Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Stealing isn’t the same as steeling but both are okay because we work for a god

“It’s not what it looks like,” says Hineni, first thing after feeling a pair of furiously glaring yellow eyes drilling into him from above. Their shine stems from the great owl that is sitting on the rafters, its weight threatening to break them as it stares down towards the torn-up floor of the entrance area. The giant creature hisses, clicking with her beak as she spins her head around in a circle.

 

Hineni kicks the door open with his foot, pushing the cart inside and over some loose boards on the floor. The elf mumbles to herself, hanging over the cart like a sack of tubers. He pushes her to the side, wondering if he should wake her up and sit her down somewhere normal? The man dusts his hands, staring at the essentially dead woman laying in his front room for a moment. Nah. It’s probably fine. He looks back up towards the owl.

 

But she isn’t there.

 

“Hi-” says a cold voice behind him, sending an unusual chill up his spine with its lack of warmth. “Ne-” Seeing where this is going, Hineni spins around and tries to grab her in a quick twist.

 

She hadn’t expected his sudden attack and Hineni has her, having caught her before she could escape. “- No,” says the man, shaking his head. “I brought her here to teach me how to keep out finances in check,” he explains, staring at the face of the owl who is furiously clicking her beak and making an odd, excited hissing sound at the same time.

 

“FOOLISH HINENI!” hoots Obscura at him. She disappears into a puff of feathers and a second later he hears her flapping around behind himself. “Mighty Obscura does not fear sock-elf creatures!” she says, having now taken the form of the small bird that the two of them had originally met as. “Obscura is elegant! Beautiful!” she hoots, poking the sleeping elf with a sharp talon. “Irresistible for Hineni! Incomparable!”

 

He nods. It seems like the safe thing to do and he doesn’t entirely disagree. “Oh,” says the man. “I thought you were jealous because I brought a strange woman home,” he says, adjusting his scarf. “Sorry, I guess I should have warned you about that anyways. It was kind of a random, spur of the moment idea.”

 

“WHO~!” The owl flies around in a circle. “Little sock-elves are no scare for big Obscura! Big!”

 

“Big,” nods Hineni in affirmation. He doesn’t know what she means with ‘sock-elves’ though? “Sorry. I guess I was worried for no reason,” he considers the situation. “So… why are you upset?”

 

The owl lands on the receptionist’s back, staring at him. She twists her head. “Hineni. HINENI!” she hoots, her voice cracking. “Cruel Hineni! Wicked Hineni! Cowardly Hineni!” He blinks, not sure why he’s being rebuked now. “The followers of divine Obscura do not leave her grace!” she hoots.

 

The man stares at her for a moment and then shrugs. “I leave all the time.”

 

“Obscura doubted the river-boy!” she hoots. “Bad-water belongs to the frogs! FROGS!” she says, prancing around on the sleeping elf’s back, flapping her wings in an angry dance. “But he is not with the frogs! He is with Obscura! MINE!”

 

“Rhine?” asks Hineni, also not sure what she’s talking about. “He had to leave. He can’t stay here forever. He has parents,” explains the man. “We can’t just… keep him. I told him to go home.”

 

“Obscura will do as she pleases!” hoots the owl.

 

“You’re going to get us into trouble if you kidnap people,” sighs Hineni. They stare at each other and then both of them look down at the sleeping elf who he had carted inside not five minutes ago. “That doesn’t count.”

 

“WHO~!”

 

“Are you talking about me?” asks Rhine, coming out of the kitchen with a second bowl of soup in his hands.

 

“You’re still here?” asks Hineni, seeing him.

 

Rhine nods, lifting his hands up to show Hineni the bowl. “It’s good soup,” he says, as if that were the answer to the core issue here. For Obscura apparently, it is. She puffs her chest out and sits upright, tall and proud.

 

“That’s not the problem,” says Hineni. “You can’t just live here.” Rhine lifts a finger, pointing at Obscura. Hineni looks at her. “You didn’t?”

 

“Obscura wants the river-boy!” she hisses greedily. Hineni sighs, wondering if he should put his foot down here? This hardly seems like a decision based on their cooperative existence together. “- If my Hineni will allow,” says the owl, conceding. Her chest deflates.

 

Oh.

 

Hineni stares at her. Apparently she wants his opinion on the matter after all. Maybe he was too quick to judge? He looks at her and then at Rhine, who is standing there, still slurping down the bowl of soup in his hands. Hineni isn’t sure if he knows yet or not that it isn’t chicken soup. As he looks back at Obscura, he can see that she’s waiting on his answer. But there’s also something else behind her gaze, something else that she’s waiting on to see.

 

It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy the boy’s company. But he’s gotten used to it just being him and Obscura. Sure, there are some ethical and judicial questions at hand here. But with a god backing him up, whoever Rhine’s parents are, they aren’t likely to say anything. Besides, given the bruises on the boy’s body, can he really, in good conscience, send him back outside? Back to whoever gave them to him?

 

More importantly, if Rhine stays here, there will be three people inside of the house. Three. Surely that’s lucky?

 

Hineni blinks, having caught himself and his odd train of thought. “Three?” he mutters to himself, shaking his head, trying to figure out how that’s relevant or how it even makes any sense. He turns his head, looking at Rhine. “Fine. You can stay in that room. But only for as long as you work,” says Hineni. “Winter's about here and we need to get a lot done,” he agrees, looking back at Obscura who seems satisfied with his answer, giving her loosened posture and fluffed up, comfortable looking exterior. He rubs her head, walking past her to his table.

