Apple fritters

Bree Market - South

This section of Bree is known locally as Market South. There are shops lining both sides of the road, selling a variety of wares and services. Here, at the southern end of Bree\'s Market two roads meet, one from the east and one from the north. Night has fallen and little can be gleaned from the pale light of distant lanterns. A few men scurry about on their business, gone as quickly as they came.

Obvious exits:

Large Wooden Door leads to The Longhole.

Sewing Shoppe leads to Sewing Shoppe.

Alleyway leads to Large Field.

Bakery leads to The Bakery.

East leads to Bree Market - East.

North leads to North Market.

================================== Bree Time ==================================

Real time: Mon Mar 01 14:55:34 2010

Bree time: Nighttime on Hevensday of Spring - April 26,1449

Moon Phase: First Quarter Moon

Breelands Weather

The nighttime spring air is cool but pleasant around you. The sky is near black and studded with hundreds of stars. The moon is above the horizon and in its first quarter phase.

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[Nob(#16122)] Night has fallen, but not quite all the shops have closed up - not yet. Gleams of light come from windows along the main street and a few folks hurry along. Gidon is standing outside the bakery, looking in the window, with an odd expression on his face. He turns and looks around the moonlit town, then looks back into the shop-window. \"Haven\'t had apple fritters for... \" The boy stalls, trying to remember how long.

[Saraid(#16811)]

Saraid happens to be not very far away, standing very erect, very stiff. She glances toward Gidon when he speaks, hesitates, then says in her thickly accented voice, \"What is apple fritters? I know apples, but what are fritters?\"

Brev emerges from the alleyway to the south - quite what he\'s been doing there is anyone\'s guess. He steps over to join the other two, grinning at Saraid for her question. \"Food, I\'ll wager. He\'s trying to turn into one of those rabbit-men. Enough of /them/ around here.\" He grimaces in apparent distaste. \"Well,\" and his gaze turns on Gidon, features gentling as he remarks softly, \"you /could/ haggle with them inside. Or you could just watch and wait and see where they stack the boxes after closing.\"

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon looks over at Brev, blushing at the comment about his appetite. \"M\'hungry,\" he says, grinning a little and then looks in equal parts alarmed and horrified. \"I couldn\' do that, this is /Bree/!\" he says. To Saraid, eagerly, he says, \"Apples - they cook \'em in, well, bread. I think. Wait..\" And he plunges into the shop, from whence after a little, he emerges again, holding a paper wrapped package up triumphantly. \"Here,\" he tells the other two, and holds it out. Within are three small fritters. He himself looks up the street now, his face carefully expressionless.

[Saraid(#16811)]

\"It is not so bad for Gidon to be a rabbit man,\" Saraid says with a grin. \"It would be wise of Gidon.\" She glances at the boy from the side of her eye. \"I would want to be one also!\"

When Gidon comes out with his treat Saraid\'s eyes light up. \"My thanks!\" she says, taking one of the treats. She bites into it, and her eyes widen.

Brev tilts one brow up at Gidon\'s answer. When the youth darts into the shop, he turns that gaze on Saraid. \"Kiern, no! Trust me, you look far better as you are.\" His mouth twists in a smirk.

Then Gidon\'s back. He regards the youth levelly for a moment, then carefully takes the smaller of the remaining fritters. \"Lad,\" he remarks, \"when I was your age I never passed up a chance for free food.\" For a moment his voice takes on a higher timbre. \"\'Can\'t sell this, it\'s been spoiled\'. Think of it, you\'re doing them a service. Waste not, want not.\"

Most of the shops have closed now that darkness has fallen, but the bakery\'s twinkling lights - not to mention delicious smells - are a draw for the town\'s remaining shoppers. Several skirt the Outsiders carefully, eyeing them askance.

