Closed A City New Discovered (Flora)

[Eralyn]

5th of Fall, 513AV The people here don't seem very happy was Era's first impression of the Zeltivan people. Granted she hadn't met that many of them yet, but still. Before they had even reached the city proper they had been stopped by the guard and been searched, complete with suspicious questions about their business in Zeltiva. The guards had given this same treatment to all of the travelers who had passed through the mountains from what Era could see. This lead to the conclusion that they must not be happy, because if they were they would be nicer to all the travelers. She did remember travelers they had passed in the last few days saying something about a coup, but she openly admited that she hadn't really been paying attention. It just hadn't seemed important at the time. Now that they were here, however, it seemed like it might have been important after all. Or maybe not. Its not like she had any plans to get involved in the coup. If she stayed away from them, they'd stay away from her. Happy with this clearly logical argument, she turned her attentions to the city itself. There was so much to see. There was building after building, and groups of people milled around everywhere. Turning to Lora she exclaimed "Look at all the people, and they're all different! Did you know there were this many different types of people?" Era bounced slightly, turning to look at the different races all gathered. Most were human, true, but that didn't mean all. "And look at those buildings. They're so large. And there are so many. Can we go look at them? Can we go in them?" Era tugged on Lora's sleeve pulling her in an indistinct direction towards the inner areas of the city. Era wanted to explore. There was so much to see, and she wanted to see it all.

[Flora Rham]

Flora followed a few feet behind Eralyn at a leisurely pace, allowing the Kelvic to take the lead on their tour through the city. The meticulous search and inquiry at the entrance had left Flora in a distinctly horrific mood. There was a tension in the atmosphere of the city that was fraying her nerves. Information about the coup had seemed innocuous. It was not her fight and therefore none of her concern. Era had been in agreement. It was not until they walked the streets that Flora considered they might be in danger. Battles could break out at any moment. They might be drawn into some bloody conflict in the street.

Flora took a deep breath. The air here had bite, the smell of the sea and the cooling temperature felt fresh and foreign in her lungs. A few feet ahead Eralyn reveled in her surroundings, and Flora focused on that. There was no point in getting so agitated already, it would ruin Eralyn’s fun and at least one of them should be excited. First order of business was getting acquainted with the city and finding their residence.

“Cities have all kinds of people,” Flora answered, “There were a lot of different races in Syliras, but that was even bigger than this.” Her childhood memories were hazy and mostly unwelcome, so she was grateful Era continued asking questions, “If it’s a shop we could look inside, as long as they’re open.” It would be good to see what the city had to offer outside the University, which had been easy enough to spot. Wares from a cultural hub like Zeltiva must be fascinating, “Let’s just see what’s around on the way to the harbor. We can have a better look after we’ve found out where we’re staying.”

[Eralyn]

Era was only half listening to Lora when she responded. But she thought that was okay, Lora looked like she her thoughts were in far off places too. She could feel Lora worrying, but it didn't surprise her in the least. Lora worried a lot. From what Era could tell Lora didn't very often just relax. Take now for example, they were in the middle of a brand new, gigantic city and she didn't seem excited at all. Maybe, Era mused, if you've seen one city the rest are all alike. She really had no frame of reference. Sure she had seen Sunberth, but never really up close like she was seeing Zeltiva now. Did Sunberth have the same buildings as they had here, or did it have the same number of people? There was no way to know, she never planned on going back, not in small part because she knew that Lora wasn't going to go back. Lora wanted to go back to Syliras, which Era had to admit would be interesting. Lora had said it was larger than Zeltiva, which was a slightly unbelievable thought. Why would you need a bigger city? Maybe more homes, as you got more and more people, but a large portion of the buildings they had passed so far had been shops of one sort or another. The area they had wandered their way into was full of clothing shops, selling multitudes of brightly colored garments. How was it possible that there were enough people in this city to warrant that many clothes. Not just clothes, but other stores boasted bobbles of varying size, made for all sorts of activities. It seemed a little pointless to have so much stuff, how were all of these items ever going to get bought. There were just so many of them. A few of the more brightly colored stores caught her attention, but she didn't feel the need to explore them now. The smell of the sea was getting stronger, and that was what Era wanted to see. Sure, she had seen the ocean off the coast near Sunberth, but not often. And there hadn't been boats except way in the distance. She wanted to see them up close and see if they really were larger than they looked the few times she had seen one. Era also decided that the ocean would instill the proper excitement for the city in Lora, because who didn't like the ocean. With these thoughts in mind, she picked a direction that seemed to be heading towards the sea, taking her time to look through windows into shops they passed.

