Chapter 42: Cheep!? 40

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Cheep!? 

Chapter 40

Skye eyed a rough burlap sack that contained a large collection of herbs, some of which she knew might be too damaged from improper storage or rough handling for more advanced potions. Red weed, pale grass, cockni root, and a few other types of semi-valuable and quite valuable components were stored as Mithel finished tying the top of the sack off with an almost giddy energy. 

“This is great! They always gouge on the little stuff, and–” Skye tuned her teammate out as she began gabbing about the loot. The rest of the team had done so as well, but out of the corner of her eye she could see the Phorus listening. He’d led them here, and allowed them to start taking stuff after Mithel couldn’t help but keep her paws off of the stash of goods therein. 

With mixed feelings, she looked around the shelter, noting the sigil work that helped to ensure rest and calm within the sanctuary. She supposed that if the Phorus was a Chosen of Alterra, he’d probably be immune to the mild obfuscation ward against beasts that these places tended to have. That had been a question for before, when she’d first stumbled upon him. She still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about everything. She was excited, of course, about the prospect that he was following them, and about actually potentially knowing a Chosen of anything.

‘And that right there is the problem.’ Skye felt a headache brewing, ‘He’s a Chosen and also completely sapient. He’s not going to have the benefit of a Handler’s connection to communicate, and he can’t go around aura-blasting people. Uuuugh, what do we do?’ She distracted herself briefly by shaking her head, ‘Does it even matter? We’ll figure that part out later. For now, he needs to see his family!’ 

As Skye picked up the surprisingly heavy ironback badger hides, she considered her options. She knew that she wanted to take him with them, maybe naively thinking that he could be a full on part of their team if he wanted. If nothing else, she owed him, though she distantly had to admit that if he was a Chosen, then they’d be the ones on his team, not the reverse. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what that would end up meaning for them, but for now she wouldn’t say a single word about it. It wasn’t about not trusting her team, but more because she didn’t even really know what it entailed. Reese might be obligated to end him if she knew after all, being a paladin and all, and considering that the Great Mother was not of the Pantheon. 

Before any of that, though, she had to admit that even getting him into town to get more information was going to be challenging. Skye realized then that though the Phorus was a Chosen, people would immediately still see him as, well, a bird. She’d also have to be ready to explain away his unconventional behaviors as they arose. Skye knew a pretty good deal about standard Phorus and she could probably use that when explaining that this one was an aberration, which certainly wasn’t untrue, just not the whole picture...

‘That makes me feel better.’ Skye snorted at her sarcasm as she finished stringing the hides to her backpack. ‘I’ll have to see if he’s okay with me being his interpreter. Great Mother, I really hope you get him to listen to me at least a little bit.’ As Skye finished her silent plea to the Great Mother she tuned back into what her companions were saying around her.

“So, I guess we need to find who these belong to?” Ronald began while awkwardly tying a blanket around a bundle of axes, “I didn’t even know Phorus did things like this.”

“We could sell ‘em?” Dachna offered, and Skye didn’t miss the way the bird’s head subtly shifted in his direction with a gleam in his eye. 

“I… don’t  think that’s a good idea?” Ronald hesitated, “I know we technically have finders law on our side, but, these things must have only been taken for a day now at most.”

“All the better! They haven’t had time to buy new ones!” Dachna nodded, and Skye grinned as the bird emulated his motion. 

‘Does he know how buying and selling works, too?... Eh, maybe?’ Skye moved to help put more heavy ores into another sack, ‘I guess that wouldn’t be that much of a surprise, all things considered. That’s a god-level gift after all, so it might come with a smattering of knowledge to help him out? Might not be too reliable on the minutiae, though.’ 

Reese spoke up, “It’d behoove you to smooth over any ruffled feathers-” she gestured to the Phorus then, “-that our mutual acquaintance has made, I would think. Especially because he might not take kindly to seeing the people he sacked again.”

The Phorus fluffed up then, looking at her with a mix of consternation and wounded ego almost as if to say “I would never!” before he looked back to his bed. Undoubtedly, Reese was just as worried about the Phorus going into the city.

‘Oh, it’s so much worse than you know, Reese.’ Skye admitted to herself, her regard settling on the paladin for a second before she remembered her task and continued filling the sack.

Ronald wrapped up the swords in short order, and strung them to Dachna’s pack. They worked in relative silence in the close confines of the nest, while the bird watched them from the entrance. Oddly enough, Eustace seemed more or less at ease outside beside him, though Skye thought that maybe he didn’t quite realize how dangerous a Phorus could be. 

