With the customers long gone, the concerted efforts of Maria and Eran had finally undone the chaos and disorganization that they inevitably had left in their wake. The chairs were re-aligned, the fingerprints wiped off, and the mud mopped up.

Maria sighed. Her shop was at peace once more, at least until the morning onslaught, when the whole painful ordeal would begin anew. "All right." She said, smiling a bit to herself. She was exhausted, but at the same time, her mind was buzzing with excess adrenaline from a long day of haggling, fast-talking, and general salesmannery. Selling furniture in the countryside was a simple, quiet pleasure, but selling the same at the heart of civilization - the capital city of Anaxas? For Maria, it was a rush the likes of which she had rarely felt outside combat.

She turned to Eran. "I dunno about you, but I could use some serious unwinding." She took a sip of her now-cold coffee. "Got any ideas?"

"Dunno, really. As bad as it is, I don't go out too much. You got a favorite place? I think going out's the best idea at this time of day for unwinding. Today was a madhouse."


((dialogue for the win! I don't wanna describe thinggggssss. Pff.))

"It really was a madhouse, wasn't it. Anyhow, I've only been to one bar since I got back to the city, and it's a bit . . . poncy for my tastes. Ugh. Perhaps we'll find somewhere suitably seedy. Care for a stroll and a roll?"

((You know who else never wrote descriptions? Shakespeare. And you know who wrote lots of descriptions? Hitler. Yeah. I heard that somewhere.))

((Seriously though, I can't keep this up. I had such trouble writing a post without descriptions, it's not even funny. I don't know how The Bard did it.))

"As long as it's not too seedy. I managed to get mugged twice last week in the same night. They didn't get anything; well, I didn't have anything, but still. Happy medium?"

((Continue with no description for the win! WE ARE SHAKESPEARE))

((The whole reason I'm here is to diversify and refine my writing skills. I suppose we'll call this a literary experiment. Let's see if I crash and burn . . . ))

"Let's try our luck down this way, then. Even if we don't find anything, a moonlit roll is rarely a terrible thing, right? I'm sure we can think a something relaxing to talk about, as long as we're lookin'. Tell me a story a' yer travels, and then I'll tell ya one a' mine."

"Mmm...I dunno if my travels have been any good for stories. I've been all over the cities here on deliveries, and once I got all the way out to Mugroba for one. That paid quite a bit, really. Didn't complain about all the extra water I had to bring. How's about you go first, hmm? Sure you've got better ones than me."

"Very well, very well. Hmm, what's a good one then. How about this one: One time, I was trying to get from Destelagne back to Anaxas, and one of the wicks I was traveling with suggested I sail by boat. That young wick has yet to be brought to justice for this crime, but I'll get him one day, oh yes indeed. In any case, I was rolling and sliding, slipping and flipping. Twice I nearly rolled overboard. In the end I simply nailed my chair to the floor and spent the rest of the voyage stationarily seasick."

"Urgh. Sounds awful. Yanno, I don't think I've ever been on a boat. That's odd to think of. Oh, wait! I was on one once. Mugroba. The river was terrible that day, though, and everybody got seasick. The trouble with me and stories of my travels is that I'm a poor ex-soldier, current deliveryman. Don't see that much doing that."

(( SFSR! You waited so loooooong.))
((YANNO WHAT--oh, nevermind, edited. I had to throw off the one before, sorry. Mom made me get off the comp.))

((Hey Elena, I think that's a bit too short for a short response. There needs to be something that Maria can respond to.))

"Psh. If you haven't collected some good stories soldierin', then yer doin it wrong. Back in my day, I remember one time this idiot young rectruit. Named Stedrik or somethin . . . We were still in trainin', an' he fergot ta feed his blackback one night. Hooee. See, the thing ya gotta remember 'bout blackbacks is that they're carnivores. So the next mornin', we all set out, an' halfway through the day's ride, his chroven decides he's hungry an' tries ta eat his packed lunch. Stedrik - the lunch - had some minor objections to this plan, ya understand. The damn-fool sonofabitch got his arm bit clean off at the elbow before we managed to pull him away. Course, lucky bastard he was, he got it grown back in a week."

"Ah, but I didn't have a chrove. And a ton of my memory is still muddled, unfortunately. Fell on my head. Wait a second...you can grow them back?! Come ON! I apparently don't warrant much of anything. All I can remember is really the river. The first night in Mugroba, I really just remember not being able to sleep. I went outside of the tent, and sat out by the water for the longest time. Was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Where have you been to, anyway? Anywhere outside Anaxas?"

"Yeah, when they get real good, healers can do just about anything - even bring back the dead, if they get there fast enough. Now, what they can't do is undo the crummy work of a bad healer, hence the chair. Anyhow, I've been all about. Every corner of Anaxas, and a couple corners of a few foreign nations. Mugroba, Bastia, Hesse, Hox - Wherever the wind took me, I suppose. Everywhere has got it's wonders and it's horrors. Except Hatcher territory, of course. They've only got the one."

"I'm sure there's something wonderful about hatchers...that is, until they eat you. Are we getting to somewhere soon? I've had some, umm, experiences with just walking. Not good ones. Reminds me, I need to get another knife. Dropped mine last week."

((this is so late, aggh))