9 November 3:10 p.m.

The cart was laden with kegs and small barrels and two baskets of apples. Cider bound for a tavern, is what most passerby thought....and some unfortunate sap without a donkey hired to pull it, as the young man shouldered the weight and rolled the cart along on his way through the marketplace.

He could see his breath rising in clouds, and feel the sweat on his brow. It was freezing. The weather had taken such a sudden turn...

...but only in perfect service, could perfection be achieved.

He paused for a break at the northern end of the marketplace, away from the fountain. Just at the edge, near a broad street, and people streamed by both ways. They did not give the cart a wide berth, especially now that it was immobile. Typical city behavior.

His lip curled in disgust. He removed a pipe from his jacket and even packed it with tobacco. He lit it, turned to the cart, picked the spot he'd been indicated to, and dropped it within. He was supposed to get several seconds to move away.

He didn't.

There was only a moment where the loose gunpowder hissed and sparked as it was lit, and when it reached the barrels packed with it almost instantaneously, it exploded violently. Very little would be left of the man, or the seven people directly by the cart. Well over a dozen more were knocked over by the blast, several seriously hurt or killed, others completely unscraped.

Before the ringing in people's ears from the deafening blast had fully lifted, the screaming began, from both panic and despair. Some fell to their knees and wailed in despair as the thick black smoke spread out from the blast.

((OOC Note — If anyone would like to reply to this, feel free! Whether in this thread, or in your own posts.))

The Marketplace had become a sort of home-away-from home for "Meria. Not only was it filled with an incredible mix of people, like the Inn itself, but it held booth after booth, vendor after vendor with beautiful, wonderful, shiny things!

The clock tower that tick, tick, ticked it's way above everything shivered in her sight suddenly. In the middle of a crowd near a booth for sweet-meats which she had been in the midst of purchasing, she found herself rocking backward as the earth literally moved. Brows furrowing atop tiny nose, "Meria only had split seconds to argue with herself over the fact she wasn't upright anymore, but flailing backwards. The silver coins in her hand flung themselves free of cherubic clutch, catching the light like the droplets she'd loved to watch from the fountain.

The vendor, an aging man whom had been reaching across his display of jerky, dried and salted meat also looked as confused as "Meria felt, and their eyes met momentarily as the little woman watched pieces of burning wood blast through several vendor displays behind him. She was also sure she saw someone's arm, not attached fly by.

It was the oddest thing; it was like everything s-l-o-w-e-d down then.

All until a large chunk of wood, jagged ended from being buckled through from something smashed into the old man.

"Meria landed on her back after and she could only watch with horrified gaze as he crumpled like arrow-pierced bird and then was sent to the side as if blown from gust of tremendous wind. Blood-splattered, but she'd had her breath rattled out of her chest from the impact.

By the time she'd gasped for air, her ears began ringing and she realized that it came from some sort of blast that had rocked her off her feet and had taken away the vendor in a blink of an eye.

Rolling over to her stomach then immediately, "Meria coughed smoke from her nose and mouth and squinted through the miasma quickly spreading in aftermath, it seemed to have passed"mean, she didn't think another one was coming by the time the screams, moans and weeping started.

Pallid and mouth tight, "Meria pushed herself up by slapping palms to the ground and shoving her rib cage away from earth, scrambling up to her knees and then eventually to a stand.

It looked like a battle field, actually. Some thing she'd only seen once and hadn't really wished she had. And in the middle of it was what she thought was an angel. Her hair was still wet, her clothes rumpled, but she was walking through the zombie-dazed bleeding or crying crowd like what "Meria thought an angel would, touching the dead and the living, murmuring softly. Her strange calm is what set her apart from the stunned disheveled panic of the crowd.

Shakily, "Meria began her way toward the woman, slip-sliding and falling multiple times in quickly darkening pools of red-turning-black. "Meria didn't bother to look twice after seeing the leg she'd landed on didn't belong to anyone anymore. She didn't make it there, however, as a woman with the right side of her face pummeled to near purple-black mass cried out at "Meria and grabbed her skirts. Flailing her arms a moment to hunker down at the woman, there were several places were blood oozed from the woman's sweater"and the short midget bending over her began digging into her pouch.

"Shh, shh. It's alright now, it's over. You should be calm now, all that fussing will make you worse. Wow, this was scary, right' But it's over now, and it's okay. Listen, my name is "Meria, what?s your name?" "Panicked wail. "Rosie" Rosie, that's a lovely name. I'm going to need to you to listen to me now, "kay Rosie?" Out of her pouch, the small woman dug out a pity amount of kerchiefs", wadding them up to press one firmly at an alarming rush of red at Rosie's stomach. "I need you to help me press real hard right there. There you go, there ya go.? High pitched voice in a croon, it warbled unsteadily.

Behind her, around her, all about her the groans, the cries, the screams and the weeping almost drowned her out.