Reflections

Chapter 5

"This place...looks like a dump."

John glanced over at me and frowned.

"Hey, don't be rude. Sure, this place is pretty run down, but look at how lively it is!", the man exclaimed.

His eyes lit up and I couldn't help but roll my own. Seriously, he needed to focus. This place wasn't even anything special.

"Look, let's just gather some supplies and leave.", I said flatly.

John refocused his attention on me, then ran his hand through his curly hair.

"Fine..."

And so, we started to make our way through the old, trashy village. And honestly, I wasn't exaggerating when I thought this. The road was cracked and worn down, making it easy to snag your foot and trip. The buildings were also in the same condition as the road. The villagers were lucky they didn't live in a more windy place. Their stands and buildings would just blow away.

Speaking of the stands, they were probably the only redeeming quality of this damn village. Well almost. The bread looked quite stale and the fruits seemed like they had seen better days.

But the worst thing of all (aside from the animals that roamed the streets), were the beagers. Old and young stuck their hands out, desperation on their dirty faces. Begging for money, begging for food, begging for a room to shelter in.

I hated this.

But all I could do was resist the urge to smack them, to yell at them, and continued to follow John. The man glanced at the beggars with a pitying frown, but ultimately didn't say a word to them. Honestly I was surprised. Maybe John knew it was futile to try to help lowly beggars. It was certainly a welcome surprise.

It didn't take too long to find a place that sold proper rations and travel supplies. The building didn't seem to be very big, but it's was certainly more impressive than the homes and others places we had come across here. John and I entered the building, the door creaking from rust and old age.

The inside of the building wasn't any more impressive than the outside. The only thing it really had was it's height. That's it.

 Still, that didn't stop John from looking at everything with wide eyes. Was he seriously going to act like everything we came across was new and exciting? I sighed in annoyance and grabbed his shoulder before he could get too engrossed in a shelf filled with useless trinkets.

"Hey!", John exclaimed. "You couldn't even let me get a little look?"

"No.", I replied simply. "We're on a time limit, remember? We don't have the luxury to gawk at every little thing."

John nodded solemnly. His shoulders slumped.

"Oh, right."

I let go of his shoulder and walked towards the shelf with rations. I could hear John's heavy footsteps trailing after me. We both arrived at the shelf but before I could sift through anything, I heard something jingle.

I quickly whipped around to face the source of that noise. There, I found myself staring at a small boy with a pouch in his hand.

My pouch, with my money.

The boy's eyes widened and before I could react, he turned away and started to make a break for it.

"Hey! Give that back!", I shouted at the boy.

Of course, he didn't listen and just bursted out the door. I grinded my teeth together, hard.

"John! That boy, he stole my money!", I exclaimed.