Shopping for essentials {OPEN!}

[dragon]

Getting to the gather at Blossom Hold had been a trick ... what with her dragon having been grounded and all. But after somehow managing to talk someone into letting her hitch a ride along, Dorava was wandering the Gather's booths, looking for the items she needed.

As a general rule, the greenrider loved gathers. They were loads of fun. Good food, good drink, games, dancing ... socilization! But, not this time. This time she had not the extra marks to spend frivolously. She had things she had to buy.

She was currently dressed in a borrowed outfit. It had been a minor miracle that she had managed to find someone at the weyr who had a similar body size to her, and on top of that, was willing to lend her the clothing for the shopping trip. The dress was a simple one, and a soft brown in color. It was sleeveless, however, with a low back as well as front, meaning it showed off her unusually broad shoulders and muscled arms. While on one hand the thing did emphasize that she was, after all, female, it also showed off that she was not a frilly thing. Strange conflict, there.

With her meager Marks in her pocket, Dorava went first to the smith's stall, to look at the knives there. Some nice tools, they were, and within her purchasing range, but she also wanted to hang onto enough marks to get her some clothing, too! And if she bought one of these, she would not have enough to buy even one set of shirt and pant.

Oh, but she wished she had the wherwithal to sew her own clothes! She remembered her mother making clothes, when she was a small girl. Gosh, but that was a long time ago. Now, as a rider, she really didn't have time ... nor was she sure she could remember how.

Picking up one of the knives, she slid it from it's sheath to look at it critically, turning it this way and that before sliding it back into it's sheath and setting it down again. Only to repeat the process again, with the next one over. She would not be buying imediately. She had a critical eye when it came to blades, as well as a strong fraction-pinching attitude that would have her scanning all booths for items before she bought.

Ah, but if she had only brought her store of marks along with her, when she'd transfered. But! No, if she had ... she might not well have made it over the ocean alive. She must remember that.

The front of her dress moved, between her breasts, and then Val wiggled up to the top of the low neck and peeked out at the surroundings there. Giving an unimpressed hiss, the 'mandyr wiggled back down into Dorava's clothes again.

"Oh, hush." Dorava said, having long ago resigned herself to having a strange looking lizard living in her breastband.

Val Keep. Keep Val. the 'mander muttered, in reply, privately.

[dragon]

As she finished looking over the stall of goods, Dorava moved on again, this time to make a serious stop at the weaver's stall. She had to manage to buy a certain amount of things, and not a whole lot of marks to work with. Thus she was rather particular to what she looked at, quite discerning.

Pausing as she came to the weaver's stall, she started inspecting the clothing. First she sorted the items by price, and then looked at the items withing her purchasing power. She would have to buy cheap, but in doing so she didn't want to buy something that would not last her very long. She looked at more than simply how the clothing looked so far as style. She inspected the weaving of the material itself - even though she had no idea what she was looking at sometimes, having not had any background in that craft - and then in the sewing of said items. That she could be a little more inspecting of. At one time in her life she had actually done a little sewing with her mother, so she sortof knew what she was looking at ... in a novice sort of way, that is.

As she was bent over feeling over and peering at the material of a shirt, Val poked out of her neckline again, to take a peek. He cheeped a few times, and then looked around at what else there was to see, hanging half out of her dress. The saphire blue of his skin was a stark contrast to both her dress and her skin, thus making him highly visible. But Dorava ignored him for the most part, other than lifting one hand to support him so he wouldn't pull her neckline quite so far down.

The next item she inspected Val seemed to like alot. It was a plain work shirt type of garment, but it was in almost the same shade of blue as he was. Which seemed to please the mandyr greatly. Keep! Keep! Keep! He insisted, reaching down at the garment with first one grasping forefoot, and then the other, supporting himself on one of Dorava's fingers with whichever he wasn't currently grasping with.

Dorava laughed. "You like this one, eh?" She asked, straightening as she picked the garment up to unfold it. Val squeaked, as his support vanished from under him. He almost pitched out of her top, but managed to save himself and stay balanced where he was. Keep! Dorava laughed again. "Alright, we'll buy it, then. But just the one. And the trousers have to be in a more subdued color, thankyouverymuch." She petted his head, and selected a pair of trousers that were quite a bit more subdued in color. They were a dark brown in color, and while quite plain, they appeared to be sturdy enough. Maybe they'd last a deal of time.

She did the math in her head. A shirt, and a pant ... that would be four marks for the lot. She she acquired the attention of the stallkeeper, and paid him for the two items. Keep!! Keep! Val announced to Dorava triumphantly, making grabby motions on the nearest fold of the shirt as she tucked the folded items under her arm.

