"I do not like this dress." She protested.
Almost pounding on his chest like a gorilla wanting to really exchange what was bought. Maybe a simple white or a cream would do. She retracted her thoughts as he seemed purposely bumped into her in the shoulder, as they walked alongside together.

She wanted to do the same, but it ended up as a nudge or a plastered sense of an action. Which she gritted her teeth for.

She didn't know how long they walked, or what they were in for. But she didn't talk much as she enjoyed the air in the moment. And she hated it so much she didn't want to ask why.

The afterparty was a mess. She looked down. Sighing to look back up at the road. Straight ahead looked like blob of lemonpie and she didn't like it one bit. Well, until she got a pleasant smile from a lady passerby who just so happens to carry a basket and a nice-looking makeup. Who just so happens to just want to look at her dress.

"So." The man whose name Ave hasn't recalled in a lifetime said to her. "The car- of a limousine is not too far from here." He stated. Not looking at her but seemingly frowning instead.

"Okay." She replied absentmindedly. She didn't know what to say. After, or what type of speech she would like to blurt out to this man that she just wanted to rip her dress off. Or just come home and sleep in her bed throughout a good night's sleep.

And that reminds her, she hasn't asked about coming home for once. "Say, when do you think I should go home?"

"Why are you asking me that?" He glanced at her for quite a second.

She gave a blank look. "I mean, when should I go home? You obviously take me too look around your country, and you don't have a sense to drive me home..?" She trailed off, feeling hopeless at the man who seemed clueless and unreasonable. For buying her this ridiculous dress. Poisoning her with red wine, which she now quite seemed to like. And she now had quite a taste for vintage things. Like the tiny windmill she saw at the store but didn't bother to ask for it. It would be too much trouble and probably a worth of his money.

"Say.. do you still have that anklet I gave you?" He asked.

"Yes. But I don't have it with me." She replied.

He took a side glance at her.

To which she didn't understand, and frankly got quite annoyed for some unknown reason. To her perspective, he seemed like it was a little bit important. What he gave to her at the ball the other night. Or was it just all a dream. She wondered.

And along as they walked. To which she felt glad for the leg exercise she was getting, he didn't spoke one bit. For some unknown reason, he stopped. Just the crackles of his shoes alongside the chatters that entered her eeardrums. And she was feeling uncomfortable.

The silence was getting to her. And it was killing her healthy conscience and mind.
Adding to being in a dress she just so badly wanted to burn in the fire pit and change into something comfortable and airy. Like a nightdress or a casual outing. And the awkward oxygen had her breathing in irregularities. Not that it was serious, or anything bad. She just wanted to enjoy the breezy, cold surroundings she felt she could only once be in. As she breathed another set of air.

Often times- multiple times- she wanted to run. Not out of fear, just to escape the bees of crowd and the awkwardness she felt with this man. He was kind, yes, but he didn't tell her anything. And now she
felt like a guest who's role was to accompany him like a friend. To which she didn't think that of him one bit. And he seemed to enjoy her company as well, to her relief. As he glanced at her for a moment before returning his gaze to the front.

"Wait." He held onto her arm.
"There's a market upfront, are you sure you want to go this way?" He asked. Seemingly worried with that disturbing glint in his eyes that Averithe saw, and she got affected.

"What." She asked. Begging to go the other way, but that didn't seem to be a good idea either. There could be mafias with guns if this way was a seller landslide.

"Okay, let's go." He spoke after she didn't reply for a second, to which she just wanted to retort and give him a second opinion, to which her idea was cut off as he held her hand in a clasp and practically dragged her alongside him down the cemented mid-way.

And all she could see was the crowd getting larger upon poles of stands god knows what they sell and whom they are. Humans she thought. Or maybe not so. Just spirits of the forests or some god forsaken land that just so happens to take forms in many different shapes.

And all she could see was the crowd getting larger upon poles and poles of stands, and god knows what they are and what they sell.

She swallowed her throat and stayed close to him. Just walking until they reached the entrance midst of the crowd.

He blatantly walked into it. Her following suit or else she would get left behind and she would fly away like a single flower, flying away into thin air like a piece of feather and she was never to be seen again.

All she saw was a sausage.

