Kota starts screaming when he sees the snake and means to go on screaming until he has died of being eaten by the snake. So he's still yelling, eyes screwed shut, when they appear in a rocky, hilly bit of wilderness.

Fika does not quite have time to remember that in fact Kota might not survive being eaten by a snake inbetween when she sees the snake and when they are eaten.

She will hug Kota though, she's not really paying much attention to the surroundings so long as she is in hug-scared-friend mode.

The hug is startling enough to get him to open his eyes.

"Am I dreaming?" he asks suspiciously.

"I ... don't think so? You seem awake and I'm also here and my dreams wouldn't be this new feeling I think."

Prob'lly. She's pretty sure she's not dreaming. She's not very good at telling sometimes but this feels new.

"A monster ate us!"

"Um."

"There are some monsters that might eat people but one that when they eat people the people go somewhere else.... Oh there are some of those* but none of the places they go to look like this at all!"

Fika peers around, trying to figure out if she's anywhere she re-cog-nizes.

*Such as Peli.

It's a cloudy day. There is a rabbit over there - doesn't look quite like an amalien rabbit or an Amentan rabbit. The hills aren't familiar and neither are the mountains in the distance.

"I um. I don't think this is the same plan-et at all?"

"Is it Amenta?"

"I dunno! I've never been there! That look like an Amentan bunny?"

"- oh, I didn't see it, it's so brown, why is it so brown? It's not an Amentan animal at all."

"There are amalien ones that brown but they are fluffier."

Fika clambers up a tree to get a better view of any far away things.

"I don't even have my everything, I left it with Dad so he'd replace the case..."

There aren't many trees here but there is one. It's only about three times Fika's own height. From it she can see mostly the same landscape as before, though maybe that's a wagon track in the distance.

"I think I see somethin over there maybe?"

"We could walk there and find out?"

Fika is not ac-tually clear on how an everything would help.

"Yeah, okay."

Trudge trudge. At least it's downhill.

"I've never been on a different planet before."

Fika is sorta ex-cited about the no-velty of all this!

"I want my dad."

"Oh."

"Why, is he good at exploring new plan-ets?"

"Well, kinda, he was on a new planet before - but mostly just he's my dad!"

"I dunno what that means?"

"Is it cause he makes good food and you're hungry?"

It could be that they're friends? But Kota goes to school with-out his dad everyday or something. 

"I guess you don't have a dad so you don't understand."

That is very my-sterious but Fika thinks maybe Kota doesn't want to be qu-estioned 'bout it now.

Fika can hold Kota's hand if that will help?

It does help a little.

The wagon track, when they reach it, has ruts with little puddles of rain in some of the deeper parts, and a cairn a ways off as a marker of some sort. It runs parallel to the mountains.

"Looks like there are people here? We can go and find them this way I think."

Fika con-siders saying that the people might have a dad for Kota, but su-spects that Kota's dad is a special-friend and that a diff-erent one won't be the same.

"I hope they're nice people." Trudge trudge. "And not too far away."

Fika trudges along, though she may occasionally get dis-tracted by cool nature things she sees.

There are plants, and birds, and bugs. The sky is blue. There is horse dung by the side of the track.

Bugs! Bugs can be exciting. Like that brown one with antennas.

"Ew!"

"Hm?"

Pet pet. This bug is very pettable as long as she's very careful.

"It's so crawly-looking - why are you touching it -"

"Cause it's cute?"

Pet pet.

"You wanna try?"

"No! It's icky!"

"Oh. Okay."

Fika can stop petting the bug and they can go back to walking.

At length the land flattens out a bit and there are what look like crops around, planted in strips and rectangles.

How'd they taste?

Unripe.

Well, then they can keep walking, least till it starts getting late.

"I think that's a house."

"Oh yeah!"

Fika can run a bit faster then last bit of the way to the house if Kota would like to?

Yeah, he'll break into a run to get to the house!

There is smoke coming out of the chimney. And a well, in the yard. The windows have shutters and no screens. And there's a chicken coop. Kota slows down a little, taking this in.

