7th of Spring - 517 AV
The house that she had gotten when moving into the city was nice enough she had told herself but it was a far cry from what she was used to back in Wind Reach. Comfort and a stable living condition was something that she could expect back in her old city but here she was constantly moved during the nights and days as Ionu saw fit, like a massive and constant game of hide and seek. Some days she found that what she needed was just around the corner and other days they were far away and although she had not been in the city for more than a few days she had already found it fascinating, gotten sick of it, found it funny and gotten sick of it again.
Aenisa woke up later than she might have wanted to, having wanted to train Inagio before she had to visit the market to purchase the accessories for her bird. Giving herself a stretch in the bed before she climbed out of it and yawned quietly, stretching some more as she heard the call of her constant companion. Inagio had taken to calling the chest by the end of Aenisa’s small bed her home and now there sat a small nest of random things that was her new nest. Upon hearing Aenisa stirring in the bed Inagio had immediately begun to chirp for her breakfast, bringing the day into bloom as it was surely only the start of the day, it seemed that the Falcon was eating more and more but soon she would be big enough to hunt on her own anyways.
Having fed her bird for the morning Aenisa was soon dressed for the streets and standing by the door to her own house, where would the night have brought them this time and what would be the location of the shop today? A huge sigh could be heard throughout the house as she pushed open the door to her home and stepped out into the expected street, a very narrow alleyway met her instead this morning, almost narrow enough for her to take one step into it and hit the next wall. It was a real pain sometimes to live in the back of a house, sometimes her private entry got its own street but other times it just ended up in an alleyway she had come to realise and so she wasn’t all that surprised by now even if it was a major bother. With a few chosen curse words under her breath she made her way out into the narrow alleyway, at least she hoped it would not be too long until she reached some sort of a street which she could walk normally.
In the last few days it seemed that Aenisa had grown more and more tired of the city, Wind Reach had seemed like such a boring place in comparison to much of the rest of the world but now that she had arrived in Alvadas it seemed that the city was just out to get on her nerves most of the time. Wind Reach was a constant and it was something that she had been used to as well, this was foreign and annoying. Her clothes scraped along the walls of either side of her as she was walking awkwardly towards the end of the alleyway, beams cutting out from the buildings sometimes that forced her to squeeze herself through sideways, each one bemoaned and accompanied by a curse. Soon she would be at the end of the alleyway and hopefully by then she could get back on track again and out onto a street once more but as she reached the end she realised that her luck had only just began.
Squeezing past the last two pillars and Aenisa was back out onto the street again however she had failed to notice the divider between the alleyway and the street and as her shoes got caught on it she stumbled forwards. Like a deer on ice, Aenisa came crashing forwards straight down onto the street at the feet of a rather large man who slowly turned around at the sound of the crash. Aenisa took a moment to gather herself and her thoughts as before she would begin to stand back up again, her own dignity far from still being intact.
“Oh, what happened?”
The voice was that of a man in his 40’s or 50’s she thought as she was standing back up, speaking in a rather annoyed tone of voice back at the man for no apparent reason other than to fuel her own self-pity as she was casting an angry glare at the divider that had caused her so much trouble.
“I fell, can’t you see that?”
Stupid people and their million questions all the time, can’t he see that I fell? Back on her feet she made a dismissive gesture with her arms as she proceeded to inspect her own outfit for any damage or marks that would make them look even worse than they were, god she hated this place some days.
“No need to get angry with me young girl. Here, let me see.”
The man said as he placed a firm and strong hand onto Aenisa’s shoulder, proceeding to inspect her outfit with her. What Aenisa had failed to notice about her surrounding and about the man himself was that she had ended up in what looked like the beggars’ quarters of the day and that the man himself looked rougher than she had at first thought him to be. As the man was pretending to care and be nice to Aenisa he was signalling with his other hand to others in the nearby area to arrive as well, seeing an opportunity.
“Where you headed anyways?”
The man continued by asking, fishing for some details as they were both pre-occupied by making sure that nothing had been damaged or would make her look like a beggar, the irony of that being that she was now almost surrounded by them.
“The market, do you know where that is at?”
With these words Aenisa looked up for the first time to really see the man that was helping her so kindly and what she saw was nothing short of a shock for her, standing before her at what she estimated to be 8-foot-tall but was in reality about 7-foot-tall, a burly man dressed in rags, an unkempt beard and an unkempt hair style speaking clearly to what he was, a roughian. As Aenisa realised what kind of a situation she was in, there was not much time left to think about what to do and if she wanted to do something before the approaching gang behind the man was on her she would have to act quickly. Trying to hide her fear she allowed herself to smile awkwardly as she looked at the man just as the man spoke to her.
“Why of course, it is just down the road this way, come.”
Words spoken like true poison and deceit, like an illusion of truth, an illusion of niceties that had long left this man’s life, perhaps once in his life he had been an honest person but now it was not to be. Aenisa just kept screaming inside her head at Alvadas, it seemed that the city was just testing her patience now, to see how she would handle herself, what she might do about the situation. She did not have time for this stuff today, not at all.
“Ah, perfect, I shall come back later, thanks!”
Aenisa said these words quickly before she would duck down from the grip that she was being held in, turn around in a swift motion, loose her footing as she was trying to bolt for the alleyway, only to come into the alleyway sideways and flying.
SPACER
