Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Tomorrow then," Ariel smiled widely. There was a moment where she just stood silently in front of Rukeewei, holding one of her hands in the other. She felt quite upbeat and excited now. She seldom received such propositions. The moment was short lived when she cleared her throat and looked around. "We'd better finish handing out these flyers. It'll be time to open soon."

Now with a different distraction in her mind, Ariel wandered around the rest of the festival with Rukeewei until their flyers had run out. Even though she constantly smiled and felt an anxious mix of feelings around Rukeewei, every time his back was turned she felt somewhat pathetic for not being more confident and sure of herself. The last time she fell in and out of love, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong with herself in the eyes of the one she was interested in. She didn't want to make the same mistakes, but it was hard to know whether she was making them at all, let alone how to keep herself from making them. As such, she did manage to hold conversations with Rukeewei still, but she kept tripping over her words, or saying things that she regarded moments later to be somewhat stupid. Him, on the other hand, only seemed to become nicer to be around.

Before Ariel left to open up her store, she stopped by the pack and informed them that it was time. Thoroughly full, and with a few new odd acquaintances due to the 'rules' of the day of feasting, the pack followed Ariel to her shop, with Ahnasha breaking off on the way to check on Fendros. Once they made it to the shop, there were a few last minute preparations to do, during which time a small number of people could be seen peering through the front window. Ariel opened the door and informed them that the store would open soon. In the last minute rush, she felt grateful for the distraction of familiar work rather than constantly punishing herself for not acting up to her own unrealisic social standards around Rukeewei. Here, she bossed him around quite confidently with a couple of tasks as soon as she had delegated tasks to the pack.

With the many hands they had, it was only light work that needed to be done before Ariel opened the door and made an announcement to the small group of people outside. "The store is open, everyone. Please come inside!" She said, then realising the cause of some of the blank faces in front of her. "Oh," She tried to assemble the Jel in her head, then in her throat, "The shop is open. Welcome!" Even though it wasn't the most native sounding Jel, the hisses caused the rest of the group to begin moving. With that, she smiled and ducked back inside, walking behind the counter and tapping her fingers against the counter excitedly. "Finally open," she said with a tone of relief. She had missed attending a store.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Hmm, I should probably do a timeskip to the shop opening in my next post. I'll do it in a few hours when I have the time. See ya!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ah, the days before text messages...

EDIT: Also, I have to head off in half an hour.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

At first, Ariel was simply bright eyed and attentive as ever. When what Rukeewei was proposing dawned on her, her eyes stayed somewhat wide and she was frozen on the spot. Eventually, Rukeewei ran out of words and Ariel's face quickly reddened as she made a few tuneless sounds through her open mouth. She honestly didn't expect this. Although it was dodgy assumption in retrospect, she assumed that Argonians generally stayed amongst their own kind. Apparently not? Her mind raced with mostly empty thoughts clouded by a sudden nervousness. Well, Rukeewei was nice to be around. Over the past couple of days Ariel had always enjoyed his company. She wanted to get to know him a bit better as well. Come to think of it, she liked the idea the more she thought about it.

