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I shivered, the cold winter breeze running through my body although I probably had about four layers of blankets on top of me, but yet I was still freezing. We really need indoor heating. I curled my legs into my body so I was in a fetal position. I heard Maya get out of bed, strike a match and head into the kitchen. Somehow she always woke up at the crack of dawn. Why or how she does it, I don't think I really want to know.
The smell of cinnamon filled my nose within a matter of seconds, and no matter how cold it was it smelled good enough to get out of bed to eat it. I went straight for the kitchen in my wool nightgown, Neva now on my shoulder. I noticed that Maya had her usual feather dress on and a simple scarf to go with it. I sat at the table and stifled a yawn.

“Here you go, fresh from the pot!” Maya said like a waitress at a diner and placed food in front of us

I placed my hands over the steaming oatmeal, sighing happily.

“I hate your timing, but I really need this warmth right now,” she said tiredly

Neva stuck herself to the side of my bowl to warm up her body. Maya stood up, filling another bowl with warm water. As soon as it landed on the table, Neva jumped right in, squeaking happily. Lucky!

“How come I don’t get one?” I pouted, Neva laughing at my misery.

“I don’t have a big enough bowl,” Maya joked and gave Neva a flower to munch on. “Now, eat before your oatmeal gets cold too.”

I glared at Maya and took a big spoonful of oatmeal from the bowl.

“I can’t believe you like this sort of weather,” I said a I blew on my hot food.

“Well, it is my forte is in not?” Maya told me amusingly as she easily ate her meal without having to blow on it.

“Weirdo,” I mumbled and continued to eat my breakfast in silence.

There was a long pause of silence before either of us spoke again.

“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked.

“Marketplace,” Maya said with a shrug.

I looked up at Maya excitingly. I get the hut alone today!

“So, you’re gone for most of the day?” I asked, a smile now on my face.

“No, you’re coming with me,” She told me and I slumped back into my chair.

“But I hate going there!” I argued back.

“I know, but I’m not leaving you out here alone when it’s freezing here,” She told me and before I could say anything else, she spoke again. “Besides we have a lot of stuff to buy and sell, which means I’m going to need your help.”

I sighed, knowing that I couldn't come up with a comeback good enough to get me out of this trip. The market place really bugs me. It has a lot of weird and creepy people, that can't seem to keep their damn hands off me or my sister. Although we, we being Maya, have to go down so we can get food to last us until our next trip.

“Better finish and get ready, we leave when it’s light enough out,” Maya instructed and made her way to the bathroom.

“Yes ma'am,” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes.

I changed into a butterfly, jumping into the warm water bowl the Neva. There was no way she was going to get the whole bowl to herself! Neva squeaked in protest, but I slapped my wing on the water, a mini tidal wave washing over her body. I swam around, my body already ten times warmer than it was just a few seconds ago. I heard Maya come back into the room and I wondered if she would realize where I went.

“Candace?” She asked, sounding desperate.

She looked in the bowl to see if I was there and I instantly felt her hot glare on my back, like I had done something completely wrong. She picked me up by one of my wings, pain running through my entire body as she threw me into the bathroom, landing on the floor with a plop.

“Come out when your ready,” She instructed me “And don’t scare me like that again!”

She slammed the door shut and I changed back into a human, rubbing my back. She didn't have to be so mean, I was only trying to warm myself up! She could have easily ripped one of my wings off and before you know it, I'd be missing an arm.
I quickly changed in to my favourite dress that was supposedly blue, or so the sales lady had told me and stormed back into the main room.

“You almost tore my wing off!” I screamed at Maya, glaring at her accusingly.

She rolled her eyes as she put another anise in the basket. She must of been getting ready for the trip to the market.

“You scared me half to death, so we’re even,” She told me and handed me a full basket of herbs. I sighed in defeat.

“We’d better start going before we loose our good customers,” She told me as and passes me my hooded cloak.

“You mean the crazy ones?” I muttered quietly.

“Come on, they mean well,” Maya scolded me.

The people who buy our items from us think that we're goddesses or witches or something or rather because of the rare items that we sell, so they often pay much more than what we ask for. When I went down to the market with Maya, which is almost never, I usually try to explain that we're not goddesses, but just normal people... who are color blind.

“On a certain degree maybe,” I said and wrapped my cloak around me. “What color did they say these were again?”

“Light blue or something,” Maya replied, picking up the lantern.

“Good, then my outfit matches,” I joked. “Maybe we should label them somehow.”

“Who cares? The only people who really see us are at the marketplace everyone looks anything but beautiful or attractive,” She told me, the both of us shuddering at the memory of some boys who were trying to swoon us. I opened my bag to let Neva in. I usually bring her everywhere I go, though on this occasion we would need her help in case we left too early or came back too late.

“We’ve got everything?” I asked.

Maya looked over everything we had and were carrying.

