[Jaykobell]

After some well-well thought consideration, the two partners decided to help find Terry's eggs by taking the portal to Nabias. Or rather, the man was the one who'd insisted to do the ridiculous task in a city, considering his handicap. The cat had wanted a wilder area for the thrill but eventually settled to agree on a city.

Now that they were in the town of Nabias, the man couldn't help but to grumble. "This isn't something we should be doing," he started lecturing the cat, whom he knew was probably just dismissing him with a hand.

Which, of course, the cat was doing. "Chill, Apollo. We'll just tell Denzil and Eunice we totally got lost, ended up getting caught up in something, and that we did a good deed. Works out, right?"

"I am rather interested in hearing Denzil's reply to your story, Spots."

"Atticus!"

"Right, that." If the cat could be an irritating little troublemaker, then so could Apollo. He had to admit their adventures were always like this, so it wasn't much of a surprise. With a lust to see the world in any way, shape, or form, Atticus was more reckless than an ignorant child trying to stick his hand on a burning oven ring. Obviously, if Apollo didn't keep a leash on the cat, he would end up hurting himself in some manner. "Where are we... searching, then?" He was about to say "looking", but being blind, Apollo couldn't quite see anything. He could still imagine certain things, since he hadn't been born blind, but he couldn't imagine every single thing.

Atticus crossed his arms and frowned. Apollo waited patiently for the cat to reply, and eventually, Atticus did get an idea. "I know! We can check the shops! They'd be easy to hide in all those clothes and items and shelves and stuff!" He rubbed his furry paws together and grinned excitedly. "We're gonna find a whole bunch of eggs for sure!"

[Redd]

(Amusai can chill.. for a little. I dunno if he'll be back. :'U)



"'Saaai... C'mon. Why don't you want to come with me? It'll be great. Just like old times." A whiny voice assailed the medic, who just snorted and placed a hand over his face.

"And... explain it to me again?" Amusai questioned, an amused grin tugging at the side of his face.

Keoth scowled, and folded his arms in defiance. A gesture he knew his brother would be unable to see. "I know what you're doing Amusai. See. I'm folding my arms. See. I know. You want me to finally understand what's wrong with my so called 'wonderlust'." Here he broke his defiant gesture to raise his fingers in a 'quotation' gesture. "Well. It's not gonna work. I see your smug little grin you think your hiding. But. You know what? I'm a nice guy. Good brother. Best friend. I'll let you think it over and be back, eh?"

Amusai just snorted. Keoth jumped up from his seat in his brother's surgery and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll be back in a few. think it over, kay?"

And with that, Keoth flung open the door, startling a nearby nurse and hurried out. He was confident that Amusai would have give in. He always did, that was something Keoth was confident on.
Although he was immersed in his own scheming, he did overhear something rather odd. He tilted his head and scanned the area, his gaze falling on the owner of the voice - some sort of feline.
The topic had caught his attention, for just earlier when he was wandering around the outskirts of town, he had witness a strange... disturbance - for a lack of a better word - in the air and... then, an egg appeared. It was rather odd to say the least.

He fidgeted a little, unsure as to how to diplomatically, or at least tactfully approach the pair, but gave up when he couldn't figure something out. "Heeeey~ You. Were you... uh. Talking about... eggs?" He attempted a friendly smile, but there was a chance it came out awkward. "I.. uh, happened to see one around the other day. It was the oddest thing." He pressed his hands together, resisting the urge to fidget. "Are they... yours?"

[Jaykobell]

At first glance, it was nearly impossible to tell that one of the two companions was blind. Unlike most blind people, Apollo didn't carry a cane with him — although he did have one.  Since he hadn't been born blind, the only hint that he might have some eye problems were the burn scars over his eyes. They were mostly healed, but still obvious if someone cared to look long enough. Despite that, the man could orient himself relatively well without using a cane or an animal. Unless you counted Atticus, but the cat barely knew where he was going, so he wasn't a big help.

Besides, he had other ways. Having seen before losing his eyes, Apollo had a basic concept of what things looked like. He constantly referred to the magic presence of others to tell where they were, along with other thing such as a rough height and weight. It was mostly thanks to that that he didn't need a cane — because really, it was embarrassing for him to walk with one. He could roughly tell how tall Atticus was, and he could get a general idea that the cat wasn't the fattest kid around.

