Impignorate Does Not Mean "To Impregnate Pigs" [Gwen/Rilcha]

[Rilcha Winters]

Rilcha wasn't very fond of tea. The cup in front of him sat untouched, cooling more with every passing minute. It was so horridly bitter and he felt as if he was choking down dirt every time he swallowed. He couldn't ask for something to sweeten it, it was far too uncomfortable for the boy to walk over to strangers and ask such a thing. The tea however was not going anywhere and he wouldn't dare waste food. So the boy sat waiting miserably for the tea to cool just to the point that he could chug it down quickly. He knew he would have to get used to drinking it in the future, Richter did after all. And if Richter did it there had to be some sort of importance to the drink. But for now he planned on taking it slowly, one step at a time until he no longer instinctively scrunched up his face at the taste.

The storm continued to rage outside, the old inn creaking under the power of a particularly powerful gust every now and then. Even with the fires raging across the inn there still was the occasional crack that the chill seeped in through. He happened to be sitting in one at that very moment, nipping at his exposed ankles and bare feet. Richter had been asleep when he had slipped off to the common area, and he had opted to leave his shoes behind in favor of keeping his exit as silent as possible. There was certainly regret as the boy pointed, flexed, and rolled his cold feet. But it was better than going back on up to retrieve his boots.

[Guinevere von Altenburg]

Guinevere had been awake for about an hour now, laying in her bed. She had thought about getting up sooner, but it was much nicer to stay huddled in her warm bed and listen to the winds howling around outside. Eventually, however, she decided to get up and slid out of the bed. As she changed out of her nightgown and into some clothes, she choose her outfit based on her past experiences in the inn. The common area could be a nice place to side, but if you chose wrong, you could find yourself near a draft. To prevent this, she pulled on a somewhat heavy pair of pants and some thick socks. She pulled a long-sleeved blue shirt that matched her armor to finish the outfit before making her way from her room.

As she entered the common room, Gwen was slightly surprised to see that Richter wasn't present. Either he was having a rare late sleep, or he was already up and about. Almost as surprising was the fact that Rilcha was already here. The boy usually slept a little later than this, but today was a strange day, apparently. As one of the inn staff passed her, she politely asked if she could have a cup of tea and some toast. The worker smiled and nodded, and Gwen made her way over to Rilcha. She sat down across from the boy with a smile. "Good morning, Rilcha. I hope you don't mind if I join you?"

[Rilcha Winters]

Rilcha gave a firm shake of his head to Gwen's question, gentle curls bouncing against his cheek. He hesitantly raised his eyes to look her over, taking in her far more weather appropriate attire than his own. Gwen was always so pretty with silken shining hair like the sun. His mother was far prettier though, she had told him time and time again that he would never meet anyone quite as pretty as her. And he...he just felt out of place lined up with anyone else, a crooked nose and awful hair.

The moment the boy's eyes met Gwen's he quickly snapped his gaze away, focusing on his lap instead. He started to swing his feet apprehensively as he finally reached out to grip his cooled cup of tea. Thin fingers curled and tensed, Rilcha preparing himself for a gauntlet that he forced upon himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and brought the cup up to his lips, tossing back his head as he downed the vile liquid. It felt tasted horrid and bitter, though he wasn't sure how he could have expected anything less. A few dips escaped from the corners of his lips and he cringed. His throat felt thick and he couldn't seem to find the strength to swallow. Rilcha set the cup down and pressed his hands to his mouth, waiting for the moment that he could swallow.

Rilcha's swinging feet grew more restless with each passing moment, each pump of his knees growing closer and closer to Gwen's own until inevitably...

His toes smashed into something hard, the child recoiling back as apologies flew from his lips. The tea spilled out from his mouth in a large waterfall, spilling down the front of his shirt and the table. Horror crossed Rilcha's face as he sat stunned at what had occurred, hands still awkwardly raised in mid apology. "Uh...ah...erm" He sputtered between rapidly growing hiccups, eyes growing moist as the child failed to blink it away quick enough. Rilcha was mortified, he had without fail made a mess of things once again.

[Guinevere von Altenburg]

Guinevere couldn't help but smile at the young boy. For some reason, he couldn't even hold eye contact with her. It was endearing, if that was the right word for it. He almost seemed embarrassed to be around her, though from their limited contact, he seemed embarrassed to be around most people. She wanted to try to calm the poor boy down, but decided it might be best not to rush things. Instead, she took a sip of the tea that had been placed in front of her. It was good. Not the best she'd ever had, but not the worst either.

