Closed Two Friends Meet Again (Alea)

[Faolan Lundgren]

Faolan Lundgren 13th Spring 515AV Faolan had slept restlessly that night. For some reason he had been unable to sleep soundly. It was though his last hunting trip had not even made a dent in his need to move on from Ravok. Groaning softly to himself he put his arm over his eyes and tried to block out the morning light that was starting to invade the cool darkness of his room. Giving up on going back to sleep he sat up in his bed and ran a hand back through his unruly hair. Slipping out of bed he got dressed. Tying his cloak about his throat he paused before pulling the hood up to grab the wooden comb off the top of his bag. He kept it packed and near the door just in case he had to flee the city quickly. Not that he would probably have time to retrieve it from the room should the need to run arise. Tugging the wooden teeth of the comb through his tangled locks he scowled to himself. What would his mother say? Probably something a little condescending about how he would have been better off if he had stayed at home with his family. Shaking his head to dispel her nagging voice as it rattled around in his brain he set the comb back on top of his bag and pulled the hood of the cloak up over his shaggy hair. Shoving his feet into his boots he tied them on as he contemplated what he wanted to do today. Slipping out of his room he made his way down to the square where he would find something to eat. He hated eating cooked meat, but it allowed him to keep up appearances and the people at the stall knew him now and expected him to come by rather frequently. When he appeared at their booth that morning they got him his usual order. He paid them and made some idle small talk for a moment before stepping into the shadows of the shadow nearby. He had previously told Alea that he hung around the alley when he had nothing else to do, and he had been truthful with her. He just didn't really have anywhere else to go and sitting around his room all day proved to be terribly boring so he risked going out into the city to watch the people walking around. Perching on a crate that belong to the booth he had bought his breakfast from he sat and nibbled on the cooked meat while watching people walk about in the square, going about the start of their days. He wondered what it meant to be a citizen here. To be able to go about having a normal life on a normal day in the city of Ravok. He didn't necessarily like hiding in the shadows, but it was for his own safety. He watched the people curiously, making up stories for them in his head to keep himself entertained while he munched on his breakfast. He would stay there for a good portion of the day, only slipping away when people seemed to actually notice him.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was running.

This wasn't like all the other times, when she was running for fun, or to shorten the tedium of taking the most ludicrously circuitous routes that were the walking paths of the city. No, this time actually was running from something. From the shrill, berating voice of Ms. Rosemary Nitrozian.

It wasn't that Alea disliked the woman. Nor did she think Rosemary really disliked her. Oh, sure, at the beginning there had been animosity, but Alea suspected the blind old bat felt that way about most everyone. In the days since Alea had started working for the old seamstress, they had managed to develop, if not exactly respect, then a sort of mutual acceptance of each other's presence.

Of course, there were days like today, when the lady woke up in just a terrible mood. Upon Alea's arrival that morning, Rosemary was in a rage. You see, she lived with her nephew; yes, the "traitorous wretch" who apparently "took everything" from his deteriorating aunt, but was her only living relative willing to care for her. This morning, he had announced that, on recommendation from a healer, she would be restricted to a diet of greens and lilypads. Rosemary, naturally, was of the loud opinion that her nephew merely didn't want the expense and so was cutting her food budget, forcing her to eat whatever was cheap.

Anyway, Alea was running. She could still hear Rosemary screeching. The woman probably hadn't even heard Alea leave over all her noise. Alea's bare feet slapped the cobblestones as her legs propelled her down the walkways. She skidded into the turns as the corners of the floating buildings, scraping some of the skin off her toes but not wanting to slow down. She wasn't even sure where she was going, just away, away from the mad woman.

Quite suddenly, she crossed a bridge and was in the main square. She skidded to a halt, panting heavily, a stitch in her side aching horribly. Taking deep gasping breaths and holding her side, Alea began to walk forward into the thin crowd. She listened and looked behind her for sounds of pursuit, but there were none. Maybe Rosemary hdn't even noticed she'd left. And possibly no one else wanted to deal with the screaming old crone long enough to notice one missing slave. Still, she would have to go back eventually, or risk getting in a heap of trouble.

