26 Hivvem 4385: Post-Adventure

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Outcast picked some of the last ripe berries from the babyberry bush and Lady Inithia started the enchantment for him. Mirhandrax's arm was successfully re-attached but he's still recuperating because that was a lot of punishment he took. We went to visit him today at the Nastrothon Memorial Sanctuary where he's convalescing.

"Now that you've got the berries, we should look into a buyer for that bush," Mirhandrax said, after we exchanged greetings and updates. The healers had given Mirhandrax his own room in part because they needed to group three beds together in order to have something big enough for him to lie on. I was perched at the foot of the bed-conglomeration with my broad purple tail curled around my legs, and Outcast sat on a stool next to it. "We'll still need many more lozens to find Elisia."

Outcast laced his fingers together, looking down at his brown-furred hands. "About that."

"Mm?" I looked inquisitively between them.

"I was thinking. We should give the bush back to the crefians."

Mirhanrax raised his whiskery eyebrows. "The crefians?"

"It was their bush to start with. The thunglaze essentially stole it from them."

"True, but it's not as if they're primes. There's no law or tradition that says we owe it to them. And I assume Summer Sun is expecting a share in the bounty, after all he went through. And you, of course, Delight," Mirhandrax said.

I put my chin against my hands. "I don't know about Summer Sun but I agree with Outcast," I said. He jerked his head up, looking at me. "It belongs to Refia and her people. They should get it back. Or decide what to do with it."

Outcast smiled at me. "Also, I don't know how the bush will fare in the Flats. I'm sure there's a reason why they're virtually unknown in Ketheria. I wouldn't want to sell it to someone only to have it die by the spring."

Mirhandrax wrinkled his muzzle. "Hmm. If that's what you want, well enough." He tried to shrug, and grimaced at the pain in his arm. "You'll need to settle terms with Summer Sun, of course."

"Of course."

Later that day we met Summer Sun at a traveler's shelter outside the city gates to talk about it. He was disappointed at the idea of getting nothing from the adventure so I offered to pay him on my own. He asked if he could get lifetime free featherstyling instead and I agreed. "As long as I'm around in Vheshrame sure do you want me to touch up your featherstyle now?" It was kind of messed up from the fight with the airsharks and the healing had grown his feathers back in their original blues instead of the flames-on-black colors of his current featherstyle.

Summer Sun preened. He stretched out his long graceful neck, folded his eight legs beneath him, and spread his wings for me. "That'd be great, thanks. Actually ... do you mind doing a different design right now?"

"No I don't mind what do you want?"

"I don't know. Something wintery, maybe like blues and whites and sparkling icicles or something? It's more -- well, don't get me wrong, the fire on black looks incredible. But I don't think that 'dark, dangerous, and scary' is really me, you know?"

I nodded and did a pattern on him as if the shafts of his feathers had been rimed in ice with the sun shining through it, the calamus and rachis dark and the barbs glittery and slightly distorted and sky-blue. He was super-happy with it. Outcast stuck around while I worked on the design and we chatted. We're going to take the babyberry bush back to the crefians once Mirhandrax is fully recovered as long as the winter's not too cold for travel.

Afterwards as we were walking back from the city gates, Outcast tried to pay me back for bribing Summer Sun. I waved him off. "Don't be silly the crefians are my friends and besides I like featherstyling. And you need the money for your ... project. Thingie."

Outcast looked away at that, pulling his hat down against the cold fall breeze. The wind tugged at the strands of his short dark ponytail, whipping them around the collar of his cloak. "You're a good prime, Delight."

I hugged my cloak closed. "So are you," I said, awkwardly.

He gave me a funny half-smile. "You don't have to pretend. I know how you feel about me."

"I don't dislike you," I said. Outcast didn't say anything in exactly that way that people who are too polite to say 'you're lying' don't say anything. I jammed my hands in my pockets and repeated, "I don't. All right yes I think your relationship with your mewellicapfriend was disgusting and wrong and that both of you are better off apart -- " he set his mouth in a grim line, short muzzle in profile as he glanced sidelong at me, and I continued " -- BUT that doesn't mean you're a bad PERSON. You're brave and resourceful and smart and loyal and you try to do the right thing and even if I don't always agree with you about what that is well I can respect that you're trying. You're a good person and I like having you around."

I think saying that is the first time I realized it was true. As long as I don't think about the whole icky nonprime-lover thing, Outcast is pretty nice to have around.

We'd stopped walking. Outcast stared at me, blinking, surprised and embarrassed and pleased and overcome all at once. "I ... I didn't think ... that is ... thank you," he finished, lamely.

I looked away and started walking again, embarrassed now too. "It's not that importantl."

"Yes it is," he said, softly enough that I could pretend I hadn't heard. Outcast cleared his throat. "Do you think we should bring some more fruit with us when we visit the crefians? Not that we need to pay them for giving them back their plant, but ... they were so pleased with it, and it seems like a small enough thing."

"Uh-huh I was thinking maybe just a basketful or two."

Outcast nodded. "Why do they like citrus so much, anyway?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. They just do."

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should start a trading company! Regular exchanges of citrus for babyberries, then sell those. Everyone wins!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure making regular runs through the verticals is safe -- in addition to the normal random monster attacks you'd get pirates lying in wait since you're in lawless territory.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

That's why there's money in it, if it were safe and easy, they would already be doing it!

That said, maybe there's a way to set up some kind of teleport? Depends on how far Change Places can go, I guess.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Maybe they have issues with a sickness based on malnutrition that is fixed by the nutritious substances that are common in citrus fruits, so they instinctively crave citrus because of the lack of appropriate nutrition?

That's something that happens in my world, sometimes. Malnutrition is a big deal in some areas.