Thoughts and After-Thoughts

Though not much which anyone else would note had happened, the past couple of weeks had been unusual for Daphne.
The Waymeet Market seemed to have gone fairly well, despite the appearance of a couple shady characters, and her load had been decently light for the weeks past.
However, after her small argument with Furley, she'd had much food for thought from a few separate conversations. She never really thought back on conversations with people since people rarely had anything to say that was worth thinking on. She found that those in the Company made her normal way of being and thinking...not so normal for her anymore.

She had apologized to Furley for being childish about the argument and she reckoned she owed Anastasiar a bit of an apology too for avoiding her afterwards. She'd avoided nearly everyone for days after because of her embarrassment. But after she apologized, he'd invited her to walk with him. They didn't walk so far as they had before; only to Archet this time. She'd never been to Archet before, however, and the place to which he brought her was lovely. It was the bridge over a pond he'd spoken of when they were in Rivendell. The water was so clear, it acted as a mirror to all things around it.

They spoke for a little while before he asked something which surprised her. "Are you happy?" It had been such a sudden and random question. He'd then gone on to say he felt he was holding her back and asked if she had any bigger dreams. She had never really thought much beyond what she had to do in the near future...not since her papa died. But she couldn't deny that she was, in fact, happy with the Company. With...them. Not just the whole Company, but individuals within. She was happy...but scared. Scared that she would lose all she had learned to love recently. Not only that, but that she, herself, would be the cause of that loss. Somehow, he had managed to get her to speak up about that. Of course, he laughed at her after she did...

Then, as he began claiming how he always stood on her shoulders and was holding her back from greater things, and other idiotic things, she'd begun to grow angry and scolded him firmly for it. Not terribly long thereafter, they headed home.

They didn't speak much until they made it to Waymeet. She went on a brief walk to clear her head, which turned into a much longer walk when he found her and joined her. They didn't talk about many things of much importance. He'd teased her, saying he would make a mandatory dress code for the Company and of course she poked back at him for that. But in the end, he managed to ask her somewhat nicely to dress up for the market the next day. She should have known better...
The market hours were uneventful for her. A new recruit who seemed more bush than man seemed to think she knew what he was supposed to be doing, but other than that and an occasional jab from Furley, all she did was stand there and watch.
As Deorla was trying to close the market, Elthhelm walked over to her and began speaking with her. Somehow, it seemed easy to get along with him. He was a pain, yes. But purposely so, and that somehow didn't bother her. Perhaps it was his dog, Ceowulf. It was common knowledge by now that her weakness was dogs.
Unfortunately, this weakness proved to be her undoing that day. As she knelt down to pet Ceo's head, her dress tore up to just past her knee. She was terribly embarrassed. If Furley had been standing there, she'd have told him that this was part of why she didn't dress up nicely. But she was glad he wasn't there. He would have had far too much fun with her embarrassment.
Not that Elth didn't have fun poking at her for it. In the end, she told him to stop staring at her leg and being a creep. Saying those words and poking at him instead somehow alleviated some of her embarrassment.

Though the moment she'd made it to the Bird and Baby Inn, she changed into more comfortable and less revealing clothing. She was content to stand there, listening to everyone talk and blend into the background herself. But Furley decided to chase her around in an attempt to put his nasty feathered hat on her head. In the end, she'd walked outside to think. After successfully dodging him, of course.