Blooming Fire

- Camp In The Woods -

They walked around the city-state for quite some time, passing many shops, one with vintage clothes, food, antiques, and books.

The one of vintage clothes was small and had old, red, curtains.

The grocery store was big and wooden, made with the large oak and mangrove surrounding the city.

Antiques covered another, old mirrors faced the window, and Opal shivered. 'Never know what's inside one of those things.' She thought.

The bookstore is tall and small. It stretched to the sky, just like the trees.

People whispered about the trio and many older ladies kept coming up to them and trying to hold Koki, but Mori never let them.

People walked by them with wagons filled to the brim with fruit and another had a wagon with lumber. as they went by they looked at mori and her baby, and stopped to give mori and opal food.

People rode down the street, horses galloping fast. Much too fast for how close some got to the people walking.

People were calling from the edges of the town, talking and trying to sell their goods for the rest of the day. Many were dropping their prices for the night.

Eventually, they arrived at a fountain. Many people surrounded it, some throwing coins; others just talking. They talked about an arrival? One also mentioned a man who was similar in description to the old man.

By this point in the walk, Mori was beginning to look exhausted.

Following the commotion, they pushed through a crowd of people and found the old man. He looked at them with a very disapproving look.

"I had looked everywhere for you guys-" He had started. "We got to go." He said as his eyes fell on Koki.

The man grabbed Opal's hand, pulling the group of the door as the room began to fill with people.

'What do those people want?' Opal thought.

They walked a while till they were at the edge of the city, the large wall that was the gate was on the groups left and a thin woods fanning out into the houses to they're right.

The man then stopped; right in his tracks. He turned and stared, like he was waiting for the trio to talk.

"Why did you bring us here? Don't lie to me." Mori demanded.

He eyed Koki again and Mori hissed at him. "Tell us, I know you didn't just bring us here to help us."

He sighed, "I don't need to tell you anything, I don't mean harm but there are things I'd like to do before you guys leave."

Before Opal had had the chance to respond, she felt as if she was being watched again and her whole body tensed. It sent a shiver up her spine; from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, causing a headache. Mori seemed to notice the oddity too. opal looked around and there was nothing there. Just the wall, the trees, and the houses that peered from just behind the tree line.

The man seemed to brush it off and Mori ran up behind him and tried to hit him. "Don't even try." He said,spinning around and catching Mori's arm. He continued walking.

Mori hissed at him again, and we began following the man.

"You," Opal demanded. "We have questions for you, and whether you like it or not, you're going to answer them." she said, trying to sound confident, but her wording almost made her sound like a little kid.

Mori ran up next to opal. "Koki seems to be tired, we should try to get this guy to stop somewhere." She said.

"Ok. You! We need to stop." opal said, trying to get authority.