Golden Retriever

by **Kamilla** on February 22nd, 2015, 1:55 pm

Kamilla Circe Gordon

34th of Winter, 514AV

"Kamilla dear?"

The relative peace and quiet of Yvette's Dresses For All Occasions was instantly desecrated by the sickeningly sweet voice of it's owner as the older woman traipsed into the store, looking as glamorously dressed as always and not without her favourite accessory, an unbelievably polite facade. It was nearing midday already and this was the first Kamilla was seeing of her boss, no doubt coming from some fancy breakfast with a popular socialite that she'd no doubt have to listen to the woman rant on and on about before day end.

Kamilla had been having quite a calm day up until the moment her employer entered the store with her air if superiority, she had woken and gone through her morning regimen of washing, dressing and eating as usual and left for work a dozen chimes earlier than usual. With some time to spare, the young woman had decided to take the longer route to work, in order to enjoy the fresh but always salty morning air. The work was mostly unremarkable. She noticed a few houses that she hadn't before, greeted a few strangers as they passed by, nothing special. Outside one of the houses she spotted an anorexic looking cat, its fur was gray and it had the most remarkable green eyes. She froze for a moment as she met the starving feline's gaze, it was sad that such a beautiful creature had to be starving and outside in the icy weather.

By now winter had sunk it's claws deep into the port city, the severity of the cold had made life that much harder for its citizens, more food was needed to keep warm and well, more wood was needed to keep fires going and more clothes were needed to survive leaving the house, if not for the city's complete lack of homelessness Kamilla was sure that the winter would have claimed quite a few lives by now. But, even though everyone had a roof over their heads it didn't mean that they weren't feeling the struggle. Most families with a lower quality of life were scraping the bottom of their coin purses and even Kamilla was feeling the pinch, though not as badly, so it was more than probable that the owner of the cat was unable to look after it... if it even had an owner.

From there on the walk to Yvette's was pretty normal and she arrived at her workplace in good time to see her prissy coworker Natalie but thankfully with no Yvette in sight. She'd greeted Natalie before quickly making her way over to her workstation near the back of the store and getting to work with some simple garment construction, meticulously sewing sleeves onto dresses. Kamilla had found that Natalie got better over time, when she had just started working in the store her coworker had had some deluded sense of superiority but after a season it had faded away to near nothing. The simplest way to avoid getting into a conversation with 'Nat' was to act completely focused on the work at hand, that seemed to keep her mindless blubbering about this and that scandal at bay. Needless to say, Kamilla was becoming great at playing pretend. Unfortunately, Yvette was not so easily deterred, in fact, she was never deterred so she wasted no time in making a demand, which she disguised as a request, the moment she'd stepped into the store and Kamilla was forced to drop everything for her highness.

by **Kamilla** on March 1st, 2015, 2:47 am

Kamilla Circe Gordon

"Camille dear, would you mind going to the general store to fetch my purchase, I need it for my next batch of dresses and I can't bare to walk another step."

Kamilla got to her feet without a word, ignoring the blatant manner in which her boss continuously called her by a name that was not her own, as if, eventually she'd decide to adopt the new one because it was easier to relent than to resist. She wondered if Yvette thought Camille was a more luxurious sounding name for someone that worked in the store, though she doubted that if she did think that, she would hesitate to make it Kamilla's official work name.

"Of course, it would be my pleasure!" Kamilla said in a sweet voice, she'd been learning to act since the day she started working at the store, it was almost a compulsory skill in order to survive and by now she felt as if she'd become quite believable at the 'sweet and polite' facade. The formula was simple, back straight, perked up, face twisted into an extended smile and finally, a sugar coated voice. All in all, the act was exhausting to pull off, no matter how short the duration.

Without another word, Kamilla strolled out of the shop, wrapping her jacket around herself as she made her way out and into the cold. Even with the unforgiving weather the streets of Zeltiva were buzzing, people didn't have a choice, they needed to work in order to make a living and so did she. As she walked the cold nipped at her face, especially making itself known at the tip of her nose which turned numb within a chime of leaving the store.

Luckily for Kamilla, she knew exactly where the general store was and it wasn't all that far, though apparently it was too far for her boss to carry her purchase when she'd been there to purchase it. The silver lining to freezing her butt off was that she was no longer cooped up with her coworkers and the break was welcome, no matter how chilly the atmosphere. The walk gave her time to think on whether she'd be able to practice her magic this season, even if the climate improved, the clearing was out, if was far too far to travel in the winter season, she'd just have to do some careful and minor practising when she was alone at home..

Home alone.

