Zaria comes to visit

Kazex felt just a tad disgruntled that Helga hadn't allowed him to accompany her to the market. He understood her concerns, but he still wanted to see if there was anything of interest for sale! Though the human researcher that had taught him had told him about markets, he'd lived all his life in the forest so he'd never seen one - once Helga mentioned there was going to be one, he'd hoped he could go, but unfortunately, it was not to be.

However, he just didn't feel like disobeying Helga's order today. Though the woman hadn't phrased it as such, he didn't really want to test to which extent he'd be **** to obey her suggestions for now.

That said, the goblin didn't allow himself to be bothered by the denial too much; he'd just woken up from the worst nightmare of his life and nothing could dampen his good spirits. It had been really horrible - all his work put into carefully planning the slow seduction of both women only for a small mistake outside his control to slip through and have all his plans crumble when Talanah knocked Helga up.

He really should take heed from the nightmare. Perhaps it was a prophetic vision sent to him by the spirits!

"Yes, it probably was! I'll have to be more careful from now on, lest that nightmare comes true," Kazex muttered with a shudder.

Still, what was he supposed to do now that Helga was out? He'd already advanced on his potions lately and there was such a thing as too much work. The tower was already pretty clean; neither Helga or him were especially dirty individuals so most times it was just a matter of cleaning the kitchen and sweeping the dust away. He could try to track Talanah dawn so he could clear his mind with one or two spars, but he doubted he could find her: with her extensive knowledge of living in the forest, it'd be like looking for a small nail in a pile of hay. A rather humongous one.

"No, I better wait for her to stop by again. Maybe I could ask if she's staying semi-regularly at some particular place while she decides so I know where to look for her..." the goblin mused as he idly scratched his chin deep in thought.

In that moment, someone loudly knocked on the door, startling Kazex. "Who could it be today? One would think everyone would be attending the market..." he muttered to himself as he went to open the door.

In front of him stood the pretty brown-haired lass from the other day, the one that had come to get a charm for a good harvest from Helga.

"Zaria? What are you doing here? I hear today is market day," Kazex said with a curious look.

The girl fidgeted, clearly unsure of how to conduct herself. "Ah - no, my mum handles that already, she does. I have nothing to do and well... I thought I could give a visit? Is the Lady here?" she asked, suddenly very nervous.

"Oh, I'm afraid Helga just left for the market a bit ago. Maybe you could return tomorrow if you wanted to talk to her?" he proposed, crossing his arms over his chest. He almost missed the intense glance she sent him when he did so.

So he hadn't really imagined it the other day. Good, Zaria was rapidly climbing spots in his perfect test subject list... 'It's admittedly quite a short list, all things considered,' Kazex thought to himself with a small smile.

Looking slightly relieved, the girl was quick to reassure him with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Oh no, no, no need! I was... I'd love to talk to you too, yes!"

"Lovely. Why don't you come inside? Give me a minute to put out a fire from a potion and then we can talk in the kitchen - there's enough space there and I can give you something to drink."

The kitchen was a fairly spacious room in the bottom floor of the tower, adjoined near the entrance. It had enough space to host several persons at the same time; Helga and Kazex usually ate inside together and whenever they weren't discussing their experiments while trying to find ways to improve them, they tried their best to get to know each other.

As Kazex led Zaria there, he could see how the girl looked with obvious interest at anything her eyes saw. However, before he could comment on it, Zaria herself beat him to it. "It's strange being here - not a lot of folk come here if they can avoid it."

"Really? Why's that?" Kazex asked, but Zaria simply shrugged as if there wasn't much to it.

"Well, the Lady is a witch, she is. Some are still suspicious - they think the Lady will bring a drought, poison the wells or turn the babies into toads."

Kazex snorted. "Helga would have no reason to do any of that." That said, while he doubted Helga could produce a drought easily, she could very well poison the nearby wells in a single day... and he wouldn't even lower himself to entertain the possibility of the last comment.

'Bloody ignoramuses.'

"That's what I thought too. The Lady has been living here for months and she's helped - but some, like ma and the others... well, these things take time, yes?"

"Yes, obviously. I haven't been here long, but I'm sure they'll come around. You want water or something else?"

"Water, please. So, you haven't been here for long then, ser- I mean, Kazex?"

With his back to her as he poured a glass of water, Zaria couldn't see the amused smile on Kazex's smile. 'Already fishing for information, heh?' He wasn't sure if it was simply genuine curiosity or there was something else behind her interest, but it really didn't matter much. Hiding the vial of aphrodisiac he'd brewed the other day from her sight, he grinned as he poured several drops into the liquid. 'Let's see how much you like this water, Zaria.'

Good thing he'd been sensible enough to refine it further to make it both tasteless and colorless after his stunt on Helga's room.

Turning around, he passed her the glass full of water before taking a seat as he answered her. "That's right, I've been here only a few weeks. I don't think it's been even a full month," he told her, watching with interest as she immediately took a large mouthful of water.

Noticing his look, she let out a nervous laugh. "Sorry, been a real hot day in the fields today and I'm thirsty as an overworked mule. So, how did you start to serve the Lady? Goblins are usually... well, goblins," she finished lamely while trying to change the subject.

"Well..."