They were still in the boat, and Wen was shuddering from fear... but the dwarf simply wiped his mouth on the side of his woollen vest, stood up, so that he was about the height of her (mind, the girl wasn't very tall - at least not as knobbly and sharp-looking like Stella Vunis). "You saw that..?" He questioned her. "I neve' would a'thought.. you?"
Pulling up his breeches fringed with sweat, he sucked in some breath and curled his tongue about a piece of succulent meat, so that his gums hurt and his teeth ached unpleasantly. "I... why would'ya think.... tha'? Perchance yarr simply mist'aeken..." And he let out a long, narrow, foul breath which made Wen cover her nose.
It's been some time since she'd seen the eyes, and she was seated now, tearing away at a leg of meat. Perhaps the girl had never eaten as much as this, but her whole body ached and she only groaned, sucking out the marrow and biting her tongue in the process. But now she stood up, which gave the dwarf the pleasure to look at her more-or-less slim figure, and she laughed.
"Ha! I'm becoming much like a cow on this boat with you, darlin'... and maybe you're right..." her small bug-eyes widened and her shoulders sagged and eyebrows creased... "Well, I'll eat no more, I can promise you. Because, I've already gained 1.2 kilograms last week, so I'll be sure to lose some of the kilos when I live up in the Low Mountains or whatever. I'll be hiking every day then, going down to the forest and then swinging through that as if I'm Mario before I walk straight up to the border. I'm thinking... shouldn't I have some proper clothing if I'm maid at a castle?" Wen grinned, for no longer did she feel too vulnerable.
The eyes had come and gone - what was there to worry about truly? "Ah, yes... afore yarr go up to the Low Mountains - just call 'em High Hills if you wish — we shall go up, up, and where the peaks are mattered a'ay by snow and boulders face north, we shall hike down to the South of your a-livin' spot... and there's Mattiâs, he'll make ya some clothin'! Say... what do you like?"
"I'd like a woollen jumper, a pair of pants, like - three dresses... each polyester... one, dark brown to bring out my eyes — then, a sorta' mustard one for my very pale, no-good hair, and the last the deepest of purples. Some underwear too - a singlet or three," thought Wen out loud. "I suppose I'll wear the pants and the oversized jumper when at home, and the mustard dress every day to the castle. The other two would be for special occasions, like... say... on a date..." and then, Wen remembered how hard she had been crushing on a boy about her age - slender as a jian weapon with eyes hazel and curling hair of brown. And then she also thought how he teased her, and the charming dimpled mouth...
"Date?" The dwarf smiles. "Seems like a'somethin' good for recovery!" And Wen put her face in her hands, sitting back down, grinning, for it was a relief that the dwarf knew not of what she had just joked about. Then, out of his woollen vest, he produced a small moleskin notebook, and began scribbling down feverishly. Huh. So he can wriiiiiiiiite? Wen asked herself. Luckily, her usually-loud self held back from throwing the punch at the "recovery" guy.
"I wrote all dat down," he told her, turning around to show her his messy writing. Wen squinted, trying to make out the words; flowēš tīgebāt vōjk ßulłbāē - it said. The girl's shoulders slumped. This man was impossible!! First, he captures her, then, he feeds her on a freaking boat and finally he... writes down weird stuff, and shows it to her, and his vest is so cute! Oy...
At that she yelled out - "Frick! What do you expect of me?" Before her toes dug into the side of the boat, and she soon felt the sand and a few sharp pebbles between the cracks. Her dimpled fingers also turned to the crevices and before long a small pile of dirt and whatnot was lying there beside her, and she chucked it out to the lake... "God I'm helpful!" She congratulated herself.
The scenery changed... for now, steep hills of boulders and more hemlocks flecked at the area all around, plus the once-wide stream not was rather too narrow - and anyway. If the girl reached out her hand, she could touch the water and one of those steel-silver fishes would most likely swim up to nibble at her hands. Then, an hour or two later - the boat came to a halt.
There was now a canopy over them - trees, mighty green oaks with wood dwarfs sitting in them and chattering happily, and the boat came to a stop in front of three enormous mountains. Yes, they were mountains alright! - not some hills that her friend had so lamely described - oh no, they were snow-topped and each one about as wide as an elephant that Wen never had seen... except in a zoo.
But it was good that the mountains had crevices, so one could rather skilfully climb atop. There also seemed a bit of a pathway, wounding up and up and up, and Wen thought — I am so NOT playing the main role in a cliche movie, but lemme ask - what's the fun in anything if there's a pathway straight up??
The dwarf now packed all of the scarce belongings into a sack which he had retrieved when first they met on the boat, and now he huffed and puffed and jumped down to the grass. But Wen was not so lucky, and now she was in the deep water - screaming and flailing and then gasping for breath while the dwarf patted his woollen vest and roared with laughter.
"Hey ho, dear gal!" He chuckled, and then out of the sack he took out a pair of robes - much like in the movies Harry Potter, but except that this one was a plain white, not a black made either out of crepe material or silks. Rather it was polyester, and not half as fancy, but it did have a collar of the darkest brown, which accentuated with the eyes of the girl. Honestly, what surprised her was that the top half - or less than half - of the dress was a waist trainer. Not laced up, and not the fancy type that the girls with flawless hair of melting milk-chocolate and azure green eyes wore on their wedding days - rather, it was a simple white one, much like a prop for cosplay - but it was lovely, and the girl smiled for she remembered being told by her Grandmother - who in fact was rather too strict on weight - saying, "Your waist is so narrow!"
So it wasn't a robe. Not too much. Not a dress, really, but the girl felt very vulnerable as she changed behind a tree and threw her tent dress with the ugly toad into the sack, which no doubt was wet, and the water must have somehow rinsed itself out on the food.
And then the girl stepped out, with hair a dull pale-blonde, but catching sunlight in the warmth of the day. And her eyes were warm too - that is, 'till they went back to being bug-eyes and she lightly stepped towards the dwarf. She was though quite worried that she was meant to lose weight, but the dwarf said that he knew nothing of what she was talking about and that in the Second of the Triplets this was merely a fashion, and anyway corsets were the trend in Tilla whilst here it was less fancy - more hard, no laces, no frills.
Wen asked not of how he got this dress, for simply she smiled stupidly as they descended up the path. The dwarf said that she should wear his woollen vest, because it was far too big for him and there was dust, and that the dress was a gift from his friend for Wen. So she hastily pulled on the vest, which fitted her in a lovely manner - but I'm afraid it hung like a crop top on her, barely ending where her breasts would be in a year or six.
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