I’m posting these without any editing so if you find any mistakes let me know.

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Chapter 3

We were soon told we could leave to do whatever we wanted so we all went our separate ways. Kat invited me to go check out the library with her, but I turned her down. I was hungry and I had one mission. Find something to eat. I still had a bit of pocket money left so I planned to go to Madame Dorine’s a small café I frequented when we came to the city.

Raine decided to stay with his parents since he just wanted to nap, he had barely slept and it was starting to show. So, we left him in one of the tents and headed into the city. Kat and I separated not too far from the library, and I continued my walk alone.

I wandered down the familiar cobbled streets watching as people passed me by continuing with their day. Children played in the streets with wood toys chasing each other through alleyways and down dark paths. The only adults around were those working around their homes doing laundry or making food.

The homes in the area always fascinated me each one had a rich history evident in its design. Most would have their family names carved into their doors to make it easier to find them. Older homes had been lived in for generations new rooms being built onto them when needed leading to tall misshapen homes.

I passed a tall white building the smell of meat blew out the open yellow tinted window. An older woman ran past the window carrying different kitchen supplies as she did. She placed a pie on the window the steam wafting toward me as I passed by.

A few moments later kids were running past me yelling and laughing. I watched as they played in the streets not caring about their surroundings. A boy ran past me laughing as one of them screamed “TAG”. As I looked back at them, I felt myself walk into someone knocking them over.

“Oh god I’m so sorry I should have been watching where I was going.” I said panicking as I turned to look at who I’d knocked over. Below me sat a girl roughly my age in a baby blue dress that creased slightly at her knees. She wore a thick hooded cloak the hood having fallen back.

“It’s fine, I’m fine.” she responded coldly not looking at me her fingers gripping her dress. Her golden-brown hair covered her face as she began to get up. 

I offered her my hand pulling her up when she took it, “I really am sorry.”

She smiled at me, finally letting me see her face as she brushed off her dress, “it’s fine seriously, I wasn’t watching where I was going either.” 

“Let me buy you something to drink to make up for it?” I asked, holding my hand out again. I didn’t like being the reason people were hurt and I wanted to make her feel better. 

“I told you it’s fine-” she started, but I interrupted her.

“I know but I still feel bad, and I shouldn’t have interrupted you but here we are.” She looked at me incredulously before sighing.

“Fine but only one drink, and I don’t owe you?” She said taking the hand I offered.

“Of course. Follow me, I know just the place!” I said smiling at her then dragged her to Madame Dorine’s with me.

When we got close to the café, I turned to her realising I had never asked for her name. She looked genuinely shocked when I asked as if I would just know without asking. I laughed at her shocked expression at which point she told me her name and walked off. It was Alexis by the way, she wouldn’t tell me her last name, but her name is Alexis.

We eventually made it to Dorine’s and we by Alexis’ request sat in the corner where no one would see us. I wondered who she was, but I didn’t feel like asking more occupied with the new stuff on the menu. It had been months since I had last been to the capital, so the menu had changed a lot and I wanted to try everything.

I waved Dorine over telling Alexis to order whatever she wanted. She asked for drinking chocolate and a small slice of lemon cake. I got almost the same except for I had a red velvet instead of lemon cake. Dorine had looked at Alexis with a mixture of confusion and fear as she took our orders. Who was Alexis? Why did Dorine act like that?

When Dorine left, I had planned to ask but Alexis shook her head when I opened my mouth to speak. It was as if she had read my mind. I left it though the words on the tip of my tongue as we sat silently waiting for our order.

The waiter soon brought our drinks and cake I thanked him as he placed it down. He apologised for the wait bowing deeply before leaving. I turned to Alexis but the look she gave me stopped me from asking the question. I don’t know why she didn’t look scary just tired and annoyed even a bit uncomfortable.

So, I changed the topic I started telling her stories of my home where Lauren and the doctor had raised us. Tales of the caravans travels and so on. Nothing went too deep or personal and we ended up laughing about shared childhood stories. I even told her about when we dyed Kats hair which had her nearly choke on her drink.

I waved my hands around as I spoke a bad habit of mine that I never knocked. She was a lot more reserved when she spoke her hands politely rested in her lap. We sat there for a while talking about anything it turned out we had a lot in common.

