Welcome to the Gates.

[Jessica]

The large granite walls were towering over the people as they were bustling in and out. With the gates open for the day, people with small bags and even large carts came waltzing through for their daily shop stands and food filled pleasures.

With two knighted elves standing in front of the opened gates, stock still as they blinked as their pupils scanned the crowd, sometimes stopping to search. With this Kingdom being the middle man, Horde and Alliance will do anything to get Neutral on their sides. But happily, the Kingdom has yet to choose a side.

With the cobbled pathways, the clip and clop of horses and the squeaks of the wooden carts, it's quite peaceful with the innocent chitter chatter. Welcome, my friend.

[kio]

Kio’s bony body was cloaked in a…well, a cloak. That was kind of where the verb came from. He had no better way of describing the tanned brown, leather cloak that was draped around his shoulders but still managed to cover the majority of his body. It had been painful, leaving his parents that is, but he had gotten through it. Mostly by spending all his money on mead, alcoholic beverages, cheap meals, women he couldn’t care less about and a cheap room in a local inn. Well he said inn but it was more like a festering building specifically built just to hold all the rats and rodents in the town. He could have swore most of the people that stayed there had caught a plague.

Sighing quietly to himself, Kio continued to make his way through the crowds in the square. This was a popular place for the market and stalls set up in other areas of this city didn’t do as well as they did here. And the king’s advisors had picked up on this and decided to charge a little fee to set up in this central point of the city. So many people were conned and pick pocketed here that you could probably set up your own city with the accumulated funds of these thievish acts. Kio found it so much more amusing to watch these things than to report them.

“Good-day, would be interested in purchasing in a beautiful little room in the Southern District? It’s got two bedrooms, a nice view of the city and it comes at only half of the true price.” Said a man, approaching Kio quickly. He obviously mistook the cloak as some sign of wealth. Kio smiled politely before replying with the words. “Habitum lingua”. The man looked puzzled for a second before he scrambled for his mouth, stretching out his tongue and clamping it between two fingers. Something seemed to be wrong and Kio was all too happy to pat him on his head and move along. Of course it seemed cruel to make him ‘hold his tongue’ but it would wear off in an hour or so.

[Jessica]

Emelia was sitting in her florist stall as usual as she looked a little bored. Women were scrounging around her as she smiled and nodded to them, getting coins while trading the flowers they had purchased. With all of the thievery in this town ( which was getting slowly better over the years and reigning of their current King) you would think they would bother looking at all.

Perhaps Emelia was having just more of a content day, her optimism wearing thin on her sleeve as she spotted Kio. Although the cloak made her feel suspicious, she didn't bother trying to go to him and out right question him. Instead, she bustled back to her work, before she felt the smallest lure. She couldn't abonden her post, not with the area being so.. populated.

"You there!" She called, pointing towards Kio and waving him towards her. What was she going to say? There was nothing to say more than, " Are you interested in any flowers?" She frowned, her young and pure face scrunching into disappointment. She shook her head for a moment, the dark curls moving with her skull until they fell across her shoulders once more.

[kio]

Kio’s ears picked up on the feminine voice beckoning for his attention. It was barely audible above the sounds of the crowds bustling about in the square. Kio perked his ears up, figuratively speaking of course; it wasn’t really possible with his ears. Such a beautiful, silky, majestic and enticing voice must belong to a woman of equal or greater beauty to her voice. Kio grinned idiotically as he headed in the general direction of the voice. Slowly flowers came into view. He heard her speak and his head slowly drifted upwards to meet the body behind that seductive tone.

Kio recoiled slightly as his eyes focused on her face. She wasn’t exactly of goddess beauty, as he had anticipated, but was of a more ‘not ugly’ beauty. Maybe it was his racial, self-centred and egotistical god-complex that was making her seem so unattractive, but she just didn’t appeal to him. It was probably down to the ‘too-high’ standards Kio had been expecting her facial features to live up to. It wasn’t her fault after all and he should be kind nonetheless of she called him over.

Smiling politely and recovering from the initial shock, Kio glanced at the stall, desperately trying to find something to occupy his interest while he spoke. “Do you sell many kinds of flowers here?” He asked, desperately grasping at any attempt of conversation with this woman.

