The McPuffin Part 11

The McPuffin Part 11

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'The Cutlass pirates are dead...' I scowled to myself as I walked beside my mother, hand gripping her long empty sleeve tightly.

I nearly growled to myself as we walked through the town together, shopping. I'd just found out that the pirates that had killed Makoto's family were already dead, and there was nothing I could do. No justice. No retribution. Nothing.

I'd quietly asked my friend while we'd sat at Ami's house about the event, what had happened, and she'd told me. I'd found out who the pirates were and had been trying to keep an ear out to look for an opportunity to try and encourage Captain Billy to go after them. I'd heard of them in the area recently, but Captain Billy had decided against pursuing them.

And now they were dead. Because of a storm of all things.

I hadn't been able to do anything. It was infuriating! I couldn't help Ami out with her oppressive mother, I couldn't help Makoto with the loss of her parents, and I couldn't even ensure proper vengeance against the psycho pirates that had killed Makoto's parents! They'd just died to a god damn storm! Damnit!

It was then, that my mother froze in place, the sudden stop going unnoticed until I was tugged to a stop by her unmoving sleeve. I looked up at her, confused, finding her pale and nearly trembling as she stared out across the marketplace bazaar we were in. My hand tightened around the empty sleeve as I gave it a small tug. The sudden change in her body language was stark and... honestly more than a little worrying to my seven year old self. "Momma...? What's wrong momma?"

I followed my momma's gaze across the market until I found an older man, tall, a long beard, well past graying and wrinkled...

-oOo-​

I leaned up against one of the outer huts of the village, sketching into one of the back pages of my notebook. Enitan was avoiding me, almost entertainingly so.

Mind you, Katlego was supposedly on his way. So that could be fun.

Jaime was off doing something or other, but he could take care of himself, he was tougher than most of the ladies in the tribe, if not all of them. Wasn't sure how he stacked up against Enitan or her mother exactly, but I believed it was favorable towards him. He was also less girl crazy than the likes of Lucca or Claude… those two really loved their ladies and likely would've done something stupid when it came to a village of them, even with the super long necks.

I yawned softly before taking a swig of my watered down hippo-fire-whiskey. It was actually safer than the local water, which was a little sad, I'd taught them about how boiling water would do a lot to improve the quality of the water, as well as a super basic water purifier that worked off of evaporation and condensation. They already had rain-catches, which wasn't a huge surprise, but this would be a big boon, and was a bit of a peace offering after basically telling Malaika to shove it.

And, I mean, come on, there were kids here, of course I'd want them to have good water.

Letting the hippo-fire-whiskey settle back at my side, I returned to sketching out a basic representation of the hippo's internal organs as best I could. I was actually going to try and make something out of its hide, because it was really fire resistant, maybe some gloves to better work with metal…? Or… hm… maybe something for Io to pay for my sword…? That'd be nice, I think she'd appreciate it… iiiiif she didn't already have a pair, seeing as how she's native.

Eh, I'd just keep the hide and figure something out for it, and it's not like I was short on it, even just taking the 'choice bits' so to speak meant having several square meters of the stuff.

"What're you draaawin'?"

"The insides of the fire-water hippo I killed," I said, turning my head slightly to look at the little girl who'd 'snuck up' on me. Her neck was disproportionately long, but not to the degree of her older tribeswomen. She couldn't have been more than ten though, with what looked to be a buffalo-leather top and skirt.

"Whyyyyyy?"

I returned to my sketch, I was no DaVinci, but it wasn't stick figures or anything, "Because I want to look over it later and see if I can figure out anything cool from it."

"Whyyyyy?" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her clasp her hands behind her back and sway a bit ask she asked with a big grin.

"Because I really like making and figuring out cool things."

"Whyyyyy?"

"Because it makes me feel all smart and clever and stuff, and I like that feeling."

"Whyyyy?"

"Why not?" I asked with a grin, looking back at the little girl.

She pouted, her little game ruined, but after a moment she asked, "What do you think you'll find?"

"No idea~" I said cheerily, "Would you like to help me figure it out?"

She blinked in surprise a few times before the little girl came closer, "How?"

"You can help me figure out how he works," I said with a smile, turning the notebook more towards her. While I doubted that she could actually contribute much, I liked teaching kids, and to paraphrase the Evil Overlord List, always check stuff against a five year old to see if they can point out a stupid flaw,"Would you like to try that?"

"Sure!"

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The McPuffin Part 11 End