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My name is Chandra Disaronno. I work in the marketplace at this little cart. It’s smaller than most of them, but it has a pleasant air about it. I always keep it bright and shining—the wood is glossy, draped with a white gypsy cloth that shimmers with color if the light hits it just right, and above the cart, supported by strong, beautifully carved, wooden poles, is a crimson overhang with a white fringe to keep the area shady and cool. I set it up every morning before the sun rises, polishing the wood, setting out the cloth and smoothing out any wrinkles, hanging up bells that jingle lightly in the wood, and then setting out all my wares. Some days I have different foods, like melons, dates, pistachios… other days I have strange trinkets… but it’s never the same. The townspeople like to come see what I am selling each day since I have good variety, and I get quite a few customers. They also enjoy Jack.

Jack is my assistant. He’s just a little lad, perhaps eight or nine now, but no one really knows since I found him abandoned on a dirty street when he was little. It was funny really, he had never seen an elf before I guess, because he looked up at me with his bright gold eyes and when I crouched down next to him, he tugged on my ears to see if they were real. Silly boy. I took him home that day, to our troop. At the time, I was with a group of roaming gypsy entertainers, you see, but I’m not exactly with them any more. Because Jack was so young, and we didn’t know much about him, I had to choose between staying with the boy, or leaving him when we went to the next city. I decided to stay. By the time that the troop came back to Scarma, Jack could probably be allowed to join us but until then I couldn’t just leave him to die on the streets.

Here’s a note to all of you who plan on running away to join the circus: It won’t work. Stay at home. There are too many rules you don’t know about and that I can’t tell you.

Lucky for Jack, I found him. Lucky for me, I found him. He’s great with a fiddle, and all the townspeople come to watch him play and dance. Even if we don’t sell much some days, that boy makes us quite a pretty penny from his performances.

It’s still very early, but the sun has risen, so we are expecting some customers to show up soon. I lean forward, holding my chin in my hands as my elbows rest on the cart. Jack is sitting on a little stool beside me, tuning his violin. I glance over at him, watching with a faint smile. He looks so serious, like an old warrior general contemplating where to move his army of soldiers or something of the sort. Yellow eyes intent on the tuning keys, his slim fingers turn one just a bit, before he plucks the strings. It sounds alright to me, but Jack isn’t satisfied yet. Just ‘alright’ is never good enough for his violin. Brushing his messy black hair out of his face, he barely turns another of the keys, trying to get it just right, a frown on his face. When he finally thinks he has it right, he picks up his bow and gently runs it over the strings. Perfect. “I’m ready Chandra!” he beams in delight, hopping off of his stool, bow and fiddle in hand. With a grin, I pick up his hat and put it on his head all cockeyed. Grinning back up at me with a little devil smile, he adjusts it slightly, and then prances around the cart, starting to play a little tune even though no one has shown up yet. “Sing, Chandra! Sing!” he laughs, his feet flying beneath him as he plays. He’s playing an elfin tune I hum a lot as I work—he must have just picked it up by ear. Now I sing the words in the ancient tongue, my voice carrying over the streets as the cheery, bouncing tune continues. Jack laughs and his golden eyes flash as he leaps up onto his stool, dancing on top of it.

Our fun does not last long though—I see someone walking down the market road. I quickly shut my mouth and put on a smile, smoothing out my long black skirt and then adjusting my headband. A few strands of my hair fall out of place and into my eyes, but that’s alright. Jack turns his head, and seeing the stranger, grins widely and continues to play his fiddle, dancing atop the stool.

The person approaches—my, my, he doesn’t seem too pleasant. I can tell by his scarlet clothes and the emblem on his chest that he’s from the wizard’s castle, but to my surprise, he isn’t dressed like a pageboy or a servant. It’s odd, really. He seems to be… maybe fourteen years old, and has shoulder-length blonde hair, pulled back into a ponytail. As he comes closer, I can see he has blue eyes—not the typical light blue, but more like something between a dark navy and a rich cobalt—a midnight blue. Those eyes are angry as he glares at a piece of paper held in his gloved hand.

“‘Ello good sir!” Jack pipes up, still playing and dancing.

“Can we help you with something perhaps?” I smile and lean forward to get a glimpse of the list on the piece of paper. “Looking for anything in particular?” There aren’t a lot of shops opened up this early, so if the boy is in a hurry to buy things, he doesn’t have much of a choice than to look at our cart. Still, he draws the paper away to hide the list and gives me a slight glare.

“I don’t need your help.”

Touchy.

“Come now sir, I’m sure we can suit you up with something on that list of yours.” I continue to smile brightly. “And if not, we can point you to a person that can.” Jack stops playing his violin and sits down upon his stool, crouching like a yellow-eyed cat and nodding enthusiastically, his little devil smile on his face. And, reluctantly, the boy hands me his list.

“It’s just groceries and stuff… but I don’t know what some of the things are… like… zenith apples and nadir oranges…” he mutters as I look it over. My, my, I never knew the Master Wizard was so particular in his food. Unless… I skim over the list again, and I look at the numbers of each—there is a set amount for everything, and each amount is fairly small… definitely not enough to feed the entire household in the castle. How intriguing…

“Well, well, I don’t think I have any of this today—oh wait!” my eyes light up when I come to the second half of the list. “I have most of the spices.” Crouching down, I open up a hidden drawer and pull out multiple glass vials, all filled with different things. I place them in a bag for him and cross them off of his list. When the boy picks up the bag, Jack scampers forward, taking his hat off of his head and holding it out for money to be dropped inside.

“‘Tis four coins a bottle, and I’m not talking those little coppers, the shiny silver ones are what we’ll be needing, good sir.” Jack dances closer, grinning up at the castle boy. And, reluctantly, he drops the coins in Jack’s hat.

“Now, about the other items—” he begins, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand.

“Come back at midday.” Heh, that poor boy… he probably can’t go back to the castle until he has everything on the list, and in the town there isn’t much for him to do. I’d offer for him to stick with me and Jack, but his scowl would scare away all the early morning customers. They finally began to show up by the way.