The young woman fretted over her canvas. Nothing seemed to be blending right for her today, and she just couldn't capture the way the trees cast shadows on the Luna River this afternoon. Wait, no, evening. It was getting late. She would have to abandon her art supplies and make for the Lady's Rest. Another night away from home... father would be sure to punish her. Worse even, that she was off wasting her time painting in his eyes. She could hear her mother's voice... "Better you were off running around with some young lad than wasting your time on painting like some Dementileuese fop. You need a nice lad to teach you a thing or two about being a proper woman instead of living with your head in the clouds. Besides, I want more grandchildren!"
She grumbled as she finally made it to the Lady's Rest. What a waste of paint today, but at least there were some rowdy looking outlanders that she could scrape a few coins from. She took out her lute and strummed a tune, catchy enough to at least cover the growls echoing from her empty stomach. Another night of rabble rousing got her a belly full of food and tsukia at least, and she slipped off into a drunken slumber in front of the fireplace. Another night, another dream, painting a masterpiece so profound and moving that the human mind could not interpret it with merely the image cast onto it by the eyes afore it. Art so beautiful it would change the world, change her life, let her be whisked away by a refined and properly educated man so she could spend her life as a princess in the clouds her head so desperately longed to reside in.
The pauper that she was, though, managed to come to about mid day with a massive hangover. She shamefully retreated to her family's farm and spend the next few days as the target of her parents' shame and disappointment. Perhaps one day she will have the courage to challenge her fate.