"Pet birds!"

"Or they're for eggs. It looks like there's a real actual fire in there, that's weird..."

"Amentans don't have real fires?"

She guess she's never seen any.

"Not like that, like, we know what it is, but you don't do it in your house, with smoke, it makes your air gunky."

"Gunky?"

Walk walk walk.

"With all the smoke bits."

There is indeed smoke rising from the chimney. Kota sighs and knocks on the door.

"Just a minute!" calls a voice from inside.

That voice sounded sort of weird!

A person bustles over. She's tall, like most Amentans, but with brown hair braided down her back, wearing stain-mottled linen and drying their hands on a dishtowel. "- well, now, who's this?" she asks them.

"Oh! You're an Amentan!"

"A what?" says she.

"Is not, she's got BROWN hair," says Kota. "AND her teeth are big."

"My what? Where did you kids come from?" says the local.

"I'm not a kid and also I'm pretty sure we came from a different planet."

To Kota: "But she's big and all Amentan looking! Not like an amalien or a you."

"That just means she's a grownup, not that she's a grownup Amentan," says Kota.

"Did you two run off from a wagon train or somesuch?" says the woman, crossing her arms.

"What's the difference?"

To the woman: "No, we came from another world. Not a wagon train."

"Well, you can come back with your minders or not at all, I haven't got time for mischief-making urchins. And stay clear of my chickens." She goes to shut the door.

"Um."

"She wasn't very nice."

"She probably thinks we ran away from our parents."

"I still don't get it."

Are there any other houses they can see?

Yup, there's a little dot of a house a ways farther down the track.

"Whoever's here," says Kota, while they walk, "is gonna think the same thing."

"If they do I'll be more bossy bout it I guess. 'less you are good at staying out at night?"

Most amaliens are okay with camping, but not all of em.

"I don't think I am especially. How will being bossy help?"

"Maybe can con-vince them to listen. Hope-fully? Make sure they know we don't have other places."

"Or I could sneak us into an extra room to sleep in if there is one, I dunno."

"I don't think we should break into a house!"

"Oh, okay. If you'd be okay outside instead. Don't have to."

Knock knock!

"You can't break into people's houses, it's not right!"

Old woman with a drop spindle gets the door. She has gray hair like Kota's.

"Hi! We're lost and far away from home and don't have a place to sleep for to-night."

"Oh no, poor things. How'd you get lost? Where'd you come from?"

"Far away, were walking together and then we didn't recognize anything and everyone else was gone."

Less words better? Maybe?

"Where do you live?"

"Not sure what it's called here."

"Are you... Jansai?" she asks, squinting.

"Havn't heard of that?"

"Edori?"

"No?"

... she's tempted to pre-tend Yes but she doesn't know what Edori are like.

"Look, I can let you sleep in the hayloft, but only if you can tell me where you're meant to get back to, otherwise it's just asking for trouble."

"Don't know if we have a place to go to. Is there a place to go to if you don't have a place to go back to?"

"...there are Gabriel Schools in Velora."

"Okay. We'll go there."

Velora. Velora. Vel-or-a. 

"How far away is Feoa?" asks Kota.

"Ve-lo-ra. Almost a day walking, when my boy goes to market he spends the night in town before coming back home."

Oh no Kota can't remember names either. 

Velora Velora. SHe should prolly write this down in amalien once she can.

"Okay, we can walk there tomorrow then." 

"Might take longer with short little legs like yours, so you'll want to start first thing when the sun's up. I'll show you the hayloft."

The hayloft is full of hay. Kota looks kind of dubious about this and startles when a mouse scurries across the far end of the barn and looks like he might cry.

"What's wrong?"

Kota can also be hugged right now he wants, she doesn't need to know what's wrong to hug her friend.

He clings. "I saw a MOUSE in here."

"The cat doesn't keep up with them as well as it used to," shrugs the old woman.

"Do - do they get up in the loft?" he asks hopefully.

"Not usually."

Cling.

Cling back! 

