The Ashes and the Sand fidgeted around the two middle girls.
The busty one and the one who was the tallest, well proportioned and had lighter eyes.
The sexy and perfect one, jeez how obvious could these guys get.
Roran joined them but the injured Sand stood there with Morten, studying.
Morten wondered if he was doing the same thing he was, but Agnus's story nibbled at him.
Was he trying to get different information?
Morten shook his head, that wasn't the mission right now.
He was supposed to make sure he was going to be picked over Roran.
All the girls had men at their plateaus?
Although, Teddy was just rambling at the woman who looked confused by the boy standing there.
All but one.
The small freckled one.
He could wait for the other sand to go there, but maybe he should try and save her from this odd one out situation.
He walked to her and pulled out his gift, the unusual jewelry Agnus had suggested.
She looked up at him as he approached,
her face bright with a close mouth smile.
He sighed, as he stopped in front of her.
"Are you ready for the stupidest gift here?" He said in a cheery apologetic voice.
Her face contorted into such an animated frown of curiosity and confusion it almost made him laugh really loud.
He cramped up his face, you're an adult man... with a jawline!
He turned his hand to reveal a polished wooden ring, slightly bending towards her as he offered it.
She blinked, pursed her lips to the side and worried her eyebrows looking from the ring to him.
"You sure?" She said.
"Well," said Morten, "I have other options but I left them in my room... "
She grinned at this, her nose wrinkling and her eyes squinting.
" What? You've got girls in your room? "
"What? " Stammered Morten.
" No, I mean... gifts?"
Roran chuffed loudly from a little bit away.
"Ooh, I meant.." she wiggled her fingers to her right, where the two prizes of the bunch were being charmed. She smiled with her mouth closed and raised her eyebrows, sighing.
"Oh, no. Nooo." He said, not sure how to respond.
She smiled wider, her eyes squinting again.
"Too pretty? Too much body?" She proposed.
His expression faltered, did she know he was just here because she was left?
well it made sense if he wanted to win and saw her as an easy way to, no competition.
So why pretend?
He decided on honesty.
He shook his head, " Naah,
I mean,
you are all certainly too good looking for me.
But no one had approached you, so I might as well." He shrugged.
She smiled, he noticed one corner of her mouth smiling much more and her eyes were ever so slightly cross eyed.
"Well, if you don't care.. then I don't either!" She shrugged back, squinting her eyes closed as she did it and then clasped her hands together bending over to look at the ring on his hand.
" A wooden ring?" She asked.
looking from the ring to him.
Her slightly cross eyed look confused Morten's brain.
He nodded, " It's wood from a very rare tree.."
He was interrupted by Roran, roaring with laughter.
" A wooden ring!?"
This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for Roran being the other frozen.
He could dismiss the whole gift as useless.
She picked the ring off his hand and studied it, going through a large array of expressions.
Roran kept making comments,
to Mortens surprise mostly directed to her while he had given his gift to someone else.
"It's okay, I will get you an actually valuable thing next time.. not this.." Roran sneered.
She looked up at Roran,
"Nah, he already gave me the best of gifts by smacking your face, mouth open, into the sand pit."
What she did next almost made Morten cry.
She mimicked Roran's expressions as he was stomped into the sand, picked out of it and dropped back into it with exaggerated precision.
He'd never seen someone this animated and it was pure gold.
The handsome sand laughed loudly at her and slapped Roran, who was speechless, hard on the back.
Morten was sure it was meant to be meaner than he had made it look.
She turned back from Roran to Morten, smiling that close mouthed smile with her eyes squinting.
" I like it! It's just.. " she put the ring around a finger and held her hand up.
He cursed and slapped his hands in front of his mouth.
The ring looked like a loose bracelet.
She was small and that counter for her hands as well.
" I'm sorry, Frozen women are.. bigger?" He tried.
She laughed, " They better be!"
She turned towards the girl that was sitting quietly as Agnus stood near her plateau like a gatekeeper.
"Look five!" She smiled.
The girl looked back, blinked her big eyes and smiled carefully.
" Is that wood?" She asked.
" Yes, north valley teal pine." She answered and took it off her finger.
Morten gaped at her,
which made Agnus snort.
"How do you.." Morten started.
She turned back to him and smiled, mischief there then stuck out her hand in offer of a handshake.
He carefully took it, feeling unsure about touching... girls.
" My code name is four and I am studying to represent the Frozen among the five." She said with her mouth just ever so slightly off-center.
Even her lips were very expressive when she spoke.
" Really? " He said, well he had a one in five chance at this.
" Yes! So I know this is valuable. And rare!" She said.
Morten stood there, there he went.
He had no clue what to say now.
He could feel Agnus's eyes burning into his back.
What did you say to girls?!
She moved, sitting on her knees and clapped in her hands frowning,
biting her lip, looking thoughtful and then asked.
" So, it is true you come of age at 15?"
He looked at her a moment, nodded distractedly then actually remembered to talk.
"Yes"
"Sooo.." she put a finger to her chin, raising one eyebrow, "you get to court girls?"
"Eh," he spluttered, "yes, you do."
She then nodded, her finger still on her cheek looking from left up to right up. Her eyes suddenly snapped onto him and she pointed the finger at him.
"How come you, and the sand swallower over there, are competing?"
He blurted it out before he could stop himself, "polygamy."
Agnus choked on a laugh behind him.
Why, he wasn't sure, because it wasn't even slightly funny.
She looked at him, so confused, blinking and frowning he'd thought he might have broken her.
Then her head tilted.
"You," she wiggled her finger at him, "have several wives?"
He gave up on trying to not be himself, what did it matter anyway?
Also, her animated and expressive ways made him feel giddy.
"Yes, hard to believe. I know!" He said, gesturing at himself.
Then he looked around at Roran, "More so about him!"
She actually snorted an actual snort.
Loud enough that most of the men in eyeshot looked around at her.
He had been looking at Roran and turned back to find her,
sitting there with big eyes of shock,
tips of her right hand ever so lightly touching the tip of her nose.
"You got yourself a winner there!" Called Roran in a mocking tone.
Morten ignored him and looked at her while her face turned redder and she made eye contact, her shoulders becoming higher as she colored.
Morten laughed, "Ahaha no, no. I was always busy during the courting season. I don't know what his excuse is!" he smiled.
She moved her hand away from her face and pursed her lips into something of a smile.
" Any clue why it's so young?"
He shrugged,
"No, I certainly wasn't ready at 15 to talk to a girl, let alone court.
I'm pretty sure it has to do with clan relationships and making marriage deals between clan chiefs children.
Especially back in the day you would count yourself lucky if you made it to 15 years in the Frozen."
She nodded. Exaggerated again.
She opened her mouth to say more but the red screamer started clapping in her hands.
Morten turned but heard the girl behind him mutter, 'apparently we're 5 year old's attending a class? '
which made him giggle.
"The man should leave things as they are and come with me!"
The last few words were a shriek.