“Ugh…” The minotaur stirred from the couch in the corner of the dimly lit bedroom.
As Mith began to stir back into awareness, the first thing she noticed was a pain that radiated out from the back of her skull, like a hammer striking against her head. The curtains of her room were shut, quite tight. Aside from a tiny slit, just wide enough and in just the right position to let a single ray of the dying day though and onto her face. The blinding light was enough to drive that hammer eve deeper into her head.
“I drank too much again.” Her voice was directed back to herself, in a low whisper.
For some reason she couldn't discern, she had been sleeping on her old and ratty couch rather than her old but slightly less ratty bed. As she moved off of the strangely hard and uncomfortable surface, the reason for the pain in the back of her head became obvious. It wasn’t the hangover that caused her pain, though it was certainly in the background; the fact was she had forgotten to take off her war hammer which made for a very bad pillow. She was also still in her full armor, all but one of the straps had been removed, the seemingly last and broken strap was tied too tightly. Her drunken self-had been unable to undo it and seemingly just gave up.
Unlike the other straps, which could be released with an easy flick, this one required dexterity and time. Where she in an actual battle it might prove to been an issue, but of course that never happened. Had she taken the time and effort to care for she'd have replaced it or taken it to the armorer to do so, instead of half assed work around.
There was another strap wrapped around her chest. This one was unattached to her armor and was quite tight, tighter than it should have been. It was the one that crossed her chest and attached the hammer that felt like it was being steadily driven into her head. It had likely shifted in her sleep or she had further secured it instead of loosening when she was drunk. Regardless of the reason, it was solved with a flick. The metal latch holding the belt was freed and with it the hammer fell to the ground, producing a rather pleasant thud. But even more pleasant was the sudden release of pressure in her head.
“Ahhh…” Her relief was audible as she sighed and rubbed at her mess of hair.
The loud noise stirred a forgotten guest that was half buried in her bed. Which further answered the question, why she was asleep on the couch instead of her bed.
The spinning in Neal’s head helped add to his disoriented mind as he gazed up at the minotaur. “Mimi? What are you doing in my room.”
She could feel her ear twitch at that stupid nickname. A creeping smile crawled up her lips as she thought about the best way to return the insult, and perhaps rub her guest’s face in the mess he made last night. “I told you, I don’t like that name, and you’re in my room Neal. On my bed.” Her voice dropped ever so slightly as she spoke.
Between the spins and the pain, it took a moment for the thought to register to the recruit. Seeing his eye bolt open as he shot up out of bed, gave Mith the exact stimulation she wanted right now. Suppressing a laugh, she had to see how far she could push this.
“Oh shit, what did we do last night?” Neal held his head, suddenly feeling a wave of emotional pain that joined the rest of it. “I can’t remember anything after the bar.”
Mith drew closer to him, slowly. “Well, I carried you to my room." Her smile grew as the words made his face ever redder. "Oh, you were a beast, Neal." The look of shock further pushed her. "A wild animal! Begging me to take you to the bedroom.” It was all true of course, which made it all the better of a lie.
“Oh god. I, Mith I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did last night, I can't remember.” Neal was nearly in a panic. It was almost cute, and it was becoming harder for Mith to not burst out in a laugh at his agitation.
"Sorry? For what you did. Neal as a woman I'm insulted." He suddenly started to stammer and as fun as it was to watch it was time to end it. She didn’t want to actually break him. “Well, you came into my room… Took off your chest plate.” She pointed to the silver and purple item by the door. “Then…” She was inches from his face. “You threw up on my floor. Begged to lay on the bed so the room would stop spinning, and then threw up again before passing out.” Her voice became flat as she stared into the recruit’s eyes. The realization started to dawn on him. “Ha ha. What did you think you did, little man?”
She slapped his back for good measure, causing the pain to echo in his head.
But it was his expression of mortification and embarrassment that she was really looking for. On seeing it her laughter felt like a roar, even to her, and helped make up for the work she put in cleaning up after the human last night. It also made her head feel just a bit better.
The man looked around a few more times as if he wasn't completely certain he was where he seemed to be. “But why am I in your room?”
