A Big Investment Part-2: A Simple talk

As she finishes her sentence, she simply starts walking to the little arena formed by the crowd, where the man with a mustache and the game maker are standing. Yes, Mauka did have muscle, but not enough to take on that giant, thought Alfroth. Mauka is greeted by several surprised faces as she walks through the crowd, and even the game maker is a bit concerned.

'You need more muscles girl and i will never ever fight the week,' the man with a mustache screams at the crowd, and the crowd starts roaring again and cheering for him.

The game maker steps down from his podium and gets closer to Mauka.

'Uhm, look lady, I know you're confident and all that, but you will only be hurting yourself by doing this. I would suggest you kindly BACK THE HELL OFF,' the game maker starts laughing, as does the man with a mustache.

'Are you guys new here?' Mauka asks.

'Yes, we are, but why does that matter?' the game maker replies.

'Ah, I see, that's why you're that confident. Do you really think this little meat man could beat me?' Mauka says with a bit of smugness.

Alfroth comes up and tries to stop his sister by holding one of her hands, but she simply ignores alfroth's attempt.

The game maker, not wanting any more trouble, tries to push Mauka out, but the moment he grabs her hand, Mauka immediately thrashes away his hand and grabs him by his collar with her other hand after freeing it from Alfroth's grip.

'Don't you ever dare to do that again,' Mauka replies with anger in her voice, getting close to him.

'And if you do it next time, you would have to use your other hand for it,' her face filled with rage, completely scaring the game maker. The crowd goes silent, and as the game maker is about to cry, from behind a voice breaks the silence. 'Hahahaha, I, the great Mukhali with the most beautiful mustache in the world, will accept this challenge by the little girl.'

'See, the big guy agrees with me,' she says calmly, shrugging her shoulders, and moves to one of the stumps, sitting casually and putting her right arm on the table in front of her. Mukhali follows, sits down, and points his right arm towards the sky, then slowly moves it towards Mauka, pointing at her. Mauka looks confused at Mukhali's actions. 'I will end you in less than a minute,' Mukhali screams, pointing at her.

'Don't worry, it would take me less than half a minute to put your sorry hand down,' Mauka speaks with absolute confidence in herself.

Mukhali enrages, 'Then I shall beat you in a quarter of a minute.'

'Why not? Go for it,' Mauka says while locking her hand in position.

Mukhali follows and rests his hand on the table, locking his hand with Mauka. Noticing the difference in their hands, he smirks.

While this goes on, Alfroth's mind is trying to work out many plans to avoid loss, not of Bama, but of Mauka's hand as well. He thinks about dragging his sister, but she would simply push him away. Or he could bet nothing at all, but that would make Mauka's attempt worthless. He could also sell all his belongings, but that would result in a huge loss for himself. In the end, he couldn't think of anything at all, and with his mind scrambled, he looks at Mauka before the match begins. He finds her staring at him, and when their eyes meet, Mauka nods, giving him the assurance of a fool.

With Mauka's orders clear in Alfroth's mind, he walks up to the game maker and asks him to place a bet. At first, the game maker tries to shoo off Alfroth, but when Alfroth reveals ten Bama from his hand, the game maker snatches the poor boy's money.

'For who?' he asks.

'My sister, Mauka.'

'You sure, kid? I ain't going to give you back your money,' the game maker says with disgust.

'Yes, but if by chance my sister wins, how much Bama would we win?' Alfroth asks in anticipation.

'Not much, but should be around twenty-seven Bama, but that's only if your little sister wins.'

Alfroth doesn't reply, turns, and simply walks to the front of the crowd, where he clearly sees both the muscle monster and his sister staring at each other with their hands locked.

After collecting all the bets, the game maker walks behind both the contestants and puts all the coins into the pouch, then places both his hands on the locked grip.

'Three... two... one...'

'Begin!' he yells as he removes his hands.

Mauka grips tightly and tries to bring Mukhali's hand down, but Mukhali stops her in her push and tries to force her back, surprising Mukhali himself, as he never thought a person with this less muscle than him could come close to competing with him in a contest of raw strength. Mukhali tries to force Mauka's hand more and more to his left side, but Mauka doesn't let him cross the middle at all.

