Cheep!?

Cheep!?

Chapter 56

The Greenhorns left the nondescript leather shop three fourths a bag of Niko’s feathers lighter. He still had complicated feelings about his body parts being valuable enough to barter over, but that was how life was now, he supposed. 

Aside from Niko, though, the group was ecstatic with the terms of the contract with Stella. To be honest, it seemed a little too slanted in their favor, but Niko suspected that his feathers were a great deal more valuable than he’d given them credit for. The remainder of the bag was still with Ronald, who stared longingly at the smithy next door.

“Skye, you said that you had another cousin that worked there?” Ronald asked hopefully.

Skye chuckled, “I do, but while he’s good, he’s no Neitche. His prices are fair, and if we were willing to barter with the rest of those feathers, he’d happily gear us up.”

Niko turned his head to the smithy, giving it a sniff check. He didn’t detect anything in particular from the establishment that caught his notice, though. As he turned, he noticed that Ronald eyed him curiously as his head panned around.

“Maybe later. We should get some of the general stuff, maybe hit an alchemy store and get that kit ready while Stella works on our orders.” Ronald said as he gestured down the street while firmly but carefully lodging what remained of the feathers in his pack. “What do you guys think?”

No one had any better ideas, so they began to trek through the city. All the while Niko drew the eyes of every passerby, some of which couldn’t help but look on in plain envy at the Greenhorns. More than once, Niko felt a pulse of essence wash over him from individuals that were very clearly higher tier than him and his team. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was tier two, he almost believed someone might make a play to steal him away, if that was even a thing. People didn’t always do what was remotely smart, but after everything Crowe had told him, Niko wasn’t nearly as worried about an unwanted taming connection.

There were technically ways to force a connection, but they were all nearly worthless in the long term. If a potential tame was beaten into submission, a temporary connection could be forged, but for most creatures that was a connection of fear and subservience, not one of equals. In those cases, shared growth was nearly impossible, and of course the tame could still break that connection. The only reason why they might not is the fear of reprisal, but the fact remained that if they broke off that connection, the handler suffered the blowback more than the tame did. The Empire had a version of taming that was less-than-equal, but had its own advantages.

Imperial tamers were called beast masters, who tended to utilize a blend between traditional training and half-connections with their tames. They weren’t nearly as reliant on one another, but they could also be moved between beast masters. The best of them still formed deeper bonds, but they were closer to what an Earth based canine unit would be. Tamers in the kingdom frowned upon the practice, but given that they weren’t really abusing their half companions, Imperial Beast Masters were tolerated in their lands. Usually.

Ironically, though, as Niko recalled all of the types of taming out there, the one where he was beaten into submission would technically be the most successful. Honorable combat was best, but his instincts had accepted a loss even through underhanded methods. He felt like he could ignore that in the future, though Niko wasn’t positive why he was so sure of that. 

In spite of all of the eyes on them and the constant pings of essence from curious individuals with particular detection abilities, nothing exciting happened. Niko wasn’t even sure that anyone else was sensing the ripples of essence, but he’d accepted that his ability to sense such things was far above that of the rest of his team. He was about to start trying to figure out how to do it himself when Mithel shouted, “Oh, oh! Niko! We have to go to Starclucks!”

“Star-what now?” Niko nearly tripped over himself, as wide eyed, he fixed his gaze on where she pointed. For a heart-frozen moment he thought he was looking at a certain coffee shop back on Earth, a green and white emblem with the name of the establishment under it. But the moment passed, and he realized he’d misheard the name, and the place was different in some ways. The green and white icon was that of a phoenix, not a mermaid, and the name was ‘Starclucks’ as Mithel had stated. Niko still felt a powerful dissonance at seeing the place and reminded himself that he wasn’t on Earth anymore.

“Ugh… You’re really going to go there?” Skye winced visibly at the sight, “Isn’t that the most stereotypical city-thing you can do?”

Mithel rounded on her with a dangerously arched eyebrow, “Stereotypical? Sure. But, Skye, you’re literally a half-elf, you wear green, and you sit somewhere between being a ranger or a druid on any given day. You’re also standoffish with people you don’t know, and have a pathological distrust of non-elven authority. You’re a walking stereotype, Skye.” 

