Without further ado, let me introduce my next tale:
~~~~
A Stranger
Part 1: She Emerged From The Green Wilds
~~~~
Once long ago, in a humble village,
in a distant land, a Stranger appeared. It was an average day in this little
village that could barely sustain itself. The children played, the adults
worked and a few able-bodied villagers watched the forest with concern. It was
then the Stranger emerged from the wilderness.
At first, the villagers stared with
hesitation at this Stranger stood with bleary eyes at the entrance of the
village. Her hair was a long, colored a dark red and was so mangled and messy
it obscured most of their face. She wore clothes the villagers had never seen
before. The articles appeared similar to what a nobleman would wear: an
overcoat, long pants, fine gloves, and smooth shoes. Yet, they were worn,
ripped and covered with dried mud. The Stranger began to approach further but was
stopped by a large villager.
"S-state your business,"
the villager stumbled on his words while he brandished a rusty pitchfork. The
Stranger stopped and stared right in the villager's eye.
"Seek...Lodgings...Night,"
was the Stranger's mangled answered, which betrayed their weak grasp of the
local language. "Will...Work...For it," they bowed their head low and
deferred to the villager.
"What?" The large villager
stumbled back at the Stranger's politeness but struggled to understand their
speech.
"I believe they said they'll
work for a roof over their head," an older villager stepped forward. The
wrinkled old man approached the Stranger, while the large villager backed away.
"Who are you, stranger?"
"Nobody," the Stranger
responded.
"What is your name?" The
old man cocked his head. However, the Stranger's response sounded like
gibberish to him. "I'm afraid I don't understand," he replied.
"Sorry...Name...Not...Work,"
she attempted to apologize, but the old villager brushed it off.
"Where do you come from?"
The man asked.
"Small town...Far Away,"
the Stranger answered.
"Why did you leave?" The
villager leaned towards the Stranger.
"Nothing there...Anymore,"
the Stranger replied to the best of her ability.
"You can understand me very
well," the old man realized, "yet your speech is broken, why is
this?"
"Understanding...Easy,"
the Stranger revealed, "Reverse...Hard."
"I see," the villager
nodded, "I can tell you've traveled long and far. If you're willing to
work for it someone can provide you with lodgings."
"Thank you," the Stranger
bowed.
"You are an interesting young
lady," the old man chuckled. "Follow me," the old villager
turned around, "I think I know someone with a spare room and in need of an
extra pair of hands." The Stranger followed the old man deeper into the
village. The sight provoked some interest in the other villager, but they eventually
returned to their daily tasks.
~--~
The villagers remained wary of the
Stranger for the first few days of her stay. However, she proved to be a hard
enough worker to earn a temporary roof over her head. Her work ethic was
suitable and she did every job given to her quickly and without complaint. The
Stranger remained an idle curiosity in the village. However, attention on her
drifted away by the end of the week, as the next curiosity swept through town.
Like a sudden jolt, the village
experienced a wave of good fortune and prosperity. It began simply enough, with
long-lost items being found. A mother's necklace here, a child's toy there,
even a lost pet returned home. Then it shifted to money and valuables. Coins were
found in pockets and shoes, stashes of money discovered in the woods. One lucky
villager even found a gemstone hidden beneath his home. The week was capped off
with signs of sudden growth in all the crops. A certain indication of a
bountiful harvest that year.
Everyone in the village was
overjoyed at their sudden turns of fortune. The Stranger was the sole
exception. No especially lucky occurrences graced the Stranger's days. Yet, she
remained completely indifferent to the villagers' good fortune. It appeared the
village would see nothing but good times in the near future. Then a merchant
came to town.
It had been two weeks since the
Stranger's arrival. The village was alight and joyful from their recent good
fortune. It was late that morning when the merchant on a horse-drawn cart
rolled into town. He was a scruffy man, with tanned skin, thick facial hair and
a healthy build. He was flanked by two young men under his employee, and his
young son, who was no older than ten. He set up shop in the center of the
village and drew attention from every corner of the small settlement.
His son shyly hid behind some
barrels set out beside the cart, while the merchant began a well-rehearsed
sales pitch. "Come and see, fabrics, oils, tools and more." The
villagers were enraptured as he brandished his wares, from lamps to carpets and
maps. As more villagers gathered into a crowd around the cart, the merchant's
son hid further back behind his barrels. Despite this, a villager still bumped
him as they passed by.
"Sorry there boy," the
villagers apologized. The boy did not reply. Instead, he slid further behind
the barrel and clutched his hands to his chest. The villagers shrugged at the
boy's shyness and went on forward, only to crash into another larger man.
"Watch were you're going,"
the large villager warned.
