Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cosine was also rather confused by the request and like Ankou she decided it would be best to do as the woman said. She didn't seem hostile, her manner was matter of fact. Clearly stating that they were about to break one of the rules of her establishment. She crouched and undid the laces on the boots she had borrowed from Jessica. Aware of the woman's gaze on them both.

"You're not from round here." The woman observed as the watched the pair of them take their shoes off. They didn't look hostile, though they had learned that not all could be trusted. That's why she kept her grandfather's sword behind the counter.
"Not from round here at all." She shook her head and moved back to the counter to pour two glasses of water.

"Of course. I'm not going to turn down custom." The woman's previously stern features softened and she gestured for them to take a seat at the counter. The wood was faded and the top marked and worn from use and the effects of the weeks no doubt.
"You'll be safe in this town. No one hostile here." She placed the two glasses of water down and stepped back. "Did you walk?"

Cosine smiled at the woman's fussing and stepped up onto the wooden floor in the socks she had borrowed. Not quite as nice as being bare foot but still better than wearing those damned boots.
"Thank you very much." She walked over to the seats the woman had gestured to and sat down. "We have been walking for weeks. We are trying to get to my home town." she smiled and tried to form the lie into something more concrete. I think it is several days south of here if I remember."

Cosine glanced to him as he squeezed her hand and smiled. It certainly sounded plausible. She turned her green eyes up to the woman to guage her reaction to the story. She didn't seem too surprised.

"we get all sorts coming through here." She said, busying herself with somethings behind the counter. "Not many from abroad. The transport links were cut a few years back. Though still some interesting people. Will the two of you be wanting some food? A room perhaps?" She seemed hopeful.

"I'd be willing to help out too." She was not really sure how, but she was willing to to physical work if that would help them blend in. "I'm a teacher, or I was a teacher."

"Well, I think we can work something out. I'll give you room and board in turn for some help around here and the village. There's plenty to do. We were hit quite hard with the plague." She smiled sadly. "I lost my son, but, for every one lost we have survivors. And, we have some strangers too. A group have taken up residence in the old temple. Strange bunch but they do come to town and buy our goods so we can't really complain."

"Yes, yes, it was rough going for a while there. I'm Ayumi by the way." She gave a small bow of her head and took a step towards another curtained door.
"Hiro, two bowls of noodle soup." She called, then moved back towards her guests. "Hiro is my husband. We've been running this place for years. It was his parent's, then his grandparent's before that." At his query about the temple she shrugged.
"Not ours. I was disused for a while but this group moved in." She leaned her hands on the counter and moved closer. "They're a bit strange. A cult we think, but they help out around the town so we can't really complain.

Cosine glanced to Ankou. That was interesting. The temple she had seen hadn't been in good shape, though perhaps she had been seeing past memories.
"I'm Lien and this is my husband Adrian." The lie felt strange as it rolled off her tongue, though the names were the only real lie. Although not married in the mortal sense they lived as though they were.

After they had eaten Ayumi showed them up to one of her rooms.
"You're the only guests we have at the moment so i'll give you the best room." led them up some wooden stairs and along a hallway.
"Here." She slid the door open, it had painted wisteria on the door, each of the other doors they had passed on the way were also decorated, though with different flowers.
"The water works, and the bath is from a natural spring so that's always working and hot." She wandered inside the room which seemed to be bare aside from a low table.
"Beds are in here." She slid a large cupboard open to reveal folded futons. Of course Lien would know what to do with them.
"There's a small stove there too to heat the room and make tea. tea things are in the drawer. The bathroom is through that door there." She pointed.
"I'll leave you to rest, I'm sure you're tired. "We usually eat just after sun down and breakfast at sun rise."

Cosine looked around the simple room and breathed in deeply. It smelled a little damp but it was nice, with large windows that looked out into an overgrown garden. She had seen rooms like it in her host's memory. It made her wonder if she had come from this world.
"Thank you very much Ayumi."

"I am sure we will have a list of things for you to do tomorrow. Make yourselves at home." she smiled, bowed and left the comfortable room to the pair of them.

Cosine waited for the door to close and the woman's footsteps shuffling down the hall and fading to nothing.
"Well, I think that went well don't you?" She wandered over to the window and looked out to the gardens. "She didn't seem suspicous."

Cosine stared off into the distance and nodded, she wondered if they could see the temple buildings from the room.
"Indeed, though ... mortals continued to worship even after the fading. There were churches, temples, they just evolved and changed to suit the mortals beliefs and needs." I might not have been her temple for a long time, but they had contined to use it. "I do not like the word, Cult, so much. It seems the locals do not trust them. Whoever they are. We may need to be cautious incase it is a god, like us."