The Nooshkaville Chronicles

Chapter 3: Reunited

tside a nice cool breeze filled the open landscape. A tiny little village was set in a valley, and although the town of Nooshkaville had met its demise, this town still carried a working energy as though nothing happened.

Jar began to come to. He brushed off some dirt off his face as he got up on his knees. Then he slowly got to his feet. Jar took a good look at what was in front of him. He decided he'd stay in this town for a while and figure things out for himself.

He started walking forward, his legs were in a bit of pain but he could make do.  As he neared the village he read the sign "Welcome to Littlesville." As he read the sign, he recalled hearing of the village before as it wasn't, of course, too far from his former town. Still he assumed that no one here knew what had happened to Nooshkaville because the two settlements were separated by the large and thick Nooshka forest.

As he walked he got a lot of stares from people, probably because of his current state. He thought it'd be best to find somewhere to live for a while, when he felt his stomach grumble. Hunger. He decided to head to the market of the village.

"Hey, excuse me," Jar called out to a woman who was sweeping nearby.

"Y-yes?" the woman looked up, a bit startled by the beat up stranger.

"Do you know where I can find the market around here?" Jar asked the lady.

"If you turn the corner down this road, you should make it to the village center where all the shops are at," she answered. 

"Thank you ma'am," Jar replied, his stomach began to grumble even more. He realized he actually hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday.

He continued down the dirt road, where citizens would pass by and give him stares. One woman covered a child's eyes as he neared them. He thought that after getting a snack, he'd definitely need to get a shower and some new clothes. 

Finally, he made it to the village center, which was booming with noise as people walked about the shops and took to their needs. He saw what looked to be a market and went towards it.

As he stepped forward and had his eyes only on the food that was out front, he bumped into a girl.

"ow! watch where you're going!" said the female.

"sorry I'm kind of starving here," Jar began, but then he stopped as he couldn't believe what he saw in front of him.

"Jar?!" she screamed.

"Ari?!" he said back.

The two old friends hugged each other. 

"Oh my god you look like shit," Ari said, looking Jar up and down and seeing his torn up clothing and the dirt all over him. 

"Yeah, I've been through a lot," he started, wondering if now was the time to explain what'd he'd seen. "I'm just so happy you're alive. I thought maybe...maybe you were dead."

"So did Bell and I," she said back. "Come on! She'll be happy to see you."

Ari took Jar's hand and led him down through the village to what looked to be an inn.

"We dropped by here last night, thought it would be a good idea to stay here for a while and think about what to do from here," she said as she led him up the stairs to where she and Storm had been staying.

Ari opened the door and sure enough, there sat Storm and her cat.

"Jer?" Storm said in an "O'malley" voice. 

"Storm!" Jar said excitedly.

The three of them all hugged. They were so happy to be reunited again.