Hunter Or Huntress

“Come on man. Which one is better?” Balethon tried, leaning in over their table as Tom put down the second mug of cider. The ring of dragonettes standing around waiting for the verdict had been ever growing. Which didn’t really suit Tom, such pressure.

“They are both VERY sweet,” the lone human admitted, not really sure which to pick. Neither of them were really up his alley.

“It’s cider, of course it is sweet,” Fengi butted in, clearly also waiting for a verdict with bated breath.

“Well it doesn’t have to be. It tastes almost like Sommersby back home. Is all cider like this here?”

“Yes, which one tastes like Son- the one you remember, that’s good right?” Fengi tried again, Tom glancing around at the crowd.

“Both of them… I mean I guess this one is a bit sweeter,” he relented, gingerly holding up one mug, not sure who it belonged to.

“YES! Ours is best,” Balethon broke out in celebration, doing a little jump and a fist pump. The guys behind him started premature celebrations as well, though to a lesser degree.

“I would rather have this one though,” Tom carried on, lifting the other mug. “It’s a little more grown up. But to be honest, I would rather have a beer,” he declared, looking to the girls, taking particular note of Ray who was keeping herself in the background. He knew this was essentially her cider. And if he couldn’t taste much of a difference, who was he to deny her a bit of satisfaction.

“Well ain’t no problems there, this stuff is expensive. You want beer, you’ll have beer,” Fengi chuckled as the girls started to laugh and snicker at the boys celebrating early. “More for us.”

“Ours is sweeter, that means better. For a dragonette at least,” Balethon protested as he took back the mug Tom had been sipping from.

“We have sugar. I would rather have the better one than the sweeter one,” Fengi countered as the bickering started in both camps.

“It’s your own anyway, why don’t you just drink it while it’s still cold,” Nunuk then called out from her raised chair. “Or are you too busy with getting a leg up on those at your side?”

“No, ma’am,” Fengi replied as heads turned to look at the lady.

“You’re just jealous it’s better than the wine you got, mum,” Dakota added, rolling her eyes from her seat next to her mother.

“Maybe…” the old lady relented with a crooked smile as laughter and chuckles broke out, Fengi rolling her eyes too as she glared at the smiling old lady. “Oh come now can an old lady not have fun anymore?”

“Either way I heard beer. I think we should see about this here keg then,” Raulf declared loudly, overpowering the bickering and laughter. The farmer was standing with what had to be one of his own creations if the look of the barrel was to be believed.

“Now you’re talking, what’s in there?” Tom called out. He could do with a drink. Not getting sloshed, but a nice after work sorta beer. It wasn’t often they enjoyed proper drink around here. It was more of an occasional thing for them.

“Your bubble beer,” the farmer replied as with a smack the tap was hammered in.

“Oh saving the imports are we?”

“For now. Maybe we’ll have to compare those as well.”

“Can I try too?” came then the almost cautious or maybe just slightly overexcited voice of Edita, Tom turning to look at the inventor. As did Jacky, who was standing behind him. The artificer had a mug in one hand and a pair of wax sealed bottles under the other arm.

“Sure, I don’t see why not. Uhm what’s that?” Tom questioned, pointing at the pair of bottles.

“Oh uhm,” the inventor suddenly looked coy about something as she clearly struggled to find the words, Tom glancing to Jacky, who was observing carefully.

“The others told me you drink a lot. You said that all engineers drink a lot. I haven’t tried it before, and I know it is expensive. So I bought some with my spending money. It wouldn’t be nice to drink someone else’s stuff… right?”

Tom stared for a bit, not sure if that was adorable or sad. Probably a bit of both really. “Depends on the amount. But sure, you can try some.” He looked to Jacky once more, and she to him. “Well I think we can teach a real life lesson, don’t you?”

She nodded in reply, not seeming overly thrilled at the prospect. “Sure, I’ll go get some mugs.”

Edita livened up a bit seeing as her request had been positively received. “Oh excellent. I am sure it will be very informative.”

