30 – Some Things to Consider

Yomi rode up to the farm astride her cassowary, and I saw her coming from a modest distance away. She sat in the saddle with supreme confidence, a grin on her face, and her eyes came alight with mischief as she came up along the road.

“House is looking good, Amon!” she called out.

I shrugged. “Extension is mostly done by now, save for work on the interior,” I said, motioning toward that side of the building. “The lads do decent work.”

“I’ll say. So that’s how houses look out west, eh?” She dismounted, feeding her bird another mouthful of grain.

I leaned on the fence and watched her, quietly appraising her. “Seems like you’ve made a full recovery. Guang was a little worried there’d be lasting side effects from Inumi’s attack.”

“Mm…” She turned and spat on the road. “That spot still itches from time to time. But that’ll pass too. Though I am a little worried about all the blood I’ve been pissing out.”

I stared at her for a long time, quietly raising a brow.

Yomi snorted with laughter and slapped her own knee. “I’m jokin’, relax!”

“You got an odd sense of humour,” I replied. Though the corner of my mouth did twitch into a tiny smile. It was rare for me to see a woman who could joke around like a lad back home, but I wasn;t going to complain.

“So they tell me. I’m about to hit the trail. Your Iudex sent word along to Low Moon of my accomplishments when the city came to retrieve the bandit’s corpses. So I got a payment waiting for me out that way. A damn fat one. Figured maybe you’d want a cut of it? After all, you did much of the work.”

“I’m fine, really. I made sure to tell everyone that you did all the work. And I’d appreciate it immensely if you said the same to people.”

Yomi chuckled. “You’re an oddball. But, fine, if that’s your preference. I will admit I feel a little guilty about the lying but… eh, the world is full of graves for fools who let honour dictate their lives,” she said, shrugging.

“Oh, I’m well aware.” And usually those people abandoned honour as soon as they realised the danger they had been in against me.

“So, I take it then that you wouldn’t be interested in becoming a bounty hunter? Me and you, I reckon we could get a lot of valuable criminals. Some of them we might even take alive.” She barked a rasping laugh, mischief glinting in her eye.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I folded my arms, meeting her gaze. “Appreciated, but no thank you. I’m looking to avoid trouble. And enough of it has come my way since coming here without me going out of my way to find more.” I wasn’t naive to think I’d seen the last of my problems around here.

Smoke padded over, his large tail swishing languidly behind him. “Hrr… The woman… from the other night,” he said. He was getting better at speaking by the day, but he still took pauses every couple of words.