Dorava only laughed softly, and petted his head and shoulders. "Who did I buy this for, you or me?" she teased, before making her way back to the smith's stall. She surveyed the items there. The last item on her must-needs list: A knife. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that the cheapest knife on the stand was more than the paltry three marks she had left to her name. A full half mark shy of the cheapest knife there.

Well ... so much for that. She left the stall more than a little dissappointed. As much as she needed clothes, she thought that a knife was a far more important item to be in possession of. All the clothes in the world would not do a body any good if what you needed was a knife. Whereas ... in some circumstances ... clothes were purely optional! You could go through an entire knife fight totally in the buff, and come out on top. So long as you had a knife, of course.

[dragon]

Dorava wandered the stalls with little interest. She hated the idea that she might well have to leave without purchasing a knife. As a result, she browsed over the stalls with her new clothes tucked under her arm with little interest in actually buying anything. She was going to have to sit on her marks even yet, until she amassed enough to purchase the direly needed item.

Sadly, it looked like she might well have to take T'rid up on his offer of loaning her one. She hated the idea of borrowing something from someone like that, but if she was given no choice, there was no help for it. At least he had offered. She had that much to fall back on ... thankfully. It was far better than being totally bereft of any kind of self defense should she need it!

Val peeked out of her neckline again, and peered about for a moment before cheeping and hiding yet again in her clothing. Not at all impressed with what he was seeing at the gather, the little blue mandyr was quite content to hide in his mistress' support garment.

Spotting yet another stall that was selling knives, Dorava suddenly took interest. She wandered over to inspect the contents of the Random stall, making a close inspection of the wares there. More specifically the knives.

They were not a very impressive lot of blades. Many were worn, chipped, oversharpened, stained, missing bits of thier hilts... but they were blades. And apparently ... fairly cheap. Well, considering thier condition, they were not at all cheap. Those prices were extortionate! But ... a knife was a knife.

Stains did not bother her ... they could be polished away with enough elbow grease. She really didn't want a knife that was chipped, worn, or otherwise injured as such to detract from its usefullness. But ... there seemed to be a few who qualified to what she needed. Dorava spent a moment looking them over. She went not only by sight, but by feel as well. Not only did the thing have to fit her hand right, it also had to 'feel' right to her subconcious.

Eventually she found one. It was not much to look at, at all. But it was a knife. It would take some majorly serious cleaning and polishing it make it halfway respectable looking. And a good sound sharpening to boot. But the thing was intact, and solid. The item was well balanced in her hand, and the hilt fit nicely into her hand. This was something she often looked for ... though she was a bigger than normal woman, she was by no means a man. And as such her hands weren't nearly as large.

She turned it over a few times, thinking to make sure of it before she purchased it. "How much for this ... item?" she asked, with just a small hint of revulsion in her tone. It really did not look like much at all, and that would possibly explain her tone to the stall tender.

But in reality, she knew better than to seem overly interested in an item, at a stall such as this one. The price would get racked up so high she wouldn't be able to afford it at all. And that was not something she needed. Being a woman ... and properly dressed as such with no rider knots on her shoulders ... it would not seem overly unusual that she was unimpressed by such items. It was a tricky balance to maintain ... because she still yet had to show enough interest to let the tender know she was genuinely interested in a price, and not just blowing smoke and wasting his time with the query.

Maybe he might think she was getting it for a lad's first knife, rather than for her own personal use. Many boys did not get an overly nice knife for thier first.

Val snaked upward just then. Wouldn't it figure? Dorava would have much preffered the salamandyr stay hidden in his location. Having a lizard wiggling around in one's undergarments was sure to draw attention. And the last thing she needed was the stall keeper to start staring at her writhing bossom. Poking his head out the top, Val looked down at the knife, and then up at Dorava's chin. Strangely enough, he was silent this time around, making no comments to her at all about what he thought about it. Never mind he would have used only the one word to express it: Keep. She wondered when he would learn a new word. Sometimes 'keep' was the opposite idea of what the 'mandyr really meant when he said it.

[dragon]

Dorava handed over the two marks for the blade, slid it into a fold of her new clothes to conceal it, and walked away again.

Now she had one mark left.

"What do you think, Val? Shall I hang onto it, and save it, or shall we splurge?" She asked.

Val didn't even bother to peep out at the world this time. His reply was just as loud in her head as always: Keep! came the standard reply.

Dorava laughed. "Okay. Keep it, we shall." and she wandered off, looking for someone to carry her back home to the weyr, back to her green Aonith.