The group stood stunned at that, and that lasted all the way up until Mithel intentionally, overdramatically spun on her heel, while putting an arm up to awkwardly rest on Niko’s shoulder. Dachna and Niko, in spite of feeling for Skye, couldn’t help but laugh at the gobsmacked expression on their friends' faces.

As Mithel and Niko walked away, he could hear Ronald say concilitorially to Skye, “You’re good with a bow, too.”

The faux-serious Mithel cracked up with a cackle as she heard that, and Skye went beet red in response and glared at her friends. 

“As much fun as I’m having,” Dachna trailed after them, “I do have some things I have to get done real quick. Should we meet up at the general store in… oh, an hour?”

Ronald looked to Skye who begrudgingly nodded, grumbling under her breath, “Alright, an hour, then. You guys hear that?”
Niko nodded as they stepped into a short enough line, Mithel gave them a thumbs up as she mouthed a ‘Sorry’ at Skye. The half-elf –which was news to Niko, but explained why she looked a little different from Stella– stuck her tongue out at her exaggeratedly, but smiled a little afterwards. 

“Alright, then we’ll meet up soon, I have to pick up something that Crowe ordered for Niko and I.” Skye waved at Niko, “You alright with following Mithey for now?”

Niko nodded and promptly snorted at Mithel’s expression upon hearing her nickname. “Ugh… why that nickname, of all of them?”

“What other nickname do you think we can make? Mitty? Mitts?” Dachna paused, a thoughtful expression on his face, “Actually, Mitts ain’t bad.”

Niko chuckled as Mithel shook her head, “Uhh… I… guess that’s not bad. Bu–Ah, whatever, I’ll see you guys later.”

The pair waved at the rest of the group, though a few people looked at the Phorus with good humor as he did so.

“That’s so adorable.” A woman in the line next to them said in a half-whisper tone as she saw Niko wave.

Mithel turned to her and said with a grin, “He’s a fast learner.”

“I haven’t seen a Phorus in a long time,” a tall and lanky man next to the woman looked over Niko appreciatively, “First time I’ve seen one with colors like you, though. Most of ‘em are earthy tones.”

“He’s a special one, alright,” Mithel said, shuffling a touch closer to Niko. He suspected that Mithel was a great deal more socially awkward when alone. “Really smart, too.”

The woman tilted her head with interest, “Does he know tricks or…?”

Niko could almost feel everyone in line stiffen at the question, and the man next to her cringed, and immediately stated, “Sorry, she’s from the Empire, she means no harm by it.”

“O-oh,” her eyes darted back to Niko, “Right, right, I forget that–sorry, I’ve just known a lot of beast masters who…” she trailed off and cleared her throat as she just got redder and fanned herself with her hand, “I really stepped in that hole, huh?”

Mithel’s countenance had stiffened somewhat at that, but before she could say anything Niko only trilled at her, a light tone, and nodded at her very clearly so that the people around them were very aware that he didn’t take offense. The reason why he did so is because there was currently a man that felt like he was tier three on the other side of the street with a vein throbbing on his neck. While Niko didn’t appreciate someone implying that he was a feathering pet he wasn’t above forgiving someone for a social blunder. 

“Well… Niko forgives you,” Mithel smiled a small smile, “Try to remember that most tames here in the Kingdom are much smarter than you’d find in the Empire. Niko here is, honestly, probably smarter than most people.”

Niko snorted at her, “Don’t start heaping more expectations on me, now. You’ve already got me as an over glorified pack mule.” 

She still didn’t understand him quite as well as Skye, but Niko had gotten better at connecting to the Greenhorns. The depth of said connection was still laughably shallow, the only one that had any real hope of telling specifics was Skye, but Mithel got the general gist that he was making a joke at her. 

“Thank you,” the woman gave a quick half-bow at Niko, and then to Mithel, who seemed much more mollified by her apology, “It’s not much, but would you let me buy you two coffee as an apology?”

