The cloak and hood that Dragon had given her was warm, and he had given her another dose of his blood just that morning, but neither one of those measures would keep her from turning into a human popsicle if the mercury dropped to below freezing temperatures for extended periods of time.
“Well, don’t worry about getting too cold,” Keelah said, breaking into her train of thought. “The Market isn’t far from the compound. Look—there it is, up ahead.”
She pointed down the narrow street, lined with houses on either side, and Bobbi saw rows of stalls with vendors tending them just up ahead.
“Oh, it really isn’t far from the compound,” she said, somewhat surprised. “We’ve barely been walking five minutes!”
“Exactly—so we can get home quickly if you feel like you’re getting frozen.” Keelah looked at her anxiously. “I know mammalians are delicate creatures—so if you want to go back right now—”
“No, no!” Bobbi said quickly. “I want to see the Market and watch how your people barter. Give me a tour, okay?”
“Well, if you’re sure,” Keelah said. “Please promise you’ll tell me if you start getting too cold.”
“I promise.” Bobbi smiled at her and hooked an arm through her friend’s. “Let’s go—I haven’t been away from the compound since Dragon first took me from Avria Pentaura. I need some time away and I’m not going to let a little bit of cold weather stop me.”
“All right.” Keelah gave her a smile. “Come on then—let’s start at one end and we’ll go to the other. I’ll show you everything.”
Feeling glad to have a friend, Bobbi nodded and they started strolling, arm-in-arm, passing the different stalls as they went.
There were, predictably enough, Bobbi thought, lots and lots of stalls selling raw meat. But there were also vendors selling flowers and vegetables and fruits. The Saurians were mostly carnivorous but they ate other things besides meat occasionally.
There were also Saurian women selling hand-made items of clothing—cloaks and hoods and, in one case, even hand coverings that looked a little bit like mittens with slits cut in them for a Saurian wearer’s long, triple-jointed thumbs to stick out.
Bobbi looked long and hard at these. Her hands were cold and she had a little pocket money that Res. Tizlah had handed her before she left for the Market. She thought the hand coverings—which were black and red—would have been in her price range with a little haggling. But in the end, she decided to keep looking. She could always come back to the stall selling the Saurian mittens, she told herself. But first she wanted to see everything the Market had to offer.
She and Keelah continued to stroll and to observe. They were getting near to the far end of the Market when the Saurian girl pointed excitedly.
“Oh look! Meaties! I remember those from when I was a little girl!”
Bobbi looked where she was pointing and saw that the stall in question was selling what appeared to be dried, candied meat strips.
“Why don’t you get yourself one?” she asked, smiling.
Keelah clicked her claws together indecisively.
“I don’t know if I should. We’re really supposed to be shopping for the compound, not ourselves.”
“Oh, go on,” Bobbi told her. “You’re supposed to be teaching me how to barter, right? Buy yourself a, uh, meatie and show me how it’s done.”
“Well…all right.” Keelah grinned at her, exposing a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth that would have been truly frightening if Bobbi hadn’t known her friend’s gentle nature.
“Go on,” she urged again, and gave Keelah a little push towards the stall.
Lifting her chin, the Saurian girl approached the stall and Bobbi watched with interest, waiting to see how her friend would bargain with the stall owner for one of the crunchy, chewy strips.
“How much?” she asked, pointing one curving claw at the meat strips, which were hanging from hooks that lined the stall’s canopy ceiling.
“Fiver piece,” the owner—an older Saurian woman with graying scales—replied.
Keelah shook her head and made a noise at the back of her throat which sounded like, “Ah-hmmm. Ah-hmmm.”
“We had these up North when I was a little girl, and they never cost more than two pieces,” she remarked, shaking her head again.
“Well, it’s a long time since you was little, isn’t it, Missy?” the stall keeper replied. Then, she also shook her head and made the, “Ah-hmmm, Ah-hmmm sound in her throat that Keelah had made. “I’ll let you have one for four pieces,” she said, frowning at Keelah.
“Ah-hmmm, Ah-hmmm, still too high,” Keelah proclaimed. “Three pieces is as high as I can go.”
The stall keeper shook her head thoughtfully and made that strange sound in her throat again. But at last, she nodded.
“Ah-hmmm, three pieces it is,” she said at last. She unhooked one of the candied strips of meat—which looked to Bobbi like a very large piece of glazed beef jerky—and held it out on its long, pointed stick.