The World Walkers: Aerith: Carly: Changing Seasons (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

“Do you have any preferences?” Carly asked, looking through her selection of pre-made tea mixes.

“Not really,” Phirun replied, sounding distracted.

Turning to look at him Carly found that he was reading one of her journals. She had eight of them, from the time when she first found out that she had the ability to change the season of a small part of Aerith, and it wasn’t exactly a surprise that Phirun had started studying what she’d been working on. A part of her did wish that she’d never realised that she had such a power, even though she knew that it was a good thing for the people who lived closest to her. Instead of having to live off winter vegetables all the time they had more of a variety and it meant people were travelling to the market to buy exotic foods from her garden.

Shaking her head, Carly turned back to the tea and chose a mix she often used when she’d spent the morning in her garden. It was made with herbs she grew there, so it reminded her of why she kept working in her garden no matter how often she wished for things that were never going to happen, and why she really should be grateful for being given such a useful gift. There were just days when it was hard to feel the way she knew she should. Especially when she was unlucky enough to have a Time Keeper visiting her to state the obvious.

“Carly?” Phirun asked, making her jump.

“What?”

“Is there anything we can do to help you?” When Carly glanced over her shoulder at him she could see the worry he was feeling, which was unexpected. “You’ve been dealing with this all alone and…” He looked down at her journal and then back at her. “It’s not fair of us to expect so much from you. You’ve already accepted a duty you couldn’t have expected to have to deal with when you were younger.”

It would have been easy to ignore Phirun’s strangely considerate question, but Carly took the time to really think about it as she put a couple of spoonfuls of the herb mix into the teapot. “I don’t think there is. The farmers have been a great help, and they’ve ever offered to come over to build me a greenhouse to see if that works better, while the girl who buys my stock often stops off at the garden on her way back from the market to help me out.” She smiled. “I’m not alone.”

“I’m glad.” The sudden sadness in his voice made Carly glance over at him again. “Sometimes it’s hard to be a Time Keeper, Carly.”

Pouring the water into the kettle she nodded. “I don’t imagine it’s an easy job.”

“Coming here was a good excuse to get some air and actually talk with someone who hasn’t been brought up by the Time Keepers. Did you know that we were all originally found as orphans after the hard snows?”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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