| Much Ado About Nothing |
| Summary: | Sir Larell comes to the Wolveshire to meet his cousin lady Collette Lohstren. Two of them didn't see each other too long and that is why this meeting brings a lot of joy for their hearts. |
| Date: | 18/06/2013 |
| Related: | None |
| Players: |
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| Golden Crown Inn |
| The main room of the inn serves as a gathering place and an entry hall. A broad staircase follows along the left wall toward a wide balcony-style loft above, and from there carpet runners lead guests down several different hallways lined with doors. Tiles of muted tones with the odd glimmeringsquare are arranged in the symbol of a sun that dominates the center of the main room. A long, low counter of a dark wood lies to the right, where an attendant can assist with getting a room; behind the counter, a nondescript door leads into a private chamber in the back. A large chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling, and light from the wide front windows strikes the teardrop crystals to send colorful motes of light around the room. Directly across from the entrance lies another set of double-doors leading into the common room. The sounds of dining and general carousing from within can be heard at all hours of the day and night. |
| Mon Jun 17, 1329 |
The door swings open and a young man walks through it. Well, walk is perhaps inaccurate; his graceful steps are not quite as routine and boring as that. Swagger, also, wouldn't quite be right; it would suggest an aggressive masculinity, a fighter's confidence. No, neither walk nor swagger describe what this young man, barely more than a boy, does as he enters the room. Regardless of what adjective might be attached to the action, however, he performs it with gusto: he moves into the inn with a spring in his step, as if there is music reverberating around his own head. He flutters his eyes and flicks his hair and smiles as if privy to a joke nobody else is, and then lounges across the bar to catch the barmaid's attention.
"Excuse me, ma'am," He gives a pearly smile, and leans close as if to exchange a secret with the middle-aged wifey behind the counter.
She blushes a little and responds by leaning in conspiratorially.
" I'm looking for a Lady Collette and I was told I could find her here. I couldn't ask you which room she occupies, could I?"
Even if the Inn is quite crowded and noisy, the rush of the young lady couldn't be unheared. She runs down from upstairs and a guard, who follows the girl is the one, who rattles because of his armour, trying not to be left behind.
Tress locks wildly sticks this way and that, giving the young lady some mischief. Her sparkling eyes colour of amber are overcome by emotions and runs through all the people intently looking for someone.
The notch neckline exposes her pale skin. Her soft fingers gently whirl a hand crafted pendant, with the Lohstren house on one side and the Auldhome house on the other. As always an incredibly beautiful burgundy fabric of her gown has embossed patterns of flowers, which are finished with tiny little jewelled stones, which just twinkle softly.
"Where is he?! Where is he?!" tiptoes Collette trying to see something better through all the high people around her "Do you see him?" she asks young guard Aidan, but quickly adds "I guess you have no idea, how he looks, because you are new, but he must be the most handsome man in the room!" chuckles young lady "When you see him, you will understand! He has to be here. Today! It's writtin here," she shakes a letter in her hand.
Collette's antics draw the barmaid's attention for a moment and when she turns back to speak to the handsome stranger she finds him gone. Vanished, just like that.
For Larell, grinning like a mischievous cherub, is hunched over and sneaking through the crowd, his velvet slippers making virtually no sound as the sweep over the ground. His passage elicits the giggling of young women and the frowns of old men, and at last, his subterfuge hopefully successful, he arrives at a large table, stretched out in the middle of the inn as if it planted itself there hundreds of years ago and intends on staying hundreds more.
With a quick "Excuse me sir, ma'am," Larell leaps through a flirting couple and onto the table, spinning around and shouting "Collette, Collette! It's me, Larell! Come, m'lady, come up and dance!"
And, as if swept away by the emotion and energy of this reunion, a couple of old timers sitting in a circle of chairs by the corner whip out their fiddles and lutes and began to rattle out a lively tune.
Hundreds of brightest stars light in the russet eyes of the youngest daughter of Horse Lord, when she sees the man on the table. Collette nips a soft fabric of her skirt and rises it a little bit, before she almost runs through the crowd closer.
"Larell! Larell!" joy erupts from her throat "It's you!" While lady is trying to reach the table, she obviously steps on a strangers foot, because a man jumps angrily from his seat, spilling ale from his cup "Hey! You little…" but a firm squeeze on his shoulder, made by Aidan, just forces him to sit back in the pool of ale on the bench.
Finally, Collette reaches the table and extands hand for her cousin "My beloved cousin!" she whispers now, grinning from ear to ear.
A sun-kissed hand reaches out to take Collette's own, the touch tender but firm, and Larell pulls the lady up and onto the table. He looks at her and laughs from glee and then pulls her into his embrace and kisses her on the cheek.
