@Arachna
The Market town of Arnbojk, One Day before Joining
The marketplace is abuzz with the sound and energy of people, moving around cargo, haggling over prices or shouting out their wares. Celeste walks ahead of Meira, eagerly basking in the kaleidoscope as she makes some last minute purchases for her first day at the Adventurer's Guild tomorrow.
"Ooh, what about this?" She says, picking up a glass tube filled with clear liquid at an apothecary stand. "Stay Awake - guaranteed 72 hours of wakefulness without side effects." She reads the label. "Ooh, what about this?" She picks up a steel dagger from a nearby blacksmith's stall. The blacksmith, a cave orc with the strange deformities that mark them as different from their cousins that live in the open air, stares at Meira, and the elf's hand instinctively goes to her violet hair. Another look at the orc, however, shows that he couldn't care less about her hair, and is more interested in her chest and hips. Meira reminds herself that no one cares about her hair here, but the awkward feeling remains.
"Heheh, that's a damn fine - and expensive - weapon. But maybe we can make a deal, darlin'..." The orc looks hungrily at Celeste and Meira. Casting her gaze at the blade, though, Meira can see there's clearly nothing special about it.
“That could keep you alert, but it looks discoloured and expired. Why not just buy some alchemical ingredients for me to make something fresh? It would also help because I could tailor them to whatever situation needed.” Meira did her best to nudge the noble girl away from anything that didn’t sound too reliable. She almost thought a market like this might be more dangerous for her lady than anything else. She could even sense the strange amount of eyes in their direction, and not all just because she looked like an easy target.
Instinctively, she had to move in front of Celeste as the orc had begun talking. She would never allow trash like this to even dream about taking her lady’s virginity. After all….
“‘How do I say this….you’re kind of too spoiled for me. My friends are talented with bows and healing magic. They’re the kind of people I can go on adventures with. Can you do any of that?”
“I’m sorry. You’re pretty and everything, but I only want to marry a girl who’s also an adventurer too.”
“Hm? I guess….if I had to say, I like the kind of girl who would always help out those in need.”
The point of this journey was for Celeste to to become a hero to impress that boy. She didn’t see why. Maybe it was just the kind of young love where after being shot down for the forty seventh time, the noble girl just wanted to prove she could.
That boy also didn’t know Celeste as well as he thought. She might be silly and rather spoiled, but Celeste really was committed to helping others. Meira wouldn’t deny that her lady was high maintenance ever since the first days she met, but over time, that spoiled honest personality of hers had ended up growing on her. If what her lady wished for was a fairy tale like romance to that boy, she wouldn’t allow anyone as vulgar as this to even think about coming between it.
Still, it would be easier to just advise against her lady than publicly blast all the obvious ploys. The obvious leers she was getting for her body seemed almost minor in comparison. She knew that a lot of non elves tended to find her attractive. She knew that. She had heard a lot of…ideas from visiting nobleman not as quiet as they thought about what things they’d do with her and her sister under their house. And even among elf’s really she was something of a looker, even if they still expected her to be some kind of dark sorcerer. Which…..wasn’t entirely wrong, but…
Regardless, she wasn’t about to allow more than looking. She wasn’t pure, but that didn’t mean she’d open her legs for just anybody. Especially not for useless junk like this.
With a well practiced polite smile, she made the nudge for Celeste to put it back.
“It might be good for emergencies, but even just iron would do in that situation.” She didn’t expand on what, but the situation did come to mind. If it ever came to that, it would be good she had something, but then even just regular metal would work, if the target wouldn’t be wearing armor. But she wouldn’t allow such a situation to ever happen that close if she could help it either.
“Besides….you’d have to keep this one at the waist, and if you were ever grabbed in a situation like that, you’d want something that can be concealed and they couldn’t tell you’re reaching for it right away until it’s drawn and in them by surprise. It would have to be thinner than this and sleeker. Quality matters, but just about any sharp object can get in someone’s neck and chest easily enough. And ideally, you’d want it enchanted for good measure. Any other time, you have magic and monsters or bandits would never be getting that close between the two of us.”
