It started like any normal day that Autumn with preparation for the Harvest Festival in the kingdom of Ye Old Spagonia. All across the land both peasant and noble were getting ready to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the land and the coming of winter. All around her was the joyous merriment and the lovely aroma of pies, brews, stews, and of course mead and cooked livestock!
"Mmm, molto bene!" the Spagonian vixen in red would mutter to herself as she would walk past the outer wall's attractions and carts.
She would slowly enter through the gate, as would any normal maiden with wares looking to barter from outside the kingdom's walls. Truth be told Aurelia was a rather common sight this time of year. It was known that she always enjoyed reaping the benefits of her gardening and toil to sell her produce with the local townsfolk in the kingdom. She was a hearty woman and would often be seen with mud on her paws from traveling all the way downward from the mountain to the kingdom where the festival was soon to take place!
As she would make it past the gate she would merrily trot down the path to enjoy the sights and spectacles happening within the marketplace. The wind would blow coolly through her long coal black hair and the lovely breeze would cause her dark crimson dress to sway around her energetically as Aurelia would relish in the coolness of the season and the sights.
There were jesters, bards, fellowship, and comradery. The sound of music and the lovely aroma of all manner of food would feel the pungent air with life. The pleasing melody of lyres and lute would cause her vulpine ears to twitch as she would begin to merrily hum to the tunes she heard as a young lass. The townsfolk were very energetic and often she would go by merchants and shop owners yelling out and beckoning for her to go around and purchase their wares. However, she would often shake her head as she was there herself to sell her small basket of canned vegetables.
"No, grazie" Aurelia would often tell them as she would shake her head before moving onwards.
You see, Aurelia was a very determined and focused maiden. She had travel all the way down from her cottage in the mountains of Spagonia to in the vague hopes to sell her own produce at the market for a bit of coin. As much as she wanted to take in the sights and sounds, she had to make her own profit that fine day as well!
Soon the area would become rather crowded as Aurelia would proceed towards the open peasant's market. While Aurelia wasn't one for close confines and with her slightly tall vixen stature she stood out from the crowd. Still, the vixen would merrily trot on towards where she was allowed by decree of the Lord of Spagonia to sell her commoner's wares.
"Oh there is a big crowd today! People must be coming from outside the kingdom too! Hopefully this means I can make a good bounty" Aurelia muttered to herself.
As Aurelia walked by one particular person, which looked like your average commoner Moebian male boar. She'd suddenly noticed they would slowly walk closer and closer towards her as they would weave in between the crowded festival goers towards her. At first, she thought of nothing of it. After all, many a person in the crowd were trying to get to where they need to be in a festival such as this. The hustle and bustle of the kingdom was expected during a festivity such as this.
However, eventually a bit of foul play would transpire. The boar looking man would slowly walk behind her and then proceeded to reach out and grab her basket! This took Aurelia by surprise, she would try to yank it away from the boar thief. However, he was larger than her and strong enough that he was able to pry her basket from her two hands before dashing past her and shoving her down onto the ground!
"Cazzo! Ouch!" she let out as her dark red dress covered hindquarters would collide with the mudded ground.
"Stop! Thief!" Aurelia would call out for help as she would try to push herself off the ground.
Much to her dismay, none in the crowd would be willing to either assist her up or go after the thief. This put Aurelia into a state of panic. She had spent months farming and canning those vegetables and that was her favorite basket! At first she contemplated contacting any guards, but then she realized she had to take matters into her own hands.
"Ugh! You want something done right? You do it yourself!" Aurelia muttered in annoyance.
She caught a glimpse of the thief running off in the right in the corner of her eye. Unknown to many, she could slightly sense his aura for a brief moment upon their encounter as she would proceed to close her eyes and tune in her 'gift'. While she hated to show off in a crowd, she had but little time as she would have to steady herself back onto her two pawed feet before making a dash towards the thief through the crowd!
"Get back here, stronzo!" she would yell out to him as she would suddenly begin to run after the fleeing thief.
At this point, Aurelia was acting on pure instinct. She would make her way through the crowd while only holding onto her dress as she would proceed to give chase to the thief. It was a very odd sight indeed to see this tall vixen in a dress moving through a crowd with her eyes closed! While many a peasant and commoner would try to growl, yell, or even shove her out of the way. She would keep her eyes closed as she would do her best to evade the angry mob of annoyed peasants and track down the thief.
Aurelia was slightly athletic due to years of traveling on barefoot. While not nearly as fast as one of the king's men, she was still able to close in the distance between the fleeing thief and herself. She could tell that the thief was trying to get her off his tail. Perhaps he had noticed she was able to make out of the crowd and was trying to lose her? However, what he didn't take into account was she could sense his aura and tune it away from everyone else.
"You won't get away from me! Thief!" she would once more blurt out.
He could only hide or perhaps try to enter a building, but if he did that and were she to enter behind him that would cause him to get caught. There was no way he could flee the city, but if he was able to make it to a hiding spot this would be an issue. However, she was able to eventually catch up with him as she could tell he was slowing down. While it was apparent to her that he was good at moving through a crowd, the thief clearly wasn't as active and in shape as she was as she wouldn't be nearly winded yet!
Closer and closer Aurelia would charge right behind the man. However, he then would change his tactics as he would dash in between a crowd in the middle of the marketplace before turning around and pointing directly at her.
"Help! This woman is trying to mug me!" he would call out to her.
