Lost Souls

[DragonSong]

@Juno



Adrien was never going to let her leave the shop again.

She'd had to promise at least a dozen times that she would take care on her walks to and from the small, nearby university-- and she had been doing so, really!

...For the most part.

But she seemed to have taken a wrong turn while she'd been distracted by the lively, temporary street fair that had erected itself directly in the path of her walk home-- and how could she not stop to look at all that!-- and now she was entirely unsure which street she was on.

Or which street she needed to get to in order to get home, for that matter.

"Oh, botheration." Malina frowned and stopped her futile pacing from corner to corner of the little side street she'd somehow managed to find herself on. She'd just...ask for directions. Yes, that's what she'd do. Adrien often warned her about speaking with strangers, but he didn't know everything, surely. And she'd be careful!

"Um, excuse me?" She reached out to the first figure she managed to get to hold still enough. "I seem to find myself in a bit of trouble. I don't suppose you could help me?"

[Juno]

Business had been good the last several months, his visits to Arca becoming more frequent. Dressed in dark trousers and a midnight blue coat over a crisp, cream-colored shirt Idris made his way through the day market stalls that lined the streets. There were usually many baubles that caught his eye while browsing and he almost always made it home with plenty of presents and trinkets to share.

Turning down several side streets helped to reach the other end of the market through the crowd, but as he approached a bend in the road he noticed a woman pacing just up ahead. He moved to step around when she stopped a man a few people ahead of him and turned his head to glance at them as he kept walking.

The man she seemed to be speaking to bore a shiny, bald head and a fixed scowl upon his face for her having stopped him, the only remarkable features he noticed. He saw her mouth moving but couldn't exactly hear what she was saying. You shouldn't get involved. That was what he knew was rational, it wasn't his concern but...

She looked lost. Confused. Innocent.

"I don't got time for your trouble, lady," he heard the man growl.

He was immediately turning on his heel and hurrying back down the street the few paces necessary, reaching out to catch the stranger by the shoulder to give him a gentle shove down the street where he'd been headed all along.

"There you are!" Idris gave an easy chuckle and shook his head as though it was an everyday occurrence for him to lose her. He flashed a smile at the man who was already rolling his eyes and moving along after shrugging off his hand with a few nastily muttered words. Blessedly he hadn't been clocked for that. He was not a fighter.

The noble turned his attention to the woman, his lips dropping into a thoughtful frown instead as he raised a quizzical brow at her. "What sort of trouble are you in?" he asked warily, eyeing her up and down. It was immediately apparent that she was a grown woman after he got a look at her, not a tall girl as he'd expected. That had him looking over his shoulder briefly and his brows narrowing in thought as he fully expected her to be a part of some setup that was just going to get him robbed by lurking bandits.

[DragonSong]

Malina's eyes widened and she stared up at her unexpected rescuer-- well, possibly rescuer, out of huge, crimson orbs. "Oh, u-um..."

If she could have blushed, she would have. As it was, she ducked her eyes and hunched her shoulders a little bashfully, stepping back from him. She may be more trusting than her brother, but she wasn't totally naive. She was giving herself space to run.

"I'm afraid I'm a bit lost," she murmured after a moment. "I need to get to Dahlia street, the west end. I took a wrong turn a few streets back and I'm not familiar enough with the city to find my way back."

[Juno]

He watched her warily, narrowing his eyes slightly for the way she was already backing away. Maybe it had been a bad idea to involve himself after all. But then she was explaining her situation and it made sense enough to him. She was probably new to the city, just didn't have her bearings yet. He couldn't quite fault her for that, it was a big place and seemed to be changing constantly as it was between his own visits.

"Ah, Dahlia?" With a glint of recognition in his eyes Idris turned his head again to look over his shoulder, laying out a mental map of the city as he tried to picture where they were in relation to the street she was trying to get to. He lifted an arm to gesture vaguely and then point more firmly in the general direction of an unhelpful straight shot once he'd settled on it in his mind.

"It's that way. We're a ways southeast of it here." He turned to face the direction he'd come from initially. "Just follow this down until you can take a left, then take the third street on the right -just be careful there are a few dead ends that aren't actual roads between them- and then another left two streets down and then..." He trailed off, realizing his directions might be a little much for someone who clearly didn't have a firm grasp of the the city's layout.

"I have some time... If you'd like I could walk you there?" he offered with an apologetic smile.

[DragonSong]

Malina's eyes slowly grew wider and wider as he spoke, and she nearly sagged forward in relief when he offered to walk her.

"Um, yes, actually. If you wouldn't mind, that would be wonderful." She offered a sheepish, though still grateful, smile and added quickly, "I'm sure my brother will insist on thanking you, somehow. Do you have children, perhaps?"

It didn't strike her as an odd question; Adrien made enchanted toys, if this man had children, perhaps they could gift him one for helping her.