Before the Next Adventure (OPEN)

Zot nodded to Kimberly in full agreement that a lot of them would get lost before he turned toward Cara. He inclined his head slightly. "Compensating how?" he asked curiously. "Do you think they are hiding something? I doubt I would have gotten sent here if it was something bad."

At least he hoped it wouldn't be the case. He was supposedly his father's last hope at having a male child so he didn't think that Sir Emery would willingly endanger him. 

Looking up at Kimberly as she led the way, he wondered what she thought of that. She had been here the longest so she might have heard more about the castle and the people who founded it. "Do you know anything about the people running it, Kimberly?" he asked, wondering if she could share anything. "Maybe we can piece some things together."

Kimberly tried to tune some of the talking out only getting bits and pieces of what they were saying. This had nothing to do with them and more to do with the fact that she had only been here for a few months and so was not as comfortable in this place as they made it seem. Plus when her nerves got to her that when things exploded and that was not going to be something she wanted to have happened here. Sir Gryffindor had been nice enough to help her when it happens on the travels to this place, but he could not just cover for her all the time. “I think they made it so grand because they hope that anyone with our special talents one day will come there to get help. Plus it might be a good thing for it to be huge to give up some of the privacy we might want some time.” She stopped for a moment when they made it to the front of the general store since she was not sure if it was the smartest thing to work on talking about everything that was going on out in the open. Not everyone here was magical so they might not be as ecstatic listening to people go on and on about this castle.

The young witch thought about everything that was going on. “I know a little about 5 of them.” She looked at the general store wondering what all they should talk about before anything else. “There Godric Gryffindor, he is a knight and nice gentleman. He was the one that found me and brought me here to work on studying a little before school started. He has as friend Rowena Ravenclaw. She is good at naming animals and is one that worked on building the school.” She stopped remembering what she and Godric talked about on their trip here not wanting to give away too much if there were other things they could talk about. Kimberly did not want to make them think something was going to happen that might not be there. “Helga Hufflepuff is the one that works on the care for all of us. She wants to make sure we are feed and properly protected. Salazar Slytherin I don’t remember much about. He does like to study though and was traveling at some point. Last is Gwen Moore she really sweet and nice. She is my tutor been coming down from school and bringing things to help me with my writing and reading. She also going to be teaching others that might need more help once they get to the school. So I not much help if looking for people being sneaky and hiding things sorry.”

Kimberly then moved to head towards the door of the building in front of them. “here the general store there are lots of different things you might need here.” She was not sure what else they might be needing, but she make sure to go to the front desk and see if there was anything for the tavern that needed to be picked up. If so could work on grabbing it now since here save them all a trip for being so nice.

"Its just a feeling I have looking up at it. You don't have something that big unless your either expecting a grand number of people to be there with enough room to spread out or if there's more to it then just a big fancy castle. Maybe good maybe not so good. As I said it just gives me a feeling that whats inside awaiting us can't be judged by what it looks like on the outside." Cara explained when Zot seemed puzzled and questioned her observation. It seemed right she explain a little more of what she meant, trying to clarify it was only her opinion and she had no idea what was really inside the giant stone building nearby.

When the paused by the general store, she did her best to pay attention to each word Kimberly said next as she described some of the adults running the new school. There was some information that seemed interesting but it was only when the other girl brought up that she was getting help learning to read and write that Cara felt her heart freeze. She didn't really expect that to be part of the schools education, really she just assumed it was only the Noble woman who had been insisting Cara learn to read and write not that it was required to know. She was tempted to ask if they knew who could read and write and who couldn't but decided not to, feeling as though it would only draw curiosity in her direction to see if she herself knew how to. She knew a little, a few words or letters whatever they were but it wasn't much. Not much at all to go by her failed attempts to read the letter and list of needed supplies the Noble woman had sent her with. 

