The Dao of Magic

102 - Squabbles

"MUHAHAHA I AM RICH, RIIIICH!" Tess is grinning like a maniac while letting gold coins rain through her fingers. The black-haired girl is inside a small room, large chests stacked everywhere. A few of the ironbound containers are kicked over, spilling their glittering contents throughout the hidden chamber. Tess rolls around with a foolish grin on her face, dragging her arms through the thick layers of spilled valuables.

*BAMBAMBAM*

"LET ME IN, DON'T HOARD IT TO YOURSELVES!"

"Fuck off, Bord! I am finally truly rich!"

"Rich? It's not food?"

"No, it's money! And gold! AND JEWELS WOOO I'M RICH!"

"Can't eat gold, and jewels taste bad. I'm going to raid another kitchen!"

"No, you won't. Stupid humans, we should leave before they realize what is going on. The chaos is starting to lessen."

Five minutes later, a beastwoman is seen dragging two humans through the streets. The human boy is dragging a trail of sausages behind him while the girl leaves a trail of valuables in her wake. The few other figures out and about all stop and stare at the trio, their lack of green robes immediately painting them as outsiders and intruders.

"Y-you three! Stop right this ins-"

The beastkin's glare is filled with enough fury to shut the mage up immediately. The small, thorny plants sprouting up from between the cobblestones around the beastwoman's feet only add to the intimidating aura of anger. "Human, just don't."

Each word coming out of her mouth seems to cut the air. The aura of dread is gone the moment one of the figures she is dragging behind her disappears in a black cloud. The still-frozen nature mage can only gape as his purse gets nicked by nimble fingers.

Tess freezes now that she can look around the corner of the building this entire scene played out in front of. "Shit Angy, there's a lot of people coming this way."

"Bord, start running on your own. They will not feed your fat ass when they catch you." Angeta leaves the busily chewing boy behind as she darts after the black streak that just ran past her. Bord dusts off his pants while putting another sausage into his mouth. "What are they..."

He stops as a rumbling sound reaches his ears. His head slowly turns towards the corner as the sound of many footsteps becomes ever more apparent.

Not half a minute later, Bord catches up to his two fellow disciples, an ever growing horde of plants animals with green clad riders chasing them. The trio rushes back towards the centre of the town, their rings stuffed with gold, food and rare plants.

⁂

"But his name is 'Drew', right? Why does he want to be called 'Teach' then?" Selis is sitting on a chair while forcefully patting a grumpy rabbit. She is sunbathing as the ship slowly rolls in the wind, chatting to the other occupants

"The word 'teach' means to share knowledge. Don't you noble folks have those types of people?" Ket slowly reels in the fishing line he is trailing behind the boat while glancing at the redheaded siblings.

"Ah, we had tutors. They taught us in exchange for a lot of money. Knowledge is only powerful if it is kept to a select few, you know."

"Yeah sis, before I went on that... vacation, I remember dad and mom talking about the cost of hiring mister Blanche."

"They gave that creep money?"

Brother and sister start reminiscing about a past not too long ago. The rest of the people ignore the duo as they keep talking about Teach. Ket turns to Re-Haan while keeping an eye on his fishing line. "Do you know why he insists on being called Teach? It's a pretty old word that has fallen into disuse."