Chariot had just arrived at Dawn Island a few days prior and had booked a small room at the local inn. Which lucky also had a nice pub just down the stairs. Sadly it was only open at night and did serve neither breakfast, lunch or dinner, which had left the woman rather hungry and drove her to the market near the docks. Dressed in a simple white shirt and shorts, no shoes.

The Mink still drew a lot of attention, aside from her there was no other non-human around, it was understandable. At first most of the people actually looked fearful, but after a day of being a good customer money had clearly already overwrite the suspicions.

Buying a basket full of apples and a loaf of bread she made her way towards the docks, where she planed to eat. Throwing one of the apples into the air and impaled it on one of her claws as it came back down, starting to chew on it. Again it threw some eyes towards her, especially since apparently everyone was even more surprised about a wolf Mink eating fruits than just a wolf Mink. Apples were tasty and just meat was a bad diet!  

Soon the first apple was fully down in her belly, one could say she “wolfed it down” and she took a second one from the basket and threw it up, but instead of again catching it skilfully with just one sharp claw, the apple accurately came back down on a young man's head, passing by just a few feet next to her.

For the Moment she was not sure what to do about that, her instincts said to grab the apple and then apologize, but the sheer accuracy with which the apple had hit him right on the top of the head left her impressed. Taking a moment to break free from the daze it had left her in, she then apologized sincerely: “Sorry, I meant to catch that, but the wind must be especially breezy today.” Pulling out another apple from her basket she smiled down to the shorter man. “Here you can have a second one. I hope that makes up for the accident.”

After having dealt with the victim of her apple bomb Chariot turned around to the new person to enter the crime scene. “I accidentally dropped an apple on him, nothing more.” To demonstrate how it happened she threw another apple up in the air and again caught it, by impaling it with one of her claws. “This is what was supposed to happen.” Having emptied almost her whole basket and still not sat down at the docks to enjoy her meal to the fullest she actually let the apple slide back into the basket, instead of eating it right away. With a light smile she looked at the two men again and then looked towards the docks. “Anyway, now that this is taken care of I will excuse myself to enjoy my meal in peace at the ocean.” She quickly lifted the basket again, showing the remaining apples and the bread, to avoid having to explain anything extra. “I wish both of you a pleasant day.”

Having fully dealt with the whole ordeal she took in a deep breath of air. She could already smell the salt in the air and hear the doves fighting over left overs on the pier. It was her favourite place, other than the pub in which she was staying to have a meal and she wanted to relax and collect a bit of energy before exploring the island a bit and then maybe looking into how to best continue her jouurney.

As soon as she had sat down Chariot had pulled out her loaf and took a big bite from it. Then started alternating between bread and apples, just to be interrupted a few bites into her meal. Turning towards the man she squinted, trying to remember what she had said. She was sure that the words “enjoy”, “meal” and “peace” where said by her, before reaching the ocean. She still tried to focus on her meal and take in the ocean, view, sounds and smells, but the mouth of the man just did not want to stop moving, even when she did her best to ignore his pointless gibberish. She did not care one bit about his interest in Minks and it was certainly not the first time someone had been curious about her and he also was not the first to openly hit on her.

By the time the man had finally shut up she was half way through her meal and just swallowed the last pieces still in her mouth. “First my name is Chariot and was born and raised in the East Blue.” She put up with it and forced a small smile on her face. “Second, I wanted to enjoy my meal alone and have some peace and quiet.” Dropping the apple core inside the ocean, she dropped her smile with it and replaced it with a cold stare. Following by getting up and leaving the meal basket where she sat. “It was nice meeting you, but I want to explore the island a bit now.” She made a step forward and then paused to look at the man again: “If you are looking for women to hit on you might be more lucky at a bar or pub. I'm not looking for a mate.” Swinging her tail near the man's face she turned away and made her way back up to the market area.

Walking up the road through the market area, she passed by the local message board. She had not taken a look at it since arriving at the island. Back then she had looked for a job for a novice blacksmith, but had not found any. She felt inclined to take another look and noticed the boy with her apple, which actually was his apple now, either way she stepped closer and leaned down to take a look.

Scanning over the papers: partly news, partly job offers she kept looking for anything related to either getting of the island or blacksmith work. Letting out a light sigh after not finding anything, but something else drew her attention. Out of nowhere she addressed the young man: “You are not from this island right?” She sniffed a little, taking in the strong smell of salt coming from the man, akin to a sailor that had been at see for a while.

Yet she could not really think that such a small man had a ship or any other way of crossing the ocean. The Mink sometimes struggled at gauging the age of hairless apes, but he looked too young to be a sailor or marine or anything like that, which made her curious. Smiling down to him she introduced herself: “My name is Chariot, I totally forgot to introduce myself earlier.”

Chariot thought for a moment and took in what Hiro said. If he came from an island far away then that meant that he had a ship, which could be used to leave the island again, something the Mink had planed to do after having seen most of Dawn Island. She had no plan for a destination, as long as it was a new place. “I'm looking for a job offer suitable for a blacksmith or a ship that travels of the island.” Leaning down she sniffed on Hiro again. “Since you smell like salt, I thought you might be a sailor working on a ship that travels between islands.”

While Chariot was trying to focus on the conversation the noise from a near by shop increased and drew her attention away. Across the street from the two. The Mink looked up from the man in front of her and looked over. It was the first time for her to see such a ruckus on the island. Apparently some youngsters were not happy with the price and now were yelling loudly at the elderly store owner. She let out a loud sigh. All she had planed for the day was a quiet lunch, which was ruined, then take a quick look at the board and maybe talk with Hiro, which was now interrupted. Her day could only get better, but above all she really did not want to be bothered, yet it seemed like a very unpleasant situation for the store owner and the Mink did not want to leave it at that. Turning to Hiro again she excused herself: “One moment I want to see if everything is okay over there.”

With that said she quickly crossed the street and pulled one of the men back at his shoulder, stepping in between them and the store owner. “May I ask what is wrong here?” Her bright green eyes gazes across the men standing around her, forced to look up to the fit wolf Mink. “Everything is fine dog woman, there is no reason to get involved here.” Stated one of the men and Chariot just smirked at his stupid remark. “I was asking the store owner, so you should show good behaviour and be quiet to let him talk.”

(I guess it's just us.)

The man smiled up at her. “Thank you for your help Miss.” She answered his smile with her own, before turning towards the others around her. “You are lucky, he does not seem injured, but you should get away, if you were about to buy anything I take care of the money.” The young men obviously were not fully happy, but even they understood that there was little point of starting anything in broad daylight and so they turned away, walking past Hiro and disappearing in a side street a bit down the street. Chariot again took her time to make sure that the shop owner was really fine and then turned back to Hiro.

“Well aren't you manly, but good job not getting involved, I would not want a little boy to get hurt too.” With that said she patted the boy on the head and turned away. Maybe she had expected a bit too much from someone who travelled the sea, but the lack of action he had shown made it quite obvious that he was not someone worth sticking around with. A few feet down the street she also turned sideways and disappeared in a different street, with the goal to find an actually nice place to relax.


Chariot Out