The Bounty of Love

Chapter 7

The festival was in full swing when they arrived. She leapt of his back and looked around, her eyes sparkling. She could hear his amused smile as she bounced. There were food and trinkets stalls, live music playing, and more importantly to her; there where games with prizes. She spotted a knife throwing game with a fifty gold listed prize. She pointed at the stand as she looked up at him.

He chuckled knowingly , “Yes, yes my little Fox. We can go play, but don’t be a show off.”

 He took her little hand in his as they walked leisurely, a noticeable skip in her step. She won her prize to no shock, and a suspicious look from the vendor. As they continued on They stopped and looked at the trinkets, he saw her eyeing a little silver cuff earring. He couldn’t help it but to buy it as she became distracted walking off to a nearby food stall. He didn’t do much in the way of gifts, neither of them really did, but this was a special day for her even though they where still technically on a job. He tapped her shoulder, she turned around, a mouth full of fried squid. He laughed as she swallowed.

“Hold still dear.” He showed the ear cuff in his palm before placing in her left ear.
She laughed to herself. She noticed the look of confusion on his face and smiled. She reached in her pocket pulling out a matching ear cuff. “I got you one too Love, ya know when the vendor wasn’t looking,” she said as she reached up and placed the cuff on his left ear.

“I ‘returned’ it free of charge.”

They shared a laugh and more then a few kisses as they continued around the festival until nightfall. They both played games, won prizes, enjoyed each others happiness for a while. Until the Brawlers Ball was announced.

She took her spot on a nearby roof, she was never one for sitting in crowds. She watched Love get ready for his first match. It seems they set it up as a  bracket system. He was going to have to win three back to back before taking on Thorn. She always had stamina herbs if he wanted them, but they had checked out the other competitors when he signed up. Nothing to worry about, she thought to her self. She watched him with a grin as he stepped up for his first match. He looked up at the roof for her, and once he spotted her he twitched his newly pierced ear, he saw her grin wildly as she twitched her own. While he was aware she had all the faith in the world in him and zero doubt, he knew she would worry. His concentration turned to the match as his first opponent stepped in.

He is close to nothing, she thought to herself as the first fight started. Love is well trained and one of the best fighters she knew, even though he doesn’t fight much, he still keeps his skills honed. Before she could even let herself tense up the match was over. He won. Poor kid didn’t stand a chance. His second opponent was just as small and after watching the first match they opted to forfeit. In came the third. This one was a bit bigger. Beefy almost. A human at that. She saw him twitch his ear, a sign for her that he was still good. She twitched hers in response even though she knew he wasn’t watching her. The fight was a wash out. Love took a cheap shot to the gut and responded with a one hit K.O. for the disrespect.

The crowd suddenly broke into an uproar of cheers. She looked around and spotted him; the champ, Thorn. He was a big green powerhouse. She saw Love remove his gear to just pants and boots. He is getting serious, she thought. He’s already in stance. She stood up out of reflex, he twitched his ear as if he could feel her tension. Thorn rushed the fighting area wasting no time, forced them into a grapple, they traded blows. Thorn being slower taking more as Love dodged more of his than he did. A surprise gut shot from Thorn though took him by surprise and he doubled over. She leapt from the roof to the tree next to the fighting area ready to just kill this big green asshole. She heard a tiny tingle. She looked at Love, he was twitching his ear! She held her position, unwillingly, but she held. Love shot up like lightning. Fast and brutal. He wasn’t a fan of cheap shots, but he was gonna give as good as he got. He leapt on Thorn his knees hit his chest as he rained down blows to Thorn's jaw and temples, that caused him to stumble backwards. One final well placed punch and he was out cold. She wanted to run an jump on him but she had work to do. While Love kept the crowd busy, and collected the prize coin, she had to get Thorn turned in. She shoved a handful of sleeping herbs in his slack jawed mouth, tied and covered him and started dragging him to Moonscale.

As she dragged the big goon through the door of the tavern the barkeep just pointed towards the back. “Same as the last one?” she asked.

 Fox nodded as she passed him the rope and took off out the door to find Love.