Finding the Wisest

Chapter Eleven

The more they walked, the closer they got to the colorful buildings and when they finally reached the tell tale lands, Maya had to rub her eyes fiercely to make sure she wasnt dreaming.
Chaos.
Chaos.
There was chaos everywhere.
And it was not the normal type of Chaos.
It was as if Disney fairytales had barfed all over the whole town.

Maya's eyes swiveled from house to house to house. .
To the left was a bright green brick house and in front of it stood a wolf with shorts. In the house, looking out from one large window were three pigs.
In front of the next house, a girl was working in a garden while two other girls were sitting on chairs fanning themselves
Cinderella somebody?

All around her she saw wolves and monkeys and girls in dresses and people running all around . A girl with long blonde hair and a boy with a frying pan shoved past Maya and Kieran.
She stumbled a bit
"Wow. Is it always this chaotic?"

Kieran shrugged half-heartedly but he looked excited, not as worried as Maya was.
Sure, this was all fun to look at and everything but she was a bit disturbed.

Where would they get to sleep?
She didn't want to mistakenly enter a house where the owner was an ogre who wanted to break their bones to make his bread, or a witch intent on fattening Kieran so she could eat him. She had to be very careful in choosing who they were going to ask for help.

They started their short tour around, looking for someone who could direct them to a guest lodge of a sort because she doubted they had hotels here. Unless hotel Trannsylvania was opened.
Well that was what Maya was doing, Kieran was behaving like a child high on sugar. Looking around in awe and thoroughly enjoying himself by asking the characters questions upon questions. Well, he didn't know they were characters, to him maybe, they were normal people with interesting lives.

Maya had to pull him away a couple of times from questionable looking creatures, and once away from 7 short men who looked suspiciously like their best friend was Snow White .

"Kieran, we've walked for ages and nobody we've found looks safe."
She paused her rambling for a moment, angling her head to the side as she swatted away a particularly troublesome fly.
" Strange, I sounded like my mom for a minute there."
She shook her head then continued
"Anyway, I know you're having a lot of fun-- which I personally don't understand but is there anyone you've seen who looks like they won't try to kill us in our sleep or something?"

Kieran looked thoughtful for a moment.
" How about her? "
"Who? "
He pointed in a general direction and when Maya still could not see who it was, he just started pushing her.

She protested, well she tried to.
He pushed her until they reached a large weeping willow tree not too far from where they were standing.
"I promise Kieran, if you dare take me there and I find Pocahontas...I'm so going to..."
He shook Maya "I don't even know what a Pocahontas is, just look." He pointed.

Maya was about to yell at him to stop shaking her but she wanted to conserve her energy and instead decided to just swat his hand away. She looked at the direction in which he pointed at.

It was a smallish figure....sitting on a stone, almost hidden by the leaves of the weeping willow.
The duo shared a look and then decided to approach slowly, so as not to scare or startle the person.
When they got closer, Kieran stayed about a foot back while Maya decided to move even further
Then she cleared her throat.
The girl turned and Maya couldn't help the small smile that came upon her face.

The girl had a cute look about her and probably won people over with her long blonde hair and large brown eyes. She was just adorable. She stared back at Maya.
Maya's voice softened without her even noticing it.
"Hey there, I'm Maya. My friend and I are looking for somewhere to stay. Maybe a bed and breakfast or something like that. Can you help us out please? "

She suddenly thought about money
Did they even use money here?
Maya didn't have money and she doubted Kieran did. Even if they found a bed and breakfast, how would Maya convince them to let her and Kieran stay there for free or she could barter something?
No, the bag was empty save the map.
Maybe she could offer her services, wash dishes or something.

The girl tilted her head and blinked slowly.
She should be around 15 or 16, Maya thought to herself. As her thoughts came back to the matter at hand.

She would be a cheerleader or "popular girl" with those looks if she were in a cliché story.
She turned to glance at Kieran.
Kieran would probably fit the boy next door or class clown type.

The girl cleared her throat also.
"My name is Sozee"
She said this matter of factly, with her nose in the air.
"And I would have given you a handshake but I cannot because I broke my arm recently"
The Sozee girl sounded British.
"Oh. Really. Sorry about that" Maya replied awkwardly.
Sozee looked pleased with herself which was strange because didn't broken arms hurt...
"You know, Maya. You are not so ugly. I don't mind talking to you."

Maya's mouth fell open as she floundered for an answer to Sozee's bold remark. She heard Kieran laughing from behind her and trying to pretend as if he was just coughing.
She didn't even know whether what the girl had said was meant to be an insult or a compliment.

Maya decided then that maybe, just maybe the girl was unpleasant. Her attitude felt too sharp for her innocent looks.

"Maya, take a look at my arm. Tell me how broken it is and how long you think it will take to heal. Handsome friend of Maya, come closer and look at my arm as well"
Maya rolled her eyes, well then.

The two of them got closer to Sozee as she stretched out her arm.

It was perfectly normal.
"Uh... I'm no doctor, Sozee, but I think your arm is fine. Does it hurt anywhere?"
The pretty blonde shook her head
"Did you get hurt recently?"
She shook her head again.
Kieran and Maya shared a look.

"Well why do you think your arm is broken then?"
Maya questioned.
Sozee rolled her eyes and produced a sound of such annoyance that Maya was taken aback.
She in turn rolled her eyes while trying to fight to steady her composure.
"It's just broken alright!" Sozee yelled.
"Fine fine!" Maya replied. Then she rubbed her face " Kieran and I need somewhere to stay in this town. We need your help, any ideas?"

Sozee thought for a while, with her head tilted to the side.
"You can come to my place, there's enough room, my mother won't mind."

Sozee was inviting them into her house? Wasn't that what vampires did? Were vampires here? No wait, vampires rather had to be invited not the other way round.
Maya had mixed it up.

she lifted her eyebrows as high up to her hairline as she could as she thought over Sozee's invite again.

"Your mother isn't a witch or ogre or troll is she?"

Kieran shoved Maya lightly "Where are your manners Maya?" when she turned to look at him, he was laughing a bit and she rolled her eyes. When was this boy ever not laughing?

"No, not that I know of. She can be a witch sometimes but not literally. You will have no worries staying with me. "

Sozee stood up then and twirled.
Strange for someone whose arm was supposed to be broken.
"Come on!"
And then she started to walk ahead of them, Maya caught up with her and Kieran walked at Maya's right side. They walked on silently until Sozee pushed Maya to the side and stood next to Kieran.
She smiled at Maya " I hope you don't mind, I want to stand next to handsome."

Maya squeezed her eyes shut and opened them but all she did was put a strained smile on her face. She wouldn't answer to this precocious child.
The girl was giving them somewhere to stay and she was grateful for that.
No matter what.