The early afternoon had the market bustling with post lunch activity. Several stalls were running low on supplies, and several companions had come to the storeroom for Ignita's help. She carefully loaded up a shallow thin box with various goods for a couple of the stalls that requested restocking. She had it strapped to her back by careful buckling by her own brushtail possum companion Idalia.

She entered the bustling market, the possum holding the broad board trying to keep it from tipping over.

At first, the little Slave tried her best to slip through the throng quietly and unobtrusively but it was risking the goods on her back trying to get to the table.

"Pardon..." She said weakly at first, "Scuse me!" She tried again a little louder, but no one was listening. The possum squeaked on her back as she was bumped by a patron and one of Oleander's tinctures fell to the cave floor and broke.
"Son of a Sphinx..." She mumbled, now she'll have to clean that up and hope no one will step on the broken glass in the process. She needed a bigger voice.


"Speech"

w: 190

Ken had made the trek north with Jael's regular wares, snake bone needles, curved for closing wounds, their combined trinkets, some alcohol, and skeins of light, fluffy goat fleece ready for weaving. It stayed quite warm at home in the winter, so they had less need for it, but further north? He regretted not bringing a coat, there was a real bite to the air. Good thing he had some stomach warming spiced rum for his own consumption on the trip.

A chocolate coated ear turned as a small voice squeaked, followed by the shattering of glass. The one that bumped her hardly seemed to notice so he sent his girls to provide them with a perimeter and approached with an easy smile, setting about helping the small wolf, tiny thing, pick up the shattered shards. "Bit fuckin' rude ey? Want me to send the girls to bite 'is ass?" The cattle dogs ears perked at the suggestion, tails beating at their backs, they very much enjoyed biting things when given the chance.

"speech"

-363/1500-

She really needed to rethink this system on her back. Maybe baskets would do much better. However, that would make her do more trips in the long run. The market bustled noisily around her, despite the crash. She sent her little possum back to the storerooms for a basket. She sighed as she was just about to step back and place her tray on a spare table when a large male approached with some smaller dogs. She was almost as small as them!
He had a warm air about him even as he offered to make his girls retaliate for her.

"Oh! No-no thank you, it's fine! I'll be picking this up! I promise! I'm-I'm sure they didn't mean it!" She said, the last thing she wanted was for there to be an incident in the market place and she would be the origin point. "I couldn't even tell you who it was!" She said shaking her head with a half laugh. The stranger had disappeared into the crowd. The little golden possum returned with a small woven basket, watching the strange dogs and new wolf speaking to Ignita, her little pink nose moving back and forth.

Ignita took the basket and started scooping the glass up with her bare paws. "Who might be my knight then? I'm Ignita!" She mentioned brightly, smiling up at the male from close to the ground, trying to sweep the sharp shards away.

"Speech"

602 / 1500

Ken angled his ears back, kept his head low and an easy smile on his face. He even bent his elbows a little bit in the hopes of not looking intimidating. He chuckled as she rushed to the strangers defense and gave a shrug, "If 'e'd tried tha' shit on a Raider girl, 'e'd be leavin' withou' 'is tail." He quipped playfully, sweeping his paw out in a bow when she introduced herself. "Jus' Kenway, I'm no knight." His smirk was daring, a playful light twinkling in his eyes.

He took in the board on her back, the broken bottle and cocked his head. "'S a big load fer a little lady, can I help yer get t' where yer goin?" If nothing else the heel nipping the girls would offer would help them clear a path. "'S'not like I've got anywhere ter be, I know who usually want's what I'm offerin' now." It wasn't a big deal, nope, he wasn't going out of his way to help her because she was exactly the opposite of a bear, small and cute, no siree. He just didn't have anything better to do (or so he kept telling himself).

"speech"

-799/1500-

The mottled earthen male seemed warmly kind. She saw that he even tried his best not to look intimidating by bowing and making himself smaller. Surely he knew who her master was, towering over them all, manacingly sharp sabers? She smiled at him as he chuckled. His funny way of talking was interesting! It took her a minute to comprehend what he was saying but she could surprisingly understand him fairly easily!
"Lose their tail? Surely it was just an accident and they didn't want to get in trouble! Maybe that's why they ran away so fast, wanted to keep their tail." She scrunched her nose at him playfully.

She giggled as he bowed. "Well thank you, no-knight Kenway." She told him gratefully and smirked back at him. She continued to sweep up the glass with her paw, careful not to cut herself on any shards, several mots of dust from the cavern floor coming along with them. He mentioned it was a big load and she shrugged. She may be little but she was resourceful. Speaking of resources, he offered to help her! She couldn't turn down a nice offer like that!

"Oooh! That'd be grand! I'm just taking this load to that vendor, right over there with the red rug? Then I'm taking these glass bottles to Ollie's stall right next to them! He says their strong medicinal alcohol tinctures with something in them." She mentioned.

She sighed and straightened up as all the pieces of glass were finally picked up. She wagged her tail as she gave the small woven basket to the little possum, Idalia, to carry out of the market. Ignita could deal with it later, maybe see if she could smelt the glass down and figure out how to make more bottles.

"There, that's done. Why don't you take one side of this load and I'll take the other? I'm for sure not doing this idea again. I'll have to stick to baskets!" She chuckled as she moved to one side of the board and waited for him to pick up the other side. Maybe if she balanced it on her head and he on his back they could keep it even? Sometimes her brilliant ideas weren't all that great. Strapping a board to her back for a larger load - not that great.

1188 / 1500

"Speech"

Ken's nose wrinkled a little when Ignita defended the clumsy guy that bumped into her "Ignorance's no excuse ter be a prick, some wolves need lessons worth rememberin'." He quirked a brow teasingly, a grin pulling at the edge of his lips again. It wasn't in his nature to be too serious for too long. He had no intention of going grey like his sisters, or his dad.

He craned his head in the direction of the vendor, with all the bodies milling about it was going to be much of a muchness as far as the jostling risk. Looking back and forth to the height difference between them, he made a counter offer. "How 'bout th' girls carry this one between 'em an' we run th' interference?" At least the girls were a similar height, and if anyone slipped past the wolves, well good luck to them, the cattle dogs weren't shy about using their teeth. Either way, he'd be happy to take her lead.

"I haven' seen Halo in a while," he mentioned with a tip of his head as he took in the many unfamiliar faces around the place. "Th' market's changed a bit recently, I hear you guys 'ave a new leader?" Politics... wasn't really his thing. His mother had said something about a giant blue guy and the old warlord retiring to the Hallows... It was only as he was standing here that he realised maybe the word of his impending nieces and nephews hadn't made it this far. He spoke as they wandered between the stalls, delivering her wares. "M' sister's... boyfriend? I guess? Came from 'ere. They're expectin' pups soon. D'yer reckon I'd be able ter sneak 'em up fer a visit once they've got their legs?" He realised he had been speaking quite a bit at this point, and as they approached their final destination, he was worried he might have imposed himself on the woman.

"speech"

-1512/1500-