"Sorry," the smaller man
replied. He pushed on towards the merchant ready to make a purchase. The
merchant was in the middle of a sales pitch for farm tools, which drew the
small villager's attention. As he eyed a brand new shovel he reached into his
pocket to retrieve his sack of money. Yet, his hand found nothing, his money
was gone. He pawed over his body in a sudden panic but found no sign of his
lost currency. He turned back towards the larger man and glared, "Hey, you
took my money didn't you?"
"What?" The larger man
looked back, "Why would I take yours? I have plenty of my own." The
larger man brandished his own, oddly large, sack of money to support his point.
"That doesn't answer my
question," the smaller man yelled, "you're the only person who could
have taken it. Admit it, you stole it didn't you!" The two villagers began
to butt heads, the sudden fight caused a small break in the crowd. The
merchant's son continued to shrink behind the barrel as the fight grew louder.
The rest of the villagers and the merchant could only stare.
It was then the Stranger arrived,
also drawn by the merchant's cart. She had the poor fortune to emerge from the
crowd right into the two villager's fight. The two villagers at odds yelled at
the Stranger, the closest person nearby, to confirm the other was wrong.
"A fight...Money is the
problem?" The Stranger tried to understand the conflict.
"Exactly," the large
villager confirmed, "tell this guy I didn't steal his money?"
"No," the small villager
denied, "admit you stole it!"
"Money," the Stranger
sighed, "I offer my own." The Stranger reached into her pocket and
presented their own money.
"Forget it! I'm not letting
this thief off scot free!" The smaller man declared, he jumped at the
larger man and the verbal fight escalated to a physical one. The Stranger was
caught in between. As the two men tussled around her, the coins the Stranger
held were flung from her hands. Then the most peculiar and impossible events
followed.
The merchant's son looked up at the
coins flung in the air. From his position even he could tell the coins should
have flown right into the crowd. Yet, as though they were guided by invisible
hands, the coins curved in the air. The airborne currency flew in his direction
with a sudden burst of speed. The crowd was so enraptured by the sudden
violence they didn't even see this impossible event. Nobody looked to see until
after the boy screamed.
The coins had sailed straight into
the barrel before him, right in front of his face. He leaped back and tumbled
onto the ground flat on his face. A sack of coins fells from his grasp and
spilled onto the ground before him.
"Son, are you okay?," The
merchant turned back to his fallen child, "wait, where did you get all
this money?"
"Uh, I found it," the boy
refused to meet his father's eye. He scrambled to retrieve the spilled coins.
At the same time, the fight between the two villagers was finally broken apart
by intervention from the crowd.
As the merchant boy finished his
retrieval of the spilled coins he looked up and saw the Stranger. She had
turned in his direction and began to walk forward. The boy leaped back as the
woman approached, but she veered off at the last moment. She picked up her coin
which had lodged itself in the barrel.
"Sorry," the Stranger
apologized as she walked away. The boy stared as she disappeared into the crowd
of villagers. Once she was gone he scrambled into his father's cart in panic. A
few minutes later the fight was reduced to a memory and business proceeded as
usual.
~--~
It was late that night the Stranger was
approached by the old villager again. She was seated in a tiny cottage on the
far side of town in deep study of a set of maps. The old man stood at the door
to the cottage and greeted the Stranger.
"I saw you got caught between
the fight earlier today," the old man began.
"Was not my intention,"
the Stranger replied.
"It's fine," the old man
laughed. "Those two always fight over the most trivial things. You were just
unfortunate enough to be caught in their tussle."
"I see," the Stranger
nodded before she returned to her map.
"Don't worry about it anymore,
the real thief came forward," the old man continued, "it was the
merchant's son. The poor boy was dragged across town to apologize, his father
was furious."
"Unfortunate indeed," the
Stranger commented as she pulled out another map.
"By the way, where did you get
those maps?" The old villager inquired.
"The trader," the Stranger
revealed. "Old maps...Good value," the Stranger smiled.
"Planning on leaving so soon?"
The old man asked.
"Not yet," she answered.
"Very well, I'll leave you to
your maps then," he turned and left. The Stranger watched him leave, but quickly
returned to her maps. It was a long night for the mysterious woman as she
burned the midnight oil.
~~~~
Hope you enjoyed the story so far, there's plenty more to come. Expect a little more action and drama in the next few parts.My only concern is the titular Stranger's manner of speech. I don't know how to get across broken speech, but keep the intent understandable. I tried to use an online translator to create some instant broken speech, but that didn't work out how I hoped.
The intention is she has a basic understanding of the language, but hasn't grasped the syntax or grammar yet. She doesn't bother trying to create complete sentences and just strings the important words together. It's like going to a foreign country with an English to whatever dictionary and trying to communicate with that exclusively. It's not the best option and it makes you sound like a moron, but it's better than nothing and there's probably one person who can get the gist of what you're saying.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy. Happy New Year!
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