60 … and more practice
"This piece of the timeline was stable, something happened here, something that allowed the other timelines to be disturbed." Tuzi whispered and observed their surroundings with caution.
"We have to prevent it then." Bunnix was determined.
"That … is not our task, we just need to know what magic was going on here and then pick up a hero to deal with it." Tuzi replied quietly. "We seldom fight, only if we find another time traveller then ..." She trailed off and observed Bunnix with wide eyes, there was another time traveller right beside her.
"So, we are looking for a time travelling villain." Bunnix narrowed her eyes and looked around.
There was a long quiet moment, the men who almost found them have walked away with the fish, the two heroes and that older man were temporarily alone.
"How long do we wait?" Bunnix inquired. "I'm not impatient, but maybe if we split ..." Tuzi shook her head, she knew what was a possible reason, another time traveller, an inexperienced one, might have messed up the timelines, but it was up to them to fix that.
"Maybe if we detransform, we can walk around and blend into the rest better?" Ashed a short hero with pink hair who was wearing a pyjama before she transformed.
"No." Tuzi rushed her answer. "This could take months, even years, because the burrow is not that precise, and this time it was all messed up. We do not age while transformed so I do not expect you to grow either if that is what worries you."
"Good. I can wait." Bunnix grinned. She was able to wait, she was patient, she was able to watch the paint dry,quite literally, if that was a spray paint on a wall and part of a painting that she was working on then yes, she was definitely patient.
The man stepped away from the smelly fish and held a tissue to his nose. He stood really close to the two rabbit heroes who were hiding underneath a folded sail and other equipment that awaited to be loaded onto the sailboats in the harbour.
"Monsieur de Vanily!" A man was shouting and panting, he was running across the dock. The man who observed the water did not move. "Monsieur!" The first man shouted. "Monsieur de Vanily, we have another opportunity for trade now if you only ..."
"No." The man with the large red nose, and even larger belly, Monsieur de Vanily, replied shortly. His eyes were watery and her continued to stare into the water surface. "No." He repeated again when the slender man was by his side.
"But Monsieur de Vanily!" The young man started to protest, he spoke in rushed and hushed words as he explained his trading idea and his eyes darted all around them. He did not want to be overheard so someone else used the opportunity he just stumbled upon.
"Monsieur Graham!" Monsieur de Vanily cut him off with loud and harsh pronunciation of the young man's name. "I have made a deal with a friend of mine and I shall hear him out first." He did not care if anyone overheard him.
"But Monsieur Rufus he … " Both Bunnix and Tuzi were able to see the disgusted expression on the face of the young man. "He is too busy testing the goods you brought for trade and he is rather determined to reach the bottom of each cup ..."
The big old man rubbed his belly affectionately, his glassy and unfocused eyes revealed he liked to taste his own goods too, while his red nose and belly indicated that the man and the bottom of a cup were not strangers either. He just grinned in self satisfied manner.
"Trust me, the deal I have made is perfect. Besides, it will allow me to marry off my youngest daughter and with that I shall call my travel here a success." Monsieur de Vanily stated proudly as he fiddled with his belt and tried to make little more space for his belly.
"Marry your daughter, Therese? She is to be married?" Mr Graham reacted without thinking, but then he quickly schooled himself. "I mean, that doesn't mean that you should not reconsider the trade deal I managed to arrange."
"Yes, Therese is to be married to Rufus! Why else would I drag her around half of the known world!" The older man chuckled. "And I consider herself lucky to be wanted at all by a man who is so well off, especially after what her older sister had done."
The younger man had difficulties breathing after hearing the news, he stared at the older man with a mixture of bewilderment and rage. He liked Therese a lot, perhaps he even loved her, they spent so many nights chatting on their way over as they both met on the deck of the ship, the nights were the only time of the day when it wasn't too hot to be there.
"What?" Monsieur Oliver Graham had only the vaguest idea about what happened, Therese only told him how one of her older sisters was in a convent. His face was turning red quickly, he clenched his fists, but then he started to calm down, there was a plan forming in his head.
"A young gentleman such as you, Oliver, has to prove himself first before he can marry, especially if the girl's father has such good connections as I have." The older man carried a self satisfied smirk, but he spoke slowly and mumbled, obviously under influence.
