"This are big numbers cap'n. How much is it?" Grey held up two items with different price tags.
"Huh? What do you mean you can't do a simple equation? It's just adding up two numbers!" Titiana complained to the Reptilia while cleaning up her merchandise.
"I've only completed my primary education, and math was never my strong"
"It's just fifteen plus eighteen!" she said in an exhasperated tone.
"Bahaha! What a funny duo you two make!" The Taurus man who's post is next to them laughed audibly.
"You shut up! I apologize,he's just..." She took over talking with the customer. "That'll be thirty-three UBDs!" She faked a smile to the old woman who was buying two necklaces that Titiana managed to grab on the shore.
Once the old woman left, the Vogel plopped down on the carpet and exhaled a tired sigh. "Given how you had enough insight to tell my gun was deffective, I thought you could've been smart enough to handle transactions"
"Hehe! I was told that I usually bought overpriced stuff because of my poor maths"
"That's no laughing matter! How did you manage to live all this time!" Titiana snapped at the boy who grabbed a small towel and started cleaning the merchandise.
"I got a lot of help"
"You give me the creeps, boy. You know that?" the Taurus man added as he rested on his chair.
"That was uncalled for" Grey answered back.
"You laugh and smile, yet I see no genuine feelings behind those expressions. I guess that thing they say about Reptilia is true"
"Apologize now!" Titiana stood in front of the neighbour seller. She crossed her arms and her expression was one of anger. "That's not a nice thing to say!"
"Oh, right. Sorry, kid" He clasped his hands in apology toward Grey.
"Don't worry, That sort of thing never bothered me" Grey dismissed the issue as non important. Howeverm now that Titiana was sitting down, he caught a glimpse of a dark-purple bruise that hid behind her skirt.
But he decided not to comment anything for the time being, as he understood such recent bruise was caused last night by her father.
"What is that thing you have back there, kid?"
"This thing?" Grey pointed at the crown he tied on the waistband of his pants. "An important object I have to protect"
"From what?"
"People like you who look at it with eyes that scream you want to sell it for a fortune" Grey openly smiled, showing his set of extremely sharp teeth as a challenge to the Taurus.
"Ah, seems I was caught" The man raised up both his arms as if he was being arrested.
"I've also got other plans once I leave this town. Though some of them might have to wait more"
"Like?" Even Titiana joined the chat.
"Gotta deliver this crown, and look for someone important. The latter mission I have is not related to the crown, though"
"When you leavin'? It'd be a shame if you said tomorrow. I've never seen Titiana so happy in years!" The man laughed out.
"Shut up!" Titiana threw one of her items to be sold in embarrassement. Thankfully, for her sales, the item was caught by the Taurus.
"I'll have to plan when to leave. I wouldn't want to travel through a bad moon phase" Grey answered quietly.
"The Blood Moon only comes at the end of the month, so that's kinda close. The Smiling Moon only has one or two days left in this month. And the Rabbit moon is there all-year-round when the other two are out of phase" The Taurus commented to help the scale-skined boy.
"How's next month's moon phases? Maybe it's better to leave next month?"
"Next month is still being predicted. You have eighteen out of the thirty-one days predicted. I'd wait until the news announce the full prediction"
"But the predictions aren't a hundred percent accurate, though. So be careful" Titiana commented while stretching her limbs as the three of them were currently resting with no new customers.
"I'll be sure to prepare myself for my journey"
"And where are ya headin', if I can ask?" The Taurus asked while looking at the Reptilia with only one of his eyes.
"Lichtrey"
At his answer, the old Taurus only let out a worried whistle. "That's a hard path to take. Gtomika is located on the northeastern part of the continent. You'll have to travel southwest"
Grey commented nothing. He mostly found it weird how he ended up on a completely different side he expected.
Since Amagra'ra is on the southwestern part od the Southwestern continent, he expected to wash up on the shore of the southwestern side of the Northern continent. But no, he ended up in the completely opposite side of the continent.
"That'll take some time. But you can probably do it!" Titiana told him. She especially had faith in the Reptilia after what she witnessed last night.
"We'll see about that!"
The day then proceeded like usual, with a customer window shoping both Titiana and the Taurus' spot. Not much was sold outside of those two items earlier that day.
"How was everything after last night?" Grey finally asked once the Taurus left his spot to go to the bathroom.
Titiana tensed up and looked away. "Nothing happened. We got to my house and you don't need to know anything else"
"As long as you weren't hurt badly..."
A tense silence formed between the two teenagers--a silence that could last an eternity.
"I wasn't, though..."
"I saw that bruise. You don't have to hide it. Besides, I understand how you feel"
"Do you?" the Vogel girl whispered to herself in a frustrated tone.
"I grew up in a place that treated me like a monster" he tried comforting the girl by pointing at his most unique feature--his two sets of horns that are an anomallity for any Reptilia or Nagmia. "I know what's like to live on a house that doesn't want you in there, with people that want you gone"
"My father... he was an average construction worker. But our kingdom got into a skirmish against a neighbouring nation, and due to Gtomika's lower army numbers, lots of normal people were called to fight that battle. My dad was one of them"
"That's where he lost his eye, I assume"
"Mhm... when he came back, he found out my mother cheated on him the full two years he was away"
"Can I ask how? Or is it too disrespectful?"
"A little bit" Titiana let out a weak chuckle. "He just saw the new one-year-old mother had. Nothing's been the same after that. My other brothers--who are his biological sons--started stealing from our house and selling those stuff to buy their own things... and they still live with us"
"What about the little kid? Does that one have it bad?"
"He's four right now... and I'm afraid that, at any moment, my father will just snap and kill him" Titiana curled up into a ball, only her fire-colored hair and feathers poked out.
"That's why you want to escape, right?"
"I hate that place with all my heart. There's nothing back there for me to care. My mother barely spends time home, father is... welll, and my older brothers are low scum. The only one with a future is my younger brother, but even he's doomed because of our familly that isn't raising him well. And I... spend my days scamming people and scavenging ship wrecks... hoping someone at sea has an accident so I can earn the tiniest amount of money"
"Where would you run off to?"
"Huh?"
"You're saving up money to run away and live by yourself. Where is the place you want to run off to?"
"I... I don't know. I guess anywhere far away from here is fine"
"Troteros is a passing city, isn't it? It was built as a resting place between two cities so there're a lot of merchants passing through here. You could make it somewhere nice. Even learn a bit from the merchants you can trave with"
"I also thought about that. But It's not an option for me right now. If I had a funtioning weapon or a bodyguard, maybe. But a girl like me, alone on a carriage with a group I know nothing of, that's just a recipi for disaster, don't you think?"
"I guess so. You don't know the Body Strengthening techniques?"
"I've heard of them. But they're not that popular in the Northern continent, only on the Southwestern one"
"Maybe I could wait for you and be your bodyguard" Grey chuckled at that comment, meaning it more as a joke than anything else.
"That wouldn't be a bad option..." Titiana muttered under her breath, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink at the thought of traveling alone with the Reptilia.
"Are you not afraid of what can happen to your familly if you leave?"
"Maybe a little for my younger brother. He's not at fault for... you know... being born into our family the way he did. But I never really interacted much with him, so... aside from that, I'd leave. Leave and never come back to any of them"