[Mistral Village] Low on Locust - II

[Elowen]

That morning dragged out longer than usual and the only one at fault was Elowen. She was stalling. And she knew it. She looked around the shack again. Her workstation was spotless. The floors were swept. Her pallet was a mess but that was only because Pea began dragging in twigs and leaves. But that was the only bit of disorder she couldn't fix because the bird was particular about it. He would preen himself there, twist and turn, keep busy. Or as Elowen hoped, he was settling in. And she wasn't going to disturb that.

Taking in a deep breath, she set her face straight and pressed her lips. It was time. There was nothing else of use she could do. She had to go.

Grabbing the satchel of the table, she looked back at Pea who was now rearranging everything again, looking at it with a critical eye only a bird can. So she left the door open for him because this was the first time he seemed too busy to come with and Elowen did not want him to suddenly realise he was locked in like he was in that cage when she saved him.

The sun was out again and Elowen soaked it in for a moment. The last bit of encouragement, she told herself. The last bit of heat to carry her through this task that seemed so much harder than mixing remedies from multiple herbs together.

Many bits later, Elowen was yet again on the edge of the woods looking ahead at the collection of wooden houses that she surveyed so many trials ago. Of the pyre, there was no sign. It was as though it had never happened and frankly, Elowen was even avoiding looking in that direction. Meira was nothing but ash now.

The girl hang back, thinking about the best way to approach the situation. This was her first visit into the village on her own since the old woman's passing. She had done it a few times before, especially in the later trials and seasons of Meira's life, but it was a quick in and out. She knew which house to go to, what to ask for, how much to pay (if anything).

This time, she had none of that. No instructions. Just an idea of her own that she needed to realize somehow.

Traps...where would one get the materials for those? She couldn't recall any trapper living in the village so would anyone there even know how to craft one?

Elowen pressed her lips together. She was stalling...again. She had no way of finding out the answers to her questions from all the way on the edge of the woods. Holding the strap of her satchel tight, she stepped out of the shadows, trying to embody the purpose of her visit, hoping to make it a quick in and out as always. But each step grew less determined. The closer she got, the more skittish she looked. Same as always.

[Elowen]

Elowen had no way of knowing if the activity inside the village was out of the ordinary or not. There were a few people moving about the outside of the houses. A child just ran from one house to another. And a small wagon just stopped in front of the local inn. Mistral Village was nothing but idyllic. The perfect picture of what a hard but simple life looked like. The girl could almost appreciate it if it wasn't for the people.

It wasn't that they had treated her badly. They never did. But she didn't know them. Even after over ten arcs of living near their settlement as Meira's errand girl and helper, she could barely put a name to a face. But that may had been because she rarely looked people in the face. Now she was looking at strangers even if she could rattle off the recent ailments of almost every single citizen.

The girl stood on the edge of the main road that curved through the settlement. She had no idea where to go, who to ask.

"You alright?" There came a voice to her left. A woman came out of the house carrying a pail of dirty clothes for washing at the river. Elowen looked into the kind eyes only for a moment before moving dropping her gaze next to the woman's feet. She nodded for she already knew that phrase. Many people asked her that before. And she was alright...just unsure.

The woman came closer. "You must be so alone out there. You should really find a place here in the village with us. It's safer." There was warmth in those words and Elowen felt her insides tremble. It was a strange sensation. Kind of like the ever-present fear but somewhat more painful. She had only a marginal idea about what was being said to her. The woman must have taken pity on her, or perhaps realized she did not have a full day to dally around with a child who refused to speak for the woman squeezed Elowen's upper arm once before leaving her where she was.

It was then that Elowen looked up to watch the woman's back. She walked past the wagon and the inn and around the corner, out of sight. That was when Elowen saw that the wagon driver was pulling a tarp back over the load, most of which looked like cages.

A trapper! What were the chances? Her heart picked up the pace. As did the anxiety. Because now that she knew there was someone in the village who could help her. That meant she had to speak with them and if they only spoke common...

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. One task at a time. When she looked ahead again, there was no trapper and the doors into the inn where just closing.

The heat inside her seemed to plummet a few degrees.

[Elowen]

She had approached the door as though her worst nightmare was right behind it which in a way it was. She cast a look back at the wagon and the way she came, considering if it really was that necessary to get a grasshopper trap. Couldn't she figure out a different way how to entice Pea to stay? Did she want to risk that budding companionship?

From behind the door, she heard almost nothing. The inn wasn't a rowdy place at that moment. It might have as well been asleep. That was both calming but also unnerving because it did not give her any idea of what she was going to get herself into.

