Friends not so friends III

Fenrir looks around the kitchen, some pots are on the floor and his friend nearby is unconscious. Quickly, Fenrir reacts by ducking his head to dodge a dagger that was headed in his direction. He looks from the back of the door in the customer area to those two brothers laughing at the hustler's reaction.

"Are you all right?" He checks Christph's wounds. "He still has a pulse and the wounds are superficial, they must have just knocked him out. Still. What do they want from us you evil idiots!"

The duo of hatters laugh at Fenrir's words, they weren't going to be intimidated, once they eliminated the swindler, they would gain a reputation in the most wanted ranking and they would have that exotic beauty he cared for. There was nothing better for criminals than to have double the prize for so little.

"Be careful Ruto, he's known for not playing fair."

"Don't worry Tupo, in that field there is no one like us."

The brothers invite Fenrir to advance towards them, it was an obvious trap, but the man also decided not to leave with his unconscious friend. Fenrir thought how strange it was that the duo of ridiculous hats had left his friend so close to him, almost as if he was inviting him to take him just like that. That was when he realised a basic mistake he had made, he had touched his friend's neck to check for signs, and he made contact without thinking about it with his friend's skin.

"Paralyzing drug!"

Fenrir begins to feel numb, shivering as he feels an electric current run up and down his body, forcing him to his knees.

"Frounx rat toxins!"

"He's not as stupid as we thought!" he walks over next to his brother Fenrir. "And before you scream."

Tupo throws a magical artifact that was placed in a second in Fenrir's mouth making it impossible for Fenrir to call for help.

"Now, what do we look like to you, eh? Aren't we worthy of your attention and memory now?" joked Ruto.

"We'd like to have fun with you and your friend, but we need to take that lovely girl back to our home to help her train for her new duties. You know, even prostitution requires a little training to line up the bitches so they never bite the hand that feeds them. You understand us right?"

"Hmmrf" muttered Fenrir.

"Very true." He kicks Fenrir's stomach. "We also noticed that you're accompanied by that stupid cartographer. Hey bro, I think some twins are more than interested in finding him."

"Right brother, looks like someone kidnapped a friend of the twins, too bad for you Fenrir. Maybe it's not necessary to murder you. Imagine how much those brothers would pay us to find their friend and deliver his kidnapper in the process. You would have more fun with them than with us."

Despite the blows and threats, Fenrir only blinked in disinterest at the situation, which angered the brothers Tupo and Ruto because they expected to see the fear of the man who had made the mistake of getting in their way.

"Hrmp! (What a bore)" Fenrir looks away from them.

"What do you think? Looks like someone wants to die!" He pulls out his knife.

"Easy brother, let's not fall for provocations, unlike him, we don't let ourselves be guided by them, we are better and we are the ones who guide the emotions of others."

"Right Topu, I almost forgot our talent." He kicks Fenrir's face. "Still, he deserves a correction, after all it's for your own good so you at least know how to behave with your superiors."

Both Topu and Ruto are amazed at the attitude of Fenrir who was making a gesture of being sleepy, everything that was going on with him seemed to bore him to the point of not giving a damn about anything. Quickly, he falls asleep letting out a stifled sigh, showing that he had completely relaxed to rest even with his precarious situation.

Both brothers thought of something to help them calm down, they remembered the rainbow sheep they had sheared by ruining the family business of their childhood nemesis. Watching them plunge into ruin helped them to control themselves and keep their minds cool and calm. They wondered if Fenrir was just another madman in the crowd or just playing the fool, in the end, they decided to leave him aside, with him paralyzed, no one was protecting the girl or the cartographer from them.

When they turned their backs on Fenrir, both brothers felt a strange hand squeeze their necks for a few seconds. When they turned around it was Fenrir who was standing behind them with a big smile on his face and pointing out that he had a vial of the same poison as them. Topu and Ruto were quick to grasp the situation and before they could react they fell to the ground unmoving from the poison.

"Now, remember me well what you were saying. It was something very interesting about superiority and how to respect your superiors," said Fenrir with a macabre smile and eyes of extreme evil.

Fenrir after about twenty minutes leaves the place carrying his friend by the shoulder; incredibly, he was also carrying bags of interesting things that he had taken from the brothers as a form of compensation for the problems.

When Theodore asked what had happened and why Fenrir had taken so long to show up, he replied that he had helped Christoph solve an unexpected pest problem, leaving the brothers badly injured and threatening them with eternal torture if they told on him that they had seen the cartographer Theodore with him.

"What happened? What happened to me?"

Cristoph was just waking up confused because the last thing he remembered was that he had entered the kitchen and then everything was black to him.

"What's up man, I brought all the knives from the kitchen. Since I didn't know which one was your dad's, I didn't want to waste time guessing. I hope I brought them," Fenrir said.

"They are those dark ones with golden dragon decorations." The man pointed out. "Fenrir you..."