"Does she know?" Monsieur Graham asked quietly, but his voice was cold and determined. He glared at the older man and assumed he already knew the answer. That girl kept talking about her plans when she returned back home.
Oliver had an idea that Therese liked him back, and if his business plans were to be fulfilled, he expected his position in the company to be substantially better and then he was going to ask for her hand but … this spoiled all his plans.
"Why would I bother her little head with such details. She is too busy taking care of her dresses. And she better took good care of them that is all the dowry she will get." The old man chuckled. "I'm sure Rufus can find her a good seamstress here."
Cold shivers run down Oliver's spine. That guy, Rufus, he liked to be called that name although it was different than his real name and surname, he was as old as Therese's father, and since she was the youngest of many daughters, that was rather old. There was no way for Therese to be happy with that guy.
"You are still very young, and with your ambition, I can tell you are going somewhere, but why would you rush into a marriage? Enjoy life, have fun, try out the girls here, I wish I had your age … " Then he trailed off and mumbled something incoherent.
"Sir … " Oliver was taking deep breaths to calm down. "I beg of you to reconsider my trading plan, this could be a more permanent affair, a long lasting contract, not just for one journey." His words were full of meaning he wanted to add that he wanted to earn his daughter.
"I will keep that in mind, young man." The older man stressed the last two words in a tone that only stressed his power and then he simply held the handkerchief to his nose and determinedly stared off into the distance. The young man knew when he was dismissed.
"With your permission I shall now take my leave." Oliver took a short bow, turned around and walked away. That was a truly important hint, his ideas were dismissed, and the girl he liked was treated as luxury goods to trade, by the same two men, he needed a solution.
"I want to follow that guy." Bunnix whispered and pointed towards Oliver who was just laving. Tuzi looked like Ladybug who stared at the lucky charm she got before she knew how to use it, and Bunnix had a similar expression on her face.
"We should stay hidden and watch this guy." Tuzi whispered, but the older man just stood there by the shore and watched the ships in the harbour. Both heroes stayed in the same place, although Bunnix bent her body to be able to see where the young man walked away.
Tuzi tapped her foot nervously, it was a habit she was trying to get rid of, because it could have revealed their hiding place, but she did it rather often, as if she had no control of that. Then Bunnix started to tap her own foot and it was clear that it was time to move.
"However, we might miss nothing if we go after the young one for a few minutes." Tuzi grabbed two pieces of cloth to cover their rabbit ears. Cloth covered most of their upper bodies so if they simply walked and did not draw attention to themselves, it could pass.
Two curious young women were tempted to turn here and there and have a look at several interesting things, but the target was moving away and they had to hurry. They found Oliver in a nearby street, he was talking to a young woman.
"That must be the girl they talked about." Bunnix spoke quietly and both of them entered a garden nearby to sneak through the bushes and flowers and stalk the conversation of the two youngsters, both of them lead by the instinct that this was important.
"She is younger than me." Tuzi whispered. Then she released a breath and shook her head. She looked at Bunnix and tapped her shoulder. "You will have to keep an eye on your real age, the time we spend transformed doesn't count!"
"Okay, I get it." Bunnix shrugged. She looked at her older counterpart with wide and curious eyes, young and hopeful, yes she got it in theory, but she had no idea what it meant to watch the years go by and not be affected by it, at least not physically.
"I have already been through thousands of years, probably, just while I was building the burrow, and lived at least a hundred while transformed." Tuzi explained and her eyes looked old, very old while she spoke, her shoulders deflated.
"I can do that." Bunnix shrugged, she sounded flat, emotionless, because she saw that what awaited her wasn't all fun, but she was determined to do it. "We are the weapon of the last resort, we are not allowed to crumble under the weight of our duties."
"Or time." Tuzi winked and straightened up. "It is odd to have someone to talk to, the other heroes, they detransform and talk to their kwami but when we are on a mission, we stay transformed and alone, we can practise meditation and ..."
She trailed off, they approached the couple and had to stay quiet if they did not want to be heard, their rabbit ears allowed them to hear each word of the conversation that was going on.
"Did he listen to you? Did you get your deal?" The young woman asked excitedly. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled at the man, her cheeks were slightly flushed. It was obvious she liked the young man, she liked him a lot and she wanted him to succeed.
"Therese, your father brought you here to marry you to his business partner. That is why he insists on you having dinners with that guy. You … you are not going back home." He was barely able to pronounce the last words.
