As Kora and Nori left Elder Maize’s tent, they couldn’t help but walk in silence at how quickly their original plan was derailed. She had completely distracted them and basically talked them into continuing with the original arrangement. Kora couldn’t help but look over at Nori to try to read his face. Despite how good she’d gotten at reading his emotions over the short time she’d known him, his face was currently betraying not a single emotion as he kept a neutral expression. 

“Let’s go get your shoes first, and then we’ll stop by a few other places for clothes and whatever else you’d like.” Nori says as he looks over the village. 

“Okay,” Kora replies as she follows him through the crowded village. Although she was used to living in a large city full of people, she was used to at least having sidewalks. Nori led the two of them through whatever spaces the two of them could fit. They passed by a variety of different people. There were people driving carts, people selling goods and calling out to anyone who passed by as well as people who were trying to navigate the chaos, much like they were. 

Unfortunately for Kora, she immediately found herself struggling to keep up with Nori’s pace. He was much taller and took larger steps and her small frame was much shorter than many of the villagers. In fact, the only people she has seen that were shorter than her were children. 

Interrupting her thoughts, Kora heard a crash and then was pushed off to the side. Standing up and brushing the dust off of her clothes, she realized that one of the cart’s wheels had fallen off and everyone had scrambled to get out of the way of the falling vegetables. Looking around, she realized that she had completely lost Nori. Although she would’ve loved to meet him at the shoemakers, she also knew that she knew no one and didn’t even know where they were supposed to be going. Keeping this in mind, she decided to stay put and help the farmer pick up the vegetables that had fallen into the street. 

As Kora bent down to pick up the last of the vegetables, she could hear Nori’s voice frantically calling her name. Standing up, she waves over in his direction and shouts back, “I’m over here.” 

Within what felt like seconds he was standing in front of her. “Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt did you? Why are you picking up vegetables?” As he asks his questions, his hands go to Kora’s shoulders as he looks her up and down. “You are hurt!” he says as he bends down to look at her bleeding legs. 

Kora looks down to see that she had actually scraped her legs quite badly. She hadn’t expected the amount of blood that was currently running down her legs, because she had been so focused on helping the poor farmer. Looking down at Nori, she says, “Get up, it isn’t as bad as it looks.”

“I don’t believe you. I can’t leave you alone for one second without you getting yourself hurt.” Nori says as he stands up. Looking over at the farmer, he says, “I can help you fix your wheel, but I’ve got to get her bandaged up first. Do you mind making sure that she doesn’t do anything else while I run to get some bandages?”

The farmer quickly agreed and before Kora knew it, she was being ushered to sit down. The farmer retrieved some fresh fruit from his cart and offered them to her. Despite her attempts to start a conversation, the farmer simply decided to stand next to her and wait for Nori.

Kora watched as Nori returned with a bag of supplies in his hand. “Good, I’m glad you are already sitting. This’ll only take a minute.” Nori says as he once again bends down to inspect the cuts. 

“I can bandage them myself.” Kora says as she holds a hand out for the bandages. “I can at least do this to keep myself busy while you help with his wheel.”

Reluctantly Nori agreed and quickly busied himself helping the man. By the time Kora had finished tending to her cuts and scrapes from earlier, Nori was walking in her direction and the farmer was driving off. “You’ve done a pretty good job.” he says as he continues to walk closer. 

“I told you, I could do it.” Kora replies as she finishes putting the extra supplies back into the bag. As she turns back to look at Nori, she finds his hand reaching out to help her up. Taking it, she finds herself pulled directly into his arms as he quickly lifts her off of her feet. “What?! Hold on, why are you carrying me again?”

“Because I can’t trust you not to get hurt. Besides, walking with all of the injuries you have can’t be good for you. You don’t even have a proper pair of shoes yet.” Nori says as he pulls her tighter to his body before he begins walking. “Don’t worry though, I'll make sure to get you anything you might need.”

Despite the fact that she wanted to protest about him carrying her, she found that she was enjoying the comfort that his arms provided after the roller coaster of emotions these last few days have brought. “Thank you.” she says as she looks up at him before adding, “for everything.”

“Don’t worry about it. I feel much better when I am able to protect you from harm, even if I have to carry you everywhere.” Nori replies with a chuckle. He carried her at a steady pace and before long, the two of them arrived at a small building. The door was open and Nori walked in before placing Kora down on a small bench. 

“What can I get for you today?” Kora hears a voice ask. Turning, she sees a woman smiling and looking directly at Nori. She seems so intent on looking at him that she didn’t even notice Kora’s presence at all. 

“We’re here so that Kora can get some proper shoes. The ones she arrived in are not fit for our terrain.” Nori spoke as he stepped away from the woman and closer to Kora. 

Kora couldn’t help the smile that etched its way onto her face. Although there was technically nothing going on between them, she couldn’t help but notice the discomfort on his face at the saleswoman’s closeness and the fact that he’d moved closer to Kora herself as if for comfort. Looking up at the saleswoman, Kora couldn’t help that her grin widened as she saw the jealousy obvious on the woman’s face. “Hello, I’ve got a few injuries at the moment, so I was hoping that you could bring something roughly my size for me to try on from here? If that’s okay?” Kora asks. 

“Of course.” the woman responds before walking off further into the building.

“Do you know her?” Kora immediately asks Nori as he turns to look at her.

“I know who she is. I know most people in the village. But I don’t know her well enough for her to be looking at me like she was.” As Nori finished his sentence, the disgust at her actions was clear on his face. 

Despite him talking about how undesirable he would be in a marriage, it seems the only thing stopping him from remarrying is his cold personality. With renewed determination to get him to open up, she smiles before saying, “I’m going to be honest, I was a little worried that you might’ve been interested in her. I know there’s nothing going on between us, but I didn’t like the idea of you even considering her.”

Nori immediately went still, seemingly shocked by Kora’s words. She had been quite straightforward but communication is key and she had no plans to hide her feelings from him. Finally, she could see his mouth move but as he spoke, it seemed he still hadn’t processed what she’d told him, “I- well, I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

Seeing the saleswoman returning, Kora replied, “You don’t have to. I just wanted you to know how I felt. 

“I brought a few pairs of shoes that I thought may fit.” the saleswoman says as she places down the shoes she brought. 

They were all similar styles of sandals and seemed to be well-made. Before Kora could reach for any of the shoes, Nori was already crouched in front of Kora to help her try on the shoes. “These are way too big,” he said as he pointed to two of the pairs of shoes she brought over. Sorting through the remaining 5 pairs, Nori carefully selected a pair and gently helped guide Kora’s feet in them. “This pair looks good, but how do they feel?” he asked as he looked up at Kora. 

“They feel good, but I should probably stand in them to make sure.” Kora says. 

Reluctantly, Nori nods and stands before holding out a hand. Helping Kora stand, he says, “Okay, how do they feel? I don’t want you standing up for too long. We don’t want you reopening any wounds.”

“They feel good.” Kora says, surprised that he was able to simply look at the shoes and determine her shoe size already. 

Immediately upon hearing her answer, he guides her back down to sit on the bench and reaches into his bag to pull out some currency in order to pay the saleswoman. “Thank you for helping us. I’m sure that Kora will be back in for more shoes soon, but this will be all for today.” After paying, he replaces his money in his bag, before he once again picks up Kora before leaving the store.