Breaking a tale

Dawn - I don't like walking

I woke up the next morning with sunlight streaming through my window, I blinked sleepily and glared at the shining rays, I had forgotten to close the curtains the night before. I got up, Lantern giving out an indignant cry as I did so, and went to the wardrobe. I opened it and was greeted with a dismal sight. I had forgotten all I had to choose from were brown dresses, at this rate my life might as well have been called "fifty shades of brown" as that was what I was surrounded with. I decided to close the wardrobe and maybe choose which brown dress I would wear later, as there was just so much choice! Then I spotted the trousers and shirt on the chair where I had left them yesterday. I didn't know whether they would have fitted me or not, but I decided that even a badly fitting shirt would be better than one of those dresses. When I tried them on they actually fitted quite well. The trousers were slightly long but apart from that, they were perfect. I hoped whoever's trousers they were wouldn't mind me wearing them. I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt and stared in the mirror, the only problem with my outfit was that I only had the flimsy pumps that had been given to me when I was in Nullo-Loco. If I had a proper pair of boots the outfit could have even been considered stylish.

I left my room with a confident smile on my face and I walked over to the kitchen where Guinevere was baking some bread. The whole kitchen smelled lovely and one thing I was going to enjoy here was Guinevere's delicious food. She was gently humming to herself and I had to cough to get her attention. She then turned, stared at my outfit for a few moments, judging my stylistic choices.

"We better get you some more robust shoes," she concluded. "You can hardly go walking around in the forest in those."

I smiled, pleased that she wasn't going to force me to wear one of those dreadful dresses and that she agreed with me about the shoes, I kept my smile up even though was incredibly worried about what she meant by the forest and was praying that I wasn't going to have to spend my days traipsing around a dark wood, manual labour was certainly not something I wanted to do.

After we had eaten breakfast Guinevere went over to the coat stand, took off a thick cape and wrapped it around herself, she then loaded up a wicker basket with some of the freshly baked bread, butter, milk and some small cakes and headed for the door. As she reached the door handle she paused, turning back to look at me.

"Well," she said "Aren't you coming? Get your coat and hurry up" There was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes like she thought I should have already known what to do.

I went to fetch a coat until I realised I didn't have one, honestly whoever had packed my bag didn't know a thing about practicality. "No coat dear?" Guinevere asked, sighing in annoyance "Typical of the tale master, never gets the clothes right."

I walked to the door and started to leave but Lantern followed me. When I closed the door we could hear him scratching it on the other side and he gave a loud yowl of abandonment. It was loud enough that eventually, we both agreed that it would be easier, and safer for him to come with us in a basket. As soon as he realised he was coming with us he calmed down, even though he was a bit upset about having to be covered by a blanket.

We headed out of the house and onto the street. This was the first time I had seen the village in daylight, and it was magical. All the houses had flowers growing from the windowsills and there were trees lining the road, their fallen leaves covering it with a soft red blanket that hid the grey underneath. The market was another explosion of colour, filled with new smells and sights. Every stall had its own unique items to sell and each had their own strange advertising techniques as well, which seemed to range anywhere from colourful banners to small fireworks. We passed stalls selling everything from wands to watches and anything in between. There were old men selling strange bottles and potions and young women selling hunting knives and archery gear. There was a small store in the corner that caught my eye. There was a boy behind it with bright ginger hair, who was selling shoes and capes, clothes for travelling and they looked incredible. My eyes fell on a pair of leather boots with an intricate pattern climbing up them, they looked like the perfect pair to complete my outfit but unfortunately Guinevere whisked me away before I could talk to the boy so I made a mental note to come back for them later, quietly wishing that they would still be there once we came back from wherever we were going.