Two Hearts Are Better Than None

The girl's grin sent Xatu's head reeling with fury. He gave a curt bow to the king and spun on his heel, long strides taking him briskly to his quarters. He felt like he could spit fire. Saddling me with this idiot girl, this impulsive fool? I will never get any of my own work done. His head was spinning. And now I can't even travel at the speed I wanted to go at... He opened his bag and started roughly packing his clothes. Despite his anger, he was careful to keep them neatly folded. I'll just have to lose this maniac at the first opportunity. Maybe I can go just a little faster, ditch her... no, I'd have to still wait on her to catch up. I wouldn't save time at all. He gritted his teeth and took a breath. There's no choice. The King's orders.

He finished packing and headed to the stables. Kiirus was housed in his own building, as his scent tended to upset the horses. ♪Hello hello,♪ he chirruped, stretching languidly and nodding his head happily at Xatu. He was the least intelligent of Xatu's dragons, but could understand rudimentary conversation.

Xatu put the panpipes to his lips. ♪Hello Kiirus,♪ he played. ♪We are going on a trip.♪

Kiirus clattered his teeth together excitedly. ♪A trip! Good! Ready!♪ He leapt to the tack wall and slid into his harness. Xatu walked over and tightened the straps, then attached his bag to the back of the saddle. He then swung himself up and over to land comfortably on Kiirus' back.

Kiirus stepped proudly out of his building and into the courtyard of the stable, his white scales gleaming in the sun. Xatu sat, impassive, waiting for his travelling partner to show up.

Tepo’s ears pricked at the distant sound of a flute drifting in through her window. It was pretty and lilting and it was over before she had a chance to really enjoy it. she hummed it again to herself as she finished packing.

“You’re not going to get yourself into trouble are you?” Tepo heard Dulce’s soft steps enter the room before she heard his voice, “The man in the king’s hall didn’t look too pleased about the idea of traveling with you.”

“I’m not going to do anything.” Tepo answered testily without turning around.  She felt Dulce’s arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind with a swift peck to her hair.

“I’m just worried about you, you know that,” he said quietly before Blanca jumped them both by putting his arms around them making absolutely no noise entering the room. Tepo groaned as he put his weight into them both.

“She’ll be fine.” He assured Dulce, giving them both a squeeze before releasing them, “Won’t you Tepo?”

She slung her back over her shoulder and turned around to give them both a confident smile. “I’ll be back soon enough, you won’t even miss me,” She guaranteed them and gave them both a clap on the shoulder, “Wish me luck!”

Walking briskly away from her companions before they could fawn over her any more she heard Dulce faintly wish her luck.

She skipped steps still humming the short tune she had heard at the window before making her way to the courtyard and the stables. Blanca promised she could take Brisket with her for the trip. She hated to separate him from Sirloin, but he was the more reliable of the two Kirin and she would. Not. Cause. Trouble.

He calmly let Tepo bridle him and saddle him and leaned into her hand as she gave him a sugar cube, perking his ears at the tune she was humming. She led him out of the stables and walked him into the daylight, the sun hitting his iridescent scales impressively. Turning into the courtyard and toward the front gates she saw Xatu sitting passively, waiting for her. She guessed he probably heard her humming as she approached or at least the sound of hooves on cobblestone but he just wanted to ignore her. She bristled. Caught between guilt about the day before and his curtness she was lost on what to say. Tepo cleared her throat.

“Uh, I don’t know if I was formally introduced or not…” She started rustling through her bag looking for her peace offering. “I’m Tepo.”

She pulled a slip of paper out of her bag and offered it to him. It was a runic healing spell she had Blanca show her how to draw. She was still a bit lost on the mechanics but at least she had finished it this morning.

“I really am sorry about yesterday, I can get a bit… overzealous… I guess.” Laughing mechanically her arm started to prickle the longer she held it out without him taking the paper. Brisket pulled at his reins, snorting and trying to tug her away from the enormous beast that Xatu was mounted upon. She side-eyed the dragon, making a brief moment of eye contact as her laugh trailed off anxiously.

"Xatu," he replied, and reached to take the spell. His eyes glanced over the rune. A simple healing spell, he thought, and tucked it in his pocket. "I accept your apology," he continued, casting another wary eye over Tepo. He tried not to show any reaction to the Kirin, the sun blazing off its scales next to him. "Be sure to keep your zeal in check in the future."

Kiirus had taken a liking to her, he noticed, and he had caught the notes of his dragonsong being hummed as she'd approached the courtyard. She's too observant by far. He sighed. "Well, let's get going, then."

Without waiting for a response, he turned Kiirus towards the exit and clicked. Kiirus flowed smoothly forward, a little too quickly for a regular horse to keep up, but no problem for a Kirin. A Kirin! Now that he was facing away from her, he let himself think about the Kirin. A magnificent creature, as close to Kiirus as an animal could get, rare and intensely magical. What is this girl? he thought. Where did her company get such a beast?

