Chapter 4

Hans decided there was only one proper place to begin a tour of Zephyr Town.

Cafe Madeleine was comfortably busy when they arrived, filled with the gentle clatter of dishes and the low murmur of afternoon conversations. Compared with the chaos Millie usually encountered during the Grand Bazaar, the cafe offered an entirely different impression of the town. There were no merchants ringing bells outside, no crowds squeezing between stalls, and no customers hurrying to finish their shopping before the market closed. Instead, sunlight spilled through the windows onto neatly arranged tables while the smell of coffee, tea, and freshly prepared food hung pleasantly in the air. Hans had been there enough times that stepping inside felt less like visiting a restaurant and more like returning to one of the familiar places woven into his everyday life.

"This is your first stop?" Millie asked as Hans led her toward a table.

"Absolutely."

She sat across from him. "Not the windmills?"

"We'll get there."

"The bazaar?"

"You've seen enough of that."

Millie laughed. "That's true."

"And you said you wanted to see Zephyr Town instead of spending another day looking at stalls." Hans picked up the menu, although he already knew most of it by memory. "So you're getting Zephyr Town."

Millie looked around the cafe with an appreciative smile. "I like it."

"You haven't eaten anything yet."

"I can like the atmosphere."

"Wait until there's food involved."

They ordered something light, and what Hans initially intended as a brief stop became considerably longer once they began talking. Without a stall between them and without either of them having somewhere they immediately needed to be, conversation came surprisingly easily. Hans told her about some of the regular customers and how busy Cafe Madeleine could become during bazaar days. Millie, in return, talked about how strange it felt to sit quietly in Zephyr in the middle of the afternoon. Usually she was watching the time, mentally calculating how much shopping she could finish before she needed to catch her coach.

"So what do you normally do when you come here?" Hans asked.

"Shop."

"That's it?"

"Mostly."

"That's terrible."

Millie raised her cup toward him. "Some of us don't live five minutes away."

"Excuses."

"I have to take a coach home!"

"More excuses."

Millie narrowed her eyes at him, though the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth ruined any attempt at indignation. "You're a very judgmental tour guide."

"And yet you're still here."

"Only because I've already paid for my drink."

Hans laughed, and Millie soon joined him. He was beginning to notice that he liked making her laugh.

There was something unguarded about it. Millie could be bashful when attention settled directly upon her, but once she relaxed, her smile came easily. Hans found himself stretching conversations a little longer simply to see it again. He didn't think much about why. He was enjoying himself, and judging by the way Millie had stopped checking the time every few minutes, so was she.

Eventually they left Café Madeleine and continued through town, Hans deliberately choosing streets Millie was unlikely to travel while visiting the bazaar. He pointed out homes and smaller businesses, occasionally attaching a story to something that otherwise would have appeared completely ordinary. Millie listened with genuine interest, asking questions whenever something caught her attention. For Hans, these were buildings he'd passed hundreds of times. Watching Millie study them reminded him that familiarity had made him stop noticing much of what surrounded him.

Their wandering eventually brought them within sight of Zephyr Town's clock tower.

Millie tilted her head back to look toward its face. "I've seen that before."

"Hard not to," Hans said. "You can spot it from half the town."

"I mean, I've seen it when I come for the bazaar. I just never came over here to look at it."

Hans glanced up at the tower himself. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually done that.

"It's sort of our town's timekeeper," he explained. "People use it for everything. Meeting someone, opening the shops, getting ready for the bazaar. You don't really think about it after you've lived here long enough. You just hear the bell and know what time it is."

Millie smiled. "So everybody in Zephyr Town has one giant clock?"

Hans laughed. "Pretty much."

She continued studying the tower, taking in the structure with considerably more attention than Hans had given it in years.

"Does Moondrop have anything like it?" he asked.

"Not really. We have bells, but nothing that tells the whole village what time it is."

