Shells

The Ghost flew up the coast of Dragonstone until the village of Shells came in sight. Vira ordered him to land far enough from the cottages and stone huts so as to not to alarm the fisherfolk. She knew she was visible to them, and Shells would learn that Aegerys had a rider again.

"Do not be alarmed!" Vira said, sliding down from Aegerys' back with a slight wince. His scales were not meant for sliding down - she could not wait to get a saddle. "I am Vira, the new rider of Aegerys, but I have not forgotten the Queen of Shells, or this village. I have come here to offer my services to you, before I return to King's Landing to serve the King." She paused to let that sink in. Not many dragonriders would put a humble fishing village on Dragonstone before service to the King in King's Landing. The villagers would understand the significance of that gesture.

"Where is the steward?" she asked. She did not know how things worked on Dragonstone, but back in the crownlands, each village had a steward who represented the lord in the village. "Or the reeve?" she tried. The reeve would be under the control of the steward, but would be more involved in managing the village's affairs. "Perhaps they can tell me how I can be of service to Shells."

"I'll see the reeve, then," Vira said with a smile, and she strode off in the direction of the house with the blue door. By the time she would reach it the reeve would have noticed what was going on, she knew. Nevertheless, she knocked smartly on the blue door.

"I am Vira, rider of the Ghost," Vira said. "And dragonseed. Is the reeve inside?"

OOC: Crap, and I decided not to create a Charm or Persuasion skill. Seduction it is! Actually never mind, I will use none of my skills.

Vira sized up the woman quickly. She was like any number of other well-meaning, superstitious, good-hearted women that Vira had known growing up. Lower Crinkley was not all that different from Shells after all, it seemed. This woman was likely the reeve's housekeeper, who lived in a fastidiously neat cottage behind his house and prided herself in knowing her place - and everyone else's.

"By the Crone, t'reeve is lucky to have you to see to him, goodwoman," Vira said warmly, with a friendly smile, lapsing full-blown into the peasant mannerisms she had grown up with. "My mother always said a man was always happiest when filling his belly, and it's a shame to interrupt him. But mayhaps he'd like the company of a dragonrider." Vira sniffed. "I can smell bread. What dough did you use? I was quite the expert baker back in Lower Crinkley, I'd love to show you how I make a loaf."

OOC: I suck at being a peasant hahaha.

"Thank you, goodwoman, that will suit me fine," Vira said.

The smell of food made Vira realize that she had had nothing to eat since about an hour before she tame Aegerys that morning. She took the tankard gratefully, but knew her head would spin if she drank it without eating something first, weak as the ale was. "I'm here to offer my services to your village, goodwoman, in honor of the Queen of Shells," she said. "I can see to the baking and peeling you know. Your girl there is a dear, but she's slow. My mother taught me to be quick and efficient in the kitchen."

"Didn't she have fifteen children?" Vira asked, chopping and peeling with quick, nimble fingers. "I say, these do look good. Are you going to steam them?" she asked.

Vira's stomach rumbled at the mention of honeyed apples, but snapped to attention at what the woman said. "I am sorry," she said sympathetically. "When people become heroic figures, we forget that they are just as flawed as the rest of us are. But maybe she did you a favor? Maybe he was as dumb as an aurochs' ass. I'm done chopping these, where do you want them?"

The smell of beef was torture, but Vira added the vegetables as commanded. "Well, she also got three arrows through her eye, heart and stomach at the end," Vira said cheerfully. "And here you still are. All balances out."

"Best to do it with a dry dust mop, my girl," Vira said, who had always been very efficient at cleaning her parents' house. "Good thing about stone floors like this one is that they endure a lot, though." Though those days are behind me forever, Vira thought to herself. If I hadn't gotten Aegerys, I'd still be mopping floors.

"I can show you Aegerys if you like," she said. "Gods, that smells good. Is there a bit of bread and cheese I could scarf down before that bitter old crone comes back? I'm half-starved."

"You're a gem," Vira said gratefully, buttering the bread and layering on the cheese. She could hear the woman's footsteps. Damn! But Vira would be damned before she was denied a bit of bread and cheese, even to speak to the reeve. Just looking at the bread and the white cheese smoothened over it made her mouth water. It had been so long since she had eaten, and growing up the way she had, Vira never denied herself a meal, even if it was table scraps.

"Tell her I had to pop out back to relieve myself," she told the girl, and she disappeared out the back door, and found a clump of bushes to crouch behind - ostensibly to tinkle, but in reality to eat as fast as she could.