Xanadu Weyr - Wildflower Boutique
Whitewashed walls form the canvas for the colourful array of flower, garden and decorative goods that are to be found lining the shop's polished shelves and smooth granite countertops. Around the edge of the room, a slim metal frame supports deep glass buckets in which a variety of freshly-cut flowers sit to be selected for bouquets and arrangements from as few as half a dozen stems to much grander affairs. Above them, shelves contain a selection of clay, glass and stone vases, handheld gardening equipment and decorative stock, such as ribbons, small cans of waterproof paint and fancy paper wrapping. Fertiliser, pots and troughs are kept on display outside and beneath an adjustable awning in-case of rain, a wider range available upon request.
Three islands in the centre of the shop floor provide space for gift items and the like, including metal flower pins, single ornamental stems for vases, and taller metal blooms to be stood in gardens. A price list notes them as crafted by Ka'el and also available in precious metals such as gold and silver. Other items on the counters include a range of small bouquets deliberately designed with firelizard delivery in mind, meadow-themed silver jewellery, and small gift-baskets containing the seeds and markers needed to start small herb gardens and plant window boxes.
The main service counter is situated along the back wall, where a list of bouquet prices and other fresh flower products, including circlets, arrangements for special occasions, and petals by the bag can be seen on a large chalk board hung on the wall.
Like winter gives place to the blossoming renewal of spring then summer, Tani has changed and it doesn't go unnoticed. The rather shy and awkward starcrafter turned into a confident man. Young man still tho and it's with lightness in his steps and humming that he enters the shop, immediately searching for Marel.
It's likely that Marel was somewhere in the crowd when those last eggs hatched; there and gone like she has been so often in the past turn or so, and so when she looks up from her perch at the shop's main counter, she's able to address Eltanin, by his right - or at least new - name without prompting. "E'tan," she greets him, small smile curling in one corner of her mouth. "Congratulations first, I guess." Manners, after all. "What can I do for you?" There are no other staff around, nor any customers, for the moment, only the company of firelizards to be kept.
E'tan flashes a broad smile and directly heads for the main counter. "Thank you Mare…" his voice trails off turning the sound into a embarrassed cough. Then he briskly salutes. He's a weyrling now and should act that way. But then again, his good mood makes him winks. Oh so bold! "I mean thank you Ma'am. It's always nice to come here and share your company so that I don't really need something to visit but yes…I think you can do something for me." Joining action to his words, he pulls out something from his pocket. Something that looks like a piece of broken shell. Egg shell.
There's a flicker of something that isn't quite the arch of an eyebrow when Marel clocks that salute, but it seems to be amusement rather than disapproval. "I won't tell if you won't," she says rather dryly. "It may be protocol, but you saluting and 'ma'am'ing me feels a little bit silly. Do what you have to for the Weyrlingmaster, but don't feel you have to stand on ceremony with me." And, as such, she even lets the wink draw another smile, in the moment before her attention is pulled to that piece of shell. "…Your bronze's?" she assumes, darting a quick look back up to E'tan.
E'tan replaces the broad grin on his face with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Marel. All happened so fast I….I'm not used to it." He poorly replies, fidgeting the shell in his hand. "Yes, it's a piece of Saburath's shell. Do you think it can be assembled on a necklace?" he doesn't why nor for whom he would like this to be done tho.
"You won't be used to it for months yet," Marel says bluntly, though not unkindly. "Nothing will be feel normal again overnight. Still, I'm sure all the weyrlingmasters have gone on to you about that already." Sitting back in her seat, she asks, "Can you set it down on the counter for me? No offense, but even I'm getting paranoid about you breaking it, hanging onto it like that." Whether he does or not, she supposes, "It could be set in silver, or another metal. If not the whole piece, then fragments of it. It'll have to be treated with something, whatever the case, or it will just crack and flake away."
E'tan listens very carefully, immediately handing the fragment over to her when told so. And it was close! Nervous like he is he'd have ruined it in no time. "Using a big part of it if not the whole thing would be really nice." He finally lets out, raising his head from the still lightly glittering shell to look at her with hope. "And it'd help me focus on lessons too I must admit. Since I grabbed it from the sands, the idea of making it…permanent is obsessing me. Not that I need a reminder or anything." A lighter quickly escapes his mouth there. "Saburath is so amazing…" And luckily for the weyrling, asleep at this right moment.
"If it's going to be for you, what metal would you rather it were set in?" Marel asks, sneaking another look down at the fragment of shell. "If it's going to survive weyrlinghood without rusting, silver is probably a good place to start. Gold or gold-plating would be more expensive… but it depends how flashy you want it to be, I guess. And what you think would go best with the shell itself. To preserve the colour, not much metal would be used, but it would be required to at least edge it in something, after treating." At what he says of his new lifemate, she inclines her head a little and remarks, "He'll like to hear that, at his age. They're all only babies, really."
E'tan intensely ponders all of that, eyes once again glued to the small fragment. "To be honest I was thinking about it as a gift…" He raises his eyes and adds almost coyly. "…for a girl. I don't have much but would like what's best to keep the color preserved." There he told her. But then it's not the first time he enters here seeking for a gift. At the emotion of his young bronze, he literally melts, displaying a goofy smile. "Oh but I keep telling him he's awesome. And he keeps answering he is because I am too. It's so intense. I guess it'll settle a bit with time but also get stronger, right?"
Now Marel does stare, just for a fraction of a moment. "You would give a girl a piece of your dragon's shell?" She's not accusatory about it, but there's no hiding that sense of dubiousness about the whole thing. "If I had any of Isyriath's, I'd have never let it go." Then, with a quick shrug of her shoulder, she concedes, "Though perhaps that simply means I'm too selfish." Regardless, she reaches beneath the counter to retrieve a leather-bound book, which she opens and soon catches up a pen to write with. "…The same girl as before?" she idly questions, as she begins to make notes. "It might not feel like he's your whole universe all the time, no, but it'll become something more comfortable, with any luck."
"No no! Not selfish at all! It's surely another whim of me. Maybe I should reconsider the whole girl thing." Tani replies firmly, suddenly feeling kind of stupid. He shouldn't think about girls. He's a weyrling and weyrlings are too busy to think about futile things as girls. "Let's say I would like to preserve it. Can you just forget about the whole girl thing?" Without even waiting for an answer he follows. "But he is. My whole universe. You couldn't have chosen a better word to describe the feeling. Mine was full of stars and distant constellation. Now there's Saburath." Naive as he is and still a bit young he simply forgot who he's talking with. A brownrider. Of course she knows and certainly chose the word consciously. A sharp quiver briskly drags Tani from his reverie and his eyes looses focus for a blink. "I'm sorry…He just woke up and…I must go. I leave the shell to your expert hands…." And he dashes out.