“… I know of a lake south of the mountains. It is much as you describe that lake,” Allie replied, fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke.

“Oh, do you enjoy the comfort of swimming as well, Ms. Allie?” Noah asked, turning his head and shifting his body toward her.

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“I must say, sometimes I wish to live in a warmer climate than here, however, I remind myself of the desert’s I read about in novels… Oh do you like reading Ms. Allie?” He asked curiously.

He surprised himself with his words, perhaps he had been more lonely than he thought these past few months. Leo managed to annoy him to no end, to the point where Noah wanted to toss him into a river with his constant questions, however, nothing could replace any company that sat beside him on the wagon or in the back.

“…Not particularly.”

Her answer surprised him in a way, many people enjoyed reading in this day and age. Especially those that had nothing to do in their free time. However, he thought perhaps a simple answer was she remained unable to read, a common situation for young woman and girls around the island who were educated far differently than their mothers and grandmothers.

And yet, even the poorest maids needed reading skills in order to work for noble families, more so than that of personal ladies maids, a job Noah assumed Ms. Allie had.

Most kitchen maids were older women, ladies maids were usually young women around twenty to thirty.

He turned back towards the front, feeling the wagon running over many rocks in the road. Since the war, many roads had been paved instead, at least roads running between major cities, such as Koiki - The destination after Kowa. He wondered perhaps to ask Ms. Allie if she was visiting family in the city. However, he thought it odd for him to ask such a thing, both not wanting to pry, and being well aware that he was a stranger. No sane person would ever trust a random person they had come across, let alone a strange man, to which he was.

He yawned, still feeling tired from a rough sleep last night. He recalled his dream the precious night, about the day he had met Leo and his parents, a kind-hearted family.

Besides his mother, Noah had no one. He had always been alone, and even with his mother, she had to stay in town, she could not leave. His father had died in the war, fighting for the rebels. Although often he felt alone, he enjoyed the company of his books, stories of lands that did not exist. Places he would love to visit, even if he knew they were merely fiction. Often he wondered how life would be if he was born as someone else. He had many dreams, too many for the life of a lonely merchant.

He wished to become a scholar, or perhaps a poet, or even open a shop in the great capital city to the south. And yet, he had never left past the mountains, or wrote poetry, or had experience with running a shop in the capital city to the south. Even so he dreamed to do something besides going back from Kowa to Koiki to Fuo to Panato to Arifu and then to Yuwa.

And then when he would read his novels every evening at the fireplace and every break along the meadows of hills, he would feel peace. He supposed he could be both contentful in the joyful moments, and wishful wanting in the bitter.