Snippet #371428

The wagon's were moving as usual, slow but seem to get anywhere within a couple of hours. Lan's mom was knitting in a corner and Lan was playing with a little stream of fire, moving it through the air in patterns that were hypnotizing. Nothing was happening, and all that was seen was the sun, a few clouds slowly drifting by and grass... plains and plains of grass. Lan wondered what would happen if he let a little spark just float to a blade of grass, he nearly did it when his mom grabbed his arm. "Don't go doing anything you'll regret later, and you've done enough today already." She gave him a hug and went back to knitting.

"So where are we going next?" Lan asked with a bit of excitement. "We're heading to the Empire Capital, we'll be putting on a grand show. Plenty of people will be there, and many rich people." Lan's mom always thought about the profit. Since she grew up in a poor family, she always counted the coins she got and never spent any of it. In the end it wasn't enough but she was able to join a this group of minsters and jesters. He didn't know why she joined with them, but he never asked.

"Will it be better than last time we were there? Sure it was humorous, but we weren't able to finish the show." The memory of that man's pants catching on fire will always stay in everyone's memory, since the only thing that could put it out was... the wagon stopped suddenly. Lan got out to see what was going on, and saw the coach looking at a sign. "Hey Tan, what's going on?" The man was like a giant bear, with his size and hair he didn't know how he got the nickname 'Tan' since the sun never touched his skin. "Well lad, I've forgotten which way we go. I can't remember if it's right to the Empire or left to my drinking buddies, or the other way around. It's got me stumped."

By now, everyone was gathering around trying to guess which way it was. "Well, which way did we come from?" someone yelled. "I don't recall the name of the town we were at," yelled another. "Should we flip a coin," said a woman in the front. "For goodness sakes lass, if I thought that was a good idea then I would've done it already," said Tan in a burly voice. "Well we have to do something, let's take a vote. All who say we go right raise their hand," people raised there hands. "All who say we go left, raise your hand." More people raised their hand but not everyone voted. "All who say we follow Maggie's leg, raise your hand." Maggie was a old woman with a leg that seemed to always know the answer. Everyone else raised there hand. "Alright, Maggie's leg it is, where is that woman." A hunched over old lady pushed through the crows saying, "I'm here, I'm not dead yet." People laughed, it was always funny to hear her talk about her age.

Maggie took off her leg, and dropped it to the ground.... it pointed right. "Alright folks, let's get a move on. Don't got that much farther." Everyone went back to their wagons and we started moving again. Lan shifted over to his mom and asked with a smile, "Mom when you get that old, will you get a leg like that?" His mom smiled and said, "You won't have to worry about that, you won't have to worry at all."