“Because you couldn’t walk, and I wasn’t going to take you back to the other side of the castle. My place is closer to the bar.” That was mostly the truth. There was the always the hope of a bit more, but she couldn’t just leave the poor human in the slums district. As it was, she got glares along her walk back to her place. Humans weren’t exactly liked in this part of the city or really anywhere outside their own enclaves.
Her powerful physique was proof she could take care of herself, but a human. Despite the ancient stories and legends, they were weak. Devoid of magic and physical strength. Perhaps that's why she found Neal so interesting. That despite his clear disadvantages, he still chose to try and fight, to try and be strong even though he so clearly wasn’t. That choice to try was itself a strength, and minotaur's were naturally drawn to strength.
Still trying to gather his thoughts and perhaps hoping to change his own thought processes, Neal could only think of one question to ask "How long have you lived here?"
The fog in her own head made thinking hard. She rented it in the beginning of the spring, after she joined more than a year ago, "Since I joined guards, so nearly two years I think." Scratching at her head, that seemed right, she thought.
Neal tried to draw some numbers in his head, this place couldn’t have been that cheap. While the apartment wasn’t much, it’s closeness to the castle meant it would have to come at a premium. "I'm surprised you were able to afford your own place on a recruit's salary."
"Eh, all the guard branches give a housing stipend to the larger races, since most can't fit in the barracks. Minotaur’s are included. They don't actually take measurements unless you ask so, I got my own place. Pissed a few of the other Lunar Guards off too." The thought of that stuck up Sable learning she wouldn’t be in the barracks still brought a smile to her face.
Rotating her shoulders, a rather unpalatable smell hit her. It was hard to tell if it was Neal or her. It could have been both. Taking a sniff of her own armor, it was definitely both.
She looked over to him, still pink in the face “You kind of reek. Might want to take a shower.” It was tempting to tease him a bit more, but the throbbing pain in her own head made it hard to keep up with the witty banter. Besides, she’d gotten enough out of him for the morning.
“Do you have one?” His face beamed with a certain innocence.
Oh, it was so tempting to keep it up though. "There's a shared bath for the whole floor. No one's in it this time of day. You can go first, unless you want some company." Even through the pain she couldn't help but smirk as his blush went from pink back to pure red once again.
"Nope, I'm good." The poor boy couldn't keep on his own feet as he stumbled. A mixture of absolute embarrassment and a head still full of spinning nonsense made it hard for him to walk straight. "Just going to go out and clean up. By myself.”
As she watched him stumble and fumble with the door her smile grew as she held back a laugh. She thought about seriously asking if he needed help. Though, he did finally manage to open it.
What was outside the door caused her smile to flatten as her eyes opened wide. The pain in her head didn't seem to matter as she half glared at the figure.
In front of Neal, was a towering minotaur man, easily 7 and half feet tall.
"Sorry, sir excuse me." Seemingly unaffected by the sight, Neal apologized to the unamused demonic beastman as he slowly squeezed around his large frame. Either he didn’t care about the scowl on hulking mass's face or more likely was just oblivious. The taller minotaur turned and glared at the human as he continued the stumble towards the small bathroom at the end of a badly maintained wooden hallway.
"A human Mimi?" The larger minotaur's voice dripped with disappointment, as the frown on his face further showed.
Mith's head began pounding again. This isn't what she wanted to deal with today. Her body collapsed on the kitchen chair as she rubbed at her temples.
"What are you doing lurking outside my apartment?" She didn’t bother to look up.
"I was going to knock but heard the noises inside. I know how you are with your male guests." The shake of his head showed more than just disappointment. "Did you forget what day it is?" The deepness in his voice reverberated in the room, and worst of all in her head.
'What day is it?' Mith sat slightly hunched while her mind tried to think between the pulses of pain. It was the middle of the week, she thought anyway. Near the beginning of spring, the fourth month of the year. The pain suddenly didn't matter again, and she stood up.
"Pappy's birthday." she declared.
It was now her turn to be disappointed in herself. It was her grandfather's birthday.
Minotaurs always paid respect to their elders, it was a grave insult to not send tidings to your parents and grandparents or great-grandparents, if they were alive. Only her father's father was still alive though, which made it easier to keep track of, but also all the more important for her to at least visit him, double again since he was in the city.
"Come on. You don't have to worry about a gift. Just come wish him well."
