Solo Mapping Lines in the Sand

[Una Tanta]

-She is in the bazaar exploring and perusing a purchase.
-the man is whispering to the book owner about the lost map and Una overhears.
-Offers to help, the are suspicious, Una realizes because she is doing it for free is why they worry so she asks for a reward. They relax and give her information on when it went missing (the wind storm).

Sounds, smell and sensations tickled Unas senses so powerfully she struggled to decide what to touch first. Her white webbed fingers grazed and flitted from one object to another. Gently wafting spices toward her nose one moment while running her fingers over fabrics the next. She bathed in the beauty of the marketplace, the beauty that was was created by the sheer exuberance of expressions.

I can't believe I once thought home was so ugly compared to Avanthal... Avanthal was sparkling in her majesty with Wind Reach forming a rough silhouette in comparison to its sleek majesty. But there was beauty here too. Beauty, in the intricacy of senses. Beauty, in the intricacy of stone faces and in its very rough edges.

Una had read small poems, little ditties, from other cities. Her own life was so small and insignificant; so full of brutal pain. Watching by while her and her husband reflected each other so much that without him truly half of her personality was missing. Watching by while her father was drawn away by a Kelvic mistress, so infatuated with his own reflection in her he forgot about his own wife; the mother of his children; that which he forced so far from the Suvan and their home. All of this had left her a shell, broken and weary; grasping at fragments of life.

In leaving Avanthal she had left behind that which she once new and was born afresh. But already well through her youth she didn't know how to act anything longer, how to be herself at her age with nothing but the self she knew before she met Cy. She had been a teenager then, as rebellious and passionate as any. But she felt none of that passion or rebellion now all she desired that much was knowledge and for those around her to be happy.

She thought all this as she passed through the market suddenly blind to its distractions, entranced with herself until she bumped painfully into the edge of a large sturdy stand. Made from a heavy thick wood she struggled to believe it wasn't a permanent structure in the open area. Covered in the thick and thin leather of various books the large table held an assortment of rulers, quills, nibs, and parchment. A delight of the mind and hand.

'The Written Word' was engraved in a wooden plaque across the top of the stall and beneath it was the hunched form of an elderly man. With a stutter in his step and voice, fingers stained with ink, he moved toward Una a crooked grin on his elderly crooked face.

"C-can I help-p you M-miss?" He stuttered along at a tempo not unlike the soft chittering of a chickadee.

"No thank you sir, I think I shall just peruse on my own. Thank you though." She replied as kindly as she could. The elderly had always held a soft spot in her heart. Mizahar was a strange and dangerous place and those who had survived long enough to be deemed elderly where not lazy, or weak or cowardly ...although...maybe again...that is exactly what they were. Una pondered a weak smile tugging at her lips. The gatekeeper had forced her to question what she knew at every turn and she could feel it leaking into her subconscious and every thought.

Running her fingers along the crisp edged pages Una felt the beginnings of passion stir within her chest. Perhaps...perhaps if I follow THAT, that passion and stir for knowledge. Maybe that will lead me to who I am? She queried to herself as the whispers of knowledge from another man leached into her conscious.

Huddled next to the elderly ink man was a plump man of approximately equal age. His voice was strong and deep, a reverberating tone of common that reached her ears easily. However, it was his hands that twittered nervously, first against his pant leg and then against his other hand and soon brushed the sweat from his temple.

"-missing!"

"A-are y-you sss-sure you di-didn't misplac-ccce it?"

"I didn't MISPLACE it!"

"D-don't you thi-ink -"

"Of course I thought...and I looked! It's gone!"

"A mmm-m-map doesn-n't j-jjjust go missing...not-t-t one wo-o-rth that much."

"But it has! It has! What use does someone have for that map anyway?" He twittered brushing his forehead and starting to pant.

"E-excuse me...I couldn't help but overhear..." Una interrupted, awkwardly leaning in. Knowledge...follow the bread crumbs... "Is there anything I can do? It is a tragic shame for any sort of knowledge to go missing like that..." She added frowning. Though she truly did find it tragic she couldn't help but wonder what made this map so truly valuable.

They both turned to face her, a flash of red hair and the glance of a pair of green and brown eyes meeting hers. Hostility as round and hot as the fat mans girth while mirth and amusement stuttered like chickadees across the others face.