It had been a while since Kiva had been home. She'd only been back for several hours now, having arrived on an earlier vessel, and it was amazing how familiar and unfamiliar everything was all at once, to see how things had both changed and not-changed. There were a few new shops that had sprung up and ones that were no longer there; there were new faces and new smells--and oh, goodness, how she'd missed the smell of spice and pineapple and fish! The mainland was so flavorless compared to home, the dishes bland and boring.
After browsing around for a bit, the next order or business was filling her belly with some real food!
Tucking some white hair back under her head-scarf, she headed toward her favorite haunt, a small tea-house that also served a variety of foods--mostly Thanati, but they also served a few meatless Serenian meals with a Thanati twist that made the stuff actually taste good. Ah, if only the mainland designed their dishes that way...
Kiva had no trouble maneuvering her way through the throng of people, having grown up here and grown accustomed to it. There was an art to it! Of course, there were also rude people about that put kinks in that, like a woman bent beneath a shoulder pole supporting two swinging baskets on either side of her.
Kiva was too busy looking around her to notice the woman, or to notice other people swerving out of the way. The only warning she got was a barked, "Watch it!" before one of those baskets smacked her in the side, making her grunt and topple sideways, straight into a tattooed foreigner.
Instinctively, Kiva grabbed onto him to try and support herself, but in the end she only wound up taking them both down.