Chapter 9 - My Fair Villa
The concession of paladins was quick to arrive, a small army dropping down on the back of a giant white raven. The woman’s roar shrank to a smaller greeting when she switched back to her normal form.
“All this for me? Must have really pissed Anome off, huh?”
Several paladins surrounded the thief. Without his mask, he’d gotten a lot more talkative, for better or worse. So much so that one of the paladins slapped a muzzle across his mouth, shutting him up completely. But the man’s amber eyes still shined with an amused gleam. Especially as he looked at the two who’d taken him down.
“Subtracting the cost of forest damage, that comes around to about 3000 silver pounds.”
Giu’s eyes bulged at the number. The raven woman waved a hand and two sacks of coins appeared. Even if Tea got the larger share, he couldn’t help grinning ear to ear as the weight fell in his hands. The jingle was enough to make even the largest grizzly shed a tear.
“We appreciate your patronage,” Tea said.
“And we appreciate your assistance,” said the raven. “We’ve been after the Dragon Thief for months, but he’s always slipped away. Don’t know how you managed to corner him so easy, but if you need more work, be sure to give the paladins a shout.”
The raven extended their hand, which Tea took with a firm shake. With the paladin’s arrival, the Dragons were quick to vacate the premises, though not before warning Tea to keep quiet about their involvement. They got to keep the special spirit, but as far as the wider world needed to know, the thief was taken down by two well-meaning travelers.
All things considered, it was a win in Giu’s book.
“Now, if you’ll excuse us,” the raven said, beginning to transform again. 
Her arms grew into massive wings, the armor she wore expanding as her body did. She let out a guttural croak, which her fellow paladins took to mean get on, the assembly all gathering atop her back.
She gave a final dip of the head before she took off with one massive flap, the wind so strong it nearly blew both Giu and Tea off their feet. The latter, he felt grab onto his shoulders to keep from flying away.
The avian became a light in the sky. Then, a blip on the horizon. And then she was gone altogether, the captured thief with her.
Tea straightened their clothes.
“And this is why I don’t work with paladins.” Their coin pouch vanished. “Well, guess our business is done here, Gi. Let’s head home.”
“Already?” Giu pocketed his trophy. “Aren’t you forgetting something, pixie?”
Tea raised a brow. Giu simply pointed to the mess of frozen forest behind him.
“T, do you have any idea how much crap we just went through?” he asked.
“I thought you said-”
“I don’t mean that as a bad thing,” Giu corrected. “I meant as in, we just went through a very traumatic ordeal. And the way I see it, our survival dictates we cement this occasion in some way. Y’know besides just getting paid.”
Tea’s brow raised further.
“Are you…suggesting we celebrate?”
Giu smiled. “Doesn’t have to be that crazy. But I do have something else in mind.”
Tea looked at him to go on, but he simply continued to smile as the idea held in his mind.
***
A cookie bounced off the metal, rolling down into the abyss below.
“Crap. That’s not gonna kill someone, is it?”
Tea tapped their lips. “Might cause a concussion or two, but should be fine, Gi.”
The canine nodded, tossing up another and managing to catch it this time. He threw up his hands in victory. Tea snickered. They’d denied his challenge to a sweet catching contest, but Giu had yet to give up hope on the idea.
“Gotta say, Gi. This was not the kind of celebration I would have expected.”
Giu scoffed. “You make it sound like I’m some weirdo. You try smelling these in your face every day for weeks on end and tell me you wouldn’t get a little curious.”
“I meant more so the train part, dummy.”
“Hey, don’t tell me you never thought of doing this before.”
The pixie didn't respond, though the faint wrinkle of a smile remained as they took another cookie.
The idea had been a bit spur-of-the-moment, but the experience of seeing the world from the top of the Tour De Villa made it all worth it in Giu’s eyes. As high up as they were, he could reach out a hand to touch the clouds. In fact, he held out a cookie to see if they’d catch any extra sky flavor.
The result was a failure.
“So, Gi,” Tea said. “Something I’ve been wondering.”
“What?”
“You said you’ve got amnesia, right?”
“Right.”
“How come you’re not more worried about…y’know…your folks? Your old friends? Anybody you used to know?”
He shrugged. It wasn’t a new question for him. Nor one he hadn’t considered. Somewhere out there must have been a family of canines looking for Giu. They might have been good people. They might have been rich and famous. 
Or they might have been infamous criminals for all he knew.
But at the same time, whoever they were, they knew him as he was before. Not as Giu Penhair, but whatever name he’d once known.
“It’s not something that really bothers me, I guess,” the canine said. “Whoever I was, right now, I’m just a guy trying to make a living in the Villa. I trim hedges and beat up teenagers. And occasionally, I get in fights with ice-wielding mystics. That’s enough for me.”
Tea smirked. “A simple soul of simple tastes. I guess I can relate.” The pixie raised a cookie. “Well then, here’s to making the best of the present.”
