The Anomalies

Chapter 3

<<I tell you they are looking for you!>> insisted the 'Rat'. The boy was also called that by his father, his only remaining relative. He was thin, his face pointed, his eyes alert and shiny, he could slip into any nook and cranny and went mostly unnoticed. These characteristics had helped him to become a quick-witted and hard-to-catch petty thief. By dint of being called by that nickname since he was a child, even he could no longer remember his real name.

The first day she had arrived in that village, the Rat had tried to rob her. The spell she usually used to protect her few possessions from being stolen or lost had stopped him and caused him to be discovered.

Instead of denouncing him, she had helped him, and since then he had declared himself her friend.

He visited her often, kept her informed of relevant news and procured clients for her under, of course, reasonable compensation.

<<I heard it with my own ears. You know that no one pays attention to my presence and I can be invisible if I want. I could hear that stranger's conversation with the village vigilante. Then he went to ask around the people on the street and in the shops>>.

The Rat had to quicken his gait to keep up with his interlocutor's pace.

<<He asked specific questions such as hair colour, eye colour and ...>>.

With a leap he stepped in front of her and started walking backwards.

<<What did this guy look like?>> she interrupted him, stopping for a moment to pick up some Cortinarius violaceus, dark purple coloured but edible mushrooms.

<<Nasty. He was cross-eyed, dirty as hell and with a tendency to smile creepily. He looked like an animal ready to devour those he spoke to. He never said his name>> anticipated her guessing that she would ask him.

She resumed walking briskly.

Her figure could not be described as slender, she was not particularly tall, but she was nevertheless well-proportioned, and her physique was lean and toned.

<<I am sure she was looking for you>>.

He stood beside her again, trying to maintain the same gait.

<<There are many girls with dark hair>> she pointed out.

<<Yes, but few with purple irises. And although that guy didn't refer to a specific hue, I heard him say 'eyes with a particular colour'>> he answered her back, stumbling awkwardly into a tree root.

<<He said a name>> he added, stepping back in front of her and forcing her to stop.

<<Everyone here knows you only as the Wood Witch, showing little imagination>> she commented between resigned and bored.

<<I don't know your real name either>> he pointed out.

<<What name? >> she asked, growing impatient. Sometimes that boy really took forever to get to the point.

<<Zoe>>.

She opened her eyes slightly wide and then immediately reduced them to two slits, contracting her jaws.

<<Shit!>>

<<So that's your name! >> exclaimed the astonished Rat.

<<Move over>> she enjoined him curtly.

Zoe started off again with even more haste.

<<So, they are looking for you. I knew it, I could feel it>> he gloated over his corrected intuition, stumbling for the umpteenth time.