" You are more beautiful than ever, cousin," He whispers, grinning still as he pulls away and looks into her eyes. Around them, now, the crowd has begun to beat their mugs on the tables and chant "Dance, dance, dance!" The chant spreads from mouth to mouth until it is a rising murmur echoing as if from the walls themselves. The barmaid, the matron of the inn, is leaning on the bar and looking dreamily at the young pair on her table. She doesn't seem to be intervening anytime soon.
Collette doesn't have time even to blink once, how fast she finds herself on the table in a warm armful of sir Larell. In the kiss on her cheek she answers with a soft peck on his cheek too, before she clasps her hands around his neck "You are more and more handsome with each day, Larell! Soon you will outrun and sun, and the moon with your own beauty!"
However, all this chant becomes the reason, why slightly reddish roses starts blooming on young lady's cheeks and she is peeking at people around a little bit nervously.
But excitement is stronger than ladylike manners and Collette manages to concentrate her attention on cousin again. One of her hand slips to his, making their fingers to interlace and another pale hand remains on his shoulder, though, girl cuddles up to Larell tightly as it would make her feel safer from all these crazy common people around.
Larell tosses his head back and laughs and the movement does indeed seem to make the sun explode across his face. " Come, then, if we are both so beautiful. Let us oblige our good friends here!"
A cheer erupts from the crowd. Larell pulls his cousin closer to the centre of the table, easing the embrace to make room. And then, in time with the music, he begins to kick and prance and click his heels and the entire crowd claps in time with the rhythm of his feet on the table and the commoners whistle and smack their drinks together and some even begin to pair up and before long the crowd is one shaking, kicking, flinging beast, with Larell and Collette at its heart.
" Come, darling Collette!" Larell cries over the ruckus, his face ecstatic, " Dance with me!"
Collette, chuckling as a little childish lady and blushing more and more with each move, just follows the lead of her cousin. At first, all steps and swaying are a little bit lost from the rhythm, but it's obviously, that thrill disturbs young lady.
When her amber eyes catch the sight of commoners, who starts dancing too, daughter of the Horse lord relaxes and finally she manages to move as elegantly as always. Maybe because of the knowledge, when and where to step or squat, or because of heaps of fabric in the skirt, it looks like, that Collette glides in the air, not touching the table with her feet.
"Promise never leave me alone for so long again," in the whirlwind of dancing whispers Collette to cousin's ear.
" Not the power of the four winds nor the weight of the seven seas could tear me away again, m'lady," The young man replies with a twinkle in his eye. And then he's yahooing and lifting his arm to twirl Collette beneath it, all the while his heels are clicking and his mouth is laughing and his thick curls are bouncing on his head. And even as they dance, a shanty sweeps the room, summoned up in the deep, rhythmic baritone of common men.
"Come gather round people from across the realm
Come put down your swords and take off your helms
Come eat at our tables and dance on our floors
Come lay in our beds and forget all your wars…"
And as they dance and the people sing and Collette twirls and glides between his arms, Larelle's smile stretches further and further across his face, the smile of a child lost in the heat of the moment and forgetful of everything else. To him, the entire world could be contained inside the room; and what a perfect world it would be. And at last, as the fiddle dies away and the lute twangs to a stop and the people stop dancing and erupt with applause and the cheer of "Lohstren! Lohstren!" fills the room, Larell turns to Collette and bows with a fanciful twirl of his hand.
" Always a pleasure, m'lady."
When the music is over, Collette sighs a little bit sadly, that all the fun ended and she has to get back from the tale to this Wolveshire. However, smile continues dancing on rosebud lips, when young lady offers a respectful curtsy to her cousin "Always a pleasure, my Prince," mischievously chuckles girl and her eyes start looking for the best way to get back on the ground. Collette grabs fabric of her skirt, raising it and peeking at her cousin shyly.
Larell does, of course, offer Collette his arm and, if accepted, they will descend to the floor together. Whatever animosity might have greeted him on his way up to the table, he is now patted on the back by the male wards of the inn; the females lurk nearby, batting their eyelashes at him.
"You wouldn't have a place to talk quietly, would you Collette?"
Collette takes sir Larell's arm and lively jumps from the table, falling in his armful once more "Of course, please walk with me to my room. I guess we have a lot of things to discuss!" and she gestures with her hand to stairs, tugging Larell's sleeve and almost dragging him there, but her eyes are turned to long time no seen cousin and it looks like she is eating a cousin with a russet look.
With a final grin back to the crowd, Larelle follows his cousin towards the stairs, still tapping our the rhythm of the jig with his fingers on the back of Collette's hand. " Wasn't that pleasant…" He seems to hum to himself.