The crowd watches the match in shock, some screaming for Mukhali to take action while others simultaneously boo Mauka. Alfroth is taken aback by the fact that his sister effortlessly holds her ground and making it seem like both of their hands are not moving at all, preventing Mukhali from making any advances. As the match nears its conclusion, Mauka tightens her grip on Mukhali's hand.

Mukhali attempts to push back by tightening his grip as well, but the pain in his hand becomes unbearable, leading to him eventually releasing his grip.

As soon as Mukhali loosens his grip, Mauka concludes the match by forcefully slamming both of their hands into the corner of the table, causing it to break.

Everyone in the crowd looks shocked as Mauka defeats Mukhali and breaks the corner of the table where their hands were resting. Mauka stands up and extends her hand to the game maker, requesting the money in the pouch. Without any hesitation, he drops the pouch in her hand, and she walks away without looking back.

On his fours, Mukhali looks at his hand in shock as Mauka walks away with her reward in hand. When she reaches Alfroth, she giggles at his shocked face and then escorts him and herself out of the crowd.

The crowd looks in shock as they walk to the nearby shop.

'Sis, how did you do it?' Alfroth looks at her with a surprised face.

'did what?' Mauka replies, teasing Alfroth.

'Sis, I know you are strong, but how did you even do it?' Alfroth says, looking back.

'I have always been like this. Most people cannot match my strength' Mauka responds with a stoic expression.

'You didn't cheat, right?'

'No, I ain't cheating in a contest of strength; that's the only place I am good at.'

Soon they reach the shop and request two buckets of grol juice. The shopkeeper complies and bends down to prepare the two buckets.

'Why do we need two? One should be enough,' Alfroth questions Mauka.

'If we give her one bucket, she will be happy, but if we give her two buckets, she may become double happy.'

'I don't think anybody would be happy over more grol juice, but I get it, I guess.'

Soon the shopkeeper bends back up and sets two buckets on the counter of his shop. The buckets are filled with disgusting-looking grey liquid with bubbles forming in it occasionally.

Mauka in return looks down and starts putting down twenty six bama, single coin at each time. When she finishes putting down the right amount, she looks up to the shopkeeper looking behind her. Following his gaze, she turns around only to see a giant figure towering over them.

Alfroth and the shopkeeper gets scared as they see Mukhali behind them up so close. Without a word, in anger mukhali lifts one of his hands and brings it down on Mauka's head. Mauka lifts her hand, forming a V-shape, and stops the strike above her head without any problem at all. Mukhali once again stands shocked at such a sight.

'Listen, I went easy on you in that match not to break your spirit, but this is really annoying.'

Mukhali, without any word, lifts his other hand and forms a fist, throwing it at Mauka's face. But before the punch could even reach her, Mauka ducks down towards Mukhali and lands a swift strike on his stomach. Mauka retracts her hand sending Mukhali's face straight to the ground and as he cries in pain on the floor, alfroth yet again stands shocked at the sight, he had never seen his sister do something like this especially with not that speed or strength.

While Alfroth apologizes to a crawling Mukhali, Mauka faces the shopkeeper and lifts the two heavy buckets filled with grol juice and signals for Alfroth to follow as they make their way to Carmilla's inn.

Upon reaching the inn, they pause at the door, buckets in hand.

"It's time to go in," Alfroth looks to his sister.

"Yeah, let's not waste any more time," Mauka responds.

As they push open the creaking door, the silence of the empty space envelops them until Carmilla's voice breaks the quiet with a 'Welcome,' They approach the counter, where Mauka places both the buckets below the counter.

'Mauka, what is this?' Carmilla inquires.

'It's a gift for you, miss Carmilla,' Mauka replies softly.

'But why is it here? Grol juice is for chickens, not humans. Put it in the backyard and don't ruin my inn,' Carmilla scolds.

'Aunt Carmilla, we have something important to discuss before that,' Alfroth interjects, his hands clenched.

'What is it, Alfroth?' Carmilla's expression softens.

'Do you remember the meteor today?'

'Yes, i do'

'Well mauka sis and i am are going to get some scales from it and sell it'

'Yes and?'

'We need your help for that' mauka interjects alfroth.

