One More Step

Anna didn't comment on that and just had her in her worried eyes. She felt whole way anxious as she could see Kyra loose breath a couple of times. As soon they arrived at the medical center she called medicine woman Ling.

''Aunt Ling, Kyra seems to be feeling bad for few days. Could you look at her health, I am really worried.'' Anna pushed Kyra in front of her.

Ling took Kyra's hand checked it for a couple of minutes then the other hand and then she looked at her appearance. ''You seem to have lack of sleep and a large amount of stress. What is going on? Do you two have some problems?''

Kyra looked at the crowd that walked through the store and just shook her head and gave her a small letter. ''read it later on. We can't talk. I think this time we won't be coming back here for a while.''

Ling's eyes constricted and she just slowly nodded. She put the letter in a box and turned around to prepare a few things for them. Soon she came out the side room with medicine packages and gave them in their hands. She straight looked at Kyra and nodded making her understand.

''Thank you, aunt Ling. Be healthy until we see each other after a long time.'' The girls smiled at her and without too much talking left in hurry towards their horses where they left the medicine bags.

Then they rushed between the people and pulled the horses behind them as they went straight to the Jiang clothing store and the same thing happened again. they gave them packages with clothes and planted it on horses. Their next place was the restaurant.

''Grandma, grandpa, uncle... I think we should talk. And I hope you can trust me with this.'' Kyra's words were urgent as soon they sat down in their private room far from anyone's ears. These private rooms were the best and not many people rented them but these two old people would take the girls here and feed them with all kinds of delicacies every time they came.

''Speak child. We will listen. You never lied to us and you have no reason to lie.''

''Lately, I have that strange bad feeling in my heart. Some people believe in prophecies but I am not one of them. But, whenever I have this strange feeling something happens. This time I have such a heavy feeling that I couldn't sleep for days. I had wished to buy thousands of dan of grains. I am so anxious that I had to come here today. You might not believe me and I might just have some reflux. But just to set my unsteady heart I will go and spend all our savings to buy grains, potatoes, oils, beans and any other food I can get under my finger. You know we have only a small garden. We have no space for grains so I will buy enough grains for a whole year. I just wanted to ask you to do the same. You won't lose money if you buy it now. You have a restaurant so no one would think it's weird. And the season is good so many people will sell grains a bit cheaper. Now is cheaper than last year. Of course, you can choose not to believe me.'' She just drank some tea and had no wish to eat any food.

She soon stood up and left with greetings and as the restaurant owner's family left the private room in the other room sat two people and had dark expressions.

''Crown prince you should not take the words of a small girl to much to your heart. The year was abundant with lots of grains and vegetables. She just probably is anxious as they have not enough food on their own.'' The young man could see the solemn expression on the crown prince's face.

''Maybe... I heard in the south there is so much grain that they can't seLl it. Just use my name and buy it off by the fair price. We can just take it to the state storehouse. It's not like it will be wasted. Buy as much as you can. Empty all the treasury in my home. I think doing that is one way to repay to our people as well. The money you can't eat but help them out is not a bad idea.'' He made it look like he is buying it off to help those that had too many, but actually her words made him think about the latest reports from the north. There was no rain for months.

He stopped as he was about to leave the room. ''Send the report from north to my father and tell him I am worried. Tell him I hope he could speak to ministers and take some money from the treasury to buy more.''

The young man sighed but nodded and left.

''I hope you are wrong, Kyra...'' He whispered her name with worry in his dark eyes.

The girls rushed out restaurant and looked back at the busy street. Now Anna was sure about the feeling that Kyra had. ''Kyra how shall we do that? We don't have a carriage.''

''Then let's buy one.'' The straight answer was all she could get out of Kyra. But on the other hand, it as a well good idea.

Outside the town where many people praised their products, they found the old woman from a few months ago. ''Good morning. How have you all been?''

The group of people always stood together and were always the same so when they saw the girls they greeted them with smiles on their faces. After all, these girls are etched into their hearts with all the things they did since they met them.

''We all are living nicely now. Our vegetables are growing nicely and our life became steady.'' the grandma was proud of the abundance of food in her garden.

Kyra paused for second and then smiled at Anna while winking and making her voice go lower so they had to come closer.

''I heard something. It seems they predict this winter to be harsher than last. That means that the cold will come earlier. We already started to gather food like hamsters. Even if the information is not right, we will have enough food for winter, won't we?'' She laughed and everyone joined.

''So what do you do?'' Grandma was always curious about the ways other people preserved food.

