"Everyone, I have something to announce!"
A small girl with short, curly red hair shouted from atop a boulder. Her back against the sun, her face facing a group of kids. She is standing with her hands on her hips, her face plastered with a confident smile, she is also holding a small bag in her right hand.
That's right, it's Farah. She has just reached where the gang is, and is now about to make her announcement. But first,
"I've got candies for everyone!"
She takes out the bag of candies to show everyone. The children applauded and exclaimed, some discussed among themselves.
"Woah, candy!"
"For everyone? Is something happening?"
"Where did she get that much?"
"Everyone, get in line! Everybody gets one!" Farah shouted again when she sees the chaos among the kids. This doesn't help the situation, as everybody scrambles to be first in line, some are even starting new lines.
"Hey! Everyone! Listen up! Line up here!" An energetic female voice rang out. Everybody turned to look for the origin of the voice. They see another girl with red hair. However, this one has a straight but messy hair and a different face.
It's Jane.
"Yeah, come here!" Arthur's clear voice came from the end of the line Jane set up.
"Don't take someone else's place!" Omar drags a boy out and handed him over to Arthur.
"Art, take him to the end and make sure he doesn't sneak back here." Omar ordered his rival in an angry tone.
"Okay! Pete, stay back here, okay?" Arthur instructs the kid who sneaked in front earlier and walks to get other people in line.
"Oka- ...He's gone."
Peter did not answer Arthur in time.
The distribution of the candy continued smoothly thanks to Jane and her admirers, and everybody had a happy look on their faces after they ate the candy. This creates a healing scene of a bunch of children smiling together, healing everybody who passed by.
Seeing their satisfied faces, Farah decided it is time to announce the real news.
"Everyone! I have one more thing to say! This is important!" She shouted, even louder than before.
'My chest hurts... but I have to tell them!' Farah's resolution turned into strength, so she shouted with all her might,
"I'm going to learn magic under Mister Carter! I'll only be able to play every other day!"
Farah closes her eyes, feeling a massive weight off her chest. She hears murmurs and gasps, mumbles and paces. She opens her eyes to see everyone dumbfounded and in disbelief.
"That Farah is getting to learn magic?"
"What did she say?"
"Wow! Good for you!"
"My parents said the mage doesn't let you go home once you agree to learn magic. Farah is so lucky!"
Many comments from many people were made until Farah said something.
"Since I got accepted, let's play lots today! Starting with..." Farah makes a dramatic pause, urging everyone to make their own suggestions.
"Tag! Plague tag!"
"Hide and seek!"
"Volleyball!"
"Murder!"
"War!"
"Since today is about magic, let's play hide and seek! Anywhere within the square, I'll be the finder and the people I find need to help me find others!" Farah decided on a game. Some children were pouting for a little while, but they soon recovered and thought of places to hide.
"I'll be counting down from one hundred!" Farah turns around and closed her eyes.
"One hundred... Ninety-nine..."
The sound of many pairs of feet running gradually faded as Farah counted. She starts guessing where the hiders may be hiding in. Maybe they're in a shop? Maybe even in the parked carriages? She lets her thoughts run wild until she finishes counting.
"I'm coming, ready or not!"
'I better start with the gaps between shops. There are always people hiding there.'
"Aha! It's Jon!" Farah found someone in the gap between two shops just as she thought.
"Ahaha,,, I got found first?" Jon chuckled awkwardly. I, of all people, got found first?
"Yep! Now you'll have to help me find the rest!" Farah announced loudly, alerting the children still in hiding alongside Jon.
"Alright, I will. ...I'm glad it was you who found me."
"Huh? Oh, thank you for the help!" Farah did not hear the second sentence containing Jon's affection as he said it too silently, as if whispering to himself.
They both set off, splitting to find the rest of the children.
"Mister, is one of my friends hiding in here?"
"Ah? That kid asked me not t- Ah! Well, the cat is out of the bag. Feel free to search, little girl."
"Hehe, thanks, uncle!"
"Jon, I found Connor!" Jon hears a shout from one of the stores on Farah's side and sighs.
'I need to find them soon.' He thought to himself while asking carriage drivers if he can search their chests and carts.
'Are they not that resourceful after all?' Jon is reconsidering his choices. Maybe other kids are not comfortable with hiding in small spaces for a long time and have chosen a different hiding spot.
'Well, this one is the last one so it shouldn't hurt to try.'
"Mister, may I search your carriage? I am playing hide and seek and I am suspecting that one of my friends is hiding in there."
"Of course! I have nothing to hide." the driver replied to Jon with a joyful voice, reminding him of Farah's, this causes Jon to blush a little.
"Thank you, sir. Have a great day." Jon thanks the driver and hurries his search. He looked inside the cart, nothing. He opened the chests, nothing. He even checked under the cart, nothing.
'Well, I suppose there was nothing. What a pain.' Jon sighs again and was about to leave. However, he hears the sound of someone giggling silently.
It's coming from inside the cart!
But how? He already checked the cart, there can't be anything that he missed. Jon looks inside and notices a big space between the underside of the cart and the floor of the interior of the cart. The hollow space sized big enough to fit a child in it!