[Jessica]

"If I don't have them available here, I have the ability to get them in stock the next day." She said as she smiled warmly, her peach lips uplifting at the corners with the smallest glint of happiness. With high cheekbones, a firm jaw and soft eyes, her face was hard to read as intimidating or heart warming.

Standing, her hour glass figure was slightly hidden from the white dress that was slightly hugging her curves, her small and stockish body balancing everything out. "You seemed a little shocked at something, I'm sorry we don't look extravagant." She said frowning, looking around as she then nodded, receiving a small portion of coins as they took the flowers eagerly.

"So I haven't seen you around here before." She said looking up at him once more, while keeping her ears and side vision open for any thieves that were spotting certain stands.

[kio]

Kio looked up, into her eyes. It was a way for him to seem polite yet not come across as selfish or shallow. Both of which he was but they weren’t things that most people found very attractive, polite or at all nice. Of course at times he didn’t really care but recently he had been more concentrated on infatuating women and had learned to hold his tongue and not come off as arrogant too quickly. His smile wavered slightly at the thought of all those women. He was a very, very perverted man and had blamed society for this, mainly women with their…

He stopped himself and dragged his mind from the gutter, reviewing her statement. Should he tell her of his heritage or just brush it off with something along the lines of ‘that would be obvious and why I’m here is of no concern to you or anyone else’? Instead, Kio compromised and subtly guided the conversation away. Well subtly was a bit of an overstatement. His tone and eagerness to change the topic was quite obvious. “So do you think the sky is nice? I mean it’s all blue and interrupted by the occasional white or grey cloud. I’ve always wondered why the sky was blue. Some people claim it’s because of some ‘chemical reaction’ but that sounds like they’re making ale with all their talk of liquids and invisible substances. It also seems like they’ve been drinking beers too.” He said, running with the first topic that came into his head.

[Jessica]

She grinned sheepishly, raising her eyebrows and laughing at him. She could see how hard he was trying, but for what? Multiple things could be hidden, someones past, someones intentions, was it all? But of course not, a man like this couldn't do this.

She smiled warmly at him, though the nagging suspicion in the back of her head kept going off. What a stupid indicator, what a annoying one, too. She laughed more, until he was done speaking. " Perhaps it is all of perspective and maybe some people just don't want to settle for questions?" She shrugged, holding up her hands to indicate it was just a theory.

[kio]

Kio smiled, taking in the theory. “Or maybe people have such a great thirst for the knowledge of the world that as soon as one question is answered, two pop up in their place. Maybe people will always wonder about the facts of the world forever until we all just disappear one day.” His smile faded slightly, considering the fact of death. He wasn’t going to die for a long time but it was still a daunting aspect.

Scratching the back of his head unconsciously, Kio pushed that thread of thought out of his head and bent down to inspect a bouquet of bright red flowers which weren’t roses but he couldn’t place the name. They obviously weren’t one of the well-known flowers, although they looked familiar.

[Jessica]

"Ah, well. Death is a very touchy subject, including the after life or whatever some believe in." A guard gave her a testy look, and she nodded slightly to indicate how she wasn't trying to press a new religion on him. " But you're right, I don't think anyone could ever quake the thirst for knowledge, not until you know so much where it's just depressing."

She didn't really notice how in depth she was going until the guard gave her another sharp look. She gave one back in return and mumbled, " Would you like to go somewhere else?" She added lightly, making it seem as if she was advertising some of her flowers once more, the guard turning away warily, his back to her. She let out a sigh of relief, a silent one of course.

[kio]

Kio thought it over for a minute. It would be rude and impolite to refuse and maybe she wasn’t the witch he thought she might be. He gave her a surveying and slightly suspicious glance, determining whether she was a threat or not. He deemed her relatively harmless at first glance. “That sounds great but what about your stall?” He asked, noting the wooden shopping stall laden with flowers. It would seem unprofessional and dangerous to leave all these things here. There were always people waiting for a chance to snatch up anything, not really considering how they could use it.

:// It be a little short today, sorry. ://