Chereads / Witch Odyssey / Chapter 2 - Time Well Spent

Chapter 2 - Time Well Spent

Even though the orphanage was a bit far away from the town, at the very least the road was paved and without any danger.

After several minutes of walking while huddled together for warmth and protection, they finally start to see the town's southern gates. The town that was brimming with light and laughter was built beside the ocean, which led most of the town's inhabitants to choose fishing as their main occupation.

Unable to contain her excitement, Clementine almost rushed inside without a care in the world before getting stopped with a tug on the hem of her long-sleeved yellow dress by Uriel.

"Shouldn't we.. sneak in?" Uriel asked hesitantly.

"Oh.. you're right, we can't afford getting caught can we?, let us go and devise a plan.. behind that tree?" Clementine suggested as she searched for a place to hide with her index finger.

They both ran up to the large willow tree and crouched in front of it, before having planned anything, Clementine laid her eyes on a wooden wagon being pulled by a single horse driven by a man wearing clerical clothing.

Without saying anything, she pulled herself and Uriel up from their crouching position and told her to follow.

Clementine jumped on the back of the carriage, went in and stuck her hand out to assist Uriel up, although successful, Uriel seemed a bit bummed out that her beautiful white dress got dirty, most probably from when she was crouching under the large tree with Clementine earlier.

It seems like the man didn't notice the two girls getting into his wagon, perhaps the loud noises from the town masked the rattling sounds they had made when getting in.

Inside the wagon are several barrels filled with unknown liquids and a couple of boxes filled with a green colored fruit, growing in tight clusters, they are small to medium in size and are round to slightly oval in shape.

"What fruit is this?" asked Uriel.

"We can only know if we try it!" Clementine said as she plucked one fruit off of its stem.

As she bit on the fruit she immediately threw the rest of it out of the wagon, "It's sour!" she exclaimed.

A couple of seconds later, they heard talking outside of the wagon, Clementine peeped her eyes out on what was going on and found out that the guards are talking to the man in the clerical clothing.

Cold sweat trickled down Clementine's temple, afraid of getting caught. She had not thought about this situation at all, and now, her premature decision might get the both of them in trouble.

"Same old thing, father?" asked one of the guards to the priest.

"Same old thing, old friend," the priest answered, with a slight smile.

"The city lord sure loves his wine, I heard he's even planning to grow his own grapes and make his own vineyard, having money sure is nice," the second guard asserted.

"Seems like he's really happy after the recent spike of fish activity on the coast, because of that, so many fishes were caught and it seems like he earned alot of tax money," said the first guard.

The priest nodded and said, "Seems like it."

"Well then, go on ahead father," the guard on the left said as he pat the back of the priest.

"Are you not checking the content?" the priest asked.

"We believe you father, go on your merry way," assured the guard on the right.

After hearing this, Clementine and Uriel let out a sigh of relief and patted each other's back.

The priest thanked the guards and signaled for his horse to go in. Inside, several houses made out of cream colored bricks are neatly aligned on the right and on the left. There are alot of people on the street, the priest rang a whistle and everyone seemed to get out of the way.

A couple of seconds after that, Uriel and Clementine jumped out of the wagon and silently thanked the priest.

Nobody seemed to notice their dainty figures, some would even bump into them while they're not paying attention.

Not knowing where the carnival group was performing, they wandered around the town to enjoy their night, eventually they arrived at the market place of the town.

Nothing really piqued their interest except for a couple of hair ornaments that an old woman was selling.

As they were walking around while snacking on the sour grapes that Clementine had stolen from the wagon, Uriel found something that arouses her interest, she feels weirdly drawn in to a shiny wooden ring with a hydrangea plant carved on it.

She thought that it was very pretty, she asked the woman manning the shop, "How much is this?"

The shopkeeper who was unbothered and relaxing hadn't noticed the little Uriel until she had talked, she put on her shopkeeper smile on and said, "Hello there little lady, interested In any of my wares?"

"This one, how much is it?" question Uriel, with her strawberry blonde hair on her doll-like face and her hazel eyes seemingly sparkling.

"Woah, you're so pretty! This one, my beautiful lady costs 3 kana," she declared.

"I found this pretty little thing right outside the entrance to an ancient ruin! Who knows? Maybe it's actually an artifact? Ha ha ha.." she added, clearly trying to sway Uriel into buying it.

Having learnt basic mathematics from Lorea, she thought, if her dress costed 2 sorlem, and a single sorlem is 15 kana, that means that this single piece of ornament costed one-tenth of her dress!

Reluctantly, Uriel tied the strings to her coin pouch and thought, "I'll just save until I have more money to spare."

Uriel felt dejected, she left behind the shopkeeper and the beautiful ring and continued walking with Clementine.

Finally, they arrived at their destination, the laughter of children filled every corner of the entertainment center, the circus was very engaging, there were people breathing fire, tightrope walkers, jugglers, and even animals performing.

"Wow, and all of these entertainments for free? Couldn't they have taken us sightseeing for once," said Clementine, her hands on her waist, taking in all the sweet aroma coming from the food vendors from beside the street.

After enjoying the night to the fullest, they decided that it is time to go back. Before exiting the town though, they had not forgotten to say their hi's and bye's to some of their acquaintances, especially to a certain butcher of the town. Of which they had known for almost all their life, which is not that long.

The kind butcher asked the girls who they had came to the town with, on which they replied with a hand gesture, putting their index finger on their mouth and hissing.

The butcher felt uneasy just leaving the girls to go back by themselves, so he accompanied them to the southern gate, after giving the girls some pocket money, he told them to stay vigilant and to not talk to strangers and then sent them on their way.

The butcher gave one of the guards some money to ensure their safety, although hesitant at first; afraid of getting reprimanded by his supervisor, he finally caved in and did the job as told.

The girls arrived safe and sound, they wanted to sneak back into their room through the window but found that they seemed to have forgotten to close the window before going to the town.

"Did we close the window on the way out?" asked Uriel.

They did not want to think about it anymore, the amount of time they had spent in the town had left both their body and mind lethargic. Unwanting to stay up til later, both of the girls went on their own beds, without changing their clothes, and went to sleep.