Hans looked at the tower again. It felt strange. He had passed beneath it hundreds of times without giving it a second thought. Now, standing beside Millie, he found himself noticing it too.

Their next major stop was the Sunnywood Hotel.

"I know this one," Millie announced as they approached.

Hans looked disappointed. "There goes half my tour."

"I've never been inside."

His expression immediately brightened. "Tour saved."

Millie shook her head as she followed him through the entrance. The first thing she noticed was the cleanliness. The Sunnywood Hotel wasn't merely tidy. It was immaculate. The floors looked freshly swept and polished, the furniture sat neatly arranged, and there wasn't so much as a forgotten cup or misplaced cushion disturbing the welcoming lobby. Even with guests regularly coming and going, the hotel somehow maintained the appearance of a place that had been prepared specifically for the next person who entered.

Millie glanced around. "Does it always look like this?"

"Pretty much."

"How?"

"Maple."

Millie looked at him. "Maple?"

"The maid." Hans said it with such certainty that Millie laughed.

"That's your entire explanation?"

"That's the explanation. Maple works here, therefore the hotel is clean."

Millie ran one finger experimentally across the top of a nearby table and inspected it. Nothing. Not even a speck of dust.

"Wow."

"See?"

"I think our house has dust in places nobody has touched since I was born."

"Don't tell Maple that. She might follow you home."

Millie giggled as they continued farther inside. Something on the wall caught her attention. She stopped.

Several pieces of artwork decorated the hotel, lending color and character to spaces that otherwise might have felt merely functional. Millie stepped closer to one of them, tilting her head as she studied the details.

"These are beautiful."

Hans stopped beside her. "Gabriel."

She glanced at him. "Who's Gabriel?"

"Local artist. He made those."

Millie's eyes widened slightly before returning to the artwork. "Someone from Zephyr painted these?"

"Yep."

"I thought the hotel bought them somewhere."

Hans smiled. "Nope. We have our own artist."

Millie leaned closer, careful not to touch the painting. "That's wonderful."

There was something about the way she said it that made Hans look at the artwork again himself. He'd seen Gabriel's work so many times that it had become part of the hotel walls in his mind. Millie didn't have that familiarity. She examined the colors and details as though she'd discovered something special hidden inside a building she'd passed on previous visits without ever entering. Hans was beginning to understand why showing someone around could be almost as interesting as visiting somewhere new.

After leaving the Sunnywood Hotel, he finally took her to the landmarks she'd been expecting since the beginning. The windmills.

Millie had seen them before, of course. It would have been almost impossible to visit Zephyr Town without seeing the enormous structures rising above the landscape, their broad sails turning steadily whenever the wind crossed the valley. But seeing them from a distance during a hurried shopping trip was different from standing near one and listening to the great wooden mechanism working inside.

Millie tilted her head back. "They're bigger up close."

Hans grinned. "Everyone says that."

The breeze caught her ponytail, sending it swaying behind her as she watched the sails make another slow revolution.

"I've always thought they were beautiful," she said.

"They are."

Millie glanced toward him, apparently surprised that he'd agreed so readily.

Hans looked upward. "But that's not really why they're important."

"They aren't just landmarks?"

"No. That's what visitors usually notice first, but they're working windmills." Hans motioned for her to follow him closer. "The wind does a lot of work for Zephyr. We use the mills to process things we produce around here. Grain can become flour. Other materials can be processed into fertilizer for the farms. There are all kinds of things we can make because the windmills give us the machinery to do it."

Millie looked back at the turning sails with renewed interest. "So some of the things sold at the bazaar…"

"Come through here first," Hans finished. "Exactly."

She smiled. "I never knew that."

"A lot of people don't."

"I thought they were mostly there because Zephyr is famous for wind."

Hans laughed. "That would be an awful lot of construction just for decoration."

"Well, they're very nice decorations."

"I'll give you that."

