Maria joyfully dragged Lorelei across the many stands of the busy market. Here, it was very different from the place they had just come from. The houses had been replaced with shops, their names written in bold characters to attract the masses. The many stands in front of them were filled with a wide variety of merchandise — all sorts of things Lorelei had never laid her eyes upon before. She heard the merchants scream to attract people to their stands, things like:
"A pound of apples selling for 5 lyrr, price negotiable!"
Others would rather say:
"Best minerals for crafting, coming straight from the northern border! I guarantee you have never seen those before! They do miracles in crafting your weapons, you can trust me on that!"
Each of them had their ways of attracting clients through their words or even actions. Maria then suddenly stopped in front of an eggplant stand and brought out her list.
"Let's see what we have here. Hmm, 8 eggplants, negotiate for 7 lyrr? How am I supposed to do that..."
She looked puzzled, staring at the paper. She then mustered up all her strength and asked, "Hello, mister, may I buy 8 eggplants?"
"Of course."
He packed the eggplants in a bag with incredible speed and handed them to Maria.
"It will be 10 lyrr."
"10? That's way too expensive for 8 of them. I can do 6."
"Listen, these are good quality eggplants, properly grown indoors during winter, so their value is higher. For you, miss, I could give you a 2 lyrr discount. How about that?"
"Hmm... One of them seems to be shorter and smaller than the others. How about we find common ground between both of our offers and opt for 7 lyrr?"
The vendor thought about it for a while and decided to accept Maria's offer, answering her with a handshake. She handed him the money and thanked him. She then turned to Lorelei and asked her all proudly, "What do you think of my bargaining skills? Aren't I the best?"
Lorelei agreed with her, and Maria took off once again, sinking deeper into the market. The two girls were stopped by a voice calling out Maria's name.
"Maria! Maria!"
Maria looked around, seemingly trying to find where the voice came from, but with this many people walking around, it was hard to find a way through the market.
"I'm here, my dear!"
She turned to her left and saw an old man waving at her. Her face suddenly lit up with a big smile, and she ran towards him, bringing Lorelei with her.
"Mister! It's been a while!" she said excitedly.
The old man chuckled while running his hand through his long, white beard.
"Yes, yes, it has been a while. How is your mother doing? You aren't here with her this time?"
"She's at home. She said I would be able to do the groceries alone this time!"
"Oh, look how much you've grown. You're a big girl now. Who is this young lady behind you?"
Maria wrapped her arms around Lorelei to present her to him.
"This is Lorelei! She's my friend."
Lorelei was startled by hearing Maria call her a 'friend.' In the many stories the man had read to her, the word 'friend' repeated a lot of times; she had heard it countless times, yet still didn't grasp the real meaning. She knew it by word, but not by actions. The warm body of Maria pressing against her made her recall the man's warm embrace. Could the feeling she had felt before be one of calling such a person a 'friend'? No. The feeling she had felt before was way stronger than what she was feeling now, yet this feeling wasn't unpleasant at all. She smiled and answered.
"I'm Maria's FrIend."
The old man smiled again.
"Should I give you the usual, Maria?"
"Yes, please!"
The man took a bag into which he first poured white sugar, then picked up another bag and poured a hefty load of brown sugar.
"Here! It'll be 3 lyrr for you, dear."
Maria handed him the money from her little hand purse and thanked him before running through the market with Lorelei. This time, they were both running side by side, dodging and avoiding people along the way. They went around grabbing the rest of the groceries Silvia had told them to get. Lorelei even participated in talking to one of the merchants to buy oil. It was fun, she thought.
Once they were done with their little merry trip, Maria and Lorelei climbed back up the staircase they had come from. The first time, Lorelei had been too busy observing Maria and the market in front of her, but this time she was able to see water flowing through a long passage. Lorelei stopped walking and observed it.
"Lorelei, you coming?"
"I waNt to WatCh a LittLe lOnger."
"Oh, the artificial river? I have a nice place to watch that! Mother showed it to me!"
She took Lorelei's hand and ran back to the part of the capital they had come from. From there, they crossed a little round bridge over the water that took them to another area of the capital. Before they got any further, Maria turned a corner, and now they were in a really narrow passageway that they had to take turns going through. Once they got out, they reached a terrace-like area with benches. In front of them was a staircase that seemed to split in two. Maria walked down the right staircase, and Lorelei followed after her. To her surprise, in the middle of the area there was a gigantic fountain that, on the ground, divided into four different canals that passed through hidden tunnels.
"Here we are! Do you like it?"
"Mhm."
Maria and Lorelei walked around the fountain a little longer. The jets projected water high up into the sky around the basin, and as soon as it landed, another jet would replace it, spraying it again on the other side. Each one, in harmony, would take turns picking up where the other jet left off, creating an everlasting circular motion between them. The main jet in the fountainhead would project forward, sometimes in a double stream or a long continuous stream down the middle. Whenever it did so, the other jets would turn and project theirs within the stream, merging in the middle, creating some kind of symbol that Lorelei recognized as the insignia some people wore on the right side of their chest. From four little spouts shaped like wings, the water would pour out into little canals, creating the big stream that Lorelei had seen back at the staircase. Maria called out to Lorelei, who was still standing near the fountain, reaching out her hand to touch the water.
"Lorelei, come have a seat!"
"Okay."
She walked over to Maria and sat next to her.
"It's nice here, isn't it?"
"YeAh, it is."
"There are four different fountains like this around the city. I only know where two of them are, including this one. Mother said she would show me the other two, but she never did."
"ArE the oTher two like thIs one?"
"Yeah, they are just as big as this one. The other one might even be just a little bigger, but it has the same type of stream as this one, forming in the middle — the kingdom's symbol."
Both Maria and Lorelei stayed quiet, enjoying each other's presence and the light, soothing sound of the water stream.
"You know, Lorelei, before you came, I was feeling a bit lonely. Nobody really lives around there anymore; it's just Mom and me. Mother is the only person I can talk to when we're at home, and sometimes she goes out without me to the capital, so I'm all alone over there. So when you came, I was really happy that I had someone to play with. I've always wanted to read books and go around exploring the capital with a friend."
Maria then got off the bench and slowly walked towards the railing with her hands behind her back, and in a swift movement, she turned around towards Lorelei, making her dress spin with her as well. With a big smile on her face, she said, "Thank you for being my friend, Lorelei!"
Her eyes seemed to emit a blinding radiance to Lorelei. Her warm, gentle smile was just like Silvia's — no. It felt even brighter than Silvia's. Her slim figure, as well as the big, long dress, gave her an adult-like appearance even though she was only thirteen, the same age as Lorelei.
"We still have some time left before the sun sets. Let's go check out the shop districts!"
She walked towards the bench and reached out her hand to Lorelei, who grabbed it in return. Once again, they took off like rockets across the capital's streets.