Chronicles of Espiria Season 3
Episode 4 – Enter Gretel Hawke
Written by CindyDaGreat
"What are you sniffing around me for?"
Walker, Kren, Thali, Vurk, and Fritz were searching for Gretel Hawke at the marketplace she was last seen, a search that was currently proving fruitless. Kren bounded up Walker like a squirrel up a tree, zipping around and putting his nose in various places.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to deduce if there's the strange scent of a woman present! How else are we gonna find your bird friend?"
"Heh, I get it, Gretel Hawke." Vurk slapped a high five with a dangling Kren. Walker firmly stopped in his tracks, his hat casting a dangerous shadow over his face. Fritz noticed Thali frowning for one of the first times since he'd known her.
"Shut, up! Goodness, Dura, I'm about to put a flaming bullet through your head with Walker's gun!" Flames shot up her hands before she turned her wide eyes to Fritz. "Are we there yet?!"
"You really should be asking Walker that," Fritz pointed his thumb at the aforementioned bounty hunter, hoping he'd be left out of this. Slinking away, Fritz pretended he didn't know them.
It wasn't long before a nearby butcher grew sick of their argument. "Oi! Either buy something or leave with my knife in your back!"
His insult roused the other Mauler merchants, who were now leaving their goods unattended to push the intruders out. No one noticed Vurk sneakily plucking an incredibly expensive fish from a cat merchant's stand.
"Well, well! Walker! What a small world this is!" A voice called out from the crowd.
Amidst the excitement, ducking under a flying butcher's knife, Gretel Hawke and her assistant, Peter Thorne, emerged from the crowd. Gretel had a mischievous grin on her face, as if she knew some embarrassing secret about Walker and was deciding whether or not to keep it.
"You seem to be in another pickle, eh? I could never turn down an opportunity for you to owe me." She lightly prodded the man with her elbow, and he let out a sigh.
They were brought to a room in a quaint hotel that Gretel was temporarily staying at, its shelves and walls lined with countless scrolls imported from her personal library near Kuilin City. The floor was clearly hastily made, a few straggling papers swept away from the main seating area. Fritz, Vurk, Kren, Walker, and Thali all inescapably crammed together on the living room couch. Gretel paced back and forth wearing out her rug, excitedly directing her curiosity at Walker.
"How's bounty hunter life? How's the pay been? What's with the heavy fur in Mauler desert? Who're these suckers parading with you? Oh, say hi, Peter!"
"Oi! Walker's fashion choices aside, suckers we are not!" Kren hopped from his seat between a distressed Peter Thorne and a shrinking Walker.
"Can you tell us what brings you all here?" Thorne wearily said, gesturing at the group. Walker glanced up at Fritz, subtly pointing his head at Vurk. The Durri nodded his head, and spoke loudly.
"Hey, Ms. Hawke, have you perhaps any snacks we could attend to? Terribly sorry for the interruption, the journey's been long and tiring, and we simply must satiate our bellies."
The group had been practicing what to rehearse around the unknowing Vurk, now waiting for Hawke's response. She seemed to pick up Fritz's troubled eyes and the volume of his voice, arching an eyebrow.
"Well, what's a host to not offer her guests refreshments? There's a tin of cookies in the second cupboard..."
"Right, right! Thank you, Kren can go...pick that up? Vurk, why don't you join him?"
"Hmm, sure, why not? Let's see how tough those cookies are!"
Kren, now being ordered around, disinterestedly led Vurk out of the room, uncharacteristically shutting the door politely. Vurk stuffed his face with Hawke's leftover Lightbearer-imported pastries, Kren keeping an eye on him.
"I'll tell you what, humans really know their way 'round sugar."
"Right, I'm sure they do."
Meanwhile, in the hotel room over, the crackling sound of a fire filled the atmosphere, contained in Thali's hand.
"You might be wondering what all this secrecy is for," she said. Gretel looked at the flames, at her possibly robbed kitchen, and at Walker.
"Right...what's any of this?"
