Chapter 87: Chapter 87: The rainy mood makes one think froggy thoughts

Soft rain falls from the sky, striking against the roofs of the hundreds of houses around them with supple, percussive impacts. The air is damp and refreshing and the gray sky, mixed in with the falling water, removes any remaining vapors of lingering, spring heat.

 

Hineni is still used to the gnawing cold of the winter, so this sudden shift in temperature from winter to spring has been almost unbearable on the worst days of the season. Despite the fact that the weather is, in reality, very mild. Especially so when compared to the potential summer blazes that are to come in a few months more.

 

— Still. The rain is a kind respite from the comfortable, beautifully perfect weather.

 

Hineni sighs in relief, his elbows resting on the window sill in the upstairs corridor, as he stares out and down at the back streets behind the old house.

 

A door opens behind him. An adventurer yawns and rubs his tired face, sparing a moment to wave a listless wave towards Hineni, who nods back. The customer shuffles down the hallway, presumably going to the washroom downstairs.

 

Hineni returns his gaze to the window.

 

The world outside is quiet. The streets are being held free by the soft drizzle, which, while not world-ending in its substantialness, is certainly enough to make people want to stay inside of their homes and their beds today.

 

Rainy days are always slow for business.

 

Those who can afford to stay home do so and those who can’t, those adventurers who need to go into the dungeon every day, in order to sustain themselves and their people, they’re in the underground. Perhaps later, after the weather clears, they’ll leave the dungeon and return to the city, to sell their looted materials and prizes.

 

But until such a time should come, it seems that today is going to be a slow, calm day.

 

Hineni exhales, his breath fogging up the window as his shoulders droop in relaxation.

 

Why not? They’ve been working hard.

 

A quiet day off is perhaps just what is needed.

 

---

 

“We’re taking today off,” says Hineni, setting the breakfast table.

 

“Who~?” hoots Obscura.

 

“Us,” replies Hineni, setting down the plates and some silverware. Breakfast today is just a simple array of leftover bread from last night’s delivery, along with some meats and cheeses and a few bits of fruit. The usual, really.

 

But it’s fine. There’s something… wholesome to its simplicity. They could afford more extravagant food and they do splurge now and then. But, somehow, on a day like this, this feels right. Something small. Something known. Something easy.

 

“Paid, of course,” notes Sockel, leaning back against the bench of the booth.

 

Hineni lifts an eyebrow.

 

“Really?!” asks Rhine excitedly.

 

Sockel nods. “Yup.”

 

“Yes!” Rhine pumps his fist.

 

Hineni doesn’t recall agreeing to this, or even ever talking about it. But it’s not like he cares. “Sometimes I wonder if you remember who runs this place?” asks Hineni, looking at Sockel. The elf, still leaned back, lazily lifts a finger and simply points past him, towards the owl-god who hoots, clearly pleased at Sockel’s unusual reverence.

 

Hineni rolls his eyes, but decides not to get into it. He sometimes wonders if Sockel isn’t going out of her way to provoke him. Is she testing him? Honestly, he doesn’t know if she is, or if she’s gotten bolder since being allowed to sleep a full eight hours every night. She was nicer when she was sleep deprived.

 

— But at least she and Rhine get along great. That’s something, right?

 

“Do not fear,” says Obscura, placing a taloned hand on his arm. “Obscura is mighty, but the Hineni-man will always hold power over her heart.”

 

“Gross,” says Rhine. “- Ow!” He flinches, rubbing the sore spot on his chest that Sockel had just elbowed with her bony elbow.

 

“It’s called ‘romance’, twerp,” says Sockel. “You’d know about it if you weren’t such a lost cause.” She shakes her head, grabbing a canister of water and pouring herself a glass.

 

“Says you, bat-ears,” snaps Eilig. She lifts her hands and an instant later, Sockel’s glass of water freezes over. The elf looks at it, narrowing her eyes, before turning to the fairy. “You get less attention than I do and people can’t even see me.”

 

Rhine snorts and then promptly gets elbowed again. “- Ow!”

 

“Settle down everyone,” says Hineni, shaking his head and taking a seat. “Let’s have a nice breakfast, okay?”

 

Sockel and Eilig, presumably, glare at each other. But then both of them relent and breakfast begins.

 

The rain lazily trickles on, splashing down the large windows.

 

---

 

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Hineni stands in the forge, tinkering with some random bits and bobs.

