[Silver]

A warm salty breeze welcomed them into the city on the coast. The warm sun baked the sand, and even the ocean breeze wasn’t enough to cool it. The people of the city hid in the shade and waited for the warmest parts of the day to fade away. Clearly, nobody in the right mind would be out and about in the heat of the high sun.

Except, perhaps, for two unfortunate travelers and their sygriff. It had been a long journey to get here, and they looked well worn from the effort. Ari was almost certain that there was no sweat left in her body at all by now. Oswald tried to look cheerful, but he was also not entirely certain his skin wasn’t melting.

[Silver]

It was all worth it, Ari thought to herself as they approached the city. This was one of the richest cities on the coast. The fortunate position on trade routes combined with the wealth of salt from the sea made it the perfect combination to foster affluence.

She wanted to get started right away, but she knew that she could not. Her body was ready to give out from all of the walking, not to mention that huge scorpion they had to fight off on the way here. They had to find somewhere to sit down and rest. In the shade, preferably.

[Silver]

Cardamom was too packed up with the spoils from their adventures to carry her like he usually did. He too looked uncomfortably hot and tired. His feathers drooped and his beak was held half open like a panting dog. Ari felt bad for him, but she knew that it would only be for a little longer.

“We need to find a stable for Cardamom,” she said aloud. Oswald nodded in agreement, but he was really too tired to think too much about talking. Cardamom swished his long tail in response to hearing his own name. It was all the effort he could muster.

[Silver]

A haggard older man stood outside of a stable, mostly full of cavillion and the odd serraptor or suncheeka. Ari smiled at her good fortune. They would not have to look that hard, after all. She grabbed the more valuable packs off of Cardamom and distributed their weight among herself and Oswald.

“Hey,” she said rather directly. “I’m hoping you have some space for my sygriff here. They’re a delicate lot, so I’m hoping you’ll take very good care of him.” Ari looked down at her palm which she had filled with coins.

[Silver]

The part about him being delicate wasn’t really true, but she wanted to make sure the old man knew what was at stake. There was no way she was going to turn over her best friend to just anyone. She would gauge his response to determine whether or not she was going to give him the coin and the privilege.

“Sure, sure,” the old man said in a gruff voice. His sunburnt old hands reached out to touch the coins she displayed. She allowed him to take one of the coins and examine it. Once he was done with that, he let out a wide, crooked smile.

[Silver]

“If there is not a feather out of place when we return, then the rest of this will be yours. For now, here’s enough for feed and security.” It didn’t sound like she was giving him a choice as she passed some coin his way.

“Yes ma’am,” the old man said in a way that may or may not have been sarcastic. Nonetheless, he grabbed Cardamom’s harness and led him into the stables. Ari waved goodbye, a signal that said he was allowed to leave with the man.

“Featherbrain has a place to nap, now us,” Ari said. Oswald nodded sagely. “I think we should pony up and get a real nice place, with a foot rub and everything. Not like we can’t afford it after that last haul,” she said, mostly to herself.

[Silver]

She was careful to keep her voice quiet as not to draw attention to her own wealth. She knew better than to flash coin in front of the wrong person. Between the two of them, they would surely not easily be bullied out of their money, but she wasn’t one to take chances.

They wandered through the vast city for a while, but their luck was not as good as it had been with the stable. It seemed that Ari had a complaint about every single lodging situation they wandered past. Oswald didn’t really care, but he wasn’t about to argue. He just wanted to put the heavy pack down.

[Silver]

“This one,” Ari suddenly declared confidently. Something about the place just felt right. Normally she strongly preferred hoarding her money to spending it lavishly, but she was awfully tired, and this place looked really nice.

“How much for a room?” she asked in her most friendly voice. When the guy at the counter told her the number, she didn’t look too pleased, but she held it back well. “Are you sure you can’t do any better for a couple of weary travelers?” she asked sweetly. Eventually, she managed to talk him into giving them a bigger room for no extra charge.

[Silver]

Oswald was glad that he had someone more charming to travel with. She always seemed to know what to say to get people to do what she wanted. He was under no illusion about the fact that she probably did it to him, too, but he didn’t mind. Most of the time, her scheming helped him out as well, so he was okay with it.

He was more than happy to get rid of the multiple packs he was carrying once they got to their new room. It was enough that he had to carry all of his own crap and armor, but he was carrying more than a share of what Cardamom had as well. He was more than ready to shed his armor, which he hastily did as soon as the bags were on the ground.

[Silver]

"What're we gonna do with all this... stuff?" Oswald mused aloud.

"The usual," Ari shrugged. "Trade it, sell it, see if we can turn it into something fun." As she said that last part, she eyed over the hastily wrapped up stinger from the huge scorpion they had fought. She was hoping that a good idea came to her about that one eventually.

"For now, I'm going to lay here and wait for the sun to go down. How about you?" Ari flopped onto one of the beds. It was genuinely soft and not at all scratchy. Just perfect. She knew this was the place.

"I could use a wash," Oswald said with a shrug. He was clearly very sweaty from being under that armor all day.

[Wild Pet Found]