Chapter 8
Lian
The hazy light between day and night hung in the air, only made more intense by the light flickering from the large bonfire in the middle of the field.
All around us, people were chattering away and heading over to the stalls that lined the sides of the field.
A band of some kind played jolly music that I didn't recognise but could still enjoy.
It was nothing like when Max played the elegant strings of the guquin or blew on his bamboo dizi to create an ethereal sound that travelled through the home, but it was nice in a different way.
It was joyous, which was definitely something that could be said for a lot of the residents of Purple Oak.
The sharp smell of burning wood and smoke was irritating my nose, but I liked the atmosphere. It would've been better if there weren't so many people out on the field, but it seemed like half of the village had come out to drink, eat, sing, and dance.
"Now this is wonderful," Eva said, looking very happy about the event. This was just her kind of thing.
I tugged on the collar of my robe where it brushed against my skin. "It's a lot of people."
"I didn't realise Purple Oak was this big," Max added, sounding a bit nervous. "I thought we were starting with a small village as our first independent assignment. This is a lot of people to be responsible for."
Eva reached out and put a comforting hand on her brother's arm. "We'll be fine."
"It's still a lot of people," he muttered.
As expected, he was daunted by the crowd for a very different reason than me.
He had always been very conscious about the importance of their duties and how it would impact the people around them.
If Eva and Max messed up, they could ruin the harvest and doom the village and the surrounding area.
It was a lot of responsibility to carry, and I really didn't envy them for that.
Eva seemed more confident about their outlook, which wasn't a huge surprise. "We've been practising for this our entire lives. We know what we're doing."
"I hope so," Max responded a little shakily. "I'm just worried we're going to mess it up and all these people will hate us."
"They won't," she assured him, ruffling his hair as if they were still little children. "Let's have a drink. That'll help with your nerves."
"I'm on it," I responded, knowing that it was my task to assist them, especially when our attendants were off duty, and Eva had insisted that they all had the evening off so that they could enjoy the bonfire too.
She was always kind like that. And aware of others, but not made nervous by them like Max and I were.
I left the twins by themselves and ventured through the crowd to one of the stalls that was selling refreshments.
They had plenty of people gathered around with drinks, while also turning a pig on a spit over a metal grate with a wood fire underneath.
It smelled good, but it didn't look anywhere near done.
If I had to guess, it would be another hour or two before the pig was ready to carve, which meant the Purple Oak residents were planning on being out here for a while.
It did go along with everything I'd learned about the village, but it was still interesting to be faced with it right in front of me.
Luckily, nobody spoke to me while I waited in line and ordered three drinks from a woman with a grey cat sleeping on the barrel.
No one seemed to think that was strange, yet another thing I was still growing used to about the village.
There were animals everywhere. Some of them followed their wards around, but others seemed to have more range.
It wasn't that the other places I'd lived in had been free of animals, they'd had plenty, it was just that it seemed as if in Purple Oak almost everything was built in order to live in harmony with other creatures.
I handed over a few coins and picked up the three tankards of beer from the woman behind the stall, almost bumping into someone as I turned around.
Beer sloshed over the edge of one of the tankards, splashing against my silk sleeves and making me grimace.
Not only was it going to be unpleasant while it was wet, but it was going to take me ages to clean.
"Sorry! Oh. Lian. Hi!" a familiar voice said, making something in my stomach flutter as I recognised the owner.
I looked up, staring directly in Pepper's face. She was standing a lot closer than I was used to, and she looked different without her apron. Her brown hair was loose and falling on her shoulders in elegant waves. She wore earrings too, and her lips looked redder. Darker.
How had I spent enough time looking at them to notice that?
"Hello," I said once I realised I was staring in silence. "I didn't expect to run into you here."
Pepper chuckled. "I know. I don't leave my kitchen very often, but when I do, it's to let my hair down."
"I can see that," I said, wondering if that was a requirement for the bonfire and if I should've gone for a loose hairstyle instead of a bun with one of my ornately carved hairpins. Then again, a lot of people were wearing their hair up, so maybe it was just a Pepper thing.
She pointed at the three mugs in my hands. "Feeling thirsty?"
"They're for Eva and Max," I responded, not wanting her to think I was going to drink all those by myself.
"No, I figured. I was joking, an attempt to make you smile," Pepper elaborated.
"Oh, of course. Sorry," I said, frustration spiking up in me. It wasn't just the language barrier, sometimes I didn't get Eva or Max's jokes either. It had to be me.
Pepper didn't seem upset that I wasn't laughing at her jokes at least. "So, how are you finding Purple Oak's...vibes?" she asked, fluttering her hands around as if she was trying to encompass something invisible. Maybe she was trying to present the vibes to me, whatever vibes were.
"I don't know the word," I admitted.
"Oh, right. Erm, I guess it's how the village feels," she said.
