The snows had come early this year, not that it made much of a difference this far north; snow was snow, there was either a little or a lot of it, and unfortunately for Sofie a lot of it was now littering the ground, making the stone roads of Windhelm slippery and treacherous to navigate, and so bone-chilling to the touch that going barefoot was out of the question. She'd dared it, a couple of times during the summer, and only lost one toe to frostbite in the process. Now, though, it was stuff her feet into the too-small boots she'd filched from the garbage, or lose all of her toes and possibly her feet too.
The pinched feeling around her feet was nothing compared to her other problem, though; with the heavier snowfall out of nowhere, finding some of the stubborn flowers that still grew in the farmlands around the city would be more difficult than ever.
She didn't know if she had enough to make the money that could tide her over until the snow let up a bit, which led to this conundrum; no money, no bed at the inn. No bed at the inn, nowhere warm to sleep.
Nowhere warm to sleep during a Windhelm night was basically a death sentence, and Sofie was starting to think, just maybe, she should have ignored Aventus Aretino's dire warnings and gone to the orphanage in Riften; there was no way a vile old woman could be worse than the cruel, freezing nights of the north.
Sofie paced in front of the main entrance to the docks, shivering so hard she could barely move and stubbornly refusing to cry about just how awful everything was, when the clank of an armored individual approaching stopped her in her tracks.
She quickly turned forward, smiling prettily like the Grey Quarter elves said made her look adorable for a human, and let her eyes fall onto her hopeful next customer.
She was- well, tall was a good word to use.
Golden hair braided in the traditional Nordic fashion, with armor that looked terribly scuffed up even in the dim gray light of the afternoon, she was perhaps the largest person Sofie had ever actually seen, standing at least six whole feet tall.
Sofie didn't even notice her mouth had dropped open in shock, or that the warrior woman had a companion, until a voice said, "Uh, are you okay?"
Snapping her mouth shut, Sofie's eyes darted to a figure standing just in the giant woman's shadow.
It was another woman, and Imperial, dressed in dark wizard robes with proper leather gloves and boots for a trek out in the snows. She was looking down at Sofie in concern, and Sofie could feel her entire face flush harder; for once, she was grateful for the cold, which made her embarrassment harder to notice.
The tall lady and the Imperial woman both turned to her as she straightened up and smiled again, trying to look like one of those regal ladies that lived over in the Valunstrad and owned great big houses and jewelry that chilled your skin when you walked outside into the cold.
"G-good day, ma'ams!" she said politely, like father had taught her, "Could I interest either of you in some genuine Windhelm mountain flowers? They're very useful in a variety of potions, I've heard!"
She started to shiver a bit under her coat, and she desperately forced herself to stop. She needed to look like a proper little businesswoman, not a wretched orphan down on her luck. No one this city had enough sympathy for that story, that's what the guards often said to her when she tried to beg a blanket from them.
Sofie smiled a bit harder as a spark of interest lit up the face of the wizard looking one, and she came forward with a thoughtful hum to examine Sofie's little basket of flowers.
The taller lady crossed her arms over her chest, examining Sofie from head to toe with a severe frown. Sofie just kept her eyes on her customer and tried as hard as she could not to shiver.
"What are you doing, selling flowers all the way over here?" the Imperial lady asked suddenly, reaching into the basket and pulling a pair of dried flowers, examining them thoughtfully. "Surely it's warmer near Candlehearth Hall?"
Sofie fidgeted with the handle of her basket and shrugged. "The innkeeper got tired of chasing me off and threatened to call the guards if I came back without coin," she mumbled halfheartedly, looking down at the boots pinching all nine of her toes very hard.
She didn't notice the look the wizard lady shot back at her heavily armored companion, but she did notice when the lady straightened back up to her feet, the flowers in one hand as she dug about in a pocket for something.
With a dramatic 'a-ha!', the Imperial woman pulled out perhaps the largest coin purse Sofie had ever seen ever, and she felt her mouth drop open again. How rich was this lady? Who was she?! What was she doing in Windhelm, of all-?
Sofie's brain simply stopped working when the Imperial took out a small handful of coins, put them back in her pocket, before dropping the entire rest of the coin purse into Sofie's little basket.
The sudden weight was so heavy it nearly made Sofie lose her grip, but she clasped onto her basket with two hands with a gasp and she gaped up at this strange woman, aghast. "Ma'am, this is far too much!" she protested.
But the Imperial wizard just winked at her, carefully putting her new flowers into a small satchel at her waist and spinning away, back toward her tall companion. "Get yourself a fresh breadroll tonight before you go to sleep!" The woman said airily, and Sofie watched, dumbfounded, as this impossible woman strode off with her gigantic shadow not far behind.
A/N: I had no motivation and still spat out nearly a thousand words. Nice.
~Persephone