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 Shadira walked through the city, shuddering at every person who looked at her for longer than a moment. She sighed, thinking about the day before. I just wish he’d tell me what’s wrong… She thought, though deep down she knew exactly what was bothering him. She’d never been to the town, but the little bits that Nikodema told her sounded wondrous. She grabbed the money bag off of her belt and counted the coins she had in it. As she entered the marketplace, she longed for something else besides the city. Suddenly, she heard a scream. As she turned around to see what had happened, she saw a young girl with beautiful red hair get attacked by many men. Shadira had no idea what to do. She looked around in the marketplace to see someone stronger than her to help the poor girl. No one looked at the girl, even though she knew they all could see and hear her. However, as Shadira turned back to the girl, a woman with black hair and a light purple top accompanied with a dark purple skirt ran towards the men, a dagger in hand. Some dared to look curiously at what the woman was doing. Shadira felt emboldened as the woman stabbed a man, striking him down. Shadira reached to grab her own dagger, which was smaller in size, but still efficient enough. She ran towards a man that was about to strike the woman and shocked the people by fighting him quite adequately. Well, it wasn’t hard to put down someone who had just been stabbed in the back, but still, he was ginormous in size and muscle, so it was an impressive sight. The red-headed girl took this opportunity to leave. However, while Shadira was feeling a bit confident in her skill, she heard another scream. She turned to look and saw the woman struck down, the man punching her face quite viciously. Shadira grabbed her dagger and put it to good use. The man fell to his side, having no control of the gravity pulling him down, but he’d still done damage. The woman’s face no longer looked like a face, covered with bumps and blood. Shadira gasped and attempted to pick up the woman, but to no avail. She looked around her, irritated by the lack of action.

“We’ve got the men down, they won’t hurt you, but if you could please help to bring her to a healer, I’d -” Shadira began to say.

“I’ll help.” A man bent down and attempted to pick up the woman. His face went red trying to get up from a bent position into a standing one, but he did it. Shadira smiled widely. “I was beginning to lose faith in everyone here. What’s your name?”

The man laughed a rather shaky laugh, and his earrings quivered, from fear or laughter, Shadira decided. “My name is Philander. I was ashamed of myself for not helping with… well, you know.”

Shadira smiled and nodded. “Well, you helped us now, and that’s more than they were willing to do.”

Philander sighed. “It’s awful, isn’t it, and we all pretend it’s alright.” He paused and looked at her face. “Are you a Christian?” In looking at her face, he did not see the crate that was in front of his left foot’s path.

“What is that?”

“Well it’s -“

________________|___________________

“NIKODEMA!” Shadira screeched, running into his pottery shop. The customer trying to examine a pot flinched and dropped it, screeching as well. His curly black hair shook with anger. He whipped around to turn at the screecher, but his anger soon stopped as he saw Shadira’s beauty.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, are you alright?” She asked the man. He raised an eyebrow and smiled at her. “Your sight makes me feel better.”

“That was an awful line.” Nikodema announced himself, appearing up from the behind the cabinets. “What is all the fuss?”

Shadira turned away from the man. “Nikodema,” She said breathlessly. Then she quickly spewed out the rest of… everything. “There are two people who are hurt dearly and they need to be taken to the healer and I’m too weak to carry them, but you know I would if I could, but, uh, they’re actually really heavy -“

Nikodema covered her mouth and smiled a little. “I understood about,” he brought his index finger and thumb almost completely to each other, “this much of what you said.”

“I understood quite perfectly what this view of perfection said,” The other man whipped his orange cape around, whom Nikodema had forgotten even existed. “She’s a healer and she’s weak, according to her, but I truly doubt that such perfection could -“

Shadira looked at the man, hoping desperately that he would stop talking. She laughed the most annoyed laugh one could laugh, and then turned back to Nikodema. “Please come with me.”

“Fair lady,” The unknown man paused to look adoringly at her face. “It would be my most pleasured pleasure to help you.” You could see a tiny muscle twitch as his “pleasured pleasure” statement, but he still placed all of his confidence in his good looks to woo her.

Nikodema half sighed and half laughed. “Look, Hari, if you’d like to buy a pot, it’d be my ‘pleasured pleasure’ to sell you one,” He mocked. “But if you’re going to stand here flirting with my girlfriend, then you’re wasting everyone’s time.”

Hari laughed. “Scared I’ll steal your lady friend?”

Shadira laughed. “Please, you two,” She glowered at both of them. “Can we…” She paused. “Well not you, um, ‘Hari’? I don’t know who you are, and I need to speak with Nikodema alone, please…”

Hari smiled charmingly at her. “Of course, I completely understand. Hopefully we will soon be reunited.” He winked at her and then left with a flair of his cape.

