Kat and Lily walked through the streets. Lily was still sitting on Kat’s shoulders. The demon suspected that Lily wanted to take the high ground due to her instincts, and Kat wasn’t going to complain, it’s not like Lily was heavy. Nixilei had sent the pair away so they could go out on a date… and do the shopping for the group. Apparently, the first thing Kress had tried to do after inhaling excessive amounts of cloud powder was try to cook food. TRY being the key word.

Now they had nothing left in any of the cupboards or the fridge, so it was up to Kat and Lily to pick some things up. Nixilei had given them plenty of money, and a rather long list. Though the length of the list was due to the fact that Kat and Lily didn’t recognise all the ingredients. Nixilei had to put her drawing skills to the test and produce small but extremely detailed and well drawn pictures of each item. Nixilei even included brief description, of the item, and what kind of vendor will normally have them.

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"Do you mind I’m doing this?" asked Lily as she leant forward. Lily was leaning her arms against Kat’s horns and using them to hold herself up. It was a slightly strange sensation for Kat. She could only somewhat feel Lily’s arms, and the pressure was nearly non-existent.

"It doesn’t bother me," said Kat. "I can barely feel the weight. In fact, I’m probably just feeling your touch instead of your weight,"

Lily stifled a laugh but nodded, "Ok, as long as this doesn’t bother you. I might switch to hugging your arm or something later, but this is nice for now,"

Kat shrugged, finding amusement in the fact Lily had to shift her weight to keep steady on top of Kat’s shoulders. Lily pouted down at Kat, who could feel the gaze behind her head. *I regret nothing!* Lily just rolled her eyes at the antics and they continued into the town.

Quite a few people stopped to look at them, a bit confused as to why Lily was being carried, but nobody stared long. Apparently it wasn’t such a strange sight, just a slightly curious one. It took a bit for the two of them to make it to a market, but once there, Kat could say she wasn’t terribly impressed. Kat hadn’t noticed the crowds funnelling this way, and was caught off guard by the area being completely packed full of people.

"Lily, stay on my shoulders please. If you can direct me to the right stalls, that would be great," said Kat. [Sure thing]

Kat pushed her way through to the first stall that had a collection of dried fruits. Nixilei had supplied a few bags alongside coin for Kat, so the demon had no need to look for one. Kat looked over the prices, without knowing how acceptable they were. Standing back a bit from the crowd, Kat watched as several people grabbed what they wanted then dumped roughly the correct amount of coin into a box the stall owner had set out.

Kat frowned as she continued to watch this. *I’m not sure what I should do here, I’ve seen three people underpay, four people overpay, and only two people pay exactly the right amount. There’s also the other six that gave slightly incorrect amounts, but they were only off by a few cents. One of the people overpaying gave the stall double what she was asking for! How the heck does this currency system work?*

Before Lily could answer the stall owner’s hade snaked out and grabbed the shoulder of a smaller kid that was about to run off. They’d grabbed a bunch of the more expensive fruit and paid a pittance. Apparently the stall owner was paying attention. The stall owner didn’t say anything, and the kid just sighed and handed back half of their hall before the stall owner released them, letting the kid dash away into the crowd. Which made some sense… except…

*The kid still didn’t pay enough! How the fuck does this system work!*

[I can’t really tell. Nothing seems to stand out amongst the people that seem to be paying more or less for the fruit, and before they caught that kid, I was under the impression that the stall owner was just giving these things away and taking what money they could… but apparently not?]

*Should we just pay the amount? Nixilei gave us enough money to buy the whole stand out twice over… so I’m not sure if ’correct amount’ is what we should be handing over here. Is this like tipping?*

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[Look, I don’t know. Let’s just be safe and hand over exact change. Then we can’t get in trouble, and we don’t have to feel bad because quite a few people are clearly not paying full price.]

*I can accept that.*

Kat paid with no issue, then moved off to a few other stalls, repeating the process of watching a bit. Most of the time, they simply paid what was on the signs, but occasionally Kat could see incorrect amounts of money changing hands. Kat just brushed it off, it was possible these people were just family friends or something. Most stalls kept better track of payments then the first, but it was still a bit haphazard.

Kat was nearly done with the shopping, when she felt someone bump into her. That was fine, it didn’t even move Kat in the slightest, but when she looked down, Kat saw a kid falling down. Taking no time to think, Kat’s tail lashed out, catching the child before they hit the ground. What surprised Kat was that the kid started thrashing. It was hard to tell if they were a girl or not. They were dirty, with short hair that looked like it had been hacked off with a knife.

They were covered in a fair bit of dirt… and they had managed to grab the money pouch Kat had assumed was well hidden amongst her other bags. It still had a good chunk of coin in it, with Nixilei providing well. Kat let out a long sigh. *Welp. This is awkward. I’m going to leave the press of people and figure this out. Ideas?* Kat started walking to the edge of the market, pushing her way through the crowd. Nobody seemed concerned that Kat had just picked up a random child, and that too was worrying her.

[I don’t know what we can do here Kat. If we take the money back… well… this kid might need it, and the money is clearly nothing to Nixilei… but at the same time, we’ve called so much attention to them, if we let them take it anyway… everyone that’s watching will know what we did. Perhaps… we can give away some food? That might be a good medium.]

Kat sighed again. *I really didn’t want to run into a presumably homeless child.* Kat made it to a small alleyway but decided to keep going when the smell hit her. Kat hung left towards the ocean and pulled the kid along with her until she reached the docks. Kat looked for an empty pier and headed out away from the crowd. The kid was still struggle, but not as much as before. It was more like they felt obligated to at least try, but they were small and Kat’s tail was all muscle. So keeping them aloft was no issue.

Eventually Kat sat the kid down, placing herself between the exit to the pier and the child. Lily hopped off Kat’s shoulders and took up watch. "Now, would you like to tell me what you were doing?" asked Kat.

"Nothing," insisted the child. The child still holding the money pouch.

Kat released the child, and went to speak again, but the child took off running to the side leaping off the edge. Kat let them get out over the water before wrapping them in her tail again and dragging them back. Sure it was ’quick’ for a human but Kat was far beyond this small child. Though… Kat looked closer at the ears on the child and noticed they were an elf, not human.

"Ok, now you’ve tried to escape again, and still holding my money pouch, can you tell me what you were doing?" asked Kat.

The elven child looked up at Kat, then at Lily, then down to the pouch and said nothing. Kat let them go once more, and kneeled down to their level to try to be less intimidating. For her efforts. Kat had a bag of money swung into her face. Kat just rolled her eyes and let it hit before grabbing the child’s arm and plucking the money bag away and handing it off to Lily. "Right, now, I’m still not mad, but you can’t keep doing that. It’s rude,"

"I’m not rude! You’re rude! You took my money!" insisted the child.

*Lily… should we just throw the kid in the ocean? They wouldn’t have tried to jump if they couldn’t swim right?*

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