Chapter 8

“You look like a kid going to a candy shop,” Tamara noted as they walked in town.

Lia grinned. “It’s been so long.”

After lunch, Tamara took her to the town. After almost a month of seeing nothing but trees and her only human contact was with her mother, going to a new place full of people made her giddy with excitement. She was anxious too because they had to be careful not to be noticed by the people. They had to wear cloaks so that only their faces could be seen.

But this was not enough to tamper her enthusiasm. The prospect of widening her knowledge and experience of this new world was enough to bubble up her excitement.

“I thought you hated it,” Tamara said.

Lia only gave her a small smile.

Of course, the real owner of the body had gone through the town a couple of times but she hated it. The place reminded her of everything she did not have. That and the feeling that she had to remain hidden among the people when she could have been one of them.

But that worked perfectly well for Lia. Being invisible to other people was what she needed. She could watch and gawk at people without being noticed.

“Is it still far?” Lia asked.

Tamara’s eyes darted in every corner of the street, ready for any attack. “We’re almost there.”

Going to the town was risky. Seeing people in cloaks was bound to raise alarm. Yet they still did it to earn a living.

They round in a corner, dodging the people coming and going along the way. Their steps were light and soft to avoid getting attention towards them. They arrived at what seemed like a backdoor of a shop. Tamara knocked a few times and a lanky lad opened the door for them.

“Good day Frankie. Where’s your mother?”

The lad named Frankie gestured at the woman manning the counter. He went over there and took over.

Tamara introduced Lia to her friend Yolly. She was tall and plump with a forever scowl on her face, towering both the mother and child. Lia would be stupid to even try to cross her.

“There you are, I was getting worried that someone might have mugged you along the way,” Yolly said.

“No such thing, and hopefully nothing ever,” Tamara placed the vials and pots of medicine they brought on the table.

She was the proprietress of this apothecary. Though that was the name, it seemed more like a general store with the variety of things that you could get in this place.

Tamara told her that she once helped her father fight off illness when everybody else turned them down. From then on, Yolly stood by her friend, fending off anyone who called her witch.

She was also the only one who accepted Tamara’s products and sold them. Of course, none of her patrons knew who was the real maker of those products.

Yolly’s shop was also the place where Tamara got her materials and ingredients so it was a win-win for the two of them.