Newly Broke Heroine!

Ch. 16: Aren't You A Little Short For A Ruffian?

"Fiona, how much is in that bag?" Greg asked a short time later, on their way back to the shop to set up the displays. She wasn't keen on lingering on this side street, with a literal fortune in her nearly unbreakable dimensional bag.

"Well, a lot of it is gold, or little gold baubles. Actually, you know what, it's kinda light," she commented. She also rubbed at the small gold bangle she'd had for a long time, from one of her first treasure dives. She had found a forgotten ruin just north of the kingdom, on the eastern side of the lake.

She set the bag down, and it made an extremely loud clang from all the metal and items stored inside. The bangle didn't seem to have...any weight to it. "Greg, remind me. This thing's gold, right?"

"I don't have an inventory for every item of yours, but...I think that is," he affirmed. He peered closer at the bauble. "Why?" She took it off, and then grabbed it with her other hand, and frowned.

"You know what's weird? It doesn't weigh a thing." Greg stopped, and examined it closer.

"Did you pick up some strange magic trick from Bonnie? I know women love to not be encumbered by their jewelry–"

"No, Greg, I didn't. Here," she replied before she offered the bangle to him. He raised an eyebrow at this, wearing his too-serious face, but nonetheless took the offered item, and gave it a heft with his hand, lifting it up and down. "Well?"

"Are you just that strong? It's pretty heavy, actually," he stated with an air of observance. "Fiona, why do I get this feeling that something happened yesterday, when you got your license? You were looking off all of today, and yesterday."

"Um...maybe?" she said in a high-pitched voice. He returned with his face of marble expression. She needed him to stop looking like a silly sculpture about now. "Okay, Greg? Something did happen. And I just had a long discussion with Bonnie on the roof, earlier today." Greg however, was peering at the bangle. Then, the bag.

"How heavy is that?"

"The bag? Eh, it's not that heavy," she shrugged. Greg, handed her back her bangle, and attempted to lift it. He grabbed the pullstring, and attempted to pull it up–but staggered and almost fell over. Her ears tilted out sideways at this spectacle. "Uh, Greg, we really have to work on your string bean physical profile."

"I'm not weak!" he huffed, with an air of irritation that she'd rarely heard from him. "I do calisthenics. I row in the morning on the lake. When it's frozen, I skate. I'm lean, but not lacking strength. This is absurdly heavy, Fiona."

"I mean, it should be, it's a lot of brick gold. I mean I'd melt it down into coins, but, guess what? That's an actual crime King Lack-of-hugs can nail me on," she added with a roll of her eyes. Greg tried again to lift it, but he might as well have been trying to lift a building. "Greg, lift with your legs, don't strain your back. I have to teach you guys some ergonomics in this magical candy land!" she complained with a resigned sigh.

After a few more seconds, Greg was panting, and sat back on his haunches. "I can't lift that." He stared at her intensely for a few seconds. "How can you lift that?"

"Greg, I work out," she replied nonchalantly. Then, a thought came across her head–why was her bangle practically weightless? "String-bean, dig through the bag, pick up one of the bouillon bars. Give me an estimate on how much it weighs."

"I do accounting and other math. I better know how much it weighs," he grumbled, before undoing the drawstring and peering inside, and frowning. "Didn't Bonnie tell you to not stuff this thing? I don't think you want this stuff violently ejected out of here if you overfill it."