Scared of the Dark

Closed Eyes

An hour.

That was how long I sat hugging my legs with my eyes shut tight in a field filled with four foot tall grass while Hannah- no, Xina, (Zee-nah)looked for me before my vision of her went out. I liked closing my eyes better than the dark. That way I knew I wouldn't see anything. It was a different kind of separation from the world than looking around in the dark.  Though my eyes were closed I still knew who it was when the grabbed my arm, panting. I knew there were other people with them. I knew that they didn't know who I was and that they meant well. My eyes were still closed when they set my down on the carriage filled with bushels of wheat being pulled by a brown and a white horse. When I knew there was light. That was when I opened my eyes. We were in a small village. The kind with people who build their own houses and farmed their own food and animals. There weren't many people in the streets, but som men and women peeked out of their windows and stared at me curiously. Somewhere along the path I noticed that it was fear more than curiosity. I ignored them.A man who looked about sixty, wearing worn out working clothes and a straw hat who was sitting near me on the cart had glanced at me and smiled warmly when he saw my eyes had opened and I had released the tension in my body. "Finally back to the world of the light eh?." He was looking up at the sky. I looked up to. I had never seen so many stars. Looking down at myself I realized the necklace Xina had given me was gone. I remembered him taking it off now. He had known. I had only figured out after I hit my head. I remembered with a jolt that I still didn't know where my sister was. "Sir, have you seen my sister? She looks like a girl my age with long brown hair? She was wearing a dress like this one and she-" I stopped when I saw his expression. For a moment his face held grief and sorrow. "You lookin' for your sister huh? I haven't seen her yet."
Yet? Oh right, yet. He is of authority  around here and is told who goes in and out of the town. That was the only thing I knew about him though. But that's besides the point; I now know she must not be here. That means she is either with Xina, another neutral town, or an enemy. Perhaps the Scarlet Guard removed her necklace. That would reveal that she wasn't their princess. It was a pendant that had been infused with disguise charms after all.

Funny how only a little while ago all I could think of were questions. Yet now  all I have are answers and information. Names and people and locations and organizations in this world I though was foreign now made as much sense as my life on the other side.

But that information wasn't enough. I needed my sister back. I need her location. I need to know whether she is safe. So that it what I will do. I looked around. We were almost at the center of town, says the map in my brain. Around this corner and down that street about twenty feet large mosaic circle in the ground with a fountain in the center. The man told me were almost at town square. He looked confused when I said "I know"

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We got to the fountain and I didn't speak. The man didn't ask questions, which I appreciated. But I felt like I needed to ask him a question.
"Why did you take me in? How did you find me and know I wasn't an enemy?"

"How do you know I'm not an enemy?
I would have panicked here but the way he said it with a warm smile made me calm. I looked back into the night sky. I don't think I had ever seen this many stars dotting the sky.

Before when I was riding in the cart I had noticed the people of the town scattered as they saw me, scurrying into their homes and putting their children in their house. Was there something unsettling about me? Perhaps they were scared by a new person in their small town. But that wasn't my concern right now.

I needed a lead on my sister.