Walker watched back, his voice low, barely heard over the crackling. "Keep your voice down, 'else the Durri over there could hear that his home has been brought to ruin. The sane-looking one, not Kren. You might also be interested in a peculiar Hypogean sighting. We need your help identifying him and keeping this a secret."
"Right, tell me what happened."
Fritz took focus explaining his tale again, slightly concerned at Gretel's growing excitement through Azmonath's description. She was furiously scrawling his words in a notebook, her apprentice Thorne also looking over her shoulder, clearly interested.
"Yes, I knew it! This is vital information!" Had it not been for Thali's constant care of her flame, Gretel would've yelled in elation. Despite her enthusiasm however, she knocked herself back on track.
"Right! So! What you're looking at here is an awfully disastrous demon by the name of Azmonath. I've heard about this attack from a few other survivors, but this is the most complete account so far! I'll need to do more research to see if this gives any new clues about his weakness... You didn't happen to notice any weaknesses, did you?"
"No, sorry Hawke."
"Worth an ask. But this could put us one step closer to..."
Gretel paused as something else occurred to her. "What about Vurk? Surely he will figure out what happened eventually. Am I to make the same promise to Skriath and Numisu as you did to me?"
Fritz paused for a long while, before finally turning his head, sadly nodding at Gretel. She seemed to have got the message. At that moment, Vurk strutted out of the kitchen carrying pastries to share, with Kren desperately dragging him back.
"C'mon, guys, what's with your sullen faces?" He asked genuinely. Thali promptly put her fire out, Gretel swiftly shutting her book. "Making s'mores without me?" Vurk's attempt at a light quip only led to his confusion, as he stared at his friends. "Gretel? Fritz? Am I…" He unknowingly held the pastries closer to his chest.
"...Hey, is that a fish sticking out of your pants?" Gretel pointed out.
Surely enough, the dead eyes of Vurk's stolen fish could be seen peeking from his back, after jittering about for so long. Gretel took it upon herself to pluck it right out of his pants.
"Perfect! You don't get fish in the expanse at all! Thanks Vurk! In the meantime...why don't you tell me about what you saw?"
After politely declining Thali's offer to "grill" the fish, and Vurk's excited details about his brave conquest face-to-face with a 5-headed Azmonath, Gretel managed to whip up a decent fish dinner. Everyone took a spot on the ground, delicious Mauler seafood in their hands. Vurk sat down, still questioning the strange ambience he walked in on, but the new ambience subsided his thoughts nonetheless. It was picturesque, a group of people bonded over a common goal and free meals. After mindless conversation, and jabbing Walker with more questions, Thorne leaned over and whispered in Gretel's ear.
"I meant to tell you sooner; I got a letter from the church asking for my assistance to... discipline the recent dark magic gatherings back at my old home. You wouldn't mind if I was gone for a few days?"
Gretel only gently smiled and patted his back. "Of course you can, Peter! It's not like you need my permission to do these things… actually, I would mind if you suddenly disappeared out of the blue one day. Ahh, you know what I meant. Take good notes, you hear me?"
Peter noticeably relaxed, feeling more confident in his decision.
Kren was still dying for fresh things to talk about. "Say, Walker, you never did answer how you ended up wrestling three bar-goers over Hawke's atte..."
"I should've never come here." The burly man burrowed his face into his hat, trying hard to shun Gretel's cackling and his Mauler friends' unending shrieking. Even Fritz joined in on the fun. They teased and ate through the night, with not a single moment of boredom. Only when Vurk crashed from his sugar high did the others decide it was time for bed.
Later, having fooled the others of his apparent tiredness, Vurk could only stare at the peeling ceiling in his position. Hawke and Thorne had their own rooms, leaving the others to snag up ideal sleeping spots. Walker made for a nice pillow, that's for certain. The two other Durri crept in the warm crevices of the couch cushions. Only, Vurk wasn't alone in his thoughts. Thali shuffled and squirmed on the couch with difficulty, trying to avoid two unmoving rat heads.