[Nob(#16122)] Gidon mumbles something that is probably \'welcome\' around the mouthful of apple. Chewing hastily, he swallows in a single gulp, and says, \"She said,\" The boy inhales the second half of his fritter, \"Could come t\'morrow an\' get some bread, penny a loaf.\"

[Saraid(#16811)]

Saraid smiles at Brev\'s comment and looks down, silent while chewing. \"Ah you mean old food. I did not have that when I was young.\" The woman is more swarthy in color than the Breefolk are and her words are so thickly accented that they are difficult to understand for some. \"Penny loaf? Easier than cooking it over fire yes?\"

Brev follow suit in eating the pastry quickly, though without the expression of rapture seen on the faces of his companions. Food is, after all, just food. \"A penny a loaf,\" he repeats. \"Is that good?\"

At Saraid\'s comment his focus shifts to her and he asks quietly, his own Common singsong but less heavily accented than hers, \"What did you have then?\" His features are expressionless, betraying little more than casual interest.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Yes...\" Gidon\'s searching eyes land on a figure a bit away, and the boy darts up the street. \"Be right back,\" he calls over his shoulder.

[Saraid(#16811)]

Saraid does not eat as quickly as the others, but is soon enough done, licking a finger and looking back to Brev. \"I had new food.\" She, too, is casual, glancing after Gidon as she speaks. \"Why?\" A sudden smile. \"It is much like old food.\"

Brev glances, startled, at Gidon\'s retreating form, then chuckles and offers a quiet comment to Saraid in a guttural language that is not the Common. \"Think he\'s sighted of that girl he was moping after?\"

Then he shakes his head and returns to his earlier sing-song speech. \"We should practise the Common, eh?\" And he shrugs. \"Just wondered. Who you were, where you were. You don\'t talk much of that.\"

[Saraid(#16811)]

\"Let us hope,\" Saraid answers with a bit of an impish grin after Gidon. \"Perhaps he will not be so angry?\"

Still looking up the street, she dusts her fingers together idly. \"My family was merchants.\" Here she says a single word in the same gutteral language, looking at last back to Brev. \" Stag,\" before resuming to speak in the common tongue. \"The same as when we met. We were the rabbit-men of our land.\" A grin again quickly shows and is gone. \"That is why they were hunted. The rest of my family was killed and I was kept. What of your family?\"

\"Angry?\" Brev repeats, one brow tilting up again. \"Gidon?\" Then a corner of his mouth twitches. \"He /should/ be telling her what he thinks of her. More like he\'s stammering fit to burst then scuttering off like a rabbit.\" He shakes his head, though the smile lighting his features is a fond one.

At the rest of Saraid\'s words he sobers. His gaze is inscrutable, but at length he murmurs, \"No Dunlending is a rabbit-man. We can fight.\" Her own question is answered with another of those trademark shrugs. \"I\'m just some Bear bastard. And,\" a shadow darkens his gaze, \"I\'ve no family left now. All dead, or gone.\"

[Saraid(#16811)]

\"Angry at me,\" Saraid explains for Brev\'s first comment. She studies his face for a moment. \"It is the same for us. No family. Mm...\" she shakes her head and amends. \"No, Gidon, he is your family. You have family.\" Her smile is a little bitter. \"You have now family, and I have thoughts of old family. It is good for you, the Gidon child.\"

The shadow in Brev\'s eyes does not lift at those words. \"Good?\" he repeats. Then, scowling, he switches briefly to his native tongue. \"Everyone I\'ve known - everyone I cared about - they\'re gone. Dead, or left and never came back. Still think being \'family\' to me is good?\" There\'s a note of hostile challenge in his voice.

The next moment he shakes his head, and the mood is gone. \"Didn\'t think Gidon was angry,\" he says, reverting to Common speech. \"Scared, more like. He\'s uncomfortable round women, and he\'s finally noticed you\'re one.\" He forces a half-smirk, though it is strained.

[<#16811>]

Saraid\'s eyes turn away from Brev\'s face when his voice comes becomes hostile. \" Good for you, I said. He cannot come to harm in a land where men are rabbits. And maybe there is happiness and safety to come after so much sorrow. It is what I wish, too.\" She doesn\'t glance at him the whole time she says this, sounding even a little uncomfortable, perhaps fearful, and begins to step away before she is done. She turns and walks swiftly into the growing shadows of the evening.

Brev watches Saraid go, his features stiff as though carven from wood - except that the muscle is jumping in his cheek. He lifts a hand to rub irritably at it. \"I wish ...\" he murmurs to himself, then snorts. \"Life\'s not like that.\"

A passing tradesman glares at him and he smirks sardonically back at the man, before stalking off on some errand of his own, away from distraction.