Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ellandra squeaked again. Truthfully, she wanted nothing more than to get. out. of. that. place. And to gather what remained of her dignity. That would be nice, too.

But, well, her throat was a bit dry - and he wasn't being mean. . .

"A-all right," she said at last, finding herself caving despite her best efforts. She tilted her head a little. "B-but what. . . w-what will y-you d-do with - with Z-ziazan?"

Wait, had she really just agreed to his offer? Why? What was going on with her?

Oh well. It wasn't like he was buying her something alcoholic. She drew the line there.

Ellandra nodded timidly, saying nothing. In truth she wasn't really sure what she should say. She'd never been in a situation like this before. Her life had been so quiet. . . so sheltered. She was very much out of her depth here, and it showed a** she adjusted her hat and fidgeted with her skirt.

'What have I gotten myself into?'

Well, there was nothing for it - she'd agreed to his offer, there was no going back now. Perhaps she should just. . . see how things went?

Ellandra squeaked again, her face flaring up like a neon sign as he - he changed in front of her practically! Did - was he doing this on purpose? The slight woman wavered on her feet a little and turned away rapidly, taking his arm for support more than anything else when he finished and came over. She nodded, trying not to look as nervous as she really was.

"A-all r-right," she said, looking at Ziazan as she did so. "T-try not to g-get tangled in - in th-the s-scarves, l-little one."

Ellandra took the lemonade gladly - it gave her something to hold on to as well as kept her throat from running dry too often. She sipped at it carefully - she'd watched asa he'd gotten it and was certain he hadn't slipped anything in it, she wasn't naive enough to think that such things never happened - and smiled timidly at her companion for the evening.

"Th-thank you," she said, blushing brightly - but not quite as intensely as she had when she'd nearly fainted earlier. She glanced around a little, relaxing a tiny bit despite herself. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it would even help her - she sorely needed some social practice, after all, and this young man was, at the very least, making her deal with many different things she'd never faced before!

Ellandra shook her head, a smile gracing her lips as her blush decided to make itself a semi--permanent addition to her features.

"N-no hard f-feelings... I j-just... w-wasn't ex-expecting..." She paused, and chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment. Taking another sip of lemonade, she swallowed and continued. "I'm - a-afraid I'm r-rather. . . in-inexperienced with - with most s-social things... s-so ... I - I s-startle easily... I'm - I'm sorry if I - I b-bothered you..."

Ellandra's eyes went very wide, and she took a tiny step backwards. The lemonade sloshed around in its cup as her hands started shaking again. Just what was going through this man's mind? She didn't quite understand, having gleaned only the barest of knowledge on the subject - mostly from books, albeit of a bit higher quality than trashy romance novels - but she had a sense of what was on the fortune-teller's mind. . .

And she wasn't sure what to think of it.

"U-um . . . y-yes. . . . I - I s-suppose it - it w-would help, w-w-wouldn't i-it. . ." Don't run, don't run, he's not going to hurt you it's okay, calm down, calm down . . . oh, she felt very, very much the trapped mouse in this moment. Or perhaps, the little bird caught in the cat's paws.

Ellandra blinked and looked around, before ducking her head sheepishly.

Oh, drat.

"I - I'm s-sorry. . . and -and I'm a-afraid I've g-gotten a bit. . .. um. . . lost," she apologized and admitted all in one breath. She hadn't meant to upset the fortune-teller, she truly hadn't. He did seem nice, if a bit more. . . forward than she was used to. Not that she was used to much; her recent acquaintance list was all too short, really.

And yes, she was most definitely lost. In the daylight, perhaps, she could find her way home from here, but she wasn't normally one for traveling in the evening - and home was a rather long distance away, considering that if it were close the noise, at least, of the carnival would have been noticeable from her apartment. She didn't feel entirely comfortable trying to find her way home through the darkened streets, but what more could she do?

Waiting to leave might be the best, but could she really wait until sunrise before leaving? Surely even a carnival had to shut down sometime, and the longer she waited, the worse it would be to head home.