Daniel walked towards the well, dropped the bucket tied to a rope, and cleaned the clay cup. The main ingredient was in his pocket, but the next was the cotton, wool, or hay.
Obviously he chose the hay, since his father is a farmer. But the problem was, right now it's not the harvesting season.
"Wool and cotton… I'd at least need six copper coins to purchase a good amount, from a merchant and I dont have any money on me" he whispered to himself.
He placed the cup in the kitchen and closed the door.
While he was walking to his room, his stepmother called him.
"Son… can you come here, please"
Daniel quickly opened her bedroom door like a flash and saw her lying on the bed. Her face was half-covered by her ample chest.
"Yes… mom? is everything alright?" He said with a smile on his face.
"Can you bring me my money bag from the wardrobe" she said with a soft voice.
Daniel's smile slowly faded to disappointment. He opened the wardrobe and handed her the bag, and turned his face towards the door.
"Wait son, take these six copper coins" she said with a warm tone.
Daniel immediately froze.
'What the… how did she know i need six copper coins to buy cotton. Fuck me marnie… you really want me to make a doll out of-"
"And buy a kilo of cabbage and a kilo of potatoes from the market" she added with a smile on her face.
His face fell in pure disappointment, and took the six coins and left her room without a word.
Daniel went to his room and opened his small wardrobe, that held only a few clothes, put on a plain white t-shirt, grabbed a woven basket, and headed to the market im his wooden slipper, with a toe knob and cotton straps.
As he walked along the pathway, made of stones. He saw a man looking like in his early 50s, withwhite hair, big belly, feeding his horses some dried hay.
The wagon was filled with clay pots and wet clay, but the sight of that hay made Daniel approach at once.
"Sir… do you have any extra hay?" He asked politely.
"For what?" The man replied with a flat expression.
"I mean… any you could spare for free? I just need some"
"First of all, nothing is free in this world, kid and second of all if you don't have money, don't waste my time" the man replied with a deep growl.
Daniel swallowed the humiliated and away.
The market was loud and alive in the afternoon.
"Buy one get one free! yes you heard it right… come buy one get one free" a man shouted, trying to draw customers in his clothing shop.
"A kilo of Fresh fish, for just nine coppers…"
"Potatoes for three coppers…"
Daniel stopped at the vegetable stall.
"How much for a kilo of potaoes?" Daniel asked again for clarification.
"It's three coppers, sir" the merchant replied.
"And the cabbage…"
"Same three coppers a kilo" he said with a neutral expression.
"Okay… both one kilo each"
The merchant weighed the vegetables and put them inside his basket. Daniel handed six copper coins to him, and turned his face.
"Wait… sir!, your change" the merchant said out loud.
"Huh? Mine??" He turned with a confused expression.
"Yes… the cabbage only came to seven hundred grams, and unfortunately we ran out of cabbages. That was the last one i had"
He accepted the coin and left the market, carrying a woven basket packed with vegetables.
Halfway there, he saw the wagon driver again, coming towards him.
"Sir… you got any hays left, i wanna buy some hay" daniel said out loud.
"Hehe… now you're speaking my language kid"
He stopped his wagon on the side and pulled his hay from a cloth sack and exchanged a handfull of dried hay, for a copper.
"By the way kid… what are you going do with this amount of hay. Are you planning to feed your goats or cows?" The man asked with a curious expression.
"Well that information will cost three coppers, you know. Nothing is free in this world" daniel replied with a smirk on his face.
He walked off.
He reached his home and left the basket in the kitchen, and carefully picked his hay to his room.
"Mom, the vegetables are in the kitchen…" he said from her bedroom door.
"Okay…" a soft faint reply came.
He stashed the hay under his bed and sat down, and started the crafting, thinking it was going to be easy but turns to be hard. He didn't know how to make a human figure puppet.
…
10minutes passed.
"Damn it, it collapsed again. Man… this is hard" he muttered in frustration.
He tried tying with a long strands of hay for another couple of minutes but they snapped easily. Daniel needs thread to bind the hay, but there was no thread in his house. He stopped and looked down for a moment and thought for a solution.
"Okay… let's try this" he muttered.
He pulled his cotton pant's knot, and undid the drawstring. Six long strands of thin cotton thread were in his palm now. Although his pants sagged a little loose, but it was worth it.
10 minutes later, he held his first palm-sized hay doll.
"Lets go… finally" he said with a smile on his face.
With the remaining materials, he crafted another one with it.
Daniel now had two dolls. He stored one in his small wardrobe under his clothes, and he went to the backyard. Marnie saw him from the kitchen.
"Where are you going son…" she asked with a soft smile.
"Just out here in the backyard mom…" daniel said with a smile.
After a short conversation about lunch, he walked to the edge of the yard and drew the circle on the ground while squatting.
He pulled out his hay doll from his pocket and placed it, in the center.
"Okay let's go…" he whispered.
"Veiliquandè mikora jim bos ariqueisà"