Princess' shopping in Basra (closed)

[Kriss]

When Kriss eyes met guard's face, her first thought which crossed her mind was No, not again.
His waspish like usual sercasm made her rolled her eyes at him and gave him a cheek look.
"Thanks to heavens that you are always around." She said and smiled sarcastically.

She noticed that he had looked at Kahlan. So she wanted to his attention even more. She looked deeply into his eyes to keep eye contact.

[Kahlan]

Kahlan was watching some jewels on the stall in front of her, but she could feel guard's eyes on her during a moment. That gave her chills.
After a moment, she took the risk to take a look toward him. He was now facing Kriss. The young woman quickly understood that the man was the same one that had kept an eye on Kriss's son at the tavern, the last evening. She was seeing him for the first time. *not bad.* She thought.

But she didn't have time to think more.
Aniel suddenly looked at her, freed himself from the grip of the guard, and ran toward her. Kahlan froze. She hadn't expected that. The little boy just...wanted her to take him in her arms, as no one else seemed to want to do so.

Kahlan slowly looked up. Two pairs of eyes were looking at her and the boy.

[Ziad]

Ziad had the feeling that there was something the young tavern owner wanted to keep from him. To be honest, he had that feeling with her most of the time, some nagging suspition in the back of his mind, a kind of instinct that had hardly ever led him astray. She was clearly trying to keep his eye contact for a reason and considering her brutish behaviour around him it most obviously was not flirting. Or not more than using flirting to try and distract him.

When the kid broke free, he followed the boy with his eyes, his gaze falling upon a woman with dark hair who had remained in somewhat of a distance. "Friend of yours?" he asked Kriss, looking at the stranger.

[Kriss]

Kriss eyes unconsciously followed her son. She was about to chase him agian but it was not necessary. Aniel had run to Kahlan. She gave boy a warning glance and turned back at the guard who had just aksed her a question.
She nodded at him,
"Yeah, my new employee."
Kriss stated firmly.

[Kahlan]

When the guard asked the question to Kriss, Kahlan looked at the tavern's owner, anxious. But apparently, she had already planned how to react in front of this situation.
The young woman tried to remain calm. She took Aniel in her arms and waited, without really knowing what to do.

She just knew one thing: the next 10 minutes would be decisive for her.

[Ziad]

He had been working as a guard, a soldier for all his adult life, too long to not know when something was off. He could not put his finger on what it was and decided to not go into that any deeper for now since he felt little joy to restart their previous fights, but the thought remained somewhere at the back of Ziad´s mind.

Putting a stop to his own thoughts that he considered of little practlical use right now he rather asked another question. A routine one, a reaction to the tavern owner´s explanation. "All right." he said with a curt nod. "I will need to see her permit though. You know how things work in this city."

[Kahlan]

Kahlan didn't wait for Kriss's answer. She approached the guard and the tavern's owner saying "Oh, I have it somewhere...". She searched the paper in her pocket, still holding Aniel on one of her arm.
When she found it, she presented it to the guard who was now in front of her.
"Here it is." She said with a smile.
The young woman glanced at Kriss. Now she was just hoping that the Chief's guard would not ask to many questions and would leave soon.

[Kriss]

Kriss knew that sooner or later he will not hesitate to ask for a permit. Not that she was afraid of that. It was more like waiting for his disappointment when Kahlan would show him that piece of paper. So she was just observing and her devious and self-assured smile was just a figuration, a kind of transfer of her minds.

[Ziad]

Ziad took the paper from the young woman and scanned over it. It looked official, including a seal and the necessary signatures. For now there was nothing he could complain about, only maybe the fact that if one thing that was typical for fake documents was them looking a bit too neat and perfect. He had sure seen sloppier once but it would not be a good thing to base mistrust and unproven accusations on that. He was careful about that tavern owner, he was sure she was hiding something. What she told him yesterday had given Ziad the certain feeling that the young woman had some kind of business going on that might not be quite legal but as for now there were no further proofs of that. He nodded and handed the document back to the stranger. "Good." he said. "So the dinner tonight is still okay with you?" he then asked, the question clearly directed at Kriss.

[Kriss]

A victorious smile appeared on Kriss face. She turned at him with a glow of satisfaction in her eyes. She was aware of the fact that he could suspect something but he had no evidence.
"Of course, I'm waiting for you after your job."

[Ziad]

For one more time, his eyes travelled over to the stranger that was standing a few steps aside, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he did, before returning his attention to Kriss. "Sundown it is then." he said and with that, stepped away, returning to his shift, deciding that this was the best moment to do so, before she could come up with any funny ideas about how to humiliate him.

[Kahlan]

Kahlan had remained quiet since the guard had given her the paper back.
Fortunately, he didn't ask any question, and he ended the conversation rather quickly.

The two women watched the guard leaving without saying anything. When he disappeared behind a wall of people, Kahlan breathed deeply, as if she had forgotten to do it until now.
"Well, it's the last thing I was expecting today, but it went pretty well..."
Kahlan turned her head toward Kriss and added "Don't you think?"
She smiled and put Aniel down.

[Kriss]

Kriss nodded at the guard, then she was watching him walking away and she still had that glow of satisfaction in her eyes. However she knew it was not the end of his guesses and reconnaissance.

She turned at Kahlan, "He won't stop on it. We need to be careful." The archer said glancing into direction of Ziad's way.
Then her eyes turned to her son. She grabbed his hand, "As for you Aniel Shaigansson, you better even don't try to do it again!"Kriss said firmly and asked Kahaln,
"So what we wanna buy?"

[Kahlan]

Kriss was right, unfortunately. This...Ziad didn't seem to be the kind of guy who would give up so easily. But Kahlan would for sure be careful. She didn't have a choice if she wanted to be safe...for a while...

She glanced at Aniel as Kriss was talking to him. *Shagainsson* she suddenly thought, *that name reminds me of something...or someone...*
She quickly forgot her thoughts, out of context, and she looked at Kriss when she talked to her.
"I don't know" she replied, looking at the stands around her, "I just need some clothes right now."
She faced Kriss again and added with a smirk. "And maybe we could find something for you as well! For your....dinner tonight."

[Kriss]

Kriss slowly moved into stand's direction. She made a confused face at Kahlan's words. She was not really sure what the woman could mean.
"For me? For my dinner? What do you mean?"