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No Still Waters [DragonSong]

Started by Juno, January 27, 2016, 06:39:53 PM

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Juno

"Fine," she growled, seeing no other way to rid herself of this odd man that had decided to cling to her short of murder. "Stealing," she hissed in whisper. "I was fucking stealing, alright? You happy now?"

She threw up her hand in disgust, turning to storm off and away from the dopey, puppy-like smile.

DragonSong

"Oh." His eyes went wide. "You're not supposed to do that," he noted, though his tone was more interested than condemning.

And she was walking away again. He hurried after her, asking, "Why?"

Juno

Awiergan tensed, flinching at the continued questioning. "No, I'm not, but why do you think?" she shot back at him, her voice still hushed as she turned sharply on her heel to glower up at him once more. Arms were crossed at her chest as she tapped her foot impatiently. She'd had enough, this was just getting silly now.

"Why does anyone do anything?" she quizzed him impatiently, not even waiting for him to answer before she spat her own. "Because they want to! Any more questions?"

DragonSong

Luca blinked, apparently unfazed by her anger. "No, I suppose not." He gave her that same innocent smile and a polite nod. "Thank you for your time, Miss."

Juno

"Good," she sighed, already mentally exhausted from the exercise of being patient with him. Well, patient enough to not gouge him with her knife and leave him bleeding in the street.

Awiergan eyed him suspiciously, uncertain if he would actually let the questioning go now or not. "I suppose," she began again once the spark of anger had died down. "You'll be wanting something else, then?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes at the assumed bribe he would want for his silence. "Here," she grumbled, one hand disappearing into her coat for a moment to retrieve one of the purses she'd lifted. Holding it out to him expectantly she jingled it slightly so the coins inside would be apparent. "Keep quiet about me and there won't be any trouble," the piratess warned.

DragonSong

Caught of guard but undeniably fascinated, Luca reached out and took the purse. He mimicked her shaking motion and his eyes widened when it elicited that same jingling sound. "What...?" He tugged the string to pull it open and looked inside.

"Oh." A wide smile spread across his face as he pulled out a coin, tilting it so it caught what faint light there was. "I didn't know they made sounds like that," he exclaimed, thrilled, shaking the purse again. Positively beaming, he dropped the coin back into the purse and held it back out to her. "Thank you."

Juno

His fascination with the money was so childlike. Had he never held coins together before? Perhaps he was simply poor. Awiergan frowned, knowing it wasn't her place to be curious about a stranger.

"They do... What?" She stared at the purse but held her hands at her sides refusing to offer to take it back. "No, it's yours," she explained, suddenly feeling quite awkward that her bribe was being rejected. That didn't happen too often. Actually, pretty much never.

DragonSong

"I always just thought they were sparkly trinkets," Luca explained with a shrug, still smiling a bit. "I didn't know they could make that pretty sound." Tilting his head a bit, he drew the purse back, closer to his chest.

"Are you sure you want to give it to me?" They would certainly make a nice addition to his collection, but he was still confused why the woman would just give them away.

Juno

"Yes," she sighed, raising a hand to rub at her temple. He was really going to question a gift? Did he have zero concept of money?

"Coins aren't trinkets. They're money. You use it. And yes... I am also quite fond of the sound they can make." It was the first ghost of a smile that crossed her face in their time together but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. "Now go buy something interesting, don't gamble that away like some idiot," she bid him.

DragonSong

"Wait." His brow furrowed. "Use it? How?" He had a very vague concept of currency. "I can...trade with it?" he ventured. His people did that sometimes, traded trinkets among themselves. He supposed it would make sense that humans did the same.

But she made it sound as if that was the specific purpose of the money. And he had absolutely no idea what this "gamble" thing she mentioned was.

Juno

There it was, more questions. "Trade...yes I suppose that would be the word," she answered, albeit a little more patiently this time. He seemed genuinely oblivious more than stupid at that point. She could at least take pity upon a man somehow uneducated in the ways of the world. Well, the human world at least.

