Following an random breeze... (Ethan please)

[Nya Winters]

Timestamp: 60th Day of Summer, 509 AV
Mood: Curious and pensive


The little breeze had played hide and seek with her all morning. She'd followed it namely because Nya found herself wanting companionship and feeling all alone in the big wood she'd managed to stake out a territory within. Her territory was perfect, about thirty square miles she could easily traverse in a day that flanked some of the lower deciduous trees and some of the upper larger conifers. It wasn't a round territory, like a bullseye, that most cats preferred. Her territory ran in a large strip about three miles wide and ten miles long from near the fields around Syliras to up on one of the more rugged flanks of the Cobalt Range. It offered her variety, held lots of denizens, and allowed for her to range high and low as the winds lured her.

But she was lonely. Often she fought the Kelvic nature, more embracing the cat than the woman, but she longed for spoken words, for a task well done for someone else, and in that she cursed Marcus Kelvic for his influence in her life. Nya missed her parents but knew not enough time had passed for them to smile rather than raise an eyebrow at her return for a visit. So she found a breeze willing to spend some time with her and chased it with abandon until she found herself near the city. And when she got near Syliras, the smell of the people there ignited her curiosity. The day before... or had it been a week... she'd decided that she should go into town and buy some extra clothing to stash about her territory, and perhaps some creature comforts for her den - which was coming along nicely fashioned out of a large roomy cave she'd found. The cave was the reason for the territory and its location. Shelter, especially in the winter, would be important.

With the decision made and the breeze still taunting, Nya went to her one stash of clothing and coin, still idly listening to the stray breeze, and changed back into her human form, ran a comb through her hair, and took some of the coin to venture into the city to further augment her situation. Syliras was somber to Nya. The people there were serious about safety and in some ways that created a false sense of happiness. She knew, like everyone else, it just took one stray bit of bad weather to ruin the crops and hunger would beat at their door. Disease could follow quickly too. Their happiness was fleeting, like the heat from the great hot winds that blew in from the Suvan Sea. Time would change things... it always did.

But Nya was strong, determined, and though she was painfully young, she wanted to show her parents that she could be successful outside their influence, and that she not them would pick someone to bond to when the time was right. Right for her, not for them, and until then she'd listen for Zulrav's voice on the wind - for it always made her tremble - and play hide and seek with the breezes, and be a Talderian Forest Cat that knew no fear except when she walked on two legs and was forced into the world of man because her very nature disallowed solitude for long.

Nya slipped into the crowd, her forest green cloak tight about her body, and longed for the comfort and strength of her other form. This was hard, this fragile needy human shell, that could so easily take damage and was so vulnerable from the humans all around her. A clothing store... she reminded herself, until she smelled the sweet cinnamon of a sticky bun and even the taunting of the little breeze with her couldn't convince her she didn't want one.

She followed the smell, looking for the cart or bakery that sold them.... her stomach growling even as her features guarded her own fear.

[Ethan Blackfoot]

Timestamp: 60th Day of Summer, 509 AV
Mood: Curious and Confused

Ethan had decided to go to the market place for some reason… he stopped for a moment and stratched his hair. Why had he come here? Was it food? Nope, he wasn’t hungry he had eaten in the morning or had it been last night. Ethan looked down on his shirt he started to use a finger nail to scrape off some of the mustard that had began to set. Hmmmmm as water transformed into air the polluting energies of the mustard were left behind… so through application of heat one could draw water out of liquid forcing the rest of it to be more concentrated.

Ethan looked around for a moment, wait I am in the market place! Damn! Wait, why am I here? Ethan looked about confused, then he smiled, might as well go to see if there are any books for sale! Ethan started down a road feeling the press of the crowd. Occasionally, he would step on a person’s foot or bump into someone, apologizing Ethan would smile and hope that no one took any offense.

As Ethan went down a street and then he stopped, this wasn’t the scribe street. As he smelled some food a small rumble in his stomach reminded him that it had been last night since he ate, walking over to the vendor who had sticky buns, he bumped into a lady in a moss green cloak. “What? Who placed you there?... Opps I mean I am sorry, I was trying to get over to that sticky bun vendor.” Once again an inked stained hand went up to his hair. Well the lady was pretty, it wouldn’t hurt yourself to talk to her.

“Well, Hello there. My name is Ethan Blackfoot, sorry about all that, do you mind if I buy you a bit a bun as an apology. I mean I did say I was sorry, right?” Ethan had a look of complete confusion on him for a second, wondering if he had apologized or not. “Wait did I ask you for some food? Hmmmm…. It does sound good, I can buy us a bun if you don’t mind?”