"I can clean it up a bit and watch for mice when you are getting to sleep if that makes you feel better?"

"Pretty sure mouse won't hurt you less these ones are diff-rent."

"I don't know if they bite and even if they don't bite they could make me sick!"

The old lady has decided she doesn't need to be here for this conversation and that the ladder is sufficiently obvious. She departs.

Hugs.

"Could wrap you up during the night so they can't touch you? Or um. Could take turns not sleeping and keeping watch for mice to make sure they don't get near you? Would prolly be tired while walking a bunch tomorrow but would be okay I think?"

"Wrap me up in what?"

"Could use my clothes and yours? Would be un-comfy to sleep without them but I can."

"Or I could wrap you up in a hug while you sleep if that works."

"Maybe a mouse won't come near anyway. We don't have any food," says Kota, shivering a little. "- I want to climb up if they're not there as often as they are down here."

"Mhm, seems like a good idea."

She can help Kota up.

"Oh. Do you need to eat everyday?"

Amaliens do not, though it can become uncomfortable.

"Uh, yeah. More than once."

"Oh."

"Do you need to eat now?"

"I'm hungry but I think I'm okay to go to sleep instead. Maybe she'll give us breakfast in the morning."

"Mhm."

Fika will sleep all cuddled up with Kota.

Kota takes a while to get to sleep and flinches whenever he hears scurrying or squeaking but eventually manages some few hours of fitful sleep.

Fika does her best to hug but does drift off before him and isn't around to help more than by passively sleep snuggling. Fika manages to get a good nights sleep, it's not too different from other places she's slept.

Kota's up before her and sitting up vigilant against vermin, scratching at imaginary and real bugs.

"Gmorning!"

Fika is yawny.

He is picking straw out of his hair. "I hope Feoa is nice."

"Not sure if that was the name. I'll try to find out and then write it down just in case before we leave."

"I hope it's nice too. Do you want help with the straw?"

"I know it's not, I just can't pronounce it. Yes please."

Pick pick pick. Fika helps clean her friend Kota who seems to really need it. He can also have a hug if he wants.

'ventually she goes in search of breakfast and a reminder of the name of the place.

The farm family - there's a whole family, not just the old lady - are willing to give them some day-old bread and an egg each and repeat the directions to Velora.

Velora. Also, directions.

"Do you have somethin' I could write that down on? So I 'member it."

"I don't think so," says the old lady.

"I can remember it I just can't pronounce it," says Kota.

"Oh, is it just the V sound you can't do?"

"Also can you 'member the directions?"

"I can't do any of those consonants. But I can remember the directions. We go that way first." Point.

"Vvv. Lll. Rr... I can try to 'member those."

Fika sets off with Kota - they should start now if they're gonna get their by the time Kota and Fika are sleepy again.

Yup. Trudge trudge.

"I don't like it here."

"Cause sleeping was bad?"

"And I miss my dad."

"Oh."

Kota can have a hand to hold if that will help.

"D'you wanna talk about why?"

Trudge trudge.

"He's my dad! He takes care of me."

"Oh."

"I don't think I know what being a dad means. But someone who takes care of you not being 'round sounds hard.

"I guess you never had parents. But you're also old. I'm not old."

"I dunno what you not being old has to do with how you have parents?"

"Old people don't need taking care of."

"Oh. Why? I thought every-one needs taking care of some-times."

"I mean they do if they're sick or something, not if they're just doing whatever."

"And if you're not old you need taking care of even when you're doing whatever?"

"Yeah."

"Um. I can take care of you here if you tell me how."

"I don't think you can!"

"Oh. Okay."

Trudge trudge.

Trudge trudge indeed. "We're gonna have to skip lunch, probably."

"Oh. Yeah. I've had lots of prac-tice doing that but maybe you havn't and it's hard without prac-tice or somethin'?"

"...it's hard because we're walking and that burns calories and I need those to do stuff."

"... Oh."

"I don't think amaliens need those but it makes sense that animals would and I guess you're sorta like an animal in some ways."

