Marketing

I'm still feeling a little down, but I'm determined to make a good first impression as we head out the door.

Orville takes me behind his house and down a small hill to show me the northern palisade gate. It’s noticeably smaller than the one I came through on my first night here. He explains that it is only really used by the farmers to access their fields.

As we start to head back to the village, a young woman’s voice calls out from a distance.

"Good morning, Chief!"

Orville’s graceful reply is immediate. "Hello, Palona! Well don’t you look lovely today. This is my guest, Shikara. Would you like to come meet her?"

Palona, her face is flush as she runs up to us and extends a hand to shake. She has wispy auburn hair that reaches and touches her cheeks and shoulders. I reach out to grab her hand and it feels earthy, she must be one of the farmer's daughters.

“Nice to meet you Palona, I’m Clovis’s new apprentice! I’ll be out and about the village for a little while now and Chief Orville is just showing me around to help get me situated.” I feel so adult all of a sudden.

“Oh really, Clovis’s apprentice? I thought you were that injured nomad?” Palona replies with little to no social tact.

Orville intercepts the misunderstanding. “Well you’re not entirely wrong Palona, Shikara was the injured nomad, but Clovis decided to take Shikara on as an apprentice as well.”

“Ohhhhhh right ok.” She gives an exaggerated nod to try and convey her level of understanding.

“Well it was nice to meet you Shikara, I’ll see ya around, I gotta get back to the fields, the crops won’t harvest themselves!” She runs off before I can reply.

“She seems nice.” I say as I turn to face Orville.

Orville shakes his head. “Don’t worry it’s not you, they’re just not used to new people in the village. And speaking of the harvest, let’s head to the village centre, there should be some stalls out today.”

After exchanging a few more greetings with villagers on the way we arrive in the village square. Where we spot Elara, who must be out getting food for her and Hakota as she has a small thatch basket by her side.

As we approach I can see the surprise grow on her face.

“Shikara! What are you doing here? Are you just about to leave?” She approaches me for a hug as she finishes her sentence.

“Uh no actually, I have some news. I am going to be staying here as Clovis’s new apprentice!” I manage to get the words out despite them being muffled on her shoulder.

Orville takes over and explains how it came to be and at each passing sentence Elara becomes more and more thrilled by the news.

“That’s wonderful news Shikara, I am so happy you’ll be staying here in the village for a while longer!” Her face is beaming as bright as the sun as she continues.

“And it’s great timing, I’ve almost finished repairing your clothes, so now I have a couple more days to get them finished! If you come with me I’ll give you another pair of clothes to tide you over until I have finished.” She sounds happy that she can be of such service to me, I feel like I am still taking advantage of her kindness.

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that really, you’ve done so much already!” I try my best to tame her kindness.

“I must insist, first impressions are everything and we don’t want people thinking you wear the same clothes all the time!” She says even more impassioned as she swipes away my attempt to placate her.

“Well that’s a pretty good point, I’ll swing by after me and Orville have had a look at the stalls!” I relent, there is no room to refuse.

“Perfect, we’ll have to have dinner one evening soon to celebrate your commitment to stay here and join our community. Chief, you’re invited too of course!”

“Thank you Elara, that sounds lovely!” Me and the chief reply in unison which might be a sign that we are spending too much time together already.

Elara wanders off back home, basket in hand, she really is a wonderful woman.

Me and the chief wander around the stalls for a little while. And I find myself quite surprised by how much this little village is able to produce.

There are many different varieties of fruits and vegetables, one distinct feature I notice is that they are all speckled with different colours much like the bread.

“Hey, Chief, how come all the produce has some hints of colour throughout it?” I ask curiously.

Orville is pre-occupied shovelling food into the bag he brought with him as he responds “Uh well we don’t actually know, it’s only started to appear this harvest. We haven’t been able to isolate the cause just yet as we haven’t been able to spare someone to investigate it. It doesn’t seem to affect the quality of the crop, if anything it’s made it slightly better.”

“Oh ok.” It’s the first time I’ve seen Orville not know the answer to one of my questions and that makes me feel a little uneasy.

For all I know I could be eating food contaminated with radiation or some other misunderstood substance.

“Is there anything you want to try here, Shikara?” Orville seems to have identified the lack of enthusiasm in my response.

“I think I’d like to try this one.” I point to what looks like a pear, but it’s as big as a watermelon. I think I’ll try to stick to foods I somewhat recognise in hopes that they are not as ‘contaminated’ as the rest.

“Great choice!” Orville replies quite chipper as if he is actually proud of my choice.

I look around at the village square that is now teeming with life as early evening finds its way in the sky. The sound of laughter drifts by my ear as children play nearby.

A feeling wriggles through my chest and nose. It’s not happiness. It feels like a tentative anticipation of something I thought I had lost forever - the shape of a place I might want to belong.