Private Tales A Cage That Moves With You

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory didn't really need any excuse to sit back during their off time from duty to get a meal and drink, especially when she had the company of a fast friend with her. She had been chuckling lightly at something Everett Ebersol had said, earning their small table many glances.

"I know it's not that funny but... gods I think the wine is getting to me." And the peal of giggles started again. The wine was much sweeter than she tasted in Vel Cirak, which meant she drank more of it here. The guard knew she would chance waking up with a sore head in the morning, but she had no morning duties scheduled and figured she'd work it off eventually. Everett, too, had an evening and morning free.

"I'm just glad I do not have to suffer through Owain's complaints as we do the dishes after dinner  or breakfast." Rho lifted her wine and held it up in toast. "To small blessings." She grinned.

 

[Everett Ebersol]

It really wasn’t that funny. The image of uptight Sergeant Saccharine being able to uncork a wine bottle with his butt cheeks because of how much of an asshole he was today would normally get him nothing more than a hint of upturned lips. The wine was most definitely getting to her. He wondered if he would need to slow down so he could walk her back to camp. He rarely trusted her sense of direction even when she was sober.

“Cheers.” Everett said with a grin of his own, clinking his tankard gently against the cheaply made wine glass. He was certain that even a smidge harder and the glass would have cracked. He took a large sip of his warm ale, the bitterness and sourness reminding him that he really didn’t like beer. He had a sweet tooth, one that easily gotten him teased.

He wasn’t in the company with the other young men, why had he even ordered this in the first place?

“Hey. Can I try some of your wine?”

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory handed him the half full glass, grinning. "It's better than what we used to get at home. Sweet, but pleasant." And did a good job at getting her slightly tipsy for cheap.

"I was thinking of getting another bottle to enjoy. We can sit outside and people watch? Make it a drinking game?"

Her meal was done, a fine roast chicken and vegetables, the half eaten bread roll still waiting for her to get back to it like she said she would. Rhory waved down a bar maid and placed her order, only smiling when the lady gave her a look of doubt. Even with her unusual silver hair and special occasion makeup, she still had the face of a young child... and large doll-like eyes. "And an extra glass. Please... and thank you!"

Everett Ebersol

 

[Everett Ebersol]

When he took the glass from her, there was a swift gray glance to the left and right of them. No one was really watching them, at least not how Everett thought people were watching him. No one else cared about him taking some of Rhory’s wine, only he cared about it.

The stem was dainty between his thick fingers, hardly mirroring the elegance of Rhory’s long digits. He took a drink, glad for the change of taste. It was flavorful, layers of plum or maybe cherry, some dark red stone fruit that Everett didn’t have the knowledge, or tastebuds, to decipher. All he knew was that he liked it more than his beer, and that he wasn’t going to object when Rhory ordered them a bottle to share.

As they settled in at their new spot outside, Everett had the sense to hand Rhory back her wineglass with a small smile of gratitude. He helped the server uncork the new bottle of wine and filled up both their wineglasses pass the halfway mark. When he set the bottle down on the table, it was less than half full. They should have ordered two.

“I’m not very good with coming up with games,” Everett said. He had played a card game with his sister and lost every single time. Losing wasn’t what hurt his pride, it was the fact that she had looked bored. “But let’s play Spy Eye.” Every child in Vel Anir knew the game, ‘I spy with my eye, someone… big!’ “But less simple. More… specific… like…. I spy with my eye….” He trailed off and to gain him some time he sipped from his glass, gray eyes searching about.

“Someone old with… daughter or mistress?”

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory lounged in her seat, casting her brown eyes to the not too busy street before them. She tried to gather where Ev looked when describing his mark, but Rhory figured he was well versed in the game to make such a rookie mistake like that. She blew up her cheeks and scanned the crowd. After a minute, she was about to give up before seeing what possibly may be the mark.

"Oh..." Rhory grimaced. "No, that surely..." She was too scared to give him an answer. "I am betting daughter. If I am fucking wrong, I will drink. If I am right, you drink. Agreed?"

Everett Ebersol

 

[Everett Ebersol]

“What if I wanted to bet daughter?” His eyes didn’t leave the duo in sight, moving along the street, both with heads held high. Neither the middle-aged man or the woman around the guardsmen age seemed to be ashamed of walking side by side, or for the fact that the man had his hand against her upper back to guide her. It was hard to see if there was more to the touch, especially with the man being a gentleman and kept the woman away from the inside of the road where all the traffic was.

“Although mistress isn’t bad,” Everett mused before nodding his head in agreement. He didn’t need to wait to see if he was wrong in his assessment to take a drink, and so while the quiet seconds passed by, he idly drank from his glass.

The couple stopped in front of a storefront window.

“What shop is that?” Everett couldn’t read, could Rhory?

