Chapter 5 - The house

It seems that the person in front of her is not as simple. He hid his astonishment quite quickly and looked at her with seriousness.

Kendra felt for a moment scared, but her emotions didn't show on her small face. She looked at him and waited for an answer.

As he saw her all serious he felt that this child is cute. But at the same time, he felt sorrow, as it seemed that this child had a proper background but had to live alone.

"Tell me your name. We need to write it down." He hoped that he could find some relatives for the kid in the city. Better than living outside.

"I don't know sir. I woke up without any memories and now as I have no one I still need to survive. I hope I can count on the city's help and protection." she said looking sad.

"How unfortunate. If this child belonged to anyone in a city it would be fine. We could give some work inside but as the background is unclear it really needs to live outside." he taught as he signed the contract. He turned around and gave it to Kendra.

She had the hunch that he would look for her family members if she gave her name. But as she didn't know the original name and she played a boy, she clearly couldn't say her own name. Even if that was the original idea.

And there was that thing as well. Why was she discarded in a gully not far from the city.? Who is she actually? Who are the parents? Does she have any family?

So many questions. She took the contract with a slight smile and stuffed it into her shirt. Then she took now the bulging bag of money and stuffed it inside shirt as well. As the shirt was tucked into the pants, some of it stuck out as it was big. So the bag and contract were not so conspicuous.

She bowed her head courteously and turned to leave.

"Wait. If you need help or if anyone bullies you let me know," he said while thinking to himself that this is the only thing he can do for this child. He is after all just head guard. After all, he has his family to feed and can't take this child in.

Kendra turned around and gratefully smiled and nodded with the head. She turned and left the office. She might as well stay friendly with the guards. They might help her solve her case.

As she left the city she looked at the river under the bridge and realized why no one fished in the river. The water was so disgusting and dirty. Yellow water and all kind of other things floated down the river into the sea.

I guess no one wanted to eat fish from this place. It seemed that sewer of the city went into the water as well, as the stench hit her when the wind turned.

Luckily she bought that peace of land far from the main river. It took her almost one hour to come to the city gate.

She looked at the dwellings not far away and saw bustling people. Some made things from straw like the shoes she bought from children. Some made baskets. There was few that made pots out of clay.

It seemed these dwellings are for the lowest class that did some contractual work or smaller handiwork's.

She went to one of the elder people and looked as he made clay pots on simple stone. Near his house was something like a fireplace where his wife seemed to bake the finished products. On the side, she could see threw away waste that didn't work out as it was all cracked up.

''Uncle, may I use those broken pieces?''

''Sure. Just be careful not to cut yourself on sharp edges.''He said while seeing a polite child. He taught that she wanted to play with the pieces not knowing that she just didn't want to waste money and use some pieces as tableware.

''Uncle I rented from city one peace of land near the stream bit further away. Can you tell me who could help me make a small house for me?'' she asked while looking at people.

''If you want the house as we have is no problem. I will ask a few of my neighbors and we can finish it up really quickly for you. Wait bit here. I will ask if someone has time.''He stood up and gave his wife finished pot for drinking water. He told her about my case and she friendly smiled at me.

''Child you should make house closer to us. In case of need, we could help you.''She said while worrying that such a small child lives alone.

''Thank you for your care. But aunt I have to admit why I want to live there. Here are to many people and it stinks. I am worried to get sick from this water.''Kendra said while pointing at the river.

''It makes sense for you to live then there. Here is no place for children as it seems.'' she nodded while thinking that back in her village indeed the children lived near clean water.

Even tho there seemed to be some children in dwellings but not as many. Most people left their villages to find a better job in the city. Some got jobs as servants but some like them worked outside for seasonal jobs as it paid more and they could then take the money back to their children when the winter comes.

Kendra didn't know that only some of these workers would stay over the winter here. Only those that had no land would stay and work smaller jobs over winter. Luckily the warm weather seems to be longer.

The elder came back with a few more people and went with her to the stream. Near stream seems to have something like a smaller hill and she wanted to have the house on top of it. It was enough flat land on top for her to make a house and a smaller garden.

Who knows what is this good for. She doesn't know how long it will take to find the perfect place so she needs, for now, a roof over her head.

The few men used some branches and twigs to make a base of the house and roof and they wanted to start the rest but Kendra stopped them. She asked if she could get an inner fireplace with a chimney made of stones. They didn't think they would need that much time so they looked at her. She knew like everywhere the time is money, so she promised each of them, five coins to finish the house as She wanted.

As they heard they would get payed they rushed to the stream and took the stones to make the fireplace. The elder seems to be unhappy about them using a small child. He humphed angrily and made various smaller things she needed from straw and branches like bed and chair and table.

Now he knew why she wanted broken pieces.

He will look for the ones that had no sharp edges later on and give it to her. He taught to make a pot for her but then he saw that she bought herself metal pot so it was perfect on an open fire.

They finished house quite fast as it was just a simple one. They used flat stones on top of the house as the fireplace might burn the straw if they pit on top of it. They made one smaller fireplace outside her house as well as in summer no one is so crazy to heat the house.

When they finished she gratefully paid them and as she wanted to pay to the elder he waved a hand. She then realized that the old man felt unfair to take money from the child so she gave him money to make for her few plates, pots for water and pots for cooking. She paid them straightly and he couldn't deny it as it was official order.

He still felt that it was unfair to the child and brought some broken pots to use in various ways. When everything was set it was already lunchtime. She went to the stream and got her bag out after putting the trap again into the water.

After that, she took the pot and got some water to cook some tea. She could see so many plants and as she read in her free time she knew uses of most of these plants. She even found the nest of wild quail and took the eggs out. She turned the eggs to the light to see if they were already some bird inside and saw out of five eggs, two was not fertilized.Luckily.Then she found some dandelion and took the leaves to use for soup.

After all, there is not industrial pollution here. She bought salt before and some buckwheat flour. She made porridge with the flour and added an egg and dandelion on end. She finally had something substantial to eat. She ate that with relish. The bread that she got she will use later on to get fishes and the salt she needed to dry some fishes for herself. She didn't want to think about not having to eat. That is the most important. Isn't it? But not everything will go as she planned...