Mithel looked to Niko questioningly, who nodded happily. The rest of the people who’d previously been decidedly annoyed at the woman were now at least ignoring her. There was definite bad blood between the methodologies of the Empire and the Kingdom though, but from everything he understood, there wasn’t any kind of state of cold war between the Kingdom and Empire. That didn’t mean that the average citizen didn’t have their own ideas on things, though. 

The pair introduced themselves and they made small talk with each other. Apparently the woman had been visiting the Kingdom on business, but had met her male friend during it. They’d hit it off and had been dating for several months, and all the while Niko couldn’t help but regard the pair far more warmly as they retold how they’d met.

“I almost ran him over in my cart,” the brown-haired woman chuckled, “He tripped on a cobblestone and the mules nearly stepped on him.”

The man nodded unabashedly, “True. Though the way you panicked was very endearing.”

“Oh, hush, you try to stay calm when you’re about to run over some poor pedestrian.” She gently ribbed him.

Mithel smiled, now sipping on some kind of caramel and nutty scented latte while Niko was happily tongue-strawing a slightly cooler version of it that was wrapped in a small cloth band around the base of his neck. Mithel had bought it for him, and it felt and looked more like a scarf mixed with a cupholder than anything else. Still, it worked well for what he needed, even if he felt like it wasn’t precisely the best quality thing he could have gotten. It served its intended purpose well enough for now, though.

“It sounds like you guys got quite lucky to find each other,” Mithel smiled warmly, “Do you plan on staying in Greenleaf long term?”
She looked hopefully at her companion, who held her hand with a trace of nervousness. The man answered, “I’m warming up to the idea of traveling. She does a lot of mercantile trading, but my work is mostly scribe and transcription stuff. I can work the books, but I’ve lived my whole life in Greenleaf.”

“Well, far be it for me to tell you how to live, but I can say with certainty that getting out to see the world even a little bit is just a positive. It’s one thing to know how big the world is, but it’s another to know how big it is.” Mithel offered her wisdom, which Niko found himself nodding along to. The sight was surely strange, a young woman giving advice about traveling the world while a giant bird sat down at a table agreeing with her all the while. Yet, the man nodded thoughtfully. 

“Yeah… Yeah I guess you’re right about that.” He said.

The woman smiled warmly, “Thank you again for… well, everything. This was a very nice conversation.” She stood, along with her boyfriend, and Niko took that for the cue that it was. 

Mithel’s smile this time was completely genuine, “I hope you find sturdy trails.”

“And may yours be full of wonder,” the woman bowed, though Niko found both farewells equally interesting. He dipped his head at them slightly, and both groups parted. 

“That was pretty fun,” Mithel breathed deeply, “Exhausting for a poor ‘ol introvert like me, but fun.”

Niko nodded, though considering her words thoughtfully, ‘Introvert’s a word over here? They have Starclucks too. I know Alterra said she’d pulled people over before, but… Wow. There’s a lot of crossover, isn’t there?’ 

They walked through the town, enjoying their drinks in paper cups until they’d finished them. Mithel dropped the trash in receptacles that Niko noted didn’t smell of garbage like he’d expected them to. After a second glance, he noticed a simple sigil on the lip of the wooden container, and immediately suspected what it was used for. 

‘Pretty pecking useful to have a rune that blocks smells.’ Niko nodded with approval after seeing it. Before long, they’d made their way to a tan building near the outer sections of the city. As they went, he tried to memorize the path they took, but gave up halfway through. He wasn’t used to the city at all, and the many scents from food stalls and different people distracted him enough that he wasn’t confident that he could remember the exact routes they took. If nothing else, though, he did realize that the north, east, and western parts of the city all had major roads that led closer inwards. They weren’t in completely straight lines, but they were close enough to the Guildmaster’s residence that someone would find him if he’d gotten lost or otherwise.

Niko’s thoughts snagged on a familiar scent even as he saw the city walls in the distance down the road. Even with all of the intervening static of smells, Niko was getting better at picking out specifics. In this case, he caught the scent of Ronald, Dachna, and Skye, all more or less directly ahead of them. 

Mithel must have noticed the way his head perked up, “Oh, do you smell them?”

