We walked with hurried steps towards the town, the pennafox in our footsteps. My mind, though firm with determination, started to wonder while we walked. Who was she? Why did someone take her? Had someone taken her? My gut had a strong feeling she had been taken, and so did Rosa's, but some other part in my mind tried to tell me not to jump into conclusions. It was important not to jump into conclusions.
My mind stopped at her for only a moment, though. It soon moved on to me. Who was I? Was someone going to come for me too? Did the disappearance have anything to do with what we were? What were we? The part of me that tried to remind me not to jump into conclusions reminded me I didn't have any proof that there was a we in the first place, that what ever had happened to her and to me weren't connected. But no, I pushed that thought aside. There were simply too many similarities between us, between what had happened to us. There was no way it was a coincidence.
So, who were we? Were we something special? Why did we have those lines on our faces? What did they mean? Were they something that we had had when we were born, or something we'd chosen to have, or did they have something to do with appearing in the middle of woods not remembering anything? If we were born with them... Was somewhere a whole people with lines on their faces? Who were they, and where were they? Was that something that even was possible, have a people where children were born with lines on their face? Rosa and Ulula had never heard of anything like it.
I shook my head a little to clear my mind. Of course I would have questions. Of course I wouldn't have answers. What mattered now was that we found out if anyone in the town had seen the girl.
"Rosa?" I broke the silence that had held us as we walked towards the town. She huffed beside me. "What is she like?"
"Well," Rosa said after a moment of consideration, "I obviously don't know her very well. I've only seen her a couple of times after the first few nights she spent with us. But she was kind of like you. She had the same kind of feel to her. Except you're rougher than she is. She was more sweet. Not to mean she was fragile by any means, she took the not remembering anything really well. Well, considering she didn't remember anything. I can only imagine what kind of a shock that must be. And she had clearly put up a fight back there. No, compared to you, she was a strong kind of sweet where you're rougher. The third day she was with us, she decided she wanted to be called Meera. I don't know if that was what she used to be, if she picked that from some memory she couldn't consciously access, but she had clearly given it a lot of thought. She seemed to understand how important names are."
I nodded, not knowing what to say. The town came into view. It was a small thing. Big enough that you could probably find what you needed, unless you needed anything more unusual. The snow glowed brightly in the sunlight on the roofs of the buildings, none more than a few stories high. It was beautiful. If I hadn't been in such a hurry, I might have stopped to marvel at it for a moment. Though I doubted it was anything special. It only seemed amazing to me, because I didn't remember ever seeing a town before.
"Where should we go?" I asked Rosa as we entered between the first buildings.
"To the marketplace," she said, "That's where the rumours circle. I doubt she was actually brought to the center of the town by whoever took her, but it's our best bet to hear about anything weird."
I nodded and followed her through the small streets.
"Mom, he's got the same face!" I heard a small boy's voice from the side of the road. I reflexively stopped and looked around. It was a small boy, maybe six, hidden behind his mother's legs, grasping them tightly, staring at me with wide eyes. The mother was looking at me too, now, and she looked anxious. I looked around me an saw most people were now staring at me, more or less subtly. They looked nervous. A girl turned on her heels and began running to the direction we were walking. I noticed no one was passing us very close, like they were uncomfortable with us. The ones who happened to be near their homes went inside and closed their doors sternly after them.
"Come on," Rosa whispered to me, and pulled at my sleeve. I began to move and many of the people startled at the movement. I turned and began hurrying towards the marketplace after Rosa. I didn't see any of the people behind me, but there seemed to be an air of relief. A lot of the rest of the town seemed emptier that it had seemed before. The people who were out seemed nervous to see us. We saw a lot of closed doors, closed windows.
"What is happening?" Rosa asked me as we walked.
"You think I know?" I answered, confused.
"They're all nervous seeing you," Rosa said.
"That much I've noticed," I said.
"Why are you making them nervous?" she asked, "Have you been here before? The boy said something about the same face."
"Rosa," I said slowly, "I don't know. If I did, everything would be so much clearer. But I know as much as you. Probably less than you. Maybe the boy meant like Meera's face."
"Yeah, stupid question," she answered with a sigh after a small moment.
Then we got to the market place. There were still people there, though a lot of the sellers seemed like they were trying to decide what to do. Some clearly began to close shop when they saw me. Some only looked around nervously. Rosa lifted a hand to tell me to stop. I did, though not too willingly. She marched to the nearest seller.
"What is going on here?" she demanded. I was close enough that I could hear her easily. The man she was talking to, however, only spoke in a small voice that I couldn't hear, eyeing me nervously the whole time.
"When?" Rose asked, "What happened? What do you mean you don't know exactly?"
The man went from nervous to looking a little scared.
"Look, he won't hurt you.... No, of course not, don't be ridiculous. You just said you don't know what exactly happened, so maybe you imagined it... Ok, fine, thank you. He won't hurt you."
Rosa skipped back to me, looking grim. I looked at her expectantly. She shook her head a little.
"She was here alright," she said then, "The man said there was a woman with lines in her face just like you. He said something happened, and there was a fight, and a lot of damage was done, and that it didn't have anything to do with any of the townsfolk, that it was the girl and some stranger. He said it seemed like the girl had some kind of powers."
"Powers?" I asked, not knowing anymore how to feel about any of this. It was all too weird.
"It's superstitious folk in this part of the country. But he admitted he wasn't sure what happened, that it was perfectly normal, and then a chaos, and then they were gone. This just this morning, so they've only now gotten the whole market organised again and back running."
"And then I showed up, and they're afraid I'll do something like the girl had, and people will get hurt," I said quietly. Rosa nodded.
I tried to fit it all in my mind, trying to think it through. The thoughts swirled and swirled, and I didn't seem to get a hold of anything.
What was she? Even if she didn't have what ever powers the man had been talking about, she clearly had shaken the whole town up really bad. Was I something like her? I looked down at myself. I made less and less sense all the time.
___________________________________________________________
Like I said, I probably have an hour in the morning. Well, almost an hour and a half. This ended up surprisingly long.
I gotta start socialising now. Your topic for tomorrow is Moon.
~matu
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