Dimension Traveller

Situation

‘Seriously, are we like, trouble magnets?’ Cora thought. A few hours earlier they were merrily preparing to head outside and as usual, no one knew. They were nearing the end of the year, so it was extremely cold and freezing. At first, Cora and Eleanor thought it would be better if they wore a lot of clothes, but thought again when they realised they looked like pandas wearing it all. Instead of wearing such a huge amount of clothes, they decided to wear fur coats on top while casting fire magic which was meant to last throughout the day.

So out they went into town and explored. They chatted, ate, took a short nap, and just went around the place. It was bustling on the surface, but when Cora looked to the side alleys, all she could see was predatory and hungry gazes of little children. Just as she felt pity and started to approach, a loud shout roared through the streets, silencing the crowd. Soon, a bunch of people started gathering and curiously looked on to see what was happening. Cora shivered. She felt a sense of déjà vu.

“Hey brat!! Get your own food and stop stealing! If you have the money, buy it! If you don’t, then get lost!’

“Can’t you just spare me some?” The child asked weakly, her face slathered with dirt and mud.

“Look, I do feel for you, but I’m here to make a profit, not a loss,” The stall owner replied harshly, looking not the least bit sympathetic. Cora was just staring at this little fiasco, annoyed that no one was helping as usual. She thought of not doing anything this time, but unfortunately her body was more proactive than her mind. She sighed and gulped, when she realised that she was already more than halfway to the owner. ‘Well, I can’t just turn back’, she thought.

But that was just an excuse to move forward. Soon, she was in front of the child, facing the owner. “Hey, can I buy four of those meat buns? They look good,” she talked loudly an glared at the crowd who were busy watching the show. She signalled to Elena. When the girl saw Cora, she quickly began shooing away the crowd.

“H-Huh? Sure you can, ma’am,” the guy stammered out. He glanced at the beggar behind Cora and quickly got to work. While the man was busy preparing the buns, Cora twirled and pointed her finger at the little girl. “And you. You take those buns and follow me.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you hear me? Since I saved you and everything, hold the bag of buns for me and come. I can’t be bothered carrying them the whole way,” The change in her attitude came about suddenly, but the young girl, uncaring of what she behaved like, bobbed her head expressionlessly. She looked lifeless. Not the sort of look you would expect from a child.

When the buns were done, they went out of the town and ended up at a gorgeous park . It had families, couples, and friends who just spent free time there. The sun was setting in the background and the lights operated by magic were slowly blinking their way into the pretty place. Some people were skipping stones in the river, while others had a luscious feast of food in front of them. There were all sorts of people.

They sat at a wooden brown bench where it was a bit dark and the light had almost stopped flashing. “Give me the buns,” Cora spoke icily. The child, with a broken expectation handed it over and in return Cora gave her half a bun and flicked a gold coin at her. The child’s eyes sparkled with surprise and she instantly looked up, where she found Cora smiling warmly. She ruffled the girl’s hair. “Go and buy something warm. That one coin can get you quite a bit, so don’t go getting scammed, alright?”

“You sure you want……….. to give this to me?” She questioned, unsure of whether she was being tricked or not.

”Hey, should I just take that back then?” She extended her hands and tried to take the coin back, only to have her hand pushed back slightly. “No, I’ll take it. Thanks,” The girl muttered shyly and thanked her. She ran away into the dark, disappearing into the cold and ghastly night.

“Why did you do that?” asked Eleanor curiously. No matter how smart she was, she didn’t understand why Cora didn’t just hand over the gold coin and took the extra effort to do that.

“Did what?” Cora playfully replied.

“You know what I am saying,” she became serious and tugged at her sleeve hard to receive a good response.

“Because I didn’t just want to hand over money like that.”

 “What?”

“I want that girl to learn how to make money, rather than always begging for it. I want her to understand that she has to work and put effort in to get what she wants. After all, she can’t just always go around pleading for some extra cash like that her whole life.”

“You can be unbelievably smart sometimes, huh?” Eleanor laughed and Cora scoffed, then frowned.

“Excuse me, I’ve always been smart. Don’t deny me my intelligence.”

“Yes, yes sure. Then, Ms intelligence, then with your permission, shall we head back?”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Make fun of me if you want to. I don’t care. I’m so tired, I just wanna sleep.” She hunched her back with her flickering and sleepy  eyes that were led back to the palace along with Eleanor’s soft melodic laughter.