Kamilla let out a small laugh at the concept, "When? I'm always home alone." she said, laughing to herself and earning a few sceptical looks from people passing by on their way to wherever their feet where taking them. Kamilla didn't mind living alone, it was something she needed since she liked to practice her magic, in fact she quite enjoyed the peace and freedom, but even still, she felt as if her home needed some additional form of life. A pet perhaps? Why not? She could afford to feed another, smaller, mouth. For a brief moment she was reminded of the starving gray cat she'd seen earlier that morning and she decided then and there that, after work, she'd check if it was still there and, if so, perhaps try to adopt the scrawny feline.

by **Kamilla** on March 4th, 2015, 3:30 pm

Kamilla Circe Gordon

The freezing walk to the general store did not last much longer, to Kamilla's relief. As she stepped into the shelter of the building her senses were assaulted with an array of colors, smells and sounds as the store was filled with several busy looking people buzzing around and inspecting it's assortment of products.

Kamilla did not waste her time browsing the store's contents and instead went straight to the short queue of people lined up in front of the counter, after all she was just coming to pick something up for Yvette. She was standing behind a young man and woman who were having a heated conversation about a topic she hadn't pinpointed just yet. The two of them couldn't have been much younger than herself, though they spoke in a way that made Kamilla assume they were scholars.

"...I mean I came from across the region to study magic and now the College of Djed is nothing but rubble and dust. Where am I supposed to further my studies now?..."

"You could always go to Sahova? You'd learn ALL about magic there."

"...Ha, sure, and I'd return from my studies more dead than alive."

The manner in which they spoke of this Sahova place made it clear that the suggestion was absurd, Kamilla could tell that much by their sarcasm, though her curiosity had been peaked at the mention of learning magic and she couldn't restrain herself from asking. "Excuse me, what is this Sahova place you're talking about? I've never heard of it." her words were polite yet inquiring and the two scholars returned her question with an air of amusement.

"Sahova is bad news, believe me."

"It's an island dedicated to all things magic, which is all fine and dandy, except that it's almost completely populated by nuit... these living corpses.

Kamilla was glad that she didn't have to ask the young woman to explain what a nuit was, though her explanation wasn't much to go on. "And this place, anyone's allowed to go there?" she asked, more intrigued. The entire reason Kamilla had come to Zeltiva was so that she could learn magic peacefully(and because she'd have been killed in Sunberth), but even still she had learnt next to nothing about other magics, her only progress being her personal improvements in reimancy.

"Yeah sure, they have a ship that takes 'people'...", he used quotation marks to punctuate his point that they were not in fact, people, "...to and from the island. But, I'm telling you, it's not the kind of place for anyone living. Besides, you probably don't even know the first thing about magic."

Kamilla simply brushed off the man's insulting assumption, rather that than proving him wrong with a conjured stone to the face, and thanked the two scholars for their information. She decided not to bother the two of them further as they reached the front of the line, quickly purchasing what they'd come for and darting off into the icy streets. She wasn't far behind as she had literally just asked and received the roll of gold material and left.

The cold had bothered her on her way towards the general store but Kamilla hardly noticed it on her way back. Her mind was rushing, thoughts bounced around the inside of her skull forming into questions and ideas. Could she go to this Sahova? Would she be able to learn more about magic there and sate her curiosity? How would she go about doing this? Was it safe? What exactly was the problem with this 'nuit' things? All these questions and more bounced around the young mage's mind as she made her way back to her workplace.

by **Kamilla** on March 5th, 2015, 9:15 am

Kamilla Circe Gordon

The rest of the day passed by in an uneventful blur, Kamilla had returned with the roll of golden material and Yvette had thanked her and sent her back to work on what she'd been doing before she was sent on the errand, "Are you not done with those garments yet?" she'd asked, as if she wasn't the one that had thrown a wrench into the works.

Any other time, Kamilla would have found the question and work frustrating but today she simply went along with everything that was thrown at her without the slightest bit of resistance. Her mind was completely absorbed in the idea of Sahova and the chance to learn other magics. The way the scholars had spoken about it had might it quite obvious that there was a catch. but Kamilla knew from experience that the opinion of the general populace was often incorrect due to ignorance, she was after all from a city that thought ALL mages to be evil...Sunberth.

Thankfully the rest of the day went by and Kamilla had finally finished her original task for the day and with little more than a friendly wave had headed out of the store and back home. Her mind was so absorbed by the whole Sahova concept that she'd completely forgotten about her pledge to rescue the starving cat that she'd seen that morning, not that she'd have found it, since she'd taken the same route that she's taken to work that morning with no sight of the gray feline.

by **Perplexity** on March 20th, 2015, 12:14 am

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Kamilla :

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Solo Golden Retriever