Book 2 Chapter 46

They’d finally gotten to stop for a bit at the mid-sized settlement Willow was calling Cheesetown in his head. It probably had a better name that the townsfolk called it, but he doubted it would be super relevant to him.

He still wasn’t used to how muffled the world felt while under the effects of his mental technique, but it was worth it to avoid the headaches and other sensory overload the lack of it caused. Plus it allowed him a taste of ‘normalcy’.

Miss Mu took him around and had him try some of her favorite dairy treats, which was a fun enough time. He still didn’t love cheese as a whole, but some of the herb infused ones were quite tasty to him. There was also a sweet cream that he was quite fond of even if Mu herself didn’t like it much.

Willow enjoyed seeing the variety of spirits and beasts in the town. He was probably missing a bunch due to the lack of his senses, but the ones he did see were quite neat. A baker had a fiery feline that slept in her oven, keeping it the perfect temperature. A butcher had a tool spirit cleaver working alongside him, its razor sharp blade cutting through the cuts of meat with ease.

The woman who sold the sweetened cream even had a large and vibrantly coloured bee close to the size of Willow’s head roaming around her shop.

When asked he’d been told by the shop owner that her name was Buzzworth and that she was perfectly harmless. She also informed them that it was the bee beast that had provided the sweetener for the cream which was a fun fact.

It also had Willow wondering if some of the dairy products were produced by spirit beast, but at this point it felt rude to take up more of the woman’s time. There were plenty of other customers that needed her attention after all, and Willow now had firsthand experience of how annoying customers could be.

Soon after they left the shop he spotted a group of children playing together in an empty lot between buildings. He couldn’t really tell what the rules to the game they were playing were from a quick glance, it was far too hectic though it did seem to revolve around a ball that got moved around in many different ways.

There was a part of him that wanted to attempt to join in despite the chaos, but he held himself back. They probably didn’t want a random boy intruding on their game. Especially one who didn’t know the rules to it.

Willow felt a push, causing him to stumble forward a bit. He looked up at his mentor who just gave him a smile.

“Go on and have some fun, you know where the inn is. I’ll also be nearby samplin’ some more of the cheeses.” She then wandered off leaving Willow to trudge on ahead to the group of children.

They took a bit to notice the arrival of a newcomer, and in that time Willow tried to make sense of the game they were playing.

However that effort seemed to be going to waste as anytime he thought he grasped some fundamental way the game was played they’d do something that completely contradicted it. Periodically someone would say they’d scored and how many points they had, but then someone else would chime in saying they lost points due to breaking this rule or that.

It was entirely nonsensical to him.

However it did still seem like a lot of fun.

One of the older children was the first to notice Willow’s arrival. His tanned skin and closely cropped hair vaguely reminded him of his Uncle Lucius, but the ease with which he smiled shattered the comparison.

The boy quickly ordered a pause to the ongoing game and jogged over to him. Willow noted that the group quickly started squabbling amongst themselves and began playing again shortly after.

“Haven’t seen you before, are you new to town or something?” He asked with a curious smile.

Willow clamped down on his urge to fidget upon meeting a complete stranger, his time with the Madame helping him immensely. He really wished that he could’ve relied on his spiritual sense to get a better feel for the other boy’s emotional state, but that was a tradeoff he had to make in order to not be completely overwhelmed in the crowded settlement.

He belatedly realized that he’d been staring at the boy for far longer than was probably polite and should really formulate some sort of response.

“Um… yes I’m new. My name’s Willow.” He held out his arm for a forearm clasp which the other boy looked at bemusedly before grabbing his hand instead and giving it a shake.

“And I’m Calvin. Wanna join in the game?” He gestured vaguely at the barely controlled chaos behind him.

Willow stared at the group of playing children and still couldn’t grasp any of the rules to the supposed game. “How do you play?”

Calvin considered the question before eventually just shrugging with a wide grin. “I dunno either. You just sort of say and do whatever makes sense in the moment, and you gotta include the ball in some way. The only real rule is you can’t use qi or a spirit if you got one. It’d be too easy to hurt someone on accident and then we’d all be in trouble.”

Willow nodded hesitantly. He now worried that his increased strength might be an issue, but decided to hold back as much as he could to make it more fair.

“So you wanna give it a go?” Calvin asked while jostling his shoulder playfully.

Willow nodded with more confidence this time, and a small smile formed on his face. “Sure!”

The ensuing session of play was a ton of fun, even if Willow was more confused than not for the majority of his time playing. He’d almost forgotten how joyful it was to move like this, running and dodging and weaving between the other children.

He still made sure to hold back as much as he could, and it proved to be the wiser course of action as he was still fairly clumsy without his spiritual sense to give him an understanding of where people were in relation to him. Though in his defense, crashing into each other seemed to be part of the game as a whole so he didn’t really stand out in how clumsy he was being.

The game came to a close when the sun began to set and the majority of the now filthy children had to get home for their dinner.

Willow was slightly saddened that the game had to end, but he was beginning to feel socially drained even if he could physically keep going for hours more.

He also realized that he never got the names of the majority of the other children. He was pretty sure other names were said, but he never connected them to particular faces.

Whoops.

Willow was surprised when Calvin patted his shoulder. “Have fun?”

He smiled. “Yeah!”

Calvin smiled back. “We don’t play this every day, but a chunk of us usually hang out around here whenever we’re free. Sometimes my mom even hands out some of her sweet cream to us, so don’t miss out!”

Oh his mom was the bee lady! Neat!

After promising him that he’d come back if he was free, Willow made his way over to the inn they’d be staying at for the next few days they were in town.

He noted that Miss Mu seemed inordinately pleased at how long he’d stayed out with his new friends.