3rd December

At the second day Maia still felt weird waking up in the bed that felt foreign for her. The room was so different from her room at home and in the first minutes she had to think where she was. Like the day before, no one was in the upper floor and she could hear the family make noises with the table ware in the dining room downstairs. Maia took haste to shower and prepare herself. Today it felt much less embarrassing and she was a bit less shy when she entered the room. She replied to the "Good Morning" of her uncle's family and sat down next to Derick.

"Did you enjoy the game yesterday?" asked her uncle. "Sure, uncle Patrick. I only saw a few boys play soccer from afar once before, but yesterday was very exciting. Is soccer very popular here?" her uncle nodded and when Maia looked to the side she saw that Derick made a happy face and smiled. "You played wonderful." She praised him, and then quickly concentrated on the flakes and her cocoa and took a fast sip from the hot drink. She felt embarrassed to praise him like that but no one on the table mentioned it further. Soon they were talking about other topics and Maia got used to them and got a bit out of her shell. "You have to get ready for church." Sophie finally said, looking at the clock. "We have to be there in 20 minutes." Maia had not visited the church a lot at home. Usually only for eastern or Christmas. While her parents were religious, they did not practice the rituals a lot and for her the church had always been a task for religious celebrations like weddings or the religious bank holidays. Sophia helped her to pick a nice dress from her luggage and borrowed her a hat for Sunday. Maia felt like a little lady for the first time. She never had worn a hat for church before.

The church in the town was much different than the ones Maia had seen before. In the city she lived in, the church was very big for hundreds of visitors at once but here is was nothing more than a shed next to the house of the pastor. There was not too much space and instead of long banks there were twenty chairs in the church. Only a few meters were between the first row and the shrine of the church and for Maia it looked more like a chapel then a church. The pastor was a 41 years old bear, Mr. Park, with a black coat. On the first look he intimidated Maia with his big and bulky build, but when he started to talk, much more energetic and interesting than any pastor she had seen at home, she soon laughed and sang together with the other visitors. She could only see 5 different species in the church, fitting the 5 families in the town. There were a few more bears, surely the family of the pastor, and her uncle and his family of red foxes. Then there were a few horses, a group of wolfs and a couple of white tigers with their son. Maia did not have the time to observe all the other families, that intrigued her, because this mass was so interesting and she had her eyes glued on the lips of the pastor and listened to his stories. The story was related to Christmas already and he told about the three kings, that set out to find the barn where the son of god was supposed to be born. They followed a star, but they encountered many people, some of which believed them and others who laughed at them. The story of the pastor was full of encounters and wisdom about how to act with love in the heart and understanding in the head. After the story they sang songs that sounded much happier than all the songs she had heard in church before. They even used their paws and feet to clap and stomp in the rhythm and deep inside Maia told herself, that if this were to be church, she would go there more often. She learned more than ever before in her life about the word of god, because she actually listened for once and when the mass was over around an hour later, she did not feel relieved, like in the past, but she was a bit sad that it already ended.

The weather outside was nice and sunny when the mass was over and Maia stood between her uncle and her aunt while the adults were biding their farewells from the other families and the pastor. Most of them had plans and left very fast, but the white tiger invited the Lansters, including Maia, for dinner the next day. Maia returned to feeling shy from all the looks she got from the other families, so that she did not listen much to the discussion between them. They seemed to be very interested in the girl, not only because she was a stranger to the town, but also because her fur was quite rare. Even back in America, she had involuntarily been the middle of attention in many situations, like at first school day or when she went shopping with her mother, because it was not so often that a pure white coated vixen was seen. Even for her kind she was an exception, because her father, for instance, had markings in his face but except for her paws, that were a heritage from her mother's line and looked like black socks, she was pure white. Maia was a bit relieved when the last of the families went to their houses and the Lansters also finally went home. The rest of the day was wonderful and Maia pushed her shy side back again to interact with her uncle's family. They had lunch first and then later tea. Derick showed her another hobby of his, a small workshop for wood in the back of the garage. He showed her a few figures that he carved from wood and his first chair, a work he was very proud off, that Maia had to admit was very comfortable. The dream of Derick was to either become a famous soccer player one day or to become a master wood crafter. Maia was sure that he had the talent for both and felt a bit embarrassed, because she had not yet spent a single thought on her plans for the future. Even though the town here seemed to much isolated and far from the hectic and crowded city, something Maia thought of being more advanced than this rural town, Derick seemed so much more mature. Maia wondered if this was only because he was two years older or if this country was just so much different from her home. Maybe, she thought, it was also because the city was distracting from the own thoughts so much with the lights and the shops and the evermoving life in the streets. Whatever it was, Maia started to enjoy the life in this town. She spent some time outside with Derick and she wanted to go into the forest, something she had been excited about since she heard that her uncle lived in the countryside, but it got so cold that they returned into the house soon. Maia had to find out that the clothes she brought was not made for the cold weather and her fur, being used to warm weather all year long, was so thin, that it did not protect her much from the cold air.

"We will go shopping in the next days to buy you some warm clothes." Offered her aunt, when she heard the reason for their early return. All that Maia could do this day was watching Derick bound off to play with his friends, the children of the other families, outside while Maia stayed in the house with Sophia and helped her to prepare the dinner.