"I could try to find you berries or something but I don't know if you could eat them and it might take a while - I'm not used to finding food that's more than the food I need on my own."

"Maybe we could get a cart, and I could rest in the cart, and you could pull it because you're a perpetual motion machine. I'd still get hungry but I wouldn't get extra hungry from walking. ...but we'd need a cart."

"I could carry you but that would be slow."

"Could make a sled thing for you if we have to, that would be less slow but still pre-tty slow."

"Also I will get hungry and slower cause of that 'ventually."

"We can maybe ask for lunch next time we see a house. But they might not give us any."

"Mhm, we should still try though, I think."

Trudge trudge.

"Yeah."

The houses are actually a little more densely packed as they go, though many are set far enough back from the road they're taking to be a considerable detour on their own. Kota, already a shade browner, picks a more accessible one to try around noon.

Knock knock!

A girl who would be maybe three if she were Amentan answers the door. "Hello?"

"Hi. My friend Kota and I are far away from home and we're going to... The town nearby where there's a place for people who don't have a place for themselves but we're hungry and have been walking all day and we're wondering if there's some food we could have before we go all the way there."

The girl looks at some hidden family member inside and then turns back to Fika and Kota. "We don't have any extra," she says firmly. "You can get handouts from the angels in Velora."

"Am on our way there now, just worried about having enough food for the long walk...."

"We don't have any extra. You may glean."

"Oh, okay."

Fika is familiar with gleaning - looking for extra food left over in gardens. She takes Kota to go and look for something in any crops that might be nearby.

They don't find much, and most of what there is is on the ground and Kota is extremely dubious about it. Eventually he decides that it's best to just get to Velora as fast as possible even without lunch and forges ahead.

Fika eats one of the on the ground things, and keeps another for if Kota changes his mind later.

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

He doesn't change his mind. The sun starts to set and he goes faster, even though he was complaining that he wasn't a hiker and was developing blisters not an hour ago. The track's been getting better-maintained, at least. They crest over a hill and can see a town, a real town, in the distance.

"Almost there!"

Eefa gives him an en-couraging (but tired) smile.

"Yeah," he pants. "Maybe we can get there before it's dark and they'll have streetlights?"

"Maybe!"

Walk walk.

"Why'd you want them to have streetlights?"

"So we can see?"

"Oh. Mhm."

"I can prolly make a torch if we have to."

Almost there! Walk walk walk.

Velora proves to have some lamps, though they're not very bright. It's enough to not trip once the sun is down.

Kota asks a passing lamplighter, "Where is the Kapiel School?"

"The what?"

"Gabeel School? Or somethin'?"

"For people who don't have other places to go."

"- oh, the Gabriel school."

"Yeah," says Kota. "I can't pronounce it, sorry."

"Keep going that way and it's the one with the big wooden angel sculpture out front on the right."

"Thank you."

Fika re-peats "Gabriel" to herself a bit a few times after that.

Walk walk, just a little bit farther!

There is indeed a building with a big wooden angel sculpture out front on the right!

Kota drags himself to the door and wearily pounds on it a couple times. An old lady opens the door. "Oh!"

"Somebody said..." Kota says, pausing to catch his breath, "that this is where you go, if you don't, have anywhere else, to go."

"- yes. It is. Come on in and I'll get you each a bed." She waves them inside.

"Thank you."

She will hold Kota's hand while they go into this new place, if he'd like.

He is too tired to have an opinion on that either way.

They get beds - in separate rooms, though there are plenty of kids of various ages in each.

Fika is going to stay with her friend Kota actually.

"- are you both girls?" asks the lady.

"Huh?" asks Kota as though this is the stupidest question he has ever heard.

"Don't think so?"

Fika doesn't sound completely sure.

"This is the girls' room. That's the boys' room," says the matron. "It's a condition of staying here that you follow the rules."

"Um."

"I can be a boy then I guess?"

"- are you a boy?"

"Why do you have them in different rooms?" says Kota.

"It's the rule, it cuts down on misbehavior - you're going to wake the others, shh -"

... Fika does not want to cause people to get mad at Kota but also. She is so confused.

