Clank felt even more exhausted than he did the night before. Sitting in the back seat of Talwyn's ship, he could see the dark circles under her eyes had only gotten darker. They approached Magnus now, landing in the parking lot of the building the Smuggler was last seen. It was relatively small, and a good way off from the edge of town. It had a mechanic's garage with a couple of old fuel pumps in front. The surrounding area was littered with broken down ships that looked like they hadn't moved in decades. Other than that, their ship was the only one still alive among the graveyard of automobiles. The whole building stuck out like a sore thumb among the lush forests that grew wild and untamed around it. It was as if someone had just slapped the building down in the middle of nowhere, while the surrounding flora attempted to slowly reclaim the land.
The group stepped inside, the little bell on the door jingling to announce their arrival.
"Hey! We don't serve their kind here." Came a sharp voice from the other side of the room.
Talwyn looked up to see a heavy set, purple skinned gentleman. He was up there in age, as evident by the grey wisps of hair that clung to his chin. He sat behind the register, cowboy hat set low over his brow.
"I said we don't serve their kind here!" He repeated, indicating with a small knife in his hand. Talwyn followed his line of gesturing, to Cronk, Zephyr, and Clank.
"Organics only, we don't serve no bolts for brains." He said, before lowering his head, continuing to do whatever it was under the counter, before the group had interrupted. Talwyn ground her teeth, she started forward, prepared to tear the old guy a new one. Cronk grabbed her arm before she could.
"We'll wait at the ship," He said quietly, "Give us a shout if anything goes wrong." He gave her arm a small squeeze. She could tell he was just as pissed. She knew on any other day they would have let her lay into this guy, but not today. There was too much a stake.
The three robots went back out, Cronk shot the man at the counter a hard glare, even though he no longer paid them any mind. Talwyn was then left on her own. She took a deep breath to compose herself, before approaching.
"Hey, excuse me, sir." She said. Up close now, she could see that the man was whittling a piece of wood under the table. He had a bucket next to him, filled with little wood filings. She couldn't make out exactly what he was shaping the thing into, maybe a basilisk leviathan? He put it down on the counter when she spoke up. He tilted his hat up to look her in the eye.
"And what can I do for you, little missy?" He asked.
The pet name got under her skin more than it normally would have. The juxtaposition of this man sounding so nice, when he had just, so rudely, barred her friend and guardians from entering, made her quietly seethe. She tried to hide her mounting disdain and tapped at her wrist communicator. She pulled up a hologram of the Smuggler.
"I'm looking for this man, he visited this shop the other day. Do you know him?" Talwyn asked.
The shop owner leaned forward slightly to see the image better.
"Yeah, he stops by to pick up supplies every so often," The man said, before sitting back in his chair. "Is he your boyfriend or something, sweetheart?"
Talwyn clenched her fist, she so badly wanted to drive it into this man's face. If she didn't get out of there soon, she just might.
"Do you know where I can find him?" She asked, curtly.
"Hm… like I said, he only comes in here occasionally, but I think he's currently camped out in the forest just west of here. It's a whole abandoned village overrun by foliage. A pretty popular camping spot for lovers." He winked at her.
"That's all I need. Thank you." Talwyn said between gritted teeth, and turned to leave.
"Tell your boyfriend I said hi!" He called after her, getting back to his whittling.
Talwyn stormed out the door, arms rigid at her sides. She walked past the three robots at the ship.
"Did you get any…" Clank began to ask, but Zephyr touched his arm. Clank glanced at him, seeing him shake his head. He closed his mouth and watched as Talwyn marched over to one of the most decrepit looking ships. She started kicking it. She let out angry grunts as she did, hitting as hard as she could. The rusted metal warped under her fierce blows. She continued to stamp and kick even past the pain that began to develop in her foot. She gave the thing one last furious boot, before pausing to pant from exertion. As she caught her breath, she realized there were tears streaming from her eyes. She scrubbed them from her face furiously. She took in a shaky breath, before turning around to face the others.
"Let's go." She said simply.
Chapter 8 image: i imgur com avPtY2R png