41, Summer, 509 AV
It has been exactly three weeks since Simpriana Whiterose left her hometown of Sunberth and she was down at the fish market, doing what she did best. Simpriana smiled warmly to a woman with short, silvery hair, a sweetly wrinkled face and a bit of a stoop, giving her a hug and pulling some copper miza from her pocket as she did so. The woman looked at her oddly when Simp withdrew from the hug but Simpriana kept smiling. Spinning around once, she moved to the other side of the market, her nose wrinkling from the scent of fish. Even though she'd been here for a few days, the stench was still something that the fifteen year old had not gotten used to. She craned her neck in search of some money but she couldn't find anything. Not even copper. She'd had a good day yesterday, collecting even gold but today was not going as well. Sighing, she leaned against the side of a wooden vendor's cart, pushing her long blonde hair behind her ear. Her gaze wandering, she noticed a man sitting against a large tree with a book in his lap and a sign hung next to him. Intrigued, she crossed the path to get a better look at his sign. It read Sketches for sale. Simpriana rolled her eyes but as a young child skipped over to him and asked for a sketch, she handed him a gold miza. You can get that much for it?! Simpriana thought, her eyes wide.
Simpriana stood there for a moment, her hands in the pockets of her pale blue dress as she looked down at her brown lace-up boots that were caked with mud. She had to think. How could she get that sketch book? There had to be tens of sketches in there. Think of all of the money she could get from it! Her eyes narrowed, locked in on her target, Simpriana knew exactly what she would do. She put her hands behind her back loosely, whistling as she looked around the marketplace nonchalantly. She walked slowly, seemingly without purpose as she moved around the tree to the sign beside the man. As she worked her way to his side, Simpriana couldn't help but peek at the current sketch he was working on. It was of a flower. A beautiful flower done in black and white. It was only half-done. Pulling herself back into the moment, Simpriana reminded herself what to do next. She casually knocked an elbow against the sign which then dropped to the ground. As the man got up to hang the sign back up, he set his sketch book down on the grass in front of the tree. This was Simpriana's chance to move quickly around the tree to snatch the sketch book from the ground and tuck it under her arm with her journal. She made her way through the marketplace, disappearing into the group of people, a coy smile toying at the corners of her lips.