Pieces, Part 6 - Moon

Everyone else on the marketplace told a similar story. Meera had been there that morning, with a strange man, and after a fight had broken out the both of them had already disappeared. The funny thing was that no one was entirely sure what exactly had happened to prompt the fight, or what happened during it, but suddenly tables and merchandise had started to fly around and the marketplace had fallen into chaos. Not many had a lot of good to say about her.

"We do see her here occasionally, you know," said a middle aged woman, who was selling goat's milk at the edge of the market. "Didn't imagine her to be the violent type, even though... there were the rumours, of course, but we don't believe those that easily, do we precious?" She petted the head of the small goat standing next to her and it baaed.

"Wait, what rumours?" asked Rosa and the woman looked up, surprised.

"You haven't heard?" she asked and when Rosa shook her head she looked away, thoughtful, all the while petting the goat. "It might be best if you hear it from the source..." she said finally. "The girl was working at the Moonlight Inn, go ask there."

Rosa thanked the woman and walked back to where I was standing a little further away. The townspeople were still slightly wary of me - understandably - so we'd decided that Rosa do the asking while I respectfully stay behind. She slapped my shoulder as she walked past me.

"This way," she said, motioning with her hand for me to follow. I did, as did the pennafox that had been sitting next to me while I waited. "She had been working at the inn, we should go check it out."

"Yeah, I heard," I said as I caught up to her. "You think they'll know more about her there?"

"They better know something," she said, looking ahead with newfound determination in her eyes. I nodded to myself and we hastened our pace.

~x~

"Welcome to the Moonlight Inn!" came a clear female voice as Rosa pushed open the front door. The warm inside air flushed over me and I closed my eyes momentarily before looking around the place. It was a large room, with several round tables dotting it, a bar on the far end of the room, and a staircase to the upper level by the left wall. There were waitresses walking about the main floor, bringing drinks and food to the people occupying the tables. Their attention turned briefly to us as we walked in, but no one seemed too interested and they soon turned back to whatever they'd been doing.

"Rosa!" came the same voice from somewhere, and I looked over to the bar, where a woman with bright red hair was standing behind a counter, her hands thrown in the air with delight. Rosa smiled happily and walked over, and I followed slowly after her. "It's been a while, how nice to see you again!"

"I know, Luna, I know, it's been such a hassle at the cottage," said Rosa with a long sigh and sat down at a stool. "Granny is trying to come up with a new, ah, recipe, so I've been playing assistant."

"You're always so diligent," said the woman, Luna, with a smile. "Do say hi to granny Ulula from me after you leave. But now, why don't you introduce me to your new, mm... friend." She turned her bright green eyes to me and I froze, suddenly taken aback by their intensity.

"Oh, that's Nemo," said Rosa, waving her hand dismissively. "We're here to ask you about Meera."

"Right, right," said Luna, her eyes studying me carefully. "You her brother, then?" she asked and I blinked.

"Uhh, no? At lease I don't think so?" I managed to say. Luna hummed, leaned back, and frowned. I moved carefully closer and slid into the stool next to Rosa.

"You kinda look like her, you know," said Luna. "What with the brown skin and the black hair, and the weird tattoos on your face." She gestured at my face and Rosa turned to me as well, squinting as she looked me over.

"Hey, you're right, he does look a bit like her," said Rosa. "Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Although I don't know, I wouldn't say they're similar enough to be siblings."

"I guess not, but since everyone who lives in town has light skin except Meera, I just thought... Anyway, she's not here right now, so you're going to have to come back later."

"Uh, we're not here to talk to her," said Rosa and Luna lifted her eyebrow.

"Didn't you just say..?" she started but Rosa shook her head.

"I wanted to ask you some things about her," she explained. "She's... she's gone missing. Didn't you know?"

"Missing?" said Luna, clearly surprised. "But... she was just here last night. There was nothing unusual at all!"

"Nonetheless, she's disappeared now, and quite violently I night add..." said Rosa.

"We went over to where she's been staying and found the whole place turned upside down," I interjected. "No one's been to the house since last night, when the snow started to fall."

"And we asked around the marketplace, she'd apparently been there this morning and gotten into a fight with a stranger. No one knows where either of them went though..." concluded Rosa. Luna looked between the two of us for a moment, her eyes wide, and then her shoulders slumped and she sighed. She looked very sad, and very defeated. Rosa tilted her head and spoke again, "Uh, Luna? I heard that there were some kind of... rumours going on about her? I was told to ask you about what happened..."