Apollo was the first one to turn around in Koeth's general direction when he heard a voice. Having a handicap, he was often more on edge and wary than Atticus. That was a good thing, considering the cat wasn't careful enough.

Atticus turned around too, and of course, he didn't question Koeth's statement at all. At the question about whether the eggs were theirs, Atticus stared for a moment.

"N—"

"Yes," Atticus cut Apollo quickly, but that didn't end so well when the man frowned and smacked the cat upside the head. Every single time, the cat was dying to complain and ask how in the world the blind guy could hit him. "Ugh, fine, no, they're not ours but we're supposed to find them, so they might as well be our eggs," Atticus explained quickly, rubbing the back of his head to ease the pain.

Shortly after that, the cat grinned as he got a flash of genius. "Hey, you can help us, then! Where did you find that egg?"

[Redd]

"Oh. Why do you have to find them? That just sounds really odd." Keoth replied, his pale chocolate eyes alive with curiousity. "Like, if you din't mind me asking of course. I'm just a stranger... and all."

Talking to strangers wasn't really his forte, well at least in the real world. In the mines, they were kids, all roughly the same age - with a few exceptions, though no one was more than 5 years older than him. So, he knew how to instantly talk to people like he knew them, but he was aware that in these new surroundings, it wasn't always appropriate. The fact that he spent most of his time following his dream to travel didn't help either.

He instantly perked up when he was asked to help them find the egg. "Oh! It was on the outskirts of the market place! Here, follow me!" He wandered forward a few steps, and then turned back to make sure that they were following. He had primary spoken to the cat, over the man, if only because the cat was talking more. He hadn't picked up on the other guy's handicap, especially since his sense of sound had covered that up.

"I'm Keoth. I live around these parts. I used to be a hunter, so I'm pretty good at picking out small details. If you're looking for these things... uh..." He paused, nerves picking at him again. "Could.. I help? I'm bored out of my brain and my brother's useless company. He's as blind as a bat."
He might have skipped the last part if he was aware of Apollo's ailment.

[Jaykobell]

"Awesome!" Atticus squealed when Keoth accepted to help them find the eggs. He followed the boy quickly, not even bothering to look back to make sure Apollo was following. He was confident the older man could follow the two of them just fine on his own.

On the way, Atticus went on to answer Keoth's first question as to why they had to find the eggs. "Oh, it's like... Some Cuniflare back in Terrace Park got his eggs stolen by some Yonyuu, so he's asking for help in finding them. I heard it was like an Easter egg hunt, but now the eggs are hidden all over the place." He frowned and put a toe to his chin. "I think that Yonyuu mentioned something about finding eggs in volcanoes, too."

The blind comment went right over Atticus's head, but Apollo had also heard it. However, the old man had really no reason to be upset at Keoth for being so blunt about it; Apollo always figured people didn't know he was blind. He would've left the conversation at that awkward point, but Atticus had felt the need to make it worse.

"Whoa, your brother is blind? That's crazy, Apollo's blind too!" It was mostly surprising to the cat because he honestly hadn't met a lot of blind people. "Oh, so, yeah, he's Apollo," Atticus introduced sort of in passing, as he pointed at the older man, whom remained quiet. "And I'm Atticus," he added, sticking a thumb on his chest proudly, a grin on his face. "And sure you can help, Keoth! The more the merrier! Quite honestly, I don't think Apollo can really help, being blind and all."

Fortunately for the cat, Apollo had long given up on getting offended by comments like that.

[Redd]

Keoth grinned, grateful for the company; he hadn't been able to do cool, interesting stuff with anyone for a long, long time. So to him, this was pretty awesome. Again, Amusai - although a great listener - was still traumatised by their shared experience, and so wasn't great company. Even before that, on the island, the medic was not so inclined to explore and do what kids did. Instead he spent his days with the other medics, studying and learning the trade. Only on the odd occasion, when he had to travel deep into the forest, did he head out with Keoth.
Instead Keoth played with the other hunter and gatherer children, though he did always yearn for his brothers' company.

