Eight Intertwined

10 - Tressa

It was early the following morning, just before the sun could creep its way over the horizon of the Coastlands, that a soul found deep in the heart of Rippletide began to stir. Blankets were tossed aside as a girl sat up, stretching her arms above her head with a mighty yawn. She rubbed at her eyes with one hand before swinging her feet off the side of her bed as she rose to her full height. 

Tressa Colzione threw a brush through her short light brown hair, admiring her brown eyes flecked with green as she passed by the mirror sitting on the wall of her room. She threw on her clothing for the day, straightening out her dress as soon as she got the chance to. After swinging her bag over her shoulders, Tressa reached for her hat. She set it down on her head, making sure that the feather was perked up, standing tall towards the ceiling. A bright smile graced her features as she admired her reflection one last time. "Well, the show isn't going to stock itself!" she declared. She pivoted on her heel and marched out of her room, making her way downstairs. 

Tressa and her parents' kept their rooms on the upper floor of their shop, and when Tressa arrived in the store itself, she could see that both Marina and Olneo Colzione were already ready to face the day. Marina stood behind the counter, straightening the books found there. Olneo, on the other hand, was marking off supplies as he surveyed the store. "Mornin', Ma! Mornin', Pa!" Tressa greeted as she leapt down the final few steps to arrive on the bottom floor properly. Marina gave her a glance of thinly-veiled concern, something fitting of a mother looking after her only child. 

Olneo, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind Tressa's recklessness quite as much. "Mornin', Tressa!" he greeted, looking up from his surveying duties with a grand smile that peeked out from the edges of his darkened mustache. "Looks like our number one employee is ready for another day of work!"

Tressa beamed at her father's open display of pride. "Sure am! And I'll start by stocking up the store," she told him. The supplies were kept in a back room tucked away between the bookshelves behind the counter. She made her way towards the room, giving her mother a curt yet bright nod along the way. 

"Hold your seahorses, little lady," Olneo told her. He pointed his pen at Tressa as he quirked an eyebrow upwards, a clear sign that a challenge was coming. Tell me: what are the three things a merchant needs most?"

Tressa's smile only grew wider. "They need to be smiley, mannerly, and early! Thought you had me, didn't you?" she told him. She walked into the closet and pulled out an extra bundle of grapes and plums before setting them on the corresponding shelf. She laughed over her shoulder, and the jovial sound echoed throughout the store. 

Olneo laughed and shook his head. "You're too clever for me, Tressa. Now, off you go! We need a few fish for today's stock," he told her. He returned to inventory soon afterwards, marking down the new supplies that Tressa had retrieved from the back closet. 

"Leave it to me, Pa!" Tressa declared, saluting to her father over her shoulder as she strutted proudly towards the door. 

"Be careful out there, Tressa!" Marina called out to her daughter, ever the worrier after her daughter's close brush with slipping earlier that morning. "Oh, those pirates have been causing trouble around the tavern lately. If you see them, you be sure to keep a wide berth, you hear?"

Tressa nodded. "Got it, Ma. Be back in two ripples of the tide!" she announced. She closed the distance between herself and the door before pushing it open and leaving the store behind. 

After Tressa had left the store behind, Olneo took a few steps forward with a humored chuckle and a shake of his head. "There she goes," he remarked. "She reminds me of myself when I was that age... Always running off somewhere, wanting to prove myself a full-fledged merchant."