A quest for bacon and eggs. Maybe pancakes.

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It was a cold winter morning and the sun had yet to rise when Aster was woken by the sound of her grumbling stomach. Rolling over on the pile of hay that she slept on, the girl blindly fumbled through her pack only to realize with extreme disappointment that she had eaten her last bite of bread in the middle of the night. Grumbling under her breath, the girl reluctantly pulled on her boots as she tried to warm up, distracting her self from the cold by thinking about all the delicious breakfast foods she likely would not get to be eating his morning.

Nora Aster slept in a small loft that was located above an old stable. The building was found on the outskirts of the second district, close to the main road and was used by travelers needing a place to keep their horses. A decent if humble looking establishment, the stables were big enough to house about 15 horses at one given time. Certainly not the nicest nor the biggest stable in town, it had a quaint feel to it and one could house their horse here at a price that wasn't a complete rip off....most of the time. There were plenty of inns not far off which was where many of the horse's masters went to stay at night. Aster however could not afford such places and made her way down from her tiny loft by latter and began tending to her duties of taking care of the horses. Currently there were only five housed here.

The owner of the stables lived next door in a small house. He was a stingy older man who needed someone to help with the physical labor, but Aster was pretty grateful towards him, seeing as the owner not only gave her a job here, but let the homeless girl sleep in the stables at night. This added "benefit" cut into her pay of course which was measly enough, but the girl could hardly complain. Living and working here kept her out of some of the more unpleasant areas of the city, though such places certainly weren't far off.

"You know what I haven't eaten in ages....pancakes." Aster said, speaking to the mare she was currently brushing. The horse snorted and flicked its tail in response. Seems it didn't like pancakes as much as Aster did.

By the time her morning chores were complete, the sun had come up and Aster was more than ready for breakfast. She grabbed her pack, tightened the laces on her boots, and made her way to one of her favorite places in the city...the food market. She couldn't afford much, but the smell of bacon in the air was too hard to resist.

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It had been a few days since the dreaded battle at the west gate against Helena and all of her minions. Kail had been feeling like crap as he was bed ridden for a few days. As yesterday the blond was walking about but not too far from Bloody Mary inn. Since whatever spell he had made had some dangerious side effect. But today it felt like he got most of his energy back, but was extremely hungry. He then sees outside and it was snowing lightly or there was snow outside. Either way it was really cold outside and was feeling it. Kail goes through his things and puts on his warmist clothes that he owned. He then steps out from the inn and went down to the food market area. The blond could smell various smells of cooked foods and saw some fated restaraunts that some have made. But it seemed that some of these places were not getting buisness. As the concept was still a alien thing for most Novians. But could not blame them as it seemed rather weird for someone in a medevil era. Kail could smell the heavenly scent of sticky buns. His mouth watered as he walked up to a bakery.

"Excuse me miss, can I get 2 dozen cinnamon buns" he said and placed the Novians down on the counter to buy the doughy goodness. And from there he could smell the other heavenly smell, the porky goodness of bacon. "........I am gona eat like a savage today" he said and was trying not to die by eating himself to death. Since it did not feel like, he had eaten in several days. The blond was glad it was early in the morning to get the freshist baked goods available.

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Aster walked through the various stalls, feeling both bliss and torture at the same time. Bliss at all the wonderful smells wafting around her, and torture knowing she had but a meager budget and could not afford to spend wastefully. It was a sparse time in the winter, with fewer new travelers coming in, which meant less horses and less money for her. As she continued through the market, weighing her options an incredible sight unfolded in front of her.

She smelled it before she saw it. A particular sweetness in the air caught her attention…one she could only faintly recall. Nora had probably only once in her life had eaten cinnamon buns before, but like all delicious food, once eaten it can never be forgotten. A small child at the time, her neighbor had obtained valuable spices, which were typically hard to obtain out in the rural countryside. Cinnamon had been one of them and the saint-like neighbor used this wondrous spice to make the delicious baked good known to many as the cinnamon bun for everyone in the village. It was love at first taste.

Then Aster saw it. Not just one or two cinnamon buns, but a pile of them! Two dozen to be exact. The hungry girl found herself at a crossroad. Normally Aster was a very good, law-abiding person and knew that stealing from others was wrong. However, hunger did have a tendency to skew her morals and convince herself that she wasn’t really doing anything wrong. She looked at the facts in front of her.

Fact one: Aster was starving! She probably wouldn’t last another day like this (she could but we are in her head right now). Fact two: Two dozen cinnamon buns was a lot. Probably more than that person could even eat. One going missing would probably not even be noticed. Fact three: Actually facts one and two were basically it. But this was enough to sway the girl’s next action.

Casually, as the man currently purchasing the goods was distracted with the stall owner, Aster simply walked past and swiftly grabbed the delicious bun and immediately plopped it in her mouth. Right away the sugar and cinnamon blended into perfect harmony, the warmth of the bread made Aster forget about the cold as the treat practically melted in her mouth. It was heaven. So happy was she with her breakfast, the girl simply kept walking, paying no more attention to the man whose food she stole. She was too busy enjoying it.