[Nya Winters]

The nudge wasn't rude, it was more distracted than anything. Nya hated that about her human form. No one would nudge her Kelvic form without noticing it, but as a human, people walked all over her. The sensation of being little, being unseen bothered her and she almost growled. Certainly it wasn't the man's fault. But her fear of being stomped, lost, robbed... any number of things that tended to happen in a city to a slight woman, at times overwhelmed her. Part of it was that she'd grown up in a tower on the edge of the wilderness with two very understanding parents that didn't blink when they told her to wipe her paws or not lay so close to the fire that her fur got singed. There were no cities close to her birth home, and thus she had no experience dealing with people.

But she wanted that sugary cinnamon flavor. Spices were rare where she was from, so too were strangers who apologized for walking on those slighter than they were. She turned, studied his face with open curiosity, then blinked twice when he repeated himself as if he'd just forgotten what he'd immediately said. Nya started to speak, closed her mouth, and simply nodded. She ran his words over again in her mind, repeating them to make sure of what he'd said. He'd offered a name, so that meant she should offer hers as well. And he wanted to buy a bun for her... no a bit of a bun. She truthfully wanted the whole thing, not just a bit. All of it. And she didn't want to share.

"My name is Nya. You didn't hurt me so you don't need to apologize, but thank you." Her mind was clear on this. "And I'd very much like a sticky bun, but not just a bit of one. I know that sounds greedy, but I really like cinnamon and don't get it often. I have my own coin for one. But I'd be grateful if you wanted to get one for me, but I really do want the whole thing." She stressed, a little worried he'd only feed her a treat if he got one. She watched him a moment, wondering why he had repeated himself. He looked distracted, like his mind was busy elsewhere.

She inhaled deeply, scenting for danger, but could smell nothing but the sweet odor of cinnamon. "Two copper rimmed mizas? Can we get one? A whole one?" She asked again, emphasizing what she wanted, as they managed to make their way up to the vendor who turned out to be cart holding the fresh baked treats. She didn't care who paid.

[Ethan Blackfoot]

Ethan looked very confused for a moment. “A whole one of what? Oh the sticky buns! Of course, of course!”

Ethan moved through the crowd feeling slow and sluggish. Chaotic lines, random points of connection, who thought of this street. It would have been easier if they establish walking lines. Yeah he should right that down, and talk to the local nobles! As he finally went to the vendor, he paid for two buns and handled one over to Nya. He motioned for her to sit down onto the curb. Distractively he brushed away the trash with his foot and he sat down, eating the sticky bun.

Ethan seemed to finally concentrate as he started to eat the bun. Chewing the light fluffy dough and the sticky taste of sugar. After eating half of his sticky bun he felt full, “You know Nya, wouldn’t it make sense to form pathways for people to walk in one direction or the other. Heck even animals form trails out in the wilderness, pathways to watering holes and food. Seems to me that it just doesn’t make sense, why not have flowing walkways and a curb to allow people to view goods.” Ethan sat there thinking, realizing that he was full and still had a half of a bun left, he looked over to Nya.

“Want the rest?” Ethan offered the bun.

“Nya…. You know that is a very pretty name! Remains me of the ancient tongue, the way the sound and flow is. Did I tell you that I study Glyphing? Now that is a craft, each word must be chosen with purpose and care. Hmmmm my first passion, the ancient tongue spoke of the connections to the world, with each word it spoke not just of an object but its place in the world. To find the true word in the ancient tongue for a thing meant that you understood it as a whole. Like tree, there are many different types of trees and many of that one type, but if you were to find out what the one word that described one tree, you could understand every connection to it.”

“It’s art in a way. Thousands of connections to one thing, finding that one connection and changing the harmony between it could ripple out in the world like a stone being tossed into a pond. Reminds me of the songs that my mother used to sing to me as a babe. Each note perfect and filled with love, yet change the tone or wording and the song could be something entirely different.”

Ethan looked over at his companion, “Sorry, I do that sometimes. It very hard for me to focus here, Sarah used to help me at home, keeping my tools organized and making sure I ate. Mother said that I was only half a soul without my sister, I suppose she was right.” Ethan frowned for a moment.

“Do you ever feel like something is missing? Like the world is mad sometimes and you are being torn apart? I know priests say it was because of the chaos that tore the world, but sometimes I feel as if I am trying to mesh all these pieces inside of me together, yet I don’t have them all yet.”

