Re: Hunting Through Keliac - 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

Geran nodded slowly. "A relative?" he asked curiously, looking at Shiro directly.

Shiro chuckled and shook his head. "Merely a traveling companion," he assured the man.

"Ah." Geran relaxed, barely noticeably, and his smile grew warmer, more friendly. "Well, I hope that if any of you have any questions for me, or any requests of places to go or things to see, that you won't hesitate to ask."

"I have a question," Shiro agreed. "What happened, exactly, yesterday? Rose hasn't said much about it ..."

Rose blushed and elbowed Shiro; but the redness of her face was nothing compared to the bright flush on Geran's cheeks.

"I can't explain it," he murmured. "Honestly, I can't. I don't know what happened. I completely lost control of my horse ... and that's something that hasn't happened since I was young. It just ... took off. I was aware that I'd hit Rose, but by the time I got the horse back under control, she was long gone."

He looked at her, and his expression was filled with regret.

[Kara Winters]

The last part of his story had been one of Holly's guesses, and it seemed that she guessed right.

Holly glanced at Rose, "Ah... I see, I had wondered, but never thought to ask."

Good thing Shiro did for them.

[Nara-pyon]

"In all fairness," Rose muttered under her breath without thinking, "he didn't look like he was going to be stopping any time soon."

Suddenly she realized what she'd said, and hastily she added, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Geran held up both hands to stop her. "No harm done. And you're right, it took me a while to get my horse back under control." Then, gesturing towards the street, he murmured, "Shall we?"

[Kara Winters]

"Let's," Holly agreed, "It'll be nice to have a good look around."

Both she and Rose hadn't seen much of the town yet and having a local show the way did have it's advantages.

[Nara-pyon]

They started off, and as Geran led them forward, he told them a bit more about the town, sometimes adding information about the places they were passing: which home housed the maker of the best pies and cakes, which children they had to watch out for because they sometimes liked playing tricks on passers-by, the vocations of some of the people they passed ...

At this point, Rose interrupted him to ask a question.

"And just what is it that you do? You're telling us all about the area and all these people, but we still don't know much about you."

Geran seemed moderately surprised by the question. "Me? I'm no one special. I work with Gaelen training horses."

[Kara Winters]

Holly was a bit amused, "You speak so much of the people here and their vocations and the different shops, and you feel you're just someone who trains horses."

Because it sounded like Geran knew everyone very well, which could have been expected, most of these towns were not huge capitals or Gaian cities, but still, it sounded like he knew everyone.

[Nara-pyon]

Geran shrugged, his face flushing slightly. "Well ... I am. I live with my sister, who is far more interesting than I am. I train horses all day and on occasion I go riding. That's about all there is to me."

"Surely there must be more to you than that," Rose exclaimed, surprised. "You're just being modest."

Geran's blush grew brighter, and he just shrugged again.

[Kara Winters]

Especially seeing as Geran talked about the most mundane jobs as something special, not that Holly thought them mundane, but they were jobs every town had. So it was interesting that he felt that way about himself.

"What is it about your sister that you think she is more interesting?" Holly asked with interest.

[Nara-pyon]

"Everything that she does," Geran replied with reverence in his tone. "When there are orphans in the community, she is the one who takes them in and cares for them until they're old enough to make their own way. She is the one who organizes town events and celebrations, she makes sure everyone has what they need if they can't get it for themselves ..."

"She does sound pretty interesting," Shiro admitted, smiling. "And busy."

Geran nodded. "And yet she still finds the time to take care of everything for the both of us, too. I've offered more times than I can count to help out, but she insists there's no need."

[Kara Winters]

There was a bit of hero worship in his voice, not that Holly could blame him, his sister sounded like she did everything and to the benefit of everyone. Though it might explain why Geran downplayed himself so much.

"That is something," Holly admitted, "I can see why you say she's more interesting, but you live with her right? So your life must also be interesting as well? Especially if you're living in a household with so much going on."

[Nara-pyon]

Geran shrugged again, just one shoulder this time. "I admit, I'm not there a lot. Breakfast, dinner, to sleep ... if there's no one else living with us, she's not usually there, either. Like I said, I train horses, and occasionally I go riding."

"No wonder Gaelen said you could have today off so easily," Rose laughed softly. "It sounds like you work more than Shiro."

Shiro grinned and nudged Holly. "Maybe you shouldn't tease me so much," he chuckled at her; but of course, he himself was teasing. He didn't mind when she interrupted his work, or when she teased him about it. Not in the least.

[Kara Winters]

"Awww...." Holly giggled as she lightly bumped into Shiro, "But it's so much fun."

There was a twinkle in her eye, that mischievous spark that some would say was a neko thing. Because weirdly enough, it was only around Shiro that Holly did some more catty things that often startled him.

[Nara-pyon]

Rose giggled at the two, and even Geran chuckled softly.