[Flora Rham]

They appeared to be in a wealthier part of the city from the quality of the items in the shops they passed. It was a nostalgic sensation to see the stores filled with likely heavily overpriced baubles and trinkets to delight those with the miza to spare. The number of people milling about was lower than she would have thought for such a prominent shopping center but that was likely due to the coup. Syliras was always congested in the markets when she had been to them, constant noise and the tug of the crowd.

Against her better judgment Flora’s thoughts had wandered to her family once again. She was not even sure how the political climate in Syliras had changed or what had happened to it during the djed storm. It was slightly disconcerting how disconnected and uninformed she was. Word would reach her family eventually that she was living in Zeltiva, but she doubted any action would be taken. They would be confident she would return to them and Flora was determined to not give the matriarch that satisfaction.
With a toss of her messy hair Flora forcefully gave her full attention to the first shop she saw.

Oh.

The colors, the patterns, they pulled at her like smells wafting from a bakery. It had been so long since Flora had been in a proper, high quality clothing shop. Her mizas were burning straight through her bag and it was with great effort Flora tore her eyes away. Flora brushed the hem of her coat with a forlorn sign. Her own clothes were worn with use and were more practical than fashionable. Thankfully, or maybe to her disappointment, Eralyn only looked casually at the shops and walked with purpose towards the sea. Flora had no time to indulge her fashion centered fantasies as she jogged to catch up with Eralyn and walked along side her. Shortly they would reach the end of this stretch of unabashed temptation.

[Eralyn]

Flora seemed more interested in the shops than Era was. But Lora was also human, so maybe she understood why one city needed this many shops. Perhaps you had to be human to understand it, kind of like you needed to be a fox to understand scent posts in a forest. The humans might have a similar unspoken language, shown in the size of a shop, or the color of its banner. She would have to come back to this area later to see if she could discover the secret. As they passed the first few blocks of shops, Lora caught up with Era, no longer lagging behind. Era smiled, happy that Lora was no longer lost in thought. She knew Lora often got caught up in the past, and with what she knew of Lora's past that wasn't necessarily a good thing. But that was before, now she had Era and that meant it was Era's job to make sure nothing else bad happened to her. They turned a corner and the docks came into sight beyond a throng of sailors moving crates and milling around. Era paused as she took it in for a moment. The sound of the waves wrapped around her as she tried to take stock of everything going on. Boats lined the piers, sails furled, bobbing gently in the water. One was being unloaded, crates coming off before being stacked off to the side, while on another ropes were being let loose as they made to put out of the harbor. The boat's sails began to unfold as sailors scurried around the boat doing all sorts of sailor-ish things, none of which Era understood. "Let's go look at the boats!" Era exclaimed to Lora, bouncing slightly in place in excitement. She could see the boats already, but she wanted to see them up close.

[Flora Rham]

Flora knew little about the sea. Though both of the cities where she had spent her life bordered it, the Suvan had barely left an impression on her outside of descriptive words like “wet”. The mountains that surrounded Zeltiva could be seen distantly on both sides of the bay. The biting breeze off the water swayed the ends of her tangled hair. The smell of sea salt was in full force along with notes of kelp, fish and the sharp scent of sweat. It lingered in the back of her throat, on her tongue. The docks were vast and well occupied, with ships creaking and sailors shouting slang and nautical terminology that baffled Flora. She wondered if someone might teach the words to her.

Eralyn was bouncing on her feet; the excitement was palpable even without their bond, “We could spare a closer look at them. But be careful.” Flora began to move slowly along the docks. Her neutral expression was firmly in place but she could not completely mask the interest in her eyes. Flora walked closer to the nearest vessel and watched as several men went about raising a sail. The intricacies of the action were lost on Flora but the way the parts worked together was fascinating.

Flora looked back to see what Eralyn had occupied herself with. There was a lot to take in. "So what do you think?"

OOCBluh for how long it took me to find time for this its so short and bad. Sorry. @_@