"Ahh wait wait" a lady like voice shrieked as Gazi neared her with his weapon
Tanaka groggily woke up raising his feet from the bridge. He looked up,
"ugh...sun's not up yet" he whispered to himself. He then turned around to see what woke him up.
"Who...who are you"
"Speak" Gazi commanded his voice still remaining calm as still water but managing to be intimidating none the less.
"Im so sorry. I saw the boy there and thought I had seen him before" the lady said as her voice shook with fear.
Tanaka raised an eyebrow looking around looking for anyone she may have been referring to. He barely attended royal visits to other villages with his family when they did so the chances she was a friendly were low. She slowly moved her hands to her head, Gazi instinctively reacted by tightening his grip on the dagger. She flinched a bit when she noticed but then continued. She slowly lowered her hood trying her best to not seem like any threat at all.
"Oh its you" Tanaka smiled.
"Huh?" Gazi relaxed a smidge still in a position to attack but no longer as intimidating as before.
The lady smiled warmly. "I knew you seemed familiar"
"Gazi calm down this is...uhm sorry whats your name again" he smiled awkwadly as he rubbed the shaven back of his head.
"Oh my name is Tinaye. I guess I hadn't really introduced myself earlier," she smiled nervously.
"Excuse me can someone tell me what in Zubheri's name is going on here"
"Ah Gazi this is that lady I helped yesterday"
Gazi thought back to the day they arrived.
"Agggh this kid" He groaned seeing Tanaka jolt off.
"Hmm?" he knelt near the sobbing woman he had just noticed. "Uh sorry i did not see you there. Are you okay"
"Oh yes now I remember... oh" he quickly tucked away the blunt weapon behind him. And tried to offer a kind smile.
"Please accept my sincerest apologies" he bowed slightly.
"Oh no its ok. I mean its not... you almost gave me a heart attack but still its ok" she smiled.
"Sorry about him. We've had a rough couple of... well lets just say things havent been going the way we were expecting for a while. Thats why Gazi here's on edge. He's a big softy though I swear haha" Tanaka jested hoping to break the ice.
Tinaye looked at the tall muscular man next to the boy. Those dark brown eyes that seemed to have seen and caused countless deaths and those scars his attire barely managed to cover.
"Hehe" she faked a laugh whilst avoiding eye contact with the man. "Yeah....yeah i'm sure he is"
"Softy my foot. He look like he could strangle a mountain lion with his bare hands" she thought.
"Any way what are you doing outside, with this weather you could catch a cold"
"Oh uhm we don't really have a place to stay"
"So you are sleeping on a bridge?"
"Its... peaceful" Tanaka responded whilst cracking his back.
"No no. Thats just not right. You can come spend the night at my home. Come on I live close by"
"REALLY!?"
"Are you sure? We wouldnt want to impose" Gazi said
"Oh its fine. You helped me before, im just returning the favor." She smiled warmly as she pet Tanaka's top brown tipped dreadlocks. Something that annoyed him but in his current situation he just smiled while she did so.
Tanaka was already daydreaming of a warm cozy fluffy bed after having had to sleep on mostly rocks for the past days it was a most welcomed prospect.
------------
"Here you go" Tinaye smiled while showing the two to their 'sleeping quarters' the beds they were given were makeshift beds made from bales of hay tied up using reeds. The room the beds were in was a barn with cattle at one end and their 'beds' on the other end. The air was thick with what can only be described as a housefly's haven, with walls engaged in a long losing battle with termites. The fact that the construct itself had not fallen over was a miracle itself.
Tanaka's nose scrunched up as his face contorted at the sight. "I know its not much. But hey its better than sleeping on cold hard bridge out there right hehe"
"Is it?" Tanaka thought.
"Uh yes... quite" Gazi muttered fighting off the urge to make face like the one Tanaka had.
With his quick reflexes he swatted away a nearby fly was about to land on him "How gracious of you." He continued.
"Aww its nothing"
" Im royalty for goodness sakes. Maybe she doesn't know, she must think we are just foreign merchants or something" Tanaka thought.
"You shouldn't have... you really shouldn't have" Tanaka said.
Gazi reached his arm out to pinch him before he said anything else.
"Be grateful" he whispered
"Its great. Thank you" he quickly rephrased
"You're welcome sweety. Well i'll let you boys get your rest and you..."
She looked at Gazi with squinting eyes and raising a finger to his face. "Try not to go all poky poky with your weapon in my home will ya, I have kids and I prefer them with all their limbs intact"
Gazi smiled shyly as she made the comment half jokingly. But the second glare she gave Gazi showed she was not joking. She left the room probably headed to her own.
"From sleeping like a prince to sleeping with the swines. Oh how far we have fallen" Tanaka sarcastically cried, lifting and dropping his shoulders in an over exagerated manner.
"A swine is a pig Tanaka"
"Oh whats the difference. " he dropped onto the hay letting a small gasp out as he got ready to sleep. Stands of dry grasp floating up from the impact.
Gazi left the barn several times, checking for any threats or people who had followed them. After his 5th go around the place he was finally content and decided go to sleep as well.
"Are you asleep yet prince"
"Im trying to be"
"I was thinking about what you said. You know stealing the script." Tanaka opened one eye curiously as he listened "Lets say.... hypothetically i was willing to go through with it, how would we go about actually doing it. We dont even know where its kept"
Tanaka sat back up looking at Gazi.
"Well...hypothetically we'd go to the shady part of the village to get information"
"How'd you know if there even is a 'shady part' in THIS village?"
"Oh trust me. Every village has one, you should have seen the claw district back home ohh the herb...uh uh caaandy" he started fidgeting while Gazi stared a hole into him.
"The candy they sold there was amazing hehe"
"When did you even find the time to go there. Didnt you have to take a guard with you everywhere you went"
"Yeah but when i wasn't i'd be with my brother"
"Wow and which one was this"
Tanaka looked tilt his head in confusion he turned to look at Gazi "What do you mean which brother. Kesi of course."
"Tanaka you have 4 brothers. How was I supposed to know you meant Kesi"
Tanaka paused a for a while. Then looked at Gazi with a half cocked face "haha thats a funny joke Gazi. Who says you cant teach an old dog humor."
Gazi forced out a chuckle "ahh yes. Yeah. Im 23 by the way, im not that old"
"An old man's mind in a young man's body then hehe"
"Get some sleep already" Gazi said.
Gazi turned himself facing upwards. He stared at the barely stable roof for a while and then back to Tanaka, meditating on what he had just said...or rather what he hadn't said.
This is concerning Gazi thought
All while Tanaka twisted and turned like a rotisserie chicken. In the middle of the night he turned and faced one of the cattle, making eye contact with it.
"Mooo."
"Yeah yeah screw you too"