''I already prepared the salt-preserved food in my cellar. The two of us have just a small garden so we have to buy food. I am worried that when colder weather comes we won't be able to afford it. So we dry it all. The greens, the beans, the mushrooms, all kinds of vegetables are already dried or preserved in my jars. We don't earn much money so we have enough only to survive, but we try it hard to preserve as much as we can from our garden and from wild herbs in the forest. You all are lucky. You could do so much more and have enough in winter. Somehow I have a strange feeling that weather might change, or maybe just some stomach reflux. hahahahhaa'' She patted her stomach and laughed heartily.

''Oh by the way, is there anyone who would sell good second-hand carriage. We don't have too much money so we can't afford a new one.'' She looked at people around with pleading eyes and the grandma laughed.

''Actually, I can sell you ours. But its a small one. I think for two girls like you it is enough. Come let me show you.'' She already planned to buy bigger as she had now enough money and to many vegetables to sell. So this carriage was too small for that.

What they saw was a similar carriage to the smaller one that Chen had. For their use was it enough.

Anna saw that it was old but it didn't look broken so she happily smiled at the old woman. ''Grandma, we wouldn't mind buying it, but how much do you ask for it?''

they asked before and knew that small carriages went from the cheapest 20 small silver coins. So this one should be already half of the price.

But as the old woman saw their anxious faces she felt sad. ''I can give it to you for 3 silver coins as I have it almost 20 years. It is still whole and it never broke.''

The girls had difficult faces but had to buy it so they slowly took a bunch of coins and counted. On the end, they barely gathered the three silver coins together and got the carriage.

When the woman went back she told everyone how difficult life must have been for those girls as they used almost their last money for the carriage, but grandma was on end serious as well.

''I believed in Buddha for a long time. Some people that have a simple lifestyle have more love from Him than us that are connected more to the outside world. Maybe because the girls are so simple and kind and lovable, somehow I feel He has His eyes on them as well. If that girl feels strange about the current situation its the same as telling us to watch out. Think. We suddenly have a large abundance of food. What if she has right and after this is heavy rain or early winter. Even if we do prepare now for winter it doesn't mean we will lose something. We will just have more to eat in wintertime, right?''

Everyone had to admit that her logic is quite right. She looked at the food that didn't sell even at extremely low prices and felt shame to throw it away or waste it. So as soon she came home she organized the whole family in winter preparation, including children.

''Mother, what came up to you to start preparation in mid of summer?'' Her son couldn't understand.

''It seems the abundancy really hit everyone's head. You forgot already how we almost starved to death in the last couple of years because we dint have enough food. You say its mid of summer, yes it is. What if is the worst word you know? What if there is too much sun, what if there is too much rain, what if there is early winter? Son, right now there is so much food thrown away and I feel sorry for myself and all of you. Its something we grew with many tears and sweat. If there is abundancy we can just dry it, or preserve it. Then in the wintertime, we don't have to worry about food at all. We can contently be lazy until winter ends. What is wrong with that? Better than being hungry. Now go and help your wife. She is carrying that heavy stuff and that is not her job, it's yours, go.''

She was like a general on the war field as she started big winter foraging. Their cellars, storage rooms, and even their own sleeping rooms started to be full of all kinds of jars filled with food. With some strange feeling, she started buying grains, oils and beans as they were this year cheap.

''Mother we have so many in our garden, why do you even buy them?'' Her son complained.

''Too much we can sell when winter comes for sure. We won't be losing money with grains ever. And if nothing else we can cook it and give it to our pigs and chickens making them fat and tasty.''

Her son just gave up and just went to the market and bought the medium quality for a cheap price. The top of their houses was filled with grains by the end of the week and now normal life continued as she stopped complaining after she saw everything ready.

On the other side, the girls were not better. They went to the city to buy the grains multiple times a day for a whole week and when there was literally no more space in the cellar they started buying again big glass jars, filled them with grains and took them to the cave. They were so busy every day with buying the grains, traveling, taking grains to the cave and then taking care of the garden that their days were overfilled and they would just wash and almost faint in bed.

One morning there was knocking on their gate. Somehow they thought it was Chen but when they saw Chief Jafar's face they were surprised. ''Chief?''

''We will start harvesting the wheat today. We will bring you the wheat together with stalks so you can use it as you wish. As promised. Just to let you know.'' He saw their sleepy expressions and found it quite cute.

Kyra dazedly just nodded and Anna waved her hand when he walked back.

''Anna, go sleep bit more. I need you to have the strength today. It seems we will have much to do. The last couple of days you were running around with me and you probably are tired. I promised you nice relaxing days, but you got so stressed. Look how small your face became. Go to sleep, go go go.'' Kyra pushed her back into bed and saw her falling instantaneous into a deep sleep while she went to the well. She used the whole bucket of water and splashed it over her head, over and over again. After she cleared some of her minds, she changed her clothes and started preparing.

It's time for her to gather some strength as she will need it...