"I'm a boy for to-night," she whispers. 

"You can't be a boy for one night if you have always been a girl before." She makes another attempt to shoo them into their respective rooms.

Fika glances at Kota to see how he feels about this. 

Kota looks pretty wiped and will just go collapse in an unoccupied boys' bed without further protest.

Then Fika will go to the girls room herself. She'd known some amaliens who could be a bit focused on gender but this is very silly.

The girls' room has four unoccupied beds of twenty. Some of the girls snore. One of them is sitting up, rocking back and forth.

Does the rocking girl look like she needs a hug?

Depends! Does rocking back and forth in bed, barely visible as a silhouette against the gaslamp-suffused curtains, look like needing a hug?

Fika asks! Very very quietly.

"Rrrg!" says the rocking girl.

"Shut uuuup," says a horizontal girl in the next bed.

That. Was not a yes and was a no maybe? Fika goes to sleep - she can find out if the rocking girl needs hugs in the morning.

The Gabriel School wakes up at dawn. Everyone, at least in the room Fika's in, has to make their beds - the matron from last night is there insisting, though she makes rocking-girl's bed for her - and she gives everyone who spent the night a coin, including Fika. Then apparently they all have to either attend classes or clear out.

This is extremely confusing, like the Amentan city. 

Fika goes looking for Kota.

Kota is rubbing his eyes and slouching out of the boys' room. "Fika? There you are."

Hugs!

"This place is confusing."

"Yeah, why do they have two bedrooms?? It was weird."

"Yeah! And no one was cuddling at night!"

"And there are so many kids here, where are all their parents??"

"Oh. I 'ssumed they were just people."

Oh wait.

"Um, people like me who don't have parents, not like you and other small 'mentans."

"They come in sizes, like Amentans, so I think they must have parents."

"Hmm..... May-be."

She's less sure.

"Prolly we should find food?"

"Yeah. I heard another boy say something about where to get breakfast."

Breakfast for the Gabriel School kids is dispensed from a separate building across the way; they have to form a line and then they can each get a ladleful of oatmeal.

Fika is bad at lines but can follow Kota's example.

It's not an especially orderly line since it's composed entirely of ragamuffins but it does the job. Kota wolfs down his oatmeal eagerly.

If Kota wants seconds he can have most of hers.

Yeah he kind of does want seconds. "You don't need much?"

"Mhm! I think amaliens just eat less than 'mentans and can also be more okay with less food."

"Oh good." Omnomnom. There's a stack for bowls; he puts his there even though a lot of kids are just kind of leaving theirs lying around. Irresponsible of them.

Fika can put her bowl there too.

"Hm. D'you want to he-lp put the other bowls there too?"

"Yeah." He collects bowls with her. "Don't wanna feed the vermin."

"Oh. Um."

She pauses collecting bowls.

"Why not?"

"- because then there'll be more of them."

"Oh. But they won't be hungry."

"They'll be hungry again the next day. But they'll have more babies if they find food today."

"Oh. Yeah guess that makes sense."

"Still's sad."

"If there's no food for the vermin then there won't be any vermin at all and none of them will be hungry," he offers after a moment of meditating on this alien position.

"Yeah that'd maybe be better - though I dunno, maybe the pre-fer being hungry sometimes to not existing at all. Not exisitng sounds really scary."

"Well, I prefer them not existing and if they don't exist they can't be scared."

"Hmm... Don't like the idea of choosing be-tween you being happy and them existing but."

Fika blinks but doesn't quite tear up.

"Would want you to be happy more than a few rats existing."

Hug. "Maybe the rats can be in a zoo? Not running around getting into people food."

Hug!

"That'd be nice I think... You're a good Kota."

"You're a good Fika." Hug.

Fika is happy to let Kota take the lead on what to do to-day if he'd like!

He is poking around at the class offerings. "It's all purple stuff," he frowns after looking at what the other kids are doing.

"Oh, could see if there's grey stuff someplace? Though I dunno - don't think I've ever done a grey job. Just purple and green and blue."

