It had been a long drive for Avani, but her first foray into the capital city was well underway. Recently being promoted by not only her father but the ranch foreman to Jr. foreman was a big step for her in her training.
She had learned how to grow the goods her parents produced, now it was time for her to learn how to sell the goods. She had been studying hard the past few years, paying attention to how her father and the foreman haggled prices, and how to keep the records. Today she was on her own to deal with the city suppliers.
Honoka was in the seat next to her. Not many seemed to take notice of the tiny khehora in the wagon, but the khehora seemed to be looking around as curious as Avani felt about the city. Nix too was peering around at the sights from next to Avani. While it took about two hours to reach the city from her home, the bargaining and selling took two days. She had stares as she ushered her two charges into the inn last night, but no one said anything about it. However she had checked out and was now back to do the last bit of official business before going home. According to the buyer of the goods, Avani was to drop off the last of them at the market stall. She would get paid from the man there once she showed him the receipt the buyer had made out.
Avani jumped down from the wagon and found the worker. As they got the wagon unloaded, Avani was paid. She took her share of the profits, and put the rest in the secret stash box that her father had built into the wagon. With all of that taken care of, Avani left so the workers could unload, wandering into the marketplace to see the many vendors selling goods she herself had never seen so much of.
Perhaps some cloth for mama and a new book for papa? She looked at Honoka who was by her side with Nix perched on top of her head. Avani smiled, definitely some ribbons for those two since they had behaved well.
As she made her way through the market place, she wondered why the crowds were thinning and why people were staring at her. Perhaps it was Honoka? Surely they had seen people with bonded khehora before. Avani smiled, laughing inwardly at how she was fooling them all and bringing a wild khehora into their midst.
She reached the the middle of the market and found the goods she had been looking for, some of the venders eyeing Honoka as they delt with Avani, and then bought lunch. Afterward she would first look around for a bookseller, then head back to the stalls, get her wagon and leave for home.
She bought three meat pies, and some flasks of berry juice, then looked around for a place to sit. She found a rather abandoned place by a wall and went to go sit there. Luckily it was in the shade too. While it was cooler out this time of year, it still didn't feel too cool out in the sun.
She made her way to the wall and sat down on an abandoned crate. Nix scrambled off of Hononka and Avani set down the smallest of the pies she had bought, and the fea dug into it. She then gave Honoka the medium sized pie and watched her sit back and eat it. It wasn't graceful, but what about Honoka was at this age? Avani laughed and then took out her pie to eat.
It was at that moment she noticed that the wall had an other occupant other than herself. They seemed to be eating lunch themselves, and Avani felt bad about intruding into their personal time.
"Sorry about bothering you!" she said greeting them with a smile.
"Didn't mean to!" Avani looked closer and then noticed the horns on their head. Avani smiled brighter as she realized the other occupant of the wall was a Dovva. While she had never met one before, she would first respect their privacy of eating lunch. She then turned to Honoka and said,
"You really should be polite in public, you might make people think we are rude."Honoka looked up at her mother confused. She licked her maw and then went back to the rest of her pie. Though she did try her best to be polite this time because her mother asked her to.
"Forgive my child." Avani said to the other person smiling,
"She's still learning."
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