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She had been sent to find her elder brother, whom had, as per usual wandered off without telling anyone where he was an when he planned to be back. And of course when he was out it had rained and the roof he had said he would fix had leaked once again, leaving Elise running to set pans in the kitchen and prevent the place from becoming soaked. Her father had not been pleased Elise had quickly noticed. As he was a generally quiet man it was often hard for others to tell but out of her parents, Elise took after him the most (or so she was told) and their moods ran the same way. So taking it upon herself she had informed her father she would go look for Jaqen, and get herself some fresh air in the meantime.

She had stopped briefly to buy some ripe looking apples and it was these that she was fiddling to put in her bag as she headed towards the tavern, thinking perhaps her brother had gone for a drink. Lost in thought and not paying attention to where she stepped she inadvertently tripped over her own feet, and her apples went tumbling, several bouncing over and coming to rest at the feet of a young woman currently exiting the tavern.

"Ah- sorry! That was clumsy of me.." The girl blushed in embarrassment before standing, dusting herself off hastily and looking at the woman before her, and the dark bird perched on her shoulder. She was not like anyone Elise had laid eyes on before, and though that could be because she had spent most of her life inside a house, she still couldn't help but feel as if the woman was a rare sort of person. Beautiful, in a way that almost seemed dangerous. She exuded an air of careless confidence, like someone who reveled in who she was and spent little thought of the opinions of others. In a nutshell, everything Elise was not. Truth be told, she was a little intimidated.

Gathering several of the dropped fruits, she stepped closer to take the one the woman had help out to her. Cradling it gently in her hands she offered a shy smile. The woman was not being unkind to her, something Elise appreciated. Something else though, about the gypsy that she had only just had time to process. Despite her initial feelings of intimidation, there was something else there as well. In some way, in many ways perhaps - this woman reminded her of the stories in her books, the tales of great adventure that she so eagerly ate up.

"Thank you, I will. By the way..." She started hesitantly, and then continued, being forward for her usually timid nature. "That was you singing at the tavern wasn't it? Your voice is...it's very beautiful."

It really was that that she had first noticed. The voice. A voice full of rich, tangible emotion, unmasked feeling. Elise could say with confidence that a voice like that had not come from the industrial grunge, nor the lofty manors of Palisade. When she had heard, and now saw the woman, she looked like she had been places, seen things, had experiences that Elise could not even conceive. Far away places the likes of which Elise could only dream of, with her nose buried in her books. Perhaps it was that she was a gypsy, and they were known as travellers, but Elise knew it was more than just that. And she knew also, that the life of a gypsy was a hard one, and not something that was ever really envied. But still, for the child who had been chained to a sickbed for much of her life, even the faintest idea of freedom, any sort of freedom, was like wine to an alcoholic.

The girl could tell that this woman was not generally the social type, but then again, neither was Elise. And for some reason, where she normally might have retreated back to her shell and taken her leave, she found herself compelled to follow to songstress towards the trees. Though she hadn't been invited, she hadn't been dismissed either and so Elise took that to mean it was her decision. Why she followed the woman she almost couldn't say, but her curiosity was piqued, her longing to know things more than just her simple life propelled her after the gypsy.


"You, you are a gypsy? And, you have travelled? You must have been so many places outside of Palisade..." It was half statement and half question. Though probably a stupid question for most people to ask, as gypsies were quite identifiable, Elise had never met one before, and had only seen them a few times before. And this woman wasn't quite like the other gypsies she had encountered, she wasn't sure how really but just a feeling. The look she had had on her face when Elise complimented her too, was curious. Although she was not always good at conversing, she had spent enough time on her own just watching people, that she found she was not a bad judge of mood and emotion. What exactly it meant however was definitely beyond her experiences.

Realizing suddenly that she had no clue who this woman was she blushed, forgetting to introduce herself again, father would have scolded her. "I'm Elise. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said, in the rehearsed way of one who was used to saying one line, and scarce more.

She came to a stop beside the tree as Rajani walked a little out of the street. Rajani, a lovely name, Elise couldn't help but thinking. Not like anything she had heard before but it somehow rolled quite nicely off the tongue, and suited the woman she thought. Though their location wasn't anywhere near remote Elise couldn't help but feel a little thrill, she was speaking to the gypsy away from the prying eyes of others and in a way that made her feel a bit braver. She was comfortable to a degree now with Rajani, but strangers on the street still always made her flustered. Of course the choice of location had nothing to do for Elise's sake really, but of course the sheltered child, though she knew of the stigma associated with gypsies, had never seen it firsthand.

The girl's pale green eyes lit up when Rajani said she travelled, how wonderful! Something Elise had always dreamed of. She knew little of gypsies in all honesty, other than that they were fairly nomadic people. That was the main reason why she was so interested in them though, their wandering nature. There was a certain freedom in not being tied to a place she imagined, the ability to wander wherever you wanted. Her view of the life was certainly a bit romanticized.

"Is it very large?" She asked innocently. "Have you been outside Sunderland, is everyone in Sunderland like the people in Palisade? Where's your favourite!?"

It was evident when the girl felt comfortable as comfort with a person was usually followed by rapid fire questions, some of them not the most inspired perhaps...but she really was curious. Hopefully Rajani didn't mind.

As she did with anyone sharing stories or knowledge, Elise hung onto every word Rajani spoke, the enthusiasm and wonder clearly evident on her small face. She nodded with the words, not in the way of one who understands, but in the way of someone fascinated with the unknown. Things as simple as small country villages, were to Elise, unexplored and unknown. She had been to the country once. Just once. To visit her grandmother, whom she had never previously met. Her father and brother had been several times, however when she was younger Elise had always been too sick to travel, and her grandmother too old. But not 6 months ago they had been to Oldcastle to visit the old lady, and finally she had seen the country. She liked it immensely. The wide open spaces and blowing fields of wheats and grains were the image of freedom that she conjured in her mind.

Elise nodded vehemently at the idea that those in the Palisade didn't care enough about their history or the Old Ways. She loved those stories. In a way to, she wasn't all that big a fan of the industrialization that everyone else went on about. Her doctor had said the reason she had been sick for so long was likely the smog that was ever present in Palisade, and one might say she had a bit of a grudge against it for that.

"The sea.." she said wistfully. She had never seen the ocean, though she had heard plenty of stories about the wild beauty of the coast. She knew of course what the sea was, and yet knowing something from a book was far different than knowing something from experience and the experience was something she could only dream about.

"It tastes like salt." A half statement half question. The idea was strange to her, though she knew of sea water being used perhaps in remedies the idea of salty water was slightly confusing. The water she knew fell from the sky into creeks, sometimes clear, often a faintly muddy brown but it never tasted of salt.

The girl nodded thoughtfully, digesting the information and mapping into her head with the rest of the things she had heard of the sea. It wasn't as if she was completely naive about the idea of it however given that she could barely imagine what the forest looked like, the sea was quite a bigger stretch. And that didn't even begin to touch on other such things she had heard of, such as deserts, and mountains. Oh she knew they were quite real and natural of course, but to her they still seemed more the product of fairytales and ballads than real life.

"I would love to visit the sea one day. The doctor says one day if I can become stronger I may be able to travel to places as long as they are not so far. He says the climate by the southern ocean is more mild than here, so I will definitely go someday!" She claimed, eyes already delighted and mind whirling at the prospect.

For a woman such as Rajani the idea of this was probably an everyday though, one doted on briefly in passing, but for Elise it was like a grand adventure. To travel to the ocean, she imagined she would be like one of the heroines in her adventure stories, travelling to unknown places and discovering things no one had seen before. Though her body was small, her dreams were ever growing.