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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:39:10 GMT -6
It was a job. Those four little words were ones she clung to on the occasions her bosses saw fit to send her out instead of leaving her to fight the eternal war of paperwork. Sometimes she would add on other words, like “And it pays very well,” or, “Usually there is no risk of dismemberment,” or her personal favorite, “Someone has to do it.” The people screaming at her because some oyster had eaten the magic out of their gems or crying over their wiurn-slaughtered herd rarely cared for the words, but she recited them in her head as she pulled on the appropriate face and shook her head as some houluh breeder threatened to tear a beastmaster’s arms off. She was saying them to herself now as she took her place in the trading post, the bosses preferring that someone stood around to frighten off the less powerful thieves and scoundrels making their rounds in the market. She did not need the other words to complete the mantra this time, the few folks that might demand she run up to a mage and get herself killed over a trinket always stopping a few feet away instead, gazes flicking over to the monstrous thing that sat beside her before they spun around and left to do some other errand as quickly as possible. 1
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:39:50 GMT -6
The most recent of these was a tattered-looking mammalian, and she had opened her mouth to ask what help they needed when the beast beside her snorted. It was no more intimidating that an equillions, she thought to herself as the mammalian scurried away, and she felt the beast snort against her mind.
But Alma did not wish to speak to it, so she replaced that thought with the old train, switching around words and sometimes adding a few as she tried to determine the odds that another officer might walk by as she read a book. It was not her fault that her captain demanded she bring the beast once they had found out she had snagged one, and certainly not her fault the citizens lacked a strong enough reason to approach her with the giant beast by her side.
He turned to look at her then as she stared straight ahead at the crowd, not bothering to meet his eyes. 2
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:40:49 GMT -6
I eat bwees. The thought came into her mind, the imagery of a bwee at one of the stalls splitting beneath her mighty jaws less than appetizing. When she did not respond, the image came a second time, and she could almost taste the salty blood that she knew the cleaned carcasses did not have as she fought back the urge to gag.
She thought back at him, of distinctly not eating bwee, not so much as moving one scale I mean it Errol, and she felt him snort in her mind again as he surveyed the crowd. The crossbreed sagged as he always did when she thought of the name, his suggestion of things mightier and more powerful bumping against her own thoughts. Things like lightning-wing, or fire-tongue, or destruction, her mind instinctively putting words to a few of the images as he puffed himself up again before she thought of the job and its benefits. You’re Errol, get used to it. 3
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:41:49 GMT -6
They took a stroll, Errol doing everything in his power to not be Errol-like as he strutted alongside her. She waved at a few of the traders she knew from her off-duty purchases, careful not to lead the crossbreed through their crowds of customers and risk paying even greater prices than they normally demanded. Few waved back, and an Errol, that’s not bad, they’re just busy kept the crossbreed from forcing their attention on him.
As she led him past the quest building, they were yelled at by a saggy-looking beast, Alma only belatedly remembering the word kapper as her eyes caught on the glinting eye wear adorning its balding head, the dwarf jabbing it’s finger at her like a blade. That it was talking to her despite the beast huffing clouds of smoke at her side suddenly energized her. What could the kapper want? Was there some special crime, something to make her job into interesting work? She moved closer as it spoke more, fixing her face into a serious, ‘yes, I can help you,’ expression as she heard the beast laugh in her mind. A quick Errol set him back to sulking, turning his head away from them both. 4
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:43:23 GMT -6
Hearing the kapper’s request regarding missing glasses, it took every bit of strength she had not to crack a smile, though a small snort came out as she looked up to its head. It snorted in return, face twisted in clear annoyance that would have been at home on any normal face, stomping its foot like a small child. Then it explained further, and began pulling out the most wondrously crafted bits of glass she had ever seen.
