The sun peaks over the horizon as I dust the soil off my hands. I had been up all night tending to the lunar blooms and nothing sounds better than curling up in bed for a nap. Slipping into the shop, I place my tools behind the counter. Open on my desk is the growth tracker of the new blooms.
“Eh. I’ll update this later” I say out loud knowing full well no one is listening.
Moving behind, further into the back rooms, I come to the bookcase. The tomes are a good mix of old and new. Most of this collection contains my extensive botany tomes that I have arduously collected over the years mixed in with my own journals. If you crack open any of them, you’d find that they are filled with scribbles where I have been correcting the inaccuracies of their information. It’s not my fault that a lot of these writers just thought they were pretty flowers without knowing all the facts. Anyone will publish a book now-a-days.
My hand skims over the various leather textures of each tome until I come to the small blue one at the end. I gently pull it down until a soft click can be heard. Slowly, the bookcase opens up revealing a set of stairs.
“I’ll never get tired of that,” I giggle as I skip down the steps into my apartment. Living so close to the store has its perks for sure.
The door slides open to my eclectic studio. I walk towards my kitchen, tossing my bag onto my couch as I go. The dull thud of the bag hitting leather is missing, but instead there is a grunt following a choking sound. I turn around alarmed only to find a sleeping midlander on my couch. He flips over onto his back and a deep snore comes from his mouth.
I sigh deeply and slowly tiptoe over to their sleeping form. “Nori, dear…” I whisper softly at him hoping that is enough to wake him from his slumber.
“Mmmm” Nori moans in his sleep “popato pancakes”
“Nori” I say a little louder, poking him lightly on his cheek.
“Noooo….” He whines, “don’t take the popato pancakes away…”
“Seriously Nori?!” I roll my eyes. “Guess I have to do this the hard way.” Taking a couple light stretches, I jump up onto the edge of the couch next to his legs. “You asked for this.” Taking a giant leap, I land right on his stomach while yelling “Wake up you slacker!”
Nori instantly starts coughing while panic-flailing his arms around his head.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH” He sits up quickly knocking me onto the floor while I am in a fit of giggles. “Goddess Zoei, you didn’t have to do that!”
“Yes I did you big oaf! Why are you at my apartment??” I ask once I’m able to settle myself down.
Nori reaches over the back of the couch to grab his jacket. Inside the breast pocket he pulls out a piece of paper passing it to me. It is weathered around edges with clear tears on the corners. This was clearly posted on the Twin Adder hunt board. Written on it is a notice of infestation.
“Infestation in the Blind Iron Mines, Lower La Noscea10,000 Gil reward upon completion with proof.”
Nori watches me while I reread the flier. “It’s an easy enough gig. With your help, we can finish it in no time. I will even split the reward with you!”
I look up from the flier pondering if it was worth my time. “I do need to stock up more on some of the La Noscea Topsoil… Fine I’ll do it. But you are carrying all the bags and cargo back.” I stare at Nori waiting for him to disagree with my demands.
He takes a second to pretend to look thoughtful but then breaks out into a giant grin “You’ve got a deal short stuff.”
My cheerful look turns sour instantly at the phrase “short-stuff”
Walking through the bustling market of Lower La Noscea, venders start calling out to us to visit their stalls. Bright fabrics, handcrafted jewelry, weaponsmiths, exotic foods, all crammed into the small thoroughfares. The further we walk into the markets, the busier it gets. I jump and grab Nori’s hand before he gets too far away from me.
“Nori! Come here!”
He turns looking around confused, completely forgetting to look down. Once he does, he pats me on the head and says innocently, “Oh! What do you need shorty?”
I grab his hand, throwing it off my head, “Turn around and take a knee” He looks at me confused and yet follows my instructions. With a little pre-bend, I jump onto his back and grab onto him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my feet around as much of his broad torso as my little legs can. He makes a little huff sound and then braces himself forward a little more to compensate for the jump while grabbing my knees like he was carrying a child.
“Give a guy a warning would ya?!” He chuffs at me.
I giggle at him “You are too tall and walk too fast! I can’t keep up! So for your penance, you must carry me! Now, ONWARD STEED!” I yell, pointing one finger forward and using the other to pat his head like one would pet a friendly carbuncle.
“Hey!” Nori yells, “I am not your steed!” He moves his arms away from my legs effectively trying to drop me. Squealing, I tighten my grip around his neck hanging off his back like a lalafell cape.
A hearty laugh erupts from him as he re-grabs my legs and takes off in a fast pace. “We need to get going if we are going to make it to the chocoporter before the next carriage leaves. That is,” he smugly turns to look at me over his shoulder “unless you want to walk.”