 

“Help me get this over there,” he says to Rhine, who sets down his bowl. The two of them cart the receptionist over to a table.

 

---

 

It’s no good. She’s entirely out of it.

 

Hineni sighs. He had made another miscalculation with her. It’s about time to go to bed and there’s no sign of her stirring anytime soon. This might be the first time she’s really slept in… well… actually, this might be the first time he has ever seen her sleep in anything longer than some form of ten-second long mini-nap.

 

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The man lets out a long, loud yawn, covering his mouth. “Guess we’ll take care of it in the morning,” he says, walking away and leaving her laying over the cart downstairs.

 

“Who~”

 

Hineni looks over to the tired owl-goddess. She’s watching him. Knowing that he has to do his best, even if he’s tired, Hineni rubs his face and nods. “Rhine. Help me bring this upstairs,” he says.

 

Rhine nods, a little confused, as he helps Hineni carry the receptionist up the staircase. “Are we allowed to steal people?” asks Rhine.

 

“We’re not kidnapping her. I just wanted to learn how to do math,” says Hineni.

 

“Oh, huh,” replies Rhine, struggling to hold the woman’s legs as they go around the next bend. She doesn’t even seem to be in the same plane of existence anymore, simply hanging there as if she had died in her sleep. The only proof of her soul remaining here on this mortal coil is the slight whistling stemming from her breathing.

 

Opening the next door after Rhine’s, they drop her onto the bed there and close it behind themselves. “Is she going to be confused in the morning?” asks Rhine.

 

“I bet,” affirms Hineni. “Good night, Rhine,” he says, running his hands through his sooty, black hair. He can already hear Obscura messing around in their bedroom, getting everything ready. “We have a lot to do tomorrow, so sleep,” he says and then stops for a moment. The man digs into his pockets. “Here,” he says, giving Rhine a hundred Obols of their five hundred from the wands. He needs the rest to pay for the repairs.

 

But Rhine doesn’t seem to mind, his tired eyes lighting up as he sees the coins that he clutches with the same intensity as the shine in his gaze. “Thank you!” beams the boy, apparently thrilled at his pay.

 

Hineni nods, happy that everything is okay and heads down to his room. He spares one last glance out at the hallway as Rhine retreats into his room, still staring at his hands. There are three of them now, but there are four people in the house.

 

That’s bad.

 

“Four!” hisses Obscura.

 

He steps inside and closes the door, turning to look at her. She’s sitting on the bed in her humanoid form. “Four is a bad number!” she says, apparently knowing exactly what he’s thinking. They must really be on the same wavelength in a lot of ways. “Frog has four!” she hoots. “Very bad! Terrible!”

 

Hineni dims the lights and throws off his clothes. Is that really the issue at hand here? The word ‘owl’ has three letters. The word ‘frog’ has four. Is that… is that how a god’s magic works? By how many letters their kind have? And what about other languages? And…

 

Hineni sighs. It’s too late for these kinds of thoughts. “Everything is going to be fine,” he says, getting into the bed. Obscura eyes him warily. “Should I sleep outside?” he suggests, half-jokingly. Then there would only be three people in the house. Obscura grabs the blanket with one talon, tearing the fabric inadvertently as she yanks on it. With her other arm, she lays down and covers both of them entirely with the blanket, from head to toe.

 

It’s a little stuffy and it smells like owl, but Hineni finds it oddly comfortable. Though, it is hard to sleep with Obscura laying behind him and hissing and clicking into his ear for the first part of the night as they lay hidden under the covers, as if they were children hiding from something that is out there, lurking in the dark of their room.

 

And who really knows?

 

Maybe they are.

 

---

 

Fire glows, blasting out of the furnace that has been overfed. Raging tendrils of red lash out, trying to swipe every which way as if they were the claws of a hungry creature, looking for something to drag back inside of its den.

 

“Sorry!” apologizes Rhine. He had thrown in too much wood.

 

Hineni shakes his head, not able to be angry. He had slept fantastically. “It’s okay. Just don’t waste wood. We’re going to need a lot more of it soon,” he says. Despite his best efforts during the autumn, he’s barely ahead of the curve. His wood reserves are essentially empty and the winter is already starting to break. It won’t be long before the first snow falls. They need wood for the smithing work. They need wood for the kitchen. They need wood to heat the house. Hell, he needs wood for the tools and weapons that he wants to make.

 

And for that, he needs an axe. A better axe. His old one is dinky and dull. That’s today’s project. Three axes. One for him to keep and two to sell. That should just about cover their costs of renovation as well. For the axe-blade, he’s opting to use his staple favorite, simple iron.

 

“Ah, wait!” says Rhine. “I wanted to give you this,” says the boy, dragging out something from the lower shelf of his workbench with both hands.

 

Hineni turns to look at him. Rhine struggles to hold out a bar of metal. It’s much sleeker and harder looking than iron. “Where did you get that?” asks Hineni. “Thank you.” He takes it, looking at it. It’s a steel bar. Steel is a great metal for tools. But he never buys any because it’s twice the price of iron. Steel is much more durable and resilient than iron, but it takes a little more effort to work with. It really does look great though.

 

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