“Suure suure,” Tom confirmed jokingly. “First up, ale and beer aren't that expensive. We’ve got plenty. But that stuff does look expensive, what is that?” Tom questioned, wondering if having a sip of that stuff was worth the risk or not. Probably best not to though.

“Oh I don’t know. I just asked Vulzan for something nice.” She held them up and tried to read the label. “Hakeria… What’s that?”

“I have no idea,” Tom admitted, walking up to have a look as well. The label was very fine indeed, clearly hand painted with draconic runes in gold on a red background. It likely wasn’t actually gold, but it still looked very fancy.

There was some murmuring from the other people around, none of whom seemed to know what it was either.

“What did you say it was?” Nunuk then called out, apparently not having made it out either from upon her high chair.

“Oh Hakeria- uhm Ma’am,” Edita politely responded, doing a slight curtsey for the Lady. Nunuk for her part was leaning forward and squinting at the artificer and her mysterious cargo.

“How much did you give Vulzan?”

“Oh uhm. Some money.”

“How much?” the Lady repeated, with slightly more authority in her voice.

“I can’t really remember,” Edita admitted, sounding a touch shameful. “I did not believe it to be important information.”

“Well don’t let Paulin get her hands on it,” the old lady went with a chuckle, sitting back in her chair with a slightly pained expression. “But I wouldn’t mind a glass at some point.”

“Oh of course Lady Bizmati!” the artificer went, looking down at the bottle then back to Nunuk. “So you know what it is?”

“Please, Nunuk will do. And yes, it is made from needles, they grow on cactuses in the south to my knowledge. It is distilled of course. A fine liquor if I do say so myself.”

“Cactus fruit liquor? Well that’s certainly new. Maybe I will have to try a little sip too,” Tom pondered, rubbing his beard.

“Of course, you can have as much as you like,” Edita was quick to reply, holding out the bottle for him.

“Oh no no, not like that. I have to be careful of methanol in your alcohols. It’s fine for you, but poison for me. I already had a bad time once. But a small sip won’t hurt too bad.”

“Oh… I see. I heard alcohol makes you stupid but if you drink then that can’t be right. Then you wouldn’t drink.”

“It does, temporarily, can’t recommend drinking constantly though. That’s not good for you. Every once in a while, for the hell of it.”

“But… why would you want to be stupid?” Edita questioned, clearly at an utter loss.

“Cause then you forget about all your problems and can just have fun. It’s also good for getting past certain inhibitions!” Balethon added, throwing an arm around her, mug in the other hand. The guy was clearly feeling the effects of the sugary drink. Edita looked quite taken aback by the gesture, holding her bottles tight. “Trust us, it’s going to be fun!”

“Oh- okay.”

Edita seemed more unsure than mad at the guy for his exuberance and touchiness. ‘Boooi she has something to learn… maybe Saph and Fengi will teach her to slap him at some point,’ Tom chuckled to himself, simply watching what she might do.

Rather predictably she looked to Tom, with a pleading expression.

“He’s right you know… Actually, idea. I’ll get some music. Maybe Essy and Fengi will help teach you how to dance and stuff as well,” he went, thinking himself a genius for hopefully getting her to actually try and mingle with the crowd on her own. But alas.

“Oh I can help with the music, will you be using the laptop?”

“That and speakers but…uhm… no stay here. I will be back. Have fun. Maybe try a game of dice.” And with that masterful evasion out of the way, Tom headed off to try and procure some music. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but that was hardly new. Edita wanted to know what drinking was like. Might as well get her the whole package. Maybe he would get just a little sloshed too. Paulin was down below anyway. Surely they wouldn’t be heading down that early tomorrow.

By the time he made it back up the tables had been moved once more, closer to the far wall, making some open space while letting people still have a conversation together. Apuma and Nunuk hadn’t intervened, instead watching over the proceedings from their table. Their children however were mixing in with the rabble now along with both the trader crews and some of Baron’s men. Though Victoria remained seated with Nunuk for now. He did take note that she was definitely keeping an eye on him though, it was almost a touch unnerving.

But no matter. He got the music up and running in no time, and Essy was allowed to make the selection. Kokashi even got a say after he promised to go get his violin for those few tracks he had been practicing to play along to.

