Closed A Lesson in Learning

[Micah Frostfawn]

76th Fall, 515AV

The recent cold snap to the weather chilled Sissena's bones as soon as she stepped out of her home. Shivering, she tightened her coat around her waist and lowered her head downwards, but this did little to warm the half-breed. Briefly, she considered whether or not to return home, to evade the unpleasant coldness that made her breath hang in the air in front of her. But no; she had things to do today, and Sissy had never been the type to turn away from a to-do list.

She was dressed in the same outfit she donned almost every day: a plain white shirt, dark britches and dark boots. She looked official, even if technically today she would not be working. But that was Sissena's way: efficient, brisk. Some would call her curt manner rude, but others - those who employed her, anyway - appreciated her conscientiousness.

Of course, today she was not at work. She was shopping: a far more unpleasant and tedious task. Winter was turning cold and frosty already, and Sissy daren't wait any longer before she got properly prepared. Her intolerance of the cold came from her mother, she knew. She remembered how her mother had always shivered at night, regardless of how many blankets she threw over her bed.

Unconsciously, Sissena's left hand moved to her chest, fingering the small lump under her coat that was her precious necklace. It had been her mother's, and perhaps even her grandmother's before that -- Sissena could not remember the finer details of the necklace's history. She loved it nevertheless.

Her first purchase was a pair of woollen gloves. The merchant, a greedy pot-bellied man if Sissy had ever seen one, grossly overcharged her. She had been so shocked at his brazen overpricing that she had been flummoxed out of negotiating. Fortunately, she managed to find her tongue for her next target.

"I will pay no more than three gold mizas for this scarf." She said stubbornly, holding the swathe of material in her hand and waving it In his face.

The merchant barked out a horrid laugh, showering Sissy and his mother wares in spittle. "Five. Now pay or get out of my sight."

She fixed her jaw, knotted her brows together. Sissena was not a broad woman, or that tall, so she tried her hardest to fill as much space as she could. Trying again: "Three." The woman behind her pushed at Sissena's shoulders ever so slightly, trying to move her aside to make her own purchases. The half-Symenestra did not shift, but the closeness of the stranger unnerved her. Her patience began to wane. "Four."

The merchant smirked. Sissena's desperation to leave the crowded stall had seeped through into her last offer, and it was clear that she would eventually pay all the coins in her pocket just to simply leave. "Four's a deal." He said eventually, offering his hand as a sign of peace and to collect his latest payment.

Coughing up the coins, Sissena turned and hurried away, surrendering her spot at his stall to the next pushy customer.

ooc-7GM for purchases

[Morgan]

The air was incredibly chilly today and Morgan was wandering through the city. She slept through the whole night, which was a bit strange for her, but given what had already happened to her this season, it was no wonder that she needed some rest. She slept outside on the edge of the forest in her animal form, perched on a thick branch of a tall tree, which was not entirely comfortable, but relatively safe.

She had woken up, when the sun was rising. The cold weather surprised her, so she headed to the city for something warm into the stomach.

The streets were, as usual, full of people rushing somewhere. The Kelvic saw a lot of people shopping for clothes, as if the sudden cold temperature reminded them that winter was near, and considered buying some for herself. At least a long coat. Then she could head out for something to eat. The cold was really bothering her. She hoped that the winter wouldn’t be too bad. Snow and frost would make foraging for food harder.

She was slowly weaving through the crowd, towards one of the stalls that offered clothes. Small queue was already forming there. Morgan paused, not really joining the queue, shoving her hands into the pockets of her dark pants, looking around, uncertain what to do. Maybe she should do the shopping another time, when there’s less people?

An educated-looking woman with dark hair was currently haggling with the shopkeeper for a better price for something. Morgan couldn’t understand why. A Miza here or there, that was nothing. She couldn’t care less. Why was everyone so obsessed with money was beyond Morgan.

As she stood there, thinking about what to do next, she noticed something falling on the ground from a pocket of a wealthy-looking man, who went past her. The thing fell on the ground near where Morgan was standing. It looked like a piece of dark cloth. The Kelvic looked around. No one was paying attention to it, everyone’s mind was on their business. The man already gone, unaware he had dropped something. She shrugged. ‘First come, first served.’ Then Morgan quickly reached down and took the cloth in her hands, noticing it was pair of gloves. ‘Could be useful.’ The Kelvic tucked the gloves into her pocket and joined the queue that had just moved forwards.

[Micah Frostfawn]

From her new vantage point behind the chaotic queue for the market stall, Sissena could watch her fellow shoppers bustle and push each other. She sighed, heaving another mouthful of air into a cloud before her. Shopping, crows, the cold… It was making her mood sour by every passing tick.

She shimmied her hands into her new gloves and swiped the scarf around her neck. Already Sissy could sense the benefit of her new purchases, and this warranted an uncharacteristic smile from the otherwise uptight female.

But it was short lived.

A familiar face dipped in and out of the bustling crowd. Initially, Sissena failed to attach a name onto the young redhead, but then it came to her: Morgan, from the Welcome Home! The orphanage was the closest thing to a family home that Sissena had, and she volunteered every so often, to give back to the community that had raised her. Of the many, many children she had met, the then-young Morgan had been incredibly challenging.

She watched the redhead for several moments, quietly observing the young woman for any sign of the troublesome young girl she had once been. Just as Sissena was preparing to leave, concluding that perhaps Morgan had finally matured, she saw the woman crouch down to collect an item dropped by a passer-by. Brows knotted together as Sissena watched keenly, her eyes turning from bright and inquisitive to judgemental and hard.

