Late Rise [Kressha]

[Faval]

Faval gave a small nod of acknowledgement as Rahhale’s present participation in their lovely little jaunt through the market. It was probably safest that way, he heard via rumor that animals tend to take on personality traits from their owners. While he wasn’t entirely sure, he had a feeling that Kressha wasn’t necessarily the most immune of people to temper tantrums or violent outburst. If her horse was in an uncomfortable situation, Faval wouldn’t be remotely surprised if it started kicking, screaming, biting people’s hair off or leaving droppings in an apple cart or something equally disturbing. Then they’d need to get a heroic cow to fight off the horse and drive it off by spraying it down with milk. Why are cows always portrayed with horses anyway? They served entirely different purposes. One allows you to ride around the countryside at higher speeds without dying of fatigue and the other one is a nice meal for royalty or milk for children. It was silly that they had positions side by side in the farm pantheon.

The tugging on his arm snapped him out of his little daydream as he got dragged along toward what Kressha thought was the market place. There was a quicker, less crowded route they could have taken but she seemed to be pretty determined and Faval didn’t have the heart to dissuade her from the path. He quickly regretted that and wished he was a larger hard ass a few moments later when they got to the crowded portion of the street. Kressha was small, lithe, and easily slipped in between the taller bodies around her. While Faval was by no means a big person nor a clumsy and uncoordinated one, he still did not have the same luck moving through the crowd that Kressha had, especially given that he was being tugged along rather than moving of his own volition. The first collision was a shoulder to shoulder hit, a clean one. Faval’s shoulder flew back as he continued to be tethered through the crowd. While he was reeling from the first impact, another body blindsided him on the opposite side of the shoulder that had just been hit. Faval, rather dismayed at this point, staggered back to a forward position before again running in to someone, causing the man’s balance to almost completely leave him as he stumbled through the crowd. Unfortunately for Faval, that wasn’t going to end any time soon as he was pinballed along through the crowded street and hanging on to Kressha’s hand for dear life in the process.

He was understandably a little winded and sore by the time they had reached the fork in the road. His hand still in hers as its brother rested on his knee, Faval struggled to regain steady breathing as he panted gently while she decided which way she wanted to go. Instead of asking the person who actually lived in Zeltiva, you know, the logical thing to do, Kressha seemed to be acting out her own little agenda and as she triumphantly started one way, Faval was just dragged along for the ride, despite his attempted protests as he was literally dragged along for the ride.

“Kressh, you’re going the wrong way’ok.”

Before he could finish, Kressha had done an about face and was now dragging him along in the opposite direction, Faval being flipped around in a rather wide arc due to that whole inertia thing as she stampeded off toward the market, this time the actual proper direction. It didn’t take much more dragging, though still a rather excruciatingly pleasant experience, before they actually reached the market itself, a feat that finally afforded Faval the chance to exhale. Forcing himself fully upright now that they had finally stopped, Faval looked around for the familiar signs. He could not read any of them, but he did know to identify the signs themselves with the store he was looking for. The young archer slowly pointed out the general store through the crowd of people before breathlessly explaining what he was pointing to.

“That’s…Halabin’s place. It’s a general store…that’s where we’d go to get the new clothes. Ow…”

[Kressha]

Kressha was on a mission. Find the market. It was almost a game, an adventure to see if she could find the place she had briefly glanced at the day before from the ground and not from Rahhale's back. In her eagerness to find the place and lost in her own concentration of weaving through the tightly packed bodies, she didn't really notice the jerking that was happening to her hand with each hit Faval took. She kept a firm grip though and lucky for him, he did the same, not that he'd be in any danger if he let go. At most, the pain of running into bodies would probably stop, he'd be able to move at his pace then. At the fork, she was still lost in her own mind of finding the X on the map in her mind to notice Faval as he stood doubled over, trying to catch his breath. Off they went again only to turn around and when she finally found the shops, she let her gaze shift upward to look at him. Her brows knitted together then as she realized he was out of breath, he actually had a coat of sweat already on him, more so than what the heat of the day would have done already. She moved around to stand in front of him, her hand still gripped in his. As he indicated the store that they wanted to go to, Kressha looked over her shoulder and had a bit more of a hard time spotting the sign through the bodies. She leaned this way and that before she caught sight of it and gave a small nod as she looked back up at him. With her free hand, she reached up and brushed her fingers against his cheeks. "Are you feeling well? You look flussshed." Yeah, Kressha really didn't have any idea what she'd just put him through. When he flinched and called out in pain, her brows knit even more as she takes a step back from him and looks him up and down. Normally when one says ow, there is a wound that goes with it. "What happened? Did sssomebody hurt you while we walked ssrough sse crowd?" Her eyes were looking around them then, briefly landing on each body close to them before moving to the next, processing each of their apparent threat levels.

