[PRP] Demure Discoveries [Eloise + Aren]

[Ephemeral Hope]

Eloise never had much free time allotted to her. This was the general rule she had come to accept since she first came to live with her mistress. As a result, she generally counted herself as very lucky when she did get a free day.

Today, however, it had become an object of worry. She had just been given a free day not that long ago. And spending money to boot! Now, she found herself with another free day, and it actually had a knot of worry tying itself in her belly. Was her mistress displeased with her work? Angry? What if she lost her place to stay and incurred a debt she couldn't pay off? What would happen to her, once she was on the streets, because she didn't clean well enough?

These thoughts almost made the brunette sick with worry, but she was unable to come up with another reason as to why she was given a free day, twice, in close relation to each other.

In an attempt to banish these thoughts from her mind, Eloise took her small basket, with her green bottle in it, and took off to town. She liked to keep the bottle near on most occasions, but with the growing fear of being kicked out, she didn't like the idea of leaving the bottle back at home. It was, after all, hers.

Thusly, bottle in tow, Eloise pushed open the door to the local bookshop. She'd been meaning to escape to a place where she could research the fantastical magic inside the bottle. After all, there was a constant swirling presence inside of it, and she was damned and determined to discover if it was a godly gift, with which she could embrace, or witchery and technology that she needed to banish.  

[bpyan]

The sun was up high and the day was only beginning for the busy city. Yet for Aren it seemed like the day was taking forever. He walked on the streets, his hood covering his face and his disposition noticably lacked the grace and swiftness that it usually had.

The mature dust had just come from his goddess, and spent the whole night helping her with various tasks. Of course the divine powers never really needed sleep. Though despite dusts being the new and powerful creation that were considered the saviors of mankind, they still needed a good nights sleep. And this certain dust did not get a wink of sleep.

Aren slapped himself mentally, pausing for a while in the busy streets and moved towards the side. His back hit the cold concrete of a building gently as he put one hand towards his face, closing his eyes and relaxing-- hoping that this would remove his fatigue even just a little bit.

But there was still much to do. There was an aura of his own race in the vicinity, one he could not miss as it was a new bottle. He pushed himself off the building, his steps more firm than before.

After all, this leader of the dust had duties to fulfill.  

[Ephemeral Hope]

As Eloise shoved the door open, the sturdy wood structure tapped the over hanging bell, simultaneously seeing to the aforementioned bell ringing out, alerting the shop keeper to her presence, and the young woman's headstrong and tenacious attitude drop straight to her toes. While, moments ago, chalk full of determination and courage, the moment the owner's eyes locked onto her and by default, her basket, all the mental big talk she had been filling herself with faded away with nothing more then a soft 'eep'.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, afterall...really, she wasn't even sure what the bottle was. What if this man, with his suddenly beady-seeming-eyes knew what it was? What if he wanted to take it from her? ...What if he wanted to run away from her, because she had it?

Nervous, Eloise pulled the basket close to her chest, bending her body over it in an attempt to shield it from the curious eyes she felt on her. How in the world was she going to find the book she needed, if she didn't know where to look? If she couldn't ask the shop keeper?

Peering back at him, their eyes met. He smiled warmly at her, and waved, his bushy mustache raising almost comically. Eloise decided he couldn't be trusted. Not with this. Giving back a small, meek smile in return, she scurried off to the corner of the shop, hoping to meld in with the shadows. Out of sight, out of mind.

She wasn't sure who she could trust with her new found magick, if anyone, but she was certain she'd figure it out, all the same. With a renewed sense of determination, her free hand came out to skip along the spines of the books on the shelves, hoping to find a title that called out to her.  

[bpyan]

Moving at a fast pace, Aren came upon a busy street that was filled with people who were admiring the wares that were set out on the streets. There were rows of buildings that were home to a couple of local shops, some were busy and some hardly had customers. Aren pulled his hood tightly to his face and was careful as he maneuvered his path among the humans.

He stopped when he came upon a small shop, a bookstore it seemed. The building was small and old but still maintained a sort of charm around it. More importantly, Aren had felt a presence of dust around here. It was subtle but clear that it was just a bottle that was newly given a home. Opening the wooden door carefully, the bell echoed throughout the isolated store, the shopkeeper looking over to him and nodding before going back to whatever he was doing.

For a moment, Aren thought the shop was empty other than the owner and he but he gravitated towards a corner of the shop, feeling a certain energy. After all, he was sensitive in feeling the location of his own kind. His eyes then fell on a young woman who seemed distraught and uneasy. He gave her a small smile from where he was, forgetting that the human would probably not notice his change in expression.

Probably he couldn't talk to this new guardian immediately, it was too suspicious. The last thing he wanted was to cause a commotion. The dust moved towards a row of books, feeling the old novels as dust erupted from where he touched them. A muffled cough came from the shopkeeper, probably warning him not to touch those 'antique books'. It didn't matter though, he was there for merely one thing anyway.

Looking over to the woman he watched her curiously, wondering what her next move was.  

[Ephemeral Hope]

Eloise worked her bottom lip in between her teeth and she continued to scan her chosen self. There had to be something here, didn't there? Perhaps she was in the wrong section. Nothing seemed to say anything about bottles and swirlingness.

She was just about to give up her search when her fingers came across a book of myths. Ah, this had to have something of interest! Just as she was about to snatch up the book a cough came from the front of the store. Her head shot up and her eyes instantly locked on the shopkeeper.

Did he know? He knew what she was doing, didn't he? The idea made her breakfast turn in her stomach, but after a moment of observation, she realized he wasn't exactly looking at her. Maybe he just had a cold?

Her eyes did a quick scan of the shop and noticed another fellow touching some old looking books. Oh. So she had more company than just herself. She'd have to be even more careful.

Pulling the book down from it's spot, she scooted as far over into the corner as possible and, smoothing her skirts down, sat on the floor and opened the book. Before even looking down at the pages, she scanned the shop once more, half expecting one of the males to jump at her.

The shopkeeper had gone back to reading a book he had placed on his desk, and she'd seemed to have lost track of the other male. Fair enough. One less person to worry about.

Satisfied, she turned her attention back to her book and skimmed the pages for something that would call to her and her curiosity.  

[bpyan]

To wait was rather agonizing, Aren sincerely wanted to talk to the woman right now and just tell her that what she held was a possible savior of the human race. But it didn't work like that. He had to be patient and calm.

He blinked as he caught a glimpse of the guardian once again, attracting looks from the others in the room. He did a doublt take. Maybe it wasn't wise to just follow her so secretly, since it would seem more suspicious of him and he obviously did not want any unecessary attention to himself. He decided just to have a talk with her, after all, humans seemed to be fond of sparking random conversations. Only this wasn't just some random thing.

"Interesting book?" was all he could say as he approached her, scanning the books that were near her area as he hid himself in his hood.