Quest for the Golden Maltese- Celeste and Lyria (Private)

[Champloo]

Celeste and Lyria had decided to team up, but not where to go, so they stood there, obviously the first step would be finding somewhere to look, it wouldn't be in Charles's doughnut box, so it was up to them to decide, and make any other plans or decisions beforehand.

Charles, having seen they were grouped up, didn't bother with them, and nobody else seemed to be talking to them, so, what did they do?

[Celeste Cian]

Celeste grinned playfully at Lyria, "Oh, well, you know I love your wit and your ever so sparkly personality . . . of course that's why I chose you as my partner! Of course! There's no other possible reason of any materialistic sort . . . right." She nodded firmly.

She bit her lip thoughtfully as she considered their options. What Lyria said was true . . . Memorial Park might be out since Celeste hadn't seen a statue of a dog in all the time she had been working there. Of course, the park was pretty big . . . hmmm . . .

Celeste had also been to the Town Square once previously and met Agaenos there. She hadn't noticed any canine figurine there either . . . but then again, she was sort of busy gaping at the remains of a charred bench from a freak lightning bolt. She furrowed her eyebrows darkly and noticed that Lyria's friend, the pretty blonde woman, had already went off with Lyria's other friend, the tall tanned man.

A jolt of competitiveness darkened her emerald eyes and her heart began pounding in anticipation. Celeste had always been a bit too competitive for her own good. In addition to her daily hostile threats to dirt and inanimated objects, the girl figured that her peculiarities might be explained if she delved deeper into her past but right now, she had more important matters to attend to . . . like winning - er, helping to find the Maltese.

Stimulated into action, she turned to Lyria and nodded briskly, "Alright, the parks are out and so's the Aedile's Office since Charles works there anyway. We don't know anything about the military base so we might have to look into that . . . but perhaps we can begin at the Market Square? The shops might have statues of dogs since from what I've seen so far, the Market Square seems to have practically anything . . . and even if we don't find the Golden Maltese there, any dog statues that we do acquire would still get rewarded. Besides, it might help if we chat with the many stallkeepers there. Perhaps one of them might have the necessary information we need in finding the Gold Maltese?"

The half elven girl paused to see if Lyria had any comments or disagreements. She was glad that she had a helpful partner and a handy weapon by her side for this mission - er, search. Celeste had purchased a longbow after nearly getting robbed two times in Abestat. After suffering a blow to the head, she had learned the hard way that it was always prudent to keep a weapon at hand from now on; whether she was planning on using it or not was a whole different matter. Celeste reached up to deftly tie up her long auburn hair into a tight ponytail much like she had always done before attacking a particularly dirty bench with a rag. It was time to get to work.

[Lyria Foamswift]

Lyria watched, bemused, as the battle-light came into Celeste’s eyes. Obviously her friend was determined to find the Golden Maltese, which was fine by her – she had a vested interest in winning the cash as well. Still, they could earn money even if they didn’t find the Maltese, as long as they found some dog statues around the area.

She listened to Celeste’s reasoning, nodding at the sound logic. “That sounds fine to me. And who knows, maybe one of the stallkeepers happened to pick up a large golden dog statue?” Lyria grinned and shrugged. Following Celeste’s example, she secured her hair into a bun, and rolled up her sleeves for good measure. “Off we go then?” She and Celeste made their way to the Market Square, intent on finding the statue or some information.

[Champloo]

The market square flowered in front of the two ladies as they made there way there in search of dog statues, merchants hawking wares from every corner, it's enough to dazzle somebody who isn't used to it. A man approached Lyria offering his silk garments, while Celeste was confronted by a large man offering protection against the cold with blankets, but from a quick search, they could see no dog statues, or, in fact, statues of any kind to be sold.

What they did see was "The finest wheat you'll ever taste, stock up now before prices shoot to the moons!'' Then again, they hadn't performed a through search of the market, so full of wonders and treasures as it was.

[Lyria Foamswift]

Lyria smiled politely at the man who approached her, shaking her head in quick dismissal. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Celeste dealing with another merchant, and she sighed softly. It would be a time-consuming task to wade through the Square if they kept being accosted like this. But still, she couldn’t help but harbor the hope that they would at least find a dog statue, if not the Golden Maltese. In a large commercial area such as the Market Square, certainly at least one of the vendors would offer statues and the such?

She listened absently as a vendor loudly hawked his wheat, the cries of the merchants starting to blend together. Turning to Celeste, Lyria cocked her head, putting a hand on her hip. “Well, what do you think? It doesn’t seem too promising now but… maybe if we look a little further? There has to be someone selling statues…”

Deciding that another merchant would probably know better than she would, Lyria approached the wheat vendor, waiting until he’d finished his advertising cry before speaking. “Excuse me, sir, would you happen to know if there are any stalls around that sell statues or other art?”

