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OLD - Week 1 Day 3 Afternoon

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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