The Stones of Time

Chapter Two Ava

"Is that the last thing we need?"

My mother shook her head. "No, we still need to go to one more shop. Why don't you like doing this? You usually like going out of the house."

I stiffened, "yeah, to the forests, or mountain climbing, or going around our farm." Outings like this, with my mother, always made a shadow of dread creep up around me.

We'd been shopping all day at Foran, and all I wanted to do was spend time with my parents at my house before I had to leave for the Academy. Though, at this point I wouldn't mind spending a bit of time around with my mother. My dad had been gone for days at a time to do with some 'little issues' that were happening on the other side of the farm.

"Do you see the last shop?" She asked me, looking up from her parchment.

"What is it called?"

"Potted Potion, it should be around here somewhere, we're in the merchant sector of this town."

"Never heard of it, I don't think we've ever been there. Maybe we could ask someone where it is so we don't wander around." I looked around, searching for someone to ask about the location of this shop, but there was no one in sight. Huh, that's odd, I thought to myself, wondering why I hadn't seen it before. Usually the streets of Foran were as busy as Kota, the capital city in Allador.

Even more suspicious, all shutters were tightly locked, unwelcoming towards any visitor who might wander upon their stores.

My mother and I walked out of the food sector not too long ago which was bight and lively compared to this stark nothingness.

"There's no one here." I informed her.

"That's okay, a bit of walking won't hurt you."

"I don't care that we have to walk more, that's nothing. But don't you find it strange that we don't see anyone. The merchant sector is almost as popular as the food sector." I explained, referring to the different sectors that made up the city of Foran.

Foran had a unique layout compared to other cities with their hectic hodgepodge of all sorts of shops next to each other. The city had five different sectors, government, living, farm, food, merchant, and service.

The structure of the buildings were different from the buildings in Kota, or the Capitals of each planets. They shone with crystals, and towered above the landscape making quite an impressive sight.

The buildings in Foran had their own style, like various cities across the planets. The buildings were much shorter first of all, and they were made to look more natural. They were made out of stone, with wooden roofs, doors, and other accents.

"Who's that?" A boy ahead of us was laying on the sidewalk with a woman, probably his mother, frantically knelt beside him.

"Ava, don't. I know what you are going to do. You don't go up to random passed out people." My mother ordered.

"But he might be hurt."

"Ava-" She started, but I ran up to him anyway. A breeze rushed past me as I rushed up to them.

"Hey, is he okay?" I asked, stopping in front of the boy's mother. At least, I thought she was the boy's mother. She had the same color hair as he did, a beautiful shade of brown. His light skin was pale from being passed out and there was a nasty red bump on his head.

"Do you think he's okay?" She snapped. "Sorry." She took a deep breath. "I'm just worried. It just happened. Did you see it?"

"No, sorry. It might have been the alleyway. I live by some mountains and it affects the wind, so the tight space in between the buildings could've made the wind knock him down." I guessed, as I knelt down next to him. Books were spilled out of a bag to the other side of him. They must've been dropped when he had fallen.