She had just taken a bite of the toast she had ordered when she felt a sharp pain in her leg. Gwen dropped her toast as she gasped out in pain. It took her a second to realize that Rilcha had accidentally kicked her. She knew it was an accident from the boy's reaction. The poor thing had spilled and/or spit his tea all down his front and all over the table. Ignoring the pain in her leg, she stood up and moved around the table to him. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's ok, let's go get you cleaned up."

Her first reaction was to take him back to his room, but she quickly realized that wasn't an option. The Winter Lion was still asleep, and she doubted waiting him in this way would end well. Instead, she led the boy to her room. She had some towels that he could use to dry himself. As for a change of clothes... Well, they'd cross that bridge once he was dry. "Here you go, try to dry yourself a bit," she said, offering him one of the towels.

[Rilcha Winters]

Rilcha's eyes welled up with warm tears, the quivering pools overflowing down his cheeks. He hung his head, ashamed at the countless mistakes he had made in the last few minutes. Firstly there had been kicking his legs so childishly, he should have known better than to allow it to get out of hand. Then not simply swallowing down the tea. It was silly to have to sit and wait for the right moment, he should have forced himself. He shouldn't have kicked pretty Gwen, he shouldn't have been so careless to open his mouth. Stupid Rilcha. He never learned, never did any better no matter how many times he or his mother had berated his stupidity.

Gwen's warm hand rested on his shoulder comfortingly. He merely hung his head in response, much too mortified to even glance at her expression. Would she mock him? Yell at him? Gwen was always so horridly cheery and kind, it would certainly be his fault if she was irritated. Her voice was gentle as she tried to coax him upstairs, and the tone only filled him with dread.

Sullenly he rose to follow her up the steps, dampened shirt twisting in his palms anxiously. The child's chest heaved as he tried to calm himself, breaths both rapid and sharp. Rilcha almost felt lightheaded as he waddled after her into her room. He couldn't even pull himself up to look about, eyes focused on his toes as his shoulders trembled in fearful anticipation. However nothing seem to occur, Gwen merely offering him a towel to dry himself off. He gripped the soft fabric and nodded his thanks to the woman. With a few steps back he dried off his chin and scrubbed at his overflowing eyes, further apologies blubbered incoherently into the towel.

"I didn' *hic* mean ta'..."

His voice cracked as he grew too shrill, eyes red and swollen from his fearful tears. "Don' tell..." As for who she shouldn't tell, he hadn't not the faintest. It wasn't very much like Gwen to sit around gossiping like some old townswoman complaining about the ungrateful wretch her boy married. Gwen was far too elegant for that, but he couldn't seem to come to that conclusion. Days and weeks would pass and the current humiliation would be long forgotten. But Rilcha couldn't seem to see such a far off future, all he wanted to do was sink off into the floor. How was he supposed to survive with such raw embarrassment clawing away at his anxieties.

[Guinevere von Altenburg]

Guinevere knelt down in front of Rilcha. The poor boy was so overcome with emotions at what amounted to only a simple accident, she suspected that there was something else there deeper down. But it wasn't her place to pry, only to help make the situation better. She rested her hand back onto his shoulder gently. "I know you didn't mean to and I promise I won't tell anyone. It was an accident and only that, Rilcha." She reached up and softly wiped away a few of the tears that ran down his face.

She picked up the towel and began trying to dry Rilcha's clothes, but it was clear quickly that the towel wouldn't be enough. They could grab the staff here at the tavern to get the clothes cleaned, but that would take time. As she had already thought, going to grab him new clothes from his room was out of the question, as Richter was still sleeping. He might fit into some of Mavick's clothes, but as far as she knew, he was still asleep as well.

Turning her attention to her own selection of clothes, Gwen was hesitant. She had clean clothes he could wear, but there was two problems. The first being anything that could be considered unisex clothing-wise that she owned would be much too big for him. She was a fair amount taller than the boy, so her pants would drag on the ground and her shirts would be far too baggy. The second problem was what she did have that would fit him: dresses. The boy was so distraught, Gwen didn't want to make him more so by trying to fit him into a dress. But, it might be their only option.

Getting to her feet, she moved to the other side of the room and began to dig through her clothes. She decided to leave it up to Rilcha. She brought over a plain pair of brown pants and a white shirt, as well as a white dress. As she had previously thought, the pants and shirt would be too big for him, but that would be his decision. "This is all I have for you to wear, unfortunately. I know they're not the best options, but they should serve until we can get you some of your own clothes. Pick whichever you're more comfortable with."