She reached for the door handle and took it. If anyone were to yank the door open, Elowen would come flying right in. Alas, no one did. Thank the Fates. So Elowen eventually cracked the door open and tried to step in as unnoticed as possible. But the way that the inn was built did not make that possible.

The moment she stepped a foot inside, Elowen saw a great bar top in front of her and behind it the bartender. A pleasant face with a smile which any other patron would appreciate. The same smile, he was now giving her though with his eyebrows raised. He was leaning on the bar top, arms wide and the way he was inclined suggested that he was in conversation with someone before Elowen stepped in. That someone was a girl. The same girl who spoke to her at the pyre burning.

"Hey," she said to Elowen in a bright voice. "What are you doing here?" And she pushed herself off the bar and walked towards Elowen.

As always, Elowen's voice was stuck somewhere way before her voice box but she managed to utter a quiet. "There is a trapper here."

The serving girl raised her eyebrow and scanned the patrons. Elowen joined her but her neck was stiff. In fact, her whole body felt as though made from solidifying iron.

There were only few people inside the inn at this time. Aside from the employees, there were two loggers and one stranger. "Ah, I see who you mean." But Elowen didn't. All of them looked unfamiliar to her. The serving girl probably sensed the hesitation and pointed at the man Elowen was after.

"He speaks Common." At which point, the bartender laid a plate of cheese and bread and a tankard of the famous local brew on the bar top.

"Eseld, here's the order, if you will."

Eseld gave Elowen a quick smile and with a light, almost dancing step left Elowen to her devices to carry the food and drink to the newcomer, the same man that Elowen needed to speak to.

[Elowen]

Elowen had about as much understanding of social interaction as you could expect from a child raised in near total isolation. She did not think about letting the trapper first finish his food or even get started on it. For as soon as she felt the last bits of courage wane, she knew she had to act. And that simply overshadowed any common sense and certainly the limited knowledge of interpersonal skills when it came to strangers.

So she marched to the trapper and stopped off on the side next to him. The man, in his forties looked up at her briefly mid-bite. When she didn't move, he looked up at her again, confusion but also a hint of annoyance raising his eyebrows. Elowen had only few moments to rack her brains for any words in Common that would best describe what she needed.

"Trap," she said, figuring out that straight to the point was better than trying to break her brain with complexity.

"Yea?" The man said, mouth half full. He extended his hands and shrugged.

Elowen pressed her lips together. "Me needs trap," she told him.

The man took his time chewing before he washed down the bite with a generous gulp of the house brew. "Alright. And it seems that it can't wait until I've finished the first meal of the day. Ok. Ok." And he gestured to the seat across from him.

Elowen heard very well the tremor of irritation in his words and she understood the gesture that followed them, sitting herself on the chair opposite the man. On the edge of her vision, she saw Eseld observing them with amused look on her face, whilst the bartender was frowning. She tried not to pay attention to any of them. Not even the lumberjacks who were well occupied with their own things but Elowen felt as though they were watching her regardless anyway.

"Right. So you need a trap. Tell me what kind. I tell you how much. You pay. I eat." Although his tone was curt, Elowen so grateful that he kept his language simple and also straight to the point. So she nodded and began rummaging through the satchel before pulling out a piece of paper. She looked at it for a long while, heat once again rising to the surface of her skin and mostly to her cheeks. But she just didn't have the word for a grasshopper in Common. So she slid the rudimentary drawing across the table to the man.

Now, he was truly flabbergasted. He looked at the rough shape of a round body with lines sticking out... He picked up the drawing, inspected it closer before looking over his shoulder at the serving girl and the bartender, asking for help with his body language. The bartender was about to leave his post but the girl stopped.

Eseld walked over, frowning and twisting her head as she considered what she was seeing.

"What is this?" Eseld muttered, taking the piece from the trapper.

"I have no idea what this girl wants. Is it a joke?"

Eseld didn't respond, she turned the drawing another way and then it was as if a lightning struck and illuminated understanding.

"A grasshopper! Right? This is a grasshopper." She exclaimed victorious. Elowen nodded. "I see what happened there. He was looking at it the wrong way round. Sir, she needs a trap for grasshoppers."

"Grasshoppers?"

"That's right," Eseld confirmed, placing the drawing back on the table, the right way around for the trapper. He looked at it and then it dawned on him as well with a silent O shaping his lips.

