Ethereal Stones [Ethereal Saga Book 1]

Astora Chapter 2: Blue Topaz

I spent the next three hours walking to Ame city, but luckily I made it there before the G.S. had begun. Ha, good thing I left home early. I found a nice place to set up shop at a plaza called 'Hina to Tsuki'. The place was enormous, one could probably grow entire months' worth of food for a quarter of the city if it weren't covered in cement.

Rising skyscrapers surrounded us, they touched the sky with their spires that reminded me of lances. The city though wasn't as futuristic as I had imagined it to be. Actually over half of the city looked to be in conditions as bad as the inside of my home, or worse, far worse. Meanwhile, the other section of the city was full of business buildings, fancy restaurants, big brand-name shops I had only ever seen on television, and even mansions.

"Melons, buy your melons here," a boy with semi-long light blue hair yelled out. He had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen, they were like the clear waters of a deep lake.

"So you are selling food too?" I said. His melon cart was almost empty. I tried to hold back a chuckle. I was right to come to the city.

"Yeah, I started selling these melons before the sun rose," he responded as he looked up at the sky with his topaz blue eyes. "So what are you selling?"

I showed him a white dress that my ma had made. "I'm gonna sell clothes my ma made, along with corn, strawberries, apples, watermelons, and citrus fruit."

His eyes seemed to glow at the sight of the dress. "Wow, your mother makes beautiful dresses. It sort of reminds me of my mom, she always used to sew clothes for us." He smiled as if reminiscing about his childhood. He shook his head and held out his hand toward me. "How rude of me, I have yet to introduce myself, I'm Shion Topaz."

"Shion, isn't that a girl's name?" I said jokingly. Wow, did I sound like Tsukyo, or what?

He puffed his cheeks. "It's not. It's a unisex name. What's your name?"

My eyes darted up towards the sky. "I'm Sora Citrine."

The boy chuckled as he glanced up at the sky again. "Sora? That's a unisex name too. Doesn't that mean sky?" 

I grinned. "It does, Ma said she called me that as she saw in me the vast sky."

Shion laughed.

I blushed as red as a red potato. "What's so funny?"

"I just found your face to be cute."

My face became redder. Being called 'cute' by a guy wasn't on my list of acceptable compliments.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Sora. I'm almost out of melons, so we will going to have to talk another time. I'll leave you to your work."

"I can give you some of my fruit to sell but you have to give me seventy-five percent of what you get from the sales," I said jokingly.

His eyes glowed. "Alright, I will." He didn't hesitate to take some apples out of a bag in my cart.

I picked out some apples to sell by myself. "You mean ya'll really help me out?" I placed the apples on a white, and red cloth. "Ya don't have to, really."