"Well, you can do whatever, you aren't really any caste."

"Mhm. D'you think other people here are any caste?"

"I can't really tell. Maybe they're just all purple or whatever does purple things here and the other kinds will look totally different."

"Mhm. Could be that the small people are purples and the big ones are different?"

"I don't think so, they come in all the sizes." He points at a midsize boy. And a baby.

"Really weird how they do that."

"Amentans do that too! We have to start tiny to be born, and then we grow."

"Well, Amentans are pretty weird too."

Fika sorta smiles while saying this.

"I think it's weirder that you don't even know where you came from," giggles Kota. "Oh, there's a class on... how to read. I already know how to read but it's not just purple at least."

"I think it's really weird to 'member yourself coming from somewhere."

"I don't remember it. I can't remember anything before... first autumn, I think."

"Oh huh. Why not?"

"Well, you don't remember everything from your whole life either, right? You needed to be reminded of my name a bunch of times and stuff."

"Yeah but that's cause I'm full of lots and lots of mem-or-ies I think? And you're so small. Though I guess some amaliens wouldn't remember as far back as when you were born."

"It was more'n two years ago. I think grownups do remember things from that long ago usually, I think maybe babies are bad at remembering."

"You change how good you are at 'membering overtime?!"

Amentans keep being very surprising

"Yeah, maybe we have to learn to remember same as we have to learn to walk and talk?"

"That's really strange and i didn't eve 'member that you had to learn to walk and talk but that's also strange."

"Yeah, babies can't. They can't do much of anything, they need to be taken care of all the time."

"That's silly, they're like baby pets."

"They have to be really tiny to get born, I think they can't fit a lot into being that tiny."

"Hm. If that were true wouldn't big 'mentans be able to fit more than normal sized 'mentans like you?

"Well, yeah, grownups can do stuff I can't do."

"Oh! Like what?"

"They've just had more time to learn stuff and they're bigger and stronger and more graceful."

"Oh, like Meelia. With stilts."

"I guess? I haven't met Meelia."

"She's a very strong and acro-batics-y friend of mine."

Fika does a cartwheel to demonstrate.

"She's not bigger though, is she? And she's old but all the things she knows are different from the things grownups know I bet."

"Oh what sorta things do grownups know?"

"Like how to do jobs and do money things and schedules and stuff."

"Oh, I learned how to do those things!"

"You know how to do a job? Maybe you should do a job so we can have money."

"Oh that's a good idea!"

Fika will look around to see what jobs she can do.

People around here seem to be selling food and clothes and useful doodads like boxes and horses and dishes.

Fika does not have any of those things to sell - do any of them seem to make the things?

Some of the food is being cooked on the spot. Some of the clothiers are stitching behind the counter.

"Hi! I want to help with clothes making!"

"...do you have a letter of reference?" says the seamstress.

"Nope!"

"Then no. Take some classes or find an apprenticeship."

"How'd I do those things?"

"- this isn't my job. Go away, you're distracting me."

This is a strange reaction!

Fika can try to find someone else though.

Kota trots after her, looking at all the stuff, recoiling when a horse poops in the street. Nobody's paying much attention to either of them, though Kota's hair gets a couple second looks.

Fika keeps tryin' to find someone who'll let her sew with them! She is very de-termined and not all bothered by things like horse poop.

Yeah nobody wants to let her do that.

Kota, very bothered by horse poop, is loitering in one place near a dye shop which has lots of hot water and an incentive to keep away the ick.

"Hi! What'dyoudo here?"

"- kid, I'm busy," says the dye shop man.

"With what?"

With slapping her in the face! "Get lost!"

"Uh."

?!

"Shoo! Can't you see I'm working?"

"You stopped working to hit me?" Fika says, completely flabbergasted. 

"Get out!" he says, raising his hand again.

Fika backs away from this ...wild animal that doesn't know what it's doing or something?

That seems to satisfy him. He goes back to what he's doing.

"What was that??" Fika asks Kota.

