A regular day in Valhalla //ENG

Place: The village of Vahalla
Time: 3 pm
Season: Spring
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Finn had gotten up at the usual time. Today was a day like any other. He had to be at the market around 3 pm, to control that everything was going peaceful and quiet, as it used to.
As he got out of bed, then he ordered a shower from his servants, before he went into his living room to eat. After breakfast he showered, making sure to clean his face, then he got dressed into his armor and went to the market on his horse, followed by his huge irish wolfhound. At the market he tied up his horse before starting to walk around. People here paid respect to him, and if any beggar got too close, then he or she quickly vanished, knowing that he took no pity on them. He had a habit of looking down upon those who had fewer rhinestone than himself - unless they were beautiful women, or at least somewhat decent looking women.

And nearby, Eira was helping a small boy who'd sprained his ankle. He looked to be barely seven years old, and he had only two rhinestones - he was one of the servants.

Eira wiped away the sweat from her brow and her seven rhinestones, smiling as she applied a bandage to the kid's ankle. "Now - Fried was your name, right?" the small boy nodded, and she smiled. "Just try to keep in as still as you can the next couple of days. If your master tells you you're lazy, just tell him he can come to me, right? He'll listen to me even if he won't listen to you. Now just be more careful in the future, okay?" A smile bloomed on the boy's face, and he nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, miss!"

At that moment Finn was talking with one of the girls in the fruit stands. Of course the girl - who was around 16 or 17 - was swooning over him, obviously almost in heaven because he was talking to her, and even smiling at her - not that the smile was anything smile, he just had that effect on most women.
"Now, beautiful lady, make sure to report to me if you see any thieves or beggars around here." he smiled as he stroke the girl's cheek before turning to leave, his smile turning into a smirk as he heard the girl swoon again. He truly loved how women fell for him wherever he went.

Eira gave a small, tittering laugh. "Good." she smiled and kissed the small boy's forehead. "If it starts hurting more, you can just find me again, alright? You know I'm in the village just to the west if I'm not here." "Yeah. Thanks again, miss." the boy stood up, nodded, and took a few, testing steps. "Woah... Almost doesn't hurt now!" he laughed, and then he was off.

Eira chuckled to herself as she stood back up and corrected her shawl a little, her fennec's head just above the edge to look at the boy as he disappeared behind another building.

Finn had spotted Eira by then, and when he saw the number of rhinestones she had, and noticed the little number that the boy had, then he raised an eyebrow and stepped over there. "Milady, you should stay away from the servants, one would think you were mingling with them." he said kindly as he stood in front of her, his dog right by his side, wagging its tail as the big dog noticed the animal in her shawl.

"And what if I am?" she turned to look at him. "Everybody deserves help if they need it, servant or not."

"Milady, the servants do get the help that they need, but if a fine lady like you starts mingling with them, then they might get the wrong idea and you could get hurt." he looked at her with a raised brow.

"The kids certainly won't. And I do know how to protect myself." she shrugged. "I can't just do nothing when I see someone hurt, no matter their number of rhinestones. You've got to be able to understand that, at least. Don't you?"

"I don't. I have no need for helping servants, they can take care of themselves." he looked at her as if she had just told him that the Earth was flat. His dog made a whining sound, and with its cold and wet nose it poked at Eira's hand - which was easy enough since the dog were about 90 centimeters tall.

She sighed. "If he'd gone around with that, it might've wound up broken if I hadn't bandaged it." but she smiled when the dog poked at her hand. "Aww, you're cute... You want a treat?" she asked, reaching inside her robes and pulling out a piece of beef jerky for the dog.

"Don't he have a mother or something then? Milady, it is not right to socialize with them, they are not like us." Finn said and sighed, shaking his head slightly.
The dog barked very loudly, jumping slightly on its front paws, which made it seem even taller, then finally took the beef jerky and ate it in less than seconds.

She chuckled, and pet the dog. "They are, though. They're just not born as privileged as us, or with the same possibilities. If he'd been born into a noble family, he'd be exactly the same as us, just like we'd be exactly the same as him if we'd been born into a servant family. I see no reason to enhance the pecking order."

"Except they were born servants and we are born noble. There is the difference. We were born to be something big, to do something with our lives. They were born to serve us." he said in a very firm voice.
The dog rubbed its big head against her, its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth and its tail wagging so much that it would have knocked things over if it had been closer to the stands.

