MagicPenguin
One Thousand Club
Arryn suppressed a yawn as the long day progressed and the number of customers began to dwindle. The Hinokah retinue with which he had come to Alcamoth had only arrived last night after many lengthy days of hard travel. The nobles and wealthier merchants had luxurious carriages for the trip, of course, but Arryn had to maintain both his pack horse and cart full of wares by himself the entire way, which meant no such easy journey for him. His saddle sores had saddle sores. Between the arduous journey here and the early start he had for this morning's wedding, Arryn's fatigue was starting to rear its ugly head even though it couldn't have been more than a few hours past midday.
All in all, though, it had been a good day so far. He sold plenty of merchandise of course, but more importantly several high ranking paladins had expressed interest in arranging large orders from Hogan. Fewer ranking Cainhurst officers showed interest beyond just buying something at the stall, but that was to be expected, he supposed. The wedding was a good start, but it would take much more time for the old prejudices to truly begin to erode.
In between taking orders, Arryn watched the streets around the Northern market entrance where he was situated with interest. Several notable characters had passed through over the course of the day. First, he'd seen Princess Mitsuru come through the gate, followed as ever by her silent protector, Chiyoko, looking distracted and somewhat ill. She was probably worried about her brother, Akio, if he had to guess. Hinokah honor was notoriously prickly and it would take far more than a mere wedding, no matter how extravagant, to get Mitsuru and her siblings to truly accept the forced peace with their lifelong enemies. To be honest, Arryn hoped the Hinokahs managed to swallow their misgivings this time and simply accept that Blackrock was no longer a foe; the war hurt commoners like Arryn and the poor children with whom he'd grown up far more than this wedding could ever hurt the royals' fragile pride.
Next, he'd seen three of the Cainhurst siblings surrounded by their royal guards pass him by without taking any apparent notice of him. He'd seen them all at the wedding as well and if his memory was correct, they were the elder princess Narcissa, her brother Markku, and the youngest Eleanor. From what Arryn had seen, they didn't appear nearly as frightening as the tales back home made them seem. Little children in Cloudtop were told that if they didn't behave, an evil Cainhurst would steal them from their beds at night and boil them alive before eating them whole or using them as ingredients for some foul magic spell. Hogan had always laughed at such tales and now Arryn could see why; the Cainhursts appeared no more monstrous than any other well-born noble family, not even their Hinokah counterparts. They appeared to be a normal, if overpriviledged, family, perhaps even happier than most if the way they held hands was any indication. When he was younger, a familyless urchin on the streets of Cloudtop, the sight would have filled him with a cruel longing for the parents he never knew and a deep sadness for the family he'd never have. That is in the past now, he thought with a smile. Hogan saved me from that loneliness.
The next notable pair he saw was perhaps the oddest. A gruff, grizzled looking man wearing no pants accompanied by a female paladin. He only caught a brief glimpse of them before they retreated behind a stall, so Arryn wasn't sure if he hadn't been hallucinating from the day's excitement. He must have been, he thought. He couldn't possibly have seen a man with no pants wandering the markets. It was a day of celebration, sure, but it was still way too early in the day for anyone to be THAT drunk.
Lastly, and perhaps most alarmingly, Arryn saw Prince Kuze come rushing out of the gate in a red rage, trailed by his usual retinue of guards and retainers. Close on his heels was his twin sister Princess Rei. Even in Cloudtop, Kuze was known for being hot-headed and stubborn. The man had a great deal to learn from his cool, calm, and composed brother, Akio. Arryn only hoped he didn't cross paths with the Cainhurst royals before Princess Rei could rein him in as she always did or there would likely be blood. Arryn shuddered at the thought.
There was a midday lull in customers and at this point Arryn thought it might be a good idea to eat his own lunch. He couldn't leave his stall unattended, so he'd prepared his own modest meal, just a simple heel of bread and some dried meat, beforehand. He pulled his food from the back of his cart and sat back down to eat.
Just as he finished eating, Arryn heard a loud, frightened shriek from a nearby alleyway. A young woman, it sounded like. He looked in that direction to see a small crowd gathering. Some of them were hooting and cheering at whatever was going on and others simply stood and watched with a mixture of horror and fascination. Arryn quickly glanced at his merchandise carefully arranged at his stall; if he left it, someone might steal his goods while he was distracted. If he didn't, though...
