Miss Sinu lightly touched her two silver needles, and a faint blue aura started emanating from them.
Then, to Vars' great surprise, the needles started to float in the air and began to weave together a dress. Miss Sinu had her eyes closed, and she was moving her fingers in a calculated manner. The cloth also started to magically come together.
The process was slow, but the dress looked just like the sketch that he had drawn. Vars could not believe his eyes.
"There is magic in this world! It looks so cool! I really want to try to learn it. It might help me in my storytelling," Vars thought excitedly.
He had so many questions but, seeing as Miss Sinu was busy at the moment, he just watched her work. After about 40 minutes, a part of the dress was done. Miss Sinu opened her eyes, and the needles firmly landed back on the ground.
"Should take me around 4–5 more hours to finish it," she said, looking tired.
"How much faster would the other shop have done it?"
"Probably around 30 minutes to an hour," she said, sipping on some water.
"Well then, excuse me please. I'm going to spread the good word of your work around the town. Don't be surprised if you get a ton of orders from the ladies," he said before heading out. Although he wanted to ask questions about the magic that he had just seen, he knew Miss Sinu had a lot of work ahead of her, and he didn't want to distract her.
Miss Sinu looked at the disappearing figure of the young man before sighing.
"He'll probably feel bad when he learns that the taste of the village ladies is much different than those of the nearby town. I mean, I have been making clothes for about twenty-five years, and all I have ever gotten from them is 'simple' and 'comfortable' clothing. They just want practical clothes, not luxurious," she thought inwardly.
The comfortable village houses beautifully contrasted the flowing greenery of the wild patches here and there. Vars walked through this part without seeing many people.
"Hey mister!"
He heard a feminine voice call out to him from behind. Upon turning, he was face to face with a young woman. She had flowing black hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a long white one-piece, with brown cloth covering her shoulders and neck.
"Hey mister, I just wanna say that thing you told yesterday was so... interesting to listen to! I have never heard anything like it. It just felt so different from all the other things the village-folk talk about like how the crops are doing or making some unfunny joke," she said.
"Thank you so much for the compliment, miss," Vars replied.
"Hey now, I think we're the same age here, no need for all those formalities. You're making me feel like an old lady. My name's Venie. What is yours?"
"Pleasure meeting you, Venie. My name is Vars. Could you tell me, which part of the story was the most fascinating to you?" A curious question by Vars.
"Well..." she thought for a second, "I loved the royal ball part. It all just felt so much different. It seemed so grand..." she trailed off.
"Ahh, the perfect first customer! Seems like lady luck is with me today," he thought.
"Soo, Venie... would you be interested in looking like Cinderella?"
Venie's eyes lit up the moment Vars asked her the question, and she immediately replied back, "Absolutely!! I would love to look like Cinderella! Do you have some way to make me look like her?!"
"Caught the fish by the hook!" he exclaimed inwardly.
"Absolutely! I wouldn't have asked if I didn't know how to do it. Do you know an old lady who is a weaver?"
She thought for a second before replying back, "I think you might be referring to Miss Sinu. Yeah, I know her. What about it?"
Vars leaned in a little and said in a low tone, "Well, I have just asked her to create the exact same dress that Cinderella wore to the royal ball. Nobody else knows about it. You could be the first one to ever wear it!" he said.
"What! The dress worn by Cinderella! Are you serious?"
"Yes, I'm serious. Let's go there before someone buys it from her!" Vars said, trying to invoke a sense of urgency in her.
"Yeah, let's go before anyone else buys it!" she said.
Then Vars and Venie started running to Miss Sinu's place. It didn't take much time for them to reach it.
Seeing two people running into her store, Miss Sinu—who was in the middle of making the dress ,abruptly jerked back, tripped on a piece of wood, and fell down.
"Ohh..." A cry of pain escaped her mouth.
Venie and Vars, seeing this, immediately helped her up. Vars searched for her water pouch and handed it to her.
"We're so sorry, Miss Sinu, for surprising you like that..." Venie said.
"No worries, I'm fine. I was just too shocked to see someone running full speed at me. That's all," she said. "What's the purpose of your visit, anyways?"
"Oh, I was wondering if you still had the Cinderella dress on you," Venie asked.
Miss Sinu pointed to the dress that she had been working on, and Venie nodded her head. Miss Sinu was surprised to say the least. She looked at Vars like he was some sort of ghost.
"I had just told him that the women of the village don't like dresses like these, and he has already gotten a customer? Am I getting too old and don't know people's preferences anymore? Or did I underestimate this new arrival?" Miss Sinu started to question everything she knew.
Seeing Miss Sinu fall into a daze, Venie said,
"Hello, Miss Sinu, are you okay?"
"Yes... I'm okay," she said, breaking out of her daze. Looking confused, she asked once again, "Umm... are you sure you want this dress?"
"Yes! This dress and only this dress."
"It's not complete yet. It'll take me some more time to complete it."
"I don't mind. Please save this piece for me, don't sell it to anyone else."
Miss Sinu just smiled and said, "No need to get so worked up over this dress, sweety. I promise, no one else will get this dress other than you."
Venie let out a soft, low-pitched laugh of delight.
"Thanks so much, Miss Sinu. I have some work, so I'll get to you later to collect my dress," she said as she bid Vars and Miss Sinu farewell.
Just as she had gone out of hearing distance, Miss Sinu got up and looked Vars straight in the face.
"How did you manage to convince her to buy this dress so quickly?" she asked.
"Well. To explain that, I would have to tell you a little story..." he said.
"I must say I'm very intrigued. So let's hear your 'story.'"
With a smile, Vars began to tell her the story of Cinderella. This was the short version he had told William the other day. He especially put emphasis on the dress that the fairy gave Cinderella so that Miss Sinu could relate it to the dress that she was working on.
After Vars was done telling the tale, Miss Sinu let out a small sigh.
"Well... now I see why that girl seemed so crazy for the thing," she said as she looked out of her shop.
Suddenly, though, she saw two more ladies rushing towards her.
They looked middle-aged and wore plain, simple clothes.
"Slow down there! You'll hurt yourself if you continue to run like that," Miss Sinu said.
"We'd like to reserve those Cinderella dresses you're making! We'll even pay you in advance," the first lady blurted out.
"Well, the first one is already reserved for Venie. She came by earlier this morning."
"Then... please reserve the second one for me!" the first lady said.
"And the third one for me, please!" the second lady said.
Then the both of them took out a small pouch and slid some coins to Miss Sinu.
"This should cover the dress, right?" both of them asked.
"Yeah, it will... but you can just pay when you receive the dress. No need to pay right now. The dresses won't run off. You can collect them at any time. And how did you even know that I was making these dresses?"
"Oh, Venie was boasting about how she managed to secure a dress just like Cinderella. After some enquiring from her, we found out that it was your shop that she would be getting the dress from. So we came as fast as we could."
"Ohh... I see," Miss Sinu said. Then, thinking some more, she asked, "By any chance... do you think more people will show up to reserve a dr-"
Just as she was about to ask, she saw another lady running up to her shop.