External from her racing thoughts, Ariel stood frozen and heavily blushing for for such a time that Rukeewei might have asked if she was alright, but right before he got that chance, she responded. "Er-yes! Yes! Heheh..." she grinned and tried to recover, but her words only sped up. "That-would-be-... grand... it-would-be-great!... I-would-love-to." She caught herself prolonging eye contact for too long and averted her eyes with a giggle that she hated the sound of. She took a shaky breath and collected herself, "I didn't have any dinner plans for tomorrow, would that be a good time?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Me? No no no, nothing bad like that, don't you worry." Ariel responded, her voice interspersed with a laugh at Rukeewei's tone. She looked ahead with a smile and sighed, "No, I didn't really have much luck in that regard. There were a couple of times that I grew fond, but the first loved someone else, and the other simply wasn't interested." She glanced up, "I had friends though, it wasn't as if I was completely lonely." Ariel chuckled through her nose quietly for a moment, "Not to mention, I was running a shop on my own. It wasn't really high on my agenda either. But who knows," she shrugged, "there probably aren't as many men here that are attracted to Bretons as in Vos, but perhaps my luck will change?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ariel paused to think about her response. She couldn't risk telling him that she was a witch, at least not yet, and not in such a public place. She chided herself internally for risking the subject, but she was able to come up with something which wouldn't give away all of her past. "Well, Sabine and I never knew our mother and father. We were adopted into a... household that was full of alchemists, and some mages. We were taught as we grew up. It was a remote place in the countryside, but not too far from Vos. You could say that we lived simply even if we were comparatively well off." She looked up and paused before thinking of what else to say, "My guardians put me in charge of a shop in Vos, taking over for an older member of the family." She rubbed the back of her neck, "Unfortunately Sabine and I fell out with our adoptive family. It's complicated. I still ran the shop for a while though. And Sabine went and joined Meesei's travelling group, she may seem shy but she's more suited to the outdoors than I am." Ariel took a breath and cocked her head, "About two years passed, I saw Sabine again. And her group of friends convinced me to move to Black Marsh. I had friends in Vos, don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any means. There were other reasons..." Ariel glanced at Rukeewei. Why did her words go faster than her mind? Now she'd probably have piqued his curiosity. Damn it. She looked away with a concerned face. "Sorry, I... I'd rather not go into detail."

There was an awkward pause that caused Ariel to curl her lips. She quickly though of something to turn the subject around. Her expression changed to a a more joyful and casual one, "So, you've been in the city for most of your life. You certainly know a lot of people here. Your brother is married, but have you found someone?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

So, after this quick interaction between Rukeewei and Ariel, was there anything else you wanted to play out in the festival? Actually, more generally, what did you want to play out after this? In the festival or otherwise.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With a chuckle, Ariel down to get the flyers she had brought out of her bag. She looked back up at Rukeewei to respond. "That would be wonderful, actually," she replied, "We could get started now if you like. Here," she handed half of the small slips of parchment to Rukeewei. Each one were titled Montgrave Remedies and had details on Ariel's products and services, as well as where to find the shop. "Now, I think perhaps handing them out to the queues of some of the more popular vendors might be a good start."

Ariel led Rukeewei over to where a portion of the crowd was standing while they waited to pick out lunch. Now that it was nearing the middle of the day, appetites had been renewed and everyone was hungry. Wearing a smile, Ariel managed to hand out a number of her flyers. Where there was a lapse in the task, she tried to strike up a conversation. "So, Rukeewei, were you raised in Thorn? What was it like growing up here?"

All the king's men.

Before the seated man could respond, Ilario almost winced at a high voice behind him. He turned around to see a diminutive girl and creased his brow in confusion. Glancing over to the other man and finally noticing all of the glinting cutlery strapped onto his person, he could see she had a point. However, it didn't change the fact that her voice was irksome. Ilario instead walked over to the flagon of wine and poured an amount into a goblet, before carrying it to the fireplace. Addressing the girl properly, Ilario took on an arrogant tone, "I'm sure if we need to annoy the other nations out of invasion plans, then I can see we will not be understaffed."

The next player to enter the meeting place was another sufficiently armed man. This one looked stronger and had an authoritative confidence about him. Ilario returned his "Evening," and followed through with a sip and a comment. "Hawk must be assembling an army."

Just when Ilario thought the team was fully assembled and perhaps everyone could at least start exchanging names, yet another player walked in. His silhouette was intimidating enough. But when the dark skin giant walked into the light, he seemed to be difficult to not notice. "Never mind the army," Ilario said under his breath. The giant then introduced himself so jovially that the atmosphere of the room seemed to change with him. "Now is as good a time to introduce myself, I suppose." Ilario raised his voice and his goblet, "You may call be Ilario Falegname. If your brain starts to hurt from thinking too much, leave the task to me."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Oh yes, they were indeed fine. That competition was a very close one, Rukeewei." Ariel responded.

Janius gave his praise as well, "That's right. And let me say yours was particularly good. Congratulations on your score."

"So what else do you have planned for today? We have been enjoying the various food and drink. I've never seen so much in my life. It's been wonderful. Well, apart from just earlier." Ariel paused to look at the entrance of the square in the direction of the inn. She hoped Fendros wasn't too sick. "In any case, I thought I might pass around some flyers before I open up this afternoon. Would that be appropriate?"