“You know, I had heard that certain creatures like to hoard valuables, but I didn’t expect quite all this... The weapons, sure, they’re shiny, but that shiny?” Eustace began questioning aloud before turning in thought and scrutinizing Charles, “You like shiny things? That kind of makes sense for a few of those ores and crystals, at least. Why the furs? Trophies? But then the plants…” The man mumbled as he trailed off in contemplation. 

“Maybe he just likes them?” Ronald called out, before moving to the nest bed, “That’s always possible, right?”

“Uhh…” Eustace turned, looking at Charles who studied him back. With a shrug, he continued, “Sure. I guess so. Do you like this stuff?” He asked the Phorus, and the rest of the Greenhorns tried to ignore the oddness of the bird returning the shrug. Skye pulled out a smaller stick from the Phorus bed, before turning back to the entrance.

He was tall enough that she could sling an arm up and over his feathered back and not have to lean, and Skye held back the urge to do just that as she held the stick up. “Memento? Something to remember the place by?” 

His amber colored eyes shook with a sudden emotion, so quick that if Skye hadn’t been watching she wouldn’t have noticed. She felt for him, guessing that this had been his home for practically his entire life up until now. It was never easy leaving home for the first time, let alone knowing that you might never return to it. Skye wondered at what his goals were then, why he was choosing to go with them at all. ‘Siblings and favors owed,’ Skye reminded herself, ‘Though, now that he knows that I know he’s a Chosen, where does that put things?’ 

He interrupted her thoughts by grabbing the stick gently with a beak sharp and hard enough to cut through armor. A soft warble rolled up from his throat as he held the thing for several seconds. Something flitted across the Phorus’ expression, but Skye didn’t know how to interpret it. So, when he ducked his head low, over Skye’s shoulder, stuffing the stick into her pack, she simply froze. 

When he lifted his head once more, he had a warmth to his gaze that Skye couldn’t help but construe as appreciative.

Which then turned once more back to an imperious and unimpressed visage when he stared over her shoulder.

“Come on, why can’t you carry these?” Dachna complained aloud at Ronald.

Ronald, for his part, looked like he wasn’t surprised at all, “I have the axes. They’re heavier, but would you like to trade?” 

Dachna opened his mouth, before smartly closing it. He scanned the others, shamelessly stopping on Mithel who immediately flipped him the bird, and then Reese, who merely gestured with a smile that was not a smile to the pile of unsmelted ores in the pack she was going to be carrying. Shamelessly, he looked to Eustace, who frowned and immediately stepped further out of the nest.

When he looked at the bird, he received a strange rolling, throaty sound that Skye couldn’t place, beyond that it sounded like some gnomish mechanical contraption when their gears were grinding together. He turned and flitted out of the nest alongside Eustace, still trailing what seemed to be an offended air about him.

“Good luck!” Skye offered with a grin, before trotting out after the two of them. 

As everyone assembled, the group noticed that the Phorus wasn’t leading them anywhere anymore, so Skye took the lead. The bird trailed loosely in the group, moving between people to stand behind them with what Skye felt was clear nervousness. 

It didn’t take long for them to reach the river, and it was there that Skye called their waterskin break. The bird immediately trotted into a shallow part of the river and started to clean himself, trilling an odd tune as though he was the only one around. It was calming, and charming in the way that birdsong was, so the group found themselves just listening while they took care of their other needs. Of particular interest was how the large bird preened through his feathers meticulously, almost obsessively if anyone asked Skye. The deep burgundy red and the sapphire blues with the scars of inverted color on his chest ended up sparkling with water in the sunlit shafts over the river. 

At one point, the random musical notes that the Phorus was letting loose started to form a pattern, ups and downs that followed a clear plan. Occasionally the noise changed up slightly, a song– for that was what it was, Skye noted– exchanged for another. The bird only sang through two songs, though, before he shook himself out, fluffing up his feathers dramatically in the action. 

Skye suppressed a snort while Mithel failed to, mirth clear on her face while she whispered a mutterance of adoration. The woman was a sucker for cute and fluffy things, which worked out just fine for the rest of them. It helped that the Evergreen didn’t have any especially valuable resource animals out here that were also cute. Ironback badgers definitely weren’t cute, especially when they started to get angry at someone for breathing their air. They were always one bad day from monster-ification, in Skye’s opinion, anyway.

“Alright, let's get a move on, should only take us another few hours at worst to get back to town!” Ronald spoke up, stirring the audience to movement even while they wanted to keep listening to the Phorus at the idyllic riverbend. 

