Into the New World, Chapter 1: Amongst the Verdant Towers

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Shayuri

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #31

Erin sags a little as Enko joins the scene. At least the conversation with Alistia was interesting or getting there. Now they were talking CLOTHES...it made her want to scream!

"Well, we got some silk in and dyed it," she says sullenly, undoing her own silk from around her neck and waving it to show them.

"That's really the best we have right now."

Abruptly something snapped inside of her, like a wooden rod holding a burden that had gotten too heavy to bear. She couldn't keep it inside anymore, she had to TALK about it or she'd explode!

"Alistia...I don't want to fight. I'm sorry I said that. Your dress is nice. I..."

She looks over at the storyteller longingly, though she can't hear over the conversation, then looks back at her friends. Well. Acquaintances at least.

"Do you two ever get the urge to just...go?"

 

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Dire Lemming

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #32

Enko cocks his head at Erin curiously wondering just what he'd missed. "Well... I... go all over. You'd be welcome to acompany me sometime if you wished, I'm sure people would be grateful to have you mend things for them. That silk is beautiful."

 

Zurai

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #33

Ryon and Thane:

The knives trader beams at both of you as you inquire after his wares. "Yes, yes, of course! Knives we have, and plenty! Skinnin' blades ye need? Take a gander at these fine pieces! We got 'em from a smith friend of ours way downriver of your little village." He shows you a set of skinning and filleting knives made of worked iron. They look fairly well-made, but it's impossible to tell how long their edges will hold.

At Ryon's inquiry, the trader sets the skinning knives down again and gently lifts the big knife. "This fine piece o' work is from way down south. Man who traded it to us wasn't from the village he was livin' in; said he didn't need it no more. It'll slice clean through iron and I'm willin' to bet even Anakletos' bronze! Dunno what you'd use it for - the man wouldn't say - but it's the best blade I ever laid my eyes on. Jus' between you an' me - it don't look suited for much else than killin'."

 

Last edited: Nov 10, 2007

Masquerade

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #34

Impressed by the merchant's ability to match her pace, Cleyra seizes upon the opportunity to acquire the new seeds. The chance to experiment with something new, something the older generation has never seen, is not a chance she can idly pass up.

...Unfortunately, she is not an experienced trader. Cleyra fumbles through her bag, urgently looking for something she might be able to haggle with, but she already left all of her crops with Eriboea when she first came into town. "Hmm...would you be willing to trade some of your seeds for...some of mine?" she asks, pulling from her bag a smaller satchel filled with grain seeds. It's mostly excess anyway, and if I'm just losing it for more seeds it shouldn't matter anyway. She had no idea if the traveler would be interested, but it was her only chance. She gave him a hopeful smile as she held the satchel toward him. Maybe these seeds are rare somewhere else.

 

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Lorthanoth

Explorer

• Nov 10, 2007

• #35

Alistia is a bit puzzled by Erin's flitting moods, and looks at her with a mixture of mild puzzlement mixed with caution, and her bafflement increases when Enko starts talking to the out-of-town girl. Is he trying to court her or something? Alistia wonders to herself with amusement.

"Er, yes, Enko, I agree the silk is lovely," says the baker's daughter, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger. "What do you mean? About wanting to go, that is?" she asks Erin.

 

Dire Lemming

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #36

Enko smiles at Alistia's comment. "Oh, you really think so? You think someone would like it as a gift?"

 

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Lorthanoth

Explorer

• Nov 10, 2007

• #37

Alistia's eyebrows raise slightly in alarm. What?! Is he trying to court me now?!

 

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Shayuri

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #38

"No Enko, not like that," Erin denies with some scorn. "Not around HERE."

It's like trying to talk to sheep!

"I mean AWAY. Somewhere completely new. Like these merchants and their stories of things outside. Don't either of you ever want to see anything like that for yourself? Downriver or upriver...or even completely away from the river! Off to the mountains or...or...anywhere!"

She lost the momentum there as reality seemed to catch back up with her...as inexorably as gravity would renew its grasp when someone leaped upwards. She looked at her hands...long fingered and clever...the hands of a weaver.

"I just think of everything I can do, and everything I want to do...and it feels like this village isn't big enough for me."

There...she'd said it at last. Her secret conceit; the notion that had been tainting her attitude towards everyone for the past year or so. No matter what the consequence of sharing it, she immediately knew from the wondrous feeling of freedom that settled over her that it would be worth it.

Erin looks up from her hands at the other two, searchingly. "Do you ever feel like that?"

 

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Lorthanoth

Explorer

• Nov 10, 2007

• #39

Alistia doesn't know what to say initially, but she realises that this is important, like nothing else she has ever experienced in life before, not even when she failed to be apprenticed to the storytellers.

Beginning hesitantly but growing in conviction she replies, "The spirits have shown you the same dreams they have to me, or.. maybe you have seen mine somehow... I want more than there is here, but I don't know where or what else there is. But, I can't even go as far as you two go... They are dreams, Erin, for someone like me at least."

 

Dire Lemming

First Post

• Nov 10, 2007

• #40

Enko frowns in thought, trying to come up with words to both console the two girls and guide them away from the these dangerous ideas. Obviously, the idea of buying a gift is momentarily forgotten.

"Erin... Alistia... You really both feel that way? I admit, that the stories the merchants tell are interesting, but... Why would you want to put yourselves in that much danger?"

 

Last edited: Nov 10, 2007