Marrianne is in an unusually good mood the next morning. I mean, she's always so nice to me, but today she is absolutely glowing. She can't stop smiling, like everything is right with the world. I... have no idea why. Did something amazing happen when she went out last night? Where did she go anyway? It's like all the worry she was trying to hide is completely gone, unless she's just not showing it at all. But she looks way too happy, how could she be hiding some unpleasant feelings, when she's just gushing joy like this?

In any case, Marrianne removes my bandages again after breakfast. Taking another look at my hands, she says they mostly look healed. The skin still seems a bit pink and sensitive. When I flex my fingers, there are a few prickles that feel unpleasant from the spots that seemed to burn the worst, but everything else mostly feels fine. I think I can use these again... probably. I try to pick up one of the stools by the table. I'm able to grasp it without any pain, pick it up, move it around, and set it back down. Yeah, it looks like I can at least use my hands again now. I give Marrianne a bright smile and she praises me for taking my time and healing so well.

As for my voice, it seems like my estimation was right. I can kind of make sound now, which can more or less sound like words. By tomorrow I should basically be able to speak. Today, the first thing to do is finish the sewing from yesterday. Marrianne gets her sewing box and the remaining clothes to be repaired. Since I can use my hands today, she takes the opportunity to teach me how to sew. First she shows me how to gather the thread, tie it off, and thread the needle. It takes a lot of work. The hole in the needle is so tiny that I have to be really careful just to get the thread through. Once I manage that, she walks me through actually sewing patches on.

It's very slow, delicate work. "Remember, it's really sharp. No need to rush, just be careful and go at your own pace." She keeps reminding me to be careful. I would start to get annoyed but... I completely understand. When I just keep hurting myself every time she turns around, she's going to get worried over every little thing. And she just gave me a needle, something sharp and dangerous.

I wince. Just as I'm thinking about that, I stab my finger with the needle when I'm pushing it through the dress in my hands. Yeah, it's really sharp. I look at my finger briefly. It seems it didn't break the skin, it just pricked me a little. I get back to work.

It really is slow though. Since it's my first time, I struggle to do each stitch. Marrianne explained that I need to go forward and backward and how to do the pattern to make sure it all stays right and doesn't pull out. But it seems like each time I move, the line of thread wobbles from side to side so the edge is uneven. Nothing like the nice straight stitches already in place, which Marrianne must have sewn in previously. I jerk my hand back. Yeah, I drew blood that time. When I show Marrianne, she pats me on the head and puts my finger in her mouth for a bit. I don't really understand, but when she releases my finger, it's not bleeding anymore. Heat? Saliva? Something else? I don't know what part of that helped, but it worked. I give her a big smile.

I keep going at my slow pace. By the time the seventh bell sounds, I have finished one patch, and she has finished the rest of the clothing. I also have a dozen little stab wounds in my fingers. Needles are really sharp. We eat a quick lunch of bread and fruit. It's amazing being able to pick them up myself. "Good girl, look how nicely you eat," she praises me, rubbing my head again. I grin happily as I eat the fruit and deliciously tasty bread.

Once we have finished eating, Marrianne explains that we are going to go shopping. When I give her a questioning look, she explains that we need to get more food. She hasn't had a chance to go shopping lately with everything that's been going on, so we're going now that she has the time. By that, she means that she has been so busy taking care of me for the last two weeks, she couldn't go get food? Now she can get more food, so she can feed me more...

Wait, I hadn't thought of that at all until now. I haven't just been wearing clothes that she didn't have time to wash. I've been eating food she didn't have time to buy. Even the firewood the other day, that room for firewood was completely empty when we restocked it, wasn't it? She keeps giving me things, even though she won't have time to get more because she's using that time to take care of me.

As soon as I realize this, I run over and hug her. I can feel the tears filling my eyes. "It's just food shopping, dear!" she exclaims. She doesn't understand why, but I still have to thank her anyway. All the things she does for me just pile up one after another. After hugging her for a while, I manage to use all my willpower to compose myself again. I put on a strong face, and we head out to go shopping.

