Welcome to Gaia! ::

Inside the shop was very warm indeed, though there was no obvious source of warmth. Most of the wares in the shop were of practical nature - pots and pans, table and serving utensils, candlestick holders and such - though there were a few decorative items on display as well.

"Welcome!" came a warm and friendly voice when the group entered. There was a young woman standing near one of the shelves, a cloth in hand, polishing the items on display. She smiled at the group. "May I help you with anything?"

The woman smiled and nodded. "Just let me know if you need me," she said amiably, turning back to her work.

River started looking over the more practical items. Her expression faded from excited to simply thoughtful as she examined the items. Clearly, something had distracted her.

"Nice stuff," Earendil commented softly, looking around. "Of course, since we're always on the move ... little practical for us ..."

Andarien on the other hand strode purposefully up to the woman and looked up at her expectantly.

"Yes?" she asked him kindly.

He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. "Would you be able to make something like this?" he asked, holding it out to her.

Andarien talked with the woman for a few minutes and then, with a sigh, shoved his paper back in his pocket and wandered off to look around at other things instead.

River drifted back over to Miyuki. "It's nice metal work," she murmured softly, "but not so friendly for travel. Pity, eh?" She smiled gently.

"At least he's persistent," River quipped with a grin. "And he's found something he's good at. It's good for him."

She looked around. "On the other hand, it does look as though we're finished here ... shall we continue?"

The next shop was the wood smith's place, and it was every bit as cozy as the first - though not quite as hot, which made it a bit more pleasant. Of course, heat wasn't required to work with wood, unlike metal.

The shop was very large, and decorated with its own wares: tables, chairs, desks and other furniture, with tableware, carvings of animals and items and more. A sign on the front counter indicated that the craftsman would also take requests.

"It smells good in here," Jess commented, looking around.

Jess smiled and took River's arm, leading her after Miyuki.

"These are nice," River smiled warmly at the carvings. "Better than Nineko's."

And considering how much she loved her great-grandfather's carvings, that was quite the compliment. It was well-earned, though: it was clear that the artist's favourite subject was rocs, since most of the carvings included rocs in some way, shape or form; but each and every carving, whether roc or otherwise, was so lifelike it was as if the subjects had been frozen in life and shrunk down to sculpture size.

River looked around. "Perhaps over there," she suggested, pointing to the other end of the shelf where they were looking. There were many more, much smaller objects over there, things that seemed to come in sets, and she had a feeling they might be games of some kind.

As it turned out, she was right: there were sets of Elven Chess, a game which looked similar to Chinese checkers (not that River or Jess knew what that was), and various other board games.

"Hey, I know this game," Jess beamed, looking at a board with three progressively smaller squares on it. "I used to play this back home with Jasta."

River looked at the game over his shoulder. "I don't remember that one," she said, puzzled. "Did you have it when we visited Chansond'eau?"

"A long time ago, yeah," Jess smiled, taking River's hand and giving it a squeeze. "We lost most of the pieces to it ... come to think of it, I think we might have lost the board too."

"We should get some of these games," Jess grinned.

River didn't agree. "Jess, of all the things we're going to need, I don't think games should be one of the first things we get," she protested. "I mean ... we'll need a whole house ... and everything to go in it ..."

"Relaxing is important, too," Jess pointed out. "And come on, these can't be too expensive ... especially if we get just one." He glanced towards the shelf to see if the prices of the games were posted, and he blinked when he saw the small sign that had been posted. "Wait a minute ... we speak the same language ... why can't I read their writing?"