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First chapter: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/35536506/

Chapter 8

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The busy Ki’Miya Mara commute appeared to become more and more crowded at Jelani and Jenny’s every street turn in the tuscan town. Jenny piddled with her note pad as she walked, satchel in-hand, and a hooded Jelani followed closely. The market wasn’t within sight yet, but there was already much that caught Jelani’s eye. The atmosphere was warm and humble, quite the contrast from the capital. Wagon wheels squeaked and bumped against the rugged, worn cobblestone streets that were as timeworn as some of the surrounding buildings. Jelani smiled subtly beneath the hood of his cape. It had been quite some time since he had traveled up this way, and it was just as charming and lively as he had remembered it. In addition, especially as they ventured further, new splashes of color and ornamentation could be seen. It was also apparent that the local stonemasons were busy that day, as new buildings and walls were being erected.

The town was thriving, and growing. It made Jelani feel a bittersweet sort of pride. Though his time as a representative was short, the love for his people did not waver.

And there was one in this town, whom had already nestled into a special place of Jelani’s heart. His eyes had settled on her again.

“We’re almost there,” Jenny called, shooting a quick, smiling glance behind her.

“O-oh,” Jelani responded awkwardly. He hoped she didn’t think he was staring. “Great!”

“Are you okay?” Jenny asked, still looking down with her pencil at the edge of her mouth as she walked. “You’ve been quiet most of the way here.”

Her observation caught him a bit off guard. “N-no! I mean, yeah!” He subconsciously loosened up the generous fabric that made up his cape collar. “I just... did not want to disturb your writing.”

Jenny laughed a little. “You’re not going to disturb me,” she assured, looking back again. “I was just musing a little.” The street traffic was making it more difficult to share glances, and even more tricky to write, so Jenny slid her note pad back into her satchel. Amongst the thickening crowd, she slowed and floated back to Jelani’s side. “What’s on your mind?”

From just the two weeks that Jenny had known Jelani, she had already become very good at reading his face. She smiled that knowing smile. It was a subtle, elegant smile, with very much of it in her eyes. Her caring, beautiful blue eyes.

She cared about him, Jelani was sure of that, but he couldn’t help but keep wondering just how much. Was it merely a simple compassion?

“Hm?” Jenny voiced, awaiting a response.

Where could he start? Jelani laid his ears back further under his hood as he walked. It was apparent from the beginning that Jenny was a very independent woman, and was quite rooted in her lifestyle. He didn’t want to be off-putting... but he had to know. He cared too much for her to not know.

“Jenny,” he began, with just enough volume to be heard amongst the crowd as they moved. “I wanted to ask you...”

Jenny listened intently as they walked.

“I thought that, maybe if you do not have any other plans for later today, that, you know.” Jelani scratched the side of his face a bit in discomfort. “Since,” he pivoted, “Since I am going to be leaving soon, and—”

“Leaving?” Jenny gasped, turning to Jelani and slowing nearly to a stop amongst the crowd. “What do you mean?”

Jelani responded with a slight smile and shrugging motion. “Well... I do have to get back home. Back to Coronation, I mean.” His voice was gentle, and Jenny listened with concern. “Like I said before, I have to make things right, and figure out what I am going to do next.”

Jenny gave her head a slight shake in disagreement. “In the condition you’re in... no.” Her eyes wandered over him for a second. “There’s just no way you’re ready to make a trip like that.”

“Well, I have to leave sometime,” Jelani remarked, and grunted after receiving a push from someone in the crowd. “And I don’t want your neighbors to get the wrong idea. I... I know they have seen me, and—“

“I don’t care what they think,” Jenny asserted, “They can think what they— AH!” A careless shove from a very tall figure amongst the crowd knocked Jenny aside.

“HEY!” Jelani shouted towards a nonchalant giraffe. The congregation had become a bit chaotic, so Jelani immediately reached for Jenny, who he had almost lost sight of amongst the tangle. “I am sorry Miss Jenny.”

Ever nimbly, Jelani swooped over and engulfed Jenny in his stature, guarding her from the crowd. “Here,” he grabbed one of her hands, and edge folds of his cape fell to rest upon her shoulder. The captivating gesture allowed Jenny to regain her balance, and brought a shine to her eyes.

In one motion he turned, slid his other hand onto the middle of her upper back, and carefully began to lead her through the crowd from behind.

Jenny felt another tinge of warmth upon her face. His hands were so big and strong. Her hand was dwarfed inside of his, and it felt as if his right hand covered most of her upper back.

“Let us not have anyone shoving you around, yeah?”

Jenny looked up to her side to see him giving her a smiling side-eye as they walked, and her eyes quickly averted in a bashful manner. “Thank you,” she laughed lightly, and smiled to herself. Jelani then delicately brought her around to a street corner that was much less congested.