As her foxy ears would twitch at this audacious claim from the slanderous and lying boar man she would become livid. However, she had cornered him and now she was going to make him pay! Her temper was one of her many faults. She couldn't contain her anger any longer!
The crowd would begin to turn around and notice this odd sight of a boar man in ragged clothes shouting at a strange woman in dark red charging at him. What happened next would put fear into their hearts and send them into a panic. Aurelia would suddenly open both of her eyes, but then they would begin to glow bright green.
"Che cosa di diavolo?!?" the boar man said as he noticed this.
"Nobody steals from Aurelia Bradanska!" she cried out as she would suddenly put out her hand and point it right at him.
Suddenly, the masculine boar would begin to feel some sort of invisible force wrap around and envelop him. He would struggle as suddenly he would begin to lift up off the ground as if he were being being possessed. His two boorish eyes would begin to widen as he had no idea just what vile fate was befalling him.
"Dannazione! S-she beith a witch! Help! She is a witch! A witch in Spagonia!" the man would call out as he was lifted up into the air by some supernatural force.
"You! You idiota! You stole from me!" Aurelia would point and scream at him.
Her emotions were getting the better of her. Her hair would begin to flow widely as her own feet would begin to lift up off the ground and her dress would suddenly flow widely as if in a maelstrom. People around her would gasp and shiver as they would step back and begin to pray for providence and protection.
The boar had dropped the basket and now it would fall to the mudded ground and roll over. This would enrage Aurelia even further if one of her jars were damaged. At this she wanted to teach this boar a lesion. She would simply point the hand that she was pointing at him at a nearby Inn's wall and within seconds he was sent flying from being levitated and towards the wall!
"Vaffanculo!" Aurelia would simply call out as she had lost control.
The man had struck the side of the wall as he would tumble over and onto the ground. This would cause the crowd to gasp and begin to flee away from her. Aurelia would suddenly begin to slowly descend from the air and land on her two feet while panting. Her glowing green eyes would revert back to her normal olive green as her hair would flow down and back to normal. She would pant as she would look around and notice the scene she had caused. People were fleeing from her, that meant that soon the guards would arrive.
"Oh merda" she muttered to herself as she would look down at her basket.
Thinking quickly, Adriana would slowly make a dash towards the basket. She would quickly reach down to pick it up, finding a cracked one of peppers much to her dismay. She hadn't have time to scoop all the peppers out as she would simply cradle the basket and leave the pepper jar behind as she would pick it up and begin to try to rush out of the marketplace towards the gates to escape. She had caused too much trouble, but for now she at least had her prized basket.
Her mind was racing with thoughts. She didn't know if she could make it out of the gate in time before she would be apprehended by the guards. There was one method of escape however. There was a small stream that lead in the village and one could follow it outside of the town. She had tried this as a little girl before and thought maybe if she could go into the the current of water she could bypass her way out of the city and make her way to her mountains.
"Stop! By decree of Il Duce!" she heard behind her shouting as surely enough she guards were on her trail!
"Oh merda!" Aurelia let out as her foxy ears would twitch and she would begin to try to move faster while holding her basket for dear life.
The guards were gaining on her. So Aurelia would try to lose them as she would begin to dash into a nearby alleyway. While she was slightly tall for her species, Aurelia fortunately was rather slender and thus was able shimmy through the tight quarters. She would try to move her arm holding the basket in first to keep her free hand facing the guards. If need be Aurelia would call upon her power, but perhaps only for a mere moment.
She would squeeze through the narrow passage as she saw guards try to reach in and grab her. Once more her eyes would glow bright green, but this time she would try to focus on maintaining her emotions and with a flick of her right hand she would send out a supernatural force that would knock over the two guards trying to apprehend her.
"Spiacente!" Aurelia let out as she would hastily crawl to left and deeper into the alleyway until she was able to make it to the other side.
After clearing out of the narrow pathway, she would see the small place where the peasants would wash their clothes in the stream. While she hated the thought of her dress getting all mudded and wet, it's not like she had anymore options. She'd grab her basket and slowly step into the chilling and frigid waters as her pawed feet had some pain from stepping on the rocks located inside the stream.
"This is not mio dia today" Aurelia would mutter to herself as she would try to fight the current and move to the other side.
To her luck, she saw a small ruined path in the wall that would allow her to step over it and make it over to the other side of the wall. She would wade through the water while shivering due to the already cold temperature that Autumn's day, but eventually Aurelia would make it to the other side as she had to climb a bit to the breach in the wall. She deduced that perhaps smugglers would use this breach to their advantage in shifting goods that were not accepted by the king of Spagonia. Of course, at this point she just shook her head and began to focus her powers to simply levitate over the breach.
Her two bare pawed feet would land on the soft grass outside the wall of the kingdom. While she was dripping with freezing water on her legs and dress, Aurelia didn't have time to mourn for this fate. She would quickly begin to dash off into the nearby forest surrounding the town. It wasn't very likely that the guards would pursue her off into the woods. She would go into the woods and then wait for an hour before heading back home.
She shook her head. Today started off so fine, but it just took a turn for the worse. She didn't get to sell any of her produce. A thief almost ran off with her prized basket. She lost a jar and her basket had to be clean. She got her dress all dirty and mudded. Oh, and now the entire kingdom knows about her 'condition'. What Aurelia wouldn't realize as she would head off into the woods was that things were about to go from bad to worse for her.