“Nope!” I squeak out. “Faster long-legs. We have an infestation to clear out!”
Arriving at the mine, you would think it would be a tunneling endless void delving into the depths of Eorzea itself. This one was pretty open and cut into a mountain.
“This is it?” I ask skipping up to the entrance. The wooden braces frame the entrance with oil lanterns dotted along and disappearing around the corner.
Nori grabs the hunt flier from his pocket, opening it to check the details. “Yup. This is it.”
“Does it say what type of infestation we are fighting?” I inquire while reaching into my backpack to pull out my arcanist tome.
“Nope.” Nori responds, unsheathing his sword from his back. “I’m sure it’s the normal stuff; bats, aurelias and maybe the occasional kobald. Nothing we can’t handle”
We both nod at each other and head into the mine.
Several bats later, we start the trek back to the entrance. “That wasn’t so bad!” Nori says while stretching. Skipping along beside him, I couldn’t help but agree. It was a pretty simple fight. I don’t understand why they would pay so much for so little, but who am I to complain. 10k gil is 10k gil. I would never turn down that much. We only have a couple of turns left until we get to the entrance and can go cash in the hunt. Suddenly, there is a squeak and a dart of a shadow off to my left.
“Ahh! Did you see that?!” I jump behind Nori frantically searching for whatever it was that made the sound and movement. Nori draws his sword and starts to advance towards the noise. As he gets close to a stack of rocks, out pops this small creature. It had a black fluffy body with giant black ears sticking up. The spriggan's yellow eyes wide with fear. In its hands it held a small unrefined gemstone. It squeaks, places the gem in it’s mouth and jumps back into the rock pile. Its body was no longer visible, but you can see the two ears sticking out above the stones shaking.
Nori steps closer to the pile about to thrust his sword down on the spriggan.
“WAIT!” I shout jumping forward and grabbing Nori’s leg.
Nori stops and turns to look at me “Why? Our hunt said to take out the infestation… all of them. This is just one of them!”
“But look at it! It’s scared!” I step in front of him and slowly start edging my way toward the rocks.
“Hey little one, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you”The shaking ears stop wiggling so aggressively.
“Yeah! It’s okay! You’re safe. You can come out now. I’ll tell the big man to put away his sword.” The ears twitch at that, but it doesn’t make any movement. “Nori, put your sword away”
Behind me I hear a huff and the clink of a sword. With that sound, the ears still and I see a little eye pop out of the top.
Wait, I think I have something for this!
I reach into my side pouch and pull out a raw Celestine ore. Tentatively, I reach forward holding it out to the walking dust ball with ears. Slowly, it steps out from the pile and skitters a little closer. Obviously it was hesitant to come closer. Looking at our size difference, I notice that I’m about the same height as its ears when standing up.
Maybe I still look too big for it to be comfortable?
With that, I sit down on my knees and reach out once more with the gemstone. The creature takes another tentative step towards me with it’s eyes locked onto the gemstone.
“Do you want this, little buddy?” With the sound of my voice, it looks up surprised and then edges closer. It reaches out its tiny, thin arms and gently grabs the stone from my hand. Once I think it has a good hold on it, I let go and pull my hand back. Wearily, it looks at me then the stone. Finally it looks back at my smiling face, chitters and then jumps into my arms. Shocked, I gasp and try not to fall backwards. It curls into my arms and clutches the gemstone like it’s a precious baby.
“See!” I exclaim excitedly. “It is harmless! It just wanted to look for shiny rocks!” I stare down at the cute little dust bunny and give it a little hug. Gently I set it down and stand up next to it. It chitters and does a little dance.
“Do you want to come home with me?” I look at the creature. It steps closer to me as if to say “Yes, I want to come with you and be your best friend forever and bring you shiny rocks and dance around!”
“That settles it,” I saw excitedly placing my hands on my hip, “this little cutie is coming home with us!”
“You know we won’t get paid if we don’t do the whole job!” Nori chastises me with that dad tone of his.
“It will be fine!” I reply passively. “We have plenty of evidence of clearing the ‘infestation’” I exaggerate the infestation with air quotes, “I’ll just keep this little one in my backpack, you go collect the hunt reward and we will meet up at the airship home!”
So there I was, walking through a busy city with a spriggan hiding in my pack. Well not hiding well, it’s ear stick out above my head behind my back. Thankfully I have a stock of gemstones in there to keep the little thing happy. I can’t wait to get back home and introduce this cutie to the work family! It will just love the shop; all the bright lights, colors and baubles. This little spriggan is about to have the best life ever!
Add comment
Comments