Ria
I pulled my hood closer and grabbed onto Lii, not letting her move a single feet away from me.
Lii looked everywhere with a smile and awe in her eyes as I haggled with the merchant.
" Stay right there" I pulled on her hand right when Lii tried to run away.
" Okaaay" Lii pouted and dropped to the floor, dragging my hand down.
I had to push upwards to stay on my feet, pushing Lii upwards with all my strength.
" So, ten gold coins?"
What? We were down to seven.
I glared at Lii and then at the old woman running the vegetable stand with the freshest selection.
She looked at me straight in the eyes, not even flinching as she said her price. Her food was good and she knew it. Maybe I should just go to another merchant.
I looked at the end of the street, where a young man was selling vegetables. They didn't look as good as the ones in front of me, but I was sure they would be more affordable. I couldn't spare that much money and then buy clothes and apples for Lii. It had to be one thing or another.
" Eight"
" Come on, you know it's worth more" The woman was smug as she spoke, her eyes never leaving mine.
" Maybe, but lately the prices have gone down since the south managed to recover their crops"
The woman's smile twitched and I had to hide my smug smile. She looked surprised and annoyed, as if she hadn't expected anyone to know the market rates, but of course I knew about the current prices. I came to this market almost every week or every two weeks at most. There was no way I wouldn't know the current price of ingridients.
" Fine, eight gold coins"
I smiled smugly as I took out my money bag and handed over the money.
" Here you go"
The woman gave me the bag with the groceries with a face and turned to look for new clients.
One thing less to do.
" Let's go"
" Yeees" Lii got up and begun running again.
I held onto her as I ran too. I really, really didn't have the energy for dealing with kids.
The clothes store was easier. They agreed to my deal without much haggling, which was great for me. I came out with new coats and pants for everyone at a cheap price. I was feeling proud of myself. I had managed to buy all the essentials and I still had some money left to spare.
I looked down at Lii, who had surprisingly behaved on the last store and decided she had been a good girl. She deserved her apple.
I bought one at a cheap price from a passing merchant. The apple wasn't the prettiest. It wasn't round, but rather had a weird shape and the colors weren't quite right, but it smelled fine. In my experience those kinds of food were as good as any other kind. Only difference was the aesthetic, which I wasn't willing to pay premium rates for.
Lii's eyes never left the apple as I bought it, her little legs moving up and down with excitement.
" There you go"
Lii smiled widely and took the apple from my hands, almost making it fall to the ground.
" Are you satisfied now?"
Lii nodded with her head so hard that I thought it might fall off.
" Thanks" She hugged my leg and I smiled.
Buying that apple was worth it. I had managed to buy all I needed and then the apple. Everyone could say whatever they wanted about me, but one thing was certain. I knew how to haggle. I was the best at it.
" Let's go back before the sun sets" With all the haggling I had completely forgotten about the time.
Looking up at the sky I could see the sun already beginning to set. We had to hurry.
" Okay" Lii held my hand as she ate her apple, happiness written all over her face.
I walked faster towards the gate, not wanting to stay the night outside for anything in the world.
" Eyes closed "
" Again?"
I glared at Lii and she sighed.
" Okay"
When she finally closed her eyes I held onto her tighter, glad that she trusted me enough to close her eyes and know that I wouldn't let her trip. I really didn't want her to see the corpses hanging on the other side of the gate.
I shivered when I felt the gazes of the spirits belonging to the corpses outside. I tried to ignore them, but it was hard. Their faces were mere inches away from me as they looked at me with their penetrating gazes.
What I wouldn't give for something that could push them away, but since no one could see them there was no way they could've created anything against them. That was just like me and my usual non existent luck.
Just when I was about to cross the gate a gust of wind came out of nowhere and ruffled Lii's hair. Fuck, no. I held onto my hood with all my strength with one hand while I held Lii with the other one.
I tried to keep my hood pressed to my skin with all my strength, but it was useless, the wind was too strong and I couldn't stop a few strands of hair from escaping from the cloth. I tried to keep walking, holding onto Lii and my hood, but I didn't even manage to take a few steps before a more powerful gust of wind threw me to the ground.
I grabbed Lii as she screamed and broke our fall.
My ass hurt as I hit the ground. Pain erupted on my wrist, the weight from both Lii and myself falling on it.
It wasn't broken but it hurt quite a bit.