They travelled quickly out of the city, the crowds on the roads parting for them, until they were out past the crowds entering the gates. Xatu pointedly ignored Tepo, not giving her any opportunities to start up a conversation. Kiirus and the Kirin navigated the ruts in the road deftly, and Kiirus was basically prancing. Show-off, Xatu groused, Why do you like her so much?

Soon enough, the sun was high in the sky, and Xatu felt the first pangs of hunger. Normally, he would stop for a moment and break into his food stores, but for some reason the thought of showing any vulnerability, including basic hunger, to Tepo made him annoyed. She really was infuriating on every level. A part of him knew this was stupid, he would have to eat eventually, but some stubborn pride kept him in the saddle. His arm ached under the travelling coat. I'll have to use that spell when we stop.

"Nice to formally make your acquaintance, Xatu." She said his name with emphasis, taking it as the the first step to a long, beautiful friendship. At Xatu's acquiescence, relief washed over Tepo. She gave a wide, unabashed grin in his direction.

"Sir, yes sir." She replied with a small salute. The smile quickly fell from her face as he turned towards the gates without waiting or acknowledging her further. "Whoa, whoa, wait! Wait!" She scrambled to climb up on to Brisket's back. Hopping on one foot to mount him as he started to already follow Xatu's dragon.

The tapping of hooves and claws were lost among the crowds of people on the edges of the town that encircled the castle. They also didn't seem too taken back by a dragon walking among them either.

"Have you worked for the King for a long time? The people here seem comfortable with... him," She wagered at his back, nodding at his dragon. He must've been here if no one was aghast at the site of his steed. Xatu answered her with silence. Was he ignoring her? Maybe he just didn't hear her over the people.

"Does he have a name? He has very pretty coloring..." She tried again. Nothing. Tepo pouted, biting the inside of her cheek. Fine, two can play that game. She sat back in her saddle, matching Xatu's silence for hours. The sun traveled high into the sky, it must've been close to noon if it hadn't passed already. She desperately wanted lunch but she didn't want to break the silence to ask him to stop to eat, either. Sooner or later one of them would have to say something, and it sure enough wasn't going to be her.

The heat was making Xatu's arm throb. He ignored it for a little longer, but it compounded with his stomach knotting itself into a growling coil. Fine.

"We'll stop here for lunch," he announced, pulling Kiirus to a stop. The spot was nice, a little clearing on the side of the path, with a stream at the back to water the mounts. He hopped off Kiirus and pulled a piece of bread and some wrapped cheese out of a saddlebag, then sat down and unrolled the healing spell. He focused on his arm and activated it, and gave an almost imperceptible sigh of relief as the pain dissipated. He felt his shoulders loosen and went to work preparing the bread.

Tepo put both hands over her stomach to try and quiet the growling, she couldn't let Xatu hear how much her body betrayed her. Brisket started to veer off the path towards a particularly green bush and she had to remove a reluctant hand to tug on his reins and steer him back on track.

Xatu's announcement for lunch made her sit back in her seat and tilt her head back in relief.
"Finally!" She groaned, slipping off of her mount in one fluid motion. She pulled a many colored bindle that looked almost quilted together from her saddlebag. She pulled open one of the colored corners of fabric, pulled out fresh grapes, closed it and opened a different colored corner for bread. She shook her head, re-tied it, and re-opened the same corner for a piece of cheese instead. She was glad for some of the things Blanca made her bring with her. It seemed like useless magic to enchant cloth until you have a craving for a very specific type of cheese.

Tepo wandered over to where Xatu was sitting, her curiosity getting the better of her when she smelled the strong smell of tea-tree oil and peppermint that the healing scroll gave off to her.

"You got that magic to work for you awfully fast." She noted, her mouth still full of cheese, "I've always been a bit rubbish with runic magic, I'm glad it's working... I think."

She sat next to him without any concern about personal space and popped in another grape. She stared at his arm where he had placed the spell, deep in thought about healing magic and assumed it was working well if it smelled that way so strongly.

Xatu allowed himself a hint of a sneer, his upper lip twitching slightly as he pointedly shifted away from her. "My position in Court isn't without merit, you know." He took a bite of his cheese, inwardly a bit happier due to the food, and the healing, and maybe because she had complimented his work. He was maybe a little vain. This wasn't the first time he'd been stared at, although it wasn't usually fixated on one spot - most people tended to get stuck on the eyes and demeanor. Nor was it usually this... close.

He sighed as he realized he really didn't know anything about this girl. That's not safe at all. He didn't know her intentions, her task, anything, and her behavior was so erratic...

He sighed again. "So... Tepo. You're headed Northwest, too. What are you off to do? The King said you had reason to be there." He took another bite of cheese and worked not to look too interested.