[Rilcha Winters]

Rilcha slowly began to calm after the next few minutes of Gwen pampering him with a towel. He leaned in to her touch, hiccups quieting as his erratic breaths faded away. Breath in. Relax. Let the breath trickle out naturally. There was nothing to be frightened of, Gwen was not yelling nor swinging for him. There was no crease in her brow other than worry. He felt foolish. Gwen was horridly kind, so much so that she didn't allow someone so useless like himself to even irritate her. Rilcha knew better, he knew that he was perfectly safe sitting there in the small room. But even so, why was it that his heart felt so uneasy. Why was it that he flinched at every sudden movement the woman made? He pulled the towel tightly around himself like a blanket, huddling beneath it as he watched her move across the room to her bags.

Gwen fumbled around in her bags, bringing nothing but further worry for the boy out of them. A horrid decision, a dress or a pair of pants that would engulf him. Of course he preferred the pants, there was nothing more that he could have asked for, and he hadn't even asked for it in the first place. He knew though that it was far too good to be true. Without a doubt he'd trip over the legs, possibly tearing them, definitely dirtying them, and with his luck he knew they'd end up pooled around his ankles. Rilcha held nothing but distrust from the oh so tempting pants, and he sniffed miserably as he tore his eyes from them. The dress was on the other hand simply embarrassing, he was a man now and didn't wear dresses of course. Maybe if he stayed in the room and didn't leave, it would be alright.

"Uhn..." He breathed in sharply to pull back the snot still running down his face and rubbed the remnants away with the towel. "Dress..." The child sniffed in defeat, curling ever more into himself in pure discomfort for the situation he had spat his way into. "Can I stay in here?" Swollen emerald eyes turned hopefully over towards her. "I'll stay in the corner and be very quiet..."

[Guinevere von Altenburg]

Guinevere gave the boy a sympathetic smile. She had expected that had he chosen the dress, he would want to remain hidden. She nodded towards him. "Of course you can stay in here. In fact..." She moved over towards the door and locked it. "There. Now no one will try to come in either. And you don't have to stay in the corner or be quiet." She put her hand on his shoulder. "And I promise I won't tell anyone about it, ok? I can sneak out once Richter wakes up and get you some of your own clothes to wear and then everything will be back to normal."

She felt bad for Rilcha. The boy had only made a mistake and spilled a drink and now he had to wear something that he clearly was nervous about wearing. She wished that she had better options for him, but sadly she did not. Gwen hoped that by assuring him that no one would see him and that she wouldn't tell anybody, he would start to calm down a bit. The boy seemed quick to become overly nervous. She wondered what made him to do so. Was it something in his past, or was it just a part of who he was? Regardless, she had a feeling that his nerves wouldn't be helped at all if he had to change with her watching. To help with this, she pointedly turned and faced out the small window in her room. "Let me know when you've finished changing."

[Rilcha Winters]

It took a little longer than was considered normal for Rilcha to peel off his damp shirt and pants, the boy pausing every few moments to stare at the back of Gwen's head to be sure that she wasn't taking a peek. He couldn't quite drum up a reason that she would, but as usual, the worry trumped any sense. The dress engulfed him as he slipped it over his head, sleeves hastily shoved up over his elbows. It was too light, airy, he felt like he was standing there naked with a steady breeze between his legs. The boy hastily reminded himself why he had chosen the garment, finding reason in his self imposed punishment.

"Finished."

His nerves crackled in his voice, albeit a significant amount less than he had been mere minutes before. Even though he had just woken a short while before getting so worked was undoubtedly draining. Even as the more prominent fears receded he was left with nothing but fatigue and prickling anxiety. Rilcha slowly blinked sore eyes, arms crossed at his chest to hide as much as he could from view. A thought struck and the boy snatched up the fallen towel, pulling it over his head and crouching down close to the floor, making himself as small as he could.

"I'm sorry-," a sudden sniff broke between his words, arm hastily raising to rub at his still running nose, sleeve slipping down over his hand.

[Guinevere von Altenburg]

Guinevere turned around after Rilcha had declared that he was finished changing. She had to admit, if the dress was actually his size, Rilcha could probably pass off as a girl. She would never tell him that, as she could already tell he was self-conscious about the whole situation. She moved over and picked up his wet clothes. Grabbing an extra towel, she wrung the clothes out over it, getting some of the tea of out them. She then hung them up by the window to dry for the time being.

Turning her attention back to Rilcha, she noticed him curled up in the corner. Gwen walked over to him and knelt down by his side. She pulled the towel off of his head. "There's nothing to be sorry about." She used the towel to wipe the boy's nose for him. Was this what it felt like to be a mother? Maybe she would find out someday, but for now this would probably be as close as she would get. Gwen sat down on the floor next to Rilcha and lightly put an arm around him. She hoped it would comfort the boy, but knowing him it might also make things worse.

She gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "You don't need to apologize for everything, you know. It's not all your fault. Sometimes things just happen." She leaned down so they were face to face and gave him a soft smile. "So there's no need to cry. Everything's gonna be ok."