The Rescue of Nutmeg the Cat
Kuhl stumbled over a thick, heavy book, turning his headlong rush down the aisle into a topple sideways and into a bookcase. He breathed in the scent of dust, aged parchment, vellum, and strangely, the hint of vanilla as tomes dislodged by the jarring impact of his shoulder fell from shelves to thump against the wood floor. The half-elf tumbled down as well, bouncing off the solid shelving made immovable by the weight of all the books it bore. A hiss from down the row warned him of an impending attack and he blindly raised his shield in defense.
Just in time it seemed. The metal of his shield grew cold against his forearm as an eye beam from the small beholderkin pinged against it.
"It seems to have some sort of telekinetic ray that it can manipulate things with," Dawnbringer warned in his mind from where she blazed in his hand.
"Yeah," Kuhl thought back. "I figured that out."
The creature had pulled the book that tripped him off the shelf and right into his path.
A crossbow sang followed by a solid sounding thwack. The low growl of frustration from deep in Sky's throat told the half-elf the tabaxi had missed.
"Damned little thing is small enough to squeeze through some of the gaps in the shelves," she said.
Kuhl rolled to one knee and peeked over his shield. The aisle he'd been charging down was now clear of the little floating spherical creature, but Sky had managed to skewer a volume previously proudly on display on the table at the end of this row. The leather-bound tome was now pinned to the far wall by the tabaxi's bolt, but the folded parchment placed on display of where it had been still advertised in flowing script, "Shocking Tales of Elven Desire, rare find and a titillating page turner!"
Plaintive meowing continued from a corner of the third floor of this narrow bookshop.
"We're coming, Nutmeg," Sky called out, reloading her crossbow
She looked down at Kuhl. "What happened? I told you to flush it out to me, not headbutt a bookcase and make more of a mess."
"Says the tabaxi who just murdered an innocent book with her crossbow," Dawnbringer said in the half-elf's mind.
"It tripped me," Kuhl said, getting up.
"Tripped you?" Sky asked as she stalked down the aisle, crossbow at the ready.
"It has some sort of telekinetic ray," he said.
As if in proof to the half-elf's claim, a book flew off the shelf, shoved through from the other side. Sky ducked, and the heavy tome thumped into the other bookcase defining the row, flapped open, and slid to the floor. A hiss sounded and Kuhl caught a glimpse of the central eye of the tiny creature peering through the newly created gap between the volumes, its mouth bared and showing sharp little teeth. The tabaxi sighted and sent a bolt back in response, but the beholderkin had already sped away.
"Damn!" the tabaxi cried. "That thing is fast! Make sure it doesn't go down the stairs!"
Kuhl sprinted back down the aisle and to the spiral staircase in the center of the floor. They'd been hunting the little monstrosity all over the bookstore and finally got it cornered on the third floor.
"Hurry!" Dawnbringer mentally said. "I will cry if it makes it downstairs."
As a sentient sword she didn't have eyes or tear ducts, so that was doubtful, but Kuhl understood her sentiment. If they had to start chasing it all over the store again, he would join her in crying. There was no sign of the creature when he got to the landing. But as Sky said, it was fast, it could have already flown down the opening to the lower floors. He looked over the railing, but still saw no sign of it.
The bell attached to the front door chimed and Kuhl shifted his position for another angle of sight down the circular stairway. He could just see the bottom of the now open door and the hem of the store owner's, Uza Solizeph's, night dress and also her feet - one wearing a slipper and the other bare.
"Is everything all right?" the old woman called out.
"Everything is fine, but you really should wait outside," he yelled down. But since she was there, he could use her. "Do you see the beholderkin? It might have slipped past us and went back downstairs."
There was pregnant silence as she searched.
"No. I don't see anything. But I hear Nutmeg."
The cat was still crying, but now Kuhl briefly saw the feline as well. A gray blur darted from behind one shelf of books against the far wall of the store, under a table, and back behind another shelf. A floating spherical hunter followed along above.
"It's still on the third floor!" he called out. "I just saw it chasing the cat."
"Nutmeg!" the bookseller cried from the door.
"I know it is still on the third floor," Sky growled from somewhere in the rows of bookcases. "I've been trying to sneak up on it. But it's like it has eyes in the back of its head or something. Every time I start to sight on it, it hides behind something. You need to flush it out to me."
"It does have eyes on the back of its head," Kuhl's sentient sword thought into his mind. "Four of them. Well, they are actually on eyestalks, but they serve the same purpose."