“We’re good,” She told me.

With that we went out into the bitter cold.

~

I don't go to the market because of the fact that people always stare at us weirdly and this place down right creeps me out, but something good does come out of it. Maya will often buy me a new dress if we have enough money after buying the things we need, which makes me a very happy girl. I yawned as I lifted my head off the side of the wooden table to look at Maya.

“Time to shop yet?” I asked impatiently.

“Not quite,” Maya replied, and I put my head back onto the wooden table.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Maya scolded and I chuckled.

"Dramatic, she calls me," I grunted into my arm unhappily.

I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep, my face tucked warmly in my inner elbow.

“They say you’re the ones to go to for healing stuff,” a man spoke to Maya and I shot up from my position on the table, now standing.

“We’re not goddesses!” I yelled and Maya looked at me horrified.

I paused and quickly realized that he didn't mention anything about us being goddesses at all. Oh damn.

“Pardon me,” I murmured and sat back down, staring at my knees with embarrassment. I felt my face get hot and I scrunched my hands into a fist.

“It’s been a long day,” Maya explained to him

“I suppose so, with so many different people coming to you it gets kind of crazy,” He said and I sighed with relief, thankful that he didn't think I was that insane.

Maya spoke to him about what he needed and I decided to take this opportunity to daze off into the crowds. Everyone was moving at completely different times, each person on their own journey to find the things that they want or need.
I looked at the stall next to us and saw a woman was negotiating the price of a scarf with the seller, trying to bring the price down. I looked back into the sea of people, my eyes stopping on a man wearing black who was just standing still and staring at Maya and I. I rubbed my eyes to see if I had gone insane but when I looked back, he was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. I really must be losing it. I tuned back into Maya's conversation with the man before her.

“So you’re a warrior,” Maya said to the man as he took off his armour, to show her a wound, maybe.

I poked Maya teasingly. “Or maybe he’s a red knight!” I joked.

Maya threw the man's armour at me, which knocked me off the stool. I stood back up ready to yell at her, but noticed that she was bandaging his wound so I kept quiet.

“You need to take better care of yourself if that’s you’re good arm sir,” Maya told him knowingly.

“With you two here I don’t think there’s any need for me to worry too much,” he said amusingly and I let out a quiet chuckle.

“100 pounds of gold dust,” I said, wondering if he would go for it or try to bargain down the price.

He then pulled out a rock and dropped it in front of Maya. I was sure she looked as shocked as I was, if it was what I thought it was.

“Is this enough?”

Maya felt the rock and quickly took it and hid it from me before I was able to conclude what it was. I quickly stood up, handing the man back his armour and trying to catch another glimpse of the rock that Maya had.

“It’s good doing business with you,” Maya told him and he left.

~

Maya confirmed to me that it was what I thought what it was; pure gold. A smile spread across my face as I thought about all the dresses that I could buy with it. But of course Maya explained that if we had any money left over from buying the things that we need, she would use the rest of the money for a new dress for me.

“Jesus when are we ever going to get a chance of something expensive like this one?” I complained and grabbed Maya's left arm, to get her to understand.

“He’ll come back, he’s going to be here for a while if he’s not too worried about being hurt,” Maya said logically.

I perked up at the thought of more gold rocks. More dresses!!
We went to the food market that smelt heavily like fish. It made me want to puke, but I held it in for the sake of avoiding Maya's anger. We ended up getting enough food to last us maybe two seasons if we wanted to work it out right, in which probably not.
I quickly dragged Maya over to the clothing booth, to get us out away from the dreadful smell that probably stained my clothes and to get me a dress since we had enough money left over. The lady there is really nice and sometimes will sneak us discounts if she’s in a good mood. Today wasn’t one of those days, but at least she was still nice to us.
The first thing I went for was the big poofy ball gown. I knew I wouldn't actually buy it, but it was so beautiful! I put it up to my body and looked in the mirror, loving how the dress looked. It made me look like an angel, even if I didn't quite know what color it was. I felt someone staring at me and I shot head over to to left and saw that same man again, watching me and Maya. Neva seemed to notice it too as she looked in the direction too.

“Maya look!” I exclaimed and pointed to the man.

By the time Maya got her eyes to where he would of been standing, he was gone. One moment he was there, then he was gone.

“I swear I just saw…” I began, but ignored the thought. I was probably just going crazy over the smell of fish. I turned back to the lady. “I’ll just buy that wench like dress, this is too fancy for a girl like me.”

The woman didn’t argue, and we gave her the rest of our money.
We then started our long hike back home, seeing as it was probably past noon and we had no idea how early the sun was going to set. As we were walking up the hill, I had that feeling that someone was watching me Maya and I, again. I glanced at Maya and she seemed rather tense about something.

‘Do you feel it too?’ I asked her.

‘Yes’ She replied. ‘Act natural, for all we know it could be nothing.’