Turning the corner, Ava paused for a moment and quickly opened the boxes and relaxed when she confirmed it was indeed just food. Recapping the box, she quickly made her way home.
Earlier, she couldn't help but be put off by Arlo, although he looked like a perfect gentleman, Ava was sure that he had an unclean history.
She wasn't exactly sure why, at most it could called a wild guess or intuition, but she was sure that Arlo hadn't always been a butler, and even if he was, he was the type that helped the family take care of dirty business.
Of course, even if that was the case, she wasn't going to say anything about it, or do anything about it. At most she would be a bit warier when around the man. After all, although it didn't seem like Vaylah was entirely clear on the 'profession' of this butler of hers, he also didn't seem like a recent hire, nor did she feel like she was close or qualified enough to tell Vaylah how to deal with her own family matters.
Anyways, for all she knew she had simply misread the situation, and Arlo was a completely normal person.
Turning into an alleyway, Ava hesitated for a moment but didn't take her normal path. Her normal path was something she had discovered recently, and was a route that was much faster then the one she was taking right now.
Right now she was near the north end of town, as Vaylah's archery range was somewhat outside of town in order to take advantage of the larger and cheaper plots of land. The grey area where the Foxes Respite was was towards the southeast of the town, and if she wanted to return, the most normal path was to follow the mainstreams to the centre of town, before turning off and heading toward the Foxes Respite.
But over the last few weeks, Ava, on top of her training and fooling around with the girls, hadn't been idle, and had wandered around most of the town, sticking mainly to the back alleys and secluded areas to find places where she could shake off would be pursuers, as well as to get a lay of the land.
She had found that towards the east of the town, a lot of the residents and buildings were farms or markets. One farm in particular, was a poultry farm that raised a large number of chickens, and consequently had a fence around it's perimeters, but if Ava were to jump the fence, she could have what was essentially a straight path home.
Of course, Ava was sure the owners of the home would be none to happy if they found out that she was jumping their fence, but Ava had been fairly cautious and had yet to be found, and hadn't stolen any chickens yet, so there were no noticeable traces of her.
But today… looking at the large box in her hand, and her slightly calloused and red hands, Ava decided to take a more normal path. After all, it was fine if she strained her hands a little bit more, although she was tired, it was nothing worth mentioning when push came to shove, but it'd be a real pity if she ended up losing any of the snacks while vaulting.
Making her way to the centre of town, Ava passed by the main marketplace, and after a moment of hesitation, stopped inside one of the fabric shops to look for a few bolts of cloth. Lily's birthday was coming up soon, and although the girl hadn't said anything about presents, Ava had heard that it was a rather common tradition among the city folk to buy presents for one another on one's date of birth.
Of course, Ava couldn't say she completely understood the tradition, but she had to admit it was quite a nice one. Although, considering she didn't know her own birthday, she didn't really think she'd be able to partake.
Inside of the shop, Ava looked around for a moment before settling on a vibrant red bolt of cloth and paying the shopkeeper on the spot. Although she wasn't rich, at the very least, with the money she had taken from the Rat, she would be able to fund herself for quite a long time, and could afford some petty expenditures like this.
In addition, a little while back she had given all of the gems she had looted to the Madam, who had connections who could make the gems into money that she could actually use, of course, Ava had told the Madam that she could keep the money, and count it as lodging and training fees.
After all, she had initially gone to the Madam with the intention of supporting herself, but somehow had ended up with the Madam paying for her? Of course, although part of it was in return for saving Haley, Ava couldn't say she felt great about the arrangement.
That day, the Madam had looked Ava up and down with a strange smile and said, "Alright, I'll take a cut and return the rest to you, is that alright with you?"
In the end, Ava had agreed, although she had a feeling that the Madam didn't plan on taking a cut.
Thinking for a moment, Ava couldn't help but wonder when the Madam's birthday was. Maybe she could repay her then? After all, otherwise she'd have to wait until she was much much older and could get a proper job before figuring things out.
Until then, all the jobs she could take would be small labouring jobs, which were unlikely to take her, a small scrawny girl, over the dozens of jobless and homeless people on the docks, or she could take apprenticeships, which wouldn't show their values until years, if not decades later.
Scratching her head, Ava looked at the bolt of cloth and couldn't help but wonder what she could even get the Madam.
She spent a lot of time in her office, maybe… she could get her a safe?