"Is Amarant back yet?" Brock asked the guy behind the counter of the inn where they were staying.
"That big guy you were with?" The guy asked sleepily.
Brock nodded.
"I haven't seen him since he left with you."
Brock sighed.
"Relax, he's probably just upset." Kankuro said walking toward their room. "Give him a few hours, he'll be back."
"Yeah, you're right." Brock turned to the dozing desk clerk, "Do you have a kitchen I can use? I think I'm going to make some dinner."
Kankuro's ears perked up and he came rushing back to Brock's side. "Dinner?"
"There's a stove there you're welcome to use." The nearly sleeping attendant answered motioning to an iron fire stove in the corner.
"Thanks, buddy." He turned to Kankuro. "So what do you like?"
"Hambergers are my favorite." Kankuro answered.
"You got it." Brock said walking over to the stove.
Kankuro took a seat on a chair next to the stove as Brock quickly got to work. He layed Kurasu across his lap, not hesitating in pulling off his cloak then prying open his chest cavity with a screwdriver he generated from his pocket.
"That's an odd weapon you have," Brock said, "It kinda freaks me out."
"Well, intimidation is part of the game." Kankuro said matter-of-factly.
"How did you pick a weapon like that anyway?"
"Well, my sister fights with a giant fan, I felt I needed to one-up her."
"You have a sister?" Brock asked, seemingly very interested.
Kankuro pulled back slightly. "Yeah, her name is Temari."
"You worried about her?"
"Not really." Kankuro answered fiddling with part of Kurasu's metal skeleton. "She's tough and charismatic enough that she'll be OK no matter where she ends up. It's my brother I'm worried about."
"You have a brother too?"
"Yeah, his name is Gaara."
"What's wrong with him?"
"He's very mentally unbalanced; he may be the Kazekage, but if he meets someone who rubs him the wrong way, he'll kill them."
Brock started. "Kill them?! And this guy is your brother?"
Kankuro nodded casually.
Brock slowly turned back to the stove, making a mental note to avoid this Gaara person.
"Do you have any family?"
"Yep, I'm the oldest of eleven."
Kankuro started. "Eleven children?!"
Brock nodded.
"And I thought I had a big family."
"So are you the oldest?"
"No, I'm in the middle, Temari is older, Gaara is younger."
"I hope we find them somewhere, this sister of yours sounds nice." Brock said smiling widely.
Kankuro just rolled his eyes and continued his work.
Brock slowly opened his eyes, rousing from his light sleep. He had learned at a young age that being able to wake at the drop of a hat was a very handy tactic with so many little ones to look after. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sitting up and surveying the room. Kankuro layed sprawled out over his bed with bits of wood and metal shavings, gears, knives, and various mechanical devices splayed all over him, the bed, and the floor around him. Pieces for his puppet no doubt. But he snored quietly and contently as if not even realizing a deadly weapon was sharing the bed with him.
He wandered silently over to Kankuro's bedside, gently removing all the debris from the sheets and setting Kurasu's dismantled parts neatly on the floor. He then pulled the blanket up over Kankuro, realizing as he did that the sleepy boy had neglected to remove his hat and make up. 'That's going to stain the pillow case I bet.' Brock thought to himself as he removed Kankuro's hat and set it on the bedside table. 'Good thing I won't need to clean it.' He then turned to return to his bed but stopped. "Don't you need any sleep tonight?"
"I really only need a few hours per night," Amarant's voice floated across the room, "Sometimes not even that."
Brock turned around to see Amarant sitting lazily on the window sill. "Very nice."
"Here." He held out what appeared to be two sheathed swords to Brock.
"Where are these?" He asked taking them from Amarant's hand.
"Short swords." Amarant shrugged, "You seemed more adept with the sticks than you did with the staff."
"Umm, thanks." Brock said as he drew one of the swords. It wasn't anything really remarkable, but it still looked expensive. "Why get these for me?"
"I did almost kill you. It's bad for business to let a customer die let alone kill him."
"So are you a professional tour guide?" Brock asked leaning on the window sill next to Amarant.
"No, more like a mercenary."
"So you just do a little bit of everything, huh? Sounds like fun."
Amarant didn't say anything.
"You part of a guild or something?"
"No, although I was for a little while. It's just not my style."
"So do you have a partner or anything?"
"Not usually. Although recently I've been traveling with a Dragon Knight named Freya. She does about half the work so I give her half the salary."
"She, huh?" Brock said suggestively, "She your girlfriend?"
"You have the wrong idea." Amarant said seemingly trying to hide his face under his hair.
"Oh, do I? Then you won't mind if I ask her out when we meet her."
"You stay away from her." Amarant snapped.
Brock gave him a suggestive look.
Amarant sighed. "OK, so she's my girlfriend."
Brock smiled, "So what's she like?"
"She's a Burmecian Dragon Knight who has saved me more times than I can count. But she's a little self-conscious about her tail."
"Tail?"
"Yeah, she's a Burmecian."
"That means absolutely nothing to me."
Amarant sighed. "A rat person."
"Rat person? You certainly have a one bizarre world here, Amarant."
"You may think that but it's the only world I've ever know so I don't think it's bizarre."
"I suppose." Brock flipped the sword he realized he was still holding. "I hope I won't suck too bad."
"You haven't taken you hand off yet so you're better than some others I've seen."
"Maybe so but you two seem to have sent your entire lives training to become warriors. I spent the fires fifteen years of my life changing diapers."
Amarant didn't say anything.
"So where is this place we're going to?" Brock asked after a moment of silence.
"West and a little bit north of here. If we can make it to South Gate we should be able to get a lift there."
"How far is it?"
"A days traveling. And you should get a full night's sleep for it."
"You're probably right." He put the sword back in its sheath. "But the same goes for you."
"You worry about you."
"Rule one of the mercenary, huh? Well, I'll see you tomorrow." Brock said returning to his bed to rest.
Wow, here we are, chapter three is finally here, sorry for the hold up. I realized how long things are going, even as I'm writing. I mean, I've taken up nearly a whole notebook already and I'm not even off the second world. Fun things to say just keep hitting me. I'll try to make chapters longer so maybe the story won't seem so unnecessarily long. Oh, well, hopefully the next one won't take me so long to post...