It was
mid-afternoon when they arrived in Macewood, the fumes and steam of the various
stands mixing into a pillar of white, towering above the market town, acting as
a signal beacon that can be seen for miles.
“So, you
hungry?” asked Seth as he caught Ellyn staring at a heavy laden food cart that
they passed. Ellyn nodded furiously.
Seth found a gap
in the stalls and expertly maneuvered the cart into the space; it was outside
the ruins of an old-world restaurant called M-Dons, and had a big ‘M’ outside.
It seemed that the food it sold had an extremely good sell-by-date and was
still edible so someone had continued the business. Seth went in and bought
them a sandwich each. It came wrapped in paper, and Ellyn un-wrapped it, then bit
her sandwich, she looked around while she was chewing, and looked at Seth. He
saw her looking at him and raised an eyebrow back at her;
“Mmmph?” asked
Seth with his mouth full “Hmmmm, Hmf, Huhmf.”
“You did
what!?” questioned Ellyn, smirking
Seth held up
his finger “hmff, mph.”
Ellyn folded
her arms and looked at Seth, waiting for him to finish, while he just sat
there, chewing and looking pleased with himself. Seth swallowed, he called
Acorn who ate the crumbs from his hand. Seth wiped his hands down his front to
wipe of the Acorn slime; he then looked at Ellyn who could tell even with the
mask on that he was smiling.
“So what’s up
chuck?” chimed Seth.
Ellyn just
shook her head, rolled her eyes and looked away at the town, observing the
variety of people there. Some were selling things, others buying it. Some
people were just moving through the town, not looking at anything or anyone.
And throughout it all there were these little creatures running around under
people’s feet, they looked like some sort of rodent, “Skiddly little things
aren’t they” Ellyn asked Seth. She turned to Seth, to see that he had dived
headfirst into one of his storage chests, and was routing around within it. She
gave a soft chuckle and continued to watch him as he muttered under his breath
to himself. Eventually he reappeared and presented a small box to Ellyn, who
tentatively took the box and opened it. Inside was a metal straw, she held it
between her fingers, studying it.
“Why would I
need this?” Ellyn asked,
“Watch this” Seth
said, he then proceeded push a straw of his own through the membrane of his
mask, which he had put on to demonstrate, then placed the other end into a
sealed bottle sort of container, and began to drink, whilst he drank he waved
his arms, massively demonstrating his point, indicating for Ellyn to do the
same.
“Really? I’d
never guess the straw would be used to drink things” Said Ellyn sarcastically,
at this point Seth stopped flapping his arms, and removed his straw from his
mask.
“It’s so you
don’t have to take your mask off to drink, quite useful, here” he explained as
he handed her the bottle. Ellyn proceeded to take a drink herself, trying the
straw in her mask, standing in the middle of the cart, she began to feel
uncomfortable, Seth and Acorn staring at her didn’t help either. Seth however
was actually day-dreaming about food and failed to notice that he was staring
at Ellyn, Acorn was just copying him. When Ellyn had drank enough, which was
more than she was expecting, she handed back the container to Seth, and began
to give the straw back as well but Seth held up his hands and said with a grin
“It’s yours! I
don’t want it, I have my own, keep it, plus you’ll never know when you might
need it.” Ellyn shrugged and put it in her bag.
There was a
moment’s pause, then a loud bell chimed 6 times from somewhere in Macewood,
Ellyn turned to Seth as the people around the cart stopped what they were doing
and started packing up their stalls and or businesses and moved off. When the
entire clamour died down, Seth answered the question before Ellyn asked it
“Six chimes
means a dust storm is coming” Seth explained “you probably won’t have
experienced one before, since you’ve been living in the forest, but here in the
plains, they happen sometimes.”
“So what do we
do?” asked Ellyn rising an eyebrow, Seth replied “we need to get somewhere
sheltered, my cart will do but we need to move out of this market, its far too
open.” Seth then moved to the console at the front of the cart, slapped a few
buttons, and the cart started up, he moved the throttle forwards and the cart
lurched into motion and Seth expertly manoeuvred the cart away from the market.
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