"- he wanted you to leave and you wouldn't leave and he hit you," says Kota.

"Yes!"

"It was mean but I don't get why you wouldn't leave?"

"He didn't seem sad about it and I wanted to learn more! That's how people work!"

"He was mad! Mad is a good reason to leave people alone too!"

"Oh, he was? I guess that's what I might think an animal was if it hit me."

"People can be mad too. Don't you ever get mad?"

"Yeah, and I'd say I'm mad or move away and not hit someone! Hitting someone hurts them!"

"- well he couldn't move away, you were in his shop."

"He didn't tell me to leave! And why would hurting me help!"

"He said he was busy. I think that just means leave or at least stop distracting them."

"Then people should say that!"

"Hrmph, this never happened when it was your Amentans."

"Yeah, I dunno why people are mean here, but if an Amentan did say 'I'm busy' they would probably also mean to go away and stop distracting them even if they were nicer about it."

Well, Fika can try to find something else to do she guesses.

It turns out that nobody wants her to do their job with them.

Fika is not really sure what to do with herself briefly, but will try wandering around with Kota for a bit.

Kota looks at things, making himself unobtrusive since people are mean here. Eventually he circles back to the Gabriel School. It has classes available. He squints at the list.

Fika can squint with him. 

"It has one on learning to read. Do you want to learn to read?"

"I know how to read?"

"I mean like, uh, grownup language."

"I'm super grownup and can also read like everyone else?"

"So can you read what the classes are?"

"Yeah!" 

She demonstrates this by reading them aloud, though she does sound out any complicated ones.

"Huh, okay. I thought you could only read Amalien."

"I can, it's in Amalien?"

"Nuh-uh, I don't know Amalien."

Fika inspects the letters very closely.

So does Kota. His head bumps into hers.

"Sorry."

In-specting! Very closely!

Weird! The letters are different.

Hm, she doesn't know why. She'll probably find out what's going eventually* - she usually does.

In the meantime, she wants to try one of the classes on learning how to do something.

*Here "eventually" refers to a period of time that could be anywhere from a few minutes to a thousand years. 

The classes are mostly on practical handcrafts for a preindustrial setting, plus literacy and arithmetic.

She's gonna try weaving! Maybe they'll know new ways to make softer blankets.

She has missed the morning weaving class but can make the afternoon one. Kota decides he is going to attend a math class so everyone will be very impressed with how he already knows math.

"You okay going by yourself or d'you want to go to math together?"

"I can go myself if you don't wanna go to math today."

"I know lots of math already and don't want to go and show other people right now I think."

"OK."

So they split up for the afternoon classes. Fika's with three other girls at an old lady's house helping her keep things untangled and under instructions to wait for three rows to go by before asking a question out loud in case it turns out you can figure it out on your own.

She's gonna try making something with some of the fabric herself, what's around for her to use?

Nothing! Reaching for the fabric basket gets her hand swatted away with the grandma's shuttle! "Watch and learn, don't rummage!"

"Um. I'm gonna make somethin'?"

"Not with my fabric you're not!"

"Oh, okay?"

Maybe there's fabric somewhere else, or at least some grass or somethin' she can make fabric outta. 

If she wants to quit the class the old lady doesn't care, though one of the other girls says, "You don't get credit for the class if you don't stay and behave!"

"Credit?"

Is this like that money thing.

"Yeah, it doesn't count."

"For what?"

"For like getting paid and getting apprenticed."

"You get paid for watching?"

"Only if you stay and behave!"

Fika thought she knew how getting paid worked but now she doesn't think she does! Regardless, she doesn't actually want money.

"I'm gonna go make my own fabric things." she says, heading out.

Nobody objects further to her departure.

Fika is gonna start making a quick blanket, a sort of amalien blanket that's easy to make quickly outta plants and is still sorta fuzzy - an amalien named Mina invented it for Meelia awhile ago. It involves braiding grass and things. 

She'll have to go a ways out of Velora to find substantial amounts of grass but nobody will stop her.

She's been having fun exploring new cities lately and this one is fun too!