"Next time you step foot in here, you'll be leaving without feet!" the surly owner of the Jaunty Jamboree snarled, spitting on the ground as Captain scrambled onto his feet.
He shook the dirt off him, gathering what little dignity he had left.
"Your palm wine tastes like trolwolf sweat anyway!" he yelled back.
That was a lie. The Jaunty Jamboree had hands-down the best palm wine outside Odyali but Captain wasn't about to admit that.
He sucked his teeth, dusting his palms and shoving them in his pockets as Anike stalked up to him. Her signature scowl had made yet another appearance and Captain couldn't help but grin back at her. Just to even things out a little bit.
"Is there a bar in Lok you're not banned from?" she asked, gaze unsympathetic.
Her green skin shimmered in the bright sunlight as she stared at Captain, arms placed firmly across her chest.
He raised a finger and opened his mouth before pausing.
"Probably not."
He stretched his bruised limbs as Kosara swanned out of the bar. Her ankara skirts swished as she exited, waving amiably over her shoulder.
"Gosh, Captain. Do you know how embarrassing it is for me when you keep getting kicked out of places?" she asked, shaking her head in disappointment and gliding forward to meet Anike.
"Ha ha," Captain laughed sarcastically.
"Good luck getting Majek to heal you," she called back as Captain hobbled behind them.
They traversed the narrow alleys and waterlogged avenues of Little Odyali. The sector of Lok was a scarily faithful rendition of one of the country's seaside towns, down to the crystallized salt creeping up the buildings and the permanent smell of seafood.
Kosara ran her hands across the windowsill of one of the cramped buildings, sighing loudly.
"Remember that time we pretended to be Kjelaran nobles—" she said suddenly.
Captain snorted. "The first or the second?"
"And that time we got sent on a wild goose chase to find the Sword of Seione?" she pushed on.
"Wild goose chase? Do you mean death sentence?" Anike asked, eyebrows raised.
"Anything for coin, right?" Kosara said, staring pointedly at Captain. He didn't think he imagined the bite in her voice but she continued her trip down memory lane before he could comment. "And then we did find the Sword and we nearly got scammed out of fifty thousand nerulos because Captain can't read a simple contract?"
"And then Captain got us out of the whole mess and we promised to never speak of his mistake? Yes, I do remember that," he replied immediately.
They reminisced as they walked, widely exaggerating while correcting the most minuscule details.
Captain sighed. He knew Kosara was trying to make a point and he hated to admit that she was right. The last few jobs had been... slightly less than exciting. But they couldn't very well go against the King's orders. He was the reason they could do more exciting, not exactly legal, things anyways. They needed to stay in his good books.
"We've had some good times," Kosara said, sighing dramatically once more.
"We have," Anike agreed.
"Oh not you too," Captain moaned loudly. "I didn't even think you liked the rush."
She shrugged. "I've found I prefer being hunted by clans to carting nobles around."
"We've only done it four times!" he countered. "Including this trip."
YOU ARE READING
Ship In A Bottle
Fantasy"Riddle me this little Queen: A crooked crown and a toy soldier. A bloodied blade and a haunted sailor. What do these four things have in common?" ------- Koshoni was not sucked into a story. She clawed her way in. She was not swept away, not stolen...
