Prompt 25: There Goes My Lunch

Tyranny saw the road sparrow in the rafters over the FC chocobos. It was preening its feathers and paying no attention to its surroundings. She grinned and jumped silently up to the stable sides and then snuck into the rafters. Slowly she stalked her prey, moving ever so quietly. The bird remained unaware of her presence even as she was within pouncing distance. The cat wiggled her rear end back and forth with her front lowered. Confident in her angle of approach she jumped for the road sparrow and caught.... the rest of the beam. Startled, her back side slid slightly off and she had to pull herself back up. The sparrow flew a few circles around her laughing. "I'm not as dumb as the idiom would suggest. My name's Fancy and you'd do well not to try that again, you'd do even better to never succeed if you do. I'm Aqua's lookout and belong here just as much as you." The bird cackled and flew off and the cat's eyes narrowed, annoyed at the influx of critters she wasn't allowed to hunt.

Prompt 24: TFW They Look Nice for Someone Else

White limbal rings shone brightly as Sanagi looked into the heterochromic hazel and green eyes across from her. She thought Mokoto looked especially nice today with her dark hair framing her face and her glossy plump lips. Her only friend and girlfriend, Mokoto came over often, but today they had both said they had something to tell one another. It had been only a few short months since they'd become more than friends but Sanagi was happier than ever even if she still didn't know how to tell her parents who did their best to shelter her from... what? Things she both knew and things she had no idea about whatsoever.

Mokoto had told Sanagi she could go first and before she could lose her courage she blurted out to that beautiful face above her, "I love you." There was this pause in time as she was looking at her and then suddenly Mokoto's listening expression crinkled up into laughter. "You had me going for a moment..." Sanagi's face crumbled as she registered this response to her confession and Mokoto stopped laughing. Her voice took on a strange edge Sanagi had never heard before.

"You silly girl. You don't fall in love with someone this quickly and I thought you knew we'd never be permanent. You know I want out of this town. I thought you'd already heard I had a date tonight and were messing with me. I expected you were smarter than this." The highlander stood, now towering over the raen, "Take some time and when you're done sniveling, if I'm not already gone from the village, maybe we can be friends again. I really didn't think you were this naive." Mokoto turned and walked out the door. It took a few more minutes of blankly staring at her bedroom door before the girl broke out in tears until the weeping put her to sleep.

Prompt 23: The Shifting Ship Upon the Seas

The schooner was up in the dry dock for maintenance and a young roe, pale of skin and dark of hair, hung from the side with a large brush. Aliiza had spent all morning scraping barnacles from the underside of this ship and now had been set to work making sure the seals were fresh and to look for extra wear and tear. She didn't mind the work so much, hard work kept her busy, but today she hated it. Her mother was supervising and just as Aliiza thought it had been nice and quiet a few minutes, the woman's harsh voice rang out from the pier. "Girl, you make sure you get every bit of this ship covered. We don't need to lose the whole tribe to any mistakes made while you daydream!"

The green of Aliiza's eyes deepened and swirled as her mother's voice grated on her but she just responded, "Yes, Mother!" She dipped the brush back into the foul smelling bucket of black and worked on the wooden seam in front of her where it had suffered some wear and tear out on the seas. She tried to remind herself that soon, she should be sent out and away and wondered about what she'd do and how long that freedom would last before she was headed back here.

Prompt 22: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Crimson eyes in an angular face winced slightly as Sanagi worked to clean out the latest batch of wounds on her now regular patient, Alex. While the numbing agents helped take effect for the process of cleaning and preparing the wound for aether healing she tried to distract him. "So this isn't your usual fight club routine. You in trouble?" He looked up at her half serious and half jesting, "Always." Purple lips smiled softly as she shook her head just a little. Then he spoke again, "Assassination didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, but I did the job and I got paid, and you'll have me fixed up in no time, so it went well enough."

She glanced at his face from her ministrations and she could see even without her weird "Knowing" that he was still surprised sometimes at the things he told her. Just now was one of those times. He told her the truth, always, if not all the details. The thing her Knowing told her was he was, in truth, even more surprised she didn't ever seem bothered even though she believed him. She always steadily worked to make him better physically and sometimes the things she said were so kind after what he'd confessed he was obviously confused. Her pale fingers smoothed some of his blonde hair back so she could check a wound on his face. "You're right, I'll have you fixed up in no time. Just make sure that's always a parameter of your jobs, ok?" She smiled at him as she cleaned the facial wound.

Prompt 21: 'Tis the Season (for this FC)

On the FC message board was posted a new sign.

