RP:Growing Pumpkins and Tension?
Part of the Keeping A Promise Arc
Summary: Irenic and Emilia have been enjoying their own little world with being newlyweds with three teenage triplets and two toddlers on their farm, Snazzy Swine Acres. Due to this, they have been out of the loop with the current tribulations facing the vast lands of Venturil and they get a rude awakening on a trip to the local market.
Main Street
The street here is fully restored, with the vendor stalls refurbished and refilled. New merchants have set up their wares, and the folk of Venturil once more barter and argue over the prices. Tobar remains and, having sworn his oath of fealty to the King, has been granted his own stall, upon which he proudly displays his list, finish each transaction with a cheerful, ‘Gods bless the king!’ From a shop build below the street level, smoke rises, along with the clang of metal on metal, marking where a new smithy has opened. To the west, the Venturil’s housing district stretches outward, while a prosperous inn stands to the east. Just south of the vendors’ stalls stands Castle Venturil, dominating the landscape, while northward lies the rest of the city, and the gates.
Missing Family Posters is here.
Irenic and Emilia has been enjoying the newlywed life with their full house and humble farm. They grow what they can, mostly for themselves and sell whatever they cannot use, but since the farm isn't their livelihood, the Leteir's have not noticed the low crop yields as of late. Or the fact that they have a few less neighbors and the increase in theft taking place at the markets in the byrgs. The couple have been in their own blissful little world as they navigate around small obstacles; like when the triplets got the infant twins' little feet stuck in concrete for a thoughtful gift. Today is a simple trip to the market to shop for seeds to plant come spring and they meander past some missing persons posters, but Irenic becomes distracted by a packet of seeds to address Emilia, "ooo, what do you think about planting pumpkins this year?" The arm that was draped over the shoulders of his much shorter wife untangles itself from her to pick up the packet and inquire about the price, although he is caught off guard by a weird look the vendor is giving Emilia. "Uh… you okay?" The person blinks a couple times as if waking from a trance and kindly completes the transaction, leaving Irenic a little weary as his solid silvery eyes scan the area around them.
Emilia walks side by side with her husband on their walk from the farm down to the local market in the city. With her head resting on his side and arm around her shoulders the mother of five is in a peaceful moment of daydream allowing him to guide the pair. The city previously and now called home again bringing old memories to the surface of when the triplets were little toddling up and down the market stalls. A blessing they are grown into young teenagers able to watch over the twins so that the couple could escape for a portion of the day to spend with themselves. The missing posters are missed by the pair and the chaos befalling the city once more lost to the healer. "Pumpkins?" Em questioned the word as Irenic's statement only partly registered as her focus came back to the present day. "I believe pumpkins would classify as a vegetable. Usually orange in shape. They can be baked for pumpkin chips, pureed into a mash for the twins, the seeds can be dried out into a snack, turned into pies, and fed to the animals…You know the orange things with the little divets and green stems?" All the while Emilia is trying to explain with her hands what a pumpkin is to her husband. Clearly, misinterpreted his pumpkin question for seeds to grow next year into a question about what one was. All the while her gaze has been caught by the local vendor Tabor across the way. An odd moment of a long distance staring contest happening during her answer to her husband.
Irenic grins down at his wife and her explanation of what a pumpkin is and not whether she'd like to crow them on their farm. He lets her thoroughly explain the vegetable and concludes with a nod, "it sounds like someone is going to love having pumpkins in the fall. Plus, we can hold a pumpkin carving contest at the farm and try to enter our biggest and best one in the local fall festival here in town." The streets seem oddly quiet and the avian is just now noticing this as his gaze catches on more missing persons posters and not just a few - he is seeing tens, possibly hundreds of different missing persons posters. A tinge of panic rolls down the center of his back and that familiar heat from his wings threaten as he suddenly realizes the kids are home alone, "should we get back?" The tone in his voice is much more serious now and he nods to the posters decorating all the posting boards, even most of the outside walls to the establishments on main street.
Emilia finally blinks, breaking contact with Tobar as Irenic’s suggestion of a contest involving pumpkins clicks into place. “I think it would be a lovely idea to have pumpkins at the farm and a contest on carving them. Have to be mindful to limit the use of magic with that. Liam has been rather touchy of late with his lack of any magical abilities that everyone else seems to have in the home,” she stated matter-of-factly with a sour expression crossing her features thinking she is the one to blame somehow for him not having any gifts of the sort. The serious tone to his voice following his comment of returning home is greeted not by the Genasi, but by Tobar instead, “I thought I told you to stay at home, Emilia. It isn’t safe for your kind to be out in the city.” His tone was just as serious if not more commanding to leave. The vendor then turned his gaze up toward Irenic, “She never listened back then. I don’t suppose she will ever listen. Keep her and her wildlings at home or better yet, get them out of this city..” his voice was laced with concern for only the mother and children. He showed no qualms against Irenic being out, but didn’t otherwise give way to why he wasn’t marked as unsafe to be in the city. Short lived conversation as Tobar quickly returned back to his stall. Closer inspection of the missing posters would reveal that all of them included at least one, if not all, the children of a family. While a few sported a single parent with a child missing, usually the mother. The few that had male parents were of known single fathers missing with their offspring. “I think we should stock up on materials for the farm before heading home,” Em finally replied after a lingering silence post input from Tobar.
