Elira dropped to her knees. The wooden floor of the inn was cold beneath her hands as she began searching frantically across the ground.
It had to be here.
It had to be.
Her eyes darted across every corner of the floor, scanning beneath the nearby tables, along the legs of chairs, across the narrow spaces between the floorboards where stray crumbs and dust gathered.
Nothing.
Her breath quickened.
"Elira?" Mr. Haun's voice came from behind the counter, but she barely heard him.
Her fingers brushed desperately across the floor again, as if the pouch might somehow appear if she searched just a little harder.
Her eyes began to sting. Then the tears came.
They filled her vision so quickly she had to blink again and again just to see the ground in front of her. The wooden planks blurred together until she could barely make out where she had already searched.
She pressed the back of her sleeve to her face, trying to clear her eyes.
'It couldn't be gone. Not today. Not after everything.' She thought to herself while her heart began to break.
Just hours ago she had stood in the market with a basket full of bread and nothing but hope that she might sell enough to make the trip worthwhile.. and now…She had sold every single loaf. Every. One. More than she could ever remember her family earning in a single day. On top of that, she had secured a proper order from Mr. Haun for ten loaves in four days' time.
She was so eager to tell her parents and make them proud. This could become something bigger than the quiet life she had always known.
And now… Her coin pouch was gone.
Her chest tightened painfully as the thought settled over her.
All of it.
"Elira, slow down," Mr. Haun said gently as he stepped out from behind the counter noticing Elira was searching for something of importance.
But she barely heard him.
Her hands still searched the floor as though the pouch might appear if she refused to stop looking. Because if it was truly gone.. She didn't know how she would explain it to her family. Or how she would ever forgive herself.
Elira's hands swept helplessly across the floorboards again, her fingers tracing the cracks between the planks as if the pouch might somehow be hiding there.
Her vision blurred.
She wiped at her eyes quickly, trying to steady her breathing, but the tears kept coming.
It couldn't be gone. It couldn't.
Just as she leaned forward to search beneath the nearest table a pair of polished leather shoes stepped into her view.
They stopped directly in front of her.
Elira froze.
The shoes were dark and immaculate, the leather gleaming in the warm light of the inn as though they had never once touched the dust of the village roads. They were far too fine for a farmer, too elegant for a passing merchant.
Slowly, her gaze lifted.
First to the long black coat that fell neatly along the stranger's long legs.
Then her neck bent further back to look directly up to the tall frame that seemed to tower over her kneeling form.
He stood with effortless stillness, his hands tucked casually into the pockets of his coat as though the busy inn around him were of little importance.
The man's features were strikingly sharp.
High cheekbones carved cleanly beneath pale skin that seemed almost untouched by the warmth of the sun. Dark hair fell loosely across his jawline, framing a face that might have looked almost beautiful if not for the unsettling calm that rested in his expression.
Then Elira saw his eyes.
Deep maroon.
His eyes watched her intensely, studying her as one might study a curious little kitten that had wandered too close.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
He simply stood there, looking down at the young woman kneeling at his feet, her hands dusted with dirt and her cheeks flushed from panic.
And then… a slow, almost knowing smile formed at the edge of his lips, a flash of unnaturally perfect white teeth catching the light.