"Coins are....valued. Each one has a certain value. You buy things worth the same amount with it. And the person who sold it to you uses them for some other purchase. Understand?"

DragonSong

"I- I think so." He gave her another confused look. "Then...why give them to me? I haven't given you anything in return..."

Juno

"You have. Your silence. You don't say a word about me to anyone," she explained again, though she was beginning to doubt his understanding of the whole transaction. Perhaps that was for the best.

DragonSong

"Oh." Yes, right, she had said something like that before. "Is my silence really this...valuable?" he asked with a frown, lifting the purse and looking between it and her. "How much is this? I don't know what's too much and what isn't," he confessed a little sheepishly.

Juno

"I don't know, I didn't count it," she told him honestly, her self-preserving temper cooling as she began to realize he didn't really seem any sort of threat to her.

"Enough for you to not talk about me to other people, I would hope," she sighed. "Look, I'll give you some advice. You look like you need it." She sized him up, looking at him as properly as she could in the dark. He seemed far too innocent and clueless to be in a town like this.

"You seem...like a decent fellow, Luca. Don't follow random women at night. Don't spend all of that in one place. Don't gamble. And don't be me. Don't steal. Now...goodnight I suppose."

DragonSong

Luca frowned a bit at her advice, though the expression was thoughtful rather than irritated. "I...thank you, I suppose," he said quietly, tilting his head at her.

Why would she tell him not to do something she'd be doing? Perhaps it was very difficult, and one needed special training to accomplish it.

"Oh, yes. Goodnight then," he added with a quick smile. That exchange he was at least familiar with.

Juno

At last able to leave without being followed Awiergan put as much distance as she could between herself and the tavern. It wouldn't be good if anyone realized that much coin had gone missing all from the same place on the same night. She settled herself at a small inn for the night, resting and relaxing and pampering herself as much possible before she would face the next day. It was time to move on, and moving always meant work.

The sun was barely peeking out over the horizon when she set herself to the familiar tasks of readying a ship to sail. It had been easy enough to talk her way on board, few men would willingly turn away an extra set of helping hands. She was not picky about where she ended up, all she needed was to be away.


DragonSong

Luca experimented with the coin he'd been giving, keeping some and spending a bit on any odd little trinket that caught his attention. Quite pleased, he spent the night in a little cavern on the beach, the sounds of the ocean lulling him to sleep.

When he woke the next morning, the call of the sea was too difficult to resist. Placing his gathered treasures from this short trip in a threadbare sack her recovered long ago from a sucker wreck, he shucked his "borrowed" pants and made his way into the water, barely casting a glance around to make sure he wasn't watched.

Once submerged to the waist, he felt the familiar tingle start in his toes and already rapidly up his legs. Used to the change by now, he simply gave his tail a flick when he exchanged legs for fins and dove into the water.

He meant to just swim out to sea, but noises from the port caught his attention. Curious, he decided to take a look, watching from just under the surface as one of the ships was prepared to sail.

Juno

A loud crash followed by the barking growl of the captain got her attention. Her fussing with the mooring lines paused as she looked up to see him chewing out a young man. There were a few cracked boards and a tipped barrel of fish half-strewn across the other side of the deck. She quirked a brow when she was asked to clean up such a mess, but she swapped roles with the boy more for his sake than her own.

Righting the barrel was easy enough, but she made a face of disgust at the waste of throwing out all that had spilled. Carefully lifting each by hand became out of the question quite quickly as her hands were covered in scales. She ended up kicking them overboard instead, not noticing the human-like face below the surface as she cast a rain of the slippery things down upon the merman.

DragonSong

Luca's eyes widened as he recognized the woman above him, then widened further as he dove out of the way of the fish she tossed in his direction.

Coming back toward the surface a little further away, he risked poking his head out of the water for a better look. Yep, definitely the same woman. What were the chances?

Grinning to himself, he sank into the water again. Maybe he'd follow this ship for a while...

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