"Don't worry my friend, it's time to find a new place for a better restaurant, free of all the trouble it causes you and one with a clientele worthy of tasting the meals you prepare with those knives." He smiles.

"Thank you."

"Are they breeding pairs?" the girl asked bluntly as she watched both men smile in a way that was unusual for her.

"Shut up before you say more stupid things, you idiot!!!" they both shouted at the same time.

"Now, now, don't yell at me. I didn't mean to interrupt your rituals." He takes a blow from Fenrir. "And why is that?!"

"You brought this on yourself you idiot."

Fenrir looks up at the lit sky and his companions, he thinks of his brother Lion wondering if he is doing right about being a better person. He wasn't robbing innocents and beating them up in the name of the right to criminals instead of personal gain. Fenrir knew that he had not yet achieved much in the way of being a good man like his younger brother, but he knew that if he continued on the right path, at some point in his life, he would recognize the new place he would be in after helping everyone for the right reasons.

Christoph was making an inventory of the supplies that he and Fenrir combined for their long journey, he could not wait to create works of art for the palate that in a notebook was already beginning to write down different recipes for the next dinner. Theodore had prepared a route to advance without so many dangers towards his destination, to be safe and free of all dangers and Kalishar watched as for some reason Fenrir's vital fire had acquired beautiful colors as if something had changed to improve the warmth and strength of that essence of life that the human had.

"There is more to this world than just eating, there is beauty and there is an incredible feeling. Perhaps I should teach my offspring these new values so that even they themselves are not threatened and a human and zerbarix coexistence can exist." Thought the girl before dismissing that crazy and impossible possibility.

"Can I ask you something now that everything seems to be going well," Kalishar said to Fenrir.

"What is it, friend? If it's some nonsense from my mating rituals or a worse prank, I'll kill you."

"No... for now I decided to ignore that nonsense for my sake. What I wanted to know was, really, what are you feeling right now? What's going on in your head to make you in such a good mood?"

"What kind of questions do you ask at times like this!" he smiles a little embarrassed.

"Are you going to hit me?!" the girl covers her head.

"Calm down you idiot, I won't. What I'm saying is, well. A bit embarrassing for me to speak so openly."

"Why? It's a positive thing your mood now isn't it? Compared to that in Ringhood you shouldn't close yourself off from sharing it, at least to me."

"Although it's true that I'm better now than when I discovered Lion's passing. The truth is I still find it hard to be really honest with others than him, don't take this the wrong way, I just, I feel happy and weird about everything and I don't know how to process this joyful and confusing feeling."

"You can at least tell me how you see our relationship. I'd like to know in a better way how you perceive me and what you think of me."

"Well, I guess it would be weird not to appreciate your company. After all, you're the one who saved me and helped take out zerbarix. And since we've been here I think I like you a little bit better every day than I did yesterday."

"Really?" he gets excited. "And how can I improve that so that you appreciate me completely?!"

"What questions so suddenly?!" He notices his two companions curiously observing the scene. "Be careful with those words, you'll make those two get weird ideas."

"But I'm very interested in being your favourite! Come on I even learned a lot from Theodore's explanations on how to let myself be touched by you, it strengthens bonds."

Fenrir and Cristoph look confused at the man, who is surprised at how much the girl misunderstood, that explanation about private spaces.

"You don't need to do such crazy things, for now we must be content with our dynamic for now. In the future, maybe it can grow more, but we'd better not force it if either of us, I ahem..." He coughs slyly. "She's not ready."

"I, if I'm prepared to raise everything to the highest level, I just want you to be first for me because you come first for me."

In the thoughts of the three men, there was an interpretation of those words, leaving Fenrir looking bad. The two men wondered if the two had had any kind of intimacy before they joined the journey. Fenrir quickly dismissed the suspicions of his colleagues and as he turned to look at Kalishar she had already taken his hand and pulled it to her breast.

"Stop this, you're starting to make me uncomfortable, you bloody idiot!!!" the man shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Why are you so complicated?!!!", Kalishar shouted in response.

"I ask to be the chef at the wedding," laughed Cristoph.

"There will be no wedding and go to hell!!!"

"What is a wedding?!"

"Nobody answer that!!!"

The atmosphere in the carriage seemed more lively and cheerful than ever: a swindler seeking to fulfill his younger brother's wish, a zerbarix seeking a peaceful place for herself and her offspring, a cartographer seeking only his peace, and a cook wishing to be the best chef again. It seemed like a crazy adventure story that only a madman would come up with, and that was the kind of crazy adventure that only Fenrir would enjoy more than anyone else. Meanwhile, the Gronbule brothers were following Fenrir's trail, as they arrived at the restaurant that they ran as a front, they noticed the kind of wreckage that only that man did, not to mention the smell of Theodore still seemed to accompany the swindler, only confirming that indeed, the two were traveling together and that could be good or bad depending on Fenrir's reason when the time came to negotiate with them.