I eventually stopped to eat my cake and it tasted amazing. The flavour was rich and it was still warm. The drinking chocolate was as amazing as usual. It was thick and creamy and not too bitter. Alexis seemed to busy herself looking around the cafe as I ate. This left an air of silence for a couple minutes before I interrupted her thoughts with some dumb fact about the architecture of this place, I’d heard years ago from either Kat or Lauren.

 She probably already knew but she acted interested and it led to a conversation about the structures in this area. She knew a lot more about it than me having grown up in the city and it showed in the conversation.

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When we left the cafe, we ended up just walking around for a while, eventually ending up at the higher area of the city looking over the rest. We sat on a wall as we watched the sun set over the horizon. Birds flew past us peacefully.

 “The view up here is amazing, isn’t it?” Alexis suddenly spoke up, making me jump slightly. 

“Yeah, it’s awesome we should come here again sometime.” I said looking over at her to see her smiling. She seemed to be happy, and I was glad.

“Sounds great, how long are you here?” she asked, looking over at me. I was surprised she agreed, and I think it showed on my face.

“I think it’s going to be a couple weeks but I’m not sure,” I replied looking back at the sunset, “We were attacked on the way here, so we might be here longer.” 

“Did you get hurt?” She asked her voice filled with concern as she turned completely to me. 

I looked at her and shook my head, “No I’m fine a lot of the others were hurt more.” I said, rubbing my injured arm with a smile. 

She nodded and looked back into the sunset changing the topic to the sword I was carrying. She was interested in the design, so I passed it to her, letting her study it. It was a custom-made sword with symbols of my home and a couple symbols representing me carved into the blade. Lauren and the doctor had bought me it for my last birthday.

A bell rang out through the city the loud ding signalling the turn of the hour. Alexis looked up from my sword she was inspecting and sighed. She handed it back as the bells continues to sound turning and getting off the wall, “It’s past my curfew I really must go.”

I nodded to her, “Let me walk you back its almost dark.”

She accepted my offer, and we made our way through the city. The streets were a lot creepier in the dark the only light being from people’s windows. Each alleyway we passed Alexis stuck closer to me as if fearing what might lurk in their darkness. I held out my hand for her in case she wanted it, but she shook her head.

The street she wanted to be on was a lot brighter since it was closer to the market. A small inn sat on the edge of the street a warm yellow glow emanated from the windows. Small lanterns hung outside illuminating the fenced off seating area where a group of middle-aged men sat drinking and yelling.

When we approached the inn, she turned to me half of her face illuminated by the orange glow of the lanterns. She pulled the hood of her cloak back up, “Goodnight Ripley,” she said heading into the building.

“Goodnight Alexis,” I whispered knowing she wouldn’t hear me.

I made my way back to the caravan many of the homes I passed by now had smoke coming from the chimneys as a warm lantern light shone through the windows. The streets were empty as I passed Madame Dorine’s, a usually busy café now closed for the night with one light left on upstairs. A figure could be seen behind the curtain writing with a long-feather pen. 

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The marketplace was empty as I approached other than a couple traders emptying their stalls and the few guards from the caravan. Upon approaching the caravan Kat waved over to me, “Hey Rip, where ya been?” Kat asked, leaning against one of the carts. 

“I went to Dorine’s for a drink, sorry I took so long.” I replied before heading into one of the carts. I planned to sleep there for the night as it was a bit late to go begging for a place to stay and well it was just a lot easier.

Kat followed me in grabbing a lantern off the stool outside so we could see inside the empty cart. “Pretty much everyone has gone to the inn for the night.” She said, placing the lantern on the bench and grabbing some blankets. 

“Awesome we got this to ourselves then?” I replied, grabbing some of the blankets and throwing them down. They seemed to have been freshly washed as the cart filled with the scent of flowers. 

“Yeah, unless Raine decides to join us.” She said, placing down the rest of the blankets while I sorted out pillows for us to use, “But I doubt they’ll come. Mum said she’ll buy them breakfast.” This made us both laugh as we momentarily stopped setting up our beds.

Kat put out the lantern as we laid down and started talking about our days in the dark. I told her about how I’d met Alexis and went to Madame Dorine’s. She was really interested in this mystery person and practically interrogated me about her.

 When she had finished interrogating me, she told me about her afternoon at the library. She had found a new book she liked something about teenage adventurers fighting dragons. Apparently when she had got back to camp almost everyone was gone other than the guard. She had found a letter from Lauren saying they’d taken Raine to an inn to get some sleep. With notes on how to find them if there was an emergency.