The Adventures of Armout: Armin's Opposite Twin

An Unexpected Visitor

A/N

Sorry that this is somewhat short. It's now the shortest chapter to ever have been featured in this book, so forgive. It's seldom 3,000 words. Oh well, I hope you enjoy.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

They stood in what was going to be Armout's new room in front of a full length mirror. It used to be a junk room that'd been piled high with all sort of boxes before Armout came and he'd completely cleaned it out. Now though, there was a small cleaned out area in which he slept with a bunch of bags filled with packing material and pillows to make a somewhat comfortable mattress. His makeshift bed was still messy and unmade from that morning.

"Why do I have to wear this?" Armout complained as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was dressed in a long-sleeved, white, button-up, two-sizes-too-big, dress shirt. Over it was a black vest that tied in the back and long, dark pants on.

"Because you're going to be seen in my tavern and no way am I going to have you look like you slept in a trash bin." Armout gulped at his remark and Hedgehog sighed, "You've got to be kidding me."

Armout shook his head no. "But are the shoes really necessary?" He pointed down at his feet which were slipped into a pair of black dress shoes. "I mean, I look like a waiter at a fancy restaurant."

"My tavern is fancy."

"What? No it isn't. It's smoky, smelly, and...something else that starts with s."

Hedgehog glared at Armout and he gulped.

"What did you just say, boy?" Hedgehog asked dangerously.

Armout started to sweat a little bit and stammered, "That your tavern isn't fancy?"

Hedgehog continued to glare as he grabbed Armout's wrist and started to pull him out of the small apartment, down the stairs, past all the weird looks given to them by customers and fellow staff members, straight through the front door, and turn left to where the dumpsters were. He then promptly let go of his wrist, walked over to the dumpster, pulled out all the bags of trash, then undid them all and dumped their contents on the ground. He glared at Armout while pointing at the pile of trash he'd created.

"Pick it all up by hand and then tell me that my tavern isn't fancy," he ordered. He didn't wait for an answer as he left Armout just staring at the 3 foot high pile of trash that he'd have to put back in the bags with his bare hands.

Armout walked back into the tavern after about an hour of torture and weird glances from passerby to inform Hedgehog that he'd finally finished his filthy chore. As he walked into the smoke-filled tavern, he suddenly realized that he was covered with dirt which was probably the reason he was receiving weird looks from his customers. Armout didn't really care anymore if they thought he looked weird; it'd been happening much too often to him.

As he made his way back to Hedgehog's office, a young girl who he assumed worked at the tavern since she was wearing their trademarked aprons, pulled him behind the counter.

She had a mischievous and curious twinkle in her eye as she asked quickly, "I saw you the other day go into the Boss's office! What did it look like? Are the legends true about him keeping thousands of dollars locked up in a safe?" She held on to his shoulders and started to shake him, maybe to get the answers out of him. Though, it definitely wasn't working since Armout found himself slightly dizzy and lightheaded; not in the state to answer any curious questions.

The girl who was shaking him was abnormally tall, at least to Armout though that isn't saying much, and was slightly pudgy. Her hair was a light brown with natural curls in it that reached down to her waist. The tavern's dark aprons that wrapped around all employees hung loosely around her hips and looked as if it was about to fall off.