damned_institute | Day 28: Mountain Antiques

"Everything alright there, dear?"

Hattie Fellows was a dark skinned, salt and pepper haired, large woman with a stern but matronly face and kindly dark eyes. She was dressed primly in a high necked blouse and a checkered skirt. She was a clever woman who kept a close eye on her shop. And she certainly didn't miss that a distressed young woman had just run into her rather musty domain.

"Someone giving you some trouble? I can have the sheriff down here in five minutes if someone's giving you trouble."

[Fey]

Shana stumbled to a surprised halt, glancing over her shoulder at the woman who'd spoken to her. "No," she answered quickly, turning around and shaking her head, forcing what she hoped was a convincing smile to her lips, although the tear-stained cheeks might be enough to prove that a lie anyway. "No, no one's giving me trouble. I just... This looked like an interesting store," she answered, hoping the lie would cover her abrupt entrance.

"Now I'm no fool, sweetheart." Hattie planted her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow. The poor thing, something had upset her. She was probably one of those poor Landel's girls - no one had better be giving her a hard time over it. Folks in town were a good sort, but there were always a couple of bad eggs.

"Something has you rattled, and we don't stand for anyone bothering young ladies in these parts. If you're hiding from someone, you let me know. We'll take care of it, cross my heart."

Shana shook her head again, biting her lip. "No, it wasn't like that. Really. There was no one bothering me. Not like that. But thank you." Her fingers unconsciously drifted to her hair as she absently plaited it intop a braid, trying to get it off her face and she let her green eyes drift about the shop she'd entered, even as she attempted to dry the traces of her tears. She still felt fragile, her hold on her control shaky at best.

Maybe distraction was better than breaking down and crying over him...

"What is all this?"

"Hmmm."

Hattie just shrugged.

"This? This is my collection. Antiques from all over the world. I've got jewelery from Asia, art from Africa, furniture from Europe, clothes from all sorts of exotic places. Come on up over here, let me show you some things."

She was always happy to show off her many treasures.

Shana hesitated before stepping forward, following the woman. What harm could it be? If there were treasures here, maybe Shana could find information or something useful hidden somewhere here. The shop almost reminded her of a dragon hoard, things of sentimental value and dubious uses, crammed into every available nook and cranny. Who knew what she might find in here?

"Your collection is fascinating!"

[following his sister from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/245151.html?thread=17762207#t17762207).]

Keman thought he'd seen Shana go this way. Without his magic, he couldn't know for sure. A little out of breath, he barged into the shop and was glad to see his redheaded sister.

"Shana! Are you alright? You've been crying." He wrapped his arms around her waist...and caught a glimpse of what she was looking at. "I can't stand to see anyone make my...little sister...cry..."

Shiny.

"Why thank you, sweetheart. Here, have a look at these. These are from India, very old." Hattie pulled out a tray of delicately forged necklaces and bracelets, inlaid with gold and silver vibrant stones in patterns ranging from geometric to floral.

She looked up as a young man - with a similar coloring to the young lady - rushed in and threw his arms around the girl.

"And who's this, then?"

"Oh those are..."

That was all Shana got before she was pounced on by her brother. Granted, Keman pouncing wasn't quite so remarkable when he was stuck in two-legger form, but still.

"Keman! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed, then looked faintly amused as his attention was caught by what the woman had been showing her.

"This is my brother, Keman. Keman, this is..." she trailed off, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask for your name."

"I came to check up on you," Keman explained. "I know we shouldn't have, but we were watching you two on the street, just to make sure that you didn't start ripping each other apart. Then you ran off, and I wanted to make sure you were okay." He wiped the remaining tears off her face with a sleeve. Times really hadn't changed since she was little.

She still got so puffy when she cried.

He nodded politely as he was introduced, but he still seemed a little distracted. The jewelry was so pretty! It was so well-made...such delicate work...

The dragon had to physically restrain himself from taking the entire try and adding it to his nonexistent horde.