‘We’re definitely coming out here again later,’ Skye promised herself, ‘Maybe I can get one of those recording crystals? They’re pricey, but that’d be worth it.’ She giggled to herself before catching Dachna looking at her strangely. She smoothed the expression away with embarrassment. 

And then punched Dachna in the shoulder when he chuckled at her.

—---------------------------------------

 

The others didn’t notice how well traveled this clearing was, didn’t see the notches in the tree where Charles had been measuring his growth for months. It wasn’t that long ago that he was just a little chick in a big world, playing with plant floofs with his siblings while his mother and father regurgitated food int– 

‘Alright, not everything was great, but it was pretty pecking good overall,’ Shivering, he took it all in, hopeful that he would be able to get out here again. 

Oddly enough, he didn’t feel awkward at all about singing for himself with these people around. They weren’t what he could call his friends, but his lingering desire to murder them all had gone away for the most part after Skye had agreed to take him to his family. With that sorted it was getting harder to be as cold and distant as he felt that perhaps he should have maintained... He might even feel a little attachment already; and with that thought Charles ensured that the sense of attachment that was starting to grow on him was purely natural- and not essence shenanigans, before he decided that he was fine. Even if he wanted to stay jaded and angry, Charles knew he wasn’t the kind of person who could completely cut people out. Never had been, and so he accepted that if the time came that he needed to cut and run, that might hurt like hell, too.

He didn’t want to deal with the misery of being perpetually alone, though, not again. Seeing his family again was the first step, but he wasn’t sure he’d be traveling with them in the long term, either. However, pushing that level of planning off for later seemed to be the best option right now; he’d have to see how all of this played out before anything else.

The group set off once more, Skye leading the way towards where Charles knew the road began. The group noticeably relaxed as they moved closer and closer to Greenleaf and nothing happened. All except for Eustace, anyways; he looked like he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire time. 

Charles kept his position a little further back to watch over him, just in case something did happen. Eustace had done him no wrong, and had already been dealt a bad hand by life from what Charles saw so far. After settling into position, Eustace gave Charles a searching gaze before slowly nodding at him. Charles returned the gesture before returning to his vigil of their surroundings. He was right along with Eustace in the feeling of paranoia.

It was true that if anything were to happen to them and their Oath Sworn companion, now would be the time. But more than that, Charles was anxious for what might happen when he tried to get into the city. Truthfully, he’d been tempted on many occasions to approach it, but every time he talked himself out of it. Before he was ready, Charles hadn’t wanted to tempt fate. For all he knew when he’d just started out, people were all superhumans and able to run as fast as the wind and to punch through trees. While it had turned out that some people were somewhat superhuman, it wasn’t nearly that dramatic so far, but he still felt it prudent that he hadn’t put himself in more danger at the time.

Besides, now that he knew that his type of bird was at least quite desirable for taming, that only reinforced his previous wariness towards the city and people in general. ‘Ah, peck, I should have asked Skye what taming really even is.’ Charles could have slapped himself upside the head at that, but turned his attention to Ronald as he started talking.

“I think we should talk about the imp in the room,” Ronald stated, “We’re bringing an untamed Phorus into town, which makes us responsible for everything he does from here on out.” No one said anything, but Charles did notice how both Skye and Reese grimaced. “So, that said, we need to work out some things in advance, because Big Bird here,” he gestured to Charles then with a nod, “Is a very intelligent beast. Is that fair to say?”

“I think he hates that nickname,” Dachna observed with a whisper even as Charles nodded slowly to what Ronald had said. It still surprised him that the guy who looked the most like a stereotypical muscle-brain-violence-addict was the one speaking sense. Though, his use of nicknames for Charles now approached three pecks to the head in penalties earned.

“Good, now, I know you probably won’t get some of this because of a difference in culture or sensibilities, but cities have laws, which means things you’re not supposed to do under penalty of punishment,” he began, “I… guess it’s hard to come up with something you’d relate to, but imagine if someone told you not to eat a berry. You did it anyway, but got really, violently ill from it. You did a bad, and you get a penalty for it.”

Charles did his absolute best not to snort in laughter at the man doing his best to explain things to what he thought was a beast that had no sense of how human society worked. He managed to nod, quick and sharp to express understanding. 

