Shorty & the Beast: Part Two (special preview)

For a few days, Roslile kept Kyairil hidden for a few days, secretly preparing for the long journey it would take to reach the Cobra Strait. While her father continued to go to Bellmore to look after the house of his previous employers. She carefully stocked food for the journey, enough for her and Noodle hopefully. The only thing she lacked was money.

“Why am I not surprised you Halflings use turnips as money.” Kyairil’s voice perked up in her head.

“Shut up,” she snapped back at him. “We use money like anybody else. We just like food, that’s all.”

“Well it certainly didn’t help you grow,” he sighed.

Roslile rolled her eyes, hoping somehow he could feel it through whatever magic was connecting the two. “Do you really want my help?”

“Like I said to my last date; I’m desperate so I’ll take anything.”

Roslile huffed, finishing up her pack and setting it beside her bed. “Look, unless you have a way I can get some money for this journey, I am going to need you to be quiet.”

Kyairil sighed heavily. “I have many ways, I just need my body in order to be able to do it.”

Her hands went to her hips. “Then be quiet.”

“Just know I am sticking my tongue out at you right now.”

Roslile ignored him as she went went over the cost of things inside her own room. Her books could total up to something, maybe. Her gardening tools would fetch some money too if she got to the right buyer. Maybe her desk was worth something, a gold piece at least. She slowly made up a list of things she was willing to sell when she came upon her jewelry box. She was never one for baubles or beads, but her mother had left her a beautiful golden chain and locket.

“You feel sad. Why do you feel sad?” Kyairil asked, sounding annoyed by the disturbance.

Roslile shut the jewelry box and scoffed. “Who said you could feel me? Is this going to be a thing now?”

Kyairil grumbled something under his breath before clearing his throat to explain. “The two of us made a pact, so while we work together you and I are bound to that pact. Once your village is protected, then I won’t have to feel anything about you. Until then, it’s something you’re going to have to get used to.” He then sighed. “So what’s got you down little pigeon?”

“The only thing of value I have that could possibly earn any sort of money is my mother’s locket.” She smoothed her hand over the jewelry box with an increasingly concerned look. “But that’s really all I have of her’s.”

“Then don’t sell it.”

“But I have nothing else!” Roslile went to throw herself down onto her bed in frustration when it felt like there were two hands on her shoulders. The strange force moved her, turning her in the direction of the halberd on her desk.

Kyairil’s eyes glowed in the shine of the halberd. “Take the beads off the blade if you’re going to pout like that. They’re real sapphire. Used to wear them all the time when I had a body. They mean nothing to me other than that they matched my skin.”

“It won’t hurt you or anything to remove them?” Roslile asked, surprised by the offer.

“At this point in my life I would be excited to feel anything,” he bemoaned. “Besides, I’m sure they’re worth more than that silly locket anyways.”

Roslile took the beads, breaking the thread that attached them to the handle. They glimmered in her palm, looking so beautiful. “Your skins as this color?”