Giu lifted a cookie, both tapping together before the two travelers crunched down. The sweet chocolate melted in his mouth, his tongue swishing around his lips to get at the crumbs. 
If this was to be his life, he had no qualms. Fighting with bears and riding flying trains. All in a day's work for Giu Penhair, the hired sword. He smiled at the thought.
Guess that’s who I am, huh?
He leaned against the train’s roof.
“There is one more thing I’d like to know, Gi,” Tea said.
“Shoot.”
He reached for another cookie, but his hand instead grabbed air. They’d cleaned the bowl dry. He looked to Tea, who pulled a second one from thin air, the sweet confections pipping hot with the succulent aroma of cinnamon.
“I know it’s been a while,” the pixie said, “but you remember the day we first met. When I was being chased by that rabbit?”
“You mean when you tried to use me as a meat shield?”
Tea shrunk. “Oh. So you did notice that, huh?”
“Wasn’t hard to put two and two together, no. Real question is how the heck you ended up in a rabbit fight, to begin with.”
Tea gave a nervous chuckle. “Business deal gone wrong essentially. But that’s beside the point. My big question is whether you have a…mmm…let’s say bias against the rabbit kind.”
Giu thought a moment. When the word rabbit came up, he could only think of three things: how strong they were, that they hated the Villa, and that they tasted delicious. Nothing else came to mind, positive or negative.
The canine scratched his head.
“I guess I don’t really care one way or the other. Why?”
Tea swallowed their cookie. “Well...Technically speaking, I’m a neutral party, Gi. Neither Villa nor Syndicate. Completely freelance.”
“So?”
“Sooooo…I might have gotten an offer from a contact in Syndicate territory. And I wanted to know if you…would be interested in coming with me.” 
He froze mid-bite. 
Tea shifted. The declaration wasn’t followed up by a dismissive snub or the pixie trying to play off their words as a business exchange. They met his gaze, cookie held close to the chest, eyes scanning his for a reaction.
He quickly ate the rest of his cookie.
“Gi?”
“Sowwy.” He swallowed, wiping his mouth. “Wasn’t expecting that. Uh. Yeah, sure. When do we start?”
Tea’s face brightened.
“I was hoping we could ship out tomorrow. Assuming that’s okay with you.”
“Tomorrow, eh?” Giu took another pastry. “Yeah, that’s fine. But I’m gonna need travel snacks. Y’know, besides just these.”
Tea chuckled. “That can be arranged, Gi. Don’t worry.”
He bit into one last cookie. As much as he loved Tea’s cooking, he needed meat to live. And eating the pixie was out of the question.
***
The day after their travel discussion was a blend of packing up cases and clearing evidence.
Tea flew around the house, scrubbing floors, vacuuming, and popping in and out of forms to get into tight spaces. Giu did his part to sweep up fragments of glass and clean windows. In the pixie’s own words, they needed to make the place spotless in case unfriendly sources came digging through the residence.
“So, who do we not want finding us?” Giu asked.
“It tends to vary. Last time it was the Croc Bros. Before that was Redge. Oh, and can’t forget the Fairy Triad.”
“You got hunted by fairies?”
“I did warn you there were a lot of eyes on me, Gi. Not too late to back out.”
“You kidding? If there’s a fight, I’m game.”
“In that case, you’ll have plenty to work with.”
The two did one last sweep of the apartment before removing their gloves, Tea tossing them in a waste bin with the cleaning supplies. A dash of alcohol and one fire spell later, they were tossing ashen remains in a dumpster.
Tea nodded proudly. As thorough as they’d been, Giu held out hope someone would find their traces. If only to satisfy his curiosity. How many people were currently combing the streets looking for Tea? It wasn’t like they were hard to find. Then again, the pixie did avoid public spots. Most of them. And with their new form, they were slightly less recognizable.
“Alright,” said the pixie. “We should probably get moving while we can.”
The pixie gestured ahead. Across town was a pier overlooking the twin rivers that crossed under the capital. Several wooden ships were parked in the harbor, none of which were bigger than a sailboat. 
“Boat travel is the fastest,” the pixie said. “Ready?”
Giu slung his suitcase over his shoulder. “As I’ll ever be.”
The pixie gave him an approving nod, the canine returning a smile. There were worse people he could imagine spending an extended boat trip with.
Giu reached out a fist, the pixie begrudgingly extending a paw to meet it.
Tea. The landlord who he’d saved on a whim and followed as equally much on a whim. Wherever they’d go, Giu had little doubt the trouble would follow. Be they fairies, crocs, or giant scorpions, they’d run into someone trying to kill them somewhere along the lines. And he fully looked forward to punching whoever it was in the face on the pixie’s behalf.
“C’mon,” Tea said. “We’re should get moving before it gets dark. Hard to spot enemies in the river at night.”
“There a lot of nocturnal rabbits?”
“No. But crocodiles are.”
Giu nodded. “Ah. Fair point. Any chance your tsuchluyavan, works underwater.”
“Nope.” Tea smiled. “But that’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?”
End of The Villa Arc