the flute and the bard part 10

As the woman touched Kiria's flute, In a blink of an eye Erika found herself gripping the women by the wrist with a strength unlike her own as the woman stops in her tracks and pulls her arm back 

“Damn b***h,” she yelled,  "I want my money’s worth!”

“Take these and go,” Erika scoffed, holding in her hand four gold coins and three silver coins.

  The woman took the money and walked away with her head held high as Kiria tried to recover from the rush.  “Y-you didn't." 

Erika pulled Kiria to her feet by her arm and smiled.

“Nah, it's all good,” she shrugged. “I mean that flute means a lot to you, right? Then it was worth it.”  

Kiria thought to herself. She came to the conclusion that Morgan hadn't told Erika about her deal with Hermes. Her blessed flute and gold wings and smiled to herself as she and Erika walked back to the inn in a comfortable silence.

Morgan sat in the lobby playing a game of chess with the inn keep. As Morgan plays a checkmate, Erika bursts through the door, scaring both Morgan and the Inn keep.

 “Gosh, would you keep it down you bum?!” Morgan says provocatively as Erika laughs and Kiria trailed close behind her.

 “Is that chess?” Kiria asked and looked closer as Erika plopped into the seat next to Morgan. 

“Mhm,” Morgan hummed while resetting the board “Wanna play?” She offered, as the inn keeper returned to the front desk.

“Sure, why not?” Kiria took a seat across from Morgan and made her first move as white. 

"You've played before?” Morgan asked with a smirk on her face, to which Kiria simply shook her head no. Erika leaned in to whisper something into Morgan's ear. 

“I think Kiria knows more than she lets on,” she says smugly

Morgan bit her thumb nail as she turned up the heat and played hard ball and moved the pawn to in front of her king.

“Mmm” Kiria sounded as she moved her knight. After some back and forth moves, Morgan stared with an open jaw as she got completely owned by Kiria in a check mate where she lost all her pieces. 

Erika snickered, “Hah, told you!” 

Morgan sat in awe. “T-that was my power play…” she muttered. “H-how,” Kiria giggled sweetly as Erika stood up and headed to their room. Kiria got up to follow along with bag in hand. Entering the room, Kiria placed her flute on one of the nightstands as Erika did the same for their lyre. As Erika jumped onto her bed, Kiria placed her golden wings onto the nightstand next to her flute and hung her cloak on a hanger. Erika shrugged and hummed a lullaby as both she and Kiria drifted off to sleep. 

As the sun rose, Kira woke up, yawned, and stretched as she headed to the bathroom to wash her face and to put on her cloak. As she exited the bathroom, she smiled warmly at Erika, who was still sleeping.

“Pretty…” she whispered under her breath. Looking away, she headed down to the lobby, seeing Morgan still barely awake with bags under her eyes.

“Morgan! Why are you still up, did you even sleep at all?” Kiria asked worriedly as she looked down to the moved chess pieces. Morgan grinned, her eyes half lidded.

“I think I've got you, another game?” Kiria shrugged and as she played a white pawn, immediately Morgan played a power move using her knight… Like last night after a few back and fourths Kiria chuckled and rubbed her head finding herself in checkmate.

“Good game,” Kiria said. She held out her hand for a shake, but Mogan was out like a light. Kiria chuckled and left the inn. She headed to the gates of -Hail-Fall and left to go out to the forest and sighed with a smile as she heard a familiar loud laugh. 

“Ah-hahahahah!” Hermes sits on a tree branch. He jumped down to tap Kiria on the shoulder as Kiria jumped and rolled her eyes.

“Have you seen it?” Hermes asked coyly as Kiria recalls her interactions with Erika to -Hail-Flall-, thinking Hermies was referring to Apollo.

“The shock?" Kiria wondered,

“Mhm,” Hermes sounded. “That sudden fear and jolt, was proof”

“Proof of what?” Kiria asked. She sighed deeply as Hermes just walked away and disappeared to smoke. Kiria grunted to herself and walked back to -hail-falls- gates.

Author's Note

once more thank you to my great and wondrous Editor and get ready for Bart's 11 and 12 on Thursday and Friday loves.
love yours -Kitsuko Dragonstar