I woke up to the sun glistening through the window. As soon as I woke up I heard a knock on the door, a muffled voice said "Mr Dave your water is here," it was the voice of the young boy waiter. I was still covered with the sheet, as I opened the door. The boy entered the bathroom, took the 2 empty buckets and left the 2 filled buckets. 

I locked the door as he exited, then I went to the bathroom freshened up, rinsed a little. I exited the bathroom and got ready to have some breakfast when I noticed a mug sitting on the side of the bed on a small table, "was it there yesterday?" Maybe because it was dark I didn't see it. 

The mug was a normal wooden one, similar to the one in which I drank the cranberry juice yesterday. I picked it up and realized it was filled with water. I smelled the water and tasted a small sip of it, "looks okay to me," I thought as I gulped down the mug. 

As soon as I kept the empty mug on the side table, it got filled with water automatically. I was startled and looked at the ordinary looking mug with awe. I again drank the whole cup and saw it getting filled again. I again drank the whole cup and saw it getting filled again. As I was merrily carrying it, I turned it upside down and to my surprise the water didn't fall out. 

I was surprised and carried it out of the room to ask Marcel what it was. As soon as I took 5 steps out of the room, the mug vanished from my hands. Dumbfounded a thought came to my mind and with shaking legs I walked back to the room, to find the mug sitting at the side table as if nothing had happened. 

My mind went blank and only one thing came out of my mouth "I want to learn magic," with a confused face and determination in my mind, I locked the door and went down to the bar. I didn't see Marcel but was greeted by the beautiful Brice. "Good morning Dave," she said with a little bow as I sat down on the chair. 

"Good morning Brice," I said with a smile. "So how was the first experience of drinking from a magic cup?" Brice asked me with a grin. Baffled, I almost choked on my spit, after embarrassing myself and coughing like crazy, I got my senses back and said "how do you know about it?" 

"You drank our water. That's why I know," said Brice, confusing my mind even more. 

Brice laughed and said " let me explain, a few years back an important guest stayed in that room. She was a famous magician of some sort. She was a master of imbuing magic. The magic of giving magic to other items. As a token of gratitude, to help her in her stay she took a mug and turned it into a magical item. She put a teleport magic in it and connected it to our water reserve, from which you were drinking. She used dark magic to sterilize the mug and water. She put a safety magic, to protect it from theft and spilling. From that day that mug has become the symbol of the important person room," after listening to her explanation, I felt relieved, thanked her and sat at the round table to have breakfast. 

The breakfast was served, there were many items in breakfast as well. 3 pieces of toasted bread was served with butter and jam. Along with a glass of warm milk. There was a side of fresh fruits and some dried fruits as well. I had a hearty breakfast. 

Noticing it was around 9 am, I thought about exploration. I went upto Brice and asked her "I am visiting this town for the first time, so I was thinking of sight seeing, where should I go?" After remembering a few names I set out from the inn towards the directions told by Brice. 

I specifically asked for a book store and she happily told me the general directions as well. As I was about to set out, Brice called me and said "you paid for lunch to us, so we don't want you to pay anywhere else," She handed me a box of some sort wrapped in a muslin cloth. As I was observing it she said, " this is a lunch box I prepared against your payment, the charges of the box are written in your ledger." I took the lunch box and exited the inn after thanking her. 

Thinking about having a long stroll, I secretly put the lunch box in my storage pocket. 

*****

It's been an hour since I left the inn, the town was pretty decent. The buildings looked old on the outskirts only. The inner buildings were neat and clean. There were many cemented ones as well. The buildings were mostly light colored, only red being the darkest one.

The wide roads were paved with blocks in most of the city. As I walked towards the city center, the hustling and bustling of street vendors, customers and children increased. As I was enjoying the atmosphere and energy of the area I heard a person saying "Welcome to Bazaar of Draka," listening to the word 'Bazaar' took me back to India, as bazaar was the word used all the time in day to day life. 

My main motive to come here was for the book store. Brice told me that there were only 2 bookstores in the town, one of them owned by a private investor and other being owned by the local government. Naturally,  the government one was cheaper but had a low number of books, whereas the private one was expensive but had a wide variety of books. 

"But the books I am looking for will only be available at government one at the cheapest price," I said as I reached the bookstore named "Bookstore of Draka" as told by Brice. The government of Draka has heavily focused on primary education, in basic terms education up to 5th grade was necessary to all irrespective of age. 

At the inner side of the inner circle of the double concentric circle shaped Bazaar, I found the bookstore. A bell chimed as I entered the bookstore. 

"Welcome dear student," greeted a middle aged woman as she got up from behind the desk. The bookstore had a plain sight, there were multiple bookshelves and one desk behind which the manager stood. "I am Brooke Greenwich, the curator and manager of the town owned bookstore. How may I help you?" said the woman looking at me from top to down. 

With a smile I said "Good Morning miss, I am Dave Martin, a wandering person, I am here to purchase some books."

"Kids do start young. What kind of books do you require?" she said with a joyous expression. I thought about it and said "I don't know how to read and write, please advise me on the books, I would need to learn to do both." After thinking for some time, she got up and brought out 3 books and kept them on the table. 

I looked at the books and realized it was just like learning a different language. The books covered alphabets, words, sentence forming, tenses, grammar, and many other topics required to learn the language. I nodded in approval and asked "how much for the books? ", she got up, brought some cheap quality papers and a quill with ink and said, "including all the items required to study well, it will be 6 silvers". I didn't know whether the price was okay or not, but anyways I took out 1 gold from my left pocket and gave it to her. 

She checked the coin and gave me 4 silver and the books. I thanked her and exited the bookstore. After walking a few steps I saw an alleyway and entered it, looking around and noting no one was watching me. I kept the books in my storage pocket and took out my lunchbox.

Moving on with my stroll, I walked towards a store which displayed day to day times. I went up to the store and saw a wide variety of products, from kitchen ware to basic hardware, from grocery to knitting products, the odd shop had everything. 

As I was window shopping, the owner of the shop, an old man with a lean yet muscular figure came to me and asked "How can I help you?". "Yes I need to buy something, to clean my teeth'' hoping to get a toothbrush I said to the shopkeeper. He went inside the shop and brought out a toothbrush and a wooden jar with probably toothpaste. "This is brush, this is paste, for teeth. 5 coppers" said the shopkeeper. I received the products as I gave a silver coin to the man. After taking my change back, I found some benches on which people sat to avoid sunlight. 

I found myself an empty bench and unpacked my lunch. It's past noon and I'm hungry. As I opened the box, a fragrant smell reached my nose, "rice and chicken". Thinking about the best combination, I dug in and finished my lunch. I packed up, washed my hands and started moving. 

Dave strolled around the town on his own, visiting the major areas of the town he saw many stores like clothing, washing, blacksmith, pawn shops, boutiques, parlors, shoe stores, stores for horse riding, carriage stores, and many more. 

He was able to recognize the symbol of the shops and through window shopping, realized what the shops were about. As he was walking an interesting shop caught his attention. The shop had a small front with a small wooden door, the sign showed a chemical beaker, with fumes coming out of it, alongside a magical witch's hat. 

I thought it might be a magic shop and I entered it. A bell jingled as I opened and closed the door. As I entered, I saw a woman 20 something of age, sitting behind the desk, with a book in her hand. She stood up to greet me,  when I properly saw her. She had a white skin with pink lips, her body was perfect, according to earth's standard she would become a famous internet celebrity. Bringing me back from my thoughts she said "Welcome to Brianna's shop of Magic and Alchemy".