The Kingdom of Orenda

Chapter 8: Misfortunate Map Switcharoo

A/N: Minor content warning, three characters have panic attack and/or anxiety attack in this chapter. If reading this would make you uncomfortable then please do not feel obligated to read this. 

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After the complimentary hotel breakfast, waffles with berries or syrup, the group waited outside the bathroom's hallway while Axle washed his hands.

"I told him he was using too much syrup." Lidya said as she and Cerise played the Orenda version of cat's cradle, Butterfly's Cradle, as they waited. Acer was busy talking with a front desk worker and Eryd waited patiently for Axle to come back.

Izarra, who was sitting beside Eryd and appeared to be getting bored, looked at Eryd and whined.

"Ok, I'll check on him." Eryd shrugged and walked over to the men's bathroom door. She knocked a few times and a metallic crash and cuckoo clock chime sounded.

"Did you fall?" Eryd asked immediately afterward.

"No! No- I just dropped my hand, I'll be out once I put it back on. Just give me a second!" Axle responded hastily.

Eryd stood there as she heard Axle reattach his hand, and then she heard a strange noise, like someone winding up a toy, followed by ticking.

She took a few steps back when she heard Axle approaching the door,

"Alright, sorry for taking so long- syrup got in between my finger joints." Axle hastily apologized and walked out into the hallway.

"You're fine." Lidya assured him as Cerise put away the string.

"Lets go get Acer and head for the cartographers." Cerise said as they all headed towards the front desk. Eryd looked curiously at Axle, as if she was tempted to ask about the strange noise she heard, but decided against it for now.

The group walked down the road of the town, streets slick and glistening from the rain of last night, and headed for the square. Lidya was once again awe struck by the way the town looked, given that she could actually see it now that the sky was clear. The houses were much less bright than the ones in Gale town, and had a more pastel color to them. With dark roofs and windows lined in white. All the buildings were close together and winded with the road up and down the hills. People walked along the sidewalks, going about their business as if it was any normal day. Lidya noticed each of them was wearing soft colored clothes that matched the houses. There was a significant lack of flowers or shrubbery, but that was made up for by the beautiful painted windows above the doors of every building. The residential ones had initials that Lidya assumed belonged to the owners, while the store buildings had images of whatever they were selling. The only building that didn't have one of those windows, she noticed, was the Comity Inn that they had just left.

"Hey Cerise?"

"Yeah?" Cerise turned around and looked at her,

"Do you know why all the buildings have a painted window but the hotel?"

"I don't actually. But you can ask my friend once we see them."

They approached a tall building with a painted window displaying a globe with a scrolled map opened behind it.

"I think this may be it." Acer joked, pointing at the building.

"Now what gave you that idea?" Cerise joked in return. The group walked into the shop and were hit with the smell of fresh parchment and ink.

The walls of the shop were neatly stuffed with rolled up maps or maps in boxes, there were globs on nearly every surface, and maps pined up on walls practically everywhere you looked.