My Little Light

Chapter 28

Today was Saturday. It was pretty much the only day when I could relax and did not have to wordy about school or training.
Normally I'd use Saturdays to spend time with the little group of friends I had gathered by now but Trixi, Kheen and Ty had left for some mission a few cities away two days ago.
I decided to get out of the school, maybe walk through the city or something like that. I didn't want to sit around doing nothing and I had a few things to buy anyway.
Quietly humming a happy, energetic song I packed everything I could possibly need (including a water bottle, chewing gum, a sketchbook and two knifes) into a backpack, put on my jacket and strapped on the bag.
After noticing I was missing my keys I ran around our room for a few minutes after finally finding them underneath a chair.
I inspected them with a judging look. "How dare you try to flee you stupid keys?"
The keys didn't answer. Rude.
After making sure I had everything I needed I left the room.
Still humming I strolled through the school towards the front entrance which was designed in a beautifully welcoming way. Roses framed the massive wooden gate and an elegant lettering decorated the top. It was written in letters I could not read.
Although I had been her for over a month I had left the school only twice. Once to buy clothes for me with Trixi (which she payed for. I was still grateful for that. Although I had inherited my parents' money by now, not without crying about it through several nights, Trixi didn't allow me to pay her back.) and another time to buy school materials.
This time was different since I just went into the city to relax and walk around.
Just as I was about to go through the gate I heard a familiar voice behind me calling for me.
"Ally! Wait! "
I turned around to see Alec running towards me, the backpack he always wore almost falling of his back. With a shy smile I stopped to wait for him.
He was a really quick runner.
He stopped in front of me only slightly out of breath.
" Hey!"
His wide, honest smile made me happy everytime I saw it. It made it seem like to him there was nothing bad in the world, as if he was a source of never-ending happiness.
I greeted him back. "Hey Alec. What's up?"
He scratched the back of his head. "I saw you leaving and wanted to know if I could join you..." He looked at me patiently, awaiting my answer.
Without even having to think about that I replied: "Sure! It would be great if you came along!"
Due to me spending most of my time learning or training I hadn't had many chances to spend time with Alec other than math classes which wasn't really the best place to talk.
The boy with the warm brown hair seemed really glad about my answer and grinned happy.  "Yay! Where are you heading to?"
I shrugged as we started to walk.
"I just wanted to get out of school for a few hours, I don't really have a plan in mind..."
Alec nodded and seemed even more excited now.
"I know a place where we can go later! It's at the haven and really pretty when the sun comes out."
The 'haven' always sounded like it led to a dramatic, beautiful ocean but it was actually just the point where a big river met the edge of Cledae. A few little ships were parked there.
That sounded quite disappointing but it could really be nice there sometimes.
I tilted my head as I started imagining what the place could look like. "Sounds great! Should we walk through the City first? I think the little market is opened today."
The little marked consisted of a few stalls with cute little gifts and so on. It was open on two Saturdays each month.
When I was younger I had always admired the beautiful pens that had been sold there. I never had the chance to buy one until now.
Alec nodded as excited as before which was really kind of cute.
Whenever he got really excited his brown eyes sparkled with life so I tried to make him this happy whenever I could.
He grabbed the straps of his backpack to get it back in position. "I always wanted to visit that market but never had the chance to do it...."
I looked at him with surprise. "Really? You've never been there?"
He shook his head and I saw a bit of sadness and something else I couldn't identify hush through his expression.
It disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Immediately wanting to bring his happiness back I answered "Well then we should go there now! Come on!"
I grabbed his arm and we started running to the city. Alec seemed quite startled by me reacting this way and couldn't stop a cute little giggle leaving his lips as he ran along.

We spent a few hours at the market.
Alec just couldn't get enough of the adorable little animal figures the owner of one of the stalls, an old lady, had carved precisely out of beautiful, smooth wood. He just had to look at each and everyone of them over and over again with these sparkles in his eyes I had noticed so often.
He ended up buying a little turtle with two larger Pandas, explaining to me that they were a family and that the turtle was adopted.
I looked at him for a few seconds.
Then I burst out with laughter and could not stop until tears streamed down my face and my stomach hurt. His face changed from a derpy expression to exaggerated pride about making me laugh which didn't really help with stopping me from laughing.
After finally calming down I bought the pen I had waited for so long to buy.
When we checked the time we realized just for how long we had been gone.
"Oh man... "Alec mumbled in between bites of a sandwich we had just bought," Now we don't have enough time to go to the haven..."
I took a bite out of my own sandwich. "We can go there next Saturday!"
It took him a few seconds to understand what I had tried to say since I was talking with a mouth full of food but he smiled as he realized what I had said.
"Yes, that would be even better than going there now!"
The sun had already started to set and the sky was beautifully orange.
So we went back towards the school, laughing and talking about whatever came to mind as I wished for the ability to stop time so this would never end.