[Faval]

“Somebody did…yes”

Faval’s cheeks were flushed for multiple reasons as she brushed against them, but it took him some effort to stifle the chuckle that came to him. Kressha was completely oblivious to the fact that she was the one who had rag dolled him through the crowd and forcing him to pinball between passerby at rather painful speeds. Faval, his breath slowly returning to him, tilted his head to watch Kressha’s eyes scan the crowd around them for Faval’s mysterious assailant as Faval took one deep breath to steady himself before gently squeezing and tugging on her arm, hoping to pull her attention away from the crowd before she decided to go back to the Grotto and have Rahhale step on people who she thought wronged them. He didn’t really put it past her.

“Don’t worry about it, we have stuff to go buy.”

Faval gently tried to pull his beautiful companion away from her assault suspects and toward the store. Faval did truly need to outfit himself with some better apparel, the ratty clothes he had on did very little to inspire confidence or intimidation in friends and foe alike which, while good in the field to an extent, did very little to earn him paying work. This time, Faval attempted to take the lead and paid a little more consideration to his trailer as he went, making sure she was at least sort of beside him and not getting rag dolled through the masses as they wove through the crowd and slowly emptied out on to the front door of the shop. The young man was about to cross the threshold in to the store but stopped short when he realized that he had never actually bought clothes before. What was he even looking for? He had worn the same shirt for the first sixteen or so years of his life, eventually just not wearing a shirt at all, and then he had all his clothes issued to him while he was in the military. He had never actually had the money or the choice to buy his own clothes before and the new experience honestly startled him, causing him to freeze in front of the door. Another shopper wasn’t at all happy with the sudden stop and angrily forced himself through their held hands and in to the store, muttering something not at all kind under his breath in the process. Faval, nervously scratching the back of his head, slowly mumbled out the issue.

“I’ve never bought clothes before…what do I do?”

[Kressha]

At his confirmation that someone had gotten to him in the crowd, Kressha doubled her efforts to find out who was after him. No way would she allow her friend to be attacked while she was around. She'd show them what she was really made of, snake style. Course, that wouldn't be the best idea. It'd show pretty much the whole city what she was, then her trying to pass as human with a speech problem wouldn't work any more. News would travel. 'Hey, did you hear about the Dhani that freaked out in Zeltiva? Yeah, heard she shifted right in the street, even ate an elderly woman.' Though, maybe that kinda rep wouldn't be that bad, people would fear her then. Nah, she didn't want that, might get people trying to kill her so they could have the monster killer rep. If only she could see into Faval's mind, Kressha would probably be highly amused by Rahhale stomping on people and encourage it. Poor citizens of Zeltiva. At the tug against her arm, Kressha returned her gaze to Faval. Don't worry about it? But they could come up and finish what they started if she weren't paying attention. She didn't get a chance to protest though as it was hit turn to start pulling her through the crowd. The pace was a lot slower this time and Kressha didn't have any problems keeping up with her fair haired friend. She kept close to him all the way up until he stopped at the entrance to the shop. Tilting her head a little, she moved to his side and looked up at him before gasping as another shopper forced their way through their arms, ripping their hands apart. Kressha nearly let out a hissing sound at the man at his rudeness but lost that urge as her eyes went back to Faval. That would have been perfect time for someone to shove a knife in his back. Have her chase after them in anger while he lay in the door way of the shop, bleeding to death. There wasn't any handle of a weapon sticking out of his back and there wasn't blood pooling down his shirt either. She let her eyes return to the back of the person and just glared for a moment before she looked at Faval as he spoke. "You've never bought clossesss before?" She asks, her brows knitting together a bit then. Shaking her head and not thinking on it at all, she relinks her fingers with his and pulls him inside the little shop. Oh, the temptation to shove her way past the rude patron and take his spot looking at the merchandise was strong, even if what he was looking at Faval didn't need. Pulling him up to a neatly folded pile of shirts, she stops and looks up at him as she rests her hand above the fabric. "Uh, well, you have a few optionsss. You can get clossing ssat isss in pre made sssizesss, made to fit sse majority of sse population, or you can..." She lifts her hand off the pile and looks around. "Or we can sssee if ssey make cussstom fitting clossesss. Better chance for ssstuff to fit right but drawback isss ssat it cossstsss more." She moved her eyes back to Faval and shrugged. "Up to you really." She says before standing on her toes and looking around before stepping over to a pile of shirts in what appeared to be a smaller sized pile and lifted the top one off, unfolded it and held it up to her chest, comparing its size compared to her body.

