PANACEA-Book One-By Hell or High Water

4. Pip

The sights and sounds of the village assaulted me in the most wonderful way.

The small settlement was fenced in with tall fence posts, with stalks of long pole like plants crossed over them. The name came to mind, but I had never recalled seeing such a thing until now. Sugar cane. Dried out and used to build a fence, not that it would have stopped anything unwanted from entering. Edmund led us through an open gap in the fencing that allowed water to flow in and out of the village without any real challenge. Maybe he didn't qualify as an unwanted thing, though.

Even as we had been going down the river from the lake I had come from, I had seen the village. Now that we were inside, however, I could see it all much clearer. The houses were built with frames of dried stock and wood I assumed was cut from the forest that laid to the west, that Edmund had mentioned. Stretched over the frames you could see thick, large animal hides. Some were built from wood and dried mud. Around the edges of the big, murky lake the village centered itself around was sugar cane, growing tall and healthy. They obscured a lot of the view as far as houses and buildings went, but not for long. Edmund rowed the boat up to the dock, and Hero led me out of the boat. I waited on the dock uneasily, watching people go by, carrying wood, walking their children. I even saw one woman leading a pack of at least ten tiny animals. They looked like deer, but they were below her knee level, and colored teal, magenta and yellow. Their big eyes lit up as they pranced behind her. One jumped up to a surprising height, landing seemingly unharmed. They disappeared behind a house, and I became aware of Ed tapping my shoulder.

"You're going to need to follow us carefully. It would be easy for you to get lost here."

Slowly, I nodded, and pulled up the hood of the dark cloak they had given me. Ed began to make his way down the cobblestone road, passing carts and horses. Meanwhile, Hero and I not only had trouble keeping up, but avoiding being hit by any and everything that moved. Hero resorted to grabbing onto the back of my cloak, as if he thought I knew where I was going. Luckily, Edmunds bald head wasn't too hard to see amongst the crowd. The fact that he was so much shorter than most of the others amongst the buzz of people didn't help though.

Just as I thought I would get us lost amongst the countless people, animals and houses, a hand grabbed my shoulder lightly. Edmund guided me to the side, and a pleasant smell graced my nose. Salty and warm. I didn't get the chance to investigate, though. The sound of Edmund rapping his knuckles on a door made me snap to attention.

The door in question belonged to a house built from stones placed in dry mud. The roof was just sugar cane stalks and wood strips laid over top. Strung up beads and long metal pieces blew in the slight breeze, producing a sweet, jingly sound. I was almost completely enthralled by the sound, and probably would have forgotten what I was doing had the door not swung open so loudly.

My eyes fell on a small girl with short, brown hair. It was choppy, with bangs that looked like they were tickling her button nose. She had a long strip of purple cloth tied around her head, keeping most of her hair back. The purple matched that of her dress, which was adorned with beads and metal bits As she teetered back and forth, sheepishly grinning, her dress made another jingly sound like the ones outside. Needless to say, she didn't look much like Ruby, who Edmund and Hero had described as being tired looking, old and papery.

Edmund looked over her shoulder into the house, then back at her.

"Excuse me, Pip, is your grandmother here?"

The little girl in question shook her head. "Why?"

"We were hoping to pick up our orders," Hero answered.

Pip looked confused for a moment. Then her face flashed with recognition. "Oh! My grandmother told me not to let you in to get them, because you were so late."