“Well hello there, my fair ladies! Welcome to Usheniko’s super-duper fantastic tent, where I can give you the most accurate consultations in the history of mankind! Voila!”
Her abode welcomed the eyes of Neha and Sachen. In the middle of the tent, a maroon carpet draped over a table, and it held a crystal ball that dimmed from its brightness every few seconds. To their left, wooden carvings of animals, colorful feathers, and broken sticks occupied the bookshelf; Usheniko had a fondness of these objects, she collected them for her amusement, and she probably got it somewhere in the underworld.
When one of the carvings seemed to move, Neha hyperventilated. She crossed her arms and released a squeal. She looked at them again, only to find out that it was only the dust from the objects that moved.
Usheniko led them to the two chairs in front of the table, and the girls took their seats. “Good early afternoon! You came in quite early today, I am astonished!”
“You were knocking at our doors before you scurried off like a squirrel,” Sachen said.
Usheniko leapt from her chair, her eyes hollowed holes. “How do you know that it was me?!”
“You chanted your name like a million times,” Neha replied, “so of course it was so obvious.”
“Smart girl. But I swore I cast a spell so that you guys would not hear me talk until you arrive at my tent. Oh, woe is me!”
Sachen grinned, wiggling her shoulders. “Haha, your trick isn’t going to work this time! So let’s go on with it! Hurry!”
“Don’t be impatient.” Usheniko wagged her finger. “I have to analyze this wonderful sphere first before I can give you the consultations! Now, did you know that this sphere came from the heavens. As a matter of fact, the primogenitor of my family saw a dragon spitting out this object as a sign of trust and goodwill, and it represented the willingness of the heavens to place trust on us. Our family started to get into the consultation and psychic business, in order to guide humans to the right paths. We have since served the three previous Leaders, not counting the current ones.”
Neha giggled. “That’s very interesting. Mind if you tell us more?”
“Sure! It’s not everyday that somebody is interested in my family past-”
A bulge protruding from her forehead, Sachen jumped. “Hurry up already, you broom-flying witch!”
“Golly! A witch?! My heart shrivels. I am descending into depression. And I am not going to play you with one of my board games next time Sachen, if you want to keep calling me a witch!”
“What? So you won’t play snakes and ladders with me? Unfair! No I shouldn’t say that. I’m sorry madam, I take that back!” Sachen dropped herself to the ground and bowed. Usheniko laughed it off.
The woman then announced the start of the consultation, and the girls spurred themselves into great interest for their fortunes. They’d visit their friend when they had the time, and they always received weird fortunes that seemed to be coincidental to their daily lives, like finding a dead bird or getting a feather stuck on their hairs. But for today, whether the results would be inspiring or disappointing, appreciation was the appropriate response.
Rubbing the crystal ball and scanning the specks and smudges of the object, the consultant hooted with a fluctuation in her voice. The two girls couldn’t help but snicker. Usheniko then planted her face so close to the ball, that it was absorbing her attention all together, as though it could suck her into another world. She hovered her hands around it and thrust her fingers against the glass.
A few moments later, she raised her head up, blinked to get the dust off her eyes, and twirled around her seat. She sat back down.
“The gods have answered my plead!” The girls applauded and nodded. “Why thank you, thank you very much! It was hard to get a face-to-face chat with one of the gods, but I have finally got them to talk for a few minutes before they disappear on me.”
“So what did they say about us?” Neha asked.
Sachen rocked her seat. “You better not give us any baloney!”
The duo, in quite a haste, kicked their feet in the air and bent their backs, it made Usheniko burst into a sweat. With endless shivers, the woman’s eyes glanced around the tent, she grated her teeth on her fingernails. Spinning around once more, Usheniko opened her mouth and widened her eyes, but so much as her face was showing such expression that got the girls raising their eyebrows.
“My little sparrows, curious ones are you? Hearken my words, for I shall give you the fortunes you need in your lives! Drumroll please… okay! Let me start off with Sachen’s fortune, as I need to suppress her supposed impatience. Sachen, in terms of your school life, you will pass with average grades, and an average standing among your classmates. However, you will not allow that to stop you to pursue your dreams! You aspire to be a food critic, since you always make a comment about your mother’s cuisine, as you eat every single morsel of her dishes. An easy job you thought… well, you are in for a hellstorm of angry chefs, raw foods, and low-standard restaurants!”
“A food critic? Haha, as if I’ll ever become one!”
Sachen’s stomach belched, and she blushed. “Okay, that totally wasn’t me…”
“Hungry Sachen? You came in just in time!” Usheniko laughed to herself. She ambled to the corner of the tent, and pulled out something from the scorching oven. The ashy, charcoal smell wrenched the nostrils of the girl, she curled back and tightened her shoulders. Usheniko then presented her creation.
“Look at this! A muffin sprinkled with sugar, and covered in egg yolk! This might be the best thing to come out of the oven!”
“Um, why does the muffin have eyes?” Neha inquired. The ‘eyes’ were slipping away from the top of the muffin. They had red dots and wrinkles on them.
“Those are almonds! I worked hard to make them look like eyes! Pretty rad isn’t it? They might come to life if I just sprinkle a little bit of fairy dust.”