“Yep,” Niko squawked a simple affirmative, to which Mithel nodded. The smells on the outer ring of the city were no less intense, Niko noticed, and if anything actually seemed a bit more varied. He could actually smell the scent of crafts people’s trade out here, he could hear the sound of construction, things were busier in a way, and he wondered if perhaps the inner city required sigils that snuffed out noises and scents for the businesses that worked there. He supposed that it would make things a lot easier for residential areas if a smithy could be outfitted to not be incredibly loud at all times of the day.

Mithel and Niko were noticed by their three companions immediately as they approached the building.

“Good timing, we just got here,” Ronald waved them over, pointedly ignoring the people looking at them. Niko silently wondered if that would stop at any point, because while he did think he was very pretty, he did not appreciate all the staring.

‘Hopefully it either stops or… I guess I just have to get over it.’ He thought to himself with annoyance, not strictly happy with the possibility that he couldn’t do much of anything about other people.

“Good, I was wondering if we’d kept you waiting. Niko caught wind of you earlier.” Mithel smiled as she walked up.

Ronald briefly frowned and not-so-subtly turned his head to Dachna and sniffed. The dirty blonde haired man recoiled from his bigger friend with a, “Really?”

“Just checking,” Ronald unapologetically shrugged.

Mithel then stopped several steps away, looking at Skye with something resembling both mirth and shame, “Oh, oh Skye, honey, did you get a new cloak because of what I said?”

Niko had seen the cloak, but he hadn’t really considered it until Mithel really pointed it out. It was a deep orange, like an autumn leaf, and while rugged in material, it appeared not only protective, but stylish. More than that, the clasp for the cloak was a large, leaf-shaped metal buckle of bronze that, while shiny, wasn’t shiny enough to draw the eye too much.

Skye paused and turned to look at the cloak and then back to Mithel, “What? What’s wrong with this!?” She asked, perplexed.

“No Skye, it’s fine,” chuckled Mithel, “You literally doubled down on the stereotype, but it looks good on you. Really! But I gotta ask…” She cleared her throat, trying and nearly failing in maintaining her mirth, “Are you gonna get some acorn earrings to go with it?”

Suddenly, Skye looked like a deer in the headlights, “Of course… not?”

Mithel and Niko very nearly crowed with laughter, and Skye took the banter fairly well. Niko strolled up to her as she saw her frustration, and gently bonked her head with his own while giving a short chirrup of approval. 

Skye huffed, “Well… whatever. Here, this one’s yours.”

“This is… oh, that’s very nice.” Niko blinked in confusion before seeing a deep royal purple almost-cloak with a matching leaf emblem. A large folded sack area at the front would allow him to hold a few things within it, almost of equivalent size to a backpack though with less pockets. 

“Crowe had them ordered,” Skye offered the cloak up, “It has your name under the buckle as well as an identifying mark to tell guards that you’re fully sapient. Most people over tier two will be able to tell off of that, too, but don’t count on it here.” Niko knelt down low enough that she could reach around his neck easily. Skye removed the sash that Mithel had purchased, but only slung it over her shoulder for the moment. After a little fussing over the exact position of the new cloak, she then put the other sash back on, she nodded, “Good. The front part is weighted so it shouldn’t shift around, and it has a pocket there. Though, looks like Mithel got you one, too?”

Mithel waved her friend off, “Ah, that’s a cheapy one. He can wear it around his neck or something if he gets cold.”

“I think it’s nice enough,” Skye gave her a small smile. “Anyways, you guys wanna go ahead and pick up a few things, maybe place a bigger order that we can pick up after Niko’s stuff is done in a few days?”

Ronald nodded, “Sounds good,” He said, still admiring the color on Niko, “Honestly, that colors not bad on him.”

“Later we might get it dyed, but that should help with making sure people know you’re his interpreter, too.” Dachna nodded before asking, “Is it hot?”

Niko shrugged, “Not especially, but we’ll see after it’s been a while.” 

“He says not really, though to be fair he only just put it on,” Skye said in a somewhat clipped tone that she was beginning to habitually use when she was translating. “Anyway, pick up some proper firestarter for me? We’re coming up on the rainy part of the year for the Elderwood, and finding good, dry kindling gets hard.”