"Stop! Leave him alone, you monster! You'll kill him!" yelled the desperate female voice from the middle of the crowd.
Arryn made a split second decision and ran toward the gawking onlookers, his hammer on his right hip and axe on his left beating rhythmically against his legs as he ran. Once he got there, he did his best to force his way through the dense crowd without pushing anyone too hard lest he accidentally knock someone over and hurt them. Big and strong as he was compared to everyone else, he often had to take such care, as if everyone in the world was a delicate porcelain figurine that might break if handled too casually.
When he got to the center of the huddled mass, he saw a relatively large man with an enraged look on his face standing over the trembling, bloody form of an older man in Cainhurst-style military garb that marked him as a retired soldier from Blackrock's army. Placing herself over top of the old man to protect him from the larger one was a young, fair-haired girl, perhaps 15 or 16, who shared some of the older man's facial features, probably his daughter. The larger, middle-aged man dressed in the style popular in Cloudtop among commoners. There was a flush to his cheeks and a slur to his words that indicated he had quite a bit to drink today.
"You Cainhurst bastards," he spat venemously at the cowering man on the floor, "You stole my only son. He went to fight in the war and end your wretched king's mad reign and your army butchered him like a pig! Now they want me to make peace? Play nice like it never happened?" He tsked and spit full in the face of the girl desperately clinging to her father. "Screw that, I say! My son isn't here to get revenge on Cainhurst's military anymore, so I'm going to do it for him!"
An indistinguishable mixture of cheers of joy and screams of fright went up from the surrounding masses as the large man reared his leg back to continue kicking the old soldier, whether his daughter was there or not. The girl pressed her face to her father's body and closed her eyes to brace herself for the impact. Before he knew what it was doing, Arryn's body instinctually moved on its own. He grabbed the angry Cloudtop commoner by the back of his collar and yanked him forcefully backward before his kick reached the old man's body. Arryn put more force into the pull than he intended; the man flew past him and crashed into the front row of watchers behind him. The entire crowd let out a collective gasp of surprise.
"That's enough," Arryn said, placing his left hand on his axe handle at his hip just below its head.
The man stood up slowly rubbing his head, cursing and shouting as he did.
"Who the fuck do you think you are you miserable piece of shi-"
He stopped short when he finally got a good look at Arryn, at least a foot taller than himself and twice as broad in the chest, and caught a glimpse of the axe upon which the blacksmith's left hand rested.
"You've made your point," said Arryn. "I suggest you leave now, before the paladins notice what's happening."
The man grumbled another curse under his breath, but he did as Arryn said. "Get the fuck out of my way you fucking halfwits!" he roared as he stumbled his way through the crowd.
When the man was finally gone, Arryn turned to the girl crying over her incapacitated father. He meant to ask if she was alright or if he could help her, but before he could he saw the look in her eyes as she turned and stared at him.
Hatred. Pure, unadulterated hatred.
If looks could kill, the girl would have decapitated Arryn ten times over. It seemed his reputation as the gargantuan Cloudtop blacksmith who crafted Queen Severa's crown preceded him. The girl and her father were commoners from Blackrock, he guessed, so naturally they hated all Cloudtop citizens, including him, regardless of the circumstances. The drunk Cloudtop man had likely felt the same about anyone from Blackrock. The royal families could marry all the children they wanted, and marry their childrens' pets with one another too for all anyone cared, but buried within that girl's eyes was the blackest sort of malice that no treaty, no church, no marriage could ever overcome. Such pure prejudice for their ancestral foes likely dwelt somewhere within every Cloudtop and Blackrock citizen present within Alcamoth and without.
Overcome with a desperate desire to escape the girl's unrelenting, blistering gaze as soon as possible, Arryn bowed and apologized for his countryman's rudeness and left. He made his way quickly back to his stall, ignoring the awed stares of the people who had been watching the confrontation. When he looked behind him and saw a group of paladins and scribes approaching the scene, he moved all the faster. His childhood thieving instincts hadn't left him after all these years. Even if he knew he'd done nothing wrong, he still had no desire to get caught up with the law.
When he returned to his stall, he began counting all his merchandise, trying to make sure no one had taken advantage of his absence to help themselves to his goods. As he counted swords and compared the stall before him to the one in his memory from before he left, he was still undeniably shaken from the encounter. The confrontation with the drunk Cloudtop man was stressful enough, but that was not what really sent shivers down Arryn's spine. The blustering fool had been nowhere near as frightening as the girl was afterward. No matter how much time passed, he could not seem to get her out of his mind.