"A small token for you all,

To celebrate both the coming of the harvest times and All Saints Wake, there are two new bottles downstairs on the shelves by the hot tub. They're crystals that when placed in the water will dissolve and give you not only a colorful, bubbly experience, but also help soothe your aches away. Enjoy and let me know if we need more!

Sincerely,

Sanagi"

The shelves in the hot tub room will indeed contain two rather large bottles of bath salts, one has dark purple and orange crystals, the other browns, yellows, and red. Each effervesces into bubbles and colored steam when added to the water, and the soak does as good for muscle aches and pains as all of Sana's specialty concoctions aimed for those.

Prompt 20: Special Delivery

Chestnut colored hands with cream scales carefully packed a small box. Its precious cargo included several varieties of lovely feathers, some carefully selected seashells, dried evergreen sprigs, a small book of pressed flowers from various places, and small rocks and minerals of pleasing colors and shapes. On top of the contents a letter in delicate handwriting with a royal seal was placed.

"My dear Arik,

I'm sorry I haven't been by the FC house recently but I plan to be within the next month. I've added several shrines in places further out than before and it has taken me some time. Along the way I thought of you many times and I hope you enjoy these bits from my travels, gathered so you might feel you were with me on them. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Warmest regards,

Kuri"

Prompt 19: Urchins

Tsume was wandering Hawker's Alley, looking for items to give a little more hominess to his new place and his keen eyes caught small hands reaching up at various tables and making off with even smaller items. He turned a slow circle and saw a couple of very small children, clothes dirty, full of holes. They wouldn't trust an adult, well meaning or not, so instead he just let them be until forced to interfere. A baker was about to catch the hands getting a few rolls, nourishment obviously needed, so he drew the man's attention to questions about the fillings of his kolaches. A teal eye gave a wink to the surprised child and the seeker was glad to see the group called it a day and took off for wherever they were holed up together. He'd figure that part out later so help could be slowly given and trust slowly earned.

Prompt 18: Limits

The FC was shut down for the night, most of the proprietors were either gone, relaxing downstairs, or in their rooms. Nighttime guard duty was in effect and Sanagi had let them know she'd be in the training room setup by Aliiza until she let them know she was teleporting home. Her husband was out on a job for the evening. The tiny raen took off her shoes and headed up the steps to the fire walk. Her feet were more calloused than her vainly cared for hands but still, as she walked across the coals and fire, she let her healing aether encircle her feet, pushing until she felt at least some pain but nothing too deep. Not yet.

She stepped off the pit and walked down the steps without the help of her aether, she needed the slight burns and she could take the pain easily. Sitting down, her pale fingers opened the jar she'd brought in with her. A new mixture to soothe and heal, hopefully an improvement upon her old one with the latest herbs she'd found and cultivated. She spread the salve along the bottoms of her feet and a little up the sides, then lightly wrapped them just to keep the mix off her shoes. Sana let the guard know she was done and heading home, and she and Tyranny teleported back to the house in Shirogane. Once home she undressed, snuggled into her bed, feet propped up and unbandaged and read until she fell asleep. The success or failure of the hoped for improvements would be gauged in the morning upon waking.

Prompt 17: Thou Shall Not Pass

Purple orbs looked up from the low desk in the corner as the FC house doors opened. In shambled their resident Keeper of the Moon, lavender hair a disaster and innumerable scratches, along with a gait indicating the possibility of yet another sprain. Sana sighed with some small amusement and called out, "Cashmere, up to the clinic! Don't even think about going to your room first." The pastel green and blue eyes shifted her way and the woman nodded, changing direction slightly, "Yes ma'am."

The two got up to the clinic and the little raen looked over the FC's biggest benefactor besides Sana herself, cleaned up the injuries and gave her a good overall heal. The twisted knee she ensured to bring down with a cold compress first so that everything was in line, and the woman was good as new. "There, now you can go write about whatever unique adventure you've been on.... after you tell me honestly if you drug my nephew into this one and if so, pearl him to come get looked over right away." Sharp teeth flashed as Cashmere laughed. "You have the right of it. I told him if I was caught he wasn't getting away with anything either. I'll have him come by and I'll go soak in my tub to write." Sana nodded and smiled her approval, "Off with you then."

Prompt 16: Recovery Time

Oil slick scales and purple skin slumped down into the plush chair paid for by people like the client who just left. Sadly, some of the ones who paid the best she found the most exhausting. If they thought that highly of her, and so low of themselves, all the fun of punishing them was removed. She was definitely no goddess, those should be found in the form of the freedom of the steppe, watching the horses run free, and in the gifts of convincing a horse you were worthy of them. Not in convincing some worm of a man who is worth nothing of the truth of it, or the lie of your own divinity. Sessions like that one always made her want a bath. Luckily they paid for one of those as well. Opening her blue eyes and letting down matching hair she said, "Come Olzii, let us have a soak shall we?" The tiny eft followed her enthusiastically to the bath where he would often get to share in her strawberries, but not her relaxation glasses of champagne.