Shadira felt like punching a wall, but avoided those feelings and turned back to Nikodema. “I really need your help.”

__________________|__________________

As they half walked half ran to the location Shadira led Nikodema to, Shadira thought about a proper apology to Nikodema about yesterday. Especially when she swore at him. She knew she shouldn’t have, but was feeling so frustrated at the time that she coudn’t seem to stop herself. She began to get so lost in thought that Nikodema had to pull her towards him for her to avoid collision.

“Are you ok?” Nikodema asked, lightly panting.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine…” Shadira answered. “Well, I just want to talk to you…” She looked up into his steel blue eyes. “But um, Hari’s antics slowed me down and they’ve been laying in the middle of the road for about 15 minutes now…”

Nikodema laughed. “Well hurry and show me where they’re at.”

When they got there, it was apparent there was an issue with Shadira’s solution. Two people who were surprisingly heavy, and one man, who was albeit strong, but probably not strong enough to carry both at the same time. Shadira sighed, then laughed. “Perhaps in my imagination you were a bit stronger.” She teased Nikodema. In response, Nikodema grabbed Philander and tossed him into the air, catching him as he fell. Philander screamed all the while. Philander’s forehead was soaked with sweat as Nikodema finally put him down. “Why can’t he just walk?”

“I BROKE MY ANGLE ON THAT STUPID CRATE!” Philander screeched. “Look at how ugly my ankles look now. They used to be the most attractive part about me, I’ll have you know.” He said, rubbing the giant bulge on his ankle.

Nikodema looked up from Philander and smiled fakely. “He’ll be fine here on his own.”

“No!” Philander and Shadira yelled at the same time. Nikodema sighed, running his hand through his hair. “It just looks to me as though the woman over there needs more medical attention than,” his gaze turned to Philander. “Ankle-man over here.”

“Hey!” Philander protested.

Nikodema picked up the woman with ease, but still struggled a bit. He began to walk towards the doctor’s direction when Shadira stopped him. “Take this to pay the healer, whatever the necessary money is.” Shadira smiled at Nikodema, handing him her money bag. He noticed that Shadira’s makeup was all smeared over her face, purple powder ending up on her chin, and hair that stuck stubbornly on her forehead. Even then, she still smiled. “You look awful.” Nikodema teased. Shadira opened her mouth in protest and then laughed, knowing it was probably the truth. Nikodema smiled at her, feeling nostalgia wash over him for the pureness of his home.

__________________|__________________

As he set down the woman on a cot. The healer was a man with light gray hair and black eyes. Nikodema’s eyes wandered to spell books the man owned. Nikodema shivered, knowing that those were demonic. He wanted to leave the area as soon as possible. “Hey, what is this going to cost to… fix her up?”

 “Fix her up… hmm, fix her up…” The old man repeated thoughtfully.

“Y-yes… that’s what I said… just now…” Nikodema said, realizing this man probably going to take his sweet time “fixing” the woman back up.

After what seemed like hours, the old man finished putting salves and balms on her face. After that, he began to place bandages over her head. Nikodema wistfully thought about how back in the town, the most important part of healing was asking God for help. Here, they seemed to just rely on their own power. Or, Nikodema’s gaze turned to the spell books, other demonic powers.

“For an extra -” The man went into a coughing fit. “E-extra fee, I will place a spell on her which -“

“No.” Nikodema said quickly and firmly. “How much for what you’ve done?” He broke his gaze off of the old man, which was becoming more and more creepy by the moment, to grab the coins out of Shadira’s little bag.

The old man tried to figure out how much that would be, obvious by the frowning eyebrows and opened mouth, waiting for an answer in which to reveal. However, he was making Nikodema impatient, and Nikodema simply tossed a coin at the man, who didn’t see it coming and jumped at the touch of the coin. “T-thank y -” He went into another coughing fit, trying to grab the coin. Nikodema glared at him as he grabbed the woman and left the place. He realized that his intentions were to leave her at the healer’s house until she came to, in which she would go home. But he knew he couldn’t leave her at that demonic place, albeit she probably wouldn’t care. Nikodema walked back to the area in which he last saw Shadira. She wasn’t there. Nikodema sighed, carrying the woman back to his house. By this time, he was achy and hot from all the walking, but he did feel like he had helped someone, which made him feel good. He set the woman down in his cot and continued to work on more clay pots, enjoying the feeling of soft clay gliding on his fingertips.

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