“Morning, Mia,” said Mei with her fingers wrapped around a warm cup of tea.
“Why did you scare me like that!?” Mia screamed, flopping onto the bed. A giggle escaped Mei’s lips in response to this reaction.
“Want to join me for a morning walk?” she asked, then took a huge gulp of tea. By this time she had already finished with her morning rituals and felt too bored to just laze around in her room. A muffled ‘no’ was the reply she got, but she wasn’t mad. It was kind of really early to do anything but sleep and they had returned to the inn quite late the night before after a tiring day of exploring. “Alright, I won’t take long,” said Mei. Mia was like a mini-mom to her. She worried about her a lot and usually didn’t let her go anywhere without following. And now she glared from her flopped position on the bed, saying something through eye contact. If Mei was right, she was probably trying to say ‘don’t try anything funny’, because Mei was an adventurous little brat and was prone to getting herself hurt or something like that.
Once she finished the cup of tea, Mei put on a sweater and shorts. A girl from the north didn’t need more layers than this. She could withstand this much at least. Mia had already gone back to sleep when she left. The inn she was staying at was a bit far from the town center, so it was much closer to the outskirts than most inns, and that morning, the Baskan hills looked very inviting from far away. She squinted her eyes at the outlines of the hills that she could see in the gaps between colorful buildings. It was probably not the best idea to go there out of all the places in Baska without company, but she felt like it was fine to take some risks sometimes.