And so there was dancing. Tom had at first rather hoped to sit it out and just watch, but much like Unkai, the woman in his life didn’t give him much of a choice in the matter. Probably because he had been sitting next to Edita, who had sought refuge from the festivities next to him.

Just like the diminutive guard though, he certainly didn’t mind, especially since Jacky didn’t know much about dancing so it was just dumb fun. She ended up more or less just throwing him around, especially as she started getting competitive with Fengi, who was far far better at this. To his credit, Unkai was certainly also a lot better than Tom at keeping up, so Jacky simply compensated with brute strength, Tom hanging on for dear life.

There were even a few of the moves Tom remembered showing the kid back before the festival. Which did rather give him an idea. It was a very short lived one, as he surprised Jacky by trying something he remembered from way back in the day. She didn’t get what was going on and soon they were a laughing pile on the floor.

“What was that?” Jacky broke out from betwixt the chuckles as she tried to get back up.

“I wanted to do a pirouette toss thingy,” Tom protested, still quite certain that it had been a good idea, let down by the execution.

“I’m like 2 heads taller than you. How was that ever going to work?!”

“Look I’ve seen a… What’s the word for a small dragonette?”

“Child?”

“No no, like an adult that just doesn’t get very big.”

“Unkai?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake Jacky.”

_________________________________________________________________________________

“Yeah there you go, that’s straight five. You beat him,” Saph said, giving Edita a pat on the back. She had picked up card games rather swiftly, and even the beer was going down well enough. Raulf had asked if she liked it, after which she had answered

“It’s very good, yes. Much better than the ration flasks used for expeditions normally.”

The farmer had grumped a bit about his work getting compared to field rations, but nevertheless, Edita scarfed it down. They had set about teaching her some card games, and she had proved quite quick at learning. Much to the chagrin of Balethon, who had just lost a hand he had been certain of winning. “Oh okay. So what now?”

“Now you get to choose two who have to drink.”

“Oh I see… but aren’t you supposed to drink in a drinking game?”

“Yes and no. You still win so you punish the others, but you will lose soon enough so you get drunk too.”

“Oooh riight.. Ahr, I have to drink!” she declared.

“You forgot about number two,” Balethon added, still seeming a bit grumpy as he gathered up the cards, Jacky staring him down as he did so. He had tricked her quite badly last round, so she was not happy.

“Oh right… you then, skul!” she went raising her mug of bubble beer.

“Oh come on!” he protested, though he did pick up his mug too “Also it’s deeper. Skoool.”

Edita thought for a second while holding her mug still in the air, then she turned to Sapphire. “It’s working! I don’t care!”

That got a good chuckle out of Saph and a few of the others as the music track changed once more. They had no idea what was being sung, but it sounded good. Essy singing along, with Kokashi on her lap, or at least mimicking the song as best she could. Unkai and Fengi were sitting in a corner talking which was very good. Tom was sitting with Jacky also trying to learn the game they were playing. Of course since there was an element of deception involved the human was doing quite well as usual.

Saph however had not had much luck and had essentially taken on the role of teacher for Edita. It was quickly becoming clear the artificer was quite the lightweight. That or possibly the needlefruit liquor was more potent than at first expected. Saph had managed to sneak in a little sip from Edita’s glass, with her permission of course, and it was certainly an interesting flavor. Almost a hint metallic, and definitely sweet but not extremely so.

Some of Baron’s crew had joined the game of cards as well, notably Major Latori. He was one of the more refined members of the crew, and Saph mostly remembered him for having been helpful all the way back when they had the bitch to deal with.

As a new hand was passed around and Edita got a look at hers, showing them to Saph as well, a clawed hand was suddenly laid upon Sapphire's right shoulder. Turning around, she caught Maiko trying to duck out of the way behind Edita and not get spotted. “My head goes all the way around dumb dumb,” she chuckled, turning around to her left instead to not strain her neck to look at the manchild. “I was wondering when you would show up?”

“Weeeell I had a thing or two to do now didn’t I. Speaking of which, I believe this is for you,” he said, holding out a small ornate box.

