The next morning, everyone woke up feeling refreshed. Even Inari was feeling well enough to eat breakfast with the rest of the group. After eating and cleaning up, Toku and Theodora prepared to leave before the sun rose above the violet-shaded horizon, making it difficult for Toku to travel. Isaku packed what little he could for lunch and dinner, and he pointed them on their way toward the next town.

“You'll take this road in to town. Once there, find the main highway. It won't be difficult if you ask some of the locals. Stay on the highway and you'll reach the capitol in three or four days.”

Toku and Theodora thanked him, said goodbye, and started off, leaving behind their first friends in this new world.

They entered town not too long after the sunrise, which was good for Toku's sake. Already what appeared to be a sleepy village was bustling with activity. The merchants were busy opening their shops; the baker was filling the air with the intoxicating aroma of his early-morning labor; messengers and delivery men were darting here and their carrying packages and driving carts in the busy road; women were shuffling defiant young children off to school; and the busybodies busied themselves by standing about and simply looking busy. Everything was alive with activity.

All the hustle and bustle eased Toku's mind a bit. He felt more at home among the crowds. While Theodora was certainly wonderful company, he was missing the cramped, tight swarms of bodies of the Crossroads. For a moment, as they darted in and out among the women doing their morning shopping, Toku even forgot about the painful light of the sun and the enormous emptiness over his head that never seemed to leave.

“The smell of that bread is making me hungry! Why don't we find something to eat?” asked Theodora, her voice braking through Toku's daze.

Now that she mentioned it, he was feeling pretty hungry as well, even though had had just eaten a few hours earlier. But, it was not the smell of bread that caused his stomach to long to be filled. He had just watched a squat, little woman barter with a merchant for a bunch of grapes. A whole bunch! In his entire lifetime (short as it was), Toku had never seen so many grapes as were on that one merchant's cart. And, looking around the marketplace, he realized that in this small town were gourmet treasures the likes of which he had only dreamed about.

“If only my mother could see this!” Toku said, grabbing Theodora by the wrist. “Isn't it amazing? We could cook up a feast that would last for days!”

“What do you mean?” asked Theodora, puzzled.

“Just look at them all! Strawberries, grapes, apples, plums, peaches...and I don't even know what that one is, but I'm going to try it!”

“But they're just fruit, Toku.”

“I know! Isn't it amazing?”

For the first time, Theodora began to realize just how different Toku's life under the earth must be. They had talked briefly about his great underground city, but the repercussions of what living one's whole life underground had not sunk in quite so clearly as now. Theodora looked at Toku with a sense of both awe and pity. Now, the reader might wonder that Theodora pitied Toku. After all, he did not know his life to be deprived of anything, and indeed, he was perfectly happy and content with what the underground world offered. All the more reason to pity him now, then. For once one has seen in reality what one has only dreamed of before—to live without that reality is one of this life's cruelest tortures. But we digress, dear reader...

Toku practically pulled Theodora to the nearest fruit stand. Looking over each fruit very carefully, as if they were all priceless gems, he selected the biggest, reddest apple on the cart.

“I can't believe they're selling them all for the same price!” Toku snickered to Theodora. “Can you believe it?”

“That'll be ten, please,” the elderly merchant said, holding out his wrinkled hand.

Toku took out a ten-piece from his pouch and placed it in the old man's outstretched hand. As Toku turned to leave, the merchant grabbed his shoulder with a surprising grip and spun him around on the spot.

“What's the big idea, kid? What're you tryin' to get away with, huh? This is a real market, boy! Not one of your little games in the schoolyard. Now I suggest you hand over the merchandise until you go home to mommy and bring me back some real money!” The merchant's features had shifted quite suddenly. The moment before his face was wearing the placid, bored look of one who has been doing the same thing for a very, very long time, and now with narrowed eyes and a sharp gaze, Toku felt as if the elderly man was about to wrench his should off.

“But I did give you real money!” Toku insisted, struggling to loosen the man's grip.

“Give me the apple, boy!”

“Toku! Just give it back!” Theodora almost yelled, trying to pull Toku away. “They don't use the same money as you! Just give it back!”

The truth of Theodora's statement dawned on Toku and he released his grip on the apple. Immediately the merchant loosed his hold on Toku's shoulder, and sent him tumbling in a heap on the ground. Tossing the coin next to Toku's head, the merchant examined the apple, ensuring it had not been damaged in any way. Apparently satisfied, he gave one more scorching look at the sad pair.

“Now get out of here, you brats!”

Neither Toku nor Theodora thought it wise to stay around the market any longer, and hunger had been quite effectively driven from their minds.

“Money's going to be a problem, isn't it?” said Toku as he and Theodora sat in the shade between a bustling barber shop and a novelty shop. A few mischievous looking boys were unwrapping their recent purchases in front of the shop, and Toku was fairly certain he saw something that looked a lot like rubber vomit.

“It's funny...I hadn't even thought about needing money up until now. For some reason it never seems to come up in the stories that you read. But, if we want to eat, we're going to have to get some money somehow. I don't suppose you could just make some using your alchemy, could you?” asked Theodora.

“Well, I guess I could. But, I'm really not supposed to. It's a pretty strict rule among alchemists that we're not to make money. I think a bunch of alchemists got killed by a greedy king some time ago, or something.”

“Oh! Well, don't worry about doing it then! We'll figure something else out.”

“But what?...”

The pair sat in silence for a few moments as they each became lost in thought. A fly buzzed around Toku's head and he instantly became entranced by the strange bug.