"No. I have something I can give him." Mith started tearing apart her cabinets, looking at various bottles and other items. Some paper, which she grabbed, some plates she pushed aside, and finally a rather simple looking bluish bottle.
The taller minotaur in the door frame sighed, and appeared slightly angry, "Pappy doesn't drink anymore you know that."
She shook her head, "It's not liquor."
Rolling his eyes, the older minotaur wasn’t convinced "Please. That's all you ever have in your cabinets."
"I'm telling you; it's not liquor. See for yourself." Tossing the bottle over to him, who caught it from the air without any real effort.
He held the bottle in his hand, the label was tarnished, maybe even a little faded. But his normal scowl turned around into a subtle smile as he laughed, "Oh, that's rich. Pappy will love this… Why do you have this?"
She snatched it back from his hands. "I won it in a card game." The bottle was quite old, it was possible it wasn't even good anymore. But she doubted pappy would actually try and use it.
"Well let's go. Day light is burning, and you have guard duty tonight, don't you?" He didn’t wait for a response as he turned and left. Like any other minotaur, you don’t wait for others, if they can’t keep up then they shouldn’t walk beside you.
Mithril had different ideologies thought and took a moment more in her apartment. She quickly scrawled a note on some scrap paper and addressed to Neal leaving it in clear view on the table. Hopefully he’ll see it. Not bothering to lock the door, Mith quickly ran after the departing creature as his hoof steps left an audible creak in his wake.
Considering the size of the city, her grandfather didn't live all that far away. Somewhere between the slums and mid-city, maybe a kilometer. The two walked in silence, each on guard from the other and for different reasons. It was a rare sight to be seen, minotaur were not exactly known for their quiet self-reflection.
The taller minotaur was the first to break the uncomfortable stillness between them. "So, my sister is dating a human now." Again, the disappointment was obvious, with maybe a hint of genuine concern.
Mith shook her head at the annoyance next to her. "I'm not dating Neal, and we didn't sleep together. Not that it's any of your business."
"Really?" The flatness of his voice showed how little he believed her.
It was hard not to sigh or yell, but Mith knew that would just make it worse. Arguing with her brother wasn’t something she wanted to do today.
Calmly, she tried to explain, "He got drunk with me last night and just needed somewhere to sleep it off." Unconsciously, however, she bared her teeth and glared at him. "Who I spend my time with is my business. You and dad can stay out of it. He still barely talks to me as it is, it's been three years."
"Mimi, you were dating an Oni, what did you think dad would do?"
"I don't know, be happy? Aesop was a good guy, wouldn't have hurt a fly. Liked to read poetry. What does dad have against poetry?"
"He wasn't the first. You started with that goblin, then you dated that dark elf. I mean, it's like you dated or slept every evil race possible. Now I see you with a human, it's not good Mimi. You should-"
Her face leaned into his, interrupting his words and thought process. "I should what. Go on finish that thought."
Reflexively she reached to the strap on her chest that wasn’t there. If she had her hammer that comment would have made her bring it out. Even without her hammer, the tension in her body showed how ready she was to make this a serious fight if her bother continued.
Thankfully for both of them, he didn't. From his balled fist and subtle shake in his biceps, it was clear he wanted to do more than just talk. A Minotaur talked with their fists as much, and even more than their mouths, yet he kept his composure. Maybe it was because his sister was so much smaller than him. It didn't seem fair or sporting anymore.
For several blocks they returned to silence, as they walked towards their combined destination. Though, eventually the silence tore at the larger minotaur again, like most of them, he just couldn't tolerate the quiet. "We've barely talked in three years. How's the Evening Guard, is it as bad as rumors say?"
With some of the tension defusing, she took a breath, "You mean the Lunar guard, and no. It's fine. My team is full of good people. I even get to protect the princess sometimes."
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"You?! Protecting royalty, they must be in dire straits." He laughed, but unlike before it seemed much less hostile, and almost friendly.
With that she finally hit him on the arm with as much force as she could manage. In exchange, he did the same, returning blow for blow. For a moment, the two siblings smiled at each other ignoring prior issues and grievances as they hit and beat on each other's arms in a way that could only make sense to their race.
With one final blow, she returned the question. "What about you? How's the common guard?"
"It's good. Dad is still disappointed I didn't go for the high guard, but I've got a place here."
