a dance with dragons [ i ]

[Yaesa]

Nascha + invite

A trip to Ylisstol was something that she did perhaps once a month, sometimes more frequently in the winter months when her food stores were running low. The effort of trying to live like a human was sometimes a bit overbearing; making a homestead, keeping maintenance on it when frankly, all she knew of her life was sleep and being in stasis. She also didn't have the best experience with interacting with humans when she first started this entire thing; but now, the locals in the market were starting to get to know her at least a little bit.

Well, she was memorable after all. The pointed ears of a manakete, and she definitely hadn't seen very many in the market. She wasn't doing much to hide her ears at the moment either; she was too busy interacting with her favourite stall and had her hood down. She was looking at a basket of bread rolls, pondering what she'd buy for a quick snack before she took her shopping back to her house. Most of what she had in her own basket was just assorted dried meats, links of sausage and cheese.

She was standing at the stall and babbling with the bread lady about assorted things, most of them unimportant. Things like the weather and how harsh the winter would be, and the bread lady chiding her for wearing such thin clothing in the autumn months.

[Nascha]

"You should cover your legs more, child. The winter's going to be unforgiving this year. That skirt won't-"

"I know," Nascha heaved out, mildly exasperated. Small talk was hard, especially when so many people seemed to think she was going to be totally unprepared for a cold winter. It wasn't like she spent the first third of her life in the frozen north in what would eventually become eastern Ferox or anything like that. The fact that most of the humans working the stalls thought she was younger than them was a minor source of amusement, but this trip was quickly becoming exhausting. She couldn't just run out to the countryside and snatch up some unsuspecting animal every time she was hungry, so she had to go out and buy food like a human sometimes. And apparently, how relaxed she was (or at least seemed, most often) made her a prime target for the more trusting stall owners to try to chat with her. Which was all well and good, when they weren't criticizing her manner of dress or apparent lack of preparedness.

She almost preferred the occasional staring from passersby to that. She'd completely neglected to wear anything with a hood, and while she could usually hide her pointed ears with her hair she'd let them be exposed this time. Her dragonstone, at least, was safely hidden away, but it would be pretty clear to most people around that she wasn't completely normal. More surprising than that, though, was the fact that the way most of them reacted, this wasn't their first time seeing someone like her. Staring a bit, yes, but not gawking or trying to chase her off.

And it wasn't long before Nascha got at least a possible idea of why. She was waiting in line to buy bread, quite patiently despite the fact that it seemed like the person in front of her was just making small talk and getting similarly criticized for wearing too little for the weather (hah! She wasn't the only one), and that's when it hit her. The woman in front of her had similarly pointed ears, and the same kind of feel to her as the other manaketes she'd met. Interesting. She'd have to talk to her once she and the bread lady were done.

Needless to say, she'd already learned the hard way that people didn't particularly like being interrupted. But that was fine. She could wait a very long time.

Yaesa

[Yaesa]

Nascha

She couldn't understand why the hairs on the back of her neck seemed like they were standing on end. All she knew was that she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, like people were staring at her again and she just couldn't see them. Yet, she kept up a slightly normal air with the bread lady, purchased her bread rolls and then turned around.

She didn't realize there was someone behind her and had been about to walk away right through Nascha, before she stopped abruptly. She was about to apologize for her lack of awareness, but something stopped her tongue. She found herself staring all over Nascha, but mostly at her pointed ears. The small form, the pointed ears, even the hair was a bit of a give away, as manakete often had odd colours in their hair. She had a bit of a duller tone than Yaesa did, however. She tilted her hair to the side. It almost looked like a duller tone than the nomads she had travelled with, and she knew the nomads were descended from a divine line, like herself. She clutched her basket in her hands, and it took her at least a minute before she realized she was openly gawking.

"I-I'm so sorry." She murmured quietly. She must have acted no better than a child. "I-I don't see many of... us in the marketplace." She commented, her face turning a deeper shade of red the more words she spoke. But yet, she didn't move for some reason. She had no idea why she wasn't walking away, but the fact that there was another manakete around to talk to gave her both comfort and extreme discomfort at the same time.

[Nascha]

Yaesa

Nascha had started to settle into waiting, prepared for this to take a very long time. So it came as a small shock when the other woman turned around and almost walked into her.

Nascha instinctively took a step back, preventing them from colliding, but was met with a familiar feeling of discomfort as the other woman just...stopped and stared. It was the same sort of feeling she got when she drew looks from humans. One where she understood why, and could accept that, but it didn't leave her feeling any less uncomfortable. Worse still, this woman had the same pointed ears and oddly-colored hair, even more oddly-colored than her own, in fact, and yet here she was. Staring and gawking.

Nascha wasn't sure what to say. But thankfully, the need to address it soon passed, as the other woman finally talked and apologized. Ahh, of course. It would be strange to see another of them around. Nascha had to admit, she almost never ran into other manaketes. This woman was probably much the same way. "Oh...i-it's fine," Nascha said, nodding. "Don't worry about it. I'm used to being stared at. I don't usually see anyone else like me either." Yeah, that was...not much less discomforting than before. Maybe if she introduced herself? "Sorry. My name is Nascha. It's nice to meet you."

[Yaesa]

Nascha

A look of relief settled over her face, as Yaesa realized that she wasn't alone in her reaction. She glanced around at the humans walking amongst them, but of them, only the bread lady seemed to be watching with curiosity. She didn't mind that. She slid herself to the side in order to let someone else through, should they want to, and smiled quietly at Nascha.

“I am called Yaesa.” It was a good enough response, albeit an odd one. She didn't really feel like explaining that it was likely not her real name, just one that a group of nomads gave to her. She peered at the other manakete, blinking with confusion. “Do you normally come around here?” Granted, what was she saying. She was just on the edge of town and barely went into town to interact with people, she didn't normally come around here either. She gripped her basket tightly and stared down at it.

She had so many things that she wanted to ask, now that she was with another manakete. While the nomad tribe had taught her much about their culture, nearly all of them had admitted that they were for the most part under only a millennia old, and the history that they could teach was limited. It took a lot for her not to burst out with a billion questions, and it showed. She looked almost like an eager child, although she was Nascha's senior and it would show if they transformed.

[Nascha]

Yaesa

Nascha stepped to the side as well, leaving the bread stall open for anyone to take her place. She had come here to buy, but the stall would still be there once she was done talking. Even if she had to come back tomorrow. She nodded at Yaesa's introduction, committing the name to memory and noting that it didn't sound like her real name. Though Nascha was curious why this was the case, she saw no reason to ask for the moment. Names were a funny thing. They tended to get stifled under titles and labels after awhile. If Yaesa was better known by that name than her real name, who was Nascha to try and change that?

"No," she said when Yaesa asked her next question. "This is actually my first time in town. I've been staying not too far from here lately, but I've lived most of my life in...hmm. Plegia." Despite hearing it almost every day for the past thousand years, it took Nascha a second to recall the modern name of the country. It hadn't been important to her. Now that she was outside of it, it was probably about to become more important, ironically enough.

The instinctual urge to say 'Dolhr' instead, even though the nation hadn't existed for twice that long, may have had something to do with it too.