Saph tried her best to seem genuinely surprised that he had thought of something for her. She had expected him to of course, but it was only courteous to pretend. “Ohh Maiko, is that for me? Thank you,” she went, taking the small box, the guy standing up straight with a big smile on his face, clearly expecting her to like the contents.

‘I bet you it’s earrings or something like that,’ Saph mused to herself, glancing at her nice new ring which she was wearing already.

Opening the little box she was right. It was a pair of plain silver earrings. Simple, yet elegant. ‘He is only a corporal after all.’

“They are lovely. And not so over the top I can’t wear them every day,” she went, looking to him with a warm smile. He for his part seemed steadfast. She didn’t have to mention she definitely had silver earrings for everyday use already, but she supposed her ears were long enough for two pairs. She started to take them out of the box to have a look at them more closely as he made his way around to sit on the far side of Edita.

“So what are we up to here?” the corporal asked, looking round at the table.

“We’re just teaching the newbies how to play five claw,” Jacky replied, throwing a glance to Sapphire as she was holding her earrings up to study.

Saph didn’t know if Tom had gotten Jacky anything or not, but it wouldn’t seem like the dude to not. He was actually rather thoughtful as long as he remembered in the midst of all the stuff he was doing.

“Yes! And I am learning to drink!” Edita declared far too loudly as she inspected her cards closely. Saph didn’t really need to help her anymore at this point, and the fact that even a child could read her face when she had something good was her own problem.

“Oh you are?” Maiko questioned without missing a beat, leaning over Sapphire’s lap to get a look at her cards. “Oh dear. Well good luck.”

“What do you mean? That’s very good,” Edita protested, Maiko letting out a belated breath.

“Right, next lesson in cardgames. Deception.”

“No no, we mustn’t lie.”

“What are you on about? The Inquisition lies all the time.”

“He would know, he’s very good at it,” Sapphire joined in as she measured up the new earrings to her ears. ‘Maybe I should get a second set of holes made for them?... hmmmm.’

“But it’s not okay to lie. That can get people hurt!”

“Not in a cardgame,” Maiko replied in good humor, now more or less lying across Sapphire. “Try it. See if you can trick them.”

“Good luck, Tom is like a crooked old trader. He could sell you an old stick claiming it’s the bone of a holy saint,” Sapphire added as she wondered if anyone would perhaps have gotten a handheld mirror she could borrow for a bit.

“Thank you,” Tom replied with a nod and a chuckle as he glanced to Jacky, who just rolled her eyes.

“You lie?” Edita questioned with an almost childlike curiosity, looking to Tom. Like a little girl learning her mother didn’t just get the food from the cupboards.

“Sure, it’s handy at times. The tricky bit is knowing when to lie.”

“Yeah, just think of Joelina and Paulin. They are real good at lying.”

“Oooh yeaaa… I guess soo… So I have to be good at it too?”

“If you wanna win at five claw you do,” Maiko confirmed.

“Oh okay then. Will you help me?” she questioned, looking to the Corporal.

“Sure. Step one, try to see if you can express that you are disappointed even though you are not.”

“She could also just try the stonewall Joelina approach,” Tom added, as the artificer pondered this new interesting challenge. “I cannot read that woman Joelina for the life of me.”

“I doubt she has emotions to read,” Jacky grumbled, Saph looking to Tom, who seemed less than convinced by that statement.

“Well you would know wouldn’t you, Tom? You’ve been in her head. What’s in there?” Sapphire questioned, taking a swig of her mug of ale. They had kept the cider to one small mug per person, and even then she could still feel the sugar high which was yet to wear off. Dancing to the music had handled most of the excess energy, but not all so it was definitely ale from now on.

“Oh I wouldn’t know anything about that,” the human dismissed taking a swig of his own mug.

“Oh come on. You must know something. For someone who got your mind ripped apart by someone, you don’t seem to hate her much.”

Tom didn’t reply to that one immediately, taking a second to mull it over. Edita opened her mouth as if to speak, but thought better of it.