"What do they have you doing?"
"Security work, mostly crowd control. They've got me handing a couple blocks for the spring festival coming up. My captain says I might make 2nd Guardsman soon."
2nd guardsman, an unpalatable taste built up in Mith’s mouth as she thought about that. Her brother would technically outrank her, even if he was in a completely different branch. Normally, it wasn't something she really cared about; rank was mostly meaningless. At least that's what she told herself. The guard was never something she really wanted to do, just what she had to do. Yet it was frustrating, knowing he was outpacing her, even if she never wanted to run the metaphorical race in the first place.
Unable to help herself, she queried further, "Do you think you'll ever hit captain?"
"That's my plan. In seven years is my goal, a year faster than dad. After that, I'm going for Captain Major."
"Dad was a freak through." She couldn't help but laugh at how similar the two were. "Just like you."
"Just because we care about our honor and work doesn't make us freaks. It just makes you lazy."
She knew he wasn't wrong, but it was still irritating to hear it. The punch to his arm showed him he was right. He smiled both at the thought of it, and at what was finally in front of them.
It was a small house, made of mud brick and simple mortar, with a thatched roof. It looked more like a hovel than anything, like most traditional minotaur architecture. It was probably built by the person who lived there.
In front of the house was an older minotaur man and the occupant of it. Hunched over with age, still he was taller than the both of them. His hair was long and bleached white with time, only one of his horns was visible, the other broken off long ago and very near his hair line. A scar nearby hinting at how it was broken. The spectacles on his old eyes flashed with a glint as he turned to face them. A smile grew on his face as he launched himself towards both of them.
"Mithril! Thunder! Ha, ha. It's good to see both of you." His speed was deceptively fast for such an old creature. Likewise, his fists hit unexpectedly hard as he punched each in their shoulders. The equivalent of loving kiss or simple hug between minotaur.
"Come inside, I've got half a gallon of sun brewed tea left!"
The inside of the house was in the best terms, simple, and calm. Unlike Mith's room, it was clean and well organized. Very little in the way of decorations, of those few the most prominent was a coat of arms from the high guard and an old war ax hung above the fireplace. It was the highlight of the space. The ax was old, and clearly well used, given the cracks and chips. Evidence of reforging was all along the blade, and careful examination would show small dark flakes of what might have once been blood burned into parts of it.
A large wooden table and six chairs sat in the middle of the largest space. At the center was a large glass jug of tannish brown liquid, a few petals of a yellow and green flower floated at the top. Without asking, the old minotaur poured three glasses of the slightly sour and sweet tea.
"So tell me. How are my two youngest grandkids doing?"
Thunder spoke over his sister, not giving her a chance to speak. "We're good grandfather, we came to wish you a happy birthday."
"Bah, silly tradition. I'm just happy to see both of you, neither of you visit enough."
Thunder laughed and rubbed at his shoulder, "With how hard you hit, I don't think we'd survive any extra visits. But regarding tradition, I have a gift for you."
He handed over the small bag that he had been carrying. The old man fished inside and pulled out yet a small brown bag with a flower and some words written on the side in pen. "Solma Flower Tea Leaves. Thunder, this had to be expensive, thank you!" He punched at his grandson's arm nearly knocking him out of the chair.
"It's fine granddad, I'm up for a promotion soon, so I can afford the coins on you." He rubbed at this, uncertain how the old bull could still be so strong.
Mith sighed, and pulled out the bottle she was carrying and handed it to him. "This is from me; I think you'll get a kick out of this. Happy birthday granddad."
"What is this? 'Lovers Tonic.' An aphrodisiac? Ha ha, I ain't that old youngling!" The old bull laughed hard at the gift and slammed his hand on the table. Like Mith expected, it was the perfect gift for the old man. "This couldn't have been cheap either. Are you up for a promotion too?" His eyes almost sparkled in hope and delight.
"Ha, no. I won it in a card game a few months ago from someone who couldn't pay. Thought it would be a good gift." She smiled as his fist slammed into her shoulder too. Despite his age, he still knew how to hit, and even she too had to rub at the soreness now emerging. As the minotaur saying went, the more force the more love.
