Chapter 22: A Fair and Tasteful Exchange of Information

“Wait a moment if you will Sir Orapele!” Jadah called out.

“Sir? I may be a man, but could I be a sir? A moment? Do you have something for me to eat? Devour?” Orapele did not move, but his head twisted around as owls are wont to do and he peered curiously at Jadah.

“I don’t think I do, I’m sorry” Jadah said, bowing in apology.

“Oh, what a pity”

When she looked up, Orapele was moving away.

“Please wait!”

Again, Orapele’s head swivelled around.

“Wait? I suppose I can. Do you know somewhere where I’d find something interesting to eat? It’d be best if only you knew about it”

“I’m afraid no…”

This time Jadah did not bow, and so she saw Orapele turn his head and slither away.

“…h-hey! Can’t you show me some courtesy?”

Orapele stopped and there was a particularly loud crunch and then a louder gulp. Jadah felt her hairs stand on end as Orapele’s head slowly turned around again. His jaw clacked open.

“I suppose I should. Some say that beasts have no manners, and I would like to think myself better than a beast. Do you know somebody who might know where there is some rare things?”

“Sorry, I don… would you please stay, look I think I remember something you might want to eat, but can you help me first?” Jadah asked.

“Help? Hmm… Help? I could, I could.” Orapele stared at Jadah as if he was trying to see right into her mind. He stared right at her eyes and was unmoved. Jadah had to turn her gaze from the piercing nature of those crimson eyes.

Orapele’s feathers flickered many colours, and then he nodded.

“I’ll maybe help a bit, as long as it doesn’t take too much time away from eating”

“You know of the cottage where my sisters and I are don’t you?” Jadah asked.

“I have eaten there, yes!” Orapele complied.

“Something happened there and I was wond…”

“That new prey that came from your cottage is very hard to catch. I am not pleased, is it your fault that it is so wily?”

Jadah’s eyes shone with excitement! This was a lead! New prey!

“What is this new prey, what does it look like?”

A feathered tentacle mopped Orapele’s brow.

“I’d call it a kind of… hmm something between a snack and a meal? It looks very tasty though maybe unhealthy, I should be fine if I eat it though. My saliva’s potent stuff you know. Hmm, yes it looks seriously tasty. I’ve been having trouble trying to catch it though, so I thought I’d eat some more of these sleeping rock things. They’re very morish and there’s such a variety of them.”

There was many times that Jadah felt cheated. This particular case didn’t rate as the highest, but a damyne that feeds on the feeling of being cheated would be quite satisfied with how Jadah was feeling.

“Well, thank you for your help. There isn’t anything else you could tell me? Anything about what happened at the cottage?”

After an uncomfortable amount of silence, Orapele slapped its tentacles together.

“I almost forgot, sometimes it hides in other things, and I can’t always eat those… It is very annoying. I think you must have been doing something great at that cottage. That thing is, very very tasty looking. Ill mannered though. Not like me”

“Yes, quite, you are truly one of the more unique mannered personages I’ve encountered” Jadah said, channelling some of the essence of her sister, Koolah.

“Aren’t I just? So, you said that you knew about something I might like to eat, would you oblige me by telling me what it is?”

There was a spot of happiness in Jadah’s heart that the price she was paying wasn’t worth more than the information she had gotten. It did not cross her mind that there was a possibility that Orapele knew this.

“A nakrukh now roams the thorny maze, it was formed from many nakfggyrs.”

“Ooooh a rukh? Those are tricky ones. I might not be able to eat that. I’ll take a look though, well thanks, little witch cat”

With a flick of feathers, Orapele shimmered and Jadah was no longer able to see him. She wasn’t satisfied, but she turned around to follow her footsteps back out of the canyon.

It was when she got out that she had the distinct feeling she was being watched.

Watched by something that hated her.