[Faval]

Faval, somewhat embarrassed, dejected and miserable all at the same time, allowed himself to be gingerly dragged through the door and in to the store. Even though he was mostly busy feeling awful about how woefully inept he was at even the smallest of social situations, he couldn’t help but feel a great sense of gratitude and affection for Kressha as she quietly stomached all his weird and stupid quirks and deficiencies. Not everyone would tolerate someone who didn’t know how to buy an article of clothing and Faval was rather impressed that Kressha could stand him, much less seem eager to walk him through the simple things. It turned out that it was actually incredibly simple, it was just like buying food at a market, maybe even simpler because they didn’t need to weigh anything and Faval didn’t have to check for bruises on clothes. Perhaps he should check for tears or something. He gave the shirt Kressha was looking at a quick look for any bruises or blemishes before gently reaching forward and grabbing a piece of cloth that looked like it should fit him before he tucked it under his arm. He had just now successfully shopped for clothes. Maybe he was just immensely talented.

As she started comparing one of the smaller shirts to the one she had and Faval had, already, fully investigated all the plain clothes and quickly decided that any of them would do. He wasn’t an odd size and weight for a human and he didn’t need to spend a lot of money on something superfluous like clothing. He’d just grab the first one he saw that would fit well, it seemed simple enough to him. His attention had already left his original intention though as they were quickly drawn, like a child to a shiny toy, to something that was framed and displayed spectacularly. Faval slowly drifted away as Kressha examined the clothes until his eyes fell upon a piece of apparel that he had immediately fallen in love with. It was jet black, leather from what Faval could tell and seemed to almost ignore the light shining upon it, as if it were a black void. Faval’s eyes grew wide as he simply stared at it through its secure container. He knew what he wanted now, he just had to find a way to get it out of there, preferably without breaking the glass as he continued to stare wide eyed at it with an eager sense of desire. A lesser form of the one Kressha was rather familiar with.

[Kressha]

Kressha took her time looking over the shirt, turning it over and holding it against her skin before she picked up another one, this one having shorter sleeves. Even though she loved the heat, having lighter clothing that wasn't as restricting didn't sound like a bad idea. Choosing to pick the shirt with the shorter sleeves, she tucked it under her arm and looked over toward Faval as he stood infront of the leather article, practically drooling. That brought a smile to her lips and she started toward him but stopped as her arm brushed up against a dress that was on display close to where the shirts had been. She rubbed the fabric between her fingers and raised her brows. Nice and light and it was a light cream color. She didn't own any dresses yet but for some reason wanted to have one now. Setting her shirt down, she went to the pile of dresses that were behind the display and picked up the top one and held it up to her. It was a little big for her, but she could most likely find someone that could fix it up to fit her better. Refolding the dress and adding it to the shirt, she moved the rest of the way over to Faval and leaned in against him and peered up at what had his attention. "Well, ssat looksss fancy." She said, letting her eyes shift from the clothing up to Faval. Giving him a smile and a shake of her head, she walked away from him again and went to the merchant to pay for her stuff. "Jussst ssesss two, pleassse." She said in a soft voice to the man. She was used to the look he gave her at the sound of her voice, but quickly went about his work, he had a business after all to run. "Oh, very lovely choice on the dress, its color will look lovely against your skin." He said, any uncomfortable feelings he felt by her voice hidden now as he played friendly with her. Kressha smiled up at him and that brought a smile to his lips as well. "Ya know what, a every pretty lady deserves a a dress, how about we say... 9 silver for the both of them plus a free fitting, huh? It would be a waste if it didn't fit just right on your frame." Kressha felt her brows raise a little at the offer, here she was about to ask him if he did fittings or if she were going to have to go find someone else to do it. She had no skills in that area to do it herself. Giving him a small nod of her head and pulled her coin pouch off her belt and counted out the required amount of money and set the coins in the clerks hands. "Ssank you ssso much, I wasssn't sssure where I needed to go to for a fitting." She asked, letting her eyes shift up to his as she gave him a soft smile. "Would I be able to come back later, perhapsss tomorrow, I have plansss for sse ressst of sse day." The clerk just smiled back at her and gave a nod of his head. "If you come early in the morning before the market gets busy, that would be best." She smiled and thanking him again as she took her newly aquired clothing and went back to Faval and bumped her shoulder into his arm as she looked up at him. "Are you going to get it? Or jussst look at it all day?" Ledger Item Debit - Miza Credit - Miza Total Short Sleeved Shirt (Cotton/linen) 1 silver 1 silver Average Dress (Cream Colored) 8 silver 8 silver Total 9 silver