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“Oh come on! I’m stuck with Yorak? He’s gonna try to fight everything and that kinda clashes with my whole ninja assassin thing.” Pike waves his hands around wildly as he talks.
Meklavar rolls their eyes. “You don’t get a choice Pike. You’re the only one who can sneak past the chemist at the apothecary and Yorak is the only person in the party who hasn’t been in town yet.”
Valayun chimes in (un)helpfully, “I doubt that bar keep from the tavern hasn’t put our wanted posters all over town by now so it wouldn’t be safe for the rest of us to go.”
“Yeah and we do a lot that’s not safe already so let’s be more safe so we can actually find this rare herb so we can bring Takashi…Shiro..or Gyro?…one of them back to life again and continue on with the quest to save my village.” Block twirls his staff between his palms as he talks.
Pike groans loudly in protest at his party all making good points. “Fiiiine but you guys totally owe me like all of your gold for tolerating this guy” he pokes a finger in Yorak’s direction.
Yorak, unsurprised by Pike’s discontent, is simply checking his blade and supplies for the quest. “Block, you said Pike is looking for a lotus flower root right?”
Block nods; “Yeah, it should be in a drawer, already cut into discs probably too. Just be careful you don’t mess with anything else cuz they keep some dangerous stuff hidden away in there”
Pike perks up at that “Danger can mean more gold~”
“Or it could mean death” Meklavar adds
Pike sighs in response.
—
Yorak wanders into the apothecary, pretending to be lost in the town. Nobody is even waiting in the front section. Needing Pike to sneak into an empty place seems like overkill but the rest of the party seemed adamant that Pike should sneak in while he plays distraction. He senses a prickle on the back of his neck after a few moments, Pike must have just snuck past the front desk area. Sighing at the need to break the peace, he reaches out and knocks against the desk, clearing his throat as he speaks. “Excuse me, I got lost and need help”
A voice calls out from the back, where the herbs are stored; “you’ll have to ask somebody else kid, I’m busy in here”
Yorak internally groans, Pike can’t steal from their drawers if they’re standing right there focused on the drawers. “The people next door said I should come talk to you, they said your better with my…issue” oh great lie Yorak now you have to think of an issue for this person to solve.
There’s some shuffling before a stout Druid emerges from the back, holding a little mixing pack in one hand. “What could you possibly have gone into the shoemakers for that would make them send you over here?”
Yorak falters for a moment before recovering “I uhm….i thought my boots were hurting me but they said it’s a rash…so I need something for that”
The Druid raises an eyebrow and waits for a moment “well are you going to show me or is this a guessing game?”
Pike can’t help but snicker as he overhears this from where the drawers are, he’s already found and scored the lotus root and even found some cool looking dried berries in shifting hues that the Druid was working on. He rolls a berry between his fingers then puts it back down. He begins to sneak back out. He's almost out before he feels a sharp little pinch on the side of his finger, on instinct he slaps the spot and looks as a new little welt forms. There must have been some bug loose that was attracted to the smell of the berry.
—
Pike and Yorak make their way back to the party through the forest trails.
Yorak stops abruptly once past the tree line and glares towards Pike “Is there a reason you keep looking at me like that? Does the paste smell that bad or something? What’s your problem man?”
Pike looks only slightly taken aback before he smiles at Yorak; “I’ve just never noticed your horns and eyes before…they’re alluring” he pauses only for a moment before the words are tumbling out “I don’t know what it is but I don’t want to ever stop looking into your eyes…I don’t want to look away ever again”
Yorak is struck into silence as a blush creeps over his cheeks at the intense stare.