"Oh. How... odd. An easter egg hunt, huh?" Keoth considered the idea. "Maaaan. That's some hunt." A hunt... all over Barakka - no, wait. This guy had said Terrace Park, right? A hunt all over ALL of Barakka and Lambastia. He couldn't fathom it. They must do some awesome things up in Lambastia. He'd have to visit it sometime. "Over both continents... and in volcanoes. Man. That sounds awesome. I want to visit Terrace now. And see a volcano. They have those in Lambastia?"

As he spewed questions, eyes widened up, these new places, it was just what he loved listening too. Oh, maybe he'd get the medic to go to a volcano with him. A real. Life. Volcano. That was just freaking awesome to his ears. Though, before he could indulge in that thought, for much longer, the cat was introducing more interesting information to him.
"Oh, really?" He exclaimed before grimacing apologetically. Amusai was slightly sensitive about his blindness and Keoth was slightly worried he was coming across as blatantly rude. "That is pretty crazy. Not a lot of blind guys around here." He added, voicing Atticus's thoughts. "Though, my big brother was born like that. If you don't mind me asking Apollo.. where you born like that, or...?" He trailed off, not quite sure if it was considered rude or not.

"Oh! Here we go, it's still here." He exclaimed jumping forward and pulling a few fronds of a palm in a pot plant, away to reveal a shining blue egg. Though he was careful not to touch it. He came from a superstitious tribe, and eggs appearing out of nowhere definitely made him careful. "Is that what you were looking for?"

[Jaykobell]

Since Apollo hadn't said anything about Atticus's rather tactless remark, the cat had absolutely no idea that he had said something fairly rude. Unless someone told him he was being rude, Atticus rarely caught himself being insulting.

"Yeeeeeep. All over the place," Atticus nodded, his head flopping up and head a little like a bobble-head as he nodded more than just once. "Yep. Volcanoes, beaches, mountains, all those things." Although he, personally, hadn't gone everywhere. Still, he knew they existed and that's all that mattered, right?

On the topic of the blindness, Atticus remained quiet and started looking for eggs. He didn't know Apollo all that much, since the man didn't really talk about himself very much. He didn't talk much to begin with, so talking about himself? Even less so.

Although Keoth had smiled somewhat apologetically, that was obviously something Apollo couldn't see. "No, I wasn't born this way," the older man eventually replied, his voice stern, but not threatening. "Losing my eyesight is the result of... an accident," he replied hesitantly, and he grimaced a little as he thought about it.

Atticus, of course, found a way to interrupt the conversation when Keoth showed them the egg. "Ohhh!" the cat squealed as he bent down and took a closer look at it. "Yeah, that's got to be it!" And without even thinking twice about it — if he'd thought about it at all — Atticus scooped up the egg from the plant pot. "One found, a whole bunch more to go!"

Considering he hadn't seen the egg or Atticus even moving in to get it, Apollo didn't catch on until after te cat had picked up the egg. "Wait, did you just pick it up?"

"Yep."

The just sighed as he put a hand to his face. What if that strange egg had been a booby trap...? It was too late now, but that was a perfect example as to why this cat couldn't be left alone.

[Redd]

(Sorry, I had to go to the doctors and see my mom today.)

"Oh man. I will have to make plans to go there sometime!" He exclaimed. Maybe Amusai would at least see the beaches with him. His brother wouldn't have much trouble traversing a beach, of all things. Or even the cities could be cool. Not his style of course, but still quite interesting.

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear." He replied, unsure of what else to say. He pressed his hands together and focused his attention on Atticus again. He almost got the impression that the older man either wasn't impressed with him, or just the entire situation and so he dropped it and moved over to the more chatty of the two.

"Awesome, where to next?" Keoth replied enthusiastically, pausing when he saw Atticus make a swoop for the egg. Keoth watched Atticus with wary eyes, just to make sure that the cat wouldn't disappear in the same portal that the egg had come from. Though, when he didn't appear harmed, he dismissed the notion as silly. That was, until Apollo reacted. Then he was slightly more nervous. Could you only pick up these things if you had signed up? "Was... it a good thing I didn't touch it?" He asked, eyeing the egg suspiciously.

