The day of the market place festival seemed to come faster than Effie could blink. And that morning as she sat in her nightgown staring into the mirror, she knew she should have been concentrating on the festival and all the things she was going to buy for the apothecary that day. But instead, all Effie could do was stare blandly at her reflection and think about a certain handsome face framed with white hair and two golden eyes peeking out from beneath a fringe of lashes.
It had been three days since she encountered that mysterious soldier in the forest, and yet she still couldn't get him out of her head no matter how hard she tried. And that fact made her blood boil.
Indignantly, she swiped a wooden hairbrush off the nightstand nearby and began pulling it sharply through her shoulder-length, brown hair. Then she frowned at the reflection staring back at her. A plain face with some freckles sprinkled over her nose, boring chestnut hair and dark eyelashes to match. The only part of her face that was interesting at all were her two unusual, violet-grey eyes that always stood out like a pair of large, florescent amethysts. Though despite her eyes, Effie knew she wasn't pretty. And she'd rarely been called such. Sometimes she'd been complimented on how beautiful or unusual here eyes looked, but rarely had she received any compliments on how she looked as a whole. But it wasn't like that had ever bothered her before. At least... not up until she met the man in the forest. Why had his appearance into her life suddenly made her so acutely aware of her own looks?
Effie gritted her teeth at her own reflection in the mirror. "Stop thinking about him already!" She hissed at herself, pulling the brush a little too hard through a tangle, and then wincing at the pain.
"What did you say, dear?" Anise asked, approaching the mirror and sitting a steaming hot cup of tea down onto the nightstand next to Effie. "Is everything alright?"
"It's nothing," Effie replied, a little more sharply than she had intended. "Everything's fine."
"If you say so," Anise said tentatively. "But if you're feeling unwell at all, there's no need for you to go to market today. We can do without a new plant or two until next summer. Your health is much more precious to me than all the rare herbs in the world."
Effie exhaled some of her pent up tension, forcing her shoulders to relax. "Really, I'm okay, Aunt Anise. I think I just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Don't worry about me, I'm perfectly well enough to go to market today."
"As long as you're okay..." Anise sighed with uncertainty. "Well, while you're getting dressed, why don't you at least sip on some of this herbal tea I made for you? It contains a little sapolic root to help you feel relaxed."
"Thanks, Auntie," Effie said, gratefully taking a sip of the tea. She could really use a bit of sapolic root right about now. Anise always seemed to know exactly what she needed.
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The city of Evanore was much smaller than the capital city of the four kingdoms, Avanthia. Yet whenever the market festival came to town, the narrow streets were suddenly bustling with activity. On that day, people came from every corner of the four kingdoms and beyond just to attend. Not only were there merchants and vendors lined up and down the streets at their little make-shift stands, selling all kinds of rare and exotic goods, but there were food stands too with many delicious delicacies from worlds away. There were also singers, and dancers, and other such entertainers who preformed their exotic acts at every street corner in exchange for coin.
The market festival was a major event that took place once a year. And it was quite a dizzying sight to take in as Effie made her way down main street late that morning with only one goal in mind. She wasn't there to taste any of the luxurious foods which filled the air above with savory scents that were enough to make the mouth water. She wasn't there to watch the dancers preform their rare, graceful dances. She wasn't there for trinkets or games. All she had to do was locate the stand that always sold herbs and plants from all over the world, and then she could buy what she needed and go home. Simple enough. But since Effie was going alone today for the first time in her life, the whole ordeal seemed much more daunting than she could have imagined.
Effie chewed on her thumb nail apprehensively, having made her way back around to the same street corner that she had started on for perhaps the third time in the last half-hour, but having no luck in finding what she was looking for. Not to mention, the streets were so full of festival-goers that Effie could hardly take a few steps before nearly bumping into someone else.
"Where on earth could it be?" She wondered out loud, spinning this way and that until she was nearly dizzy. Then...
"Ah ha! Finally found you," exclaimed a voice from so close by Effie nearly jumped out of her skin.
She flipped around, skirt fluttering about her ankles, and laid her eyes on someone familiar. Light, sandy hair and a pair of unforgettable blue eyes, bright as the sky stared back at her, shining with a smile behind them.