"You want me to charge at it again?" the half-elf asked, ignoring Dawnbringer.
"We've tried that," the tabaxi said. "Over and over and it hasn't worked. Maybe try throwing something at it?"
"Like?" Kuhl asked, looking at the tables around the landing in front of the circular stairs for a particularly heavy book.
"Dawnbringer," Sky said. "Throw Dawnbringer."
"Absolutely not!" the sword in question mind spoke.
"She really isn't too fond of that idea," the half-elf said.
The tabaxi gave a heavy sigh, audible even from the distance between them in the store and through the book laden shelves.
"Fine, your shield. Throw that."
"My shield? Kuhl said, voice doubtful.
"Your shield," Sky said, voice growing more excited and surer. "I can see it in my mind. Spin around and throw it with all your strength. It will fly like a disc and right into the damned thing. It will work!"
The half-elf didn't answer. To him the idea sounded ridiculous.
"It is ridiculous!" Dawnbringer mentally said. "It isn't a javelin. Shields are for blocking things."
But eye beams from the beholderkin and a yowl of outrage from Nutmeg decided it. The little creature was actively playing cat and mouse with the cat behind the bookcase.
"Please do something!" the bookseller yelled up from below. "Hurry!"
"Just throw it, Kuhl!" the tabaxi said. "It will work! I know it!"
The half-elf pulled his arm free from the straps, shifted Dawnbringer to his other hand, revised his grip to grasp one handle of the shield, spun, and threw with all his might. The shield flew surprisingly well.
Right into a bookcase.
It careened off this unintended target and bounced back and forth down the aisle, dislodging books with every impact, then finally sailed well over the tiny spherical monster and crashed into one of the store's third story windows. Glass shattered and the shield became lodged in the remnants of the panes and the wood framing.
The beholderkin spun so its central eye looked at the broken window and the impromptu missile that had been thrown at it, then slowly spun back to look at Kuhl. For a moment all of its eyes seemed to focus on the half-elf with a look of surprised disbelief at his stupidity.
Sky only needed that one moment. A bolt from the side punched right through the little monster and it fell to tumble out of the air and out of Kuhl's view.
"Got it!" the tabaxi yelled in triumph. "See! It worked!"
"That didn't work," Dawnbringer mentally said. "It was dumb luck. There is no way she planned that outcome."
"Did you get it?" Uva asked from downstairs. "Is Nutmeg alright? Is it safe to come up?"
"Nutmeg is fine," Kuhl reassured. The cat was still giving its repetitive plaintive meow. "You can come up."
"You can't just try out whatever harebrained idea comes to you in the heat of the moment," Dawnbringer lectured. "Sound tactics rely on proven methods, practice, and execution."
The bookseller climbed the stairs.
"Oh dear," she said, reaching the second floor. "Such a frightful mess. It will take me all day to clean it all."
Sky crawled under the table against the far wall of the shop. The one under the broken window with Kuhl's shield stuck in it. She reached a long arm behind one of the bookcases.
"There you are, Nutmeg," she said. "Come on out. It is safe now."
The tabaxi pulled out a yowling and hissing gray tabby, holding it by the scruff of the neck. She clutched tight against her chest, and Nutmeg immediately growled in protest. But as Sky picked her way past all the fallen books down the aisle, the cat calmed. By the time she arrived on the landing, the cat was purring. The bookseller ascended to the top floor soon after the tabaxi got to the landing.
"Most of the mess was here when we arrived," the tabaxi said, petting the cat in her arms. "When the little beholder creature was chasing poor Nutmeg."
"The beholderkin put those crossbow bolts through my bookcases?" Uva asked, skeptically.
"Well, not those," Sky said, tail lashing.
"How about the entire bookcase that collapsed because it looks like something sharp sliced through one end?"
"Not that either," Kuhl said, feeling guilty and extinguishing Dawnbringer.
That little beholderkin had been fast and very good at dodging frustrated sword strokes.
"Oh, I didn't just cut through the bookcase," Dawnbringer said in his mind. "Wait until she starts picking through the books in that pile."
The half-elf wanted to be far away when Uva made that discovery.
Instead, he said, "We can stay and help you clean up."
"Of course we can," the tabaxi said. "And look, here is Nutmeg. All safe and sound."
She proffered the purring cat and the bookseller brightened and hugged her pet close.
"That would be wonderful!" the old woman said. "And I simply must cook something for you in thanks."
