New Times

All Aboard

Al rode into town at full speed. Nora was much different during the day with everyone awake. He could see the stark gap between social classes as people walked through their daily routines.

The women were in elegant saris or simple pants and a shirt, depending on if they were a vendor or a rich customer. Men with button up shirts had their sleeves rolled up in the heat while others had no shirt at all, showing tan muscles earned from back-breaking work.

Al slid off of Capall's back and walked at his side, gripping hard to his reins in order to stay standing. The whole goal in the market was to try to act as inconspicuous as possible. He was here to buy food for cheap, not get caught and brought back. He was coming back on his own terms. Al wandered down the street, looking at all the markets and into houses to see if anyone was selling some food that would stay good for a while. Al saw a vendor with salted meats a little farther down the road when suddenly someone rammed into him at full speed, knocking him straight to the ground. Al winched as he stood up still, shaky on his feet, brushing the dirt off of his pants. He'd seen enough of the ground today.

"I'm so sorry," a girl's voice called from above him. Al looked up to see that the person who rammed into him was a girl in a bright red sari littered with gold and silver jewelry. She picked up her small drawstring bag and looked a little bit closer at him, her brown hair peeking from under a hood of gold trimmed fabric.

"Wow," he whispered to Capall, who was nosing around the girl. She giggled then patted Capall on the back.

"I can't believe it! You have a real Pegasus," the girl marveled at Capall's pristine feathered wings. "I thought these only existed in fairy tales." Al shrugged. He had never called Capall a Pegasus before, it didn't sound right. It wasn't like the wings were natural or that he acted different from a normal horse. Then he realized that he didn't really know any normal horses and gave up the argument he made in his head. The girl looked back and forth from Capall's splotched wings to Al's face.

"Do I know you?" she asked puzzlement showing in her hazel eyes.

"No, you wouldn't." Al said abruptly looking around for any guards that may have seen him "I actually need to buy some food so if you could get out of the way that would be great, I really needed to get out of here as soon as possible." She didn't budge. The girl stepped closer to him till they were eye to eye. Her freckled nose was so close he almost had to cross his eyes to look at her.

"So, where did you come from," she asked.

"You don't want to know."

"We're in Nora, everyone wants to know where everyone is from. Where you're from changes how you act towards them, you know."

"Originally, I was from the Cascadia."

"Cool, me too. Who are your mom and dad? Maybe we met each other when we were like ten. There aren't a lot of people my age here in Nora you know. I mean unless you're the kid of one of the crew. Well didn't you at least see me on the ark? I mean I was the best thing on there, EVERYONE knew me."

Al wasn't going to answer that. He stepped away from her to address the meat vendor, who looked up and down, assessing him. The girl stood next to Capall with puffed up cheeks. Al ignored both of them and picked up the biggest slices of jerky the man had on the blanket in front of him.

"So now what do you have for me," he asked, holding out his hand. Al had no clue what to do. He stood just stood there, confused. What was he supposed to do? Isn't this where the shopkeeper is supposed to tell you the price? Maybe this leathery old man was waiting for him to ask.