[over the palisade]

chapter fourteen

"Oh my god, is that the one and only Phil'Za Minecraft?" Skeppy immediately called out as they entered into the now rather crowded bakery, he rushed forward and wrapped his crystalline arms around the shorter king.

Phil seemed alarmed at first, but as he realized who had ran towards him, he laughed and reciprocated the embrace, "Aw, Skeppy, mate. What are the odds of seeing you here?" Phil chuckled, patting him firmly on the back and he backed out of his rather lung crushing hug.

"Oh come on Skeppy, don't asphyxiate the old man," Techno called out behind the two, earning him a furrowed brow and a smirk from Phil.

"I don't know what that fuckin' means, Nerd," Skeppy said confidently.

"Hey!" Techno laughed, "Only I can call people nerds," Techno insisted.

"Well I'm not calling other people a nerd, Techno, I'm calling you a nerd." That earned Skeppy a rather painful sounding slap on the back, "Wait! That was that for!"

Techno shrugged with a smug look on his face, "Hand slipped."

Skeppy scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning back to Phil with a smile on his face, "Anyways, before we were rudely interrupted by your son, sir," Skeppy said sarcastically, narrowly avoiding being hit again, "How's it going? I heard you all are on a bit of a quest!"

Behind the group, Wilbur cleared his throat before Phil could respond, dragging all the eyes in the room back to him, beside him the Tabaxi and now an elf-looking woman stood beside him, the woman clearly a little fed up with the rowdiness in her shop.

"Oh-" Skeppy's voice faded off, looking between Phil, Techno, and the new elf woman, "Yeah..." Skeppy said with a guilty chuckle as he scratches the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about the bread.."

Her expression quickly turned from a stone-faced, rather menacing look to a much softer smile as she laughed, "Oh, it's really alright, I'm just glad none got hurt," she insisted.

Skeppy nodded, "Yeah," he said awkwardly, "Is there something you want me to do to make it up to you?" he asked earnestly.

"Oh no, it's alright," she insisted.

"Are you sure, ma'am?" Phil asked from behind him, "I'll gladly pay for any repercussions he caused," beside him, Techno sent Wilbur a smug and knowing smile, who just rolled his eyes, but Techno was pretty sure he could see just the smallest smile.

"Oh yes, I'm sure," she insisted, "Oh, and my name's Niki," She added on, seeming to notice how Phil addressed her.

"Pleasure to meet you, Niki," Phil said warmly.

"Likewise, to all of you."

Wilbur spoke up from beside Wilbur, "Niki here is an old friend of mine," he said, "Niki and I traveled together for some time before we ended up here, I continued across the ocean but Niki here stayed around."

Niki nodded, "We met not too long after Wil had left him home, right?" She said, looking back up to Wilbur who nodded. "Yeah, and this here is Fundy," Niki introduced, motioning to the Tabaxi who half the group had already met in the alleyway, "He wandered in not long after I had settled down in this place, and he's my business partner, I bake on this side and on the other side of the divider wall there, Fundy sells potions," Niki told them.

Fundy did a little bow beside her which made Niki smile at him, "Pleased to meet you all."

"Well," Skeppy started, "I'm Skeppy, and somewhere in here-" he looked around till his eyes landed on a little kenku in the back and red robes who was sitting pleasantly near the door of the crowded room, "That's Bad," he introduced.