“Ah, that reminds me of a few things I need. Yeah, we’ll get the stuff,” The three set off with Mithel’s words, and Niko found himself standing off to the side of the building's entrance awkwardly. The pair were far enough away not to be in the path of those coming and going, and a fatigued Skye sat down eagerly on a nearby bench. 

“Ugh… It’s not even lunch yet, but I’m already exhausted from all the running around.” Skye complained to Niko, “We still have training to do after we’re done here.”

Niko warbled at her nonchalantly, “At least we’ll be getting fed, first.” 

Skye snorted at that, but her lips did turn upwards into a small smile, “That’s true.”

All the while, Niko was doing his best to sense people around him, but it was difficult to do so constantly in spite of his want for vigilance. He was just too big, and even the people who would have preferred to give him space didn’t always have the option. Still, even with the close quarters, no one had ever just walked up to him and touched him.

At least, no one previously had done so. Now, Niko felt a hand touch his back, “Wow, you’ve got some really pretty feathers.”

Essence pumped through his feathers, sharpening and hardening them even as he fluffed up. Niko let out a sharp, machinegun retort of aggression as he rounded immediately at the person touching him. Before Niko could even consider doing otherwise, he kicked the offending person in the chest.

They didn’t have the presence of mind to even begin to respond. The high tier one man landed almost four meters away after having been blasted back by Niko’s strike. All at once, traffic in the street stopped as Niko rose to his full and intimidating height and bobbed his head in a circle, spluttering curses at the man for touching him. Skye, meanwhile, looked like she was having trouble deciding whether she should be mortified or laughing hysterically.

Judging by a few onlookers' expressions who had stopped after seeing what had happened, Skye was leaning towards laughing.

“Daft fool,” one of said onlookers rumbled, “You don’t just walk up to a tame an’ touch ‘em. Would you want some bloke to come feel your arse up?” The older man with salt and pepper hair and a grizzled appearance stepped forward with a coal-mine-fire hot smolder of an expression to the offending young man. 

The man on the ground groaned before coming to a knee unsteadily. Begrudgingly, it seemed, a few other people moved to help him up. He waved them off, to which the pair of good samaritans exchanged heavy sighs. “T-That fucking bird could have killed me!”

“And?” “And?” The older man, Skye, and Niko all seemed to say the word at the same time. Niko felt warmth at Skye joining his declaration, but his estimation of the older guy rose dramatically. Then again, considering the man emanated some serious ‘I’ve seen some shit’ energy, he supposed that was perfectly reasonable.

The younger man looked gobsmacked, but realized that not only was he not garnering sympathy from the other party, but the onlookers weren’t much better. “He attacked me, unprovoked! That tame has no business being in the city.”

At that, the members of the crowd who hadn’t seen the altercation had doubtful expressions, but they did look to Niko and Skye to see how they defended themselves.

Just then, though, a guardsman shoved his way through the outside of the crowd, “Move out of the way, Guard’s business.”

The man looked surprised to see them so swiftly, but Niko only felt gruntled at the approach. “Ugh, great, this is going to be messy, now.” 

Skye didn’t say anything, but going by her aggrieved visage, she was thinking along similar lines.

“Only direct witnesses should stay, everyone else clear off, you’re blocking traffic,” a pair of guardsman shouted out, but didn’t wait to see if everyone did in fact move off before they turned to the man who was still wheezing and standing unsteadily on his feet. They then looked over to Niko and did a double take while grimacing. 

“This bird attacked me unprovoked!” The man-child shouted and pointed, at which point the guards carefully masked themselves behind a veneer of professionalism. 

“To be clear,” the taller of the two guards spoke, “You’re saying that Phorus attacked you, a creature registered as a tame of–” the guard glanced over and Niko saw the way he looked at the clasp around his neck as part of his modified traveling cloak, and then saw the same symbol on Skye, “–Correction, the registered Companion of this woman here, attacked you unprovoked?”

At that clarification, a small percentage of people in the crowd winced, though Niko wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for the fact that his eye-pattern was on high alert now.

“T-thats… right.” The man flagged for a second before he apparently decided that doubling down on his bullshit was the right move. “I was just walking by when he kicked me, dead in the chest!”

