57 Summer 511 A.V. – Tiki is put to work once more among the Jamoura. Shurk sees potential in Tiki’s relatively petit body… “I think he can make it…” “It’s not your life to gamble, Shurk. The nets don’t go out that far.” “I’m paying him, aren’t I?!” Tiki only heard bits of a conversation as he came strolling down the petal, blazing glory. He wasn’t entirely sure what the jamoura were talking about, but they did seem upset. “Good morning,” Tiki started with his enthusiastic tone. He followed Shurk’s orders like a soldier, and was ready once more for today’s labors. He kept himself well fed and rested, as per Shurk’s commands of course, and still managed to get a taste of Spires. Running around that is, he had a better feel of where he was at the least. Handling all of the honey-glue started having an effect on him. His cravings started getting the better of him. His sweet tooth, all but satisfied, had him asking Kashal for honey in the mornings, to which she so eloquently responded, “You’re going to lose a tooth like this, Tiki. Have some fruit instead, just as sweet.” He might have refused her before a few times, but listened to Kashal’s wisdom in the end. Grath managed to sneak a jar or two under the counter of course, but that was between them. Business was business – an ideal Shurk seemed to have in mind as well. “Tiki, my boy! Welcome, welcome, stand right over here. I need to show you something. You see, I had something in mind for you, really relaxing and boring work, something for an old ape like me with no life left to be living, but we seem to have a problem. I’m in need of a daring fellow, one with no fear in his heart…someone who can fit down through there…” Shurk pointed to a break in the intertwined branches and wood. “We seemed to have misplaced the plans to the stadium down below,” Shurk stated, his boys giving him all kinds of sharp looks, “And I need to get them back. They seemed to have blown through – ” “More like they were left there…” “Like I was saying, blown through, or left there, in the branch below during our construction last night. The problem is the glue has already set, and we can’t go ripping the floor apart now that it’s all set. But if you can fit through that part over there, crawl around a bit more, snag the prints, and get back, we’ll be back in business. As you can see, we’re not getting much further with this project without those plans. What do you say, Tiki?” Tiki listened well to the other jamoura as much as he did Shurk. “Who left the plans in the branch? The wind doesn’t blow like that.” Shurk’s boys laughed, the lead architect hot under his nape. “Alright, alright, enough. I left them there, alright, I said it. Now, listen here Tiki, I’m paying you for this job. We’ll be right here if anything goes wrong, and that’s a big if now, but we do need those plans back. I’ll be making copies as soon as I can. We’re golden now that the project is started. There’s no way others will catch up to us now, I just got a little paranoid about my plans being around, you know? What do you say, Tiki?” Tiki didn’t know, having little sense of guile, but he figured Shurk had a point, Tiki was being paid. Besides, climbing sounded more fun than pasting things together. The temptation of the honey-glue was the only drawback. Shurk was eagerly awaiting Tiki’s answer. “Okay,” the kelvic said, and Shurk was gleeful. The look on the faces of the other jamoura foresaw disaster to come, but not Tiki. Tiki, oh Tiki, he was just smiling away, his eyes locked on Shurk’s joy. The lead designer did well to pat Tiki over to the hole that lead below the stadium floor where no other jamoura would be able to reach him. His cat reflexes would come in handy; hopefully he’d land on his feet if things went down, down, down… |