The three sat and chanted at the table for nearly an hour, until the sound of bells reminded Mith that it was nearly time for her shift. Mith winced as she tried to move her shoulder, her granddad really was too strong for his age. "I'm sorry granddad, I have to go my shift will be starting in an hour and I still need to get ready."
"Of course, of course! Mithril, I'm proud you joined the royal guard even if it's the night branch, nothing brings me greater honor." Turning to face his grandson he almost seemed sad, it was hard to reason why, "I'm happy about your promotion too Thunder. Maybe you'll pass your father's rank. Ha, that will bring me no end of joy! You know, he barely stopped by, dropped off a package and left. Might as well not have even shown up."
The thought of her father made her feel, inadequate somehow. "I mean, Dad has barely talked to me since I graduated school with honors." She protested.
"Eh, what are you talking about granddaughter. I saw the letters from your teachers, you barely graduated. What honors do you speak of?"
A smirk she held her head high, "Nonsense, they honored me with a degree! "
"Ha, more like gave it to you!" He stood up from his seat and moved next to her.
She braced for another impact, only to be surprised by a very tight hug that lifted her off the floor. "I am proud of you, granddaughter. Thank you for the gift, and I don't mean the aphrodisiac."
She returned the hug as best she could. Though, it was hard not having ground to stand on.
The walk back to her apartment, much like her walk to her grandfather's house, was quiet. But at least she was smiling. A small glint in her eye turned into a tiny tear drop that she quickly wiped away. It was after all, inappropriate for a minotaur to cry.
Back in the apartment Neal was nowhere to be seen, but the note looked like it had been moved, and his armor was nowhere to be found. Quickly she headed to take a fast rinse off, pushing one of the other building occupants out of the way as she bullied her way in first. "Sorry, guard duty, you understand." She didn't wait to see if they actually did.
The time grew near, and Mith knew she was going to be late; it was just a question of how late. Grabbing her hammer, she ran out the door and made a breakneck pace towards the castle. Minotaur were fast, very fast, but they lacked the stamina a human might have. The approximately 700 meter run would have been easy, for a healthy human, but for a minotaur even an active one, it felt like a marathon.
Entering the great doors of the castle the distant bells began to sound the hour, 6PM.
Dong.
The creak of the great door mixed with the sound of the first bell.
"Shit." Her legs and lungs burned as she forced herself to move.
Dong.
Faster still, she turned down a hall, nearly slipping. Hooves had a poor grip on the polished stone floor.
Dong.
Down the hall was the large arched doorway to the throne room.
Dong.
Almost there. Just a few more steps. Princess Luna smiled as the guardsman ran past her.
Dong.
The rest of the squad laughed as she passed them, taking her stance at the very end of the line.
Dong.
She was technically out of formation, but, hopefully, that was close enough for the captain.
Sable didn't verbally state his disappointment, but it was obvious on his face. At least it seemed that way, he did always have that disappointed scowl, "Attention!"
Mith could feel her legs twitch and burn. She was used to heavy labor, and acts of great strength, but that run nearly burned her out. Having Sable stand in front of her was not something she wanted to deal with. It was hard not to reach out and punch the rather punchable wolf.
"You barely made it guardsman; I could argue you didn't make it since you were out of formation."
Biting her tongue she did her best to hide her emotion, "Sorry sir. I had a personal matter I needed to take care of. Took longer than I expected."
"I heard you were hungover or drunk." The way Sable talked, it wasn’t a question.
Her teeth grinded against themselves. His face looked ever more punchable with each word. "No, sir. Just attending to my grandfather, it's his birthday. Honor and all that."
Sable nodded and seemed to back down ever so slightly. Glaring between her and Neal, both expected to be told to head out and clean out the kitchen, instead they were given new orders.
"Queen Luminis and princess Luna have some very important meetings in the morning. You need to clean, prep and stock the three main conference spaces. Teuta has the inventory, talk to him."
"Yes sir." The two repeated in unison.
Sable’s eyes drilled in on her once more, "Guardsman, I'm leaving you in charge of this. It's important it is done well. Ensure the human does his job. Do this well and maybe I'll forgive your infractions from earlier." With that, Sable wandered off to complete what ever tasks he actually did.
Mith wanted to roll her eyes, but even she knew better. She would do what she was told, even if cleaning was an insult to her minotaur honor. She should be hitting things, or at least using her great strength, not polishing old wood.