Hans continued explaining as they walked. The windmills were part of what allowed local farmers and craftspeople to transform ordinary ingredients into products that distinguished Zephyr's bazaar from a simple collection of merchants selling raw goods. Flour could become bread and pastries. Fertilizer helped farmers improve what they grew. Other materials could be processed and combined into things that were more valuable than what had originally entered the mill. The Grand Bazaar might be the part visitors saw, but much of what made the market possible happened during the quiet days between Saturdays.

Millie listened closely. "So when I see something unusual at the bazaar, there's a chance one of these helped make it?"

"Pretty good chance." Hans smiled. "Different now, isn't it?"

She stared at the windmill again. "A little."

"That's Zephyr for you. Even our tourist attractions have jobs."

Millie laughed.

By the time Hans led her away from the windmills, the afternoon had begun its slow progression toward evening. They could have returned to town then, but Hans still had one place he wanted to show her.

The path took them toward the mountains. It was a longer walk than their previous stops, winding gradually upward as Zephyr Town fell farther behind them. Trees provided intermittent shade along the trail, and wild grasses moved softly in the mountain breeze. Millie occasionally stopped to look at flowers growing beside the path, though she resisted picking any. Hans pointed out several trails and shortcuts he knew from years of exploring the area, including one that Millie immediately declared she would never attempt after seeing how steep it became.

"You're supposed to be convincing me Zephyr is nice," she reminded him.

"It is nice."

"You just showed me a path that looks like it ends with someone falling off a mountain."

"That's why we're not taking it."

"Very reassuring."

Hans laughed and continued upward. Millie followed. Their conversation became quieter as the climb demanded more effort. By the time they reached the upper trail, Millie's cheeks were flushed and Hans could hear her breathing more heavily behind him.

"Almost there," he promised.

"You said that five minutes ago."

"I meant it emotionally."

"What does that even mean?"

"I'm not sure."

Millie laughed despite herself. Then the trees opened. The viewing platform stood ahead of them, built along a high section of the mountainside where the land dropped away and the entire valley unfolded below.

Hans stepped onto it first. Millie followed, and stopped. Zephyr Town stretched beneath them. From this height, the streets she'd spent the afternoon exploring became delicate paths winding between rooftops. The Sunnywood Hotel was visible among the buildings, and farther away she could make out the area where the Grand Bazaar transformed the town every Saturday. The windmills rose prominently above everything else, their sails turning slowly against the landscape. Beyond the town were Hans's fields and the surrounding countryside, while roads disappeared between hills and trees toward places that couldn't be seen from Zephyr itself.

Millie walked slowly toward the railing, "Wow."

Hans rested his arms against it beside her, "Worth the climb?"

She didn't answer immediately. The wind moved across the platform, cooler at this elevation. Millie's ponytail fluttered behind her, and she lifted one hand to keep the loose strands of hair away from her face.

"I've never seen Zephyr like this."

"Most visitors don't."

"I've been here so many times."

Hans looked at her. Millie continued staring down at the town.

"But I think this is the first time I've actually seen it."

That made him smile. For years, Zephyr had simply been Zephyr to Hans. His farm was there. His friends were there. The bazaar was there. He knew which roads led where, which buildings creaked during storms, which hills were annoying to climb after a long day, and exactly how the wind sounded when it moved through the valley.

Millie had spent one afternoon looking at those same things as though they were discoveries.

"Thank you, Hans," she said.

"For what?"

"For showing me all this."

"That's what tour guides do."

Millie smiled. "Even terrible ones?"

"Especially terrible ones."

She laughed and turned back toward the view. Hans did the same. For several minutes, neither of them seemed particularly interested in leaving. There was no need to fill the silence. They simply stood beside one another above Zephyr Town, watching the windmills turn and the afternoon sunlight stretch across the valley.

Hans had thought he was going to show Millie his town. Instead, somehow, she'd spent the afternoon showing him how much of it he'd stopped seeing.