The scent of grilled meat wafted toward Alea, and the smell triggered a memory in her brain. Hadn't Faolan said she could find him near the kabob seller? With the kind of day she was having, she could use a friendly face. She drifted through the crowd, following the smell, but instead of trying to push her way to the kabob stall itself, she edged around the gaggle of hungry Ravokians and scanned about for the remembered blue eyes and jet black hair.

When she spotted him, she did not immediately react. She did not want to draw attention to herself, and for all she knew, Faolan felt the same. Instead, she aimed for a spot on the wall about five feet away from him, and leaned against it. After a few ticks, when the crowd had shuffled a bit, she said in a low voice, "Hey." She glanced sideways at him and flashed a quick smile.

[Faolan Lundgren]

Faolan Lundgren Faolan's feet dangled off the ground from his perch on the crate. He would tap his heels against the wooden side in boredom every now and then to keep them from getting that funny fuzzy feeling that they would get when having sat still for far too long. He was staring down at his feet when he caught Alea's scent. It was just a faint whiff mingled in with the other colliding scents of the square. Not sure that he had actually caught her smell he glanced up briefly before returning to staring at his feet having not spotted her. When her scent grew stronger however he knew that she was there. He looked up for just a brief moment through his hair to spot her leaning up against the wall close by. It was good to see her again. She had apparently remembered that he had mentioned that he stayed near the grilled meat stall. When she smiled at him and offered a greeting he returned the smile with a small one of his own. "Good afternoon." he said just loud enough to be heard. He sat there quietly unsure of what to say next, or if he should even say anything. He didn't know how secret meetings worked. He somehow knew that she didn't want it to be obvious that they were speaking. It had to do with the way she had leaned against the wall at a safe distance from him. They could speak without anyone really noticing that they were holding a conversation. His nerves ratcheted up a little at the thought of her having snuck here to speak with him, causing him to fidget a little bit on his crate.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea didn't say anything for a few moments. She was busy thinking, and worrying. She'd only met Faolan once, she didn't really know him that well. And the fact that she'd already started thinking of him as a friend just showed how desperate she really was.

How could she know he ever wanted to be her friend? Sure, he'd told her where to find him, but in hindsight it was probably under duress. She could be a bit...insistent at times. Besides, he wasn't exactly dancing with joy at seeing her. But he'd smiled at her, right? Or was he just being polite? Was he shy maybe? Or, had her first impression been right and he was trying to avoid attention from the crowd? But why would he need to do that? Maybe he was just trying to ignore her until she left on her own. He probably thought she was annoying. Everybody did. But he wasn't edging away from her or anything. He wasn't making excuses to leave. In fact he wasn't saying much of anything. Neither of them were talking very much. What were you supposed to say to a friend? She hadn't had much practice; what if she did it wrong and he never wanted to see her again?

Her brain went round and round in circles until finally out of sheer awkwardness, she said, "So, how've you been?" She winced. It had come out a little louder than she'd meant, and a lady walking past turned to look at her in surprise, before realizing Alea was not talking to her and walking off. Alea took half a side-step closer to Faolan for good measure. She did not want to invade his personal space (which was weird because she had no problem doing that with most people, but for some reason she cared what Faolan thought of her), but they were definitely too far apart. It would be ridiculous to have a decent conversation at this distance. As was just demonstrated, passerby could hear their own conversation better than the two participants could!

[Faolan Lundgren]

Faolan Lundgren Faolan fidgeted nervously on his crate. He wasn't quite sure what to do or to say either. When Alea finally spoke to him and a woman that was walking by reacted he bit his lower lip slightly. "I've been doing alright I suppose, antsy as usual." he responded just loud enough to be heard. "How have you been?" he asked. He felt a little awkward, but chalked it up to not having great people skills. He looked up at her and offered another small smile of reassurance. He was actually quite happy to be seeing her again. Being alone in the city had been difficult, but knowing that he had at least one person that he knew running around. It hadn't occurred to him until now just how lonely he had been and that he already considered the girl a friend. He figured he should be worried about that since he didn't really know her, but when alone in a strange place maybe it wasn't so bad, especially since he had met her outside of the city, that endeared her to him a little bit.