"Well, at least we aren't cleaning bathroom again." Neal was clearly trying to make light of the situation, and to be fair, he did have a point. This was better than cleaning toilets, if only just. He continued, "We should find Teuta, he'll know where the furniture is."
Teuta was the second in command of their small squad, but more than that he was their squad's resource and logics officer. Unofficially anyway. The dark elf was quick to run off after rollcall, but finding him would prove easy enough.
Because sure enough, Mith found him in one of the nearby storage areas, marking crates and checking paperwork on his clip board. "What do you two want?" Clearly, he wasn't interested in talking to either of them.
She didn’t waste any time as she interrupted the dark elf’s work, "We're looking for the tables and chairs for the main conference spaces. Sable says you'd know where they were."
"I do.” Teuta shuffled through his clipboards, glancing over some things written on them. “They were packed up and shipped out two weeks ago. Captain Ollen wanted them for something, I don't know what, I don't usually question the high guard requests." He sighed "Neither does Sable who approved the move. Clearly he forgot."
Mithril paused to think about the problem. They needed tables, and chairs. "So do you have any ideas, other tables we can use?"
The dark elf sighed again, annoyed to have his progress interrupted by what seemed to be silly requests.
Mith continued to push him, "This comes from Sable, and it's for the Queen."
Teuta squinted and rubbed at his eyes; this really wasn't what he wanted to do right now, he was already behind his inventory check. Taking a few moments, he flipped through his clip boards again and the various pages on it. "I don't have anything here. There might be something in the other storerooms." Teuta speedily walked out of the storage room, looking back as neared the threshold. "You coming? I'm not carrying these tables by myself."
The castle had many large storerooms, about a dozen in all, and that didn't include the warehouse that was technically outside the castle grounds, and more than ten times the size of all the storerooms put together. The three passed through each of the nearby storages rooms, each time the elf sat at a near by desk and pulled out papers from inside. Each time his agitation grew. “People keep taking stuff out without telling me and my paper gets all fucked.” The elf slammed the papers back into the desk and headed somewhere deeper into the castle passing several other rooms.
The forth room they visited was different. It seemed more like an archive then a wearhouse. The dark elf's normally stoic face was pocked by agitation, boarding on frustration as he sat at the large desk in the space flipping through more pages, pulling out a few loose papaers. "I'm not heading out to the warehouse; I've got too much work to do… but I think there's something in here that could work. Crate 57-3-B44CA, packed by… me. Large table, dimensions… it's big enough for the main conference space. There are a couple other smaller tables for the secondary spaces, Crate 12-4-AA332 and… 141C1121, whoever wrote this one down, didn't sign their name and they wrote it wrong good luck finding it. The first two numbers are the storage room, the second is the shelf, and the last is the actual serial number. Anyway, there are your crates, if you take them, sign out on this sheet that you did."
Teuta fished in the large desk for something, the sound of clanking metal echoed in cavernous space. What sounded like the impact of hammers or other large weapons, turned out to be two larger crowbars. "You'll need these."
Compared to her hammer, the crowbar was light, but for her human companion it seemed heavy. "Having issues, Neal?" She smirked.
"Just heavier than I expected."
"If you guys are done, I have other things to do. Like I said, fill out this clipboard when you're done, and put the crowbars back. If you don't, I will make Sable give you cleaning duties for a month." With that the normally unreadable dark elf angrily jogged out of the room. No doubt off to finish whatever he was in the middle of prior.
The first two crates were easy enough to track down, but the last one. With a sigh, Neal stated the obvious to her, "The number might be wrong, let's start from the back do any crates match the last 5 digits?"
Mith considered what that would that entail, as her eyes glazed over at the sight of all the crates. "Neal, there's several hundred boxes in this room, I'm not searching all of them."
"Well, I don't know what else to do. This is probably room 14, so let's start with shelf 1, maybe there was supposed to be a dash after it."
With a sigh, Mith walked the length of shelf 1, the longest of the shelves that stretch from wall to the other. It had four levels to it, the first two were mostly too small to contain the table, but the third level had several that could fit, and the top would of course have the one they were looking for. How they even got it up there was a mystery. "How are we going to get this down? I mean, I can lift it, but I can't hold it and climb."
