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Indra insisted on dragging me to meet the boy she’d bought the plums from.  I still had no clue what plums were.  To my surprise, she took me straight to the place where I’d seen two boys packing boxes.  A guy with blonde hair greeted us.  Not too surprising.  What was surprising, however, was that his hair wasn’t nearly as light as everyone else’s.  His hair was closer to the color of the sand back home than it was to the white that I saw everywhere I went.

“Hi there!” he grinned at the two of us.  People here seemed much more friendly than those back in Aine.

The guy took one look at Indra and asked, “Let me guess, you’re here to see Jimin.”

She smiled and nodded.

“Well, I’m sorry to inform you that he isn’t here right now.  I have no clue when he’ll be back.”

Indra’s face dropped.  She turned back towards the inn and left in a hurry.  The guy watched her go before turning to me and smiling. “Is there anything you’re looking for?”

“Um…not really.  I don’t have any money on me.”

“Ah, of course.  You’re just here to look.  You’re staying at the inn?”

I nodded.

“Most people come here just to see what interesting things we have that they don’t have back home,” he laughed. “This place is exactly like the rest of Alba, so I have no clue why they bother.” He paused. “Forgive me, I haven’t introduced myself.  I’m Hobi.”

“I’m Odelle.”

“You’re not…friends with that girl who just left, are you?”

I shook my head. “Are you kidding?  She’s crazy!”

He laughed. “You’re telling me.  She came back nine times last night just to flirt with my brother!  Every single time she did it, she bought one plum.  I can’t help but wonder why she only bought plums.  No traveler ever buys plums from us because they’re everywhere!”

I wasn’t sure what to say.  This guy seemed to be over-explaining everything.  Could he tell I wasn’t from here?

Hobi motioned at the necklace I was wearing.  In all honesty, I had forgotten it was there.

“Where did you get that?  I’ve never seen a gem that bright.”

“Um…it was my mother’s.”

“Ohhhh.  Cool!  I wish I had something of my mother’s.  She seems to think travelling the entirety of Alba is more interesting than her two sons.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s all right.  I have Jimin.  Well…had him.  Not sure where he went.  That Indra seems to have scared him away.”

“You don’t know where he went?”

“Nope.  I suppose he might’ve gone to the forest to get some more produce, but really, I have no clue.”

“The forest?”

“Mhm.  Yule Forest.  It’s about two miles from the East edge of town.”

“I see.”

——————–

“Hey, do you still have that map?”

I had barely even gotten through the door of the inn when Tae asked.

“I do.  Why?”

“May I see it?  Something occurred to me and I’d like to see if my memory serves me right.”

“Sure.  I’ll go get it.”

A few minutes later, I set it on the front desk.  He picked it up and examined it before turning it upside down.  Then he turned it back right side up.  He frowned.  Then he set it down on the desk before brushing his hands over it.  He turned it around, so the North of the map was now facing him.  Then he gently brushed each of the corners as if he was looking for something.  What was he doing?

He flipped the map over again.  The back wasn’t blank anymore.  It had a series of dots on it now.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Landmarks,” he responded simply.

“Landmarks?  For what?”

He handed the map back to me. “You see…that’s something you must figure out yourself.”

There was a mysterious gleam in his eye as he said it, and I knew right then that he didn’t plan to tell me.

——————–

I decided I’d make it my quest to go find Jimin.  Hobi seemed slightly disturbed that he was missing, so I packed a bag and headed out.  East edge of town, Hobi had said.  Thankfully, I had the map to help me.  I walked for about half an hour, but when I finally reached the forest, I knew.

As I looked down at the map, one little dot on the map began to glow.  I flipped it over.  The place it was in was the exact spot as one of the ones that had appeared on the back.  I gasped and looked around.  About thirty feet from me was a blonde-haired boy picking some sort of fruit I didn’t recognize.  He looked up then, his eyes catching mine.

“Are you Jimin?” I asked, my voice raised slightly so he could hear me.

“That would be me!  Did Hobi send you?”

“Not exactly….  He told me he hadn’t seen you today and mentioned you might be here, so I thought I’d come look.”

“Ah, he’s worried about me?”

“Yeah…something like that.” I replied as I approached him. “What’s that?” I asked, motioning to the fruit in his hand.  My curiosity made me forget to act like I belonged here.

“This is a cherry.  Would you like to try it?”

“Um…sure!”

He smiled and handed it to me. “It has a pit inside, so make sure to spit that out.  It’s not good to swallow.”

I bit into it, my teeth hitting the hard pit of it almost immediately.  I chewed on it until the pit had been freed, then I pulled the pit out of my mouth and finished chewing the cherry.

“It’s good,” I said finally.

“Isn’t it?” he asked.  Then he went back to picking.

“What else is in this forest?” I asked.

“Eh, not much.  Then again, I haven’t gone very far into it.  Rumor has it it’s near impossible to reach the middle.  You have to have some sort of special map to get there, and even if you have it, the center is just a bunch of mystical creatures that no one would want to go near.”

I nodded, unsure what to say.  Maybe the map I had was the one needed.  I would make sure to ask Tae before I did anything, though.

“Where are you from?  I’ve never seen you around here before.”

“Um…I live a while from here.”

“I see.  You won’t tell me, I suppose,” he laughed. “We should head back soon.  It’ll start getting dark in about half an hour.”

“Oh, really?”

Jimin nodded, packing up the fruit he’d picked. “Daylight doesn’t like this place.”