Cara glanced at the store, wondering if she should seek out the owner with help getting the things on her list if she needed them at all. It was hard to say what the Noble woman was telling her to get and what was necessary for the school. No there was one thing on her list she knew was needed for school but should she bother Kimberly again to ask where to get it or bother the general store owner instead. She guessed it was times like this it was helpful if you could read and find it by looking around at the signs above the buildings no doubt screaming out exactly what they were. Cara tilted her head down a bit as she slightly raised her hand up holding the parchment pages, her eyes looking them over as if expecting this time she would be able to read much more then one or two words from it. No such luck unfortunately so from here onward she was on her own to figure it out.

"Thank you for your help and guidance Kimberly, I gratefully appreciated it. For sure I would have gotten lost had you not shown the way." she said looking up at the other girl and gave her a light but warmly appreciative smile. Just because she wasn't the biggest fan of people didn't mean she couldn't be polite and friendly at times. So long as they didn't try to get close to her things would be fine.

"Oh I see what you mean now," he said as he looked up at the castle once more before turning his attention to the large shack that was the general store. He listened as Kimberly explained about each of the teachers she had met so far. Sir Godric Gryffindor had been mentioned to him by his father as they had crossed paths a few times before he got married and served as more counsel than an actual in-the-field knight.

The others he had never heard of, though perhaps if he had paid more attention to what his stepmother had been trying to teach him then maybe he would have. Lady Hufflepuff sounded delightful if she was interested in feeding them. He was currently ignoring his stomach which was beginning to gurgle a bit.

He smiled at Kimberly, "Yes, you are most helpful Kimberly. I hope we can all help each other as students too."

Looking over at Cara again, "What did you need to get here? I might try my hand at shopping a bit too. I doubt I'll ever spend all that my father saw fit to send me with. Perhaps you two would humor me by dining with me?"

Kimberly worked on nodding to Cara seeing as she really wanted to do the shopping on her own. That would be fine since really was not sure about the two of them anyways. “It is fine when I first got here I got lost for sure also. The general store is the place where just spend most of my time so have learned to work on finding it no matter where I am. Is there anything else you want my help on since don’t want to keep you if you don’t need me anymore?” She was going to work on heading towards the front desk to see if they had anything for either shop that needed to be picked up.

She was shocked when Zot asked if they wanted to have dinner with him tonight. That was not what she was expecting at all. “It really depends on what time you are going to have your meal for tonight.” Kimberly knew that would have the night shift at the tavern because that was when she was getting all of the best tips. “Reason saying that is because I have to work at the Tavern later this evening. They were nice enough to give me a job so that had a way to pay them back for room.”

Cara was partially listening to Zot as she looked down at her list again. It was nothing against him but she wasn't the strongest conversationalist willingly or otherwise. People could be deceiving through their words and although she wasn't immediately suspecting that of either Zot or Kimberly she was still a bit on guard not just yet familiar enough with either to lower that guard.

Her head somewhat snapped up as he asked what was on her list, a bolt of worry shooting through her body that he had found out her poor ability to read. No, no, he was just being friendly, maybe a bit overly friendly but certainly not caught on to her inability to understand the writing on the parchment. 

"I guess its stuff for school, my temporary caretaker was the one in contact with one of the founders and arraigned for me to come here to learn so I can only assume they provided a list of some kind too. She has down a few things I need like a wand, cloak, a couple quills, and such." Cara replied, hoping her answer seemed logical enough to not raise curiosity or suspicion any further. She had guessed at least somewhere on the list was quills, figuring if it was a school they might need them even if ironically she couldn't write much more than numbers.

She was stunned a second time when he had also asked about dinner, managing to nudge that question aside to take care of the more pressing one first. Now with it hopefully taken care of she moved on to it. "The tavern would be the only place to find a good meal and room to stay in correct? I don't suppose it would do any harm to eat together since we will be in the same place anyway." Cara answered as she glanced between the two. At least if they all ate together, they wouldn't stand out too much and they would leave tables open for other people to sit at instead of occupying them to sit at alone. It would be a little uncomfortable eating with others but it was something she would need to get used to. No doubt the school would have them eating together for every meal so there was little chance of her eating a meal completely alone for a long time.

"Oh, I was thinking soon if you are both agreeable. Nothing like a warm meal after a long trip," he said cheerfully, though he was still a tad nervous. "Especially with new friends." He offered them a beaming smile and turned to Cara as she spoke again.