"What?" Therese protested. "I will … I will simply take my dowry and buy me a ticket back, I can go to a convent like my sister, there is no way I'm marrying that old … " But her determination crumbled, she slumped and her shoulders started to shake. "I should have known!"
"You are not getting a dowry, all you can get are the clothes you brought with you, and considering that silk is much cheaper here, I doubt they are worth much if you sell them over here." Oliver spoke in hushed and gentle tone while his eyes were filling with tears.
"I … " Therese hitched a breath. "I actually overheard him on the boat one evening, on our way over here. But … but he was drank and he wasn't making much sense and I wanted to throw myself of the ship that night or something."
"Was that the evening when we talked for the first time?" Oliver smiled gently. "I mean, the first time we talked alone." He remembered how dejected and lost she was, she had just escaped the cabin to catch some fresh air and he was the first person she talked to, besides her father, since they started the journey.
"No." Therese shook her head. "We started our night talks a few days after we left Europe. This was … I overheard him while I was sneaking out to meet you but then they almost caught me and I hid in a box … remember that night when we missed each other?"
"Oh yes, I actually prefer to remember the night after that one." His face split in a smile and his eyes glowed. He waited for her, and searched for her all over the deck, but he kept stumbling upon other people and concluded there were not many places for the two of them to meet in secret.
"That is all you think about." She smacked him in the arm. "The ship had docked the next day and we were the only ones who did not go to the shore. There was nobody there to catch us." She smiled dreamily, but quickly dread crawled up on her face and she quickly looked around.
"Nobody saw you, don't worry, at least, nobody important." Oliver chuckled. "Besides, what anyone will see is a distinguished young gentleman talking with a distinguished young lady … and if you ruin your reputation you may not be a good wife for Rufus."
"I still can't believe that, not after my sister ran away to not get married. I … the morning after I heard that I persuaded myself I just imagined that, that I imagined it was me about who my father was talking about, I mean, it could have been her." She whispered because she did not trust her voice.
"Marry me!" Rufus whispered and took one step closer. His knees were touching her skirt. "We can elope, we can get married." He observed how her expression changed. He wanted to hold her hand but wasn't sure if she was going to allow him that in the daylight.
"I would have dropped on one knee, but then the subject of our conversation would be clear to everyone." He added quietly. His eyes flicked around aware that anyone could see them. This was not the way he intended to do his proposal.
They glanced towards each other nervously. Marriage was a business deal, but here they were acting on their feelings, that both had too many, and they were taught that doing that was not wise, if not childish and stupid.
Bunnix was bored, she did not even try to hide how bored she was, unless those two were a kind of secret magical heroes who merely had some unresolved love issues, this was a waste of time. Or maybe that Rufus guy or Therese's father were actually magical villains to be defeated by those two civilians …
Tuzi was entirely consumed by the conversation, she watched every move, absorbed each word, her eyes were getting teary for the pain of the two young people they listened to, she swallowed when they gulped down their pain, it was as if she was watching a film.
"I..." Therese looked at Oliver. "You will loose your position, my father can condemn you, that Rufus guy, he is powerful, he has money, they might seek revenge, they will make you pay for it, it is better if I just run away, just like my sister did."
"No. I mean, I don't have much to offer and you deserve a man who is better off but ..." He stopped talking, she took a step back quickly and put an index finger over her mouth. She mouthed later and turned towards someone who was coming from behind their backs.
It was the older man from the harbour, Therese greeted him politely, like the daughter she was, but her hands were trembling. The older man simply nodded and turned around. The two youngsters exchanged a glance and walked after him.
"You know, I doubt we are here to watch cheap romance unfolding live." Bunnix spoke to Tuzi while they watched the trio walk up the street towards a building that they entered. But there was no response, Tuzi was tearful.
"She did not even get a chance to give him an answer." Tuzi sniffled. Then she looked at her teenage friend and smiled. "And there was nothing I should have done, we are not here to interfere, you see how hard it is."
"So we do not give each other code names in the form of flowers and make a dubious and complicated scheme to make those two involved romantically and then fail spectacularly because one is oblivious and the other is flustered?" Bunnix chuckled.
"No?" Tuzi whispered back and gaped while she tried to process what she just heard.
"Never mind." Bunnix grinned. "But I might tell you that story just to kill time if we are to stay here and wait for something to happen."