Snippet #2341448

Maybe the man knew, or maybe he didn't. Gaerielle had no way of knowing, in all honesty. What made her even more curious was: what exactly did this man want with her? Was he calling her out just out of his personal amusement, or were there some other motives? Gaerielle held back from asking, instead, keeping up her act with several more coughs to accentuate her 'illness'. This man did not seem to yet be aware that she was acting, or maybe he simply gave up trying to figure her out - but these mattered little now. Unless the man has any motives beyond making a remark about her act, she had little to no interest in him.

Though, what he said about the box she got for free was true. Even at that point, she still had no idea what purpose the box served. As he said, it most certainly would not cook anything, nor could she sleep in it. She held the object out before her, staring at it briefly as the man continued to speak. Gaerielle did not pay him much attention, trying to feel around the box for any other buttons that could be pressed. The man left her with one final sentence, and somehow, Gaerielle felt somewhat relieved he was walking off now.

However, she did not realized he had tossed something to her and that it would come just as he was speaking. With a gasp of surprise, she stepped back, startled by the sudden impact (as small as it was) of the coin, which then proceeded to fall on the ground with a metallic clink. "You little..." she hissed as she re-composed herself. Taking several deep breaths to calm herself down, she bent down to pick up the coin that he had tossed to her. Then her emotions raged out of control and she would have tossed the coin back at the man if she had not realized that he had already disappeared.

In any case, Gaerielle was glad this man had no intentions besides either poking fun at her or... Or maybe that was his only intention. Under her hood, she was scowling as she turned to walk in the opposite direction. The crowd made way, this time due in larger part to the speed at which she stormed. She made a turn into a dark alley, and pulled down her hood, and threw the coin with all her might down the alley. The empty tin can that happened to sit along the alley got kicked along as she continued to vent her frustration from the shock.

For a moment, she was just pacing around in her little tantrum when she was interrupted by a snarl. "Little girlie, has chu, perchance, has more coins?" Gaerielle froze in her tracks, turning to see an old, crippled man in rags limping out from the darkness of the alley. His hands were grimy from goodness-knows-what, and missing some fingers. His face; Gaerielle would not bother to look at, knowing full well she was better off escaping into the crowd now. "No!" She exclaimed and with a start, she bolted back into the crowd.

Without much thinking, she dashed straight ahead in a random direction. The old man did not chase, looking at the girl as she sped into the crowd, wondering what it was that he had said or done that made her run with such abandon. Meanwhile, Gaerielle found herself in front of the inn she had earlier tried to rent a room in. She was considering whether to try again when she realized she was no longer hooded. She panicked, almost pulling the hood over her head when she realized that no one seem to recognize her.

No one averted their gaze when she looked into their eyes, no one put on a courteous half-smile and bowed when she looked at them; no one showed her the same courtesy as they would with any member of the Nobility! Most importantly, no one recognized that she was the Princess of Theonandias who was to wed their own Prince. She thought back to her handmaiden, with whom she had swapped places in order to escape out of the Palace. However, she did not linger long on that thought, almost pulling off her cloak when she remembered she was still wearing her dress.

People may not already recognize her from her face alone, but seeing her dress and it's intricacies, they were likely to realize that. She kept her cloak on as she walked into the inn with as much poise and elegance as she could muster. She arrived just as the innkeeper passed a male patron his key. "Could I have a room for a night, please?" She asked.

"Perfect timing, my lady, we have one last room just for you. For a night, it would be 10 coins."

She smiled as she reached into her pouch, picking out ten coins for the innkeeper.

"Wonderful, here's your key. To get to your room, just follow this young Sir, here. Yours is right beside his, on the left."

Gaerielle smiled brightly as she nodded, taking the key then glancing at the man. She did not recognize him immediately, but when she did, she barely managed to suppress her gasp. It was the same man from earlier!