Alex walked through the evening market, stopping occasionally to have a closer look at a piece of clothing or some homemade trinket. With a start, he realized that his girlfriend, Mia, wasn't by his side anymore. He swiveled around, scanning the bustling crowd, trying to spot her head of white hair in the masses. Standing a little over 6 feet tall, he had a comfortable view over the crowd and soon spotted Mia a few stalls back, inspecting some clothing.
Mia was on the shorter side for a woman, measuring in at 5'4. She had never been particularly happy with her body, despite Alex's constant protests that she was gorgeous. She had naturally wide, curvy hips and an ass to match that proved more than a handful for Alex. No amount of diet or exercise ever seemed to be able to affect her lower body. Her upper body, however, was slim and defined, with barely any chest to speak of. This disproportion had always been a point of contention for her, and being a lover of jogging, she had found her larger than average hips and thighs a bit of a nuisance at times. As she'd admitted to a very intrigued Alex before however, she had often daydreamed about the idea of having an upper body to match her lower.
Alex approached Mia from behind and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Anything catching your eye, love?" he asked.
Mia jumped in surprise, and a smile crossed her face that betrayed both happiness and slight disappointment. "A few pairs of jeans, and a pair of shorts with a floral pattern I liked. I don't think any of it will fit me, though."
Alex nodded his understanding. The combination of shorter than average height and her enormously wide hips meant Mia often struggled to find clothing that fit her lower body comfortably. Today, she was dressed in her usual stretched-out leggings combined with a baggy woolen sweater. Alex was dressed in his usual minimal style, with gray chinos and a plain black t-shirt.
"Neither of us have eaten today." Alex commented, hoping to move Mia's mind onto something else. "How about we keep heading up between these stalls and see if we can find some food stands?".
"I'd like that." Mia smiled, this time one that betrayed no sadness.
Alex and Mia continued to stroll through the market, letting the faint smells from various food trucks pick their direction. As they approached a corner, Mia spotted a small, purple tent that was slightly set back from the stalls around it. The flaps were open, but for some reason she struggled to perceive anything inside. She tugged on Alex's sleeve and pointed out the tent to him. "Weird." He remarked. "I wonder why everybody is walking straight past it. Want to check it out?". Mia nodded her agreement.
As they approached the tent and made their way through the flaps inside, the ambient noise of music and conversation from the market outside fell silent. Mia and Alex both looked around, taking in the odd sight before them. The tent seemed slightly larger on the inside than the outside, and it was filled with makeshift wooden shelves, scattered around the room in no particular order. The shelves were short, only coming up to around Mia's shoulder height, and were filled with various trinkets and strange-looking objects, the likes of which neither had ever seen before.
As they each looked around the tent and processed their surroundings, a sweet voice chimed from behind them, "Hi!" it sang out. Alex and Mia spun around to see a blue-eyed woman who looked to be in her mid-30's standing behind them in the entrance to the tent. She had sleek, jet-black hair and stood at a height roughly between Mia and Alex's. She form-fitting green, business-like pants and a long-sleeve white button up shirt. She held a drink of some kind in one hand and a hot dog in the other. The most outstanding part of her appearance, however, was her chest. The woman looked like she had two cantaloupes stuffed into her shirt, and they looked heavily disproportionate on her otherwise slender frame.
"Sorry!" She exclaimed with a mouthful of hotdog. "I've been set up here all week and so far, nobody has noticed us. It's pretty typical to tell you the truth, but still. Probably shouldn't have left the shop unattended." She walked around Mia and Alex and turned to face them. Her chest wobbled side-to-side within her shirt as she spun on the spot. "My name is Melody, by the way." Her songlike voice floated through the silence of the tent, and Alex and Mia both paused for a moment, hypnotized, before introducing themselves in return.
Melody looked Alex up and down, peering deep into his eyes. She nodded, seemingly in approval. She turned her gaze to Mia and slowly looked her up and down, her gaze first lingering on her hips, then her chest, before looking directly into Mia's green eyes. She smirked briefly before giving another nod of approval. "Feel free to look around." She sung out in her beautiful voice. "I'll be at the counter finishing off these snacks. Call out to me if you need me or have any questions, and i'll be right there." With that, she spun on the spot again and happily walked over to the wooden counter at the other side of the tent, before sitting down in the leather chair and placing her food in front of her. Mia and Alex watched her walk away, and then looked at each other. After a moment, they shrugged, and turned their attention to the shelves in front of them.
Mia and Alex browsed the shelves together, picking up and inspecting various gadgets and trinkets as they walked. After a while, Alex turned to Mia. "I can tell you're really enjoying this place, but I am starving, and smelling that hot dog didn't help. Would you be offended if I went and grabbed us snacks, and met you back here?"
"Not at all!" Mia replied. "I think i'll be content to browse here for a while." With that, Alex planted a little kiss on Mia's forehead and strolled out of the stall.
Mia turned her attention back to the shelves and continued to browse. The trinkets came in all shapes and sizes. Some seemed to be haphazardly made out of twine and sticks, whilst others were carefully molded pieces of metal and gemstone, shimmering in colors Mia couldn't quite place her finger on the names of. Her gaze was drawn to two pairs of white, silken gloves resting on a shelf. As she looked closer, she noticed that the gloves weren't pure white; they seemed to be shifting and shimmering with various reds, blues and greens. "Hey Melody?" Mia called out tentatively.
"How can I help?" Melody asked, suddenly standing to the side and slightly behind Mia. Mia briefly wondered how she hadn't heard her approach, before she turned her attention back to the gloves. "What are these made of?" She asked.
"Oh, those?" Melody asked with the same smirk she'd given Mia earlier. "I suspected you might be drawn to something of that... persuasion. Those are attribute gloves, and they're made mostly of silk, with some other materials thrown in that don't have names in any language you'd speak."
Mia blinked as she processed what the woman in front of her had just said.