[Jaykobell]

While he couldn't see Keoth's overall reactions, Apollo could feel the kid being a little unnerved and switching his attention back to Atticus. He wasn't particularly upset about it, considering he didn't like talking about the accident, nor did he like remembering it. Why was he even participating in this whole thing? Another reason why Atticus couldn't be in charge.

"Pfft, nothing's gonna happen," Atticus said as he waved a hand dismissively. "Just pick 'em up! What could happen, anyway?"

"You dragged us into this whole thing without even bothering to ask any questions," Apollo lectured, crossing his arms. "The egg could have been booby-trapped, or it could have been dangerous to you. You have to be careful with those things." But the cat wouldn't listen, would he?

Of course he wouldn't. "Yeah, sure. Come on, Keoth!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the kid by putting an arm around his shoulders. "We're off to... this town! To find more eggs!" he added as he pointed right in front of them, with no specific idea or direction in mind.

Apollo rolled his eyes. "Maybe a more natural area would have more eggs than a crowded city street."

[Redd]

(sdajdahjdafhasd. Atticus is adorable. :'U)

"Oh, okay then." He said simply, dismissing his earlier silly thought. That would have been scary - if they had been booby-trapped - but from what he gathered, they were normal eggs, just teleported all over the country. He leaned over and gave the egg sitting in Atticus's hand a poke anyway, just to reassure himself that it wasn't going to bite.

"Okay!" He exclaimed excitedly, too caught up in the moment to realise that Atticus had no real sense of direction. His eyes brightened up as he scanned the area - maybe there were more laying around here.

He quickly changed his train of thought when Apollo mentioned a more specific area. "Like a park? I know one that's pretty close by you know." He stated, placing his hands on his waist proudly, glad to be able to help this odd cat. "That's a good point though. I'd assume the ones on the street would have been picked up already."

He walked forward a few paces and again he checked if Atticus and Apollo were following him. "It's liiiiike. Maybe a block from here." He explained, waving to the surrounding area. "You gotta get out of the market area, and away from the shops. Lots a people are here, less so in the park. It's a weekday so people are pretty busy with their... jobs I guess." He grimaced at the word 'job'. Man, who needed a desk job anyway. Those things were just as bad as slavery. Almost. You got lunch breaks and money and you got to leave at the end of the day.

[Jaykobell]

[ HAY MAN. DON'T DISS MY AWESOME CHOCOLATY AWESOME-SAUCE DESK JOB. >:U I know where you live. ]

"Yeah! A park's an awesome idea!" Atticus wanted to just dash off into a general direction, but Apollo would probably grab him by the shirt and tell him to start thinking, for once. But Keoth seemed to know how to get there, so he figured just following the kid would be easier — and smarter. Hey, see, he was thinking this through. Apollo was just underestimating him, pfft.

At the mention of a job, Apollo hoped Atticus wouldn't dwell on the question. Apollo's accident had happened at work, and because of his acquired handicap, he hadn't been able to find a stable job. He had nothing to lose, and so, that was why he'd decided to start traveling with this little group.

Instead, while Atticus did get started on the job topic, the cat just kept to his own experiences rather than blurting out everything about Apollo's past — which the cat knew about. "Pfft, jobs. I'm glad I don't have to work. Traveling's way more interesting." Unless his job would involve different things roughly every day, the cat would probably get too bored and fidgety to do anything.

[Redd]

(Homg. Poor Keoth. Open ALL the old wounds. And. EY. I DARE YOU to come to my hellhole of a country. I. DARE. YA. >8U)

If Atticus had dashed off, Keoth would have simply followed him, probably leaving poor Apollo alone. Apollo, to Keoth was like the awkward parent that was there when you went to a friend's house. Not that he'd encountered such a scenario, but it was just like that. He wanted to try to make conversation just because he was  there, but in all honesty he wanted to talk to Atticus. This crazy cat, he could relate to, in a way. The seemed roughly the same age and they both seemed to act before logical thought came through.

"Hey, no way. You like travelling? That's pretty much all I do." Keoth did realise that most people did like travelling. But man. They shared a hobby too? Keoth was a little disappointed this cat didn't live in town, or at least... he lived in the same continent. He could have used a friend out here.
One fear of Keoth's was that he moved around way too much to actually form relationship's with people and because of that, he was going to be (forever) alone. But for now, he pushed past it to chase his dream.

