Life in the village

Living in this little quaint village, off the main routes of this world's largest kingdom, was a fairly simple business: as here people were fair, reasonable, easy-going and more importantly; peaceful.

Mai Misaki had been comfortably surviving in this new world for a couple of months now, without any major incidents, gifted with a small residence upon her arrival, since this small village apparently had an abundance of unutilized houses to spare, so space was plentiful. A roof was a big necessity, and alone in this strange place; Mai feared she'd have plenty of troubles, with nothing and no one to support her at all.

Here money wasn't a problem though; as the barter system was alive and flourishing, and with a few skills to share, Mai had been welcomed into this little valley township, without much fuss at all.

Getting used to living in the new land for her, Mai found everyone was pleasant, and getting by wasn't so hard, thanks to the availability of a previously unavailable resource.

It had been a fairly steep learning curve, utilising her new 'gifts'; manly of magic, that was very useful around this place, from cleaning tiny objects - to entire floors, heating up the oven and water for cooking and bathing, to even materializing some basic objects and elements, so on this front - this world stood above her previous one.

But everything else was very underdeveloped; necessities were fine, but there was no electricity, so no handy appliances, phones or internet.

Just living in this world was busy enough without the technological distractions, and with no mundane cooperate job taking up all the day, Mai had time to do her own things, apart from taking basic care of herself.

Walking about from time to time did a few actions; exercise, some light exploration and learning about this new land and life, and it gave her a feeling of ease, mostly.

"Mai!"

The new neighbouring lady, a few years her senior shouted from her doorstep, and hurried over to Mai.

"Uh, Yes Miss Gabriel..."

"Just Gabriel is fine, for the hundredth time."

She smiled kindly at her.

"So what new delights are you bringing for us tonight?"

Mai had been relegated the towns new sweets and treats maker, since she had dabbled in her former past-time of baking from her old life, and although her ingredients where lesser here, her techniques and remembered skills had more than made her the best treat maker in the little town, by far.

"Uh, just another pastry... this time with apples inside..."

Mai spoke softly, as she was still fairly timid, a trait she had yet to shake.

Gabriel looked slightly confused.

"Inside the pastry?"

Mai nodded, bouncing her straight black hair.

"My - I must see that! I'm looking forward to them!"

She gave another big grin and walked off, toward the village's centre, where on a weekly occasion almost the whole township came to a shared feast - an old tradition to make sure none there ever went hungry.

Mai waved her off and went back to her own business; a short stroll along the small river, to perhaps spy a little fish she could catch and then ready for tomorrow.

Most people still gave her plenty of room and space, being the newest member in town - with a mysterious way and background did that for her, but little by little she was interacting with the others she came by, still slow enough to not become overwhelmed by it all.

Going down along the riverbank, and casually walking along the clear waters side, Mai kept an eye on the rock bottom for her quarry, while also watching some of the small children play near the curved stone bridge nearby.

As she got a little closer - Mai's head intently pounded; filed with sudden images that came to her all at once, in a scramble, frustratingly in a quite random and unpredictable fashion.

Mai's 'extra gift' had brought her 'peeks' into the future, or at least a possible future, coming to her in the way of a sharp bombardment, of mostly fragmented images, which flooded into her thoughts and sometimes caused disorientation.

This latest flashes gave her the 'vision' of one of the guard-railing stones tipping from the bridge, falling and then the children crying and distraught, but her 'sight' suddenly vanished as quick as it came.

Uh, another one...

This 'ability' was her least useful 'accidental gift'; vague and coming without warning, or sometimes context, but at least this time Mai had enough to act upon.

Rushing over to the group of children paddling playfully in the shallows by the bridge, Mai called to them as she arrived.

"Hey there..."

Next was the hardest part, making an excuse, which was plausible and didn't make her appear to be totally insane.

"Uh... do you kids know how to swim?"

It was the best she could think of at the time.

"Swim?"

One of the young boys replied.

"Yes... the water can be dangerous for kids..."

She'd gained their attention, as they cautiously gathered nearer to her, still in the ankle deep water.

"It's not deep Miss."

The brattiest youngster spoke up, but also came up along with the rest, being the last to step away from the overhead bridge.

At that moment, a local cart tottered over, close to their near side, before jarring off a jutting stone; it then bounced off the edge and knocked loose a much larger edge stone. After another second, it heavily plopped down and into the shallow waters, with a hard splash, where the little ones had been just moments earlier - getting all's attention at first.