Ronald just stared at him from over his shoulder for a long few seconds before shaking his head, “Well, alright, I guess that works well enough. Anyways, there are a lot - a lot - of things that you shouldn’t be doing. Don’t take things without checking, don’t break stuff, and do not hurt someone,-” he stressed that one pointedly, “-that’s the big one. We can deal with anything else, but do not hurt people. If someone tries to hurt you, that’s one thing, but try to make sure we see it happen.”

“Don’t take candy from strangers,” Dachna offered with a grin before it flickered to a frown, “Uh, well, I guess you don’t know what candy is… Don’t eat food from other people! Unless we say it's fine, it could be poisoned.”

Mithel flinched at that, but played it cool, “Y-yeah, that. Also, don’t follow people you don’t know, that’s dangerous. Though… I mean, I guess not that bad for you. Ah, nevermind, just don’t follow someone that isn’t us!”

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Charles blinked along with every other statement, but when Eustace spoke up, his eyes widened, “If you feel someone pushing essence into your body, knock 'em flat.”

Everyone stopped and stared at him hard for that, but he only shrugged, “Some idiot is going to try to tame him. That aside, if someone tries to push a bond at you and you aren’t sure how to fight it, knock ‘em flat on their ass.”

Skye cleared her throat, “Uh… He’ll probably be fine on that count.”

Eustace raised an eyebrow at her, but she just shook her head. “Well… If you say so,” he huffed, “But if you do feel that, push it out and get away from them at the very least. Raise a racket. That’s rude and socially unacceptable stuff.”

Charles involuntarily shivered at that, ‘Too true.’ 

“We’re going to need to go straight to the guild, so even though you’ll probably want to look at the pretty shinies, we have to do that first. Then we’ll sell this stuff-” Mithel gave Dachna the dirtiest look then and he changed tune as though he’d been saying something else all along, “-except the swords and axes, so we can… uhh… get other shinies.”

With a huff, Charles scowled at that, ‘Those are my shinies… Ah, pluck it. I’ll just take whatever I want from the stalls and make them pay for it. There’s got to be a market or something, right?’ 

“You’ll get the shinies,” Ronald spoke to Charles, but a scent distracted him from paying Ronald his full attention. “So, don’t worry too much about it.”

Charles gave a noncommittal chirp, but that seemed to be enough for the group as they made good time down the road. He, however, couldn’t help but lift his nose into the air slightly, the taste of something metallic wafting on the winds greeting him. Carefully he made sure his response stayed as neutral as possible, but the feathers on his head fluffed up slightly regardless. That was something he’d have to work on in the future.

‘That’s definitely blood. Not sure how much though,’ he noted that it seemed to be mostly coming from the right along with the breeze. Thanks to that, he couldn’t tell if there was anything on the left, being upwind of it. ‘The sabercat didn’t notice me either before. I’m going to have to keep on top of the wind’s direction a lot more.’ 

For several minutes, the smell increased in potency, but not enough for any of the party to pick up on it. Charles tried to look around occasionally, feigning nonchalance, but he wasn’t sure if he was successful. He did try to keep up on what the others were talking about around him, mostly just going over some general information for the city. It was fascinating enough, but he really wanted to focus on not being ambushed. 

He did catch snippets though. Greenleaf was old, apparently just shy of five hundred years. Initially it was an outpost for the dwarves and gnomes to trade with the kingdom proper, but eventually the fortress city of Ar’Kalad was built. Ar’Kalad was a shared construction between humans, dwarves, gnomes, some elves, and a collection of less common folk that Charles had no frame of reference for. That was apparently further north and was a major junction point between the Kingdom and the Republic, but simultaneously was a major breakpoint into the Underneath. 

‘That’s straight pecking fantasy stuff,’ Charles couldn’t help but get a little giddy at the idea of seeing it. 

That said, Ar’Kalad was far from Greenleaf, at least as far as most people were concerned. There were few roads in this part of the Kingdom due to the fact that there were no real roadways from Greenleaf straight to Ar’Kalad, and only the road south to the border and north-west to the heartland of the Kingdom existed. You had to go to an intermediary town more west by north west, but Charles didn’t get a name or anything else from that little tangent. 

Mostly because Mithel realized it was totally useless information for what they needed now.

“Anyway,” Mithel continued, “Greenleaf has around two-hundred thousand people in it, and a good quarter of that are transient adventurers. Another tenth are veterans like the instructors and the Guildmaster. Most everyone else are just people getting by, settled down and retired usually. You get a lot of good folk coming back down to low essence tiers in the kingdom to–” she paused and then shook her head, “--not important, again. Basically just pretend everyone is your nest mate and don’t take their stuff. There’s a lot of people and the specialty of Greenleaf happens to be punching far above its tier when necessary.”

