As the merchant's wagon train (not as impressive as the term sounded, as it was only two wagons) rolled into Reajh, one plain, round-faced girl sat at the front of the second wagon, beside the driver, and quietly surveyed the city. Unlike a lot of girls from rural areas coming into a city of this side for the first time, she wasn't bouncing in her seat, squeaking, or oohing and ahhing. Aurain wasn't really one for that sort of thing. She was bouncing a little in her seat, but that was because this particular road into the city was cobblestone, and it made the wagon itself bounce in a not entirely comfortable manner. She did watch very intently, and her mouth was slightly open at the sight of all these people and buildings, but other than that, she was quite controlled.
The wagon driver leaned over and murmured to her helpfully, "You're gaping. Any much more and you might be drooling."
Her mouth snapped shut almost immediately, and she shot the man a mock glare. While she wouldn't consider him a friend, she did like Caoir, and had gotten close enough to him on the journey from Kend to Reajh that she was comfortable giving him looks that silently promised painful retaliation. He just laughed, shaking his head. "I don't blame you. It's a beautiful city, you know. Grew up not far from here, and I always wished that I actually did live here."
"Yeah, it makes you a lot more interesting to girls when you come from Reajh 'stead of plain ol' Wind'aven," she responded, her glare turning quickly to a smile, slightly mocking.
"Okay, I'm going to ignore the majority of that comment and just say that I do not romance girls. I'm interested in women, I'll have you know."
Other girls might have responded with And I'm not interesting? Aurain didn't. She wasn't one for flirting or coyness - she just rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. Not the most mature of answers, perhaps, but she didn't need maturity with Caoir. He was hardly the most mature of people himself, despite being nearly ten years older than her.
The wagon in front of them came to an abrupt halt, and Caoir, paying more attention to Aurain than the wagon in front of him, completely missed it. Thankfully, the horse exhibited a bit more intelligence than the wagon driver and stopped by itself a short distance behind the first wagon, snorting derisively and flicking an ear back at Caoir in an almost scornful fashion. If, that is, horses could feel such complex emotions as scorn, which Aurain rather doubted. Thian, the driver of the first wagon - as well as the merchant who owned both of them - jumped down quickly from the seat, striding back toward the second wagon, Caoir and Aurain.
"Alright, girl. This is where you get off, and you're on your own from here. Also, you still owe me twenty coppers for the ride." If Caoir was someone Aurain liked, even if not a friend... Thian was the opposite of that. Aurain wasn't one to cultivate enemies, but Thian came very, very close.
"I do not," she said, climbing down carefully from the wagon seat - she'd fallen from the wagon often enough that she rather didn't want to do it again on these hard cobblestone streets. She might break something. "The deal was twenty coppers, an' I paid you that on the way in."
"It was twenty at the start, and twenty after," Thain insisted, and Aurain merely fixed him with a flat, disgusted look. Now she realized why her mother always complained about merchants and how they were trying to cheat her out of her money. Caoir might be the only exception in the world, and he didn't particularly count in Aurain's eyes.
"It was not, you're lying, and I'm leaving," she said, reaching up calmly to grab her bag full of clothing and not much else out of the wagon. "Goodbye, Caoir."
"Be careful," Caoir cautioned, and then added almost as an afterthought, "Goodbye."
Thian stood there, simply looking shocked that she'd so flatly ignored his request, and perhaps that Caoir didn't seem to back him in the least.
Aurain turned her back and walked off, bag slung over her shoulder. Men and women passed by, jostling her a little, but Aurain was a big girl, not easily shouldered aside, and while she gave a few irritated looks as they bumped her, she mostly ignored it and kept walking, meanwhile trying not to look around too much, trying not to look like some out-of-town bumpkin. Perhaps she should have looked around more, because it didn't take even fifteen minutes before she stopped, frowning, as she realized she had no idea where she was, or how to get to the military academy from here.
And then Aurain swore, albeit under her breath. Anyone who had any thought that Aurain was an innocent young woman would have immediately been disabused of that notion had they been close enough to hear exactly what she said.