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"Aye there lad, that be a wee to much for ye to eat on yer own there" said the barkery lady as she saw Kail make the order and figured that it was a noble or someone from the castle making this order. "Well these are a rarity plus I am rather hungry. If I can't eat them all, might as well give some to the poor folk out in the thrid district.....They must have seen whatever underworld come to life. Plus its hard for some to try and put anything on the table in the worst areas" said Kail as he had been in the thick of it. And the woman there gave a all knowing sigh and nodded. "Aye......praise to Mylee and his champion for stoppen those undead freaks. And thats good of ye, I might drop a few Novians off if ye do that" she said and as Kail was talking to the woman. He almost did not catch a young lady pass by and swipe one of the buns from the counter. The older woman was about to raise hell. But Kail lifted his hand up to stop her from saying anything. As he was curious since he saw the attire of the girl. As Nora had very cheap clothing of a peasant and figured that she did not have the money to afford what he was buying.

"Enjoying that sweet goodness miss" said Kail to Nora as it seemed that she was gleefully enjoying her stolen treat. Honestly he could not blame the girl for doing what she did. As spices like cinnamon were very expensive and rare. And to make a treat like this was even more so rare. So if he were a streetrat or poor person, he would have done the same thing. He did hope that he did not spook the poor girl, since the blond was now curious about her. Since he had been with people that were in the upper classes, such as lords and ladies. If he was going to be stuck in this world, Kail would need to know all walks of life.

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As soon as she heard the voice of the man address her, Aster immediately gulped down the remainder of her sticky bun as if to rid herself of the delicious evidence. There was a moment of uncertainty as she decided to stop and turn around to face the other person. Although she couldn’t quite yet discern his intentions, the man didn’t seem to appear particularly upset. As she examined the other person, Aster calmly licked the sugar off of her lips.

”It was delicious. Do you have any more?.” Aster looked up at the person with a big grin, as if she had done nothing wrong. In these types of situations it was probably best to deny any wrong doing. What was he going to do anyway, run to a guard and tell them that someone stole his sweet role? Not likely.

”Can’t say I’ve had such a sweet treat for breakfast before…my Ma used to tell me that it was bad to eat sweets first thing in the mornin’. Ya know what I think? That anytime o’ the day is a good time for sweets. I compliment your tastes….er sir lord.” Nora had never really interacted with a rich, noble-like person before but she heard they liked to called things like that. And this person’s clothing seemed certainly…well a bit different? Probably what them nobles were into or something. Aster didn’t really know anything about fashion.

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Kail had a laugh as Nora spoke as she was being frank and honest with him. He had to admit this girl had some guts to do all of that. "Yeah sure take a few more.......I got a bit too greedy. Its been a long time since I had some....maybe a few years" the blond said as he did admit he got a bit way too much for himself. As the things he did order were being placed into a few containers. And then into some kind of sack for Kail to carry them around for the rest of the day or back to his room at the inn. "I think if you solely did that every day without anything else to go with it is bad. And please I am no lord at all, trust me I am not a uptight prick. I'm just out of this world if you heard of people like that" he said as the blond was sure that Fated were mentioned by at least the common folk of Nova. Just by word of mouth and hoped that there were some positive things that were said about them. As it seemed that there were some negative things about them.

He then takes one of the containers and opens it for himself and Nora to have a few. "So whats your name miss" he said and started to down one of the buns. He let slip a moan of pleasure as it was sooooo good. He would need to remember this bakery for future refrance. As he might do more buisness with them at another point and time.

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When Kail told her that she could have more, the young girl’s eyes immediately lit up, as she gazed at the strange man with a new found admiration. .

”I’ll say,” she said in response to Kail mentioning that he was greedy as she reached into one of the containers and grabbed two more sweet rolls, one in each hand. She started with a bite from the one in her left hand. Today was turning out to be quite the lucky day for Nora Aster. At Kail’s comment to eating sweets every day, Aster couldn’t help but chuckle.

”Eatin’ sweets like this every day….now that’s the dream.” Lord or no, this man certainly struck Aster as living a fairly privileged life. He did openly mention the fact that he was one of those strange outsiders….Fated Aster had heard the word used before to refer to such peculiar travelers.

When asked her name, Aster gulped down the last bite of her second sweet roll before giving a slight bow. ”Nora Aster at your service! Call me Aster. Just a simple stable girl I am.” She leaned back against the wall of a nearby building, keeping out of the way of the people along the busy streets as she took a bite from her third sweet roll.

”So what’s your deal then mister? You got an interesting story?” Aster couldn't help but be a little curious. Some people talked about these so call 'Fated' people with a hint of fear and uncertainty, but Aster simply found the situation somewhat confusing. Strange travelers coming from lands impossible to travel to....such things, if true, couldn't just be random. There must be some sort of story explaining it all. A very complicated story Aster probably wouldn't understand even if someone told it to her.