Some were clear glass balls with bits of color threaded through them, others were shaped into the forms of people and beasts in all sorts of positions, one in particular making her blush as the keeper casually set it down beside a translucent sleeping wiurn. But the craftsmanship on each of the baubles was astounding, and she soon found herself looking into its eyes with sorrow as it explained further. To have lost even one of those little figures, even the one that Alma kept her eyes away from, was a great blow. As it continued on, she could almost feel its hope as it explained where it had misplaced them, and she steeled herself to tell it the truth. Anything as fine as those would have been taken or sold by now, if not trampled into the dirt, and she had opened her mouth to tell it as much when a heavy weight settled on her shoulder. Errol! You’re still burnin’ hot! Get off! “Ger-off!” she spat aloud shoving his head off of her. 5
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:44:58 GMT -6
See pretty thing, he asked her, and she cursed all the scientists who thought a mind-reader made a perfect pet. Looking back to the kapper, fully expecting to find it had scampered away to some hole, and maybe hoping it managed to misplace a few of the figurines as it did, she found it still waiting, looking up at her with something no one was usually dumb enough to look at a Sentinel with. How it could hope at all was a mystery. “I- I’ll take a look.” Alma sighed, closing her eyes for a moment as she ran her gloved hand down her face. “No promises, they’re probably all crushed to dust or something,” the kapper winced at that, “But we’ll see what we can find.”
I not fail the fake dragon thought proudly, rearing onto his hind legs as he began to rumble. We hunt, I not fai-
No Errol. The crossbreed glared down at her, but his rumbling faded to nothing as he sank back onto his front claws. 6
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:45:36 GMT -6
“Now, what were your errands?”
A few minutes later, Alma having to ask the kapper to repeat certain words only a few times as it rattled off its list at the speed of a flighty mosca, she had her list of places the kapper had gone. She had been somewhat surprised to find none of them were to the Kapper, but she could understand anyone’s unwillingness to go in there. At least the old lady dressed up her horrors with pretty potions, eh?
All bad. All burn.
No Errol.
So their first stop was to the meat seller, the mammalian yanking a snorfle carcass to her chest as her eyes locked on something just to the side and above Alma’s own eyes. With a thought at Errol, the crossbreed huffed but stayed in place. “Howdy! I-”
The butcher’s gaze snapped to her own, then down to the badge pinned to her coat, then back to her eyes again. 7
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:46:41 GMT -6
At some point the wide-eyed expression had been lost, and the glare that met her was hot enough to make Errol’s flames feel cold. “It eats anything, you pay,” the young woman snapped, slamming the meat down onto the table. “You guards pay double, with how little you do, you-”
The mammalian rattled on for a minute, Alma shrugging and generally keeping a bemused expression as the animal-person berated her. They had a few good points after all, and the jiggling under the apron was at least some distraction. How much fur did they have there anyhow? When the woman stopped to take a breath, Alma jumped in. “Yes. Hi, I’m investigating some lost property, and was wondering-” This set the mammalian off for another thirty seconds, and Alma longed to just pull out the book about the balgors and the witch that was weighing down her satchel. When the noise had stopped and the last of the woman’s customers had thrown in their own complaints, Alma tried again. “I know. We are short staffed, and there is not much we can do about the beastmasters and mages who-” Another tirade erupted from the butcher and those surrounding her, and Alma sighed. 8
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:47:25 GMT -6
And jumped as a massive roar erupted behind her, her hand on her dagger as she turned to see what had come for her. What she found was Errol, looking mighty and intimidating and yes, there went the last of the woman’s customers as the mammalian had replaced the gutted meat in her hands with a cleaver. “Look, just tell me if a gu-” it suddenly occurred to her that the kapper might be female, “if any little glass thingies got left behind here. Please?”
After she was informed no such thing had been found, and that the Sentinels were worse than any mage, Alma walked back to Errol. Not stomped, because that would have been immature and silly and felt so good to do, but walked as if the butcher had not called into question whether or not an earth elemental was smarter. The crossbreed looked so proud of himself as she walked past him, nearly prancing as he followed her. No joke at me. I scare. 9
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:48:34 GMT -6
Errol, just be quiet. Alright?
Even the reminder of his name failed to puncture his good spirits as they arrived at the next location, or at the next. Both were mildly less hostile than the butcher, as they probably had not been robbed recently, Alma thought as she looked at the seekers the men owned, but neither had any more information than the first. Yes, they had admitted to seeing the kapper when she explained she was trying to help it. The second one had been shown an amazing little glass seeker- The bastard, Errol chimed in, startling Alma. Thankfully the store owner did not seem to notice as he waxed on about the figurine, and Alma wondered when Errol learned profanity. Darn, she really needed to keep a tighter lid on her thoughts around him. No, not you word. It the image of the shopkeeper appeared in her minds eye, looking shorter and plumper than the man in front of her actually was, complain. It want pretty. Little bastard say no, but not have good eyes? Look at clock as ‘pay’, not see take. 10
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:49:20 GMT -6
Oh damnit to the depths of the shadows.”But I will keep an eye out for any of those figurines, and I promise to tell dear Luk if I should find any of them.” The man finished with a cheerful grin, Errol interjecting in her mind to replace certain words with less than kind variants.
