Chapter Twenty-Five

We arrived at another destroyed building. It looked similar the various ones I’ve seen walking towards here. The difference between this one and all the others, however, was the sign in the front. The letters, in faded colors, read ‘TRADE’. It was part of a larger sign, as there were pieces of other letters above and below it, but the rest of the sign was nowhere to be found. Nina found a circular rock and sat down, resting with a held-out breath. I took a seat next to her, making sure my cloak was still placed on me in the correct manner. I lowered my mask a little, to try and see if anything looked different.

“Even at our pace, we still arrived before the merchant did,” Nina said. I looked down at those words. “We’re fine, don’t you worry about your pace again. Besides, we were limited in our options. I couldn’t exactly carry your head out and about again, could I? And you should see me on day three of little sleep. I’ve seen rocks move faster than me.” I tried to hide my laugh by lifting up my mask. Nina smiled and shook my head with her hand. “It’ll be okay.” I felt those words try to force into me. She didn’t want to say it out loud, and I tried to keep them away but the images of last night found me regardless. Before I could replay them, Nina stood up and pointed to a small object in the distance, coming from the direction of the mountains.

“There they are!” she said getting ready to meet them. It was still going to take a while for them to reach us but seeing them arriving calmed my heart. Nina furrowed her brow and put her hand on her chin. “The last time I had to trade, I had to give up a few valuable things to get what I needed. I thought they were replaceable at first, but the more time has passed, the more I wonder if it was a fair deal.” I stood up and wondered what Nina could have needed.

“Books? Weapons? Materials?” I asked.

“Materials mostly. I built most of everything you see on me. And sometimes I like to replicate some of the things I read about in the books at my place. With how rare some of those things are to find, I’m always afraid I won’t ever see it again.”

“Common fear,” I said. “Normal here. Not necessary, back then.”

“How things change,” Nina said with a short laugh.

After some time spent walking around the broken building, stretching and chatting, the merchant arrived to us. They were pulling a metal cart draped in a heavy tarp, pinned down to make sure everything stayed in place. The person, also cloaked stood taller and wider than the two of us combined. I thought I felt small tremors after every step they took. When they stopped in front of us, they removed the cloak and revealed a woman with a stony look. Her face was a rigid as the rocks around us, and her eyes looked passed us. As she dropped the cart, she stretched her back and stood straight. The taller she stood, the wider my eyes became. After staring at each other for a few seconds, the woman broke the silence.

“What are you looking for?” she said in a voice as harsh as the ground beneath us. I looked at Nina who answered that question with a confused look.

“You’re not the merchant,” she said, staring at the woman.

“I am now. Longlegs decided one day to walk towards the mountains alone and he never came back. I found his cart and thought it was a good idea to continue doing this so here I am.” Nina studied the woman’s face, examining her up and down trying to find something only she knew.

“That happens, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” Nina said with a strange tinge in her voice. “You’re familiar. I know because I told myself not to forget you.” I heard Nina struggle with her words. “You’re one of the people who raised me.”

The woman didn’t have a reaction, the complete opposite of me. I grabbed Nina’s arm, looking straight at her, trying to digest what she just said. The woman turned around and looked back at Nina for the first time since she arrived. It took her a few seconds before she nodded and turned back to her cart.

“Yes, now I remember,” she said in the same voice. “You were loud and troublesome. You made me question whether or not I should continue raising others.” Nina’s arm became loose. The woman turned around back to us. “Teasing.” I felt Nina’s sigh at the end of that word and watched as Nina’s expressions changed into something I was unfamiliar with. I no longer saw the person who was experienced with science and exploration, who wandered the world up here with enough confidence to scare others. I saw a little girl who was eager to be with the person that cared for her.

“So, if you’re doing this, then…” Nina said with a quiet voice.

“That’s right. In case you didn’t believe me, let me tell you that it wasn’t easy.” The woman undid the straps on the cart, rolling the tarp back just enough for us to see what was inside. “I was in the middle of raising another one when we were told about Longlegs. I knew nobody that stayed with us would ever take up the job themselves, even if they were the ones that benefited the most from the work he did. I knew I could muscle my way out of a lot of things out here, so I made the choice to continue his work. Somebody had to.” Nina expected to hear something else, but there was a brief sense of relief in her eyes.

“And what about Whiskey, Wheat, Plums, and Yam? Do you know if they’re still there?”

“What?” the woman asked, trying to arrange the puzzle Nina presented. “There were a lot of different faces when I left. And every time I come back, new faces replace theirs.” I watched as Nina lowered her head, with slight twitches on her lips. Even I could tell that the woman wasn’t teasing us this time. “I stopped learning their names, and I tried to forget mine, but–”

“Vanilla,” Nina said to her in the same quiet voice as before.

“But people like you keep reminding me of it,” the woman responded walking towards the back of the cart. “Now, you here to get something?” I looked at Nina and watched as the word ‘no’ tried to escape, using everything in its power to get out. But when Nina turned towards me and caught my eyes, she faced the woman and placed a smile on her face.