Prompt 15: Tending the Garden of Memories

Cashmere sat on the stool and slowly clipped away at each Bonsai neatly arranged on the tiers in front of her. She shaped them all carefully and each shape was unique. She was not sure what each of them represented to her deceased love, other than maybe just meditation time. He had never said and she had never pried. To her though, each told a story of their time together, and each story was shaped by the passage of time since his death and the changes of how she felt as life moved along, both around her and her own life. Some branches shortened, some lengthened, some she kept the same, but even those may change eventually.

She took her time with each, as much as she needed. During one she may slowly smile, another might make her laugh, tears would come from both sorrow and joy, and at least one always made her angry. Some people might decide they didn't need that last plant, or should change which memory they honored. Cashmere felt removing it, removing any of the emotions connected to their time together, would dishonor that time and his memory. All stories from your life form you and often those you meet along the way. She supposed, when you thought of it like that, each of these inherited trees was like a chapter in one of her books. She just used scissors to write these stories instead of a pen.

Prompt 14: Ungrateful Brats

Sanagi sat sipping tea and marking down ideas in a notepad for the holiday nook and Hearth and Hive and for the Starlight card scene here at The Jackal's Hydeout. Her face has started out serious, completely buried in thought, trying to continue some originality, but it slowly relaxed even while she kept working a grin creeping across her features.

Across the room her husband was cooking dinner and his fussing had started just as seriously as her face had. He was trying not to trip as both of the household cats wound their way between his legs while walking from prep station and sink and refrigerator back to the prep station and the stove. His curses only encouraged them to talk back and neither of these Jackals needed Tara to translate the cats for them. They weren't willing to wait for him to cook a whole meal when there was perfectly good raw fish waiting right over there next to other ingredients for the couple's dinner. Alex went from cursing and pushing to grumbling and muttering.

"Fine. If you'll leave me to cook in peace for Sana and I, here, take it. Both of you, completely shameless. A little patience after we took you in.... I'm starting to remember why I just knew it was a bad idea." The man's tone sounded gruff as he slid a plate of the fish they wanted so badly along the floor to the corner, but all three of the room's other inhabitants knew it was just play at this point. Sorry, make that 4 inhabitants. Snowman had come to help Sanagi with her design ideas and motioned gleefully at them all playing completely oblivious to anything else.

Prompt 13: Pretty Lies for Pretty Gil

The fortune teller's sign was out proclaiming her open for business and her tent flaps were open, the empty seat across the table from her an invite to those who had more gil than sense, at least in most cases. Aqua wrote in a journal in front of her, notes in her own shorthand of her latest expedition and ideas. Her keen duskwight ears picked up the shuffling of feet in sand and she flipped the page subtly to a non-sensical doodle of spheres and lines as she looked up.

"Greetings, sir! You have the look of a man who is seeking... nay who is in need of clarity. Come, sit." She poured the sweaty highlander a glass of water touched with just enough ice aether for it to be cool and pleasant to drink in the heat. Her customer looked surprised but pleased as he sipped, taking the moment to look over her table at the cards, the runes, and the crystal ball, with her journal still open between the tools of the trade and herself. His green eyes looked up to meet hers, a bit of challenge still apparent. "Aren't you going to tell me why I came in here beyond the vague mention of clarity?"

She laughed softly, "You are correct that clarity was vague, but all come here seeking clarity or hope or to ease their curiosity and which is always apparent on their face. Why I would tell you more without you paying the fee on the sign at least would be much more mystifying, wouldn't it? A charlatan will always try to sell you. I will simply give you a greeting, some cool water on a hot day, and then tell you what I can for a fair price for us both." He watched her for a moment and she watched him back. As he looked back to the table she followed the strands of aether around the man, entwined.... no, entangled like a deep thicket on a late night.

He passed her a bag of coin and she hefted it a little and then gently sniffed at the opening. The coins were real and were worth 3 times what was on the sign. She feigned confusion, "You would like me to read the cards, the runes, and the ball? Or perhaps your hand? You do not put faith in just one method?" The man smirked, "I thought the price might buy me at least an explanation of your notes there. They seem important or else why would your hand keep unconsciously covering them up in between conversational motions." Aqua's pale brow furrowed as she looked down, pretending annoyance at herself. She weighed the pouch again, pensively, and then slowly nodded.