It was early evening by the time Kuhl and Sky walked back into the common room of the Trollskull, the half-elf carrying a few books they'd purchased. For only their second night, the tavern had a decent number of customers with a few stools at the bar and a handful of tables occupied. Fargas seemed happy anyway, smiling and nodding from behind the bar and Surash was busy filling tankards. Kuhl noticed one patron marvel as the chair he was about to sit in was drawn back by their invisible resident poltergeist, Lif. The deceased former owner had become very helpful and friendly once the threat of Granny Nightheart was dealt with. One of the waitstaff scurried in from the kitchen with a tray of food prepared by the cook.
The half-elf and tabaxi tromped up the stairs to the living quarters above. They heard Aleina before they saw her.
"I just want you to know," the aasimar said. "No one likes you. Fargas is too good for you. Yes. Fargas. He is too good for you. Which means you are a terrible person. And by no one liking you, that especially means me."
She was sitting at a table with Jhelnae and two others in the renovated second floor common room. A game board with a stylized map of Waterdeep was on the tabletop and also four wine glasses and a bottle.
The common room space had been opened up so that the bank of windows and balcony were no longer hidden by a hallway and the dining area and staircase to the third floor were also all part of the same great room. A fire burned in the hearth near where they all sat, and all the wall lanterns had been lit so that a warm glow suffused the room.
"Well you don't have to like me," the young halfling woman at the table named Dariya cackled with glee. "What you do have to do is pay up. Or are you now bankrupt?"
The halfling was becoming a frequent guest at the Trollskull, visiting her boyfriend, Fargas. Bonnie, the other one at the table, dated Surash and was also often around.
"I can pay," Aleina said. "How much is it anyway?"
"Ten dragons," the halfling said.
"Ten dragons!" the aasimar said. "For landing on a place in the Dock Ward? Impossible."
"You see this little tile here," Dariya said pointing to a chit on the game board between them. "That means I upgraded the property to a festhall. "Which means ten gold."
"I really hate you," Aleina said, counting out fake wooden coins and handing them to the halfling.
"Hate all you want," the halfling laughed, adding her winnings to the considerable pile in front of her.
"You know," Kuhl said. "Whenever you play that game all you do is whine and snipe at each other. Are you sure it is fun?"
The aasimar immediately broke character and smiled. "Of course it is fun. The whining and fighting are part of it."
"She is right," the halfling said, nodding. "Otherwise, it is just rolling dice and moving little metal markers around."
"Speaking of rolling dice," Jhelnae said, scooping up the cubed pair of carved dice. "It is my turn. Where have you two been all day?"
"Our detective agency had its first case," Sky said. "We solved it and got these books for you as a reward."
Not exactly right. They'd been allowed to buy, encouraged really to buy, some of the damaged books at a supposed discount. Most of the ones they bought had been so damaged they immediately went in the trash as they were unsalvageable.
"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Aleina said. "Let's see."
"The first one is called the Silver Fox in the Silver Marches," the tabaxi said, taking the chapbook from Kuhl and displaying it.
"The cover has been partly torn off, then stitched back on," Jhelnae said, throwing the dice. "Ha! That property hasn't been bought. I will buy it."
She started counting out her wooden coins.
"Sliced off, actually," Sky said, shrugging. "But it is still readable, and it was repaired by a professional bookseller."
"I've read some in that series," Bonnie said. "They are about a moon elf swashbuckler who can shadow dance. The titular Silver Fox."
"Any good?" the aasimar asked.
"Complete trash," the red-haired woman said. "She has adventures that defy belief and sleeps with anyone, male or female, she finds remotely attractive. Can I borrow it when you two are done? I haven't read that one."
"Of course," the half-drow said. "Your turn, by the way."
"Next we have Musings on the Ecology of the High Forest, a Scientific Treatise, by the Druid Aerosclughpalar," the tabaxi said, lifting the heavy tome and showing it. "Kuhl got it for you, Aleina."
"You were so interested in everything Mialee showed you when we were traveling through the High Forest," the half-elf said. "I thought you might want to learn about it more in depth."
"That is so sweet!" Jhelnae said, but the laugh accompanying it sounded like she found it more hilarious than sweet. "I'll be desperately envying her while I'm reading about the adventures of this Silver Fox character."
"It sounds…" for some reason the spasm of a grimace crossed the aasimar's face. "Utterly fascinating."
"I told you it would do nothing but gather dust on a shelf," Dawnbringer said in Kuhl's mind.
