Rose was sitting at the cart baking in the sun for a sum of uneventful minutes. Although the wind was strong it was hot, but promised shade soon with rolling clouds, still Rose was tempted to fan herself in the stuffy corner of the market.
Karigan had left her sight about fifteen minutes ago, leaving her to stare at other bored venders and their children who glanced back at her with glazed expression. Most had spots in the shade and were making good business, Those were the regulars with food and other necessary products that lived close enough to make more than weekly or biweekly trips to the market, they also had the sense to get there ealier enough to get a good spot. Even the haberdasher looked cozy for goodness sake! Not for the first time that day, Rose cursed her hair dye and sat back with a pout, glaring at a high up window.
As she watched it, the window's curtain twitched to the side and a small, pink face appeared in the crack. The small face lead a dirty head into the open, soon followed by a scraggily dressed boy and his brown and white kitten. The boy picked his way across the roof and poked his head over the side to stare down at the fruit vendor with slightly old apples.
The boy reached down his hand and the kitten quickly scurried down it, speared an apple behind the man's back with tiny claws as it dug it's nails into the boy's sleeve. The boy winced but didn't falter, grabbing the kitten's tail with the other hand and hauling both arms back onto the roof, kitten and all. Rose laughed at the site, admiring such teamwork and stealth from ones so young. The boy bit out of the apple and gave the piece to the kitten who nawed on it gratefully, but the juice cause the fruit to slip from his dirty hand and fell back to the vendor, landing at the feet of a young, lowerclass man.
"Hey!" the vendor yelled. "What do ye think your doin? Stealin from me, eh boy?!"
"Pardon?" the man replied, aghast.
The vendor pointed to the apple at their feet. "Think ye sly, do ye? We don't appreciate havin a thieve in our mists, do we Horris?" the vendor directed the last bit to another large vendor, a grubby man that sold over-ripe fish.
Then man took a step back as the larger men approached him, Rose sat up in her seat, ready to pack and flee if things turned bad.
"How could I have possibly taken that?" the young man said prouldy, surprising Rose with his fine speech and accent, "it has a bite out of it and I've been standing in front of you all the while."
"Don't use some fancy logic on me boy, I trust me eyes, not pretty words yu scholar's done spout. Now pay up, and interest for trying to thieve me!"
The young man took another step back, reached into his pouch, then turned and ran. Right into Rose and her cart.
The two tumbled to the ground as the vendors roared with laughter behind him.
"Serves ye right boy, hope ye get a splinter!" the larger one, the fish vendor, shouted.
The man stood and spat at their feet, causing them to rile up again. Before he could think, the boy turned and tripped over Rose and her destroyed wears. He scrampled to his feet, falling into Rose further and ripping the scarf off her head. She cried out and he seemed to notice her for the first time. He started to apologize and pull her to her feet, but was snatched up by one of the large men.
They hauled him to the end of the street and threw him to the ground where he scrambled unceremoniously to his feet and started down the road, Rose's scarf still attached to his belt where it had snagged.
Rose sighed at the bad luck and got to her feet, dusting herself off and testing for sore spots. Just as she had gathered all of the cloth into her arms, not an easy bundle to carry, the rain started. She hadn't even noticed the clouds roll in and cursed her misfortune. Before leaving, she dropped the cloth onto the pile of mud and wood, ruined already by the rain she knew someone would have better use for it, like the boy and his kitten. Rose was now concentrating on getting home before the dye ran out of her hair in the rain.
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