Effie would have recognized that face anywhere. The boy she went to school with was considered by the majority of the girls in class to be the most attractive boy in school. And now that boy was a man, standing before Effie smiling widely. He was still considered to be one of the handsomest and most eligible bachelors in Evanore. Though Effie wasn't quite certain anymore. After having laid her eyes on the unearthly beauty of that mysterious man in Moonshadow Forest, Effie wasn't sure she'd ever see another man as anything other than ordinary looking.
"Ah, well... what I meant to say was... I didn't expect to see you here." The man quickly amended his first statement before, trying not to sound like some creep but failing miserably. "It's not like I was looking everywhere for you all over the festival..." even though that was exactly what he had done.
"Seth? Seth Clayton?" Effie's eyes widened with recognition. "It's been a while. I thought you were away at college."
"I am. I- I mean I was. I'm just taking a short sabbatical. I started missing all my family and friends after a while, so now I'm back in Evanore. At least for now. Thankfully, my grades were so good that I was afforded some extra vacation time. But enough about me. What about you? How have things been going at the Apothecary?"
"Same old same old," Effie shrugged indifferently. "Not much to tell. Ms. Spenser still comes by every morning to have tea and gossip with Aunt Anise. And I'm still collecting and making medicine for half the people of Evanore. Nothing's changed much there in the last few years."
"Fair enough," Seth replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. "So what brings you out here to the market festival? Knowing you, nothing but business. I can only imagine you've come all the way out here just to pass up every fun and interesting event so you can buy your herbs and go straight to home."
Effie was ashamed that he had just nailed her down to a T. She was ashamed and annoyed.
"And what makes you think you know me so well?" She huffed.
"You're kidding, right?" Seth teased. "Everyone in Evanore knows that Euphemia Barlow doesn't like to do anything fun."
"That's just not true," Effie denied vehemently, crossing her arms over her chest. "I do plenty of 'fun' things."
"Such as?" Seth raised a knowing eyebrow, waiting for an answer he knew would not be satisfactory.
"Well... For instance... I go for walks in the forest," Effie said with finality. That should teach him to make fun of her.
"Well, I suppose that's true," Seth admitted. "But you only go on walks so you can gather up plants for work. It's never leisurely. So that doesn't count."
"OK... well I also like to read books on my free time. So take your judgment and shove it."
"Not so fast. I've only ever seen you read books about herbs, medicine and healing. Also work related, so that doesn't count either."
"Seriously?!"
Effie balled her hands into two tight fists at her sides. Her head was beginning to throb with annoyance. She'd only been talking with Seth for a short couple of minutes and he was already getting on her nerves. Effie suddenly remembered why she never found him as attractive as all the other girls did. His incessant teasing always ruined his appearance in her eyes.
"Well if you're such an expert on having fun, why don't you tell me what 'fun' is to you?"
"Better yet," Seth smiled boyishly. "Why don't I show you?"
"Huh?!"
Suddenly Seth reached out, taking Effie by the wrist, and pulled her along into the crowd of market-goers, heading straight toward the Festival.
"Where are we going?!" Effie demanded, trying without much success to break free from Seth's grasp. "Please tell me you're taking me to the merchant who sells the herbs?"
"We can do that later," Seth laughed playfully. "First, we do something fun."
"You've got to be kidding me," Effie grumbled under her breath.
She wanted nothing more in that moment than to escape from Seth's iron grip and disappear into the crowd where he would likely not be able to find her again. But it appeared that there was no stopping Seth now. There rarely ever was once he put his mind to something. So instead of resisting, Effie's new strategy was to play his little game; waste time prancing around the festival with him until he was appeased. Then maybe he'd be willing to help her find the merchant she was looking for, and all this madness could come to an end. Of course this had severely complicated her plans for the day, but there didn't seem to be another option.
'Let's get this over with', Effie thought to herself, but out loud she asked with much reluctance, "so where to first?"
"Thought you'd never ask!" Seth grinned. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm famished. So how about some delicious food to fill us up first?"
Oh, no. Not just games but food too? Effie sighed. This was going to be a long day.