A Vision of Crows

Chapter 9 - Cia and Mateo

Meg stared at the girl, dumbstruck. That girl, had she seen everything? How long had she been waiting? All sorts of questions raced through her mind, but not wanting to be rude, she replied, "I... I'm sorry, but I'm not. Erm, where are your parents?"

But to her dismay, the girl began to jump about, exclaiming, "Wow, a real witch! Miss Witch, show me a trick! A magic trick!"

This child! Meg thought to herself, exasperated. As she flattened her skirt, she asked, "What magic thing?"

"The spinning water, you make water spin, like a...a whirlpool! I heard it!"

Did the water actually spin like that? Meg had never quite noticed it herself, but the little girl was bursting with excitement, her eyes sparkling from the sight of the "real witch" in front of her.

Meg laughed nervously as she tried to figure out what to do next, and settled on playing along, albeit just for the moment. She knelt down and told the girl, "Shh, yes, I am in fact, a witch. But you must keep it a secret, for if you tell anyone else, I'll go poof!"

She made an explosion motion with her hands hoping that the girl would buy it. Unfortunately, she didn't. Instead, the girl giggled and said, "That won't happen. If you went 'poof', then you'd would have poofed by now!"

Smart girl, though Meg.

The little girl gave her a smug smile and said, "I'll keep your secret if you keep mine. Deal?"

Meg was briefly at a loss for words. Part of her wondered if there was any real worth to making a deal with this girl. The other part said to go for it, as it really wouldn't cost her anything, not in this place. In the end, she nodded, much to the girl's delight. She bent down to let the girl lean towards her, and the girl whispered into her ear.

"You can't tell anyone. Anyone! My secret is...I put some vinegar from my uncle's kitchen to make my drinks taste better."

Despite the absolute uselessness of the information that she had just been given, Meg patted the girl's head as she promised to keep her secret. Besides, it did explain the disgusting taste.

The girl giggled, "Don't forget. This is tip-top secret between us."

Meg smiled and nodded then asked, "Well then, now that we know each other's secrets, then I would like to also know your name."

But the girl only stared at her.

"But I did!" she said, confused.

"You did?"

The little girl stared at her blankly for a few moments before suddenly, her freckled face lit up again with energy as she exclaimed, "Oh well, okay. I'm Cia!"

"Cia, huh? Well Cia, where are your parents?"

"Parents? He's not here right now."

Meg gazed at her concerned, but before she could open her mouth, Cia continued, "He said he needed to pick up some stuff from someone. He left me with Auntie though. My auntie said I could sell my drinks as long as I didn't wander too far."

"...So where is your auntie?"

Cia froze, then rapidly began to look around. After a few seconds, she exclaimed, "I have to go now! Bye Miss!"

This girl truly concerned her, carelessly running off after a stranger. She watched Cia run off again, drinks in hand, as her blond locks trailed behind her.

Watching her go, she suddenly remembered that she had something to do as well, and headed off to find La Trei Vilas.

As she was near a group of food stands, a man suddenly bumped into, hard enough to send them both stumbling to the ground.