"Perhaps according to you. But it doesn't matter to me. If they're nice to me, I'll be nice to them, it's that simple." she shrugged. "I know my opinion's not popular, but, well, that's what matters to me. So in the future my clan'll just have to accept it, when I take the leading role."

Her words almost made him drop his jaw. "Wait, milady, are you telling me that you are the daughter of Anna the Gentle?" he actually took a step back, getting down on his knee and bowing his head. "Milady, I am sorry if my words have insulted you, that was not my intention." and as he had bend down, so had his dog - of course the dog had manners.

"Well, as long as you don't address it as a problem again, it's fine." she smiled. "And yes, I am the daughter of Anna the Gentle. Eira the Merciful." she introduced herself, even though she knew there was no reason to.

"I know thy name milady." he said, his voice much softer now. "You are almost as famous as thy mother around these edges."

"I kinda guessed." she offered him a small smile. "Our clans are linked, after all."

"They sure are, milady." he said and looked up at her from where he was still kneeling in front of her. His dog had by then stood up again, and was poking at her hand, whining and looking like someone who was never fed - which was a lie, since the dog was probably as spoiled as the king's children.

"You don't have to keep kneeling, y'know. I've never really been a fan of kneeling. I respect the gesture, though." she smiled, and, grinning, she offered the dog another bite of beef jerky. Freya (her fennec) was curiously looking at Finn and the dog over Eira's shoulder.

A nod and he slowly stood up. "I understand, milady." he said and instead bowed to her in his most polite manner. "May I ask what milady is doing here on the market today?" as he asked the question his dog ate the treat, barking happily and jumping around for a second before sitting down on the ground besides her.

"Hmm?" she'd been occupied by chuckling quietly at the dog. "Oh. I've got a day off of my studies once in a while. I like to use them on the markets, talk to people here, or just look around."

"Then I insist that I accompany you today, milady. To keep you safe." he insisted, and by the way he spoke he made it clear that it wasn't something to discuss.

She sighed. "Why do everybody keep insisting I need to be guarded? I haven't been since I was twelve. That's five years, by the way."

"I know thy age milady. And lately we've been having trouble with... freedom fighters... so we have heightened our protection of the noble." he said in a serious voice.

"Oh. I hadn't heard that..." she sighed. That meant her mum was keeping more things from her. "... I see here you're coming from, now." she knew she might be targeted sometime, at least for the fact that she personally knew the royal family through her training.

"That is why you shouldn't be walking alone milady, and that is why even a small servant boy can potentially be dangerous, you might be ambushed." he warned her.

"Well... I still want to help people. And hey, if that means I just gotta have a big guy like you around. that's fine with me, as long as I can still help people."

A laugh and he softly shook his head. "I'm Finn, Finn the Brave, a noble man and your shining knight in an armor." he smirked as he spoke and once again he bowed for her. "And this," he pet the great big dog. "Is my partner, Oliver, the greatest and most fearless dog you'll find in this entire kingdom."
The dog - Oliver - barked at the mention of his name, and jumped up to stand on his hind leg for a short moment, which made him taller than Finn, then he settled back down on all four and shook his entire fur.

"Oh. I've heard a bit about you as well, then." she giggled a little.

"Oh, have you then heard something worth mentioning, milady?" a smile as he offered her his arm to lead the way through the narrow paths between the different stands.

"Well... I've certainly heard you're a ladies' man." she chuckled.

"I can't deny that, milady. The girls around here, well, they really like a man in armor." he smirked, and to prove his point then he held out his hand towards a girl walking by. "What a beautiful day it is." he said and as he received the girl's hand, then he gave it a soft kiss, hearing her swoon as she continued walking by, soon out of their sight.

"... I can see that." she just smiled and shrugged. "The armor doesn't impress me, but a nice personality will."

"I have that, once you get to know me." he grunted, almost offended.

"Well, lucky you that I give everybody a second chance to improve my first impression of them, right?" she chuckled. She knew very well that most nobles and knights knew of her parents pressing her to find a fiancée within the next year.

"My first impression were that bad, milady?" he asked, looking at her. "I only meant to warn you against the dangers that beggars and servants and peasants are these days. They are not the one you should be mingling with, not at this time."

"Maybe not, but I will, anyway. Everybody's equal in my opinion, just with different objective, I guess you could call it." she smiled and shrugged.

"Milady, it's too dangerous. You could get kidnapped, or worse, killed." he said.

"Well, I'll just need to have someone like you ready to protect me, then, won't I?"