A Puppet Master's Practice

[Amil von Eisen]

Amil was walking past many people, talking about on thing or another, in the city square. He was out of place among all of these people of Avaren, and though he could speak the language easily enough, had not the skill to mimic their culture.

And so, he settled in the town square to 'practice' puppetry. With an open hat nearby. Aria, who was in his arms, jumped down and began to sing a song. She was quite good at this, however and had soon drawn a crowd, though some were less obviously impressed than others.

In fact, a few hecklers had cropped up, moaning about the unoriginality of the song. It didn't seem to bother Amil, however, as when she finished her song, she took a bow, her golden hair falling from behind her shoulders...

[Xannon]

Xannon bit into a biscuit as she zigzagged through the crowd. At first, it was tedious, but she began feeling more and more like an acrobat every day. Above the rancor and jibber-jabber came a woman's voice. It wasn't the cadence of a professional opera singer, but it certainly had something to it.

The scholar shoved the last bit of crunchy bread into her mouth, licking the crumbs off her dark little fingers before she joined the audience.

Or tried to. One problem about being four-foot-eight was that everyone else towered over her. She scuttled around the group, eventually climbing up some crates until she could peer over everyone.

Ha! she thought to herself as she sat down half a dozen feet above the ground, swinging her small feet in amusement. Seeing as she was now at least a head above everyone else, she grinned. Puffing out her chest from her proud little success, the girls' dark eyes flickered over the musician.

And, hey, she knew that guy!

Yeah... They'd gotten un-lost in the fog together when she first arrived in Avaren, right? Before she found someone who let her freeload in her house and before she toured the academy. She wouldn't lose her way so easily now.

She watched him curiously. How did he manage to sing with such an effeminate voice? Puppetry and voice skills... This dude had it going on.

"Woohoo! Great job!" she cheered, clapping loudly as the beautiful life-sized puppet took a bow.

[Amil von Eisen]

Suddenly, Aria's gaze turned to Xannon. This girl was someone they had met before. Her gaze was only on Xannon for a split second, however, as she suddenly bolted back into Amil's arms.

"H-hello. Err... Nice to see you, again." Amil sounded very clearly embarrassed to have been seen by someone he knew. Or, rather, it would have seemed that this was exactly the case, had the truth not been otherwise. After all, he wasn't...

But, then, no one here knew, and he wasn't about to give away his secrets so easily.

As the crowd dispersed around them, he took a look in his hat. There were a few coins in there. More than enough for a day. It seemed like the puppet master would eat tonight.

"Err... so... hi..." he repeated awkwardly...

[Xannon]

The puppet-master withdrew his life-size puppet. He shyly checked his donations. Did this guy get flustered easily or what?

Xannon grinned as the crowd dispersed.

She stood up and began jumping/crawling/climbing down from her stack of crates before she finally gave it up and hopped on down, bending her knees to absorb the impact. A splatter of muddy winter slush clung to her shoes and pants. Again.

She frowned, glaring at the icy stains. How was she always getting so muddy? Well, whatever. She could clean it easily enough once she returned to the Academy.

Xannon glanced back up, smiling again and moved a couple steps closer to the guy and his doll.

"So, Mr. Puppeteer. Ya never gave me yer name last time. I'm Xannon, by the way."

[Amil von Eisen]

"Ar... Amil. M-My name is Amil von Eisen. And this girl is... Aria. Nice to meet you, Xannon."

Amil picked up the hat, which had been taken from Aria's own head, easily judged by the style. He took the coins and shoved them in his pocket, before brushing the hat off on both the inside and outside and almost returning it to her head.

He had suddenly brought it back, and stuffed it, too, in his pocket. Then he tugged the string, and Aria's hand extended to the girl before him...

[Xannon]

"Amil von Eisen? And you gave a name to your d--puppet, too?"

The little doll held out her hand.

Xannon blinked for a moment. Amil was really shy, wasn't he? Then, she shook the offered hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Aria! Ya know, Mr. Puppe--Amil, this puppet feels really real. I can tell you care a lot about her."

The puppet even felt warm in these temperatures, and the skin even felt like skin. If Xannon hadn't known otherwise, then she would've thought this little dear was human.