Topic: Time Spent

Sjira

Date: 2008-03-07 22:53 EST
The day had been busy with the Fisherwoman, starting with grumblings and ending with hugs of farewell. With enough time to spend an hour with Althrae for lessons in dance that had left the small woman smelling as if she had been far too long upon the docks.

S'jira offered a light smile to the few that she knew in the common room of the inn but apology was also in the darkness of eyes. The smell of old fish and the sweat of dance on her was not something she wanted any find of her.

Light on sandalled feet, the small woman's pace had picked up as she moved down the hall. Touch soon met with the handling of the door of Panther's room and brought it open. Curious eyes spent about the room imediate before she slipped inside. As he wasn't back yet from duty, errand, or else she would have time to bathe and, with hopes, scrub the smells of the day from her.

With the door closed, she unwound the black sash from about her waist and slipped the brown dress off. Both were dropped into a basked within the bathing room. As the water was drawn, hot and clean with salts added, she bent and unwrapped the leather ties of her sandals from about her shins and calves. Each sandal was neatly set beside the door inside the bathing room.

When she stood, it was within that doorway. The darkness of her eyes passed over every detail of the room and drank it in with care and curiosity - as if it had never been seen before. But these things were but items of focal as her thoughts were upon Panther.

A good scrubbing of self and washing of her hair and he was still with her. In her thoughts, in her very heart and soul. She smiled and brought the towel against her in distracted thought to think of that first day within the common room, of him tending the fire. Her head lowered to recall his words of not sleeping within the common room and she smiled against to remember the ruddy light of the fire against his fur..and in feline eyes.

Vigorously, she dried her skin and hair before adding the toweling cloth to the basket with her dirty clothes. She returned the lid of the basket atop and moved into the room and passed his chair. From the dresser, one of her dresses was taken from its folded rest where it was on its surface and pulled it over her head, shifting it into place. Fingers combed through her damp, dark hair that was nearly as black as her gaze from the water in it. Except for that single, pale lock she was conscious of from time to time. As it was remembered, fingers captured it and tucked it as much beneath the other, dark ones and behind her right ear.

Her thoughts rarely drifted too far from Panther, even as she moved across the room. A shiver took her from bare feet against the flooring and took from the bed one of its smaller, lighter covers to draw about her shoulders until the chill passed.

Blanketed shoulder met the framing of the window and small form leaned against it to spend those restful moments watching out the window.

Sjira

Date: 2008-03-08 22:23 EST
From the window in Panther's room, she watched the courtyard below. Flagstone and cobble were pathways there with foliage that refused to leave the area too bare, even in Winter. At the heart of the courtyard was a pool of water.

Even at that hour and the cold of the evening, it drew the small woman's attention enough to turn and seek out her boots. The sandals simply had not been warm or sufficient protection from the snow. She brought the boots out of the corner and pulled them onto her bare feet. The brown dress with its sleeves was made of a soft wool, thick and heavy in its weave, but she sought out her other one from the top of the dresser and pulled it about her. The leather ties were criss-crossed down the boddice of it and tied off near her waist. All of the actions stirring the soft scent of spiced oil she had put on her skin after the bath -- ones that Panther had bought for her months ago. Then she draped the blanked over the back of Panther's chair before moving out the door of his room.

Down the steps into the common room below, she stepped towards the main door long enough to slip her plain, brown cloak from its peg and pulled it about her shoulders. She offered a nod to the few that were there, and a couple more patrons making their way n the front door even as she wove a path through the room and towards the hall at the back of the inn.

There was no hurry about her as that door was drawn open and she closed it behind her. The ends of sun tinted fingers slipped away from the rough surface of the door to tend the panel of the inornate cloak to keep it in near self. In doing so, she brushed a finger against the cat's eye pendant worn and let it linger there in distraction.

Dark eyes took in the area that she never thought of. With over a year's time in the realm and yet she had never stepped foot within the inn's courtyard. From the outer side of the door, she felt the cold of the encroaching night and looked out to the courtyard. Snow flakes drifted down here and there in an elegant, errant dance of pale glitter and drew a smile from her.

Small feet within the warmth of boots were light in their steps, moving along the flagstone path that led towards the center where the pool of water was. It seemed fresh and despite the cold, the center of it was unfrozen, though along its circling edge a scant ring of ice and layer of snow had accumalated.

S'jira stood a long while in the area, watching the reflections of the building and the sky in the water. Thoughts again with her of Panther while she did and left to smile because of them.

Small steps, circumstance, and much happenstance had brought them to where they were. And still all was so very tentative and new. She shivered with the dampness of her hair and the cold about her, enough to remind her among her thoughts to bring the hood of the plain cloak up over her head. As touch lowered from the hem of the cowl, she watched it and turned it over to see a few snowflakes fall into the palm of it.