"Those're..." he cleared his throat. "Those're very nice."

"I thought you two had the same look about you." Hattie nodded. "I'm Hattie Fellows.

"And I knew something had got you all worked up, girl." She gave Shana a rather stern look. I've got nieces around your age and I can always tell." She took the cover off the case and set it on the counter.

"Go on then, you're both gaping at them like they were candy and you were little kids. You can touch, just be careful with'em."

Shana gave her brother a little nudge towards the jewel case, knowing he'd start drooling soon.

"I'm fine," she insisted dismissively, shaking her head at her brother, and then momentarily meeting Hattie's gaze before quickly darting away again. "It was just a misunderstanding. Really."

Which it was. Mostly. Mostly on her part, though.

Her mind veered away from the thoughts, from what happened. This was not the time or the place to break down over what had happened. There were too many people around, including her brother. She could hold on a little while longer. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt so bad.

Keman smiled. "It's very nice to meet you, Hattie Fellows."

He did his best not to snort derisively at Shana's assertion that it was "just a misunderstanding," and let it be. He wouldn't push it now. Later maybe, but not now.

Especially because there were precious and semi-precious stones mere feet away, calling to him. He gently picked up a long, delicately-wrought golden chain, hung with freshwater pearls. It was probably pretty unseemly for a boy his age to be admiring fine jewelry, but he'd inherited his mother's fondness for nice things.

"I...collect rocks," he said eventually, a little embarrassed. It was sort of the truth! "Precious and semi-precious. I have since I was young."

"Do you now, dear?" Hattie smiled. "Well, these are all very precious. Been in the family for years, my great-great grandaddy brought them over on one of his expeditions. But if it's just stones you like...."

Hattie bent and rummaged around some, pulling out a small geode. They were common things, found in any trinket store really, but they tended to collect about the place. It was only about the size of a child's palm, but the crystals rising from the center were pretty and straight and caught the light nicely.

Now Shana's eyes lit up, partially in relief that Keman had dropped it and partially in interest at the uncut jewels within the geode. She'd wondered if they'd be able to find something like this in town.

"May I see that?" she asked politely.

Blinking, Keman looked at the large woman, tilting his head slightly to the side. "But if they've been in your family all that time, why are you selling them?" Surely, they had more sentimental value than that...

His eyes widened in interest as she took out the geode, at the way the crystals inside of it caught the light. He was glad that he was so much taller than Shana. It put him in a perfect position to examine it from over her shoulder.

"Because we've been trying to sell them for all that time." Hattie laughed. "It's what we do. Here you go. They sure are pretty, aren't they? Practically worthless, but still pretty. I've got a damn box of the things. People always give'em as gifts or think I can sell them." The woman shook her head, laughing.

"If you like it so much, keep it. I've got plenty."

Shana blinked in pleased surprise at the unexpected offer, looking up at the woman hopefully. "Do you mean it? But we've nothing to pay you with."

Keman nodded. "All we've got are these...voucher things that they gave us. But if you need any help around the shop...I can move boxes or clean or something."

"Didn't you hear me? It's practically worthless and I've got more of'em than I know what to do with." Hattie waved her hand. "It's just a little thing."

And it wasn't really something they could hurt themselves with or anything like that.

"Thank you," Shana replied softly, hands cupping the rock that housed the crystals, shooting Hattie a genuine smile. "Really, you've no idea. Thank you."

There was enough quartz in that one little geode to store quite a lot of power--more power, in fact, than they probably had in this world. Hattie Fellows had no idea what an invaluable gift she'd given to the foster-siblings.

Plus, she'd made Shana smile. That was, in of itself, a gift. Keman smiled until his cheeks hurt. "Thank you. So much."

"Yeah, yeah. You two go on now, enjoy yourselves. Poke around, just don't break anything. I've got to update my inventory." Hattie waved the two away with a kindly hand, deciding to let them wander off to discuss whatever it was they seemed to need to talk about.

