After the fall

Chapter 18

Finding her way to the fabricator's stall wasn't all too hard as Lapisa had gotten somewhat used to the town after spending a few weeks there, so it didn't take that long until she stood in front of the fabricator's stall. However, instead of walking up to the fabricator behind the counter Lapisa found herself frozen in her position a few meters in front of the stall. The lady's words echoed through Lapisa's mind, did the lady mean something special? Perhaps, did she end up here in the same manner as herself? Lapisa didn't come back to her senses until she felt a sudden impact coming from the side resulting in her losing her footing with the ground. Lapisa let out a small yelp as she closed her eyes preparing herself for the impact of her ungracefully landing on the ground, however that impact never came. Instead she felt an arm wrap around her waist, freezing up from the sudden physical contact Lapisa couldn't really control her body and therefore still kept her eyes closed.

Her eyes stayed close until she heard a voice from above yell at someone in the distance "Hey, watch where you are going!", the same voice finished the yell with muttering "bastard" under their breath. Lapisa, still frozen in this individual's arms, slightly tilted her head, that voice, it seemed familiar. However before she had the time to connect the voice to its owner, the voice spoke again "aren't you going to open your eyes newbie? Or do you like being in my arms that much?". That nickname! Lapisa thought as she sprung her eyes open, the first thing Lapisa's eyes were met with was the familiar face of Theron. As Lapisa grasped the situation, she quickly wriggled herself out of Theron's arms and onto her own two feet. Both feeling quite uncomfortable due to the physical contact and embarrassed due to the whole ordeal, Lapisa looked down "I'm sorry...", the words came out quieter than she had intended as she felt her cheeks heat up due to the embarrassment starting to take over her body.

Wanting to get rid of the feeling of embarrassment eating her from the inside, Lapisa looked up at Theron's face slightly and tried to change the topic "So... what are you doing here?". "I was picking these up-" he answered, gesturing to the boards he was carrying with the arm he didn't catch Lapaisa with, "when I saw you just standing here, I was about to walk past and ignore you to be honest-". "And why didn't you" Lapisa scoffed as she cut Theron off, "Didn't what?" he questioned with one eyebrow more raised than the other, "ignore me" Lapisa spat back with a hint of sassiness in her voice. Theron only sighed "As I was saying..." he started talking with a slightly annoyed tone before he continued "I was about to ignore you and just walk past, however a man ran into you and you just lost your balance so I caught you. Do you mean I should have let you fall face first on the ground?".

Lapisa scratched the back of her neck realizing Theron had a point, but before she had the chance to thank him, he spoke again "Do you like never workout. He just ran into you, or rather slightly bumped into you, I mean the man barely even touched you and you just fell like a piece of domino". "Well thank you, mister I workout all the time" Lapisa said with a scoff as she rolled her eyes. Instead of Theron responding to Lapisa's attempted mockery he gave her a quick nod as if saying goodbye "I don't have time to stand here and chitchat, I gotta work so I'll get going" before he turned around leaving Lapisa standing in her spot slightly annoyed. To annoy her a tad bit more, Theron gave Lapisa a wave and said "remember to workout a bit more newbie or should I call you Ms. Domino" as he was walking away. An annoyed sigh left Lapisa's lips as she shook her head before walking up to the fabricator's stand she still stood in front of.

The fabricator was an elderly man, probably around Matilda's age. Once she stood in front of him she greeted him with a smile "I'm here to get some fabric that Matilda, the owner of the inn, had ordered. She asked me to come pick it up". The man gave Lapisa a nod with a smile on his face before he squatted down behind the counter, Lapisa could hear him rummage through stuff before he popped up again. The fabricator handed Lapisa a brown paper package with the fabrics inside and Lapisa handed him some of the coins from the pouch in her hand before she bid him goodbye. Even though she had paid, the pouch still had coins in it, not thinking much of it Lapisa started walking back to the inn before she remembered Matilda's words "this should be more than enough, and if you have anything over, just treat yourself to something nice". Lapisa looked at the coins in the pouch counting them, she didn't want to spend Matilda's money even though Matilda said it was okay. As Lapisa started walking again, she caught her reflection in a mirror next to a clothing stand, she looked herself up and down, she did need new clothes. Her eyes glanced at the clothing stall before she once again looked down at the pouch in her hand, "maybe this will be enough for some new clothes?" she said to herself.