Private Tales What Does Not Kill Us

[Hath Charosh]

Hath tilted his head to one side at her laugh. His eyes glanced down at the empty skewer. He offered a single note of a chucking and a shrug of his broad shoulders.

"I was hungry," he admitted. He turned into the natural flow of the crowd so that Pern could walk beside him. He left the second skewer alone so that he could talk.

"Might be best to rest a few days. Maybe even have fun. Nowhere to say but a field, the faun said, but still safer."

It did not feel like they had stopped. The gryphon had finished their journey, but he had barely recovered before they had set out to return.

" Winds of fate, to meet someone this far from home," he added.

It went against Hath's nature, but he maneuvered around a small group of excitable kobolds instead of scattering them before him.

After all, no minotaur had trodden on him yet.

 

[Pern]

Pern's laughter dwindled into amused tittering, "I know, I am shorry. You jusht looked sho happy to have food."

And happy wasn't an expression she saw on him often.

She took her first bite from one of the skewers, savoring the sweetness of flavor over the surprising richness of rodent meat (somewhere between chicken and ... pork?) - must have been the honey glazed. Pern followed behind Hath as he navigated the crowds of the market, which had grown heavier as the day wore on. Peak shopping hours, must be.

"I don't mind shtaying for a bit," Pern admitted, her eyes drifting from shop to shop, face to face, bright with curiosity and pleasant excitement, "I've wanted to vishit this playsh ever shince my father told me about it. Maybe I will find him a gift..."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"Mmph, no sorry," Hath said.

He would have said more, but without pause the second skewer was shoved into his open mouth. A full half was gone, the meat firm from being overcooked, and the glaze sticky and sweet. It was not the easiest mouthful to get down.

Hath glanced over his shoulder at her. She seemed genuinely excited to be here. It made him feel a comfortable kind of warmth low in his gut.

The place reminded him in some ways of Bhairthark. However, this town was lively and colourful and seemed to celebrate the mix of cultures.

"I owe him as well as you" Hath reflected. "But I do not know how to settle that."

She was also the one with coin, and a gift from Hath would not cover what he owed. "What would you get him?" he asked.

 

[Pern]

"Owe me?" Pern raised her brows, "nonshenshe. You do not owe anything. You have kept me shafe, helped me to our deshtinashun, and now back home."

The idea of owing anyone was preposterous. They were friends, weren't they? Friends helped one another out.

But as for the gift...

"Mm," she pondered over another bite, "I am not shure. Hish tashtesh are quite eclectic and I do not know what all ish here. Perhapsh a book, if I can find any."

 

[Hath Charosh]

"On a trip you would not have been on, if you did not need to help me," Hath added.

He did, however, acknowledge the point with a tilt of his head. He had her gratitude.

"I am glad you came and we will journey more together."

A book? He thought to himself. He could help find someone who sold books, but he was not going to be helping to find anything specific. He supposed he could always ask.

"What does eclectic mean?" he asked.

In most crowds in towns he stood above the line of heads and was afforded a good view. Here they had to weave through the crowd, avoiding stepping on people and being stepped on in turn.