Rumors

Amari was jogging through the kingdom at a decent pace. She has been there for a bit and has been staying at an inn. She has been getting to know the old man (Oliver) and his son (Otto), even being invited to their farm a few times. That is actually where she is going right now. The smell in the kingdom still bothered her, though, so she still wore the mask. If there were something she could do to make the smell go away, she would do it in a heartbeat.

 *************************************************** She turned a corner before stopping. "Wrong turn." She was about to turn around when she heard someone yelling, "Get back here, thief!" Someone yelled. She turned her head and saw a guy running with another one behind him, and the man in front was holding something. Amari simply stuck her leg out, and the man tripped and fell. Amari managed to catch him with one arm before he hit the ground, and while he was still dazed, she took the item from him with the other hand, which was a piece of bread. By the time the other man caught up, Amari was gently laying down the other guy. "Ah, thank you, mam," the man said out of breath. He looked the same height, if not an inch taller than her. "It's no problem," she said, trying to figure out if the guy was a guard or not. She gave the bread to the guard(?) before bending down. "Let me guess you stole that bread because you were hungry, and you might have a family, right?" The guy looked away. "So, you do have a family. Well, wouldn't it be better to get a job of some kind?" The guy looked at her and said, "You don't get it!" He said, "I tried all most everything! From famer to merchant but nothing works!" The man was full of stress, and Amari could tell "Well, you run fast, so have you tried a guard?" "Huh." "I don't know how much it pays, but have you tried it?" "No but..." The guard(?) speaks up "You know there's a good chance you could get the job it might not pay a lot, but it's a bit more stable than steeling." He holds out a hand, helping him up. "Tell you what, I'll let you go, but I don't want you steeling again, ok?" The guy nods. "Thank you, sir! and thank you, mam. Truely" Amari simply stared as the man ran off. The guard(?) looks back at her. "Well, I have to get going. Thank you, miss?" "I'm Amari," she says, standing up. "Well, thank you, Amari. I'm Milo, a guard here." "Ah, so I was right." "If you don't mind, I have a question how did you know he had a family?" She looked at him. "It was just a guess, you would be surprised by what people would do for family," she replied. Then she remembered, "Wait... crap, I'm late." "I have to go," she said. "Oh well, I'll see you around then," Milo said as she ran off. Milo started walking back, not aware that someone was watching from the shadows. **************************************************** Amari came to a halt in front of a fence, seeing Oliver standing there. "Wow," he remarked, walking up to her. "I wanted to teach you about farming, but it looks like you need to learn how to be on time as well." Amari looked offended as Oliver walked off, and she followed "I was only late by a few minutes." "Yeah, a few minutes wasted." All she could do was sigh, "Great."There was an entire montage about what she went through. From Otto falling in a hole to Oliver telling Amari how to till the ground right and Otto telling her how to plant things. At one point, Amari asked Otto why he wasn't a farmer, and Otto went still and quiet, then turned to her and smiled bigly, "I wanted more money, of course!" Amari felt like there was more to the story however, she left it at that "It's not really any of my business. If he wants to tell me, he will. Now that I think about it, why that guy was steeling was none of my business either..."  ****************************************** She ended up spending the night because it was already late. They ate and went to sleep, with her sleeping on the couch and them in their rooms. It was in the middle of the night that she heard something. Her hand was already on her dagger when she realized who it was. "Otto?" Otto turned to see her. "Oh, hey, did I wake you up?" "I heard someone walking, so I woke up." "Ah, sorry, it's just... I was thinking about what you asked earlier." Amari knew what he was referring to and sat there quietly. "I hope I didn't cross any lines," Amari thought. "It's just..." he exhaled. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." "No, I want to." Otto takes a deep breath. "The thing is, I wasn't lying when I said I wanted more money. The difference is that we needed more money. Before things went downhill, we were doing fine, but then rumors spread around that the king and some of the royal guards had disappeared. I don't believe them they sound too far-fetched for me. My dad believes them, though." "So, no one knows what happened?" Amari asked, "The advisor said that the king is sick and that he is running things until he gets better. I hope the king gets better soon, because no offense to the advisor, but the kingdom is not doing so well. Anyway, sooner or later the rent was raised, and my.... mother left us in the middle of the night, so we had to solely rely on just my father's income. It was taking a toll on him, and I knew it, so I became a merchant to help my dad out." He dryly chucked, "You know he wanted to give me the farm, and he still does, but I can't decide if I want to stay a merchant or take the farm because, at some point, I started liking both jobs." Amari hummed before saying, "Why not both? Why can't you be a merchant for the family? That way, you can still help and be a merchant at the same time." Otto sat there for a moment before standing up. "Sorry for putting all that on you," Amari blinked. "It's fine." Otto was walking back to his room before he stopped. "Thank you," he said, smiling, and before she could say anything, he was back in his room. Amari sighed, then looked at her satchel with the egg in it and fell to sleep.