A Scoundrel's Song

16

Maldani was a talker, for certain. Not like Niico, nobody could talk like Niico, but he talked almost incessantly and not in a good way. Niico talked to get things, or to get people to do things. It wasn't about him. That wasn't strictly true. Everything was about him, but Niico had goals beyond blowing up his own ego. A lot of the time. Maldani talked about himself. Boasting. And in the worst way possible. The way that got people killed.

"I've been a hunter all my life, see? I've hunted creatures and devils you wouldn't believe existed. Bonecrushers in the wastes of the Untaken Lands. Sandwyrms in the Shining Desert. Nightcrawlers in the abandoned stretches of the Hraalfeld." Maldani gave a solemn nod to a different one of them as he listed the monsters. Niico didn't believe a word of it. "Since I was a little one, no taller than the girl there."

Niico looked around. He would hardly call Pel a 'girl' and, even if he were to stretch the definition to fit Pel, that meant the old man had only been a hunter a few years. Akafa looked embarrassed, no doubt for Maldani calling Pel a 'girl', and rested an enormous arm around Herit's shoulders. The boy needed protecting from the old man. Talk like this filled people's heads with ideas that they could do what he lied that he had done and Herit was, without a doubt, impressionable.

"And you've taken it upon yourself to kill this beast within the lake?" Herit leaned forward, trying to shrug Akafa's arm away. "I'm a hunter, too! I hunt for rabbits and hares and fish!"

The boy hadn't hunted for anything in his life. Another of his boastful imaginings to go along with his imaginary talents as a mage, or his life as a pirate, or, Niico rolled his eyes, his belief he was a Patron. He had an imagination, no doubt. Maldani laughed, his booted foot on a rock, and chewed upon a mushroom. One of the few foods the Orususkans hadn't stolen from the wagon. He seemed to like the taste.

"It was a cause that fell upon my shoulders through great tragedy. Ah, my beautiful wife, Francella." The old man paused, his chest jerking as he pretended to sob. Niico knew a confidence trick when he saw one. "Swallowed whole by that foul, evil creature as we boated upon the lake on the throes of our love."

"Swallowed whole?" Niico saw an opportunity to ridicule the old man. "I thought you swore on her grave you'd avenge her?"

"I did! A grave I dug for her, though I had no piece of her to bury." The old man knew he had made a mistake, narrowing his eyes at Niico. "In that grave, I buried the ring that bore our troth, alongside other trinkets and clothing. I could take you to it, though the journey is long, around the lake to the other side."

"Of course it is." Niico sat back, counting that as a victory. "But, not yet, eh? Later? After we deal with this creature? How convenient."

He pronounced the first part of that word louder than the others, sharing a look with Pel. She didn't care whether the old man lied or not, he had talked of ten gold Talons apiece and that was enough to get her aboard this madness. Niico had fallen for that, too, for a short moment, until he realised the old man probably didn't have a copper Bone to his name. Maldani was a mad old coot, but he was a clever one. He had seen Niico's avarice and played upon it.

To look at him, the old man probably had travelled far and wide. He wore clothing from several different nations, all worn and patched in places, but he had no scars. No injuries that he would have suffered from fighting such unimaginable creatures. The Nightcrawlers, alone, were enough to ruin a body for life, if the hunter survived. They called monsters 'monsters' for a reason.

But Maldani had caught the imagination of Akafa and Herit, and even Antioni now looked on, enraptured by the man's tales. That made Niico feel a little annoyed. He didn't want Antioni, at least, not in any way that wasn't purely physical in nature, but he didn't like the thought of the man looking at others in the way he should look at Niico. He should at least offer Niico the chance to ruin any thoughts that he had a chance of a life with him.