[Alea Davenport]

He was usually ansty? What did that mean? Could it be that any sign her torturing brain interpreted as disinterest was actually just his mood, and not anything to do with her at all? He did keep smiling at her, which she saw out of the corner of her eye while she was trying to pretend not to be staring at him. She scooted another step closer, watching for any sign of him backing off. None so far, but if she got too close he still might bolt.

She was distracted heartily from these uncomfortable musings by him turning her question around on her. How had she been? Her face twisted into a snarl, and she let out a wordless groan of exasperation. "Oh, I'm just great. I keep getting passed around from job to job because no one actually wants me around. The latest is a delightful old witch seems to have it in for everybody, but takes it out on the nearest target, which, lately, is me." She stewed in a black cloud of bitterness that, unbeknownst to her, was not too far off from the mood of her mistress.

"And, of course, now I have to learn to sew, which I've never done before in my life, so of course I'm going to do it wrong, which is another great excuse to get yelled at!" Alea said in full ranting mode, having all but forgotten that she was trying to be sneaky. She wasn't actually sure she needed to be; Faolan hadn't shushed her yet, and there weren't any angry Nitrozians chasing her that she could see.

[Faolan Lundgren]

Faolan Lundgren Faolan listened to Alea's rant quietly. It only just occurred to him that he had no idea what the girl's occupation was. They hadn't discussed it the last time they had met, but now that he really examined her and processed her words that he came to the conclusion that she must be some sort of domestic worker. Either a slave, or a maid, or a caretaker of some sort. He thought it would be rude to just flat out ask her so he kept his questions to himself. "I'm sorry to hear that." he said with a little frown. "People with darkness in their hearts like that can never really appreciate the good things in life." he stated, his mother's bitterness swirling into his brain. His father had said something similar to him once after his mother had a particularly bad outburst at the kelvic's expense; it was a comforting notion that he kept in mind after that whenever she said hurtful things to him or about him. "Sew? That's quite the skill to have to learn." he said with a thoughtful expression. "There isn't anyone to teach you? They just expect you to magically learn how?" he inquired with a perplexed tone and expression.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea's glum face twisted into a special kind of frown. "Well, there's someone...but I don't know if she has any intention to teach, exactly...she being the bitter old witch we've been talking about." She sighed, an imaginary thundercloud stewing over her head, and she kicked idly at the cobbles.

"It's even worse today, because her nephew's not letting her eat proper food or something. I don't think anyone will even show up today; you can here her screaming through the whole building. No chance I'm going to get anything done today, unless I can think of something to calm her down..." She sighed, again. This job was really getting to her. She wasn't sure how much longer she could handle it.

Of course, if she had her way, she wouldn't have to handle it. She glanced sideways at the kelvic who'd inspired her intention to get out for good. But no, it wasn't quite time yet. She needed to prepare a few more things, and find a good opportunity. And until then, she had to keep people from getting suspicious. Which meant acting normal. And learning to sew.

"If only I could practice sewing on something without worrying about anyone complaining if I get it wrong, or take too long or whatever. Then I could learn enough to at least get by, maybe breath easier, and have time for worrying about other things..."

OOCSo sorry it's mostly dialogue, my brain is not here right now x.x

[Faolan Lundgren]

Faolan Lundgren Faolan's eyebrows went up slightly as Alea informed him that the only person who could teach her was the angry lady she worked for. "Well that's no good." he mumbled, mainly to himself. He didn't know anyone who could sew. Maybe a few of the people that he had met briefly while in the city could, but he had lost contact with them. He didn't really know what to say so was quiet for a little while. "I wish I could help you, but I don't know how to sew either." he said with a slight frown of disappointment. "I don't know anyone in the city who could help either." He looked down at his lap with that frown still on his face and noticed the small tears in his cloak. The grey cloak had been a gift from his parents when he left home and struck out on the road. The woods weren't too kind to it and it sported tiny tears where it had snagged on various objects on his adventures through the underbrush of the forests. "Uhm, my cloak could use some minor repairs. I don't like to leave my room without it though." he said softly. He was offering to let her use it to practice but there was anxiety in his eyes. "My parents gave it to me before I left home."