"She says it sounded fascinating," the half-elf thought back. "I flipped through it and there is a lot of information that will be useful if we ever go back to the High Forest, any forest really."
"And last we have Shocking Tales of Elven Desire," Sky said, displaying their last book.
"Well, I know what I'll be reading while you are reading about the Silver Fox," Aleina said. "While also educating myself more about the High Forest of course."
That last bit sounded a lot like a hasty afterthought.
"But does that have a crossbow bolt hole through the middle of it?" the aasimar asked.
"Maybe," the tabaxi said with a dismissive wave. "But it's still readable."
"Why do I get the feeling there is a lot more to the story of this gift of books then we are getting?" Dariya asked.
"With Sky," Jhelnae said. "There always is. Put up with Fargas long enough to stay around us long, and you'll see."
The statement about staying around made Kuhl suddenly remember his conversation with Trelasarra this morning about the half-drow. With all that had happened, it was hard to believe it was still the same day.
"Actually, Jhelnae," he said. "There is something I need to discuss with you. Something important."
A shadow crossed the half-drow's face and she and Aleina shared a look.
"About your training session this morning?" Jhelnae asked.
"Sort of," Kuhl said, nodding.
The game at the table stopped. Bonnie held the dice up ready to roll, but did not. Everyone sensed the new tension in the room.
"You know," Dariya said. "It is only the second day of your tavern being open. Your staff is still being trained. Maybe Bonnie and I should go down and see if they need any help."
Bonnie was a barmaid at the Yawning Portal and Dariya one of the cooks.
"It's your day off," Aleina said. "We couldn't ask that of you and I'm sure Fargas and Surash have everything handled."
"Aleina's right," the half-drow said. "We're in the middle of a game here and whatever Kuhl has to tell me will keep. Let's keep playing."
"Well," Sky said, stretching and yawning. "It has been a long day already. I'm going to stretch out for a little cat nap."
She headed to the door leading to her room.
Kuhl watched as Bonnie rolled the dice and counted out spaces with her piece. Unlike before, there was no table banter. She simply took a sip from her wine glass and counted out some wooden coins to hand out to the aasimar, who didn't gloat when she took them.
"You're hovering, Kuhl," Aleina said. "Don't hover. You're making everyone tense."
"Sorry," he said.
He forced himself to wander away while he waited.
Other than the crackle of the fire and the clack of dice against the tabletop and the moving of pieces, the room was quiet as turns passed.
"Now you're pacing," Jhelnae finally said. "Back and forth and back and forth. It's driving me crazy!"
The half-elf realized he had been doing exactly that, though he hadn't meant to.
"Sorry," he said.
He moved to one of the armchairs in front of the fire, soaking its warmth and staring into the flame. Time passed.
"Is it my imagination?" Bonnie asked. "Or is he drumming his fingers really loudly?"
"It's not your imagination," the aasimar said with an exasperated sigh.
Kuhl had been subconsciously drumming his fingers against the armrest as he waited.
"Look, Kuhl," the half-drow said. "I think I know what you want to tell me. I was up all night worrying about it. And right now, just for a moment, I just want to relax and finish this game. Also, Bonnie, Dariya, Aleina, and I, promised each other we were going to kill this bottle of wine between us."
"Fine," the half-elf said. "Sorry. I'll be very silent, very patient, and very good. You'll see."
The four players were treated to only a few moments of this quiet bliss before a heavy tread up the stairs interrupted them and Ront entered the room.
"I need to talk to you," the orc announced in his gruff manner, then glared at Bonnie and Dariya. "Alone."
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae said, throwing up her hands. "I give up!"
"Maybe it would be best if we went to see if Fargas and Surash need our help downstairs," the halfling said.
"It does look that way tonight," Aleina said. "Let's definitely try this again though."
They all waited as the two workers at the Yawning Portal drained the remains of their wine glasses in a series of swallows, gathered their things and headed down the stairs to the common room.
"Now," Aleina said after they had shut the door behind them. "What is so important it couldn't wait?"
Okay, I know this chapter is very banter heavy and filled with light-hearted humor. Unfortunately, the next one will be very similar. All of this chit chat was planned for one chapter, but I'm already almost at 3,500 words. If I keep going it will probably be like 7,000. So for your benefit, I'll break it up a bit. I'm trying to set up their urban adventures in ways that seem a bit more organic than obvious quest giver comes and they have a new mission (but yes, I will also use the detective agency in that fashion as well).