S & S [Lilithia]

Farid was scouring the market, as a keen transporter, whenever he visited a country away from Balbaad, he would have to compare the markets. He had vast knowledge of all the markets within Balbaad, from spices to iron to slaves and 'service' markets, legal or not. His eyes glazed the products and while accounting the margins for transportation, nothing stood out to him in the markets, not even if he could access the direct lines of supply.

Well even if he wasn't going to make a quick buck here, he managed to stumble onto something he would quite enjoy. A local winery brewed locally in Reim. If this was quality stuff he could post it for markup back in Balbaad, but that was just him fooling himself. Farid was practically salivating at the idea of wetting his whiskers.

Walking straight up to the stall, a small wooden stand in front of the winery with a small woven banner to label the goods found at this market, he struck up a small conversation with the stall's attendant, who was eager to let Farid sample some wares as there weren't many prospects looking to purchase his stuff.

A chilled supply was poured into a small goblet, an aroma filled the vicinity momentarily. It had a sweet scent, and the velvet red color had allowed him to deduce it was a fruit wine, perhaps berries or or one of few fruits.

He swirled it around, making eye contact with the vendor momentarily, before passing the alcohol down in a second. "Ah this reminds me of a great steak dinner. Now this is made for a feast. You ever been served a meal in Balbaad? Not from just a market stall like this one, but a one at a royal palace. Not that there is any more royalty any more there!" He laughed at the possibly taboo subject without a care in the world, befriending the merchant. Now, he was leading straight into small talk to wear down the merchant mentally while also measuring him up and calculating just how much he could make selling this wine back in Balbaad.

After spending several days in the foreign country, Lilithia was able to adapt to the weather despite of the difference that it had with the weather in her home country, finally. As a body manipulation user, making her own skin to get used to the weather might be an easy thing, but the blue haired girl preferred to just using her natural adaptability skill rather than making things to be that easy for herself. There was another reason for that actually, she preferred to keep her stamina and went into some kind of rough situation rather than wasted it all. The Imuchakk brought herself to the market, busiest area in the country it seems as there was so many people walking around, bringing goods on their back. However one place piqued her interest because of the good that they sold, dragonfruit wine, something that she never heard before. There were not many fruits that they could eat in their country, mostly because of their harsh freezing terrain that caused it.

Lilithia maneuvered herself to the stall, licking her lips because she was curious about how it would taste and stopped for a bit just in front of the sign. It was quite small so not many people could notice, however it said that the King found the dragonfruit wine itself and made it into the signature goods originally made from local wine brewer. The Imuchakk was quite startled because of the laugh from this random person… that might be drunk. He was mocking the structure of this country and compared it with another country it seemed, but the blue haired woman didn’t really care a lot about that kind of topic, politics was not her interest anyways. “Excuse me.” The blue haired woman called the seller but she didn’t wait until the seller gave his attention to her, “I want a glass of this dragonfruit wine, please.” She gave the seller a smile when he looked at her, startled maybe because of her unusual height but no one except the man could tell what he felt when he got those red cheeks. She would see an empty seat near the drunk man’s table but she didn’t hesitate to sit on it even a bit, he didn’t scare her like he scared some people around with his appearance and attitude.

The merchant had seemed to serve the woman a glass from the same bottle as himself. The dragonfruit wine was quite delectable, perhaps he could rebrand it if he were to bring it back to Balbaad, perhaps even in the hometown of Reim itself. "I'll have a bottle of the stuff."

The merchant went and fetched a fresh bottle of the stuff, and set it before him eagerly, before stepping away once more. This bottle was fully corked, and he hit the base of the bottle with his palm a few times, agitating the gas inside, which in turn slowly expels the cork. He smiles once the cork is exposed as he drives his thumb into it and a wisp leaves the opened bottle as he pours himself a glass. Lifting the full goblet into the air. "I propose a toast!" Then he pauses for a moment. "Cheers to hell!" He pauses again, and offering his glass. "May the destination be as great as the the journey." As he clinks your glass, he gulps down a good portion of the glass. "The name is Farid Issah." A clearly Balbaadian name if you were to know anything about the country. "You must be from Imu-land, ain'tcha?" He looks up and down your body. "I mean, the blue hair doesn't even seemed dyed."

The blue haired woman chuckled before sipping some of the dragonfruit wine to her mouth, letting it to reach her throat. The Fanalis didn’t seem to be taken aback by Lilithia since he just proposed a toast and clink her glass, all of that was without any hesitation. She would put down her glass on the table before resting her arm on the table, just beside the glass only to put her chin on her palm. Her sapphire eyes were locking their gaze right towards the rubies which were scanning her up and down, “Quite a challenger to this place called hell, aren’t you?” She said it in a mocking way, but not once she decided to look away from the man. “Hmmm… My name is Lilithia Galavant, can you guess where I came from based from my name?” The answer was totally obvious though since the man could have guessed from her figure and her hair color, however the woman wanted to play a little bit since the man didn’t look boring at all. “…and you? Perhaps you came from this country named Balbadd or even Heliohapt…?”

Lilithia took her wine glass and start to sip them before gulping all of the liquid, she would lick her lips to feel the aftertaste of the wine and then grabbed the bottle to pour the dragonfruit wine to her glass. “Hmmm… you don’t seem like one of my kind… are you human… or those red haired beast?”

Farid grinned as the woman seemed to enjoy his company, her laughter reaching his ears. His eyes observed every piece of her posture, seeing the weight of her face pressed against her chin. Farid explained a bit of that he was from Balbaad and what he liked about it, following up with a reply. ."Nah. I never met someone from Imuchakk before, but I could tell ya was an Imuchakk right as I seen ya. Breasts. Never seen a woman with a set like that. Means you gotta be from the North." His lips never stopped smiling even when she made her sarcastic remark, then brought his drink to his lips, savoring its sweetness.