Bloody sausages. Portrayed laying down on the sector of the brown stall and they were on the same side, facing each other's backs. She salivated, but also wanted to puke at the same time.
On the first stall.

Her eyes widened as she observed. Looked at it like it was som kind of new species. The formation of the long, brown and red sausages looked extravangt. Extremely new to her vision and to her dose of information as well. She looked up at him. Then at the man who was selling it. And all he did was bare his teeth of white and gold. She's always wondered how people in television shows got to use those golden teeth.

And perhaps if this one was real. She tried to force, a tiny smile. He would've had to deal with a great load of pain whilst cutting off his root of front teeth. As he replied back with a smile. Gesturing towards his sales of sausages.

Averithe took a look at the man beside him. He just stared at it. The blood and the sausage were displayed. Just in front of his eyes. She clutched on him, and it caught his attention as he nodded. Slightly waving at the man with the clutched armand he moved away. Just as she was about to ask for his name. He cut her off.

"It's a weiner. Of cow's meat." He explained.

"Pfft. I know that." She waved a gesture.

Of course. What else would it be?

"Come on. Let's see the other vendors." He spoke a little too quietly for her liking. And too calm. As he walked beside her and her following his pace of steps. She was so jealous but didn't say it aloud. To an exact fact.

The second vendor. She saw.

Big reds.

Berries. She saw. They looked ripe, big and round, all the way to the brim and all she wanted was to touch it. Maybe bite and taste it and maybe it would burst in her mouth into tiny little pieces of sugar dots that would envelope her taste buds and her whole mouth.

She wanted to buy it.

She salivated. As she was on the brink of eating it, she felt a tug on her hand. And it was the same man. She gave a stink eye.

"That's liver. Don't touch it." He spoke.

To her horror.

Who sells kidneys that look like meat? She thought in disgust as she incinerated the thought of buying it.
She was almost too close on buying it that she felt sad a little.

And to which she got a response from the vendor. The salesman smiled with his gums, as it sparkled against the wind of the sun.

Her eyes widened in the slightest, and she practically dragged him to the next vendor, the third one. And she hoped there were not many vendors left to pass or look. Or else she would puke.

She almost got goosebumps.

Almost. If, the next item displayed wasn't some ring tights of meat and hanged, or laying down alive like a snake.

The doorfoot. The next one, looked like an unwelcoming vendor as the woman had a kind of unusual and weird expression on her face. Alongside the color of her tanned skin. To which she would very much like to have. Of her own, of course.

She swallowed.

Alongside the chatters of humans that entered her eardrums- if they were ever real, she sensed the drums of her death.

"We'll be taking those." He spoke. Pointing at the bloodiest glob of meat she has ever seen.
They looked large and unappealing as she saw alongside of the finger of the man who looked pleasant and quite happy to see it.

"€50 for 3." She replied. Snapping at the chewing gum in her mouth.

"49 for 3." He responded, to which she nodded and grabbed the biggest- medium meat with her tweazers, the next slightly smaller in size, and the third, the biggest one. Yet. As she saw a bald man, maybe with a protruding belly and what looked like a glimmering top of his head, walked in. Carrying a piece of meat the size of his body. His height, as he carried it and hanged it on the back of the stall.

"Here's the share for today." He spoke.

"Yeah, just hang it in there." She snapped. Putting the meats in duvets of plastics like a second language and handed it over. To which the man seemed happy to hold in and gave away his cashes and coins.

"Nice doing business with ya." She chewed, gave a lazy arm as she spun and left to take care of the newly arrived meat hanging on the drops of its blood.

She smiled at the color. And to which she caught by the corner of her eye.

And Averithe looked away.

At the aloud whispers, the chatters of people that entered her ears, seemed to get louder and subside. All in turns as she moved beside him. Shocking, as she didn't bump to any of the townspeople she passed by as she didn't know where she was going.

She discovered to be peculiar- some of them wore frilly dresses with butterflies on them. While some of them wore the same, giant ones- and for a fact that  they would fall off everytime they walked. Or would seem to just fly away or jump off into a random soiled grounds As they pranced gleefully or either walking normally- all the same. She observed.