Listen to his thoughts closely, Alma tried to think at the crossbreed as she met the man’s smile with one of her own. “We thank you for your cooperation. If you end up locate any of them, especially that seeker, maybe let us Sentinels know? I’d love to see it.” The man’s smile did not waver as he nodded, hand tightening over his cash box. Crooks, Errol informed Alma, course these damned twits would want to take them. Just nod and smile until this bit moves off and I’ll stick it with the newspaper. Not safe in the cash box when Sentinels are looking for a cut. 11
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:50:14 GMT -6
Alma leaned over the table as many heroines had done in her stories, albeit not in leathers that did little for an already unattractive form. “Cause I’d love to see it.” She fixed the man with her best smile as she wondered how well trained his seeker was, and whether or not a little glass figurine was worth it. But that kapper was counting on her, the only one in the past few weeks that had asked her for help beyond filing a paper or giving them a place to shove their boot.
Ew, that scar looks like she’s got a worm on her face. She’s not going to- Oh lights, please no.
The man’s smile flickered as Alma stopped moving forward, her face only a few inches away as she batted her eyes and, No, Errol, please stop telling me what he is thinking. The man stammered out something about flour, and he nearly ran to the back of the shop, the doors clicking shut behind him. With a sigh and an insistence that her scar was not that bad, Errol wisely thinking nothing back in response, Alma glanced at the seeker. An onyx, if the white glow was anything to go by, its red eyes currently hidden under its thick eyelids. 12
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:51:09 GMT -6
She grabbed the box slowly all the same, spinning it on the polished wood to face her. Neither that nor the sound of opening the box made it so much as twitch, so she turned her full attention to the box of credits. There were a lot of credits in there, no doubt the man having made some good sales, but no glass seeker.
A thought at Errol and his mind-reading ability brought on a hiss from him, and she quickly shushed him in her head as the seeker growled. There was no sudden specks of red appearing on its face though, it’s markings thankfully still emitting the same faint glow. Alma quickly started to dig through the box. She didn't want to be caught rifling through a citizen’s money, even if a few of the other officers swore having a big beast with her meant few would risk stopping her. 13
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:52:12 GMT -6
With their advice in mind, she remembered one speaking about a secret catch some shopkeeper had used to hide some rare gems. Those gems had been taken for evidence, proving to some boy that the officer liked them for more than their body, but Alma tried to remember the story as she felt around the box. If had been by one of the hinges, hadn’t it, right about-
It popped open, and Alma almost laughed with relief at the sight of the tiny seeker staring up at her, it’s chest pressed against the ground as though it wanted to play. Alma pulled it free, then span the box back around, closing it and resisting the urge to flee as she stuck her prize in her pocket. The crossbreed laughed at the thought of running, showing her exactly what he would do if the puny tail-less lizard or fat man came for them in great detail as the man returned. The trader blanched as he saw Alma still waiting, and she sagged in on herself, arms folded. “Yeah, so. If you see the glass things, just let us know.” She sniffled, turning away from the man as he happily, and with a relief that was insulting enough to almost tempt her into letting Errol try putting his imagination to reality, told her he would. 14
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Post by Alma on May 2, 2021 18:53:29 GMT -6
And so they left with one little glass figurine.
The next two had nothing for them Both had been polite enough, a miracle managed by the relocation of her badge into her pockets. Errol had suggested that they rip apart the tents and burn it all to the ground. After all, something that was so pretty would survive flames, would it not? It might not be as perfect as him, but surely it could take a small flame?
No Errol.
The next was a welcome surprise, the young humanish grinning with teeth too wide for his mouth as he brought out a small collection of spheres at Alma’s description of the kapper. “Ol’ Luk wanted to show me these. Said she made them herself, one for every sibling. That’s the colors in there, you see?” Alma nodded as the humanish held one of the glass orbs to the light, turning it side to side to let the colors dance as though a storm was caught in the glass. “But then a couple wiurns or something got inna bit, and she went out to check her cart. Guess she forgot she left them in here.” 15
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