Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 10

The feeling of fall. Aerie thought. When Cade reached for her shoulders, she could feel her senses shutting themselves down inside her body, and the feeling of falling to her back, so softly, so slowly.

And she did. When she opened her eyes again, the world was different. It was no longer the office she stayed in; she was in a market. A very crowded one. The people were talking, screaming, chatting. In a language that she had no idea of, but she was sure that by the looks of the people who were screaming on the top of their throats, they were hawkers, selling their food in a night market.

The people passed by her, and Aerie had no idea where she was, or whatever they were talking about. They weren't looking at her, to her relief.

"It's Chinese." Cade said, "The language. In case you're interested. And here we are, isn't it beautiful?" He said, looking at the night sky and pulled Aerie up.

"You... transported me here?" Aerie asked, "What does it have to do with.. you?"

"Compensation." Cade replied, "Don't worry. Its really night in here, and the people can really see us. You would definitely be interested in a trip, whatever. Sure that you haven't left England, so maybe I guessed that you would like being here."

"Only heard of night markets, I have never been to one." Aerie replied, "Is it usually this crowded? I mean- air here never seen this many people in one place together."

"You have to speak up, you know." Cade said, "Cause theres so many people in here, I definitely cannot hear you."

"IS IT USUALLY THIS CROWDED HERE?" Aerie screamed, and to her surprise, even when she yelled with every last breath she had, her voice was still masked over by the screams of the hawkers looking for people to buy their stuff.

Cade laughed. He knew that at this rate, he would never be able to hear clearly what she would be saying over the whole journey.

At one of the corner, Aerie caught sight of a hawker selling sticks of what looked like strawberry coated in sugar liquid. And under the very strong white light the cart installed, the sticks of strawberry seemed to reflect under the strong light. And Aerie simply walked towards it.

Of course, no matter how hard Aerie stare at the board, she still had no idea at all on how much anything would cost. After all, the numbers on the board made no sense. And the characters made even less sense when all it seemed like a big jumble. One sugar strawberry stick won't cost one hundred pounds, right?! And one don't make any sense either—

"Hey. How much is this?" Aerie asked, pulling the wallet, which, fortunately, was still inside her pocket after whatever that had happened.

'One of the stick please,' Cade walked beside her, and pulled some banknotes from his pocket, to which Aerie barely recognized and remembered seeing in a history textbook. 'Yep, the one in the middle.'

Aerie was amazed by how fluent the language they spoke— which must be Chinese as he mentioned. It was one of the largest language known, but to Aerie, Cade even seemed like a native.

"We don't use British pounds here in Taiwan, idiot." Cade laughed, handing her the stick that he just got from the hawker. Aerie didn't think much, the moment when she got the stick, she dug herself into the food. The sugar coating was fantastic, to her surprise. It did not taste like usual white sugar— tasteless and dull, and blended perfectly with the strawberry, which tasted sweet as well.

'Your girlfriend?' The hawker joked, looking at Cade who simply stared at Aerie, who, obviously had never had the snack before. She stuffed the whole thing into her mouth, and licked the sugar coating as if it was ice cream.