Ella of Shaila cast nervous eyes around the hall, almost longing to return to Fief Shaila. At least I knew people there, was her only thought. Collecting her food, she froze. There weren't any empty tables, not as far as she could tell. Joy. Now she'd have to talk to people. Walking shyly up to a table that looked to be almost deserted compared to the other tables, she spoke to the other trainees for the first time since her arrival.
"May I sit here?"

[Just a note, dear, all of the trainees are enjoying their grub, over in "Dinner". You might want to have Ella go over there.

Welcome to the Riders!]

Somebody was speaking to her. Kiara's brain managed to process "Can I sit here?"

"Oh, certainly!" Kiara said. To another trainee, she muttered. "Scoot over there, quick like now!" She offered the girl the now vacated seat. "I'm Kiara Chamton of the K'mir Raadeh. Who're you?"

[Oops! Hope I haven't run her off!]

"Thank you," Ella murmured softly, sinking into the seat.
"Pleasure to meet you, Kiara- may I call you that? I'm Ella; Ella of Shaila."

"Kiara is fine. If people kept going on with my long title all day, Horse Lords know what would happen!" She laughed. "So, I'm pretty new. Just been here about a month and a half. You?"

"I just arrived this morning," Ella answered, her smile timid. "I guess that makes me very new." Her eyes were curious as she asked,
"K'mir Raadeh, huh? What would you have done if you hadn't become a trainee, then?" She was quite interested in what her fellow trainees would have become if they hadn't signed on to train as a Rider.

"Married off," Kiara said distastefully. "Either that, or starved in the streets. I was homeless my first two years in Tortall. Then I met a Rider, and tah-dah! Here I am!" She gestured around the dining hall.

Ella winced.
"Married off? Ooh... that's awful. Although, come to think of it, that's probably what would've happened to me. If I didn't become a trainee or a University student first, of course. But Mother probably would be looking for husbands anyway if I were a student. She's like that."

Her expression changed from pained to questioning.
"Homeless? How did you end up like that?" Ella bit her tongue immediately after she spoke, realizing exactly what she had asked.
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to pry."

"No, that's fine," Kiara replied. "Lots of people always want to know that. It's really odd." She chewed carefully, and then explained, "Well, I didn't realize that I would actually need money. I had heard all these glorious tales about Tortall, where women can become knights and the streets are ladened with gold." She giggled at her own foolishness.

"Well, the streets were not lined with gold. Nothing of the sort. So, without any coppers or nobles or anything, I was basically stranded. I made my living working at the Dancing Dove," here she shuddered, as she did not have very good memories of the Dove, "and I lived in an old wooden box. Quite cramped, but with a few blankets, it was comfortable."

She grinned a half-smile. "But being married off would be worse."

OOC: sorry, forgot to switch accounts...

"Interesting," Ella said with a soft laugh. "Very interesting."

"So did the staff know you were there, or were you just in hiding? Like, after you got off from work, did you go to your box, or did you leave and come back in through a window, or something?"

OOC: GAH! So sorry for the delay.

IC: Kiara blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "Oh, many knew, but nobody really cared. I went to work, nobody paid attention to me except for the drunkards, and then I went home. Well, er, if you could call the box 'home'. I didn't make that much, so I only had enough for food, but I didn't have to pay to live in the box, so I did." She shrugged.

Ella stifled a giggle.
"I would actually be very surprised if you had to pay to live in a box. I mean, how desperate can you get for money if you're charging people for a box?"