What appears to be the owner of the shop approaches. A warm smile decorating her large but not obstructive body. Composing myself, I mind that her eyes are on my bare legs. I look down and then back up, a nervous giggle coming out.
"Yes... Uhm... Do you perhaps have a different colour of these?" I ask, looking over at and pointing towards the boots I was just staring at before.
"Those ones? I believe I do. Are you after ones that match your current clothes? They are very pretty, by the way." she asks, her compliment making me a little puff-cheeked. They're not my clothes, so I'm not entirely sure why...
My head turns a little to Rianta-chira's way.
"You should make sure to look after them. White's not an easy colour to clean," the old lady teases, her fingers gently pinching my cheek out of nowhere.
"I really should... I am borrowing these clothes from the one who came in before me." I explain to her, a limp hand directing her eyes in hopefully the right direction. Turning down to where I can clearly recall the stains on the clothes, a short-lived frown comes and goes.
"The aelenvari? Oh, she is certainly the looker. Yet, knowing them, whoever has caught her eye has got a very poisonous beauty," the old lady hushly comments, her body quickly disappearing through a door.
Following her initially, I come to a stop as I remember my place in this land. Here... I am not Lady-Heir Einervaene Bosphama. I'm, well, just as this old lady put it. A pretty girl.
Thankfully, I'm not left with my thoughts for long and she comes back with a box, "Why don't you go try them on now, Lovely? You don't have to worry about your lack of socks. My husband specially makes them to be as if you have them on, anyway. I can guarantee you'll have no issues. As someone who has been wearing his shoes for years, I can most certainly tell you that they're long-lasting and comfortable!"
Looking down at her feet as she lifts her dress a little, she kicks out her spouse's pride. Coming to a stop, she laughs until I reciprocate it even a bit. We head on over to a small area and she pulls a curtain door behind me. Meeting the eyes of my mirror self, I find myself doing nothing but holding this box.
The spotless glass starts to change in the interior. I can feel it. A smile is growing on my face. Sitting down on the plump chair provided, I open up the box and get ready to... My feet are dirty.
Moving my lips about uncomfortably, my mouth opens to try and get a message out. It turns out I never needed to bother. A hand quickly pokes through the curtain, a wet cloth and a small bowl in her hands. Taking the items, the old lady groans a bit on her way back to being upright.
"Clean your feet first, Lovely." she tells me and my mind switches up the words.
"Th-Thank you." I tell her, it coming out somewhat messy. Getting on with my task, the water rings out of the cloth and I intensely drag out every bit of filth caught on my feet. My scrutinisation pays off and I quickly move onto drying my feet off. My toes enter the darkness of the interior of the boots.
Meeting some tightness at first, my thoughts fill up with imaginary and quite exaggerated tests of pulling strength. Though, even with what feels like a most certain inconvenience in the future, the old lady is right. These are indeed quite comfortable to wear! Even with such a narrow and tight-fitting rear, it's actually amazing.
They're hugging my legs with a soft warmth while also keeping my feet on a straight path. I really like them, and I would like to be vocally honest about it if I can muster the vocal strength. For the moment, however, I would like to see how they look. So, I turn to my closest friend who is only a mirror away!
They're white, much like my borrowed clothes. But, the metal parts themselves are either an unknown red material or carefully painted as such. It's quite thin plating, too, so thin I am having a hard time discerning the meeting of shoe leather and metal sole. I think I can see a pattern cut into the metal, as well?
But, it's so shadowless it's hard to tell if my eyes are acting up or...
"Ooo, magic lighting." I remark, the metal seemingly picking up on my external-magic flow. I try to think that the soft blue light is just how it is meant to be, rather than a reflection of my cursed arcane power. The shop owner's husband must've put some kind of magical engraving into the material.
Admittedly, I am quite impressed by it. Maybe there's more to it than just a light show? If there is, I should go outside and test it. I might end up crippling our ability to buy these boots if I test my theories within such small confines. To say nothing of potentially damaging the shoes themselves.
Looking at the mirror again, a flash of sadness disrupts my features, an echo in my head, "It's a shame I can't show you how I look, Mother. I know you quite enjoyed helping me try new outfits... You always were a bit controlling, weren't you? Heh..."
Leaving through the curtain, I am met with the sound of clapping. Vigorous, energetic clapping. The old lady has been waiting for me to come out this entire time? It's quite embarrassing to know this, actually, and her cheering is not helping at all...!
"Oh, gorgeous! You look beautiful, Lovely. Go on, strike a pose!" she tells me, her encouragement becoming physical as her glee makes her hands tremble before she calms down even slightly.
"A pose!?" I squeak, looking back at the mirror. Looking at my gloved hands, my fingers twirl about as my head slowly thinks of something. Slipping one digit into my copper-coloured hair, I twirl it round and round. Somehow, though, somehow... My thoughts turn to Nin-kischu, his hat specifically.