“She’s a hard woman. Born tough and made tougher. In Danish we have a saying. ‘The thief thinks everyone steals.’ It means everyone tends to assume everyone else thinks just like themselves. She thinks you work like she does. Cold, cynical, uncompromising. She doesn’t care what gets in her way. She’ll get it done. That includes people hating her. It’s just irrelevant twaddle to her. She has a job and cares for nothing else,” the human replied before taking another quick swig.

“That’s why she’s suddenly decided to shower us with gifts and goodwill. She has no idea whatsoever how to make a friend cause she has none. Not really,” he carried on. “Well maybe Glazz or Paulin I guess. So I don’t think she’s evil or anything like that. But she only has eyes for one thing. Get in between her and that thing, she won’t hesitate to put you down. She won’t even think about it. Not outside of what problems it might lead to. I think it best to just stay important to her, and don’t come across as if you are working against her. Then she’s also perfectly happy to give you what you want to continue being useful, because it’s far easier than trying to make friends.”

There was silence for a moment afterwards as people mulled over what the human meant with all that. Saph wondered if maybe the cider had gotten to him or something.

“Naaaaaah,” Edita then broke out, all heads turning wearily to her. “She’s a big softy the others say. She does things like, let you go. Or maybe even giving a small little sentence if it’s someone who only did a little bad thing.”

The artificer certainly had Tom’s attention with that. The human seemed about as skeptical as the artificer was sloshed.

“I heard Paulina talk about a time Joelina even let some children live… they had stolen something, can’t remember what it was… I also think she then used them as spies or something. I didn’t really understand that. But that sounds like a nice thing to do. Something about finding poor people, who were evil.”

“She blackmailed children into spying on poor people?” Sapphire questioned, giving the artificer a side eye.

Edita took a second to ponder that one, scratching behind her ear. “Well when you put it like that.”

“Either way. We can work with her,” Tom interrupted, looking to the artificer and holding up his mug for a clink. “Cheers, I think we need some more of this.”

“Oh yeah, Just don’t tell Paulin, I didn’t ask for permission.”

“Not a word, we all promise. We won’t tell her anything about all this.”

“Awww thank you, Tom.” A few mugs were bashed together and Tom took a hearty swig. Edita mimicking like she so often did.

‘Oooh shit is he trying to get her pissed? That can’t end well… Can it?’

_________________________________________________________________________________

They had kept playing the card game for some time, though later they had switched to just telling stories and the like. It became more and more clear that Edita was a lightweight and she was copying whatever Tom did. So when he told stories, she told stories. When he took a swig, she took a swig. He did feel a little bad, but they were getting more out of her than they had ever gotten out of Paulin and Joelina, and unlike those two it seemed Edita could be trusted to tell the truth, if only for the fact that when she did lie it was painfully obvious.

It of course didn’t help that basically everyone had either worked out what was happening or thought getting drunk and having fun was a brilliant idea in its own right. Tom had been working on ways to get Edita under four eyes or at least only in the company of trustworthy keepdwellers, but doing that without arousing suspicion had been rather hampered by the story telling escalating to include crews from both traders, some of Baron’s crew, and even Radexi chiming in.

Tom had waved over some of the keep’s guards, hoping that they could displace some of the visitors further down the lengths of the table. The only one properly displaced was Maiko, who seemed to decide he had better things to do and excused himself, promising Saph that he wouldn’t be gone for too long. As for the rest of the boys, they of course needed to talk with the drunken girl as much as possible, which wasn’t much of an upgrade.

“Yoo Edita… is it okay if I call you Edi?” Herron tried, himself either quite tired or quite inebriated but still having managed to squeeze in next to Edita.

“Suure suuure. Just don’t call me Edit. All the others made fun of me when I got something wrong… Edit has to edit now they would go… it wasn’t very funny at all.”

“Oh no no, I will just call you Edi. I-”

“What sort of mistakes, any fun ones?” Saph interjected, the huntress having stayed with Tom and Edita pretty much the whole night. Tom was quite convinced she had worked out what he was up to, and seemed to be helping out. “Anything not just about weird machines?”

Herron took the cue and fell silent, having a look at his mug and taking a swig. Edita pondered the question for a bit instead, seemingly finding it a tough one to answer.