Left alone with her brother, Shana lapsed back into awkward silence, letting him examine the geode while she turned away and started to wander through the store, absently sorting through the knick-knacks and oddities that filled it to the brim. This world had such strange objects in it. She hoped it would keep Keman distracted enough that he wouldn't remember why he'd come looking for her...

And it did keep Keman occupied, for a time. The dragon studied his new acquisition with a jeweler's eye...and a small child's giddiness at the way it caught the light. But his attention span was short, and he soon wandered over to Shana, examining a stained glass window that the antique store had salvaged from some old church. A square of blue-green light that was vaguely the color of his scales when he was in his natural form fell on his very human hands, making them look even more foreign.

"Shana..." he started softly.

She sighed, knowing that tone of voice, and sank down on a bright floral piece of furniture that looked rather worn and very old.

"Yes?"

Keman knelt next to her, twining her fingers with his. "What did he say to you?"

She stared at the floor. "That there was no future for us," she admitted tonelessly, her voice quiet, barely above a whisper. A single tear trickled down her cheek as his voice echoed in her head once more. "That he had to make a marriage for an alliance between the elves and the halfbloods, or the humans, and that I wouldn't make a suitable mistress."

She knew he was right, but that didn't make it hurt less.

Oh gosh...

Keman wiped the tear off his sister's cheek and switched to Draconic for better privacy. The shop wasn't that big, and he didn't want Hattie Fellows overhearing.

"That's a lie, Shana," he said gently. "In fact, I was the one who said he ought to marry you for an alliance." Keman scowled. "The bastard used my own advice against me. There are other things, things I wish I could tell you but Valyn made me swear not to. I'm so, so sorry, Lashana. I wish I could tell you. Valyn's...an idiot. So much of an idiot that he doesn't even know what he wants. Just...give it time. Don't worry, little sister. Everything will work itself out."

"No, he was right," she gave a sniff and shrugged her shoulders, still staring at the floor. "He was right. I could never fit in with those elven ladies. I could never try to be quiet and biddable and 'seen and not heard' and all that. And I'm not... I'm not like them. I mean, look at me. me married to an elven lord. It would be a joke. And I'd be too jealous to be his mistress. I don't think I could do that. So he was right. It just... I wouldn't let myself think about that before. I guess I still hoped that somehow... none of that would matter somehow."

"...Good." Keman tilted Shana's chin so that he could look her straight in the eye. "I think that Mother and I would be very disappointed if you had turned out that way. That's not the Shana we raised."

"I know," she tried to give him a smile, tears glittering in green eyes. "I just... well, it would have been nice, I guess. Or I thought it would have been. Maybe I just didn't think. I was too busy wanting."

He smiled and started to automatically untangle her hair, something that he hadn't done since she was small. It was quite a bit easier to do it with fingers than with claws.

"I know...now. Do you know what I want? I want you to stop crying and come explore this town with me. I'm starving!"

More than anything, Keman wanted to get her mind off it, if only for a little while.

Shana gave a choked little laugh and wiped her face with the sleeve of her sweater. "Alright, alright. Let's go find something to eat, then. I promise not to rain on you anymore."

Keman nodded sagely. "That's right. Because I get call the rain, not you. Are you trying to usurp my weather-calling duties, little sister? How very rude of you." But then he was laughing and hugging her, and he switched back to the standard Human-Elvish. "All right then, let's go. I saw a little shop called 'Tasty Burger,' and I want to see what's so tasty about it."

He looked over to where Hattie was standing. "Thank you again!"

Shana waved to woman with a small smile, thinking she'd been one of the kindest natives she'd met from here so far, and hoping she'd get to see her again, and hear more about the treasures she had collected here.

Waiting for Keman to fall into step beside her, she left the store once more and let him lead the way as they made their way to this 'tasty burger'.

[Moving over here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/248410.html?thread=17743194#t17743194)]

Day 28: Mountain Antiques

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