Vurk whispered, still looking up at the ceiling. "Tough night, huh?"
"Especially with these buggers in my bed, I would say that." Thali aggressively shook the cushions, but no movement from either Kren or Fritz.
Vurk shook his head, chuckling at their antics. "Man, Fritz was just like this as a kid. Try opening their eyelids, slap 'em around for a bit, nothing. Straight knocked out cold." Fritz became unbalanced and flopped on Thali's remaining room with a light thud. She begrudgingly opted to settle on the ground, elbows on her knees.
"How'd you meet them?"
Thali raised her brows at him, thrown off by his sudden curiosity. But it didn't hurt to answer.
"It really was Kren who brought the group together, that doof. He and I, crazy history. We did heists, broke me outta prison, looted the devil outta that prison, looted some more. Had a suspicion he was sick of me and my methods!" She looked pointedly at his sleeping figure. "But who's to say. Still heisting to this day."
She looked at Walker. "Now this guy. Cowboy and I didn't know each other...though he probably knew me. You wouldn't believe the price for my lovely head.
"Kren and him were like arch enemies when they started working together, both looting, both shooting, always trying to out-compete the other. Not once did they think they'd be working for a criminal, or a cowboy. But they did.
"Eventually, yours truly came along, we tried looting this gold reserve in a Lightbearer bank! Turns out these fire-hands were too hot to handle for those two, and we burned down the entire facility! Accidently killed a few clerks!"
Vurk's face could only be described as deadpanned.
"What? We're all murderers here. Anyway, the caper was a dump, and Walker nearly walked out of the partnership, but the promise of mind-boggling gold with my resourcefulness kept him in. Gave us a second chance, you could say. And look at us now." Walker immediately snored when his head hit the floor, sprawled with one arm up and his two legs crooked. "Didn't think I'd stay this long either. We still keep secrets, like myself nicking more gold when those two aren't looking, but life with them...most fun I've had since prison."
Vurk nodded at her story. "Secrets, huh? Back at my den, when you're with your hundreds of siblings, there's no such thing as secrets." He slumped back up to meet Thali's eyes. "But man, I'd love to go back to Numisu and Saveas, slay a couple more dragons! Y'know? Guarding the canyon's been fun, of course...but my buds. I've been away for too long. Yeah, after I head back to the den, I'm kicking it with my boys!" He smiled, relief in his eyes.
"Yeah...den."
"Welp, naptime. Nice talking with you, really. Sleep well."
Thali yawned. And with that, she turned her body and shut her eyes. It wasn't long before light snores could be heard from her direction. Vurk lied back down, following Thali's example.
...No.
His overly analytical brain wouldn't let him sleep. His mind wandered back to Gretel abruptly shutting her book when he entered, when the room was quiet. The way Thali said 'den.' It's as if his body took the reigns for him, and soon, Vurk found himself creeping to Gretel's bedroom door.
"Snap out of it! What's wrong with you?" Vurk's thoughts only contradicted his actions. But again, he found his hand pushing the door. He had no reason to doubt, did he?
Of course, Gretel would keep her notebook safely tucked away. Though since she'd be heading out early tomorrow, it was probably somewhere easily accessible. He tried his luck at a few drawers and under the rug, maintaining surprising stealth while Gretel slept 3 feet away. Eventually, luck struck him as he found the notebook resting near the dresser next to her coat.
Again, he paused once more. Not only was this highly immoral and an invasion of privacy, Walker and the group said she'd be a great help. No reason to betray a new friend.
"But argh, I've come this far! No point in turning back now. It's just a big misunderstanding, Vurk! You and your dumb brain. Nothing's gonna come out of this." Vurk promptly jumped and snatched the little notebook, aimlessly flipping through, and...
Oh.
After a while, Vurk placed the notebook back on the dresser. He looked at the room of Gretel, and the living room where his friends were, still sound asleep. He trudged back to his sleeping spot.
The air was cold that night.