"Well, here we are at the tailor's at least," he said, gesturing towards the shop. "I thought perhaps we should start here so that we don't run out of time to get the materials you need for Rose's cloak."

Rose blinked, realizing suddenly that she had somehow, in the past while, forgotten that she wasn't wearing her cloak today. It was an odd feeling.

[Kara Winters]

"Ah... yes," Holly agreed, "This will be quick."

All she needed was a the thread for embroidery and she had a rough idea of what shade Rose's cloak was. Besides, it didn't have to be an exact shade, but it couldn't be off by too much.

[Nara-pyon]

When they entered, Marenne was not alone in the shop. The little boy who had been there the first day was back again, sweeping the floor while Marenne was sewing on a different dress than she had been working on before.

"Welcome back!" she grinned, looking up from her work and spotting Holly and the others. "Three days running, you must really like it here. Looking for something special today?"

[Kara Winters]

"I won't deny that, but at the same time, it's just things keep happening," Holly admitted, "I'm looking for red thread to be used in embroidery actually.... and..."

Holly had to think about it for a moment, there were many ways to transfer a design and she much preferred tacking from the back of the fabric if she couldn't use embroidery patches to add detail. However, she wasn't going to be adding patches and didn't want to add lining to Holly's cloak.

"I think I'll use the pricking and pouncing method, so I need pounce powder and design paper as well... I know it's unusual to buy supplies outside the standard thread and cloth, so let me know if that's not possible," Holly added.

[Nara-pyon]

Marenne shook her head regretfully. "Sorry, thread only." She set down the needle she was using and motioned for Holly to follow her across the room to a cabinet on the shelf. "I'll let you choose your own colour. You would know it better than me."

She opened the cabinet and took out three trays filled with spools of thread. There were at least thirty spools on each tray, and no more than two of any given colour - there was a lot of selection.

Rose stepped forward to help Holly look through the reds (there were several shades of red alone), but she had an idea that Holly would probably know the right shade better than her, since Holly had been the one to make it in the first place.

[Kara Winters]

Well it wasn't a complete lost, the paper she needed, Andarien probably had by virtue of his work and Eron probably could make the powder she needed. She did have the tools needed for pricking (though what she wouldn't give for a sewing machine).

Going over to the cabinet, Holly reached into her bag and pulled out Rose's cloak. While she kind of knew what shade of red the cloak was, she wanted a shade of red for the thread that wasn't exactly the same otherwise there was no way she was going to be able to pull it off.

She noticed some of the threads had a shiny quality to them, which would make it easier to see (and be neat catching in the light). So she carefully picked out a spool that was was a shade or two lighter than the cloak she was going to be working on.

"This would be the colour I'll need."

[Nara-pyon]

Marenne nodded and replaced the rest of the trays, leaving out only the one Holly had chosen from. "How many?" she asked. "Each spool holds about twenty yards, and there are more of each colour in the back."

Rose looked to Holly, curious. She didn't know what her friend was planning - only that she was going to fix the tear in her cloak somehow.

[Kara Winters]

Holly thought about it, embroidery floss thread were generally woven in strands of six, she was going to use a strand of one to get the detail she wanted. This meant she could get away with much less, but she wanted to make sure she wasn't going to be lacking in thread.

"I'll take two spools," she finally replied.

[Nara-pyon]

Marenne reached for a second spool of the same hue and held both of them up to the light so that she could double check that they matched.

"Here you are," she said, handing both spools to Holly. "Anything else today?"

[Kara Winters]

"No," Holly shook her head, "That should be it."

And if she had done her calculations correctly she won't need anything more from the tailor's. While she did love it here, she really needed to look around in other places.

[Nara-pyon]

"And will this be a trade again?" Marenne asked curiously, looking to Holly.

"Actually," Geran spoke up, stepping forward and reaching for a small bag at his waist, "this time I'm buying. The tear was entirely my fault."

Marenne looked surprised, but she turned to Geran obligingly. She gave him the total, and he counted out the coins and handed them over to her. 

"So, any requests of where you'd like to go next?" Geran asked as he led the others outside again.

[Kara Winters]

"Hmm...." Holly wasn't sure what she wanted to see next.

She glanced over to Rose.

"What do you think Rose, any place comes to mind?"

Since she was sure Rose had wanted to check out the shops for business reasons before being nearly run over.

[Nara-pyon]

Rose nodded. "I'd love to see just all the shops in general, find out more about the economy, what drives it, what kind of items people are more willing to take in trade ... what's valuable and what's not ..."

Geran blinked in surprise. "Really?"

Rose frowned at him. "Is that such a strange thing?"

"Well ... no ..." Geran rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I suppose ... I've just never heard of anyone wanting to know about stuff like that before."

"Have you ever left Saldalien?" Shiro asked the man curiously.

"Not ... not for more than a day," Geran admitted.

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