"Shut it, stupid boy." Hadriana scowled at the snot-nosed kid she had bumped into avoiding, with great margin, to step in the feces of yet some other bothersome creature. No… he ran head first into her hip and should be grateful she refrained from flogging him… alive… So he should.
She bumped his elbow out under him with her leg as she walked off again. Fell right back on his slimy nose, the brat. She did not have the time to deal with him anyway. She had important ingredients to gather for todays lesson and she were determined to do so quickly. She was not made an apprentice out of pity, after all, and this was her strength.
Crisscrossing among the crowd off the side street into the market. She knew those parts better than many of the scoundrels, though she did not have to run in them quite as often. Credit to her rising status. She had come a long way, truly.
Now watch the crowd, that man looks diseased, turn slightly right, around him, keep away from the garment shop, cheap stuff in there, nothing to be associated with, way below her level. Pick up the pace, there, in the house at the northern wall of this market, the herbalist. Nicely vaulted door and window, showing the greens of plants, and slightly less lowlifes around. She liked the place.
The sun hit her back as she turned into the bright building. The counter was placed on the left, right by the door, so it and the racks with herbs left the room even smaller. Hardly three steps deep and two wide otherwise, but this was only the assortment for common folks. The good ingredients lay just behind the curtain of pearls in the opening behind the counter.
She ringed the bell standing on it. The sound carried demandingly. She liked the bell because the sound carried longer the harder you slapped it. She always made it ring for a bit. She thought she heard someone answer from behind the back room, so she waited. Than all went quiet. She let her eyes pour over a plant standing by the side of the bell. Thin leaves gracing the delicate stems in their intricate spirals along the rigging. It looked like elfroot, never harvested but cared for to make an artwork. She softly rubbed a leaf between her fingers.
It must have taken a long time to grow. Maybe even as long a time as it takes for the shopkeeper to get out here. She pushed the thick nail of her thumb through the middle of the green surface, as far as it would go and then let it go with an impatient sigh. What a shame, she usually liked the herbalist. Lideen. Lidia? Whatever her name was. Hadriana pursed her lips as far as they would go for a grimace and took a last glance at the draped doorframe.
She reached her conclusion as soon as she let her hand slam the bell one more time then rounded the counter in long strides as she mentally aimed herself at the opening.
"One more moment, please, messere!" This time the answer came high and clear. She swept away the pearls in front of her face with her hand and let the others slide over her bare arms and entered the dark room behind. The only thing visible in there was the open door on the right side of it and some of the uneven stone-tiles making up the floor. Through that drapery in matching pearls she could barely sight what was the inner garden. Most the plants in here had initially grown in it.
Hardly even closing in on the door she saw a shape do the same on the other side. So Leedanda had not grown roots, how very fortunate. Hadriana came to a halt as soon as the pearls started to rattle in movement and the herbalist followed through them. She had made it to almost two steps within reach of it. Now she put on her best glare to give the L-lady a nice hitch in the breath. She felt a small jolt of the only twisted satisfaction of joy she got now a days, when she got the reaction she wanted. The surprised jump that made the shopkeeper raise her shoulders soon fell to subordinate defeat and wide eyes when recognition dawned in them.
Hadriana hardly saw the face with the bright light coming from behind it, but it must simply be a terrified one. She was to be feared after all. Sometimes she forgot that, mingling in all the high places.
This came to be with writing the first sentence, without cause, and then I thought that maybe Hadriana would say something like that. Then I just let it unfold as it came. Like a brain-baby! Surprisingly I find myself almost understanding her after this, and almost kept writing, but I wanted to keep it down in size and time. If it's worth anything I'll love to know it!
Char. belongs to BioWare, and so on!