Charles chirruped in response, but was openly curious about everything that she’d said. Especially the part about punching above their tier. Did that mean that these essence areas weren’t quite so distinct as he’d imagined? Or that there were areas around here that he actually should have been much more worried about?

After another several minutes of walking, the scent of blood faded away until the breeze carried it away entirely. No other major smells replaced it, aside from the vague wash of scents that he couldn’t place yet. Charles didn’t fully relax, but he did try to set his mind somewhat at ease as those minutes drew out longer and longer uneventfully. The group was chatting amongst themselves now, making small talk and Charles merely absorbed their chatter, passively learning a bit more about how people generally interacted. He was surprised to find that while some of their social sensibilities were the same, not all of them were. 

People dying or disappearing was cause for concern, yes, but far less so than what he’d been used to on Earth. Here, a team could go out, maybe find an area that had been marked as a cautionary location, and be wounded or worse because of unluckiness or misplaced confidence. It happened occasionally for the Daurghast, but Charles was surprised to find out that his neck of the woods was something of an intermediary part of the forest. To the immediate north of the city and to the east, where they were now, the forest was exceedingly gentle and tame. Very few useful things grew here, but people could get used to traveling and find specific areas where known essence realms were that subtly influenced what grew there, apparently. Charles desperately wanted to know more, but it was something so basic to everyone else that even putting together that much was a lot of guesswork for Charles as they glossed over things.

His area was much more expansive, and he didn’t even see all of what was considered the Evergreen Forest, only that it led all the way to the mountains, and also to the Daurghast in the south. The northwest was separated from direct entry to the city except on specifically made elevator lifts that spanned a hundred meter tall cliff, and taller in most areas. That was the main reason why Charles hadn’t met the Greenhorns beforehand, and also where the other high-ranking parties tended to venture forth into. The Eldergreen, as they called it, was the place they intended to begin exploring as soon as they got their second essence patterns and the okay from the guild.

The chatter faded as they approached the town walls, and Charles suddenly felt much more confident that he’d made the right choice in not trying to storm in and do something exceedingly foolish. For some reason, he’d envisioned barely worked wooden logs arrayed as a wall. The walls of Greenleaf had a stone foundation a meter deep, and from what Charles could see, the rest of the construction was built out of wood. Timber and planks greeted him, at least an additional three meters tall with a battlement clear on top. On top of which, from what Charles’ exceptional eyesight could pick out, walked the occasional pair of guards on what must have been the wall-walk. 

All too soon, Charles was getting a much closer look at the gatehouse, a pair of guardsmen standing at attention on either side of a currently deployed drawbridge. As Charles crossed, he noted that the dugout moat around the walls was currently empty, only dropping down a meter from the bridge. It didn’t look like it had been filled with water, traps, or anything else for a great deal of time. That, at least, took some of the edge off of his observations; the defenses were robust, but unused in recent times. He briefly wondered at what threats cities had to deal with for this to be necessary, but banished the thought. 

There were a few others in front of them in line, surprisingly. Charles had thought that there wouldn’t be many people out this way, but after he studied them more, he felt he’d made the connection. Each of them wore a badge similar to the ones the Greenhorns wore, but their equipment was of a generally lower make. He guessed these people were true rookies, just coming into things and perhaps returning for something.

Charles looked up, ‘Lunchtime, I’d guess? It’s a bit too early in the day for anything else.’ 

The Greenhorns were perfectly willing to wait their turn, but the moment one person turned around in line and gasped, all eyes turned to them.

“Oh, good. I was afraid we’d go unnoticed.” Skye remarked sarcastically and certainly loud enough to be heard. 

Almost no one noticed Skye even with the comment, instead entranced by the sight of the uniquely colored Phorus standing behind them. 

“You all, up here first!” One of the guards called out, “Everyone else get out of the way, now!”

That was enough to get them moving, though they were peeved and sneaking glances to Charles as they moved. The Greenhorns moved forward, at what Charles guessed was something akin to VIP treatment. He still didn’t really know how valuable he was, but judging by the shell shocked expressions, awe, and, unfortunately, burning greed in the onlookers around them, he had to admit that he might have undersold himself a bit mentally.

All the while, the Greenhorns, and especially Reese, positioned themselves around Eustace and Charles protectively. Who she’d be protecting them from, Charles wasn’t sure, considering no one around them had an essence aura he could feel that challenged him, aside from the two guards. They were clearly strong, essence tier two, if he had to guess, but he wouldn’t do anything to give them cause for alarm if they didn’t give him trouble.