"Right, right," said Luna and took a deep breath. "It happened a few weeks back. It was a pretty busy night, and she was working the floor as usual. She's really one of my best waitresses, sure footed and with great memory, aside the whole... you know." She made a vague gesture and then moved on. "Anyway, this group of men come in, saying they're passing through and need a room for the night. Nothing unusual there, we're a small town but there's still plenty of travelers, and so I give them a room and they show up later for supper. Again, nothing unusual. Meera goes to serve them their food and the next thing I know there's a loud crash, the table's upended and there's food and plates everywhere. Everyone was pretty shocked, obviously, the men are scrambling away, and Meera is standing there yelling at them. I have to admit, I didn't understand a word she was saying, but it sure sounded like cursing. The men left, ran away in fact, and I pulled Meera aside so she wouldn't scare any more customers.
"When I asked her what the deal was, she said that they'd been harassing one of the other waitresses. She went to intervene and they'd grabbed her, which obviously just made her even more mad... She said she didn't remember flipping over the table, but it sure got flipped somehow, so I suppose she must've done it unconsciously. Of course I talked with Puella, the other waitress, and she confirmed the story, so I didn't have to fire her for driving out customers, but... The townspeople who were there were pretty shaken up. There had been suspicion from the beginning, what with her unusual situation, but the incident really made them scared of her, and the story started to rotate, getting worse and worse every time someone paid it forward. I don't know what monster it's evolved to by now, but I know that Meera is a good kid, she's hard working and kind, and she was only defending someone, so I put her to work in the kitchen. You know, to lay low and out of sight until this mess blew over and then she can go back to waitressing if she wants to."

Luna fell silent after the long explanation, and we stayed quiet too for a while, thinking it over.

"You're saying she flipped a table? Completely over?" I finally asked. Luna nodded and I looked over at the tables, frowning. "I mean... they look pretty heavy. Not something you'd accidentally flip over. Sure, you might be able to knock it down, but top down? That's... impressive."

"I was pretty surprised too," admitted Luna. "Puella said she didn't notice her grabbing it, it was just suddenly flying, but how else could it have happened? She must be a lot stronger than she looks."

My mind traveled back to the house and the table on the front yard. Something about it had struck me as odd, but I hadn't realised what until now. It hadn't been huge table, but had been thrown clear through a window and it no doubt was heavy. Too heavy to accidentally throw, that was for sure. So either someone had purposefully, and probably not alone, thrown it out, or...

Suddenly tables and merchandise had started to fly around the marketplace.

"Can you tell us something about her?" asked Rosa, dragging me out of my seemingly impossible thoughts. "Anything that could help us figure out who took her and why?"

"Well, she did keep mostly to herself," said Luna, humming thoughtfully. She tucked some loose strands of red hair behind her ear. "She's very pleasant to be around. Nice, polite, helpful... She's also brave, in the face of an outside threat, and with her own situation... It must be very hard on her, not to mention lonely... I offered to help take care of her, I do have a lot of vacant rooms here and there's plenty of food leftover every day, but she insisted on working for her living. I don't know who she used to be before, but Meera is a lovely woman and I... I hope you'll find her." She bit her lip and then looked me square in the eyes. "You will find her. Promise me."

"I promise," I said, and I meant it.

~x~

We left the Moonlight Inn after talking to some of the waitresses and a few customers, but none of them had a lot to add. Meera wasn't particularly social so no one really knew her outside of work, and as a waitress she was swift, polite, and efficient. An all around nice person, that no one seemed to know under the surface layer. Of course, what with her amnesia, it was hard to say if she really knew herself either.

We'd decided to go back to the cottage after we left the inn and were walking along the main road through the town, when Rosa stopped.

"I need to stop by there," she said, pointing at a house that looked very unassuming. I frowned. It had an "open" sign on the door, but it didn't really have any indication as to what lay inside.

"Alright," I said and started to move towards the house, but Rosa's hand on my chest stopped me. I looked down at her. She was looking a bit red around the cheeks, but that might just have been the cold.

"You can't come in with me," she said, not meeting my eyes.

"Uh, why?" I asked. She opened her mouth and then closed it again.

"It's personal," she muttered, hiding her mouth into her scarf. I looked over to the shop again. What did they sell in there? "Just... okay?" she said, with a bit more force and finally looked up at me. Her cheeks were definitely red, the freckles on her face popping out even more clearly. She seemed really embarrassed about whatever it was she was going to buy.

"Okay," I said, lifting my hands in a show of defeat. "If you don't want me to come with you, I won't."

"Thank you," she said and gave me a small smile. "Wait there, I'll be right back." Then she was in the shop and I was left alone on the street. Well, not alone, I remembered, as N pushed her head against my leg. I bent down and picked the fox up, and she let out a small yap.

"Just you and me now, buddy," I told her as I scratched her behind the ear. She yapped again.

It was about ten minutes later that she walked out of the shop with a smallish parcel in her hands. I looked at it curiously as I pushed away from the tree I'd been leaning on as I waited, but she very pointedly said nothing. I didn't ask.

When we got back Ulula greeted us with lunch and freshly baked gingerbreads, which were much appreciated after our journey in the cold outdoors. I notice Rosa hand the parcel over to Ulula, and she took it into the other room, but I didn't know where nor did I have a lot of time to start figuring it out as N noticed Vesper on top of the fireplace and an intervention became necessary.
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I don't know if freckles will actually pop up more when you blush, and google was useless in figuring it out, but I thought it would be cute. Idk.

We made gingerbreads today. Or mom did. I just ate the dough, aw yiss. I did make a gingerbread house over at Oona's, so that's something. It turned out okay I think, even though it was hella crooked haha.

Everyone's a girl, have you noticed? Not that I'm complaining, I love me some diverse female cast, but just an observation.

I'm not sure we're moving forward much, but it's only the 6th, so we're not in a hurry or anything. That reminds me, Happy Independence Day! woooooooooo!! Your topic tomorrow issssssss "Issue".

Pie out.