Then the group of children looked to her in awe.

"How'd you know that was going to happen?"

The smallest girl asked.

"Know what...?"

Mai fanned her foreboding knowledge, but apparently not well enough.

"That could have hit one of us... the newbie saved us?"

The tallest girl splashed from the water and came right up to Mai, looking up curiously.

"Oh no... uh, I just happened by... at the right time is all..."

The other kids gathered about closer in stunned appreciation, before looking to one another and then suddenly rushing off back toward the village.

"Uh wait, please don't... tell..."

They'd already scattered and gone.

Great, another incident linked with my presence... I sure hope they don't give me the boot from this nice place now...

Mai thought to herself, standing alone again beside the waterway.

As the day drew to a close, the natural light faded and the warm fires around the central square glowed, Mai brought her home-made quantity of fruit filled buns carefully, but very trepidatiously. Worried about another instance of her making an unusual impact on the locals lives had been a distraction for the remainder of the day, but nothing had become of it, yet.

Smiles and simple greetings warmly invited her to the gathering, like usual, and after putting her contribution to the food down, she was waved over to the central table, by the stockiest man she'd even seen, even in person during her previous life too.

This muscle bound guy was the 'leader' of the village, Brian was his introduced name, and he was a often loud and brash man, with a family, who reminded her of her previous supervisor - without all the bludging muscles.

Mai nervously sat at the far end of the wooden table and waited on, unsure what had brought her to the central focal point for this evenings gathering.

"Here, have a drink."

One of the older residents offered Mai a glass mug.

"Thanks..."

Mai couldn't recall the older man's name, but accepted the slightly watered down ale.

Many of the people living here were much older than Mai, or far younger, with few about near to her age; in her early twenties, with most already starting to grey a little, she was again in a fairly unique position within this social network. The others about did their best to make her feel welcomed, but today there seemed to be a little extra attention drawn her way.

Just as she started to fret about the reason, the leader - Brian stood for his usual announcement.

"We gather again tonight for all who live here; to prolonged prosperity and with new luck in hand too!"

So far Mai had noted that each 'event' was attributed for a villager's good deeds during the week, given a stage for all to know their contributions to or for the village.

"Today's celebration is for someone in particular..."

He raised a mug of ale in the air before him and smiled broadly.

"Today we recognise someone who had made our village stronger and safer... our latest member - Mai Misaki!"

"Huh?"

Mai was totally shocked.

"I thank Mai - for keeping my Gill and the other children here safe from harm!"

"To Mai!"

A chorus rang out from the gathered, making Mai blush from the added attention.

Oh gosh, what do I say...?

Public speaking had never been her thing, but the collected group grew quiet, expecting a reply, so Mai humbly got to her feet.

"I only did... what anyone would have done... But, uh... thanks..."

She shyly made out, before slumping to her seat again, as a cheer went up for her again.

More congratulations happened over and over through the afternoon from then on, making Mai sweat with nerves all the while, till eventually the village chief took an opportunity to have a more private word with her, just before she had time to retire.

"Mai, my dear, I must personally thank you again, for preventing something tragic from happening..."

"Oh no sir, anyone would have done the same..."

She again tried to downplay her actions.

"But you saw it happen... before it happened correct?"

Mai gulped, backed into an inescapable spot, while physically trapped between tables too.

Brian still smiled, but lowered his usual loud volume quite a bit.

"No need to fret, what you have is a very precious."

So it's not unheard of in this world?

"It's not very reliable..."

She gave up, having lost the will to outright deny the ability.

"No worries, you just keep doing what you do, and we'll listen."

He patted a reassuring large hand on her shoulder, fairly softly.

"You're an important part of our community; so we don't want to lose you now."

He released her and fetched another nearby unattended ale drink.

"You'll be safe here."

"Thank-you."

Mai watched him wander off and resume the weekly festivities.

As the stars shone above, Mai quietly slipped away, she needed a rest from the attention, so headed back to her little house by the village's edge.

Stepping to her little houses door, Mai felt her head begin to pound with yet another sudden and overwhelming 'fore-sight'.

The world suddenly changed before her, into a fiery blaze: flames licked the house, and not just hers, but all the others in view too. Even the nearby crops and gardens burned, and thick smoke choked her breath.

Then it all disappeared again, though Mai was still left short of breath.

That was another possibility ...but how? ...and when will that happen?