Magical Mystical Fox Hunt

[MadEmperor]

[ Continued From ]

Thrax stepped off of the ship and set foot in Thanatos for the first time. Immediately, he dropped to quickly kiss solid ground. He had spent half of his first sea voyage hugging the deck rail and was extremely relieved to be on land again.

"Oh, sweet Mother Earth, how I missed your firm bo--" don't say bosom "--how I missed you!"

[DragonSong]

Hana, disembarking behind him, snorted and gave him a very dry look. "First of all, you're allowed to say bosom," she told him, unable to come up with another "b" word Thrax might have used after "firm" in that particular context. "Second, you're being dramatic. We only crossed the tail end of that storm, it was barely a proper sea voyage at all!"

[MadEmperor]

"Hey." He got back up and brushed himself off, giving her a playfully defensive look. "I grew up on the plains. Riding on a dragon was hard enough to get used to!"

He wrinkled his nose at the semi-permanent fish stench of the port. "Nobody tells you about the stench of port, do they?"

[DragonSong]

"Nope!" She grinned and tipped her head back, taking in a deep breath. "Gods, I did miss this, though. I spent a year on a ship, just a bit before I met you and the Longfangs, did I tell you?"

She looked around the port; she was in her fully human shape, so she actually blended in relatively well among the Thanatos people bustling around the ships, though their particular vessel had been carrying mainly Serenian traders.

"Well, first stop: something to eat," she said with a little laugh, glancing back at Thrax.

[MadEmperor]

"Oh Storm yes." He grinned at her. "And you can tell me about your life at sea while we chow down."

The bard started walking. "Just, please no fish. I had enough on the ship."


Thrax greedily tore through his leg of lamb like the hungry predator he was. "Okay. Spill it," he rudely said through a full mouth.

[DragonSong]

Sipping rather more daintily at a cup of tea--some sort of hibiscus blend that had been recommended by the shop proprietor--Hana rolled her eyes with a small smile. "There's not much to tell," she said with a shrug. "I had a job that landed me on a ship, and I just sorta...stayed for a while."

[MadEmperor]

He frowned. "Boo... that's a cop-out and you know it. Details, Foxy, details."

[DragonSong]

"Alright, alright." Grinning, she propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand. "So I...maaaaaaay have had something of a--a thing going with one of the crew members. She was half-mer, so she didn't stray far from the water. The job was more an excuse--except I didn't know how to do anything on a ship, at least at first, and the quartermaster wanted absolutely nothing to do with me."

She shrugged and took another sip of her tea. "So I learned. I'm a pretty decent navigator these days, if I do say so myself. Anyway, the mer girl jumped ship near Yoreiq, and I didn't. Simple as that, really."

[MadEmperor]

"The best reason to learn a new skill: to impress a girl," Thrax laughed. "Reminds me of how I learned to write my own music. There was this smoking hot Essyrni flute player in Ketra I wanted to win over, but by the time I was good enough she had moved on."

[DragonSong]

"Really?" She cocked her head before taking another sip of her tea. "Huh. Guess I just assumed you've always done the whole music thing. I mean, you're clearly meant for it."

She glanced out the window to watch the activity near the docks for a moment, enjoying the brief moment of peace; she'd admit she had been a little...wary when their whole coin flip idea had landed them on a boat out of Cerenis heading for Kunata, but...

"Y'know, I've never actually been here," she murmured softly. "Thanatos, I mean. I know my parents were from here, but I was born on the mainland--never bothered to come see it."

[MadEmperor]

Thrax swallowed down another chunk of meat and chased it with a swig of ale. "I mean--I get it. It took a demon to get me to finally go back to the Serha."

"Maybe this is your chance for some closure."

[DragonSong]

She shrugged. "Maybe, but... I mean, as awful as it was, Serha still meant something to you. This is..." She waved a hand about vaguely. "It's just a place to me, really. What few memories I have of my family...they aren't here."

Though her aunt very well might be.

She shrugged again. "I dunno. Maybe we could try to find the village my mother came from, but...honestly, I don't know if they'd even let us in. I'm technically only half fox, and you're...not a fox at all."

[MadEmperor]

"But I'm not human at all, either," Thrax pointed out.

He smirked. "Besides, people tend to like me for some reason."

"And you'll never know if they're all like her if you don't try. And you'll have me with you, so if they try anything... well, they won't like me so much."

[DragonSong]

Her lips twitched up on one side. "...Thanks, Thrax."

She took another sip of her tea, glancing out the window again. "Well...I could probably track down where the old village was from stories, maybe if we talk to  a few locals. Y'know, if anyone will actually talk to us. After that..."

She pursed her lips. "I...really only found out about what happened to my parents through a spell, about a year and a half ago. It was mostly...images. Flashes. It's not a lot to go on, but it might be something."

[MadEmperor]

"Would you be able to recognize any landmarks if we came across them?" He didn't know much and Thanati terrain, but he knew how to use landmarks to navigate. He did grow up on the plains, where the skill was especially important because everything was mostly the same.

"We could try identifying some on a map. We really should pick one up anyway."

[DragonSong]

"Maybe." She nodded in agreement. A map was a good idea regardless. "But that seems like something we can deal with tomorrow." It had been just passed noon when they docked--finding an establishment that served food and actually getting it had taken another few hours, so they were now approaching dusk.

"We should find the nearest place that has cheap beds," she sighed, leaning back in her chair. Then she cocked her head and offered questioningly, "Or...bed?" She was leaving that up to him--they hadn't exactly defined that particular aspect of their relationship, and she wasn't overly anxious to, so she'd mostly just be...rolling with it. Though platonically or not, sharing a bed would be cheaper.

[MadEmperor]

"It would be the cheapest option." He scratched his ear and smirked. "And the most fun."

"So, yeah, single works for me."

He gave her an awkward smile. "No pressure, of course."

[DragonSong]

She shrugged again. "No pressure assumed," she assured him with a quick smile. "And yeah, I agree."

A thought suddenly struck her, and she bit her lip. "We should, ah...probably have a cover story, though? From what I know of my mother's people, casual sex isn't...really a thing. It's sort of...just for making babies. So, y'know. Married people."

[MadEmperor]

"Our cover is that I'm your friend and traveling companion. I think I can restrain myself from flirting with you for that long." He smirked.

"Or I'm your bodyguard. Sure, people don't usually hire bards for that, but I'm plenty big and scary-looking enough for the job," he suggested more seriously.

[DragonSong]

Hana chuckled and nodded. "Bodyguard will probably work--I can definitely play the ditzy damsel if I need to. In fact..." She cocked her head, thinking aloud, "That might actually work for us. No one will think twice about some air-head heiress asking weird questions about lost villages. Maybe I just have an interest in local urban legends."