"Why not open it, maybe it's in pieces?" The crowbar and wooden crate squeaked as she popped the top off. Inside was a large tabletop in four pieces, and several legs. This was going to be a pain, but at least it was doable. "Ok, I'll bring down each piece, I guess. This is going to be awhile."
And a while it took, each piece was carried down and Neal spent the rest of the time opening the other smaller crates.
Finding the silence boring Neal tried to strike up conversation, "You know, I was scared when I got back to your apartment, I saw the cupboards all open, and things scattered about. It looked like someone sacked your place."
The thought of the human worrying about her made her smile and laugh ever so slightly. "Aww, the little human was worried about me?"
"And then you left that note on your table, you need better handwriting. It looked like someone forced you to write. So yes, I was a little worried."
"Well, as you can see I'm fine. It was my grandfather's birthday. Which I forgot." She whispered that last part. "I had to go pay my respects." Dropping the last of the surface pieces she wiped at her brow. "How much do you know about minotaur?"
Neal shook his head and shrug, "Not much, beyond my interactions with you."
"Well, honor and family are a big part of our culture. You are expected to pay tribute to your elders, if you don't, it's bad. I'm not on particularly good terms with my family as it is. Missing his birthday would have been the excuse my mother and father needed to disown me."
"I didn't know things were that bad."
"Eh. These are Minotaur problems; I don't usually tell other people. But I get the feeling you and I will be working together for a while."
He stopped the work he was doing to glare back at her.
All the table pieces were lying on the floor, it was easy to see what it would look like once assembled. Old, splintering wood, a rough surface. If one was being nice, they might call it rugged, if they weren't they might say "This table looks like shit." Mith wasn't known for being nice.
Half the night was burned away already, they would have to rush to get the table and chairs into the rooms. Mith would spend most of the time carrying things, Neal spent it cleaning and assembling. It would take the rest of the evening, but they managed, if barely.
Sable of course, disapproved. "Recruit Neal! These are not the tables that belong here."
Neal shrugged, as if uncertain of what else he could have done. "Sir, with all due respect these are what were available the others were taken by the high guard."
Sable didn't seem phased by the answer, aside from his normal annoyed expression. "Do I look like I care for your excuses?"
Mith wasn't having it. "Captain. Sir. You signed the transfer order and we spent all night pulling these off the shelf and rebuilding them, get off our backs."
Both Sable and Neal could only stare at her. "What, I said sir?"
Needless to say, the two's infractions would not be forgiven that evening. If anything, Sable was going to add more when they were done at the end of the week. But, that would be a problem for future Mith and Neal. Light was starting to stream into the castle, and their shift was over. The bells in the distance were just a reminder of what she already knew. "Time for some drinks. Come on, human! Booze awaits us!"
Neal was clearly agitated with her for the prior comments and seemed less than willing. "Mith, I still have a headache from last night-" He tried to protest only to be stopped by a slap on his back.
"Best remedy for that is more booze!" She, as usual, didn't seem to care.
"I don't want to drink every morning I'm just going back to my apart-" Mith didn't let him finish that thought before picking him up.
"Please put me down!"
There was a strange sensation on her back, different from the human, like someone was watching them. Behind her was the princess, smiling as Mith carried Neal over her shoulder. With a polite nod, Mith turned to walk away only to stop for a moment and turn back.
Her mind thought for a moment, which was a moment more than she usually spent on thoughts. "Princess, do you want to come grab a drink with us?" The thought of how rude and incorrect such a request was, was not one of the thoughts she had.
Luna's smile turned into a laugh, "I appreciate the offer guardsman. But I'm not sure it's appropriate, and I'm busy this morning." Taking a moment, she considered her two loyal guardsman and pulled something out of a hidden pocket. "I've looked over the conference spaces, they're quite satisfactory. I hope you two have fun. You deserve it after all your hard work." She placed a gold coin into Mith's hand. "Neal, I believe the phrase you've used before is, 'let me buy you a drink.'"
Mith smiled back and Neal smiled and blushed. "Thank you, princess." With that the two walked out of the throne room, leaving Luna behind.
"You know, I can walk Mith." Neal protested.
"Yeah, but if I put you down, you're going to run away."
The sigh from him told her everything she needed to know. She was right.