Arteline

I

Arteline's first sale of her art was a breakthrough moment in her life. She was amazed to find that her work was valuable and someone was willing to pay for it.

She spent every waking moment working on her craft and perfecting her techniques, hoping to make money from her art and finally escape the life of poverty and struggle.

After Arteline sold her first ever piece of art, she had a new sense of freedom. With some money on her pocket, she was no longer trapped in the slums of the city and could finally travel and see the world to draw inspiration for her artworks.

On her travels, Arteline met a fellow artist who shared her passion for painting. They immediately hit it off and became friends, spending hours talking about their art, sharing tips, and even collaborating on some projects.

Arteline and the fellow artist often stayed in cheap and run-down inns that were affordable and allowed them to save money. One night, however, Arteline felt that something was off. As she woke up in the middle of the night, she heard strange footsteps outside her door...

She quietly got up to investigate what the noise was and opened the door slightly to peek outside. As she looked into the hallway, she saw some people sneaking around and holding some tools she recognized as lockpicks.

Suddenly, Arteline had a flash of realization - those people were thieves, breaking into rooms! She swiftly shut the door and locked it, trying to think of what to do.

She realized she could not confront the thieves alone and needed to alert her friend who was staying in the room next to her. Arteline quietly knocked on her friend's wall, trying to be as silent as possible so the thieves would not notice...

Her friend woke up and peeked through the window. Arteline quickly signaled him to be quiet and explained what was happening, and how they needed to escape the inn without the thieves noticing.

They quickly gathered their sketches and tools and carefully opened the window to sneak out the inn, making sure the thieves did not notice them...

Once they were safely outside the inn, Arteline and her friend quickly ran to the nearby forest, not stopping until they reached a clearing. Once there, they looked back at the inn to see if they were followed, but thankfully it seemed clear. However, her friend Easley was holding his hand and wincing in pain...

Arteline noticed Easley's grimace of pain and asked, "Are you okay? What happened to your hand?"

"I think I cut it on the window as we were escaping," Easley replied, showing her his hand, which was bleeding.

Arteline knew that Easley's hand was crucial to his art, and seeing it injured worried her greatly. She quickly took off a piece of cloth from her blouse and wrapped it around his hand to stop the bleeding.

"We need to clean and dress your injury as soon as possible," she said with concern, "Otherwise it might get infected and we won't be able to work on our art."

Easley nodded, appreciating her concern. Together, they started walking further into the forest, trying to find a safe place to rest and tend to his hand.

They walked for a few more minutes until they reached a small clearing with a small stream nearby. Arteline helped Easley sit down on a rock and started to clean his wound with some water from the stream.

Despite the pain, Easley watched in fascination as Arteline gently cleaned his hand, using her soft touch to remove any dirt or debris from the wound.

Afterwards, she took some cloth and gently wrapped it around his hand, making sure it was tight enough to stop the bleeding but not so tight that it would hurt.