The line went quickly, and by the time it reached them, the guards had gone from surprised to perfectly professional, if you didn’t count the stiffness in their movements. 

“Greetings,” the man stated perfunctorily, “Provide identification for all entrants.” 

The Greenhorns did so, as did Reese. When she did, the man’s movements had somehow become even more clipped and professional, and he handed the metallic object back to her like it was holy. 

Charles realized, belatedly, that it actually could be.

“And for this Mr…?” The guard looked to Eustace, who provided an identification badge as well, “Quillfax, thank you. We’ll register all of you down for having entered the city. Now, I… don’t see a badge on your tame here?” His professionalism slipped a bit with a small conspiratorial smile followed by a voice too quiet for the distant line to hear, “Glad you guys found your lucky break, but Old Mohr’s favor rained pretty hard on you, didn’t it? A Gods blessed Phorus! It’s been decades since I’ve seen one, an’ that was in the capital. Pretty bird, too. Did you all just come back from finding him, her?”

“Him,” Ronald beamed his best smile, though Charles could almost feel the concern radiating from him, “And yeah, we had a chance encounter, I guess you could say.”

Charles rumbled mildly at that, but the guard must have taken the noise as amusement, because he rolled right along, “Well, congrats! He seems a smart’un too! Well, here, let's get you something temporary then.” The man moved over to a small stand nearby with wooden plaques and rope. “What’s his name?”

There was a momentary pause as everyone realized they hadn’t named him yet. 

Skye blurted out, “Niko!” 

Her friends looked at her, but also monitored Charles' reaction. He was looking directly away from the guard, but from their perspectives, they could all see the annoyance on his face, as well as the sudden paling in Skye’s.

“Oh, like the singer?” The guard hadn’t even looked up, “That’s a good one. Does he sing at all?” 

Skye went beet red and seemed to want to fold in on herself and disappear, “Y-Yup! He does that, all the time,” her voice cracked high and fell silent at the end there, when the guard frowned and glanced up, only to see her studiously examining her shoes.

He shrugged, and wrote in ink strokes ‘NIKO’ on a wooden plaque before glancing up at the Phorus and nodding. With a long pull, he got a length of rope and threaded it through a hole in the plaque before moving to the bird. Charles immediately pushed all of his awareness into the rope, looking for any trace at all of essence.

‘It looks normal, at least,’ Charles fussed internally, ‘Damnit, Skye. Fine, whatever. I’ll just deal with it for now. Getting into the city is more important.’

“Alright, big guy, you’re too tall for me, can one of you get him to lean a bit?” The guard gestured up to the bird, “Won’t be but a second and you’ll be done.”

Charles suppressed the incredibly aggrieved retort that had been building, and only cast a brief glance at Skye. He knew if he wanted to he could raise a fuss, but he wouldn’t accomplish anything of merit with it. 

Also, he supposed the nickname ‘Niko’ wasn’t the worst, especially if it was based on a singer and not some ill-fated dead guy.

‘Eh, wait… no, that doesn’t–bah, whatever, I’m going to have to get into the city anyways.’ Charles, now called Niko, made a show of letting out a low chirp of assent at what he imagined might be a mental command. For all he knew, tamers still had to verbalize any orders, but with that essence tether he’d felt, maybe that wasn’t the case. Charles leaned down slightly for the guard to tie the rope off around where his neck and torso met, but very loosely. All the while, he did his best not to imagine the rope as a collar around his neck. No, it was just a… guest pass, yeah. Like you could get on a lanyard on Earth.

The man gave a pat to his side and said, “There ya go, all set. Go celebrate and get shitfaced, you’re gonna be damned celebrities soon enough!” 

When the others around Charles only looked embarrassed, the guard only let out a good-natured hoot of laughter, before the lot of them moved forward.

It wasn’t a dozen seconds before Dachna said, “Well, that was easier than anticipated, right? Don’t you think, Niko?” 

The bird didn’t even turn around to sweep his foot upwards with a collection of dirt and pebbles at the man. Spluttering at the sudden mouthful of dust, Dachna hadn’t even noticed when Skye aborted the action to punch the man in the head, instead only awkwardly lowering her cocked arm.

“It just seemed right and I panicked and–” Skye groaned and spotted Charles, very pointedly not looking at her. “-Ugggh, this sucks!”

Mithel, unbothered by her friend's plight, laughed at both of them, “Well, let's get over to the Guildmaster’s office and settle things, shall we?”

 

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