Fate - First Reply Sunshine, and All That Brings Happiness

[Masika]

Just as soon as she had settled down, she got back up, however she was much too lazy to stand back up on her feet. On her knees, Masika shuffled to the table, collecting the honeycomb and the palm nuts. She had carried both in a clean-enough bit of cloth from her attire that hadn’t gotten dirty from Maxi’s blood.

Her knees scraped against the worn down floorboards as she moved to Maxi on the bed. She held up the food, not enough for both of them to feel full— or even one of them to be completely satisfied. But Abasi had always said that warriors should never have a full stomach. If they were ever more than eighty percent full, they’d be sluggish and make mistakes. Warriors always had to be hungry.

Masika really knew it was because it kept one from being sick, whether that sick came up or went down.

“Ah, yes, I did,” she was sitting on the floor once more, her back against the bed for support. She was careful not to lay against his tail, but she did purposely move her arm in such a way to feel it briefly brush against her skin. It tickled and Masika couldn’t hide the joyful smile, feeling somewhat naughty and somewhat childish. Masika tilted her head towards Maxi, now apologetic.

“That’s why there’s less honeycomb. You see, when I saw the innkeeper, he thought I was going to start a ruckus when I asked about the room you were in. It was a rather big chunk….” She frowned, breaking off a piece and then handing it up to Maxi. Her pointer and thumb were sticky. “Maybe it wasn’t the best deal. I could’ve just knocked on every door.” If only she had thought of that sooner.

Maxi Ardune

 

[Maxi Ardune]

Ah, yes, I did.

Maxi's brows lifted, the bundle of snacks now in his hand paused. A somewhat muted response, but there.

You see, when I saw the innkeeper...

Maxi's expression relaxed in its meager amount of apprehensive tension and he accepted the piece of honeycomb from her and popped it into his mouth. Phew. Just the innkeeper. That was good. Thinking about it, Maxi wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Zudal was such a small place when compared to a city like Annuakat. Less people, but each one, including himself, stood out all the more.

The tip of his tail, in a characteristic feline fashion, swished in a slow, contented manner. He didn't even think about how the potential "knocking on every door" could have went.

"Smart move," he said. "Maybe I could have marked the door." An amused, breathy huff. "Maybe I did. I might have gotten a spot of blood on the handle."

Explaining everything would probably help now.

"I'm a bounty hunter, Masika—or, I'm trying to be. Ashara and I were on a contract together. She was nice. I liked her. I wish she didn't try to kill me but she did." He didn't have any regrets or grief, and his tone probably would've been better suited to saying something like Looks like we might get a spot of rain today than what he actually was saying. "We recovered an heirloom for a nobleman in Annuakat. But Ashara didn't have it on her. So...I don't think she was alone."

 

[Masika]

Masika waved the broken piece of honeycomb, trying to get Maxi to take it but as he spoke, she realized he probably didn’t want it if she had already touched it. She looked at it and realized she had smooshed it a great deal. Into her mouth it would go instead and she would suck on her thumb and finger to remove any lingering stickiness.

It was too floral for her tastes but she wasn’t about to complain about it when Maxi gave her the truth. Or some of the truth. Masika wasn’t the smartest but her intuition was decent enough when it came to important things, like knowing when food was about to burn or if water was clean enough to drink.

“You gave it to Ashara to hold onto?” Masika asked. “What if she had forgotten it at the inn? Was she a forgetful person? Maybe if you retrace her steps you’ll find it.” She held back the question if his nose was as good as Rahma’s. “But if she had forgotten it then maybe she wouldn’t have attacked you and instead came back here. What was the heirloom anyways?” Now with her fingers sufficiently clean, she went for a palm nut. She should’ve tried roasting these, they never tasted as good raw as they did cooked.

Maxi Ardune

 

[Maxi Ardune]

Maxi blinked.

Oh. He hadn't considered that, that Ashara might have just been acting alone and, maybe, had made a mistake, leaving the amulet by accident in the room they had purchased yesterday night. Or maybe she dropped it? That would be awful. He had just assumed that someone else was involved. He didn't know it, but he felt it. Maxi wasn't the smartest but his intuition was decent enough when it came to important things, like knowing when food about clean enough to drink or if water was about to burn.

No. Damn it, that was the other way around. Eh, sometimes he got things mixed up like that, but not often. There was a fancy, scholarly word for it. Started with a "d". Ah.

Anyway.

"An amulet," he answered. "So pretty easy to lose, now that I think about it."

His stomach rumbled, as if brought to life by the honeycomb piece.

"Can I get some of those palm nuts?"

Masika

 

[Masika]

“We should search the entire inn,” Masika said, passing over the palm nuts to Maxi. She went back for more of the honeycomb. “Even the latrine. It could have fallen while she did her business in there.” She liked the texture of the honeycomb as she placed the piece into the far back corner of her mouth, crunching down on it until it was a thick paste before swallowing.

Absently, she pressed a free hand ankle her ankle where the anklet should be, thinking quite hard on all the places an amulet could be. The only places that made sense for a amulet to be was either on the person it belonged to or tucked away into a jewelry chest.

“What if she did hand it off to someone, not yesterday but today. Could she write? Maybe she left the innkeeper a note for when her partner arrived and they would go to the spot on the note?” Her brown eyes were wide. Why, Masika had never thought up a more genius plan than that before, and it was quite clever, wasn’t it?

Maxi Ardune