It was near the outer corner of the market: waving banners, as well as the overhanging roofs of carts could already be seen beyond the crowds of noisy people. The smell of food was also thick in the air. Tasty-smelling steam wafted from all over the market, but notably from a rustic outdoor inn that was a level down beside a large, important-looking building.

Jenny readjusted her poncho, and flattened out the unruly folds. “I don’t know where you got this leaving idea, with how this traffic is and all.”

“Well,” said Jelani, as he played with his hands a bit, “I am not leaving just yet. I was going to say... w-what I was going to ask, was—”

Jelani paused when he noticed a very fixated stare from Jenny, one that passed right by him. He instinctively turned to investigate.

“Shh, no!” Jenny exclaimed in a refraining tone, before he could even speak. She had caught onto his arm before he turned any further around. “Don’t look.”

“What?” Jelani pressed concernedly.

“Don’t look that way!” Jenny whispered loudly. Her hands held onto Jelani’s arm tightly. “Not yet. I don’t know if he could have seen me.”

“WHO?” Jelani inquired even harder, ever tempted to swing around to look. “What is wrong?”

As inconspicuously as possible, Jenny tiptoed to peer over Jelani’s shoulder to catch another glimpse. She then pulled back, and loosened her grip on him. “Okay,” she took a breath, “Don’t be obvious about it, but... the guy down there at the Grotto. At that open-air inn. Look at him. The one on the far left side.”

Jelani shifted one of his boots nonchalantly, and turned slightly to allow an eye to wander towards the inn. There were maybe two or three people loitering on the immediate outer perimeter of it, there was a host visible just inside at the entrance, and several men could be seen just past the small makeshift lounge. Jelani felt Jenny move closer.

“The rat,” Jenny added eagerly, and very subtly pointed. “White with gray patches. Look at the back of his head. He’s at a table facing away from us.”

The white fur was easy to spot, even amongst the other men under the shade of the inn. Sure enough, he could see a pair of rounded pink ears as well. “Yeah, what about him?”

Jenny took another careful peek from around Jelani’s shoulder. “I think that’s the guy who stole my emerald!”

Jelani’s ears stiffened in shock. “What?” He whispered aloud, and shot a couple of glances back before inquiring again. “Really? Are you sure?”

“I’m almost positive,” Jenny replied, swallowing a bit nervously after. “I remember those patches. Remember when I told you it looked like he was balding?”

“Yeah,” Jelani recalled, as his eyes moved about in thought.

“I need to find a guard. Someone with authority here to—”

“No, no!” Jelani exclaimed in a hushed manner, and grabbed her arm. “Don’t... don’t do that. They have no tangible proof that he stole anything, and if he gets questioned by someone, he could end up turning tail and running off.”

Jenny covered her mouth and released an anxious sigh. “What do we do, then? Do we wait for him to leave and then talk to him?”

Jelani’s lips pursed a bit as he finished making his decision, and he took one more look back at the rat. He then turned back to Jenny and adjusted his hood. “Stay here,” Jelani spoke seriously, “I will be right back.”

A wide-eyed Jenny gasped. “Jelani!” Her hands latched onto his cape when he moved. “Don’t go down there! There’s no need for that!”

“Why not?” Jelani asked confidently. “He’s just a little rat; what’s he going to do? ...Eat... cheese?” He shrugged with a bit of a cheeky laugh.

“Jelani...” Jenny dissented, critical of his carelessness. “This isn’t your problem,” she continued, the cloth of his cape still firmly between her fingers, “And I don’t want you getting yourself into trouble.”

Jelani smiled in protest, and gently eased Jenny’s hands from his cloak. “Well, Mister Baldy already made the mistake of getting himself  into trouble, and someone naturally needs to make this right.”

“Now wait just a minute!” Jenny objected as Jelani started for the stone path that led down to the Grotto. “You said that we were even!”

The grin on Jelani’s face remained as he marched off of the street corner, but his stride was stopped short.

“Hey, hey now!” A haggard, gravely voice barked. “Where d’ you think you’re going?”

A rickety old camel man impeded Jelani’s path. A patch covered one of the man’s squinted eyes, and wrinkles covered his dull caramel face that was disheveled with stray whiskers.

The old man’s rude tone surprised Jelani. “Huh?”

“The Grotto’s only open t’ free-fer-all’ers ‘til this afternoon.”

A curious Jenny caught up and flanked Jelani, who still had an eyebrow raised in confusion. “Free-for-all’ers? What is that?” He questioned.

The old dromedary’s lip hung low in disbelief, enough to reveal his rotten teeth. “The warriors!” He spat, with a swift gesture towards the rotund, ivory edifice that dwarfed the inn. “After the mock wars and the one on one matches, the town hosts a free-fer-all!”

Jelani’s gaze was aloft; he studied the bold architecture.

“That’s terrible,” Jenny voiced closely to his side, just loud enough for him to hear. “These fights are terrible. Now why would that little thief of a rat be down there for something like that?”