"Oh, you won't get a wand here at the General Store, that much I know," he said, absently patting his inside pocket. "You gotta go to the wand shop for that. That's the only place I know where it is because it was the first place I went when I got here."

"We could always get the stuff you need here first and then get food, or we could get food and then come back, or we could get your wand and then come back but that would be a whole lot of circling about," he said, sort of rambling now. He was trying to be helpful though.

“The tavern is the only place that I can think of that has some rooms. There might be some other places that have some places to stay but are not going to be as cheap. It would just be people that live here offering a room to someone. I don’t know the people though not sure if they would do that though. So you are right the tavern most likely is the best place to stay.” Kimberly was trying to think of the different places that would be needed to get food. She knew there was a great place to get fresh bread but that was all they did so it did not make a good meal. Kimberly had spent some of the money she earned once in while getting a load right out of the oven. That had been heaven. “The tavern food is not that bad. The chef is nice and wants to try to make sure that everyone is happy.”
Kimberly started to walk away from a few steps so it showed that it was best to get their things now. “I think it is best if we got our things now. I mean if they have room there we could work on putting our things up before getting a table to eat. Plus it will be starting getting dark at some point so do you want to make two or three stops in the same place.” She was going to stay that if they could not find a room they could leave their stuff in her room but did not trust them yet so would not want them taking what little she had. “Plus since here really need to see if they have anything to pick up for the tavern. I can take it back while we head that way.”

Cara was a little disheartened to know she would have to make another stop on this task to collect things for school. For a moment she almost wished she had kept some of the money she had been sent with given how much trouble this was all becoming. But it was trouble she wanted to be able to do on her own, to further prove she didn't need anyone else or the hurt and betrayal they eventually threw at her. She had plenty saved up to get her through a few years maybe, depending on what was needed for a magical school and if she needed more no doubt there was plenty of work to be found here at the trading post to make some money.

"Is the shop to get a wand much farther from here? I could probably go get it and be back in time for the shop owner to finish collecting whats on my list then we can go to the tavern. No reason to make too many unnecessary trips back and forth if we don't need to right? It shouldn't take very long and will save us both time and energy not having to walk around so much" she suggested looking between the two. Cara had guess the general store would collect the things on her list instead of her having to search for them.

Some stores did it either way depending on the owner or the customer but given she was new to town it seemed better to default it to the owner who would be quicker at not just collecting the items on her list but reading it in general. She couldn't and would no doubt spend far too much of his time trying to figure it out, better to just let him do it and be done with it sooner and less troublesome. 

"Let me see if the shop owner can gather whats on my list for me so I can go get a wand in the meantime" Cara said, taking note of Kimberly taking a small step back as if getting ready to walk away to collect what she needed. "If you happen to remember where the wand shop is, I wouldn't mind directions and or company if you don't have shopping of your own to do" she offered, looking back and forth at the two. While she really wanted to get away and have some time to herself, it would be beneficial to at least be on good terms with those she would be seeing every day. Not to mention it seemed the right thing to do after Zot extended the invitation to dinner, it would be rude to completely take advantage of the offer by being a jerk after he and Kimberly had been nothing but helpful and kind. As much as history was yelling at her there was a chance it was all a trick, she would ignore it if just this once but at least remain on guard if only to shield her heart from the chance at any damage taking aim at it.

Zot nodded in agreement with what Kimberly was saying as it seemed to make sense. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a piece of parchment that had a list of things on it that he needed as well. He knew most of what was on the list not from reading it but from the fact people had gone over it with him beforehand.

"Can I get my cloak from here or do I have to go somewhere else for that?" he asked Kimberly, figuring she might know better than he did. He wasn't sure if there was a tailor in the trading post or not but he couldn't really read the signs very well. He did approve of Cara's idea about letting the shopkeep pick out their items though as it seemed sensible.

Unfolding the parchment he waved it in the air to show he had a list too. He looked between the two girls, prepared to let Cara go first in handing out her list. He knew he needed the things she already spoke of as well as other items like a cauldron and such. Hopefully, he could get all of that here so he wasn't running all over.