[Nya Winters]

She watched him quietly. Silence surrounded her as her moss green eyes measured his movements - the way he handed out coins, the way he took the buns from the vendor, offering one to her. He even found a safe place for them to sit. She appreciated it, for forest cats like herself didn't wolf their food down unless they'd gone days without it. They tended to linger over their meals, being big enough to defend the meat unlike other swift vulnerable things that lived in her same trees.

He reminded her of a squirrel, she decided suddenly, his words quick and darting, slipping from one topic to another as he mentally darted through the trees of his forest of thought. Awed, she'd never seen anything like it... not really. Her parents were quiet, with her mother often working on a project and her father out running with the wild horses around their wilderness tower. Nya tried to follow him, and perhaps because her nature was predatory, she felt the mental stalking was challenging and invigorating. It was like a hunt, only her prey was meaning taken out of a barrage of words that floated in the air around her like sun speckled dust motes.

With her seat taken, and bun offered, she quietly set about eating it. There was no quick tearing of bread with sharp human incisors designed just for that. No, Nya took her time, using her tongue to stroke at the sugar and cinnamon glaze, marveling at the taste even as her mind gave chase to Ethan's words. Her raspy tongue stroked the bun, freeing the seasoning and sweet to spread out across her mouth tempering her mood and relaxing her. Forest cats enjoyed their meals, often stretching out with them and working on them for hours. That was perhaps why Nya enjoyed the seat, and allowed her long legs to stretch forward and her back to arch slightly, comfortable in the sun beside the stranger.

He was talking about pathways, animals in the woods, and she listened intently. He compared people to animals and she laughed then, abruptly, a light and deep-throated sound that startled her from her licking. "Animals have a purpose and reason to how they move, taking the easiest path whenever possible. People are impossible to predict, and yet you would do that and even guess at what way they would move through this city?" It was not a critique of him, more of a surprise at what he was saying. "Animals make more sense." She commented and took his remaining sticky bun, stashing it in her free hand as she resumed licking the first one.

There was cinnamon in her nose and mouth, but she still took the time to gather his scent to her. She watched his face for clues of his mood, wondering if he was serious about the pathways or if he was somehow teasing her. Nya wondered idly where the thoughts he voiced came from and how they broke free of his mind so easily. She took her first bite finally, then considered his comment about her name. Her leg touched his as she stretched out and she watched how he reacted.

"Nya means surprise. I was a surprise to my parents." She said almost without thought. Another bite followed the first as she continued to absorb his next words. "You do a lot of thinking. Is your mind ever still?" She asked suddenly, understanding what he meant, despite his response. "My mother knows Glyphing. She tired to teach me once, but it is a subtle art that requires a lot of study. I was talented elsewhere." She added, watching him and wondering about his passion for language. "I was taught the more languages you knew the more you understood the world. I expect the same would hold true of the Ancient Tongue, but I do not know more than a few worlds... like everyone else. The names of the Gods, and the words for the elements and big things like the fall of water or the names the winds give each other." She said softly, thoughtfully, as a stray breeze touched her long hair and tried to gain her attention. Nya calmed it when she acknowledged it with a glance and thought about what Ethan was saying.

"A cry can be of pleasure or pain, fear or joy. I do not think much about their connections. I would grow tired with such a busy mind." She added to his statement about the singing, nodding to his words. Right now a nap would be good, she thought as she finished the last of the now-plain bun and began eating his.

"It is nice you have a sister. I've always wanted someone to be born of my parents at the same time I was or close too it. There were no other children. I think they were afraid to have more." She added, then smiled nodding to Ethan's words. "It is hard for me to focus in a city as well. II can see how your sister helped you. Sometimes we need to help ourselves though. Is it hard to organize your tools?" She asked, wondering what tools he was speaking of.

"Something is missing, yes. But I don't know that I want that which is missing anyhow. With it comes many things I dislike, things that result in fear and pain and misunderstanding. Sometimes its better to be two halves than a complete whole. At least you can move between one thing and another if something is lacking in the parts. If you are whole you have no choice but to be damaged. If you are torn apart inside, you can choose to be one thing or another and do not have to live with the broken one." Nya watched Ethan to judge his reaction. She was curious about him, about what he really meant.

