[Riparia] A Village Girl's First Big City

Gnaia · August 20, 2008, 11:44 PM

Tenth Candlemark of Solaria
Brightening 1, Third Cycle of Immanis
Winter of Era I of the Celestine Mandate
Era XV Post Fractum
Chronosynch: Ancient Veil Enshrouds Silrosia

Continued from here.

"Little Girl" this. "Little Girl" that. Every single move Gnaia made the first week out of High Peak Thom "little girl'd" her. It was becoming remarkably annoying to the young half-elf, but she refused to be frustrated. She'd asked him to take her to Syl'rosia, and she truly did not have any other options. He was it.

They'd walk at most half of each brightening, and Thom would go hunting and set up camp the other half. It wasn't that Gnaia didn't try to be useful, but Thom would "little girl" her and tell her to just stay still and stop talking. The nerve of such men! She did manage to convince him to let her cook one darkening when she'd managed to stoke up a fire while he was hunting and after demonstrating that she wasn't half bad at it, she continued to be the cook.

A couple of brightenings back they had reached the gates of Frigid River, where they'd been stopped by a handful of guards. Appearantly Frigid River wasn't wanting any visitors this winter. Gnaia wasn't going to stop her adventure just because they couldn't get any of the supplies, and so she turned around and started hiking along the edge of the mountains they'd just hiked down, westward. Once again Thom little girl'd her and told her to stop, of all things!

"There's another city just across the Frigid River, Riparia. It's in the Centripax province, rather than the Lylles, but it has a market and they're always welcoming to visitors." Thom said. They could go there. And so they did. However, not without some argument from Gnaia.

"We've done well enough so far! Why can't we just continue straight to Syl'rosia?" Gnaia questioned.

"Little girl." Thom began. "If we keep going in this fashion. We will die a few brightenings after we leave Lylles for the Arakmatan desert." He continued, talking as to a small child, as was his accustomed behavior towards Gnaia. "Do you know what a desert is? In a desert there is nothing. No food. Little water. Lots of sand. We're lucky it's winter, the sand will be cold. Won't burn that pretty face of yours off."

The fording of the Frigid River was easier than it would have been during any other season, it was solid ice once you got far enough from where it burst out of the mountains. They carefully crossed the frozen river and pressed on to Riparia for the rest of the cycle.

It was a dismally grey day when they arrived at the gates, but seeing the massive city before her eyes, Gnaia was even more excited than she was when Thom first met her. Thom, of course, was feeling none of the energetic girl's vibrance. He was quite wearied and wouldn't mind a day or so in a warm inn to thaw. When they reached the gates themselves and one of the guards barely began speaking, whatever he said she completely ignored, "What's it like to live in such a big city!?" She asked him excitedly.

Fox · August 27, 2008, 11:23 AM

Caveat Emptor well, i'm not really up to speed on riparia, but I've done some reading and I'll give this my best shot... hope you enjoy!

The guard looked down at Gnaia and smiled slightly "It's so exciting that sometimes we have to eat children in order to calm ourselves down" he said, apparently seriously "The skinny ones are the best as we get the chance to chew the bones too. Visa's please" Although his expression seemed serious, Gnaia probably recognised the teasing expression of a man who was trying to make her smile. Whether it did that or not, of course, was impossible to say.

Another guard heard him and chuckled, turning away from Gnaia and Thom in order to not show his amusement, although it was all rather too late. "What are you looking for in Riparia, Sir?" he asked Thom, pulling his cloak around him to protect against the chill of the brightening. He would be able to at least give Thom directions, should he wish them. The guard did not seem to be overly noticing, much less put out by Thom's one eye and asked his question in a friendly enough manner to Thom. Maybe he'd picked up on Thom's apparent dislike of Gnaia.

Gnaia · August 29, 2008, 07:00 PM

OOCI'm sure you'll do fine, Princess :)

Gnaia laughed delightedly at the guards joke, not at all taken back by the cruelty of the fictitious actions. Pulling her visa from in her coat she handed it to the guard, while Thom also handed his over. When the other guard asked Thom what they were visiting Riparia for, Thom just scowled and nodded his head towards Gnaia.

Whether the guard picked up on the fact that Gnaia was openly in charge of things or not, Gnaia didn't wait for him to redirect his query and answered. "We need some supplies for a long trip. We're going to go see Syl'rosia!" She said, still rather excited.

Gnaia skipped happily into the town after her visa was returned to her and the exchange over. Not really waiting for directions, she was excited just to be in a city.

Fox · August 31, 2008, 03:19 PM

The city of Riparia lay in front of them and since Gnaia had decided to ignore any directions, she was completely unaware of which way to go. Had Thom stopped to take directions, that too would help, but he seemed to have decided either to follow Gnaia or simply to teach her that she needed to stop and listen more.

So, the streets bustling and full of people as Riparia's streets usually were. Having given over their Visa's and being let into the city, Gnaia and Thom were faced with where to go and what to do. It seemed that this brightening there was a market, as the vendors could be seen in the distance, their tents and stalls sporting flags that flew in the winter breeze.

There were a lot of directions to travel in, a lot of people and the two of them had no real idea where to go. So, since she had been the one to make the decision not to ask for directions, Gnaia seemed to be the one in charge of finding what they wanted.

Somewhere that sold supplies. Maybe a room for the darkening, but there were risks there, truth be told.

Gnaia · September 4, 2008, 01:54 PM

Secrets :

"So Thom." Gnaia began, after gawking for a while. "What is it we're needing anyways?"

"If you'd have been patient, little girl, I could have asked the guard the locations of some of the shops." Thom responded, which wasn't really an answer, but rather a rebuke. Gnaia chose to ignore the rebuke and just wandered on further into town.

Either Thom will tell her what they were looking for, or they'd continue to explore randomly. It was entirely up to him, of course. For the time being, Gnaia just walked down the Merchant's Road, staring at everything with wide-eyed amazement. Of course, she had no idea that the large central concourse of the city of Riparia was Merchant's Road, but it was where she was.

Fox · September 7, 2008, 01:55 PM

The Merchant's Road of Riparia was a hustling, bustling place, filled to bursting with people and shoppes. There were wares of all different kinds, exotic and mundane, and the variety of people here was enormous! It seemed like Thom wasn't keen on telling Gnaia exactly what they were looking for, but instead they made their way down Merchant's Road together. It was, of course, entirely possible, that Thom had been here before and knew exactly where they were going. It was also possible that he was just trusting to luck.

Luck, it seemed, was on their side as they walked down the main concourse. As they walked down Merchant's Road they came across a shop. The front of the place had the sign indicating that it was a Tanners and indeed it was the Tannery, Cobbler and Leathergoods of Riparia.

Assuming that they went in to the shop, there were the two dwarves who worked here and one looked up at the unlikely pair as they walked in and smiled "Serale, an' welcome to the Tanners. 'ow can I help ya this brightening?"