Night Stroll

Luckily by this point, Noah wasn't affected by the large crowds. Over the past nine years, Evergreen had grown much larger than when he had last been there. The population was already in steady growth due to the smaller amount of snowfall compared to everywhere else in Winterguard.

Ellie: "Where first!? Where first!?"

Noah: "Like I said, I didn't get to look around last time I was here. We should probably just start at the market and look around."

The market in the city was at the center in a large circle. All sorts of stalls were set up for business, selling a variety of items, from food to jewelry.

Ellie: "We should try out some food first! We haven't eaten all day!"

Lynn: "That sounds good to me."

Noah: "Well kiddo, you may as well take the lead since you're the most excited here."

Ellie walked around having no clue what to pick. The options here compared to their small village were overwhelming in a sense. An older woman running a stall took notice of the wonder in her eyes and called out to her.

Elder Stall Owner: "Over here little miss. I'm sure I have something you'll find interesting."

Noah: "May as well check it out."

Elder Stall Owner: "My name is Holly. This stall is mainly based on sweets."

Ellie: "Oh! We almost never have anything sweet."

Noah: "We're from a far out village, I'm sure anything you have should be new to us."

Holly: "We'll start you off with this then."

She put a glass of brown liquid on the table.

Holly: "This here is milk infused with cocoa found in the Manis forest in the country Terra. Chocolate is a key component in a lot of sweets. The stuff is pretty easy to come by there. It's their biggest export actually. That forest is just full of all sorts of stuff."

Noah: "I'm going to stick with the diet David put me on for now, but do you two want any?"

Ellie: "YES!"

Lynn: "Well, I've visited cities before, so you can just focus with what Ellie wants."

Noah: "Alright, if you ever change your mind let me know. Ellie gets spoiled enough as it is."

Ellie's eyes lit up as she drank the milk. That smile was worth any price to Noah.

Holly: "Maybe this will suit your tastes as well. It's an apple dipped in something called caramel. It's put on a stick so you could carry it around as you look for other stalls to view."

Noah: "Oh? I thought you'd be selling us your whole store when you called us over."

Holly: "Too many sweets would be bad for her health. Can't be giving her any bad habits just yet."

Noah: "I appreciate that."

Holly: "There's a nice bread stall about ten stalls to the right, a friend of mine runs it. His name is Harold. Pretty good stuff honestly."

Ellie: "Bread doesn't sound that exciting, but..."

Noah: "You can do plenty of things with bread, so we'll go check it out."

The group went over to Harold's bread stall.

Harold: "Holly send you over?"

Noah: "Yup. Got anything a kid might like?"

Harold: "I'm sure anything here would work. Right here is some pumpkin bread. Better tasting then it sounds."

Noah: "Where does the pumpkin come from? Terra?"

Harold: "Sure does. I swear, anything you can think of is grown over there. Glad it's so close to Winterguard."

Noah purchased the bread and Ellie scarfed it down quickly.

Ellie: "It did taste a lot better than it sounded."

The group of three continued to shop around for a good portion of the day before Noah decided that they should head to the inn. Noah decided to go to the same inn as when David took him as it was a cheaper price, but still a quality stay.

Noah: "They actually sell food here believe it or not."

Lynn: "Oh, is there a tavern attached?"

Noah: "Yeah, it's pretty convenient. We'll eat dinner there and then get our room."

They all had their fill at the tavern. Ellie could barely finish her food after eating so much at the stalls from earlier. Afterwards they got their room and went up to it to settle for the night. As they started to enter the room, Noah pulled Lynn aside and whispered to her.

Noah: "Stay in what you're wearing right now. We'll wait for Ellie to go to sleep."

Lynn: "What are you planning?"

Noah: "You'll see."

Ellie was quick to fall asleep after having eaten so much throughout the day. Noah and Lynn then snuck out of the inn, being careful not to wake her up.

Lynn: "What happens if she wakes up?"

Noah: "I'm sure she'll know in her own twisted way what I'm doing."

Lynn: "And what exactly are we doing?"

Noah: "Hmmm... I guess you could call it a date?"

Lynn turned as red as possible when he said that.

Noah: "Though it's not like we're dating or anything. So I guess it's more me wanting to hang out with you since we catered to Ellie's desires all day."

Lynn: "So what are we going to do?"

Noah: "Good question. I hear some club type places are open at night here. Care to dance?"

Lynn: "Sure..."

They ended up finding a bar with some people playing music while people danced in the middle of the room. At first it was more fun music, but as the night went on they transitioned into slower songs. As a slow song started to be played, Noah extended his hand.

Noah: "Everyone else is partnering up, so shall we?"

Lynn: "Do you even know how to dance?"

Noah: "Not a clue. Everyone else looks like they're basically standing in place and slowly moving around, so how hard could it be?"

Lynn: "You're hopeless."

She said that as she took his hand and they got close. The two of them slowly danced the night away. When it got to be too late, the club ended up closing.

Lynn: "I'll admit, that was more fun then I thought it would be."

Noah: "Yeah, but I have one more place for us to visit. No dancing or anything, just something to see."

Lynn: "Alright, let's go."

Noah took Lynn to the market area at first and walked to between the sweets and bread stall as he started to look around and mutter to himself.

Lynn: "Are you lost?"

Noah: "No, no. I'm just thinking of the directions I heard... I got it. Follow me again."

With some more walking, the two of them came up on a bridge. The city had a river running through it. Some people used the water as a way of transportation during the day, but at night, it was lit up on the side with torches as a viewing pleasure. Between the torches and moonlight, the river had a very beautiful aesthetic to it.

Lynn: "Wow..."

Noah: "Don't get to see stuff like this in our shitty little villages."

Lynn: "I didn't take you as the type to hate his village."

Noah: "I don't hate it at all. I love it there. But you can't deny that we don't get to have anything quite like this."

Lynn: "That's true."

There was a pause in the conversation as Lynn turned towards Noah.

Lynn: "There's no music, but can we dance here a little more. I'm not feeling very tired."

Noah: "Sure thing."

The pair danced slowly, illuminated by flames and moonlight. It was about half an hour before they stopped and went back to the inn. Seemingly, they hadn't woke up Ellie, and they tried not to as they climbed into their beds. Noah got in bed with Ellie and Lynn slept on her own. As Noah got into bed, he felt a tap on his back. He turned over to see Ellie smiling at him.

Ellie: "Nice one."

Noah laughed off her words. At this point, he felt like he probably was in love with Lynn, but he had other things to worry about before he wanted to think about romance. He went to sleep knowing the fun part of the trip was over, and the long grueling part would begin the next day.