As the man tugged at her hand to bring her attention back. She glanced to him looking amused. Looking around as if it was his second home, and he seemed pleasant to be in the moment- or calm plastered on his face to which she was jealous at.

Oftenly so most of the time.

"So." The man whose name Ave hasn't known yet, or maybe forgotten slme time in the past said to her, "The car- of a limousine is not too far from here."

"Okay. So, how far along are we?" She asked. Trailed off. Following suit in dream land as he didn't answer. Looking unsure and unwilling to answer. She took a glance. And it was almost that he wished she'd forget. Or cast a magical, powerful spell that would calm her down in a minute. And she almost stabbed his foot.

She looked down.

To which he replied, "Just a few more minutes." He yield, a sigh in his tone. And Ave could've mistaken him for not enjoying her company in the marketplace full of vendors and alongside the fact of the townspeople that looked like they were about to burst from too many decorations. How do people wear such heavy, deliberate outfit or a wear on such a hot day? Her thoughts wandered  as she wonder- what they really looked like. Definitely not like her.

Porcelain and red. Maybe they would have seemed sparkly, and having a cast of stash of powerful, wonderful magic that would grant anything that she wants. She trailed off inside her mind.
As he walked faster and as she snapped out, doing what she had to do to keep up.

And in the end, she never went to that mall. As she faced the same butler that she met a while ago in the garden, alongside the man who dragged her across the pavement of grueling crowds and vendors that invited her to barf her breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or maybe her juices of nutrients.

She stared at him blankly.

"What."

"I said we'll be having my anniversary here, in this castle. Just for this year." He added, shrugged. To contain his impatience and what seemed to be an emergence of doing something urgent.
-Seeming nonchalant and of the sudden announcement that he sputtered as they got home.

Instantly.

Well, if you cut out the time for Avery to get dressed, clean her face, a shower and a relaxing cold wind. An estimation of about 2 hours.

"For what?" She asked. She didn't like it. Nor  did she hate it. It was just it seemed to prissy to be in the midst of the unknown people of thousands of his acquaintance. And she didn't know how to talk or behave in the situation. Of which she estimated to be around 24 hours.

She didn't like the plan, and she didn't know what to say.

"Well." He raised a slight eyebrow of his right. "It 'is my anniversary. And I'm having it here." He shrugged.

"Young master. It is restrictive-"

"We'll be having it here." He stated. He glanced at him with a stony face with a crossed arm all along, as she just noticed.

"Very well. But we must work really hard, and give out a lot of expense-"

"I'll consider it done." He gave a nod at him, to which he spun and walked away, before glancing a tiny smile at Averithe and walked. Her vision following until his butt disappeared from the corner of the room. Of the despicable hallway of red carpet that intimidated her and a couple of paintings hanging by the walls on random places. She didn't want to think about.

To her horror. It was just the two of them. Right now- as he was staring right at her.

"What." She demanded an explanation.

More of which it was not a question.

"See. My work- of business and partner acquisition is required to be held once in an anniversary and it is to be held here." He explained. Much to which she concluded was not an explanation.

She raised an eyebrow. "And why, must it be downstairs a couple of fleets below and close to my room?" She asked.

"Because-" He sighed. "I have my reasons." He turned to walk away, before Ave spoke anything else.

"Don't you think you're playing it a little too safe?"

She inquired at his back. As he froze. In his steps as he spun. Blinking. "What did you just say?"

"I said, why are you having your party in your own house, don't you think that's a little blatant and better off having it somewhere else?" She questioned. Not knowing the answer to that herself, much rather just blabbering about so she could feel safe and not having to de with the horror of perm, makeup, shower and hours of dressing in his finely chosen dress.

He gritted his teeth. His jaw ticked.

"It is up to me, where I will be having my own party."

"But you aren't even telling me what it was for." She raised an unraised eyebrow.

"Wouldn't it be too be too much of a chicken-"

"You can mind your own business. Or I will do something about it."

"Alright." She jingled the keys in her hand and locked the door, to the room that she slept in the other night. For just one night.

"I'm not suiting with you anymore." She clicked it with a close.

"What."

"So can I go home now." She raised an eyebrow. Maybe not high, but it was enough in his vision. "So you take me home-"

"No."

And they quarelled.