As soon as I checked that Lii was unharmed I immediately got back up and hid my factions again, but by then it was already too late. Everyone around us had already seen my face.
Murmurs erupted everywhere around me. People were pointing at me and whispering.
I had to get out of here before things got even worse.
" Eyes closed"
Lii, whose eyes were open just a second ago, staring at all the people pointing at us, closed them back up with all her strength.
" Let's go"
I held onto my hood with all my strength as I set a quicker pace, not wanting to stay there for even a second.
" Excuse me, lady"
I kept my eyes focused on the gate. He had to be talking to another person.
" Lady"
I kept walking, holding tighter onto Lii.
" Lady"
When a hand fell on my shoulder I finally had to admit they were speaking to me.
" Yes?" I turned, my heart racing with fear. Whoever it was it couldn't be anything good. No one outside the orfanage ever brought anything good.
" Lady, are you aware that ignoring an official is a crime punishable by the law?"
An official?
I rose my head to look at the man talking to me. He was dressed in a grey uniform impeccably maintained, so well maintained that it didn't even have a single crease on it. In the middle of his chest an imperial crest could be seen, golden thread making out a pair of wings. Fear rippled through me when I realized he had told the truth. He was an official. Fuuuck!
My brain panicked, not knowing what to do, so I did the second best thing after running. I let my eyes wander through his body, searching for anything that said this was all a prank or that could point to a weakness.
As my eyes went higher and higher I could see his muscles underneath his shirt. Crap, dude had muscles. All I could think about was that running away from him was going to be hard. He also didn't seem to be a fake official. I was utterly and completely fucked if he decided to check under my hood.
I wanted nothing more than to pull it closer to myself, but that would've been too suspicious. Instead I held Lii tighter, nervously tapping with my feet into the ground.
When my eyes finally met his I saw his reaction in real time as his candid smile faltered and his light green eyes turned from kindness to hatred in seconds.
He had seen my face under my hood. I was fucked.
" I'm sorry, officer. I didn't hear you" My voice was shaking slightly as I spoke.
" You didn't?" The officer smirked, looking down at Lii.
I moved my body slightly to protect her from him, but he didn't seem interested in her once he confirmed she wasn't like me.
" Anyway" The officer dismissed me, looking at me like one would look at trash. " You better get out before they close the gate. It closes in ten minutes"
I turned to see that, as he had said, the sun was almost down. Fuck.
" Thanks officer"
The man gave me one last dirty look before taking off, his beautiful shimmering white wings moving to push him upwards.
I was so relieved that I could've fallen to the ground. I looked up at the sky and saw other, smaller winged figures flying over the town. We had to get the fuck out of here.
Once the man was gone I ran up to the gate, making sure Lii's eyes were closed. Luckily she had listened to me and run with me, her little blue eyes closed as hard as she could.
My heart only stopped racing with fear once the gate was long behind us, the spirits no longer following me.
" Ria" Lii looked up at me as we run, trying to outrun the sun itself. So far it wasn't going too badly, but there was no way we could outrun it. I just hoped we could reach the vicinities before it set.
" Yes?"
" Why did that man treat you so badly?"
Lii's tone was genuine, as if she truly couldn't understand why the officer had mistreated me.
" I don't know. He must've had a bad day"
Lii nodded, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and to her it was. She had been looking at me for a whole month already. At the beginning she had also been concerned when she had looked at me, but she had come to accept me for who I was. If only everyone else could be just like a little kid the world would be a brighter place.
We kept running, leaving behind the town, the officer and the spirits. The spirits that had the same eye color than me. The demon's eyes color. The color of blood, the color of death.
I looked back once last time with my red eyes and pulled my hood down. I hoped today's events wouldn't bring any kind of trouble, but a hunch in my gut was telling me that wasn't true.
There had to be a reason why the imperial officers had come to a far away town like this and such a reason couldn't be good. The last time they appeared anywhere a whole city was destroyed.
I couldn't get rid of the feeling that I had just made a big mistake as I run, not wanting to stop.
I didn't stop even when Lii begged me to, saying she was tired. I just slowed down, walking slower towards the orfanage.
The spirits around the trail which hadn't been there before only put me even more on edge. Why had they appeared only now? What where they doing?
I didn't have answers to those questions. All I had was a grim gut feeling that I shouldn't have gone to the town today.