Our walk takes us to the middle of the city. We travel down the main road that leads from the East Gate to the West Gate, until we arrive at the central plaza. Stalls have been set up all around the plaza. This is the biggest market I've seen. The ones in the little plazas in the northern section of the city are smaller, with fewer stands and a lot less types of goods for sale. As we approach, I begin to smell food smells from somewhere among the stands. There are even these faint kind of weird sounds. Like twang twang. They're hard to hear over the voices of people all packed into the market, but the sounds seem to go up and down and have a strange rhythm to them.

We move into the middle area of the market. Stalls and people pack close together here, so I hold tight to Marrianne so we won't be separated. There are lots of different stands, with all sorts of different things available. I recognize most of them from observing the smaller markets before, but there are new things that I haven't seen before too. I don't know what most of it is used for though.

A number of tables hold baskets of food that I do know since I've started watching Marrianne cook and she's told me about all the different foods. Small pine nuts, colorful gerrow fruit, big lumpy potatoes... I'm surprised how much of the food I know now. Marrianne has been teaching me about so many of them, I even know how to describe a lot of the flavors I'd never experienced before from her explaining how they should taste before she uses them for meals. Now that I can pair her descriptions with how they actually taste when I eat them, I have a lot more ability to recognize and describe all the different flavors.

I look up at Marrianne, unsure what we're here to get. Noticing my gaze, she leans down a little and explains. "First we'll be picking up some more hazalia." We circle around the stands, bumping our way through the crowd until the one we're searching for comes into view. We stop and Marrianne kneels down to my height. "Wunay, do you know how to count?" I tilt my head. Of course I can. Why is she asking me if I can count? Could I... not know how to count? Maybe there are people who don't know how? While I flounder, not understanding, she starts to explain. "It's when you go up in numbers..." she looks troubled for a moment, then asks, "wait, do you know numbers?"

That finally breaks me out of my confused thoughts. Somehow, it's even more basic than counting. But she has no idea what I do or don't know. I have to remind myself of that. There are tons of things I had no idea about at all before she started teaching me, like food and flavors. Of course Marrianne doesn't know which things I do or don't understand already. I shake away my confusion and give her a firm nod. "Oh, good." She looks very relieved. I can imagine, it would be really hard to explain buying things if I didn't understand what numbers were, right?

"So for counting, it goes like this: one, two, three..." she starts counting off as she puts up a finger with each number. Hold on, I already know this. But I can't speak to tell her. So I quickly grab her hand to stop her while nodding to show I understand. "Oh, you can count?" I give her another firm nod. "Ah, that's very good." She pats my head as she praises me. Numbers are concerning, but counting is praiseworthy? What's going on here? Isn't that too much of a gap?

"How high can you count?" she asks. I blink a couple times. Another strange question. How high? How high do I have to count? I mean, if you want me to count really high it'll take a long time. Wait, isn't this more of an issue that I can't actually count out loud right now? In that case, I only have ten fingers, that's incredibly limiting! My head spins momentarily as I think deeply. If I use them alternatingly, I could count six per finger on one hand, for a maximum of thirty five. Still a tiny number, but maybe it would be good enough to start? If I get desperate enough, I could do two numbers per finger, increasing that to one hundred twenty. Even that would hardly let me break one hundred, only having ten fingers makes things really hard...

Finishing my thoughts, I try to tell Marrianne how high I would be able to count by holding out my hands and extending all my fingers. With ten of them, I will only be able to count to one hundred ten. I still need to figure out something for after that though.

"You can count to ten already? What a smart girl," she praises me again and pats my head with a glowing smile. I stand there, holding out my hands and continuing to blink. I don't understand these expectations at all.