'And how can i help' carmilla raises a single eyebrow giving mauka a strict look.

'We need a mount to get there fast and for that we need a molba, and you got some of them in your barn... sooo, what we were thinking was tha-'

'No,' Before mauka can even complete her sentence carmilla outright refuses their idea.

'I am not going to give you another molba'.

'But think about it, a meteriote scale can cost up to a million bama and we can give half of that to you'

'No,' Carmilla again rejects mauka.

'Please aunty, with that much i can finally go to th-' alfroth stops himself from saying anything further.

Carmilla looks down upon alfroth and tells him that she will think about it but only if he take both of the buckets to the backyard, with this single sentence a big smile comes over alfroth as he quickly picks up both of the buckets and carries them out of the inn.

'Mauka, take him with you this time,' Carmilla urges.

'He's not old enough,' Mauka responds, nonchalant.

'You do this to him every time. He always comes up with a big smile, thinking you'll take him out to let him see the world, but you always leave him behind. Do you know how much it breaks his heart?' Carmilla expresses her frustration.

'He's not old enough. What can I do?' Mauka dismisses.

'Do you even know how old is he?' Carmilla questions.

'He's fourteen,' Mauka says.

'He's sixteen,' Carmilla corrects her.

'He's turned sixteen this year and he still looks like a baby' mauka giggles to herself

'He will turn seventeen this year, Mauka,' Carmilla sounds disappointed.

'If you don't take him with you, I will not rent you a molba. No matter how much bama a scale costs, until you do something for him once, I am not going to give you anything.'

'Then why don't you take him with you to the outside,' Mauka speaks with irritation in her voice as her gaze turns toward Carmilla.

'You already know why I can't,' Carmilla mumbles as her posture retracts to herself.

Seeing Carmilla's face and her reaction, Mauka realizes and agrees to take Alfroth with her. Upon hearing this, Carmilla rushes to the back of the inn and after a minute brings forth a pouch and drops it in front of Mauka.

Mauka questions the pouch and Carmilla signals her to open it, with reluctance Mauka opens the pouch and looks inside to find a bunch of bama. This shocks Mauka and she looks at Carmilla's face decorated with a faint smile.

'Really, Miss Carmilla, I can't thank you enough for this.' mauka says with excitement.

'It's not for you,'.

'Huh?'.

'It's for Alfroth. Go buy him some traveler clothing, a short sword, a shield, and all the essential food supplies you need for this journey. I know it's not much, but this should cover it, right?'.

'Don't worry about it, I will get him everything tomorrow morning.' .

Alfroth walks in the inn where Mauka and Carmilla are talking, Carmilla questions the amount of dust on him.

'Aunt, I filled the whole container with grol juice but a bit of it fell on top of me,' Alfroth speaks as he notices the grol juice leaking onto the floor.

'But Aunt, have you decided on your answer?' Alfroth says in anticipation and diverting her attention from the grol juice.

'Yes, I have decided and I have allowed both of you to take one of my molba.'

Upon hearing this Alfroth bursts with excitement and goes to hug her but carmilla stops him in his tracks, Carmilla looks at him with her hands by her waist and smiling. Alfroth realizes the grol juice is flying all over and looks at Carmilla with fear, but Carmilla dismisses it and tells him to take a bath with a smile across her face.

Alfroth runs toward the bathhouse and enters while still not being able to control his excitement.

'Such a child' mauka looks toward alfroth with boredom as he run into the bathhouse.

'He's such a gentle kid, never fails to make me smile' Carmilla recites to herself.

'You should also take a bath,' Carmilla turn to Mauka.

'Why?'.

'Your back is completely brown with dirt and mud, so stop dirtying my inn and take a bath once in a while,' Carmilla commands Mauka.

'Wait, have I been like this the whole day?' Mauka looks behind her, only to see her whole back completely brown, the realization dawns on her as she realises that she had just roamed the bazaar and took part in the hand wrestling competition like this and she feels super embarrassed, quickly moving to the women's bathhouse.

Carmilla looks over her with a smile as they leave for the bathhouse situated in the corridor to the left of them but then she looks at the front of her counter only to find dirt and grol juice all over. She lets out a big sigh as she picks up a bucket and a rag.