The Town

Aila's POV

I was put down once the road became clearer. It seemed to be such a short journey but I was glad to be set down. I didn't even care that the boys made me wear a hood. I could understand their concern, though I had forgotten for a while that I was a rarity. Logan of course shifted back as soon as he didn't need to carry me. I felt bad for staring at him like I did, like he was some sort of alien, so I was glad he went back to the soft kitty I had gotten used to.

Continuing to walk the trees never really stopped but instead just became less dense. It opened up my line of sight. I did still take some time for us to reach some buildings.

It was so different to what I was used to. There was no people going about through the town. The homes were decently far apart. While you could see your neighbor it was mostly due to the lack of fences and sparse trees. If you had wanted to talk with a neighbor you would need to yell.

They all seemed to have projects going on in their yard. That is were all the people were and there was no women or girls as expected. Somehow I had forgotten to expect there to be no children at all.

I did notice that most of the people were older. I suspected even the young ones simply looked young. They were all handsome at least by my standards not overly so. Not in the perfect or especially pretty way but in a more rugged sense. It might have been due to the lumberjack aesthetic being a thing around me but I could appreciate that they were all quite nice to look at.

Most had obvious scars even from a distance. I found it oddly fascinating; though that might have been their lack of shirts. They were all quite muscular. I suppose that was due to their need to work everyday.

When we walked further in I did see a different layout of buildings. I seemed more like an old west style. There was this one main road and it opened up far enough for a two way road to have two lanes on both sides. The buildings all lined up next to each other and here I could see some people occasionally shuttling things from one place to another. The buildings did have quite some space on their sides like the driveways in residential homes. It's scale matched the road rather than the buildings. It made the buildings look small though I could see that they stretched back behind them.

We finally came to one of the buildings. It seemed to be a fabric or clothing store. I followed Logan in. It had those western swinging doors that neither touched the top nor the bottom of the door frame. It opened up to a desk that behind it had a lot of shelfing in sections. It remined me of an older hotel lobby desk. It was all wood just like the rest of the town. The wood was well polished or oiled and the desk was covered in a table cloth. The shelf sections had little things in it that looked like keys. There was a hand bell on the counter and Tony came in and shook it.

The ringing brought out the fist feminine looking man I'd seen here. He had a scholarly look to him, his hair was pulled back and his clothes resembled that of aristocrats from comics. He had on a white long sleeved shirt with an embroidered vest. He had his sleeves rolled past his elbows. I couldn't help but think he lacks a pair of glasses to complete his look.

It just occurred to me that tony was conversing with this man with no sound I do forget that Tony and Logan purposely includes me as I cannot otherwise hear their thoughts. The only thing that gave it away was the man's expressive face. I give Tony a couple of tugs and try to express on my face that I too want to know.

"Allow me to introduce. Caruso this is Aila, she is the one to be measured for clothes. Aila this is Caruso the tailor"

"Caruso, It is nice to meet you" I nod my head at him.

He looks at me then at Tony and then I hear him "Ah the pleasure is all mine, please do come this way"

Caruso leads the way and to our left. We walk past along wall and turn left again to come to what looks to be a sort of lounge area. It has antique style furniture with the carved wood and leather cushions with the little buttons in it. The side tables also had a lacey tablecloth. The table at the center had no tablecloth but one of the side tables had little dollies that I suspect was used as coasters. There was even a rug in the area.

The boys went left to sit down while I was led to a door on my right, a tad disappointed I didn't get a better look at the rug. Caruso pushed the more regular door open and led me inside.

"Aila dear, I need to get your measurements so if you please do remove your cloak." Caught off guard by this I do so. "You can place it here" He points to an empty clothes rack. I simply fold it over the pole on top. As soon as I'm done he begins to direct me "Now I would like for you to stand right here with one foot here... and the other here.." Once I'm in place standing on a very soft carpet I look around to see him at a desk full of things.

He brings back a string of some sort. "May I" as he gestures with the string in his hand. I simply nod "Go ahead" It's not like he didn't tell me I'm getting measured. He doesn't make this feel awkward for me but then again I've been measured in stores for my bras before so this just doesn't really feel like a big deal to me. I had to be way more undressed for that. If any thing was awkward it was me wearing pajamas in front of a man so well dressed. I had been traveling through the woods on my way here too.

Pushing the uncomfortable thoughts away I notice him going back to his desk after he brought the string along me. He seems to have a blade on his desk he runs the string along in order to cut the string, he then wraps the sting and places it in a specific order. Just as everything was proceeding smoothly he sort of stops and gets a bit fidgety.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"It's just that I need to measure this area" Caruso points to his chest and to his chest.