sync of the creak of the window opening. Eira sat on her bottom, her back pressed against the walls of her crate and peeked between the wooden pillars.

Soka's ritual began from the glow of her palm, and a water droplet began to swell a few inches above. It expanded, swirling to create an even bigger ball of water.

To Eira, she couldn't say anything and stared in awe, her hopes were becoming a reality. She could use magic!

The ball of water then thinned out, forming the rod of the arrow. The ends split to mimics the shape of a feathered arrow, and she rose her hands to draw it back.

As if it corresponded, a burst of liquid spewed from her free hand, curving the frames of the bow to bring Soka's form to reality.

She held the bowstring against her face, once in full tension and released. The arrow zoomed into the night and exploded once in contact with the outside air.

Eira's eyes glistened just as much as the mist did under the moonlight. Without thinking, she tried standing but her age wasn't ready for it.

Her face planted onto the semi-hard mattress and a cry bursted from within her small body. Soka immediately rushed towards her, lifting Eira into her arms.

"Ssh, you're safe." She cooed, softly patting Eira's back.

Soka began to hum, swaying gently to put Eira back to sleep. Embraced in her mother's warmth, Eira's consciousness faded and she went to sleep.

****

During the day, Eira woke to her mother changing her diaper. Her hands were cold, but comforting.

"Good morning Eira! Today, we're going to visit the market." Soka smiled.

' 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨! 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦! ' Eira thought. She's been mainly inside the cabin, so being able to go outside seemed like a win-win.

After being strapped onto Soka's back with a couple of leather straps, they ventured out.

Eira's first impression was dread, the land around their cabin was dead. All the grass at least 8 meters away from the door were burnt and painted a between the shades of yellow and black. She couldn't have imagined why the outside of such a small cabin would be so.. explosive.

Although, the further Soka walked from the cabin, the imagery settled. The grass began to fade to an emerald green and it wasn't as bad anymore.

After a few minutes of walking, a line of wooden huts, similar to where she lived in, began to come in view. Each house was built different and had minor accents of certain colors.

Red, Blue, Green, and Grey.

Still being unable to speak, Eira couldn't really ask her mother what those colors meant. Her house didn't have any accents so this was completely new to her.

The paths were nothing but gravel and dirt. Each house lined up perfectly and were spaced out about 10 feet from each other. Between each path were kids playing, vendors sitting behind their stalls, adults conversing, and small animals running around.

Soka began walking towards the closest vendor, pulling out a leather pouch tied with a beautiful blue ribbon.

"The usual?" The man behind the stall smiled. He had bright red hair and friendly brown eyes.

"Yes please, thank you for everything as always. 4 bronze fon right? " Soka replied, pulling out a few coins. The man nodded his head, reaching out his hand to grab the fons.

Eira tilted her head, ' 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺? ' and from a further inspection, the currency they were using here was completely different. The coins her mother took out were more rusty, the color was the same tone as a penny, but was smaller in size.

The man then gave Soka a week's worth of fresh vegetables and fruits. Soka then opened up her leather pouch, and began stuffing it.

Eira stared dumbfounded. She wondered how that much could fit in a small leather handbag, but dropped her logics since it was a different world.

The vendor then turned his head and smiled, "And who's this cutie?" He asked.

Soka turned to her side, so the vendor could see a little better, "Her name is Eira, isn't she the sweetest?" Soka boasted.

Eira was on full display and didn't know how to react. She awkwardly smiled, but it works out because he smiled as well.

"Yeah, it's hard to believe that ʜᴇ is capable of such a sweet looking child." The vendor was still smiling, but his eyes were not.

Soka sighed, but didn't make any comment afterwards. After a little small talk, she waved goodbye and continued to walk along the line of vendors.

Eira liked this area better than the area around the cabin. It was so lively.

Voices were booming from every corner and everyone seemed to be on such good terms with each other. Although she wouldn't be able to experience it after ᴛʜᴀᴛ day.