Chapter 2 Street singer

Lorelei POV

In the window to the lady's dressmaker, is a beautiful blue gown displayed. There is a floral pattern embroidered into the skirt, with a dark blue thread. The dress is surrounded by beautiful fabrics in different shades of the rainbow. All displayed to convince people with money to go in there. I am not such people. There is only one place I would ever be able to wear that kind of dress, and that is in my dreams."There you are, Lorelei," my friend Narin says, pulling me out of the dream of the dress and back to the reality of the dusty street I'm standing on. Narin and his twin's sister, Neary, have just joined me. Both of them are wearing the same kind of brown hood and cape as I am. It hides our faces from anybody who may recognize us. Neary have some black hair strains stuck to her bronze-coloured cheek, its whirling right under the eye. Narin looks judging at me, his narrow eyes sending me a disapproving glare.

"Why are you wasting time looking at that material garbage." Narin sneered. He doesn't care for pretty things, and neither do I most of the time but dresses are an exception. I annoyed tell him "It's not like it cost money to look. Besides I wouldn't look good in this kind of dress anyway?". Narin crosses his arms "of course you would look good. I just don't understand why you even wanna wear that kind of clothes." He looks up at me still with that disapproving glare. Our height disparity is practically laughable. They are very short and I am very tall, I tower over the majority of folks. Wanting to change the subject I ask if he was able to get any Anointing Oil. He groans while holding up a little bottle "I got it, but they wanted a lot for it." We expected that, which was why we had brought it ourselves, but it had mysteriously disappeared. Narin continues speaking "Now we need more money if we don't wanna sleep on the street, I thought maybe you could..." but I don't let him finish, I already know what he is gonna ask.

"No, the risk of getting caught is too big" I try to say in a whisper. "We are at greater risk of getting discovered if we don't hide in an inn, and a riskier option would be to steal the money, don't you agree Neary?" Narin looks to his sister, She crosses her arms and sends me a glare. Neary won't answer because she can't, she was born without the ability to talk. But still, I know what her glare means, that Narin is right. Neary is standing in front of the door to the shop. Just as I am about to tell her to move the door goes up and hits her behind. Neary turns around and pushes the person who opened the door. It is a young dark skin woman in a red ruffled dress, "What did you do that for?" The woman shouted. "She did it because you pushed the door into her," I say. "She shouldn't be standing in front of it then" the woman argues. A man who looks just like her takes her arm and pulls her away while muttering "Come let's go we don't want trouble".

"Selfofsorbed rich people" I mutter seeing them walk away. They seemed familiar in some way, and I'm certain I've seen her before. I try to remember from where but I can't place them. Narin interrupts my thoughts "Please Lorelei, we need the money, your singing always earns a lot." he is right about that, but I still ain't too comfortable with doing it here. "Fine, but you better got my back, "I say. "when don't we?" Narin replies. We walk to the middle of the market square by a well. A lot of people are around, trading goods and coins for what they need. here we set up and I make the decision to sing Of a Rose Synge We. Taking a deep breath, I start the first verse.

This rose is railed on a rys; He hath bought the prince of prys, And in this tyme soth hit ys, Viri sine semine.____________________________________________________________

This rose is reed of colour bryght,__________________________________________________

Throw whom oure joye gan alyght,___________________________________________________

Uppon a Cristys masse nyght,_______________________________________________________

Claro David germine.____________________________________________________________

As my voice rang out through the street, people stopped to listen. A crowd started to form around us. Already a few coins were being thrown our way. This was always how it went, my singing always brought in money. Some would call my voice a gift or a talent. No matter what, it has been helpful. We have many times needed to rely on my singing to get necessities. I finish the song and sing another one it's I Have a Yong Suster.

I have a yong suster

Fer biyonde the see;

Manye be the druries

That she sente me.

She sente me the cherye

Withouten any stoon,

And so she dide the dove

Withouten any boon.

The songs I sing, I have learned from churches or taverns. While singing, I begin visually inspecting the crowd, looking for any sign of trouble. Luckily no royal guards are in sight. In the crowd, I spot the rude girl in her red ruffled dress. The man she is with gives me a look of admiration. He looks so familiar, where do I know him from? The coins people throw our way aren't worth much, cities tend to rely on certificates for goods instead of coins, so many never have any. As I fear what there has been pulled in may not be enough, and since there are no guards in sight, I decided to sing one last song.God Speed the Plow.

The merthe of alle this londe

maketh the gode husbonde,

With erynge of his plowe.

I-blessyd be Cristes sonde,

that hath us sent in honde

merthe & ioye y-nowe.

The plowe goth mony a gate,

Bothe erly & eke late,

In wynter in the clay.

Aboute barly and whete,

That maketh men to swete,

God spede the plowe al day!

Finishing the last line of the last verse I bow to indicate there will be no more. There is a decent bit of applause from the listeners. But the trance is over and people start to walk away, to disperse and resume the previous activities. Narin and Neary have collected the money and out other items"Let's get out of here," I hastily say. Uncomfortable with the amount of attention we have gotten.