Delivery

“Huh… this is… something.” Mina remarked as they slowly flapped through the air.

“Something wrong Mina?” Vasilis asked from in front of her.

“No, nothing. Just, not quite what I expected, that’s all.” Mina answered, and Vasilis chuckled.

“Not quite huh? What, you expected something like shooting through the skies, blasting through clouds, moving faster than you ever could while tethered to the ground?” He asked, almost sarcastically. Mina couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment as he hit the nail right on the head, and Vasilis didn’t need her to say anything to let him know that.

“Well, don’t worry. These fiterolta can do exactly that, but only when they’re not weighed down. Right now though, we’ve got a lot of cargo doing exactly that, and we’ve got to be carful not to damage it in flight.” He explained.

Mina sighed, accepting the explanation for what it was, but she still couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed. Still, despite the slow speed, the trip wasn’t all bad. The view was incredible, and she even got to get to know Foteini a bit better, learning about how her days go as the group’s main cook and bookkeeper.

Still, the flight only lasted what felt like half an hour before they arrived in the town, and Mina finally got a proper look at the place.

It was incredible. The buildings were all made of that same white stone and gold wood that the Anactites home base was made from, giving everything an almost marble look. Nearly every single building had at least two levels, made up of big pillars holding up roofs covered with red straw, and interestingly enough there were very few actual walls. The strangest and most incredible thing though was the fact that at least half of the buildings were floating. Just like the island they were standing on, even the buildings themselves were unconnected from the ground below them, being held in place with little more than magic and some chains.

Then there were the people all around, all dressed in blues and purples and reds, with every single person wearing some kind of cape. They were all going about their daily business, giving out friendly greetings but otherwise mostly keeping to themselves. There were people flying fiteroltas back and forth through the town, and there were even a few kinds of birds Mina hadn’t seen yet being herded by different people. It was without a doubt a beautiful city, one that couldn’t exist in her world.

“It’s incredible, I know, but come on.” Vasilis said, pulling Mina out of her revere. “We’ve got some cargo to move, so you can gawk after we’re done.”

“O-oh right, sorry.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Alright, and here are your chrims.” The store owner said as he handed Foteini a bag of money, which was of all things crystalized feathers. “I can’t wait for your next delivery.”

“Hold on.” Foteini said before the man could leave. She then opened the bag and looked inside, rummaging her hand through it for a moment before shooting the man a glare. “This is 30 chrims less than our agreed upon amount.”

“Ah, ha ha ha, I can’t get one over on you, can I.” The man said as he pulled the final 30 chrims from his pocket and handed them to her.

“No, you can not, nor should you try if you want to keep receiving our deliveries.” Foteini said firmly before walking back to the rest of the group, leaving the man watching her nervously as she left.

“Please tell me that that was the last delivery.” Iro groaned from her spot on the bench. Beside her Mina, Nik, and even Panos were panting in exhaustion, too tired to even ask that.

“Yes yes, that was the last of it. Now come on, you’re all physically fit, you shouldn’t be this tired.” Foteini told them.

“You made us carry half that stuff halfway across the city, of course we’re tired.” Mina managed to say back. “Why the heck did we need to carry it all that way anyways? Why couldn’t we just fly the stuff?”

“Because we had multiple smaller deliveries to make, and it’s far more convenient to take deliveries of that size by hand rather than by bird.” Foteini explained. “Were we delivering everything to one location, then we would have landed in front of the location. However, given our current delivery plan, it is far more practical to land our cargo in a point in the middle of all our deliveries and walk them from there, which we did.”

Mina responded with a tired groan, too tired to argue

‘We could have at least gotten a cart to use.’ Mina thought to herself. Then she actually gazed around and noticed that no, there weren’t any carts around being used by anyone. ‘And there’s no such thing as carts around here, of course. These people are really dedicated to that ‘nothing that is always touching the ground’ thing huh?’

“Anyways, we’ve got to do some shopping, but I think we can do that by ourselves.” Natalia then said. “You kids can just relax and have fun, rest as long as you want. We’ll meet back where we left our fiteroltas later, alright.”

“Alright Natalia.” Iro said, and the other three groaned in agreement.

“Alrighty then. See you kids later.” Natalia said. And with that, she, Vasilis, and Foteini all walked off.

Foteini then walked a different direction without a word to do her own errands, as usual not even bothering to say bye before she did. This naturally left Natalia and Vasilis on their own for their own shopping venture as they went to collect more farming supplies.

“Well, outside of those two guys that tried to short change us, I’d say that this delivery went alright.” Natalia remarked.

“Agreed. The kids did a good job hauling everything despite all their complaining.” Vasilis said. “I honestly expected Mina to lag behind the others, but she kept up quite well.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Natalia remarked. “For someone that claims she’s a city kid, she’s just as good at getting her hands dirty as we were growing up.”

“Oh? That’s a rare compliment from you.” Vasilis said with an intrigued raised eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re going to say something cliché like you see your younger self in her?”

“Oh knock it off.” Natalia said with a roll of her eyes and a playful shove. “You’re the cliché one between the two of us.”

“I don’t know? I’m the one that actually moved up from being a farmer, yet I’ve still got the farmer’s grit inside me.” Vasilis said. “You’re the one that’s still stuck on being a farm girl. And now you’re even teaching the younger generation how to live off the land.”

“You do remember I moved up from being a farmer too, right? Heck, I can still go back to my job if I wanted to, unlike you.” Natalia shot back.

“Ah, but I’m hearing nothing against you teaching the younger generation. It’s clear you’ve already taken a liking to Mina. Heck, it’s only been a day and you already almost like her as much as your own actual kid.” Vasilis teased.

“Well can you blame me? She’s actually interested in how farming works.” Natalia countered. “The only other person in our group who’s actually interested in farming is you, and I can’t teach you much of anything, what with you thick headed you are these days.”

“Sure, that’s why you can’t teach me. Not because I actually know more than you.” Vasilis said with a roll of his eyes. “Still, it’s kinda a shame. For all that Mina loves learning about farming, once everything is finished and Athan’s plan is complete, she wont exactly be able to do much farming will she.”

The happy smile that was on Natalia’s face instantly fell at that last comment, and a guilty look replaced it.

“Yeah, I guess she wont.” She said sadly.

Things quieted down as the pair continued on their way, not noticing the particular figure up on the roof looking down at them intently. Nor did Foteini, or the exhausted children.

“Well, look what we have here. We might have just found our target.” That particular cloaked figure remarked.

…

“That’s racist.”