[Celeste Cian]

"Ah, no, thank you," Celeste smiled politely at the blanket wielding merchant before shaking her head. Slightly bewildered by the hawking, the half elven girl quickly made her way to Lyria's side before they could get separated in the midst of the crowd. The familiar scent of spices and fresh produce mingled in an exotic fragrance native only to a cheerful, popular market place. Glancing around the large area, Celeste tried to look for any stalls that looked particularly . . . artsy.

All she found was what was supposedly "The finest wheat!" in Abestat. Her face fell in disappointment. Unless the wheat could somehow be shaped into a figurine of a dog, she doubted it would be any use to them. Sighing softly, she nodded in response to Lyria before following her friend to the vendor.

Smiling politely, she hoped the man was one of the nice stall keepers and wouldn't try to extract an exorbitant fee out of them . . . or make them buy an era's worth of wheat before deigning to answer them. She shuddered slightly. She doubted she could swallow even a cycle's worth.

[Champloo]

The wheat merchant grinned. "Well, I may know somebody who works in this kind of stuff, but I don't think I can quite remember, what could refresh my memory? Gold is always useful for that!" The merchant was clearly lying and wasn't hiding it, it was clear that he wanted a bribe or gift of money before he gave the information, but of course there were other alternatives, Celeste and Lyria could try, but they would have to figure those out for themselves, meanwhile, one choice was very clear: Pay the man.

[Lyria Foamswift]

Lyria glanced around a moment, feeling strangely disconcerted. She felt like she was missing someone, someone important… She glanced around her swiftly, but there were no familiar faces; only merchants hawking their wares and customers milling about. Briefly, she felt a pang of loneliness, although she couldn’t tell why.

The wheat vendor’s response made her eyes narrow. The man was obviously out for money and little else. How could she even know if his information was accurate or not? He could just send her on a wild goose chase, for all she knew. Lyria gritted her teeth, knowing she had little recourse.

“75 crowns,” she answered, the words terse. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask for too much… she couldn’t afford to bribe everyone they met.

OOC: Sigh... Celeste is retired, as you can see Just trying to play around that...

[Champloo]

"Seventy-five crowns?!" Said the wheat merchant, praising his good luck. That was more then he made on some cycles! This woman was giving him all this just for some information. "Hahaha, there is a statue merchant not far, down six stalls, take a left, and look for the big grey stall." The wheat merchant laughed again and gave Lyria a large bushel of wheat. "And return if you need more." He said, clicking his fingers in preperation for the money which Lyria hadn't given him yet. She had choices now, some less... ethical then others. What would she do? She had some wheat, and information (accurate or not, was yet to be seen.) and the man was waiting for his money. Around her other merchants hawked there wares, looking for a potential buyer.

[Lyria Foamswift]

At the wheat merchant’s over-enthusiastic reply, Lyria decided that she’d probably overpaid the man. Still, it had gotten some information out of him, whether it was accurate or not. Six stalls down and left, grey stall… She accepted the bushel of wheat that the merchant thrust at her, belatedly wondering what she would do with it. She certainly didn’t want to lug the wheat all over the place while she searched for a statue, but for not it seemed like the only option. Perhaps if she searched the domicilium she could drop it off…

Abruptly, Lyria realized that the man was waiting for the money she’d promised him. She hesitated, wondering about the accuracy of his information. Lyria didn’t want to pay him if he was lying to her… “How about this. I’ll pay you 10 crowns now, and if what you say is true than I’ll come back after I’ve been to the statue merchant and give you the other 50 crowns.” She cocked her head, and waited. If the man had been telling the truth, then he would get his full share, but if not… well, he would still have enough for a few consolation drinks.

[Champloo]

OOC: Apoligizes for the delay and post-lameness, I'm feeling ug right now!

IC: The merchant frowned. "But... thats only sixty crowns! Surely our agreement was for seventy-five." The merchant knew he was right, by the looks of it. But he also believed that she had simply made an honest mistake, and nothing worth really worrying about. Something that would be easily fixed. Perhaps he was right, or maybe, she had lied, hoping to get away with paying less then her orginial agreement.

Meanwhile, a boy, no older then sixteen patterns, ran through the square near Lyria, he bumped into her, the resulting spill knocked a few dozen of her crowns on the ground, where the annoyed passer-byers and generally got underfoot. "Apoligizes ma'am." The boy said, leaning to pick up the coins, presumably to return to Lyria.