I nodded. That made sense considering what she was asking. "It's loud for such a small settlement," I said, wondering if that was an appropriate answer. "But the people are nice, and I like all the animals running around even if it is unusual for me."
"Yes, there are a lot of wards here," she replied with a smile. "What's your favourite animal?"
"Rabbits and hares," I blurted out without thinking.
"They're a good choice."
"My favourite story when I was a child was about the Moon Rabbit," I responded.
"Well, it wasn't really about the Moon Rabbit, it's about the goddess of the moon, but when she ascended, she took her pet rabbit with her.
" Heat rose to my cheeks as I wondered why I was telling her this.
She didn't care about stories that she'd never heard before.
"It sounds like a lovely story."
"It's a sad story," I responded. "She was a beautiful woman, and her husband was given two elixirs for immortality.
A man came while her husband was out hunting and tried to force her to give him the elixirs.
She drank them both instead of yielding them, then chose the moon as her home so that she could stay close to her husband. "
"What happened to him?" Pepper asked.
"He made offerings to her, and then took his own life."
She blinked a couple of times. "He didn't become immortal with her?"
"He couldn't. The story goes that she lives in the Moon Palace with her rabbit.
When I was little, I think I took comfort in the fact that she still had her rabbit to keep her company.
When I was lonely, I would go out to the field behind our house and talk to the rabbits there. It made me feel better."
"I can't imagine that you must have felt lonely often with your cousins around."
I looked over to where Eva and Max were talking and looking around. "Not through any choice of theirs. They spent a lot of time learning from my mother and my aunt about their weather magic."
"Ah."
"So, the bunnies kept me company," I said.
"Have you talked to them here?" she asked.
"No. I didn't realise there were any," I admitted.
"Many." Pepper smiled. "One of my friends has a hare familiar. She's super cute."
"The friend?" I checked, getting a strange feeling that I didn't recognise in my stomach.
"No, the bunny. I'm sure some people think Hugo is cute, but he's not my type at all, and I'm not his either. His sister is more my thing, if you know what I mean."
I nodded as I processed what she was saying and why she was telling me this. I didn't realise we'd become close enough to discuss our love lives, but maybe the rules of friendship were different here in Purple Oak.
"So you like women? Romantically?" I checked, just to make sure I was understanding things correctly. Was she telling me this because she needed my help with Hugo's sister, whoever that was? Or did she somehow find out that I was inclined towards women and she was discussing common interests?
Pepper nodded while giving me a look that felt like it was more than a look. "Yes, just thought I'd put that out there."
"All right," I responded, still feeling confused.
There was a chance she was flirting with me, but I dismissed that notion.
She wasn't displaying any of the signals like trying to buy me drinks, complimenting my appearance, or asking me to come back to hers for the night.
According to Eva, those were the tells to look out for when it came to courtship.
For some reason, I felt a little disappointed even if I didn't fully know why. Did I want her to be flirting with me?
Before I could figure it out, Eva and Max arrived. I hoped they weren't too annoyed that I hadn't returned with their drinks yet.
"There you are. We were wondering if you got lost," Eva said, relieving me of two tankards and passing one to Max. "Glad to see you're all right. Thank you for getting these."
"I was just talking to Pepper," I said, not sure why I was feeling a bit defensive. I knew I had kept them waiting for their drinks, but I hadn't been gone that long, had I?
Pepper offered the twins a smile. "I'm keeping my own friends waiting, so I should go, but it's nice to see you out and about. I might be biased, but I think Purple Oak is a great place, so I hope you'll stick around for a long time."
Max didn't respond, for some reason staring off into the distance.
"We might," Eva said while smiling at me as if something interesting had happened, but I had no idea what.
"Well, enjoy your night." Pepper briefly touched my arm. "Bye, Lian."
"Bye," I responded, still confused but also disappointed that she was leaving. It had been nice to talk to her and feel like part of Purple Oak, even if it was just for a moment.
Eva waited to speak until she was gone. "Well, well. Li-an. Good for you."
"What's good for me, and why are you saying my name weirdly?" I asked, even more confused.
"No reason," she said, chuckling as if there was something really funny going on. She reached over to poke at Max. "Earth to Max. Stop thinking about that gorgeous man with the hare you just met."
He pushed her away and flattened his hair. "I wasn't thinking about Hugo."
"Sure you weren't," she teased, pointing out his face. "Then why are you blushing?"
"Because I'm drinking," he responded, lifting the tankard to take a sip.
"You haven't drunk much, so that can't be the reason your cheeks are red," I pointed out.
That made Eva laugh even more, and even though I didn't understand what was so funny, I was still glad to be hanging out with my cousins. It was moments like this, when we weren't doing our jobs, that I could forget the imbalance between us and just enjoy feeling like I was a part of this.