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The duo caressed their arms, their skin ran goosebumps in shock and awe of the muffin. They hoped to never salivate upon the sight of such a food. “Since I will become a food critic when I grow up,” Sachen said, “then I can say that for your cuisine, it looks absolutely dreadful. Even a baby can cook something better than that!”
“Ouch, how can you say that when you haven’t tasted it…” Usheniko groaned, clouds developed above her head and drizzled. The woman chucked the muffin back to the oven. “My heart hurts, my soul is crushed by your arrow of words.”
Considering it to be a victory, Sachen drummed her chest until Neha stopped her. Usheniko got back on her feet and continued to provide the consultation—she ogled at Neha.
“Let’s get back on track shall we? Neha! You are quite a beautiful young girl, so it makes sense for your fortunes to be blessed with luck and prosperity! In the future, absolutely likely, you will have a boyfriend that you can fawn over all day and night. That boyfriend will shower you with his love, give you gifts, and even propose you to marry him.”
Turning crimson like a lunar eclipse, Neha gyrated around her chair. Words from the woman’s mouth served nothing to her head but an awful lot of confusion. “Boyfriend? Proposal? No, that’s too much for me!”
“Do not be embarrassed Neha! There is more to that anyway! You will work in a charity that supports the needy and the homeless. You will do nothing but that, and in the end, your life will be filled with happiness. You will bring upon them your own compassion and strength.”
“Charity? That sounds nice.”
“Indeed!”
Her fortune might have sounded unthinkable outside of her capabilities, but Neha was thankful for hearing it at least. Amidst her initial embarrassment, she wished for such things to happen in the future. When she imagined her future husband, being in sophisticated clothing and holding a bundle of flowers, a fuzz occurred in her chest.
Usheniko scratched her tongue with her teeth. She retreated her gaze back to the crystal ball, before looking up.
“So, what do you think girls? Are my fortunes legit crazy? Or perhaps they are true to the stars above your head?”
“For me, it’s funny!” Sachen said. “However, I believe that it will come true… I don’t think I have any other options than to be a belly-filler! So, it sounds good to me.”
Neha nodded. “Although my fortune sounds quite strange, I accept for what I will become in the future. The boyfriend part... yeah, I don’t know about that. Regardless, you are a wise person Usheniko, like an old man, so we can trust on your words!”
“Aw shucks, you’re making me red.” Usheniko scratched the beauty mark next to the right corner of her lips. The clock ticking near the table, she sighed. “Wow, look at the time there! It’s been half an hour, and I’m afraid I have to close the session! Ah, Neha, I forgot to remind you! I will make your lunch for school next week, so please come visit early okay?”
“O-okay, I’ll pick it up in the morning!”
“Hehe, don’t worry too much about it. I heard your mother is not feeling well lately, so I don’t want her to cook while she is sick with a condition. Well, so long fellows!”
Sachen stretched her legs. “Thank goodness. I might have fainted if she had kept us for the whole day.”
Sachen and Neha got up from their seats and blessed a good day to Usheniko. Departing the tent, the girls returned to the streets of the northern district that were crammed with people at this time. They giggled and fawned over their own fortunes, as it seemed apparent to them that prosperity would come to their doorsteps. They could dream all they wanted about it, but perhaps that reality itself forced them to think that they should work hard for their fortunes to come true.
The breezes of the air massaged their skin and heads. The sun weaved the sky with its rays of light. Clear clouds and flapping birds, the weather rendered the girls’ day perfect for recreation, but as it was in this moment, they had no clue to how to spend the first day of the weekends. Going to the food stands again, running around the village, playing board games, there was never a lack of entertainment.
But with a lot of things, what did the girls desire to do?
As they exited the tent, countless villagers swarmed the food stands and pushed them to the side. They almost tumbled to the brick walls of a tavern, but they retained their balance. Then it was out of nowhere, that the duo hit somebody from behind. They plunged to the ground and raised their heads. Their eyes lurched to a woman that was walking her way out of the crowd. In consideration did they feel the necessity to apologize, and possibly beg for mercy, which might be humiliating even as they were children.
Just as they were about to utter something, the person squinted, she hissed under her breath. She clutched her hands onto the hood of her robe and removed it from her head. Disheveled hair, pale skin, sharp pupils, and cold skin, her appearance trembled the girls, they never seen this person before. They couldn’t close their eyes no matter how much they tried; perhaps the woman had enchanted them.
“Hey you two,” the person said, sneering. “You happen to know where Usheniko is?”
Sachen tilted her head. “Usheniko? Do you have business with her?”
The person arched her eyebrows. “It’s none of your concern.”
“Well then... she is in that tent.”
“Thanks. Stay cautious, girls. The name is Azukunika...” The woman swayed her head and smiled, showing her teeth. She then entered the tent.
Scratching their heads, the girls stood before the place. From first impressions they found her quite peculiar, maybe she was a foreigner of some sort that happened to speak their language. Sachen considered her to be another passerby, and with Neha, the girls thought of ignoring the woman to continue enjoying their time together. But curiosity had suspended them. What was the stranger’s purpose in visiting this abode, out of all places?