Apparently satisfied, Marrianne leads me forward to a stall selling a bunch of different foods. One of the baskets on the low counter has hazalia in it. They are round, with a very hard brown shell, but the insides are white with a soft and spongy feel and a very strong, pleasant smell. I really like when she cuts them up and cooks them because they make the whole house smell amazing.

"We'll take two hazalia," Marrianne says to the man behind the counter, handing him some money from the pouch tied at her waist. She leans down so I can reach the basket on her arm. When she looks at me, I understand she wants me to pick them. So I reach up to the counter, as tall as me, and grab two of the hazalia up overhead. Then put them into our basket for her. "Next..." she glances around the stall, before pointing to one side. "Three fran," this time, she leans down and points to another large basket on the ground beside the stall. This is one I'm not familiar with yet. "See these? You can tell which ones are good from the color and straightness of the stalks. If they're curvy they won't cook right. You want them where the green is as dark as it gets before it starts to turn blue or purple." She explains clearly how to select the best fran, so I look at the available options carefully. One by one, I pick out three of the tall, thin vegetables while following her instructions. She nods happily, then pays the shopkeeper.

We continue through the market. Marrianne shows me how to pick out good fruits and vegetables. Most of the ones we are getting I already know, but there are a few, like hoffa, a purple vegetable that she says is sweet, that I don't know already. Each time, she tells me we need some number of them, then watches to make sure I take the right amount. When I successfully take ten potatoes, she rubs my head again. "You're so good at counting, Wunay!" I smile back happily. Honestly, I'm a little put off by the difference between our expectations, but I ignore it, as long as it makes Marrianne happy. At least I can learn all sorts of foods and how to pick the good ones.

Once we have finished buying all sorts of food, we leave the area of the market that seems to deal primarily in food. On the outer edges of the plaza, it seems that there are stands selling all sorts of other goods. Thankfully, it's much less crowded, so we aren't being constantly bumped and shoved around all the time. We walk past a lot of the stalls until Marrianne stops in front of one. It looks like they sell cloth. Really big pieces of cloth, about as tall as me, I think. They're a light brown and they're thrown over a big pole that runs most of the length of the stall, behind the shopkeeper. "Two panels please," Marrianne says.

"That'll be ten iron," the shopkeeper responds. Marrianne frowns a little as she looks into her money pouch, before taking some out and handing it to the man. He turns back to the cloth behind him, taking two of the hanging pieces and folding them up before handing them over. Since she is already carrying the food basket, she asks, "do you think you can hold this, dear?" I nod and take the big bundle of cloth in both arms. It's not very heavy, but it's so large that it's kind of hard to hold it all. So I bundle it all close to my chest and wrap my arms around so it won't get away from me. I glance at the other things on his counter, but they just look like tiny containers. I wonder what they're for?

We go to one more stall, where Marrianne just buys some thread, then we start to head back. "I'm going to sew you a new dress, doesn't that sound nice?" she asks. A new dress? Like the ones I've been wearing? I'm a little confused, which she probably sees, because she explains, "Mine are so big that you need to have them tied all over and they're all baggy on you. I want to make you one in your own size." A dress in my size, just for me? I start to smile at the thought, before something catches in my mind. She's doing yet another thing for me. Based on her look earlier, the cloth might have cost a lot of money too. But she already decided to do it, there's no way I can make it look like I don't want it. Then she would have bought all that cloth for nothing.

So I give her a bright smile and hug her leg, the bundle of cloth still in my arms. My first clothes. The thought unexpectedly brings back a memory.

I vaguely recall that they did give us new robes when the old ones were too small. In fact, that robe is still the one I have. It was far too large when they gave them to us, and is still pretty big on me. The rest of the rail units received another robe once they outgrew these ones. They're probably the last robes they'll get, since they're combat age now.

The memory passes. That was completely different. Those were just given to all of us. These are clothes made just for me. My own dress. I hold onto Marrianne's leg tightly and happy, bubbly feelings make me beam up at her.