He could not forget the unfathomable depths of her hatred for him that danced behind her eyes.
All in all, though, it had been a good day so far. He sold plenty of merchandise of course, but more importantly several high ranking paladins had expressed interest in arranging large orders from Hogan. Fewer ranking Cainhurst officers showed interest beyond just buying something at the stall, but that was to be expected, he supposed. The wedding was a good start, but it would take much more time for the old prejudices to truly begin to erode.
In between taking orders, Arryn watched the streets around the Northern market entrance where he was situated with interest. Several notable characters had passed through over the course of the day. First, he'd seen Princess Mitsuru come through the gate, followed as ever by her silent protector, Chiyoko, looking distracted and somewhat ill. She was probably worried about her brother, Akio, if he had to guess. Hinokah honor was notoriously prickly and it would take far more than a mere wedding, no matter how extravagant, to get Mitsuru and her siblings to truly accept the forced peace with their lifelong enemies. To be honest, Arryn hoped the Hinokahs managed to swallow their misgivings this time and simply accept that Blackrock was no longer a foe; the war hurt commoners like Arryn and the poor children with whom he'd grown up far more than this wedding could ever hurt the royals' fragile pride.
Next, he'd seen three of the Cainhurst siblings surrounded by their royal guards pass him by without taking any apparent notice of him. He'd seen them all at the wedding as well and if his memory was correct, they were the elder princess Narcissa, her brother Markku, and the youngest Eleanor. From what Arryn had seen, they didn't appear nearly as frightening as the tales back home made them seem. Little children in Cloudtop were told that if they didn't behave, an evil Cainhurst would steal them from their beds at night and boil them alive before eating them whole or using them as ingredients for some foul magic spell. Hogan had always laughed at such tales and now Arryn could see why; the Cainhursts appeared no more monstrous than any other well-born noble family, not even their Hinokah counterparts. They appeared to be a normal, if overpriviledged, family, perhaps even happier than most if the way they held hands was any indication. When he was younger, a familyless urchin on the streets of Cloudtop, the sight would have filled him with a cruel longing for the parents he never knew and a deep sadness for the family he'd never have. That is in the past now, he thought with a smile. Hogan saved me from that loneliness.
The next notable pair he saw was perhaps the oddest. A gruff, grizzled looking man wearing no pants accompanied by a female paladin. He only caught a brief glimpse of them before they retreated behind a stall, so Arryn wasn't sure if he hadn't been hallucinating from the day's excitement. He must have been, he thought. He couldn't possibly have seen a man with no pants wandering the markets. It was a day of celebration, sure, but it was still way too early in the day for anyone to be THAT drunk.
Lastly, and perhaps most alarmingly, Arryn saw Prince Kuze come rushing out of the gate in a red rage, trailed by his usual retinue of guards and retainers. Close on his heels was his twin sister Princess Rei. Even in Cloudtop, Kuze was known for being hot-headed and stubborn. The man had a great deal to learn from his cool, calm, and composed brother, Akio. Arryn only hoped he didn't cross paths with the Cainhurst royals before Princess Rei could rein him in as she always did or there would likely be blood. Arryn shuddered at the thought.
There was a midday lull in customers and at this point Arryn thought it might be a good idea to eat his own lunch. He couldn't leave his stall unattended, so he'd prepared his own modest meal, just a simple heel of bread and some dried meat, beforehand. He pulled his food from the back of his cart and sat back down to eat.
Just as he finished eating, Arryn heard a loud, frightened shriek from a nearby alleyway. A young woman, it sounded like. He looked in that direction to see a small crowd gathering. Some of them were hooting and cheering at whatever was going on and others simply stood and watched with a mixture of horror and fascination. Arryn quickly glanced at his merchandise carefully arranged at his stall; if he left it, someone might steal his goods while he was distracted. If he didn't, though...
"Stop! Leave him alone, you monster! You'll kill him!" yelled the desperate female voice from the middle of the crowd.