[Elowen]

Still burning from embarrassment and high on the feeling that she just spent who knew how long in an inn with so many other people, kept Elowen frozen still outside by the trapper's wagon. The drawing was hidden away in her satchel. She always knew it was not good. She was not an artist. But she wished she had done a better job. She wished she could draw and immortalize the creatures of Mistral in all their glory on paper so those who had never seen the beauty could see it. So that she could remember for all the trials and arcs to come.

She was also hugging her new acquisition to her chest. A rectangular box with a square opening at the top. It was not much different to the glass jar if she were to be honest. But the trapper explained, with Eseld's interpreting help (who was getting very involved now perhaps for the comedy of it all), that the trap was used for other bugs to walk and fall in without any chance of getting out.

Elowen doubted the trapper ever seen a grasshopper let along tried to capture one, but she accepted his explanation and the trap. She just didn't have the courage in her to say anything else.

Eseld then had to return to the inn for the bartender called her and that's when the trapper asked for payment. The girl was too new to the world to understand the calculating nature of the move or to even understand trade, appraisal or have any other skill that would protect her from falling victim to being taken advantage off.

The serving girl returned again just as the trapper was walking back in to finally enjoy his first meal of the day undisturbed.

"Oh, I see you finished. How much did you pay?" Eseld asked and Elowen mumbled an answer, frowning a little when Eseld drew in a sharp breath.

"You know...he stretched you a nel or two for that," the serving girl said. Elowen's face screwed up in an even fiercer frown. Somehow, she was becoming very irritated. The interaction with others, her cluelessness to the world outside the shack. The fact that Meira never thought it proper to prepare her for this. She must had known Elowen would have to interact with people!

But she never stopped me from doing it either, the at-the-moment annoying logical part of her brain countered.

"Hey, it's ok!" Eseld chipped in, misunderstanding Elowen's behaviour for upset but of a different kind. "You'll probably have a better like with Dandelion."

At this, Elowen shot Eseld a quick surprised look with perhaps a tinge of fury. Was the serving girl truly suggesting that Elowen was so bad at this that she had better chances talking to flowers?

"You don't remember him? Dandelion! The guy who used to hunt in the Mistral Woods. Curly brown hair, doesn't speak much Common either, silver eyes?"

A hint of recollection crossed Elowen's face. She may have remembered someone like that. She had never spoken to him personally but she remembered seeing someone like that in the woods when Meira and her went gathering.

"Well, he doesn't hunt in the woods anymore. Last I heard he now has his own settlement, Rosebay. Lovely name. He lives there and runs regular trade routes past the Woods. Anyways, he is an excellent trapper and a decent man."

Right then, a new patron made it past them and into the inn. Eseld caught a sight of them and a new energy came over her. "Well, I need to head back now. But don't worry. The trap will work. And if it doesn't, go see Dandelion in Rosebay. He'll help. Mention to him you come from Mistral." And with that the serving girl disappeared back in the inn and Elowen was left alone outside - drained of energy, frustrated and even tenser than she was in the morning before she headed out on what now felt to her as fool's errand. But there was hope in her also. Hope that this trap would work and that she wouldn't have to go to Rosebay to meet Dandelion.

[Elowen]

Rewards Requested

Notes/Warnings: Acquiring a grasshopper trap from a greedy tradesman. Cringy awkwardness.

Thread: [Mistral Village] Low on Locust - II
City/Area: Towns and Settlements

Renown: up to reviewer's discretion

Collaboration: No
Local Language Thread? Yes - Gernevoir

!	Message from: Pig Boy
	Done!

[Pig Boy]

Elowen

Feedback

It was thoughtful for Elowen to leave the door ajar for her Pea, since his trauma with getting caught in a cage originally when she found him.

You described the girl's trepidation in meeting other people very accurately. It certainly must be a consequence of her growing up in isolation, that she has some social anxiety.

Too bad her courage in speaking to the trapper was rewarded by getting nickle and dimed a nel or two. Oh well, at least she got what she wanted??? Hopefully the trap works.

I really enjoy these threads in Mistral. Oh and I see Dandelion gets name dropped. HE's a good pc to know in these parts, hope your meeting with him goes well!

Great writing.

Rewards

• Renown: 5
• XP: 10

Knowledges

• Animal Husbandry: Keep in mind the marks of the past on the animal's emotional state of today
• Socialization: Responding to questions
• Socialization: Do not disturb people when eating
• Socialization: Gestures can be social cues
• Art: It's all about perspective
• Linguistics: Common: Grasshopper trap