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

She squinted her eyes and made a face.

"Oh..." Rhory lifted her glass to her lips. "I would die if my own father took me to shop for wedding night wear." She had been past the store before, peering in to see corsets in variations of white and hosiery in the same shades. Rhory was curious once too, popping her head in and being overwhelmed by the questions she was asked about her upcoming wedding night.

"Intimate wear. Meant for the enjoyment of a dear husband."

Rhory drank, thinking that was confirmation enough that the young woman was certainly not a daughter.

 

[Everett Ebersol]

Everett’s upturned eyes widened for a moment. Intimacy laced in sensual sheer patterns of blooms brought upon by a man and a woman together? A dark brow was raised as the couple went into the store together and the young man stared at the window display across the street. It was nothing more than a series of different colored silk robes from the far off reaches of Aetochi, all tied at the waist of the mannequins so only a glimpse of the corsets could be seen.

He desperately wanted to go into the store but figured if he did on his own he’d be shooed out. He was much too young and much too poor in his guard uniform to be a serious customer.

“I’ll take a drink with you this time.” Everett said, raising his glass to his lips. He knew he was staring at the storefront too long and so averted his gaze elsewhere.

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory snickered into her glass, lightly nudging Everett before taking her turn for the game. Her eyes lit up with the liquid courage, amused and content to spend their down time not running drills. Or doing the dishes.

"I spy... a young woman looking at you." Rhory snickered again when the woman down the street leaned into her table outside some tea shop, trying to get a better look at Everett. "I think she is waiting to see if we are a couple."

The woman could be staring at Rhory, really, seeing as she was sat before Everett. "Very cute. If you don't want her, maybe I can persuade her to stare at me instead." She grinned.

"Shall we drink to it?"

Everett Ebersol

 

[Everett Ebersol]

Gray eyes widened just as Everett began to give quick, little glances towards any impressionable woman, hoping to catch a pair of eyes directed his way. He even began looking at other women who didn’t fit the description. When he turned back to Rhory, he was met with a grin.

Wait. Was Rhory talking about herself? Or did she make up the young woman so he would turn towards her? His gaze dipped downward, to the lips spread into a grin. He looked inside his wine glass before taking another drink.

“You know… in some cultures, taking a drink together at the same time is a sort of sign from fate that the couple will end up together.”

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

Rhory snorted into her wine glass, unable to keep it in hand without spilling the precious beverage. She set it down, leaned over towards Everett and gripped his jaw with her hand. "Well, I didn't know that, Ev. Maybe you and your soulmate can figure that one out yourselves."

And Rhory turned his face enough, directing his gaze by pointing the extremely pretty lady she had spied earlier. She had light brown hair that seemed to be like golden caramel, or whatever fancy dessert existed in these parts. The young woman caught them both looking, and immediately turned her head away.

"Drink up, you jester. I won this round." She said, patting his cheek and returning to her seat, smug.

Everett Ebersol

 

[Everett Ebersol]

She didn’t get it. He wondered if she’d equate the red of his cheeks to the Dornoch glow or from disappointment, but Rhory turned his inward gaze outward to the pretty brunette. How had he missed her? He must have been looking elsewhere. Everett shrugged, it was hard to feel like he was missing out when he hadn’t realized the stranger’s glances from before.

“Every woman likes a man in uniform.” The glass was raised but a pause was had. “They might also like women in uniform, too.” He added before taking a swig of defeat. He doubted out in the field defeat would ever taste as good as this. With his turn once more, Everett was quiet as he had to find their next subject to gawk at.

“I got a tricky one for you.” It was only fair, after all. “Mother and daughter or sisters?” He set his glass down, feeling rather smug with this choice. “They’re both blonde.”

Rhory Grimmere

 

[Rhory Grimmere]

“Every woman likes a man in uniform.”

"You're not wrong." She grinned at Everett.

“They might also like women in uniform, too.”

"Oh gods, I hope so." Rhory stared at the woman a moment longer, wondering how long she would be sitting there and if it was even worth approaching her to talk sweetly with. Flirting was, and always will be, her favourite part to romance.

It was not hard for Rhory to find the two in question, but the older woman looked well for her assumed age. The two blonde women seemed to look quite close in age just by appearance and fashion alone. "Hm..." She pretended to look as if this truly were a puzzle for her to put together, when in reality she was a shit read with mother daughter dynamics when her own mother was in the Guard, grown up like a son, and that was how her mother and father would parent her.

She had five brothers, and none of them smooth enough to keep a girl long enough for Rhory to bond with. Determining sisters was something she was probably going to fail in. "They could be cousins for all we know." But of course, they will never truly know until a tell gave it all away.

She watched them for eight minutes, really studying them with her brown eyes before scrunching her face in a grouchy pout. "Sisters."