"I know, right? My brother works a desk job as a medic... or well. Doctor. Medic is so old fashioned... apparently." He scowled, remembering the correction someone had made to him. "I swear to Zu'hai he's just gonna rot away sitting there."

[Jaykobell]

[ CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. COME AT ME BRO. I dare you to come here. Where we speak French. UB< ]

Atticus, being almost self-diagnosed with an attention disorder, often ignored Apollo unless the man started speaking or touched him in some way — like grabbing his shirt or smacking him upside the head. He wasn't really that bad, but whenever someone entered the scene, Atticus often pushed Apollo aside to start conversations with the other people around him.

"Well, I guess it's not really traveling. Or not really traditional traveling. See, we're on a quest," the cat explained as he patted his chest proudly with a fist. "So I guess once the quest is over, we'll stop traveling and all go our separate ways. But until then, we're an awesome group on a mission. Yep." As he was saying that, the cat could feel Apollo's blind eyes staring deep into his soul from behind them.

On the topic of Keoth's brother being a medic, Atticus was impressed. "A doctor? Holy crap. That's awesome." Where he came from, doctors and nurses, while still in practice, were a lot rarer — and healing mages and wizards were even rarer than those. If you could score a healer of any kind, you were some of the luckiest folks around.

"Is he a traditional doctor, or does he use healing magic?" Apollo peeped up from behind them, trying to steer the discussion into something... tolerable, as they made their way to the park.

[Redd]

(Hey, hey. My bonjour is of THE highest calibre. Don't forget that.)

A... mission? That definitely interested Keoth, in many ways. What mission, who for, where did they have to go, what did they have to do? So many questions ran through his mind and before he could stop, process them and pick out one, Apollo cut through his thoughts, like a knife through butter.

“Oh, Amusai? He’s a bit of both, I guess. Not so much of a traditional healer in a sense thoug, more so an alchemist. Like. He knows a bit of healing magic, but he likes the old school kinda witch 'potion-brewing' and 'herbs' kinda medicine too.“ Keoth rambled, storing the mission part in the back of his mind, for his subconscious to dwell over and potentially blurt out some sort of awkward question later. “We grew up in a tribal village, so he kinda uses our old trade secrets and stuff to treat people. No harm caused I guess, considering that place probably doesn’t even exist any more.” He shrugged nonchalantly. The village wasn’t even considered home to him any more, and didn’t consider it a sore topic. Sure the place probably didn’t exist, and his parents, friends, tutors and all he ever knew were dead, but it opened up new opportunities. If he hadn’t been forced to escape, he might have never left.

Right now, they were walking back through a crowded 'marketplace', or at least it was the business district of Nabias. The walls were lined with shops and the edges of the street were lined with stalls. Even for a weekday, it was fairly busy. Once they were past this however, it would thin out and give was to more park-like areas.

[Jaykobell]

Atticus himself didn't know much about magic or its variants, and so, alchemy was pretty much unknown to him. When Keoth explained his brother specialized more in a sort of potions and herbs medicine, the cat did make a connection. "Ohhh, so he's like... a shaman sort of thing!"

"A shaman dwells more on spiritual and religious contexts. They can have knowledge of healing, but they mostly communicate with spirits and dreams," Apollo interrupted, before the cat associated a meaning to the wrong term, which he did often. "Although every definition of a shaman depends on the beliefs or structure of a particular community. Alchemy is mostly a science based on equivalent exchange: you give in order to receive. Among others, it's the ancestor to modern science and medicine." He was pretty talkative if you went into a topic he could talk about, right?

Atticus just stared and eventually rolled his eyes at the man. "Yeah... I didn't get any of that," Atticus admitted as he once again turned back to Keoth. "So basically, your brother takes herbs, sticks them together, and then people drink what he does and they get cured?" Atticus recapitulated, totally sure he'd understood everything to a T.

When they started leaving the busy town and the stalls behind, Atticus looked around curiously at the new surroundings. As for Apollo, he could tell they were leaving the busy stalls behind from the change in noise, but he couldn't figure anything out besides that.