[Ethan Blackfoot]

Ethan looked over at Nya when she spoke of animals, “Aye, they have a direct path don’t they, but then again the connections exist. Each person walking has a purpose or goal to achieve, even if it’s to find something new in the crowd.” Ethan laughed at the wind for a moment, “I remember looking at a squirrel in the tree outside of my home. At first it seemed to be filled with activity but without purpose. I sat watching the squirrel for many days, and then I realized that it had a purpose. It cover the same ground looking for nuts to gather them for the winter. It went from tree to tree making sure that there was no predators around and that it confused others in which its own tree was. The chaos of the street is much the same, people are moving to find what they want. Some are moving just to see what is out there, everyone is connected in a dance, yet they all follow different paths. What I was thinking was more like ants, each follow a pathway from their home to a place and then another back.”

Ethan continued with his thoughts smiling as his companion continued talking. “My sister helped focus my mind more then she helped organize my tools. She would come in like a ray of sunshine and ask questions about my work, as she asked I realized new facets of things, my own understanding grew because she cared to ask.”

“Ah the idea of a duel nature, personally I have thought long and hard about what you say. For some I can understand that being able to have separate pieces of themselves a freeing experience. You could put aside grief, pain, and responsibility for your actions. However, I look at my hands and see that without both working together I could not practice my art.” Ethan interlaced his fingers, feeling the sticky sugar spread to both.

“Together in harmony, both can do more then by themselves. I think that’s why the Gods and Goddesses made men and women. As they join each other, they can make beautiful surprises.” Ethan smiled at Nya for a moment, “It’s through the connection to both that strengths each others convictions and ideas. Look at the stone that was brought here and laid upon each other. Through the connections of each person, a grand city was built. Thousands of separate parts working together to create something grand. Perhaps that is what I fear, I fear that I lack that connection within me. If I were to bind my halves within myself, would I become better then what I am?”

“I suppose we have a choice in life, we can choose to walk around pretending that what is inside of us is all that there will ever be. Or we can decide that by learning and interacting with others to grow and connect those pieces together to be something greater.”

“Wait a moment.” Ethan looked at Nya with a little concern, “Do you believe something inside of you is broken?”

[Nya Winters]

Nya continued to listen to Ethan, understanding acutely that this was what she had needed, plain and simple; someone to talk too. There were times in her life she stayed out in the wilds too long, where she became too much apart of the feral world. In those instances she would loose the woman within, burying the humanity deep inside her, and then have to struggle to bring it back to the surface. His voice eased that struggle, helping to guide the human more fully back inside the beast, so that listening for her was like a sleeper finally opening their eyes at the first break of dawn after a lengthy dark night. Nya smiled then, licking one sticky finger after another as she listened, following his voice as he painted a mental image of himself watching a squirrel and figuring out for the very first time that squirrels weren't exactly fools.

"Ants are dumb creatures. They work like slaves and never play or laze in the sun. I think if someone could speak the language of ants, they'd figure out that unlike people who have names like Ethan and Nya, ants have none because they are driven by needs that have nothing to do with pleasure." Nya said, shaking her head. "You should not think of ants and people together. Perhaps ants are connected, and only one of them somewhere does the thinking for the rest. But as for people, it is not true. We are not all connected, Ethan. We only become connected when we choose too... linking ourselves together by words or looks or shared sticky buns." The Kelvic said, stretching then, and smiling almost apologetically at her gentle correction of his thinking. This connection business, and the links he was drawing with his words, were in some ways disturbing to her. Choice. Need. Independence. Those were important, not some invisible lines linking people that only one slightly odd man drew within his mind.

His sister again. Nya narrowed her eyes and tilted her head as if she could listen for something he wasn't saying. "You said Sarah used to help you. Why does she not anymore? Did you leave her behind somewhere or let a man take her for wife? If she was so helpful and you were close, you should not have let her be where she cannot be with you." Nya said, half in statement and half in question. Then the thought struck her that Sarah might not be alive anymore. She hoped there was no sorrow there... no grief lying beneath the surface. But, she wasn't sorry she asked the question. Something within his words made her curious to know more.

"You do not have to join to make a surprise. Sometimes you can just simply be someone good at something and change the whole of the world for others. My father and my mother are happy in their joining, but I am not so sure that I am. They sent me away to find something there is no hope of finding. There is no surprise in that for me, just sorrow. I miss my family." Nya said suddenly, meeting Ethan's eyes.

"Always with you it is connections. You see links and bindings where others see broken threads of half-truths that float away on the wind joyous in its freedom and independence. Does a kite really enjoy its fate, tethered to the world by string? Or would its life be far better if the string bearer hacked through the line and let it fly free and higher than it ever could with them holding its leash?" Nya said gently then continued. "You should break more strings, hold more possibilities in your hands... not of what is, but of what could be." She said gently.