“Hm,” Jelani acknowledged covertly in a whisper. A glint of curiosity shone in his eyes. “... I do not know.”

The camel’s voice grated again. “Bets fer the free-fer-all er’ closed at the moment o’course.” He asserted, donning a pair of crossed arms. “Won’t be open til’ after the registrations er’ all filled up. But if you lot want ta’ get some bettin’ done fer the matches, they can take care a’ you right around the corner a’ the coliseum th—”

“So registrations are still open?” Jelani interrupted.

“Erm, yeah,” the old man muttered, having to regain his train of thought, “B-but you can’t bet just yet. Not til’—”

“I want to enter.”

Jenny nearly stumbled over herself. “WHAT?” She exclaimed, grabbing at one of Jelani’s forearms.

The wrinkles in the camel man’s smirk read just as much surprise. “You wan’ta enter?”

“Absolutely not!” Jenny balked at Jelani, in a tangled-armed scramble for his attention. “It’s not worth it.”

“J-Jenny!” Jelani whispered loudly, edging her a bit further from the camel man. “Listen,”

“You don’t owe me anything and this isn’t your job to—”

“Ah, yes, excuse us!” Jelani raised his voice to the camel man, “We just need to discuss, uh, how we’ll... celebrate, if I win.”

Disregarding any response from the old fellow, Jelani immediately cut back to Jenny. “Please listen, Jenny,” he breathed again, “I need to do this.”

“In the condition you’re in?!”

“I do not know what I am going to do,” Jelani mulled, “but I feel like I am going to be walking into a hole of snakes. I just need to see what kind of folk are down there, for the good of this city.”

This man was dutiful to a fault. A sigh escaped Jenny as she rubbed her temple. Jelani eyed her for a response, and she slipped her satchel off her shoulder. “Let me show you something first.” It was her note pad again. “Here,” she added, thumbing through the pages. “Look at this.”

There was an image sketched onto the yellowish parchment; Jelani eased closer to get a better view.

“That’s him,” Jenny revealed, as Jelani studied the picture. It was a front profile of a male rat. He looked unpleasant, especially in demeanor, and had a large nose for his size and spots on his ears. Jenny spoke again. “That’s what he looks like.”

Jelani was disgusted, but couldn’t help but smile at the amount of detail and how lifelike the sketch was. “So you sketched him. Good call.”

“Wait, what er’ we lookin’ at here?”

Jenny slapped the book shut before a big camel snout nosed its way into it.

“Did I hear somethin’ about a sketchin’?” The old man had wedged himself between the two, and he saw the book tucked under Jenny’s arms. “Are you an artist?”

The crusty dromedary’s breath was too much for her. “N-not really!” Jenny spoke between her teeth, and she leaned away. “I mean I only draw a little,  I’m not really—“

That couldn’t stop the camel’s curious prying. “Hey, hey, do ya’ think ya’ could draw me? Just a real fast-like picture?” He pointed a bony finger towards his face.

Jelani stifled a laugh.

“Just my face right here,” the old man continued, motioning around his face. “Without tha’ wrinkles, and you don’t have ta’ draw tha’ boils either.”

Jelani placed a hand on Jenny’s shoulder and stepped in between them. “I’m sure she would be happy to accept commission work from you when she has the time, Sir, but she is a little bit busy today.”

The camel man squinted a bit in perception, “Oh?”

Jenny glanced up, exchanging a smile with Jelani. His was as gentle and supportive as the warm hand that rest on her shoulder.

“Well, I can understand that.” The old man mused, chewing on the side of his floppy lips. “It IS a big market day. Oh, n’ hey! The fights er’ startin’ soon!” He gestured at Jelani with a thumb. “You. Big boy. If you wonna be in that fight, yer gonna have to git on down there at tha’ Grotto n’ sign up.”

Jelani’s ears perked at the urgency. “Oh! Right!”

“Jelani,” Jenny spoke up, and quickly held Jelani at his forearms before he could move. “... Look. Be safe...” she reminded solemnly. “Don’t get yourself hurt.”

Jelani nodded. “I will try,” and he patted one of her wrists in reassurance. “Wish me luck, I’ll be back. Just wait for me.”

After a moment, Jelani turned and made his way down the cobbled path towards the Grotto, his dark cloak flowing behind him.

The old camel raised his voice again. “Hey!” He shouted with a hand cupped next to his mouth. “Sign up down there with Ava! She’ll git ya’ all registered up!”

Soon, Jelani had disappeared into the shade of the entrance’s overhang.

Please be safe, Jelani. Jenny thought to herself. Don’t do anything drastic. She could still see his kind, smiling face in her mind.

After a quiet moment, the crackly old voice of the dromedary broke the silence. “So uh... when do ya think ya might be open fer commissions?”

A sigh escaped an irked Jenny, and the old man just smiled eagerly in wait of a response.

- To be continued