13th of Spring, 514 AV
Birds were chirping through the various clouds that marred the sky. They shrouded the sunlight that attempted to peer through them with minor fight. A mild wind caressed the ground and kissed her face as a woman with fiery red hair traipsed through the city with a smile bolding highlighting at the beauty of her face.
The horizon was wounded with streams of crimson streaks. It was the early morning, an ungodly time for most people, but not for Lenz. She was up and ready, trotting through the city at a rapid gait. She held her smile with relative ease, yet struggled to keep it was wavering as she was greeted by the bustling of people already about with their day.
She immediately frowned, noticing the various stands already set up. She had hoped with much of her heart to finish a few orders early before such a crowd arose from the depths of such commotion.
Either way, she was pleased. The more people, the more money she and her employer, Eida, raked in at the end the day. She was just the person she met once she had emerged from the mob of locals unharmed.
“Hello Eida,” she greeted her, rushing around the counter to join the elderly lady. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Well enough,” she replied skeptically, taking a few steps back from her jubilant employee. “What’s it to you?”
“Nothing at all,” Lenz reassured her, taking a seat in the chair that was always sitting next to the counter. It was as if it taunted her and called to her each and every day she worked.
“It is very busy this morning, no?” she asked, observing the crowd with minor suspicion. She had become aware of her surroundings far better than she had the first day she had arrived. It was something of habitual instinct to her now, although it wasn’t as advanced as she would have liked it to be.
The woman shrugged and said, “It is like it always is.”
Lenz sighed, brushing her scarlet curls behind her ears. She parted her bangs to the side so that she could see whatever lay in front of her. She then scooted up closer to the table and started to organise her items.
“Has there been anything for me yet?” she asked, straightening the pair of sheers so that they were lying at a ninety degree angle next to the spool of black thread.
“Not yet, but there was a woman who stopped by a few moments ago asking what we did.” She chuckled, throwing her head back in a dramatic attempt to act amused. Lenz caught on to the sarcasm that tainted her words.
“As if she couldn’t see the sewing equipment strewn around that table?”
“Some people,” Lenz chimed in, giggling slightly at her agreement. How could be not notice such things as spools of thread, sewing needles and various articles of fabric?
She went back to organising her utensils, straightening her sewing needle so that it was parallel to the spool of white thread, next to the sheers on the opposite side of the spool of black thread. She wrapped the seamstress tape around her neck and leant over the table so that her elbows were propped up on the surface.
“Some people these days,” she murmured, surveying the crowd. She spotted an elderly couple warily. The last time she had seen an elderly man he had been robbed of his money by a thieving woman.
Her eyes wavered over a young woman with light blond hair. She worse expensive clothing and held a sort of satchel over her left shoulder. It was beige in colour, matching incredibly well with her skin tone which bore freckles all over her face.
Lenz smiled. She loved watching people go about their daily business. She loved eavesdropping inconspicuously on others’ conversations and she loved watching verbal disagreements occur as long as they didn’t get physically violent. It was then that she looked away or tried to rectify the issue at hand.
Suddenly a small hand was slapped onto the counter, barely missing Lenz’s own by mere inches. She was a woman of decent height, with hair as dark as a raven’s wing and eyes as silver as a sliver of the moon at midnight. She had a pale complexion, her face narrow with a nose the smallest, yet most rigid as she had seen.
“What can I do for you this fine morning?” she asked candidly, raising her eyebrows.
“I am interested in purchasing a slim fitting skirt if you don’t mind,” she replied with a sheepish expression. Lenz nodded and went about with her normal procedure.
“I will need to take measurements of your figure if that is alright with you,” she said before taking the tape from around her neck.
“Do what you have to do,” she said, lifting up her arms so that Lenz could wrap the tape around her waist line.
She made sure to write down the measurements on a piece of scratch paper she had retrieved from underneath the counter. She also went to measure the height the lady wanted to dress to be before measuring the lowest part of her legs in terms of finding out how wide the longest part of the skirt would be.
“Is there any particular fabric you wish for me to use in making your skirt?” Lenz asked, looking up at the woman to see her initial reaction.
She portrayed confusion and then brilliance and then bemusement all right after one another. Finally she came up with the idea to purchase silk.
“Very wonderful choice my lady, but is there any specific colour you wish to choose?”
“I would love to have just the basic white silk.”
It was a rare choice, given the attire the woman currently wore. She had well groomed hair, a somewhat cleansed face, yet she wore regular clothes for wishing to purchase such expensive clothing. However, Lenz didn’t question her choices. She wasn’t thrown into a quandary, instead she nodded her head.
“Alright,” she announced, tentatively making eye contact with her first customer of the day. “It shouldn’t take me more than a bell or two.”
“That sounds marvelous. I should be back soon to pick it up.”
The two then nodded to each other in mutual agreement before Lenz set off to do her duty.