My face is burning up, and I would like to cover it. I feel as if my best pose would be best served with a hat, a large, wide-brimmed hat. One that can hide my face and top-half I were to take it off and face it away from myself.
Like a portable room divider! Something I can just use to give myself some privacy. To give me and someone else a little bit of it. Me and...
"Oh, that will do just fine, Lovely." the elderly lady comments, my blush growing as I realise I never finished what I had in mind. Her laughter fills the shop, and she briefly takes my hand to take me back the way of the counter. It takes only a blink for my ears to fill with the clitter clatter of some dull-coloured bronze and the machine it makes up. A flat brick...? Pops out, she then hammers in a signature or something.
"I'm sorry... What is this?" I ask, holding the toasty warm piece of clay or something. The old lady points at my closest thing to a pocket.
"I see you have Brewbrt's 'get items for free piece,' will you be paying for the shoes yourself or handing it over to him?" she explains and I look at my bag of money. I guess it doesn't matter. Either way, the bill is for Mother's friend to take up.
"I'll... I'll pay myself for now..." I tell her, putting the bag onto the counter with a hefty bang. Though not an intentional one. Moving one set of fingers inside, I read the small tablet and bring out the requested number. As close as I can get to it, anyway. My counting mutters seem to be accurate enough.
"Excellent, thank you, Lovely. Will you need me for anything else?" she asks, her body subtly gesturing towards Rianta-chira. We watch her still fiddle with what she called 'tubes' and similar. Turning back to the old lady, I shake my head.
"N... Maybe, we still have to get more stuff first. But we are probably going to end up here again, anyway!" I explain to her, smiling as I gather up all my things. The smile grows and grows on my face as the sound of narrow heels clicking accents my walking now. A pleasurable shiver goes down my spine as I take in the world from my new height.
All the troubles of the last few months of my journey are now gone!
Rianta-chira picks up on me leaving and hurries after me. My smile almost becomes permanent as the sound of metal tapping against stone fills my ears from two angles. From the side and below! No grains, no nothing between my toes.
"We better have enough money left!" Rianta-chira complains, my hand stopping her from heading the way of the plant shop. She moans quietly and the bag of money jingles in my other hand. The money isn't for her needs at all, but I am doubting we will run out by the time I am done getting my own stuff.
"There's plenty, see?" I comfort her with, showing off what I- we have left. There's barely any digging done to the former shape of the bag's contents as well!
"Can I go buy something now?" Rianta-chira almost demands, her tone impatient as she is fidgety to go the opposite way.
"I am not here just to buy these shoes. You know that." I grin out at her, tapping my new sources of comfort and doing a hair-twirling spin in them. Keeping my balance the whole time, I almost end on a dancing end. One of the many benefits of my high-birthed raising. My posture is very stable, its fineness having been well-drilled into me. In turn, it makes stability a natural thing for me. It probably helps as well that I have some dance classes committed to muscle memory. As is proper for a lady-heir of Eusorochii!
"Hurry up, then! There are so many goods here that my precious love would love to see on me." Rianta-chira insists, her eyes widening as a joyful sigh slumps her body. The smile on her face passes onto me as I simply cannot find it within myself to hate what I am seeing. I am quite partial to such happiness. It makes me so giddy, unexplainably so.
"Then we best get going." I tell her, beginning my walk down the rest of the market street.
"What do you need now?" Rianta-chira asks with a groan.
"Outfits." I answer, my expression straight as I try to focus on the contents of the shops.
"Just borrow some of mine!" Rianta-chira insists with a sharp hand movement.
"As much as I like -some- of your clothes, Rianta-chira. Most of it is very inappropriate to be wearing in public. This alone is what I chose for how modest it is in comparison..." I explain, a hand consciously rubbing the exposed undersides of my breasts. It moves onto the gap still on my upper thigh and up to the hip. With these metallic nails on the gloves... It's so ticklish to touch myself like this.
"No, they are not, far from it. A petal should always have her body on display! Besides, didn't stop you from wearing one of my outfits, did it?"
"I wore this because it was probably the modest you had!" I remind her, my justification seemingly having slipped her offended mind.
"Modest clothing belongs on stems!" she insists dramatically.
"Then, I guess I am a stem." I shrug.
"You are clearly a petal! Your magic is strong, so you are almost guaranteed to have a son if you were to give yourself to one of the males of my kind. To say nothing of how exotic you'd be to them due to your golden aura!" she tells me without a single hint of awareness of what she's truly just said. It's more than just me that is now rosy cheeked. Bystanders are too. Something that only makes me shakier and redder.
"Th-Thank you...?" I let out, unsure of how to process being quite literally told about how my sex life will turn out. Her tone and expression seem to hint that it's a good thing, but I really cannot be sure. Again, though, she insists I am golden despite how my magic actually looks... If only everyone back home had her eyes, I guess. If only...