She answered his own question then... his question about binding the halves within himself and if he'd become better. "No, you become something else besides what you are. That is what is so frightening. You know what you are now. It is the change that is uncertain." Nya offered then shifted as she sat beside him. Then she raised an eyebrow as he asked her if she thought something inside herself was broken.

"In all of us there is something broken, not quite right, or ill formed. We just have to do the best we can to either strengthen it up or wall it off so it can do no more harm. I am not broken though. I just have something weak and something strong. It is hard, sometimes, for those two sides of me to agree." She said, then met his gaze again. "What about you? Are you broken?" Nya thought she the answer already though.

[Ethan Blackfoot]

Ethan stared at the dull grey of the cobble stone. Thousands of feet had worn the sharp tool marks away and the rains had rounded their edges, and yet for this simple stone connections of nature and men had changed it. The small impact of a foot, the droplets of water flowing over it, each had its place and the stone was connected to it. As Nya talked, Ethan wondered why some people choose not to see their connection with everything around them. Why? Ethan had always felt like he had a place in the world, and yet he didn’t know where it was. Often he prayed to the Goddess Tanroa, speaking of how he felt like a drop of water in her stream. Yet where did the drop end and the stream began? For the longest time Ethan wondered, and the only thing he could come up with was that he was connected to every drop. In the Goddess eyes, he was separate and the same, from within he was Ethan Blackfoot, from without he was man.

Ethan smiled, “Nya, I don’t know how to explain my belief, perhaps the best answer is that I choose to believe that we are connected, it provides me peace in times of stress. Some people can believe that they are chains, and for some they are, others can realize that the chain connects them to their captives. I am unsure, but I understand what you are saying, ways of thought can chain us to a result. If all I see about me is pain and horror, then that’s what I expect. I choose to believe in people, as I treat each person with kindness and strength, perhaps the connections strengthen. Perhaps I enable one man to stop another from beating his wife. Perhaps as I give a child some money for food they life one more day to do something good. I just think it’s a chance worth taking.”

“I took a chance with you Nya, I decided to strength the connection between us, and I think it was worth it. Does it mean that I have control over you?... No more then you have over me. We are separate and yet we have sat down to enjoy a meal and be connected for a time. Your free to choose who you let have any kind of purchase in your mind. Just like your mother and father that occupy your thoughts, my family does the same.”

Ethan thought back to Sarah, “Sarah was always smiling, her touch showed the gentle person instead of her, her voice spoke like the cool wind coming in on a hot summer’s day. I let her go because I needed to change, and she needed to find her own happiness. If I kept her helping me, I would be chained to her, and though she is my family, I must try be more. I know that I will always be connected to her, but I wanted her to find her own happiness. Perhaps one day she will find a man that will give her happiness every day, as the great Goddess Tanroa says. In time everything is given to a man, and in time it is taken away. It was my time to separate from Sarah, so that I may be something else.”

“Nya, I don’t know if I am broken. Perhaps it’s just my path that feels broken. I am whole, and yet the world around me is confusing. At home, I felt that I had a place, I knew what to expect, what to do every day when I woke. Now I awake and find myself alone, find myself searching for purpose, I go about doing things looking to see if that’s my place in the world. It easy to lose oneself, I go about everyday doing things and yet fill like I am losing that part of me that made me full. We all have light and dark parts of ourself, and yet it feels like I am not using all of me. As if I have a purpose and it’s not being done…”

Ethan looked over at Nya, he wondered if she understood. He wondered if such a thing made sense? How could it? It didn’t make a lot of sense to Ethan. He woke everyday wanting to fulfill his purpose, and through that purpose the connections that he made was good and whole.

[Nya Winters]

Nya was feeling rather confused. She could tell the man she was sitting with was not listening well to her words because he kept staring at the cobbles - following their shapes as they were woven together with the mortar beneath their feet. Nya fidgeted, afraid to speak because she could tell the man was very intelligent, far more intelligent than she was. She simply didn't want to feel stupid. He was kind, certainly, but his words floated over her head as he talked about things she wasn't certain truly mattered. Maybe they did, though she was certain a full belly and warm place to sleep was far more important. That was what was on her mind - securing her territory better - buying some clothing, stashing them around the woods. That's why she'd braved this horrible place of stone with its crush of people in the first place. She needed something they could provide. Perhaps Ethan saw a connection in that as well.

