When The Train Pulled In...

The train pulled in, slightly earlier than usual. Rare event that. As the usual commuters shuffled out of their sardine can train, off to their slightly less sardine like buildings, he noticed a new face. Young, unblemished, shining. Shame he thought, such a young lass about to get her hopes and dreams crushed by this thing we call ‘work’. ‘Work’ was something he himself, ‘He’ being Archibald J ….something-or-other, had never got into. Never fancied it. Not for him. No lunch break, working overtime for no reason, nooooo sirree. Arch enjoyed the quiet life, shuffling here, shuffling there, and then there was always the shifters market if he required a change of scenery. The men in that market could work wonders. A small noise woke him from his thoughts. The young girl was stood in front of him with a half-smile, half-I-hope-you’re-not-dead look on her face. She was wearing a tight black business suit, short pencil shirt, white blouse with those floofy sleeves. Hideous. It distracted from her angelic expression, little button nose, slightly fat cheeks, mousy brown hair. Yes…the outfit was distracting. He grunted at her at and she cleared her throat.

‘You are Mr. Archibald J. Fielder yes?’

Ah yes, THAT’S his last name.

‘What if I am?’

'You sir, are a rather rude man. I would have thought someone involved in your line of work would be a gentlemen.'

'You can never be to sure with men of MY line of 'work''

Arch clenched his jaw and glared at her, he was beginning to wonder if he had misjudged her. She wasn't angelic. She was annoying. She shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to sit down next to him, far enough away so she couldn't smell him.

'I am miss. Sera Clerk. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Mr. Fielder'

She held out her hand as if she expected him to shake it. He just sat there. He noticed she was wearing gloves, nobody in Arath wore gloves. He frowned and reached for her hand. As he held it he noticed a black mark on her wrist where the glove didn't quite cover. Ah. She was one of those. A seamstress. No wonder she knew who he was.

'So miss. seamstress...what brings you to my neck of the woods eh?'

She recoiled her hand and gave him a stony look before standing up and hurriedly marching off. Arch got to his feet and jogged after her.

'Musn't be a very high rank, sending you out to do the leg work? Preposterous. What those old hags want from me anyway?'

She let out a high pitched squeal and hit him with her bag.

'How DARE you! The mistresses are not hags! Take that back this instant!'

She was like a little girl defending her favourite band, no matter how much they sucked. He gave her an evil smirk.

'I'll take it back if you tell me why they sent a lil' pigeon to do an eagles job? surely I'm not that detestable?'

'They! They..the eagles are busy! There is a matter they must attend to! And i am not a pigeon! I'm a sparrow!'

There were tears in her eyes. It was amazing how quickly she had changed from a stuck up seamstress to a whimpering little child.

'There are a helluva lot of eagles, what're they all needed for?'

'I don't know, but they told me i had to escort you to them so that's what I'm going to do.'

She straightened up and brushed herself down. He didn't like the look of this...

'Well then Mr. Fielder! Shall we be going?'

'If you think I'm-!!'

She snapped her fingers and his shadow coiled around him, covering his eyes, his ears, his mouth. He screamed into the black ink stuff but he knew it was no use. He hated seamstress magic. Worst of the lot as far as he was concerned. The shadow thing grew bigger, it grew what could almost be called a head with a face as well. It smiled at the seamstress and began to grow 4 pairs of legs and some arms, Arch was now safely stored on it's stomach with a beautiful view of the floor...if he could see, and he felt the shadow thing begin to move. Ohhhh how he hated seamstresses...

Well that was fun : D, though not really what i should be doing at the moment but Geography Essays can wait in the wings for a while... Archi should become a recurring character here, he won't like it but he will be. From a book I've been writing, set in the same universe anyway.