Chapter 11: Planning

Felix stared at the coin purse before him. Together with what he had gotten for the water goddess gig, he now had enough to pay for either his alchemy, or his rune crafting, license.

He looked up at Edward, who was looking at him with amusement in his eyes.

"I can't take this," Felix made to return the purse, but Edward closed the bunny shifter's hands around the fabric of the purse, and pushed it closer to Felix's chest.

"You can, and you will. So, we have to go to the capital, and pay for your alchemy license?" Edward said, his hands not letting go of Felix. He felt the bunny shifter's mounting insecurities as if they were one body. The truth? They were merely one soul. "Unless, you want to tell me now, how much is the runesmithing license?"

"It is 1,000 gold coins as well, but you don't need to…"

"Then it is settled. I don't see why we should make the trip twice. Come now, dear bunny, let us see what else we can find," with this, Edward motioned for Felix to stash the money away, and then turned back towards the bounties. He saw a couple of ones, which were easy, but didn't pay all that well.

Then, he saw it. An escort mission for the shipment of a mystery cargo. Up the river, towards the next Emporium. It was marked as urgent, and the pay was good. Three hundred gold coins. He could start from there.

"Felix, I think I found our gig," Edward said, and then nodded at the poster.

"Sounds simple enough," but Felix was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "But what if the cargo is illegal, and we get stopped by guards?"

"Oh, the quest comes from the Emporium. I can bet all of my savings, that the cargo is illegal," Edward said with a chuckle.

"I can make 1,000 gold coins, if I take the rune smiting license first, and then the alchemy one. We don't need to fall in with a bad crowd," Felix told Edward who hummed.

"Do you have connections for selling your runes? Your potions? Do you have the tools?"

"All I need is paper, and I can make tons of runes in the span of an hour. I used to sell them without anybody noticing, when I was home," admitting that he had broken the law was not something Felix did lightly. Yet, he had been pressured to sell the illegal runes on the black market for not even a third of their true value.

Each day he spent with Edward, was a day while his family struggled with their poverty. He could bet that his parents wondered why he left home, and were probably even asking about him. But he couldn't afford to come back with empty hands. No, unless he had at least 1,000 gold coins worth of profit, he wouldn't contact his family.

They required the money so that his siblings could finally finish school. They required the money, so they could patch up the farmhouse, and get more land. Their family was ever growing. It wasn't his parents' fault that their instincts made them breed like the rabbits they were. They were good people, and Felix cherished them.

"Fine, we are going to the capital, then. But we might as well take a quest along the way. We can turn it in, at the nearest Emporium," Edward said, looking at the posters once more. He saw the slime quest from earlier, and took it off the wall. "Do you think we can manage this one?"

"Can you really make jell-o from slimes?" Felix had a sweet tooth and a half, and he wondered if he couldn't snack on some minty slime jell-o.

"Sure, but it will take a while. Do you want some mint now?" Edward suggested, taking out his purse with the herb. He watched, with more than a little amusement, as Felix's eyes lit up. Like a small child in a candy store.

Edward knew that mint was probably the only candy-like thing that Felix had ever tasted. He marked it as something he could use to put Felix at ease when he would stiffen with worry.

More than that, he vowed he'd take the bunny shifter to an actual candy store, once they came to the capital, and buy him a bag with every piece of minty candy they had on offer.

"Yes, please," Felix reached out, and their fingers brushed. The bunny waited as Edward gave him some leaves, and then popped them in his mouth. Felix closed his eyes in pleasure at the familiar taste, and Edward let out a chuckle.

"I will make you minty jell-o, out of the slimes. The only thing we need, is their cores, to hand in the quest," Edward then went inside the booth, and handed the poster over to the clerk.

"Didn't you just complete the dragon slaying mission?" The clerk had clearly remembered Edward. His respect for the cat rose, as Edward nodded.

"Sure, but I require more money. So, how about you write me down as the adventurer on the job?"

"Sure thing, sir. Right away," the clerk took Edward's ID next, and quickly wrote him down in the register. Before Edward could turn around and leave, the clerk reached out, and took a hold of his sleeve.

"Sir, do you think you could let your healer examine me? My tongue is very pale, and I think I am coming down with something," the hope in the clerk's eyes made Edward pause.

"How did you know I have a healer with me?" Did everyone know by now? Edward found the thought unsettling.

"I just heard rumors that a blonde cat shifter parties with an albino bunny shifter, who is a healer. Is the rumor true?" The clerk asked, and Edward sighed. Well, as long as the clerk could pay, Edward didn't see any point in denying him medical attention.

"You will be checked in by him, but you will pay," Edward told the clerk, leveling him with a glare. "No matter what else you have heard."

"Right, I wasn't hoping that he'd check me out on credit, sir, don't you worry," Edward didn't like the idea that even this had become a part of the rumor mill. Yet, he just nodded, and led the clerk out of the booth.

As Edward watched as Felix poured mana inside the man, he wondered if other people wouldn't stop him as well. Felix looked at Edward when he was done, and Edward noted that the film on the clerk's tongue was gone.

"Edward, do you have mint to spare?" Felix asked him, and Edward took out a purse with the herb. He handed it over, as Felix smiled at him.

"Right. You had oral thrush," Felix told the man, and then hummed. "Are you taking any medication?"

"No, I am not," the clerk told Felix, which made Felix sigh.

"Well, the yellow film which was on your tongue is the product of bad oral hygiene, then. I suggest you chew mint, and wash out your mouth with water, at least three times per day."

"Of what? The mint chewing, or the water washing?" The clerk asked, luxuriating in the feeling that he could taste something other than bitterness in his mouth.

"Both," with this, Felix clapped the clerk on the shoulder, and then turned to leave. The clerk looked at Edward, and handed him five gold coins.

"For my treatment, sir," and he went back inside the booth.

Edward rushed to catch up with Felix, with the money still in his hands.

"You nearly let him go without paying," Edward said, passing on the money. Felix gave him a guilty expression, which didn't soften the cat shifter.

"Sorry about that. I guess, it is a force of habit."

"One that I will break you out of. Come on, pocket the money," Edward urged, and Felix did just that. And if Edward thought that the frog keychain on the purse was adorable, then, well, it suited Felix to have adorable things on hand.