Was this kind of thinking what Sylrians did when they were well fed and warm? Nya openly watched Ethan, curious, but cautious at the same time. When he slipped into his speech about viewpoints and how perception changed - how his kindness might prevent violence, he completely lost her. Being stronger than something else... being faster than what you are afraid of... that prevented violence. No man was going to stop beating his mate because of Ethan's kindness. Either the man was gentle and a good one, or he deserved to have his throat ripped out and the good parts of him consumed. She was about to voice that opinion when he answered her question about Sarah.

That gave Nya pause. What? He pushed someone aside who loved caring for him because he needed a change? What if serving Ethan was Sarah's happiness? That seemed pretty selfish to Ethan. People didn't watch out for other people, care for them, protect them unless they got something out of it. Sometimes those actions fulfilled something in the other person. Who was Ethan to judge if Sarah's rewards were not suitable? Then he dropped a Goddess' name. Nya's eyes widened. So, Ethan had decided to take it upon himself to decide that he wasn't what Sarah should be focusing on and considered helping her as a sort of imprisonment to her? Chains? Nya clearly saw, in her mind, that Sarah helped him because he needed it and it brought her joy. Nothing else existed in that scenario. Why was not being interlinked with Sarah, as he put it, not good enough? Why did he need more?

Ethan was telling a Kelvic everything a Kelvic would never want to hear.

The forest cat wondered how Sarah was doing, if she was sad or lonely and feeling rejected as if she somehow wasn't good enough for her brother. Nya wished she could comfort the woman. She must be in terrible pain because of Ethan's rejection. It sounded so unfair.

"You are broken." She said firmly, having decided that immediately upon hearing about why Sarah was rejected, cast aside, and Ethan moved on. "You felt good at home, felt like you had a place, because you did. That is how the world works. Families stay together, siblings help each other, are dependent upon each other. Your sister must be really sad at your rejection. I think helping you brought her a great deal of pleasure and made her feel like she had something important to do and that she was needed. Now you force her to find others, others that might not treat her so well, to take care of. The world is dangerous. I would not have rejected a sibling like that. It's almost cruel." The forest cat added, watching Ethan carefully.

She had nothing to say to his disclosure of having bright and dark pieces inside him and him not using all of them. He wanted a purpose, yet she had no advice to offer him, not really. "I am not certain, Ethan, of what you mean, but I do know that you will grow stronger and change over time. Maybe that feeling will change as you grow. Maybe you just miss your sister. I am not certain. I hope it does so you can feel whole." She added, nibbling the res tof the bun and finally swallowing it.

[Ethan Blackfoot]

Ethan looked at Nya, she seemed so different then many of the people he knew, there was a sense of brutaty with her. Violence begot violence, and comfort was all there that existed in the end. He looked at her black hair, though in the light it almost gave a green reflection. He looked into her green eyes set against the light almost pale skin, as she ate he watched the way that she enjoyed the taste of the bun. To Ethan the bun tasted good, but he hadn’t gained any great satisfaction from it.

Ethan thought about his own body. Where Nya seemed relax he was tense, his fore arm was skinny and showed several veins. His body was more of a tan which he received more from his mother. Nya seemed sexy in the way she lounged, but a thrill of danger like a soft perfume surrounded her. For the first time Ethan wondered what her heritage really was. Still Ethan thought over her comments, for the most part he disagreed with them. Comfort stopped all learning, one needed to be challenged to achieve anything. If everything came without work, then there would be no value, and in the end it would be meaningless.

Instead Ethan shrugged, this wasn’t a battle that he was going to win. If Nya wanted to continue their friendship then Ethan needed to let her have her own opinion, he could always try to change it with the way that he acted. It seemed better then the shouting matches that his mother and father had.

Ethan scratched his stubble, the rasping sound reminded him that he had yet again forgotten to shave this very morning. Yet it felt good too, the rough hairs pushing against his hands, the skin underneath getting slight pressure. Some of the crumbs came off and fell to his robes. Ethan wondered why he was attracted to Nya, there were plenty of girls that once he had his own tattoo shop, they would look at him. However, Nya questioned his philosophy and she seemed to be everything he wasn’t.

“Perhaps you are right, Nya, or perhaps she will find someone better. Only time will tell. However, I don’t want to bore you down with philosophy, you came to the market with a reason. Perhaps I can join you in your search?” Ethan wondered why he was being so generous today. It seemed to him that he should be looking for other things, or perhaps thinking about opening a tattoo parlor. Still he wanted to spend time with Nya.

“I was looking for a workshop, a place that I could try and buy, granted I probably would have better luck at the merchant guild, but for now I wanted to try my luck.”