Irenic grins at Tobar, "that's my short stack, can't tell her nothing." He wouldn't have it any other way and it is evident on his expression as he looks down at his wife with adoration. "Hey I don't have any wild abilities like all of you either. Sure, I've got my wings, but I am just a warrior at heart… and it isn't like I can even really control the flames from my wings." Although there was that time he saved Emilia with a ball of fire, but that was a fluke. He considers sending her home to let him do the rest of the shopping and he will be following her shortly, but even more panic tingles up and down his spine as he recalls the countless times she's been kidnapped, one of them even being his fault. "Let's make it quick. I will even pick Liam up an actual sword today and we can start sparring for real. This time he drapes his arm around his wife's shoulders to keep her close out of protection along with the cutesy stuff, but mostly protection this time.
Emilia couldn’t be happier knowing her husband wasn’t about to try to change who she was, the smile that lit up her face at his words were proof. It was a briefly lived moment of a smile pending the tension that had arisen within the city in the span of an explanation of what a pumpkin was. Sliding her arm around his waist she turned to shop with him and make the best of the afternoon away from the farm. It could be all the past instances of trouble that the healer had found herself in that left her outwardly appearing as if this wasn’t a dangerous time. It could also be the nature of the healer showing no panic to keep those watching her at peace and lessen their worry. Or it could be both with an extra splash of feeling well protected at her husband’s side. “I think Liam would enjoy that, but I think there is more to you than just your wings of fire that he is envious of,” she stated while poking him gently in the side, “I think he would very much enjoy a real sword, but you know then Leo is going to want one. And Lynn has asked me to see if we can find a spool of spider silk thread. Not sure what she needs that for, but I think it will have to come from a trip away from Venturil.” The Genasi had slid almost triple of their usual buy items into the basket she carried and ordered extra seeds with strange names from a herbal stand. Appearing calm while buying extras was a task in and of itself, but then adding the strange stares from people leaving or entering the tavern would lead her to question Irenic, “Do I have food on my face?”
Irenic cannot think of anything else the young man might be envious of and just shrugs with a boisterous chuckle, but how it rings through the street and echoes off the emptiness makes the pit in his stomach grow deeper. "Leo is more of an ax man I think, but I agree- I think we need to teach them some survival skills and self defense." The avian also tries to put on a facade of calm coolness on the outside no matter how much these villages are burning a hole through his wife with their lingering stares. "So, we will just make a list and make a little trip so they can pick out their items of choice while Lynn can buy up all the best spider silk thread her heart desires." Even though he cannot see the unease, he can sense it from Emilia and his hand idly rubs over the fabric to her clothes covering the spot between her shoulder blades. Suddenly, home isn't feeling like home. "Hm…" he steps around and faces her, hopefully breaking some of the stares, "let me see." With both of his hands gently cupping her cheeks while his thumbs softly caress the apple of them, he lifts her face to look up at him. The teeth of his smile can be seen through the short beard hairs and his gaze locks with her own, "only those adorable freckles, my short-stack… are we good with the shopping? How about we fly home?" It has been a while since his wings have been out and the more they stay in town the more his spine is starting to burn.
Emilia only managed a heart swooning smile back up at Irenic as he cupped her face to check for left behind food bits. Luckily, she had remembered to clean her face after breakfast with the twins this morning. Glancing down to the basket she held the healer took a stock count of everything she had purchased on the trip. She counted it three times, pausing to make mental calculations with her face scrunched into different faces while thinking, before making her final decision on his question on if the shopping was finished for today. “I can meet you at home. I am not in the mood for flying with all these wares that need to make it safely home. I should also make a pop in to the local healer to see if they need any extra stock of items during this time. It won’t take long,” Em started with a bright smile up to her husband. She could sense his need to release his wings and to be back home to make sure all five of the children were still at home and more or less in the same state they were before they left home.
Irenic watches his wife's face shift adorably as she considers the items they have and looks visibly relieved when she says it is time to go. After slipping his shirt off to hand to Emilia, he takes a few steps back and looks around to make sure nothing will be in the line of fire. "Alright, but if you see a weird flying creature tracking your movements until you get home, pay him no mind," he adds a wink as his large wings whoosh out in a glorious flame. He closes the distance between him and Emilia quickly to say, "almost forgot," before planting a meaningful kiss on her lips while taking some of the items off her load to carry before backing up once more. With one forceful beat of his wings, he is launched up into the gray skies of Venturil and heading home to check on the kids. Afterwards, he would patrol the skies as Emilia makes her way home.
Emilia returned the kiss allowing herself to be distracted by him that she didn’t notice him taking a portion of the goods to fly home with him. A brief giggle as Em shook her head, “I will make sure to not get so lost in thought about the flying creature tracking me that I wander off in the wrong direction.” The Genasi paused in place long enough to watch as her husband flew off into the skies with a direct route to the farm before turning on heel to make her quick visit to the healer. With a short conversation and a list tucked into her basket Emilia left to head for home at a slow pace while within the city under the watch of the citizens. Outside the city proper it was a fast paced walk the rest of the way to ease her husband’s worry that she took too long to get back. Of course, once or thrice she may have been momentarily distracted by the fiery wings of her husband overhead. In the end, Emilia would for once in her many journeys make it home without incident.