"The night sky has been moving in a pattern not seen since my grandmother's grandmother's time." She begins to point at a piece or two of the drawing as she speaks. "This planet, this one, and this star, along with this bright, rapidly moving object with a tail will all be in alignment for the first time since then. My family has passed down our tale to take advantage of the great fortune this will bring and I am just lucky it is in my time." The man eyed her curiously, skeptically at first, but his greed won out. "How do I take advantage of this fortunate and rare event?"

"It is different for each but I can see what you must do. Only, the benefits you will reap will be worth much, much more than the bag you have given me." She looked at him evenly as he considered this, but the invisible thorns around him pricked just enough he was becoming desperate, or he wouldn't have been here in the first place. Finally, he nodded. "I will pay you plenty now for this reward later but only because I know you set up your tent regularly and I will turn you in for fraud and theft if you lie to me. I have friends in the guard who would be all too happy to get me mine, and take the rest for theirs, and put you somewhere dark." He handed over several more, heavier bags of coins from various holding spots on his body.

In return, she drew him a map to a specific location, with a time the following week and told him as long as he was right there, right then, the alignment of events would give him his due rewards. The man left happy, and left Aqua happy, and she worried not about retribution for she had simply told him the time and place the dangerous thicket he had built for himself would tighten around him completely to deliver his dues. The ones we all pay in the end.

Prompt 12: World, Here I Come!

Sanagi hugged both her parents tight, all of them with moist to wet eyes. "Thank you both so much. As soon as I get as settled as I can and it's safe to come visit I will. I promise." Her mother looked up at her, "You'd better. Don't make me come after you." Sana smiled, "The village needs you so you can't, just like the plants need Father." The broad shouldered raen hugged his daughter extra tight and pushed a paper into her hands. "Now go. Follow the instructions carefully and go quickly or you won't make it. Hana will watch out for you as long as you get there on time. We love you." The girl nodded at them both and turned and left quickly before any of them could change their minds about getting her away from the Bay and to Eorzea, hidden in freight by smugglers from the Garleans. It would be longer than she thought before she went home, and boy what a surprise would she bring back with her.

Prompt 11: Personal Celebrations

Nimble fingers took carefully curled blue hair and piled it on top of her head, pulling strands out to fall around her face and down the sides and back of her head. It softened her normally more severe features just a bit. She selected a strapless satin blouse in her usual void blue, with a draping front. and zipped her favorite leather pants over the bottom of it. For today, her tallest boots in both heel and leg, were zipped up the outside of those pants. Finally, jewelry from necklace, to rings, to bracelets, and horns were selected to complete her look. "What do you think, Olzii?" she asked rhetorically as she gave the eft some strawberries, his favorite treat. "Me too."

She left her home and office and as her heels clicked on the floor, she offered a nod to Sanagi who glanced up from her work in the corner to smile and nod at her. Just outside the doors, at the wooden deck would be Bahto. She knew most people were given gifts by others for their namedays, but she wasn't most people, and neither was Bahto. He was her only spoken friend. The only person who didn't pay her for her company. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed spoiling him on her nameday instead of the other way around. The fact he never pushed about it, he just let her, gave her this quiet bit of happiness, meant the world to her. She may never be able to properly express it, but he accepted it anyway. He accepted her. She only hoped as he realized eventually everything she was, that he would still accept her. Either way, for today, they were going to eat something decadent and go shopping for something to please both Bahto and his partners. She swung open the doors to Hearth and Hive and her light blue eyes found her friend, whom she greeted with a sincere smile reserved for so very few.

Prompt 10: Passage

Each voyage was new, different, even if the route was one traveled 100 times before. The smells and sounds of the salt sea air, the waves, the storms, the rigging, and the sails may be almost alike, but even they shifted slightly. Tonight there was a fog and it took the pirate turned mercenary (mostly) back to her time in The Mists, learning the ropes, literally. Her green eyes darkened and swirled as she heard certain voices in her head and she shook herself out of the memories with a low growl. Just in time too. The lookout hollered to veer to port hard. In the thick fog the ship had shifted from the best route and the whole crew was now forced to work fast and hard to avoid crashing on rocks. At least they could attest when they got thru to the next sea, the sirens didn't seem to enjoy the foggy nights either, for the rocks were empty this time.

Prompt 9: Restful

The gaping mouth exhibited sharp teeth and long canines but as it closed, a small squeak came out as the owner's eyes blinked sleepily. At the noise a white face raised up slightly and Shimo's beak mimicked the tired opening and closing with a small sigh, then nudged Hiina gently. Feathers and fur, chocobo and frost hoarhound alike, settled back into their nap at the Hearth and Hive stables to take their rare respite from the road.