he’d left the city for a short time, keeping it within an hour’s walk to the outskirts. It was becoming clear to her that if she wanted to quest out to find answers about herself, she would need to procure a horse. It was not an easy decision to make because of how much coin it took to purchase one. Xonia had decided to go back and talk to a trader about a horse. He gave her a price and she was pondering over her options.
Of course, she had made sure to pick up a wad of paper, smooth it out, and to write the information out using a borrowed pen so she could remember it in case she had one of her time lapses again. She hated having time snatched away from her like that, but it had been happening quite a lot since her guardian had died.
The young drifter entered the same place she had last time, the Black Dove, her hood low over her head so as to keep her face somewhat out of view. She settled on a barrel at the bar and waited until she had the attention of the barkeep to start talking… “I will have the Clever Fellow.” She stopped there after that, pressing the correct amount of coin forward and soon retrieving her drink.
She brooded at the things she might need to do in order to obtain her transportation. Sell herself? Oh no, that is an act of sheer desperation and would therefore be the last resort measure… Honestly though, she didn’t quite understand what… all took place in the act of selling oneself, but Lorent had warned her it was dangerous for a woman to ply such a trade and she, especially, should keep herself far and away from doing such a thing. She frowned at the thought and tried to rattle off some more possible alternatives…
Hunt for meat and trade the meat AND the pelts… She knew what that entailed and felt discouraged because it took time to cure pelts and she had absolutely no intentions on remaining in the city beyond another week.
Offer to help where she was at; that thought made her balk and shake her head at herself. Simply just keep walking, take her time…? She didn’t even know where to start looking for answers!
The familiar ring started to whistle in her ear and she rubbed at the old wound with trembling fingers. “Not now…” murmured to herself and forced herself to take long and deep breaths, trying to relax away from the ache of a near decade’s old trauma to the back of her head. It was because of that, she thought, that blow to the head that I lost everything, and it might make me lose everything again…
Would singing be an acceptable way to get coin? She could do that… That would be easy, right? Yet that would still put her at some kind of risk and she was so very cautious without he stalwart protector at her shoulder.
Pilfering? Suicide in a city like this, she growled inwardly. She took a long pull from her mug and decided that for the sake of sanity, and maybe not losing time, she would need to relax and to breathe… Calm… Yes… Calm…