Now, there were several members of the crowd openly sneering at him, and someone immediately said, loudly, “Absolute buffoon.” 

The guards paid them no mind, “You were walking past this Phorus and he kicked you, for no reason whatsoever? Is that so?”

“Yes, that’s…” The man swallowed hard at the look in the guard’s eye.

“Do you have anyone that can corroborate your story?” The guard turned to the crowd, before pausing heavily on the older man with a look like he’d nearly stepped in a beartrap. He quickly kept his sightline moving, though Niko was now suddenly looking at the man a little more closely.

He looked strong, wiry, but Niko noted he couldn’t really tell what tier he was. Whoever it was, though, the guard seemed suddenly much more wary.

“Someone, I’m sure, saw…” the man started, before noting how no one was stepping forward at all for him.

“In your words, what happened?” The guard turned to Skye, who at this point was smoldering with contempt towards the man.

“A fool with no sense touched a full grown Phorus, uninvited and unwanted, and had the gall to be upset, when he’s lucky to be alive.” Skye snorted, “Ask this man, he saw the thing from start to finish.”

The guard visibly swallowed before struggling to meet the salt-and-pepper bearded man's gaze, “Is that true… Sir?”

The man nodded, “True, sworn on my identity. This brat,” he gestured vaguely at the young man, “Touched someone and got laid out for it. I saw it all happen, the Phorus could’ve easily split him in twain, but he pulled his talons away at the last second. The bird gave ‘im a slap on the wrist,” The man nodded to the Phorus, “Woulda been fine if he splattered ‘im in my unofficial opinion. But, I appreciate adhering to the law.”

Niko blinked at that, as did much of the crowd. The guard, on the other hand, only nodded–maybe a little too quickly, Niko noted–and walked with his companion to the young man. “It would seem that not only do you not have anyone willing to vouch for your story, but eyewitness accounts directly contradict your claims.”

Seemingly realizing he’d done something of gargantuan stupidity, “Ah, I mean… no, that–”

“Just come with us, Sir, we can talk about it tomorrow after you’ve had some time to consider your actions.” The guardsman escorted the man away, but the taller of the two cast a backwards glance to Niko and Skye with a nod.

“Well… that happened.” Skye muttered, before turning her attention to their ‘witness’, “Thanks for the help, Mr…?”

“It’s no problem at all. I’m off duty, don’t mean I’m not payin’ attention,” the man snickered before clasping Skye’s outstretched hand and shaking it, “Gram Magra, at your service.”

Skye finished the shake and was about to open her mouth when she paused, “Hmm… Where do I know your name from?...”

Niko frowned, likewise recalling that he’d heard the name before.

“Oh? Are you familiar with the guard?” The man put a hand to his chin in thought, “That’d probably be where you heard it.”

“Why would?...” Skye trailed off as the building doors behind them burst open, Ronald storming out with fury in his eyes and a brand new pair of what looked like knuckle-dusters to Niko.

All of that energy vanished with confusion as he realized that nothing major seemed to be happening around Niko, which he breathed a sigh of relief for. 

Then he looked confusedly at the man next to Skye, “Dad? What’re you doing here?”

“Oh! Is this a friend of yours?” Gram smiled broadly, “They’re sturdy stuff! I approve!”

“Wait, what do you mean… this is your Dad?” Skye echoed Niko’s thoughts as the man beamed at them.

“Surprised?” Gram smirked.

Skye snorted but gave him a smirk back, “I expected you to be a head or two taller.”

“Hah!” Gram snorted, “His mother’s side, he ate like a mule team growing up.”

Ronald groaned aloud as Niko’s amusement swept away the last of the negative feelings he was having towards the city. He’d been afraid that the guards were going to be pecking ridiculous and side with the other guy, but luckily no one was dumb enough to believe that guy. 

Honestly… why would anyone even think that would work?

‘Though… to be fair, there were those types on Earth, too,’ Niko contemplated as Ronald explained the situation to the other two in the building before coming back out and making sure that his father couldn’t drag his good name through the mud behind his back. 

Instead he did it in front of him, and Niko loved every second of it.