“Listen,” said Theodora, bringing Toku back from his intense examination of the fly. “Why don't I try to go find a little work? I'm sure there's somewhere that needs help for a day. The sun is rising, and it will be hard for you to do any work, so you should stay in the shade and try to get some information from the people here about where we need to go next. I think Isaku said something about a highway?”

Toku took a little convincing to let Theodora go off alone. He was feeling pretty useless, and he hated the idea of making a girl do all the work. But Theodora was insistent, and when he thought about what Sakura would say to such thoughts he almost laughed to himself. He could almost imagine Sakura punching him in the gut...

“Come on, Alchemy Boy! You're supposed to be so manly and strong! I better never here you sayin' a girl can't do work again, buddy. Or else I'll show you what kind of work a girl can do!”

And so, thinking bittersweet thoughts of his friend who seemed very far away, Toku watched Theodora head off to earn some money for their travels.

Drawn by the heavenly aroma that had greeted them upon first entering town, the first place Theodora came to in search of work was a bakery. The storefront was completely empty. There was no one at the register, and only a few stale croissants and a baguette remained on the shelves. And yet, the sweet smell of freshly baked goods still filled the air.

“Is anyone here?” Theodora timidly spoke into the empty room, as if someone would pop out from behind the counter. However, if there was someone lurking behind the counter, he did not heed Theodora's call.

Suddenly a loud clanging crash came from the back room. The door behind the counter was closed, but yelling could clearly be heard through it. As Theodora stood stock still, trying to understand the raised voices, a squat little man burst through the door. His chubby cheeks were flushed and he looked frightened for his life. Having stepped through the door, apparently gaining confidence, he turned around to shout back into the room.

“Remember—you'd better be done by seven tonight, or else!” the chubby man screeched in a strangely high-pitched whining sort of voice.

“Get out of here you good-for-nothing lackey before I use your fat face to grease my pans! And take this!”

A spoon rocketed through the door and just missed clobbering the chubby man right in the head. Without waiting to see if any more silverware would follow, he ran for his life past Theodora and out the front door of the bakery, stumbling and bumping in his hurry to gain the safety of the outdoors.

The door to the back room remained open and Theodora took the opportunity to peek inside. The room was full of cakes and pastries of every shape and size you could imagine. There were brightly frosted cakes decorated with sugar-sculpted flowers and leaves. There were tiny finger sandwiches of chocolate and silkily smooth custard cream. There were towering layered cakes reaching towards the ceiling. There was even a pastry sculpture of a stunningly gorgeous woman sitting atop a diamond and sapphire encrusted throne.

In the midst of this wonderland of sugary delight, stood a group of bakers in tall, white hats. One baker, whose face was covered in white powder that could only be flour, stood in the middle of the group, his face contorted with the undeniable emotion of rage. His eyes were wide, his teeth were clenched in an attempt to restrain his passion, and he was waving a large, silver spoon menacingly in the air. Theodora quickly gathered the source of the master baker's anger, as she perceived a very large, overturned pot of flour on the floor. From the looks of things, the pot had been knocked off the large table in the center of the room and had managed to not simply fall, but to roll the length of the room, spilling it's contents everywhere along it's journey. And not only that, but a second large pot apparently filled with water had also been upset in the commotion, and had followed same path as the first, coming to rest neatly against the far wall. The result of these two hapless pots careening adventure could only be described as a gooey, swampy mess. From just in front of the huddled mass of bakers, Theodora could trace the path of two grubby footprints, clearly fleeing for safety towards the door where she now stood.

“That...that...that...”

“Now, boss. Don't lose your temper again. You know about your blood pressure.” One of the bakers was trying to calm the enraged master baker. “Listen, we'll just have to get some more flour from the storage room. I'll go get it now.”

“There is no more flour! That was the last of it!” the boss shouted. “That's it! That's all that was left. We're doomed. That idiot of a messenger! If I ever see him again...I'll...I'll...I'll beat him with my rolling pin and bake him in the oven!”

“Well, don't worry, boss!” another subordinate attempted, “How about we just gather up the flour on the floor and do our best to use what can be saved? It's not that bad, right?”

The master baker turned on his poor employee with a look that would have melted through a steel wall. “No, the flour is ruined. You know it, as well as I. And could you imagine, just for a moment, if the king ever learned that we served dirt-laced cakes to his royal party? We would be lucky if we were only executed.”

“Uhm, excuse me,” Theodora bravely interjected. (Personally, I would have waited to speak, but something in Theodora told her that it would be okay to speak now.)

Noticing her for the first time, the group of bakers looked over at the strange girl in the doorway. One of the bakers took pity on her and tried to answer before his boss' anger could be riled again, “I'm sorry, Miss, but we're closed for the party today. You'll have to come back tomorrow...”

If we're still open tomorrow, someone whispered.

“And only if we find some flour first!” yelled the master baker at no one in particular.

“Oh, but I'm not here to buy anything. I'm here for work. Can you use my help? If you need more flour, I can get more for you.”

“What are you talking about, girl? There's no more flour to be had in this town on a day like today. It's the night of the mayor's party. We're sunk. We have at least twenty more cakes to bake to complete the king's order, and we're all out of flour. And the king's ambassadors were going to be at that party, too.” The master baker trailed off, thinking of a dream that was a good as dead.

Theodora thought quickly. The king's ambassadors? Could one of them be the Alchemist? At the very least they might know where we can find him.

“If I can get you more flour, can you get me and my friend into the party?” Theodora suddenly asked.

“What? Ha! Yeah, sure...no problem,” the boss said haphazardly, clearly thinking her offer ridiculous.

Not wanting to give the baker time to rethink his careless comment, Theodora quickly ran forward, grabbed a handful of the flour strewn on the floor, and ran out the door to find Toku.