 

He isn’t really working, he’s just playing around with some ideas for something on the side. Rhine is here too, sitting hunched over the work-bench as he continues to draw up and think of ideas for his ‘tribute’ for the owl-god. The one she had requested of him, in exchange for him being able to wish for something.

 

“You really don’t have to overthink it,” says Hineni, looking over from the side towards Rhine. The boy lifts his head, looking his way. “She’s happy with just about anything,” he explains, returning his gaze to the metal he’s fiddling around with. “You could just make her a bunch of clay frogs to break and to throw around the room and she’d be thrilled.”

 

He can hear the sound of Rhine’s scribbling, as the boy returns to his own work and the two of them continue on in silence for a time.

 

“— I want it to be good,” says Rhine. Hineni doesn’t look away from his own project. “I know I could just do something easy. But then I…” Rhine goes quiet again and the room is full only with the sounds of a lightly crackling fire and the drizzling rain, striking against the open windows of the forge tower. “- and I know she’d hold up her end of the bargain,” he adds in between. “But then I wouldn’t feel like I earned it, you know?” he asks. “I guess it sounds dumb when I say it out loud.”

 

Hineni shakes his head. “You’re a good man, Rhine,” he says. “You’re gonna be alright.”

 

He doesn’t ask what exactly Rhine’s wish is, let alone why it’s so important to him that he would work this hard on it. But he doesn’t need to ask.

 

It isn’t his business.

 

---

 

“Kleidet,” says Hineni, walking out into the restaurant. “We’re closed today. Go home. Go visit your brother.”

 

The dark-elf looks his way, looking around the restaurant. “Oh…” She turns to look back at the door, her wet hair sticking to her face.

 

“Sorry you walked all this way in the rain,” says Hineni. “The day’s still being paid. Don’t worry.”

 

“Can I stay here till the rain stops?” she asks.

 

Hineni nods. “Of course,” he says. “Grab some food from the kitchen and a book from the library.

 

She nods, wiping off her wet face and then walks over to Sockel, starting a conversation about the weather and life in general.

 

The frogs had once paid the dark-elf to send a macabre message to them here. But after that, they had simply… left her alone. There was never a follow up. There was never any threats of any sort, or any shady business. It was a simple, honest, if not grim, transaction.

 

Hineni hates to say it. The frogs play rough. But they don’t play dirty too often. They don’t seem to try and get outsiders involved in any violence. He has to give them that.

 

The man turns his head, looking at a spot on the floor where the frog-god, Nekyia, had been pacing in frantic panic, during the end of their time together in the other reality. She wasn’t a bad person, relatively speaking. If one gets past the repeated ordered kidnappings and break-ins and brainwashing stuff, then she was really pretty alright. She was just a normal person, a little messed up by the world and he honestly feels bad for her.

 

— If what he had seen in the vision of his past that Obscura showed him a while ago was true, then Nekyia had saved him as a child. She lost her leg and her fingers because of her efforts to do so and that is what led to the death of the old owl-god and the feud that now still persists to this day.

 

So where does this leave him?

 

He doesn’t really know. She seems to have a strange infatuation with him. Perhaps because she saved him when he was a child and so, she feels connected to him by their past the same way that Obscura does. Or perhaps because he really is the only person around who has lived three lives and is thereby capable of living a fourth?

 

Although, that ship has sailed, as he’s now on his fifth life.

 

“Huh…” says Hineni to himself, realizing that the numbers line up once again.

 

It’s funny how the universe works out like that sometimes.

 

His eyes wander to the window, that the rain still drizzles against.

 

They aren’t anywhere near compatible and he’s really not interested. But despite everything going on, he hopes that, at the very least, she’s having a nice day.

 

He’s involved in this feud between gods. But it isn’t personal to him, as long as they can live their lives in peace.

 

— But perhaps that is simply him being too optimistic.

 

Hineni knows that the frogs, that Nekyia, the big-frog, haven’t given up just yet. Somewhere out there, they’re watching the same rain that he’s watching and perhaps even thinking similar thoughts to what he’s thinking.

 

The frogs had never tried to kill him, barring Beni, who was a straggler. They had only wanted to get him out of the picture. Perhaps even for his own well-being.

 

Hineni can’t help but wonder if they themselves really aren’t the bad guys here?

 

He turns to look at the frozen, grim skull of a screaming face, encased in glass behind Sockel’s desk.

 

…Nah. It’s probably fine.

 

The rain is just making him moody and overly imaginative. It'll be gone by tomorrow.

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