It was around noon and Aurora was out on the streets again. She wanted to go to a forest to extract fluids from a plant which she could use to brew a potion, but she had to take care of plainer things like groceries as well. It was an annoying task, especially because the streets were so busy around noon, but her family and herself still had to eat and her parents were both short on time. And so she walked around with a basket, gathering different items to bring back home. The market was quite busy and Aurora had some difficulties with walking around without getting her basket knocked out of her hand. That would be quite annoying, as that would not only be a waste of money, but also a waste of the items she had bought so far.

While she was lucky a certain amount of times, Aurora apparently ran out of luck the fifth time. A young boy ran in her direction and tried to duck under her basket, but he was too late, as was Aurora with lifting the thing up. His head connected with the basket and the thing fell out of her hands, its contents spilled on the ground. The boy gave her a shocked look, but instead of helping her or apologizing, he turned around and ran away. Aurora frowned at this, but she decided to let the matter go and duck down to gather the fallen items. Some of them were still intact where others were destroyed, their contents spilled out on the streets.

And as she had expected, nobody wanted to bother with her either. Nobody helped her. She sighed. Was it going to be like this all day? She was definitely not looking forward to that.

Aurora’s eyebrows raised in surprise when a woman around her age, maybe a little bit older, crouched down by her side and started to pick her groceries back up, putting them back into her basket. Most items were saved and could therefore easily be put in the basket without causing damage to the other items that were already there. The last item was an apple with a little bump in it, but Aurora wasn’t caring about her fallen groceries anymore. The woman in front of her had her full attention and a smile formed across her lips, showing two dimples in her cheeks. ”You’re a life saver,” she told the woman, laughing a little. She could’ve picked the items up herself, but with this crowd they could be either trampled or knocked down further the street. She would’ve lost a few items if it hadn’t been for the woman and Aurora wanted to show her gratitude.

”Could I treat you to a drink or are you busy?” she asked the woman, smiling at her. It felt like the least she could do. As it was around noon, there weren’t a lot of pubs opened, but an inn would be just as good as well. The woman had saved most of her items from getting more damaged and therefore had saved a lot of Aurora’s money, so the least she could to was giving her a drink in return.

And who knows. They might get to know each other a little and become friends.