Then I hear Francis' warning. "Don't get too attached." My smile falters.

"Wunay, is something wrong?" Marrianne asks. I shake my head and force a smile again. Don't get too attached? It's way too late for that. She's the only person who's ever shown me love. I can't even sleep through the night without her. Besides the small sparks from others I've met, she is the single light of happiness in my otherwise painful life. There's no way I could possibly not be too attached to her already.

I know it's going to destroy me when I have to leave. I just... don't want to think about that today. So I push it to the back of my mind while we walk back to her home. I continue to smile while Marrianne talks all about what she's going to make for dinner.

When we get back, she takes an interesting thing with numbers on it and wraps it around me in various directions. She calls it a 'measuring tape' and says it's to get my sizes so she knows how big to make my dress. Then she takes an oddly shaped, multi-bladed tool she calls scissors, and cuts the fabric into big pieces. She starts sewing bit by bit. "It will take quite a bit of time to sew the whole thing, so be a good girl and wait a few days, ok?" she asks. I nod happily. Of course I'll wait if she's going to give me something nice. Which reminds me, I never did get her a gift. I completely forgot! I hang my head when I realize. I got completely sidetracked having fun with those other kids, I totally forgot that I was trying to find a gift I could give Marrianne...

Even though we didn't do too much today, I'm still kind of tired, so I take a nap while she works. The third time I wake up, Francis is back and Marrianne is getting dinner ready. I wait a little while until she finishes and we all eat. Today, the bread is fresh bread from the market, so it's much softer than usual. The bulk of the meal is potatoes boiled until soft, so she could mash them up, and more chopped up vegetables piled on top.

"The potatoes are hot, be careful and remember to blow on them," Marrianne warns. I nod, looking at the food warily. Then I take my spoon and scoop some up. My hands are wobbly, so I carefully hold it up and blow on the food over and over until it looks like it's cool. I touch a little to my tongue to make extra sure before taking a bite. The potato is all soft and squishy and feels good in my mouth. It doesn't taste like much, but the hoffa we picked up earlier make up for it with their crunchy, sweet taste. Strangely, they aren't purple on the outside and a different color on the inside like most vegetables. Instead, they're a bright purple all the way through.

"Wunay, I need to go to work tomorrow. I don't know if I should take you back to the stables so soon." She looks a little guilty as she says that. "Do you think you can be a good girl and stay home tomorrow?" I start to nod, but then think of something else. I need to talk with Francis tomorrow. If I'm not with Marrianne, maybe I can go with him? It's worth a shot, right? She tilts her head when she sees me thinking. I turn and point at Francis. Her eyes go wide with surprise. As far as she's seen, we've never really interacted with each other... basically at all. "Umm, I'm not really sure, honey," she says. She looks at Francis like she has no idea what he will say.

He turns and eyes me briefly. He knows we're supposed to talk tomorrow. He thinks for a bit. I wonder what part of this he's considering? Since we need to talk tomorrow, it's the perfect opportunity. "I suppose so, as long as she keeps to herself and doesn't bother anyone, it shouldn't be a problem for her to tag along."

Marrianne lets out a relieved sigh. "You heard him. You're going to have a busy day tomorrow, so you should get to bed early." I nod, and work on finishing my food. As soon as I'm done, I carefully climb down from my stool. The new straw feels nice and bouncy under my feet. Now that I can use my hands, I help Marrianne change me into bedclothes. I still can't really tie the clothing up, but just getting into and out of it is something I can do.

Since I need to be at my best tomorrow, I tug on Marrianne's dress to get her to sleep with me again. She says she'll join me in a bit, she has to work on my dress. So I nod and go to sleep. My nightmares wake me up a couple times before Marrianne decides to turn in for the night and joins me in my small bed. I know it's bad that I can't sleep peacefully without her, but for now getting good sleep is more important. Once I have her warmth at my side, I'm able to hold onto it and keep the worst of my nightmares away.