Arryn made a split second decision and ran toward the gawking onlookers, his hammer on his right hip and axe on his left beating rhythmically against his legs as he ran. Once he got there, he did his best to force his way through the dense crowd without pushing anyone too hard lest he accidentally knock someone over and hurt them. Big and strong as he was compared to everyone else, he often had to take such care, as if everyone in the world was a delicate porcelain figurine that might break if handled too casually.
When he got to the center of the huddled mass, he saw a relatively large man with an enraged look on his face standing over the trembling, bloody form of an older man in Cainhurst-style military garb that marked him as a retired soldier from Blackrock's army. Placing herself over top of the old man to protect him from the larger one was a young, fair-haired girl, perhaps 15 or 16, who shared some of the older man's facial features, probably his daughter. The larger, middle-aged man dressed in the style popular in Cloudtop among commoners. There was a flush to his cheeks and a slur to his words that indicated he had quite a bit to drink today.
"You Cainhurst bastards," he spat venemously at the cowering man on the floor, "You stole my only son. He went to fight in the war and end your wretched king's mad reign and your army butchered him like a pig! Now they want me to make peace? Play nice like it never happened?" He tsked and spit full in the face of the girl desperately clinging to her father. "Screw that, I say! My son isn't here to get revenge on Cainhurst's military anymore, so I'm going to do it for him!"
An indistinguishable mixture of cheers of joy and screams of fright went up from the surrounding masses as the large man reared his leg back to continue kicking the old soldier, whether his daughter was there or not. The girl pressed her face to her father's body and closed her eyes to brace herself for the impact. Before he knew what it was doing, Arryn's body instinctually moved on its own. He grabbed the angry Cloudtop commoner by the back of his collar and yanked him forcefully backward before his kick reached the old man's body. Arryn put more force into the pull than he intended; the man flew past him and crashed into the front row of watchers behind him. The entire crowd let out a collective gasp of surprise.
"That's enough," Arryn said, placing his left hand on his axe handle at his hip just below its head.
The man stood up slowly rubbing his head, cursing and shouting as he did.
"Who the fuck do you think you are you miserable piece of shi-"
He stopped short when he finally got a good look at Arryn, at least a foot taller than himself and twice as broad in the chest, and caught a glimpse of the axe upon which the blacksmith's left hand rested.
"You've made your point," said Arryn. "I suggest you leave now, before the paladins notice what's happening."
The man grumbled another curse under his breath, but he did as Arryn said. "Get the fuck out of my way you fucking halfwits!" he roared as he stumbled his way through the crowd.
When the man was finally gone, Arryn turned to the girl crying over her incapacitated father. He meant to ask if she was alright or if he could help her, but before he could he saw the look in her eyes as she turned and stared at him.
Hatred. Pure, unadulterated hatred.
If looks could kill, the girl would have decapitated Arryn ten times over. It seemed his reputation as the gargantuan Cloudtop blacksmith who crafted Queen Severa's crown preceded him. The girl and her father were commoners from Blackrock, he guessed, so naturally they hated all Cloudtop citizens, including him, regardless of the circumstances. The drunk Cloudtop man had likely felt the same about anyone from Blackrock. The royal families could marry all the children they wanted, and marry their childrens' pets with one another too for all anyone cared, but buried within that girl's eyes was the blackest sort of malice that no treaty, no church, no marriage could ever overcome. Such pure prejudice for their ancestral foes likely dwelt somewhere within every Cloudtop and Blackrock citizen present within Alcamoth and without.
Overcome with a desperate desire to escape the girl's unrelenting, blistering gaze as soon as possible, Arryn bowed and apologized for his countryman's rudeness and left. He made his way quickly back to his stall, ignoring the awed stares of the people who had been watching the confrontation. When he looked behind him and saw a group of paladins and scribes approaching the scene, he moved all the faster. His childhood thieving instincts hadn't left him after all these years. Even if he knew he'd done nothing wrong, he still had no desire to get caught up with the law.
When he returned to his stall, he began counting all his merchandise, trying to make sure no one had taken advantage of his absence to help themselves to his goods. As he counted swords and compared the stall before him to the one in his memory from before he left, he was still undeniably shaken from the encounter. The confrontation with the drunk Cloudtop man was stressful enough, but that was not what really sent shivers down Arryn's spine. The blustering fool had been nowhere near as frightening as the girl was afterward. No matter how much time passed, he could not seem to get her out of his mind.
He could not forget the unfathomable depths of her hatred for him that danced behind her eyes.