He nodded for a moment, looking at Lilithia finish her drink and replenish her glass with his bottle. "Well, I'm honored, I've never been paid such a compliment before." Farid's laugh echo'd as he kept a relatively straight face. "I'm really just one smart monkey." His hand grabbed his bottle, pulling it closer to him, making her reach if she wanted another glass.

Lilithia could only stare towards the man when he mentioned about her bosom, then bursting into laughter as she found it amusing. “Ive never meet a man as straightforward as you, or could it be that you are just a pervert by nature?” The Imuchakk chuckled again, couldn’t seem able to stop laughing. “I am pretty sure some other woman from any other race has same set as mine as well, so perhaps that reason was not really reliable. Oh well, at least it is amusing and yes I came from Imuchakk.” The woman would cross her arms and leaned back against the chair before lifting her left leg to rest on the other leg. After that, she would start to scan the man up and down, still curious about his backstory. But she was distracted when Farid grabbed the bottle and pulled it closer to him, signaling that it was his and not hers. Without even waiting or saying anything to the Fanalis, Lilithia would ask the owner to give her another 3 bottles of the dragonfruit wine. Once the bottles were delivered to the table, she would grab one of it and placed it close to the Fanalis, “My treat, now tell me more about Balbadd…and yourself, what are you doing in this country? How do you manage to blend in the society even though you came from different race?”

Farid welcomed the fresh batch of alcohol before him, and received the gift with open arms. Palming the bottle of the dragonwine, and bringing it off the table, and into a worn-out leather sack he had been carrying. Such a display of independence was certainly welcome.

"Ah yes, of course." He bowed his head, "And thanks for the wine. Anyways, let me tell you a bit about Balbaad, so you can really grasp what was going on. Once upon a time there was a very selfish king. And all those who were also selfish prospered. One of these prosperous men was known as Abba. Quite intelligent, he knew the value of labor, and as such, he was a bonder," He cleared his throat, "That's a slaver. However, the best slaves such as the Fanalis and the Imuchakk." His lips curled, amused by his statement and realized his openness must have come from the gratuitous imbibing with his new company. "But since they are so strong and intelligent, they are hard to capture and detain. So he came up with another way to get slave labor. He went through the forests and had used beast tamers to train some monkeys. Shaved 'em, made'm proper and put them on the market. Now here I am, a free monkey from Balbaad."

Even if the story wasn't quite how he had come to this point in his life, there was definitely truth mixed in with his tale. He smiled and took a final glass of the alcohol to make sure he would take a step he would regret.

Farid Issah was eerily silent for a moment, but he was still calm and smiling. He turned to you, laughing subtly to himself, giving you a chance to speak, but not pressing the issue of conversation.

Turned out, there was so many things about this world that Lilithia had yet to know but to be able to travel across the world would require a blessing from their chief, but it wouldn’t be easy to get the agreement. Perhaps by exploring the world, she could visit this country of magic called Magnostadt that she heard as a place that had a lot of experiment conducted inside. Maybe they could have some kind of answer to the question that the Imuchakk had been looking for and probably she could finally free her father from that eternal ice so she could get her revenge. However perhaps she should visit Balbadd as her next stop when she got her permission to go into more adventures.

“Slavers…” The blue haired woman murmured as she continued to tentatively listen to what Farid had to say, recalling on what people of her tribe always warned her about the slavers. People liked Fanalis and Imuchakk or even a unique person just like how they were interested in exotic animal. As one of the Imuchakk tribesman that was holding her pride close to heart, the blue haired woman didn’t really like to be controlled. She was more into the person who would rather be controlling someone, treating her like a pet and of course giving them love.

Her lips began to form a sultry smile when the Fanalis mentioned that he was a free monkey from Balbadd, perhaps those scars was the price for being a free monkey. “So you were someone’s pet before?” She said while leaning her body close to the table before she reach for her own wine bottle and pour the liquid to her glass. The now filled glass would be taken by her hand and she would move her glass a little bit, swirling it before taking the glass close to her nose so she could smell the fine aroma. “This wine is lovely.” She said as she inhaled the aroma but she would pull away the glass away but still holding it with her fingers. “It would be nice if you can be my pet though, however I realize that wouldn’t suit you. A man like you wouldn’t like to be controlled under a woman like me, especially if you have some king of pride and dignity between yourself. Cheers…” The woman hold her wine glass and clinked it to Farid’s glass before sipping the wine slowly.

Farid looked at Lilithia, nodding every so often as she spoke. He stood up and packed up his things. His eyes glanced at hers for a moment, then he turned away. "No one can own me." It was uncertain as to where he was looking, his arms on his hips now, and then turning to the horizon. "In fact, I'm going to own everything. I'm gonna make a trading company so I can own the goods, so I can become a king, so I can own the people, and then I'll have to become a god to own everything else." He spoke quite matter-of-factly. "If you want to join me..."

He left, assuming she could figure out what his offer was.

[EXIT]

The woman didn’t even look at the man as he was leaving, slowly sipping her glass of wine and let out a satisfied sigh after it. Joining the man could be fun and she could get the chance to travel more but she too, had the same answer when the man said he wanted to become a God to own everything else. No one can own her, not even her father, it was only her will that made her willing to stay in the tribe. Another reason was because of her respect towards her chieftain, Asisiak. However not even the great chief could own her as well, once again, it was simply because she wanted it. She would stay in the stall until she finished her glass before paying for all the stuff that she bought and took the one remaining bottle so she could enjoy it for later tonight, then she would head to the inn so she could get some rest.

[EXIT]