As soon as she witnessed Morgan shift the gloves from the ground to her pocket, Sissena waited no time to hurry forward, slipping through the crowd to grab hold of the redhead’s arm. ”What are you doing?” She demanded sharply, catching the attention of a few shopper annoyed by her pushiness. ”That’s not yours to take.” Suddenly Sissena realised that whilst she had recognised Morgan almost immediately, the Kelvic might not realise who she was – after all, they had not seen each other for a while and Morgan had been a young girl at the time. So somewhat awkwardly, Sissena cleared her throat and added, ”We taught you better than that at the Welcome Home.”

[Morgan]

The noise of the crowd was beginning to irritate Morgan and several times she almost turned around and left. The queue wasn’t moving at all. The Kelvic leaned to the left and peered forward. A customer was arguing quite heatedly with the shopkeeper. Morgan sighed, shoulders drooping. She was bored. And cold. And hungry.

She waited several moments, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, still debating whether to leave or stay, when someone grabbed her arm. Morgan looked up quickly to see who it was. Standing above her was the dark-haired woman she had seen bartering with the shopkeeper earlier. The woman had quite an angry and stern expression on her face. She reminded Morgan of the people from the Welcome Home. In fact, she thought she could remember her from that place. ‘What have I done this time?’ Morgan asked herself, although she probably already knew the answer.

And her guess was correct as the woman demanded quite sharply to explain what did Morgan do. ‘Petch!’ The woman had probably seen Morgan pick up the gloves. The Kelvic immediately, instinctively, automatically became defensive. “I didn’t do anything! It was just lying there…” Immediately, Morgan realized that she confessed her crime by saying that. ‘Stupid, stupid!’ she chided herself. ”It’s none of your business!” she tried again. She was aware of several people glancing their way. It was uncomfortable.

But she didn’t do anything wrong, did she? The man dropped the gloves and left. They would still be uselessly lying on the ground if Morgan didn’t pick them up! They would be of no use and probably destroyed by the crowd’s feet. Morgan scowled fiercely at the woman, when she said something about the orphanage. ‘Oh great, now I’m in for a long and boring lecture.’ Morgan thought, annoyed and still glaring at the woman. Of all things Morgan hated lectures the most.

[Micah Frostfawn]

"I don't care if you think it's none of my business," Sissena retorted flatly. Her tone was not sharp, but instead cool and distant. She recognised the speaking manner from her work: this was how she interrogated her clients to get to the bottom of whatever crime had lead to them seeking out the service of an attorney.

But the girl in front of Sissena now was not a hard-core criminal, or a wife beater or food poisoner. She was simply a young woman who most likely had only recently become bogged down with the responsibilities of adulthood. For just a tick, she wondered if she had been too harsh. Indeed, several people were looking at her now and one woman in particular was giving Sissy a hard, pointed look that made her cheeks blush ever so slightly.

The half-blood shook herself ever so slightly and looked sharply back to the redhead in front of her. Yes, she had perhaps acted a little too quickly and harshly. But then again--

She sighed. When Sissena spoke again next, she tried her best to sound sympathetic and understanding. Even if her attempt was poor, at least the intention was there. "Do you know how hard the patrons of the Welcome Home work, in order to stop the belief that all orphans are thugs and pickpockets?"

At that final word, a couple more concerned shoppers glanced at the bickering pair. Eventually, Sissena took the hint and shifted out of the way of the worse of the bustling crowd. She tugged her younger companion alongside with her: there was no way she was letting the Kelvic escape. "Even if it was just lying there, did you really think nobody would see you take it?"

And with that, Sissy finally fell silent. Perhaps her words would fall on deaf ears, but she was simply not the sort of person to do nothing.

[Morgan]

The Kelvic finally got intimidated by the woman’s gaze and words and she lowered her eyes to look at her feet, her face pink with embarrassment and also anger at herself that she let herself get caught like that. The woman was vaguely reminding Morgan of someone. She was talking about the Welcome Home, so Morgan supposed that she was a teacher there or someone like that.

The woman took Morgan by the arm and led her away from the crowd for which Morgan was somewhat grateful. She continued her lecture, although in a nicer voice than before, and Morgan was still listening, not that she had a choice, although her attention was not as close as it probably should be. Morgan wished the woman would stop already, because she was eager to go on with her life as usual. ‘I learned my lesson. Now let me go so I can get myself some food, I’m hungry.’ She thought sullenly, but still kept silent, digging her stare into her shoes.

However, the woman was still speaking. Finally Morgan could take it anymore. “All right, I’m sorry!” The young woman burst out, loudly.”I don’t know why I did it, I just…,” she made a wild, helpless gesture with her hands and shrugged. “I don’t like things going to waste. Nobody would put the gloves to use, because the man obviously didn’t stop for them when he dropped them.” She added, trying to explain herself, but still she was avoiding the woman’s eyes.

What she said was the truth, but only a half of it. She wouldn’t mention of course that this was a great opportunity for stocking up for the upcoming winter. She planned to shop of course, but such opportunity like this one didn’t come every day. Who was she to miss it?

She sighed, feeling defeated, because she was beginning to realize that she wouldn’t get out of the situation and that she would have to correct her wrongdoing. She remembered how the children from the orphanage were always made to apologize if they did something wrong. Morgan apologized without needing to be reminded, but only to those who she knew would return the gesture. She refused to apologize when she knew the person wasn't worthy of the apology. She sighed again, finally meeting the woman’s eyes. “Fine, I’ll return those gloves, I promise.”