A Valiant Dame to the Rescue

Writers: Jelena, Len
Date Posted: 10th January 2012

Characters: Naton, Ohelia
Description: When Naton finds himself lacking in presentable clothing, Ohelia comes to his aid.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 5, day 6 of Turn 6

"Oh, which will it be, which will it be!" The Senior Journeyman that
had only just arrived in the Dolphin Hall was pacing through his room,
stopping in front of a mirror every now and then, holding out the few
shirts he had taken with him in his luggage. Naton paced back to his
bed, laid out one of the shirts and tried to smooth it out. Shaking
his head again, he walked back to the mirror with the second and let
out a frustrated sigh. Finally, he seemed to get an idea and threw
open his door to look into the hallway. Much to his pleasure, a woman
was just passing by. "Excuse me, miss," he called out cheerfully. "Can
you spare me a moment of your time? I'm in terrible distress!"

"Oh?" Ohelia looked over to the poor man, who indeed did look a tad
bit stressed out. "What can I help you with?" She smoothed back a
stray black hair and walked back to him, grinning.

"Come in, come in," Naton ushered the lady into his room, where four
of his shirts were spread out in various states of wrinkled-ness. "I
have to report in with the Hallmaster any moment now and I could
really use a lady's opinion. Do you think I can show up in any of
these?" Naton asked while gesturing at the shirts. They were all fine
shirts, really, Naton usually had good taste, but they'd been stuffed
into a bag for a long travel oversea and were not at their finest. "Be
honest, I can take it like a man." There was a twinkle in his eyes
that showed he might be over-dramatizing for the fun of it, just a
tad.

Ohelia was a nice girl. When she saw the shirts, her face dropped but
she tried to not let it show. "Erm..maybe that one?" She pointed to
the dark blue one, the one that was the least wrinkled. Biting her lip
nervously she thought about the spare shirts in the storage room.

Naton's eyes darted from the girl's nervous expression to the blue
shirt she indicated. As he picked it up he held it out at arm's length
and smirked. "Are you sure?" he asked, holding the shirt in front of
him as he turned to her. "I don't want to look like I don't care, you
know? First impressions and all." He paused for a moment, but wasn't
able to resist. "It's hard enough for me to have a fine lady like
yourself seeing me like this. I'm Sr. Journeyman Naton, by the way."

She held out her hand. "Ohelia, Hall worker. Nice to meet
you."Smling at him she added, "you know, we do have spare
clothing...if you want something a bit less wrinkled."

Taking Ohelia's hand, Naton gave it a firm, but gentle shake. "It is
certainly my pleasure to meet you." Naton said with a merry twinkle in
his eyes, before her mention of spare clothes distracted him. "You do?
Is there anything... nice?" He raised his eyebrows slightly, hoping
she would understand what he meant. From the clothes he had spread
out, she should be able see Naton did have a sense of style.

"Yes." She nodded her head firmly. "More pale colours than what you
have here, as we live in a hot environment, but nice stuff. Want a
look?"

"Well, thank you," Naton said, seemingly relieved. "I would love to
have a quick look, if that is okay." He looked at Ohelia as if she was
his saviour in dire times of need. Which she kind of was, if only his
need had been dire.

"No problem, follow me." She smiled and led him out of his room. Just
down the hall and the stairs were the storage rooms, crammed full of
clothes, harnesses and other tools of the trade. "In here." she
opened the door and waved for him to proceed her into the huge room.

Following Ohelia like a little duckling, Naton wondered to himself
what he would find in that storage room. Hopefully a good fit, because
for someone with his height it could be tricky to wear other people's
clothes. He usually spent quite some marks on custom made clothing.
When she opened the door to the storage room, he followed her
curiously.

She led them to a far corner that held many shirts and tunics. Casting
a few aside, "they may be a bit flamboyant for you," she rumaged
through, throwing out a few at a time until she had amassed a fair
dozen. Throwing a hand out with a flourish, she asked, "well?
Anything you can wear?"

"Oh!" Naton was pleasantly surprised with the variety of shirts that
Ohelia presented to him. "That is more than I had expected." A
thoughtful look crossed his face as he tried to size them up and
finally picked out one that looked to be about his size. Besides being
his size, the light blue matched his eyes perfectly. "Do you mind if I
try it on?" While Naton was pretty sure Ohelia was used to see men's
bare chests, living at the Dolphin Hall and all, he didn't want to be
impolite.

She merely grinned. "This close to the Weyr it's..odd...to see a man
so modest." She told him as she turned away, just in case he was
prudish.

"Well, I never take any chances when a real lady is involved," Naton
said with a cheerful chuckle. After pulling the wrinkled shirt over
his head, he unbuttoned the new one and put it on. "What do you
think?" he asked as he started to button it up again.

"Oh please! We've got the Weyr, the Harper Hall and us..all within a
few miles of one another. There's no such thing as a proper lady
around here!" She leaned back and laughed, a real belly laugh. She'd
been around enough Holders to know what they thought of the three
places.

"Oh, so you say I won't be finding any ladies here, at all?" Naton
said, faking a little pout as he pulled the shirt straight and checked
the length of the sleeves. "I think this will work, though."

"Oh, you'll find 'ladies' but they might not be the type of ladies you
were thinking about!" She nodded her head in the direction of the
Weyr with a twinkle in her eye. She, for one, liked the freedom of
living close to both the Weyr and the Harper Hall. She'd never go
back to her home Hold.

"Well, I'm pretty flexible in my opinions," Naton said with a chuckle.
"I'll gladly redefine my definitions if I see the need to." Checking
the shirt one more time, he nodded. "Well, I'll take this one if you
don't mind. Do I just return it tomorrow, or how does that work?"

"Keep it, it suits you!" She winked and led the way out of the rooms.

Last updated on the January 28th 2012

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A Valiant Dame to the Rescue