“Not machines hmmm… Oh oh one time I remember me and Teskar got in trouble for using one of the targeting scopes for spying on the city. He hadn’t seen a city before and I wanted to show him. All the little people walking around. We found a mother and tried to follow her, mapping out her whole day! It was very good fun!” Edita replied enthusiastically.

“And how did that end up with you having to fix something?”

“Oh… sorry. No, we just got caught and had to do cleaning work for weeks… It was very boring.”

“No no nothing to be sorry for, this Teskar, did you know him well?”

“Oh no, he was from a fortress out west. Not too far from Crownhall. They have an ancient thinking machine there which they guard.”

“Wait as in actually working, I thought you had all those in storage?” Tom interjected, suddenly seeming interested.

“Oh it is in storage, but it is the largest one we know about. Maybe one day I could get to see it… It must be so beautiful,” the artificer carried on, turning all doey eyed as she stared up at the wall with her head resting on her hands.

“Riiight… but tell me more about the Teskar. Did you like him?” Saph questioned, Tom grumping a bit.

‘God dammit Saph, let her spill the beans.’

“Oh he was very funny. His accent was all weird too. It is a long way to Crownhall. I have never left the capital before coming here, so he told me stories about it. It is warm, strange things grow there, like cherries.”

“Edita, cherries grow here too?” Herron added, sounding sleepy and confused.

“They dooo?!"

“Yeah… wait they do, right?” The guard questioned, looking down the table to his fellow guards, which probably didn’t sit that well with Sapphire. Tom threw a glance at her, and she did look a touch grumpy much to his own amusement.

“Yeah man, they just like lower flying islands and all that. You know, warmer,” Balethon added.

“Ohhh that makes sense… I think. Did anyone get any pickled cherries?” the young guard questioned, looking around at everyone. No one came forward, even if someone did have any they probably weren’t in the mood for sharing with a keep and a half.

Tom had to ponder that for a bit. Of course it made sense, and Apuma had been talking about how further south the border with the bugs was a tricky proposition. Dragonettes tended to hold the higher flying islands further south, and the bugs settled closer to the water substantially further north.

“Awww man those things taste great,” Herron complained, taking another swig of beer which likely didn’t help his energy levels.

‘Oooh the cider of course, that’s why they are all so sluggish right about now,’ Tom thought to himself, feeling a bit dumb as he looked to Saph once more. She did seem a little drab, but not as much as the guards. Maybe she had shared her mug with someone else or something.

“I’ve never had any either… Teskar ate them all,” she went with a sniff, shifting her grip on her mug. “I should get some one day. Are they expensive?”

“I mean a little,” Saph said with a shrug. “It’s preserved fruit. It’s worth a pretty penny, but it’s no worse than so many other things.” That did seem to brighten the artificer’s mood a little, a dumb smile spreading on her face.

“Why didn’t you buy any if you wanted to try them?” Herron questioned. “Did you forget? I forget loads of things.”

“No I didn’t forget… I just didn’t think of it.”

“Hehe, you forgot,” he repeated, clearly greatly amused.

“No no I told you. I just didn’t think of it… There are soo many things I have heard of that I want to try.”

“Like what?” the dude questioned, looking to her, seeming only half awake.

‘Oh well might as well let them do some questioning,’ Tom chuckled to himself, giving up on getting more out of her for now without someone catching on.

The next 10 or 20 minutes devolved into talks of all sorts of exotic or favorite foods people knew. A few were even brought out. Tom partook as well of course, but Edita was quickly becoming the center of attention as they started to work out just how many things she had never had before. Different kinds of sausages, air dried hams, all sorts of dried fruits and berries. Tom was honestly learning quite a lot as well about the selection of foods to be found around these parts. He definitely approved of the heavily smoked ham Herron had gotten. The smell ooh the smell, it was wonderful.

And someone had the bright idea to give Edita a candy. That someone being Balethon. Tom made a note to remember to ask him just where he had gotten his hands on that one, but for now he didn’t mind as Edita started talking faster and faster and faster.