The Rabbit and the Gauntlet of Kindness

Voah had left footprints, Gonyaul could tell by the size, shape and gate. He had weeks of practice looking down at the ground, when fatigue saddled him on their travels, so he memorized her steps without even knowing it. The revelation that he would be able to track was most welcomed. It would make finding her, warning her and hopping away to a suitable hiding spot much easier.

With staff in hand, being used as a walking stick, he followed in her imprinted wake. This lasted for about twenty four feet. And then a multitude of other footprints and disturbed earth along pedestrian pathways obscured any details of his beloved’s graceful footsteps. He hadn’t even entered a minor corridor yet and the trail had run dry.

Not one to be so easily discouraged, he set his whits to observing the overall surroundings in the hopes of discovering a clue. There were none apparent to give him a sense of the direction she would have chosen. He had to fall back on his original educated guess.

There was a growing stream of people precipitating out of their daily routines towards the basilica at the center of the city. There were also blossoming sounds of commotion coming from that general vicinity. As much as he didn’t want to put himself around that many people after having been warned to stay clear, knowing Voah, she most likely was already there.

He took a deep breath to remind himself that only his eyes were visible and he was wearing attire that was commonplace among the lower class of the Ozaniae. As long as he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, no one should pay him any mind; especially if their attention was fixated on something more important. Gonyaul proceeded towards the heart of the city along with the growing crowds, thinking with his initial steps ‘this is why rabbits don’t hunt foxes’.

He was making good progress on route. It was a casual pace he set for himself with a familiar body language that mimicked the other people going in the same direction. He looked like he knew where he was going and belonged, even though he didn’t really know where he was going and felt like he shouldn’t be there. This would be his first time this deep into the city’s center.

His progress began to get interrupted though as he proceeded down what looked to be a market street full of shops with frequently needed goods and services. He stopped to help a craftsman who was up on a ladder trying to finish installing a new sign for a local jewelry store. He merely noticed the base of the ladder was unstable putting the man in a precarious position. Gonyaul held the ladder still and sturdy so that he was able to finish the task at hand. It earned Gonyaul a thank you, which the youthful vauxian easily knew how to respond in Ozaniae tongue.

Next he helped a middle-aged woman, that unbeknownst to him was a widow, pick up what appeared to be her shopping list of food and a few items from the market. She had accidentally bummed into the stream of moving people and dropped her bags. She was most appreciative for the assistance, and even more so when Gonyaul took it upon himself to carry all of her things back to her street and up to her door for her. Once again he left with an exchange of ‘thank you’ and ‘welcome’. Though, in addition he parted with the two coppers he did earn that morning from the same ferryman that also warned him to go into hiding into the lady’s hands, because he noticed she had two young children, fraternal twins, peeking out from the cracked window near the front door.

This last gesture of good will had taken him off the path to the basilica, so he needed to get back on track. This was easy since all he had to do was follow the people also making their way their. At one point he stopped to help a stray cat get down from a ledge it was stuck on. Another moment was spent helping a family calm their crying child by performing a small contact dance with the staff. He even managed to help an elderly man across an intersection at one point.

Finally, he noticed a cart which had broken a wheel. It was full of baked goods for sale. The owner of the cart, an older gentleman, and what looked to be his son, and his son’s son, were all trying to lift the cart so that the broken wheel could be swapped out with an extra retrieved from under the cart. They were straining to accomplish this endeavor. Gonyaul conjectured that they were trying to make their way to the gathering to sell.

They were eventually on their way, because Gonyaul came up alongside them and offered to help, where others just passed on by. Using the staff for leverage, it was enough to lift up the cart and change the wheel. Gonyaul waved them goodbye, yet another ‘thank you’ richer. He would have enjoyed going with them; however, that would have required possible conversation and then it would become apparent he was not from around town.

Gonyaul continued on by himself with the crowd. Was the entire population coming out for whatever was going on? As he neared the final resting place of the gathering, it was not lost on him that there were several tense emotions in the air that could easily catch aflame with but a small match of a cause. He found a suitable vantage point amongst the crowd and his eyes were eagerly scanning the area for Voah; of course not knowing she had disguised herself.