Jon realizes what's going on and made a slight smile.
He lifts one of the boards up and finds nonother than Omar inside.
"Should've waited until I've left."
"I never knew you had a dog's ears." Omar replies to Jon's witty remark with one of his own.
"Haha. Well, now that you've been caught, let's go find other people." Jon makes a gesture with his hands to tell Omar to go and search somewhere else.
"Farah! I found one!" Of course, he reports the discovery to his best friend. Now that he has, Jon continues searching.
"Found you!"
"Found you~"
"Come out, I see you."
The number of seekers grew and the hiders grow less and less, until there was only one, Jane.
"Jenny, where are you?!" Farah shouts out in frustration, no longer being able to hold it back.
'The seekers have searched everywhere they can think of! Did she break the rules and hide somewhere outside the square? But Jenny is an honest girl even if she teases me a lot... Let's go around the square one more time!'
"Can anyone think of a place we haven't checked?" Farah asked, just in case.
Everybody shook their heads.
Sighing, Farah tells everyone to do one more pass around the square before they give up and play other games.
"Where could she even be...? On a roof? That's about the only place we haven't checked." Farah made a desperate attempt to deduce where the final hiding spot might be though she won't actually search on top of roofs.
'On top...'
'The opposite of top is bottom...'
'Bottom? She could be hiding under something.'
'Where could she hide under? Stairs? There's only one shop with stairs in it. Have I checked over there? No, now I will.'
Farah made her decision and walked over to the only restaurant in the village. It's a big establishment with its first floor full of tables and seats, a storage room under the stairs leading to the second floor, and a big kitchen with a hole for customers to see the chef cook.
Today's target is the storage room, and possibly the kitchen or second floor if Jane was not in there.
Farah reaches the wooden door after asking the owner for permission to check around the place for a game of hide and seek. Cold, fragrant air leaks out from the gaps of the door, stimulating Farah's nerves.
She opens the door, nothing but ingredients within. 'Sigh, a miss. Let's go check the kitchen.'
Farah walks over to the kitchen while greeting the customers along the way, asking if they've seen her friend, but they refused to answer. 'This is suspicious. She's definitely in this restaurant.'
Farah comes into the kitchen and gets greeted by hot air blasting into her face. It's the stove, always on, cooking something. Even though the restaurant doesn't get that many visitors, the chefs seem to always have some sort of work on their hands. But that's something unrelated, Farah is here to find her friend who is hiding.
Near the stove, inside the oven, the chimney, Farah searches everywhere the stove fire reaches, yet still no sight of her friend Jane. She had fun looking at the various utensils, though.
"Wow! What a big fire!"
"Careful, girl. If you get in the way, we'll have to kick you out!"
"Sorry! Wow, you light fire in this tiny room?!"
'She has to be in this restaurant. This leaves the second floor as the only place left.' Farah makes a conclusion and gets out of the kitchen with the staffs sighing at her back.
"I can still hear you guys!"
Farah makes her way up the stairs with a happy expression, 'I'll finally get Jenny, everybody's going to be so relieved! What should we play next? Tag? Foot race? I'm so excited!'
"Excuse me, is anybody using this room?" Farah checks the rooms for other people first like a good girl she is. On the second floor, there are three rooms, each with their own large dining table. This floor is made for receiving guests who have a wealth of money and/or status. Therefore, it is decorated in a curious way with many exotic goods.
There are such things as weird, wiggly plants, heads of beasts, weapons from history, and much more. Farah is drawn in by the sight, unconsciously walking to the middle of the room and spinning around, enjoying the view of the wonders. 'Only one of the rooms already has this many exotic things, what about the other two?'
Farah has momentarily forgotten about the game of hide and seek. She went out of the first room and immediately entered the next. However, this room's decorations are minimalistic, barely anything of note outside of the cleanliness of the room, there are some candlesticks and a small chandelier, giving the room an air of holiness and nobility.
"Wow..."
Farah couldn't help but voice her amazement. The room looks so beautiful even though there's so little things in it. The lack of objects actually brings the spotlight to the little objects that are there, that being the candlesticks. Farah's eyes sparkle in admiration. 'When I grow up, I want to eat in a room like this!'
Amazed by the view, Farah makes a mental note to revisit this place and treat her parents and friends to a meal once she gets enough money. Of course, such ambitions are for when she actually has a job so she will be putting it off for now.
When Farah came back to her senses, she's already in the third room. It's a surprisingly normal room, most of the objects being wooden, there's even a stone fireplace to add to the cozy feeling. It seems this room is made for people who'd like to relax while eating, chatting and drinking.
'I can imagine it already, a group of old people sitting in these rocking chairs, talking about old days back when they used to adventure together. Oh, one of them will act out the story around that empty space! Like... here!'
Farah walks over to the space between the fireplace and the dining table, trying to get a better view of this fireplace. That is when, suddenly, she notices something in the fireplace.
'Wow... This fireplace is so big up close... Huh? A shoe? Somebody must have forgotten it here, and as a good girl, I must hand it over to the owner of the store!' Farah walks over to grab the shoe in the pile of soot.
That is when she sees a dangling leg in the chimney.
"AHHH!!! A GHOST!!!"