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Ganyma was amazed at the girth of the girl’s pockets. How could someone small have so much storage space? She was probably a hundred nubs shorter than him! He idly patted his pockets, unwilling to stick his hands back into the pile of beetles now disrupted inside of his pants. He was definitely upped by her on that front, he admitted. He wondered how many beetles she hid on her before she managed to pull out a cable as he stood their agape. He gave her a brief applause for the excellent trick, laughing with excitement.

“Your lusus is so big and cool! Strochio don’t like a lot of stuff. Especially carryin’ it when I could be usin’ my arms to defend myself and stuff,”

Ganyma looked at her expectantly. He instantly lit up as soon as she mentioned the bag, and opened his mouth wide in realization.

“Woooooow, yeah!” He responded. He flexed his arms and knees, seemingly ready to sprint across the store. “Then I could put all of those stuff in the bag!” he repeated, his mind a moment behind.

Ganyma formed a two-man team huddle with Rasali in excitement. “Razzly, Razzly.” He announced, putting his hands on her small shoulders. “You gotta take me to the bags! Do you know where the bags are?” He had to make things extra clear so that she could understand.

Outside, a rather ruffled ostrich peered about the street corner with disdain. His charge had definitely gone in there. Time would tell what the child would by… Hopefully, it would be the right decision. Strochio clicked his beak ominously, and swept his neck over to the alley that Ganyma had used to evade him. He trained his eye on another lusus, who appeared to be resting on the sidewalk. The guardian of the other child. Strochio stalked to the other side of the road, inspected the great kappa, and hunkered down in a heavy sit, keeping his sights on the possible exits of the building.

Bag bag bag bag bag bag bag…. Ganyma repeated the word over and over in his head as the two shuffled to the pile. He disconnected from her shoulders and spun around her, already setting into the pile like a predator to a fresh kill. Some sort of work shirt, weathered and beaten. Leather goods began to emerge at the bottom, from moccasins to something misshapen that could have been a hat. No bag here.

“First one to find the coolest bag wins!” He announced, and took off at top speed. He scanned the piles rapidly, barely able to resist jumping headfirst into them. There was a bag!

He picked it up. It had bright red accents, and boasted a faded Imperial logo on the side. Ganyma put his arm through the opening; it went right through. Oops. That probably wasn’t a good thing. He covertly returned the bag to the bottom of the pile.

This repeated for quite some time. After becoming nearly discouraged in his search, Ganyma noticed a coat rack on the side of the store, jutting at an odd angle.

“What’s this?” he mused aloud, pulling the coat rack out from the wall. The structure had pressed against a box, nearly crushing it. He had a good feeling about this! As he removed musty linens, he found a peculiar set. A huge hunting uniform and trappings laid at the bottom of the box.

“Whoa!” Ganyma exclaimed as he pulled a huge bowie knife from its case. For whatever purpose the bloodsport uniform served, it had run its course. The steel was stained and worn; everything in the outfit looked well used. There was even a monogram embroidered on everything, and embossed on all of the buttons. This must have been something from someone important, Ganyma figured.

He laid it aside the box, something else having caught his eye. No adventurer would be complete without his bag… And there it was. Ganyma’s hands were shaking. He pulled the object forcefully out of the box, releasing it from its dusty prison. The thick wayfarer’s backpack glowed an aura of dust that it emitted as it was struck by the light of the room.

”RAZZLY, I FOUND IIIIT!”

Ganyma's enthusiasm was marred by the onset of a sudden coughing fit brought on by the dusty bag. He sniffled through his crooked nose and wiped it all over his arm, feeling the endless tickle of dust that had been there who knows how many sweeps. His nostrils twitched. It was all very distracting.

"I dunno if it has anything in it!" He blurted. The bag did have some weight to it. Ganyma stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth, fumbling with the outer pockets of the bag. Nothing there... Nothing there... Finally, he put his paws on the main compartment, which looked promising. Disconnecting the latch of the bag, Ganyma peered inside and then put a tentative hand in. He felt something smooth and cool. It was very hard, with as many smooth points as knobs. He lifted it out. It was a piece of bone -- a vertebrae, by the look of it. Ganyma didn't know what it was, and mulled over the strange object.

"This is weird!" He said simply, turning it all around in his hand.

After a while, he opted to keep checking out the bag. He put it on the ground and pulled out a few more, and then felt something glassy. It was the shape of a regular can. He removed it and inspected it. It was a glass container with what appeared to be a preserved finger inside. The faint dried mustard tint remained at the severed end of the digit, though it was mostly an old dried thing. A tag attached to the small opening of the bottle boasted the number "112". What it meant was anybody's guess.

"Who'd have this in a backpack?" Ganyma wondered aloud. Other than a moth-eaten scarf, there was nothing else in the bag but the trophies. He didn't bode on the objects for long, and returned to his happy state. "Well, whaddaya think?" he asked, addressing Rasali. He held up the now empty bag and beamed.

"Oh, yeah! But why would a criminal have these? I wonder if they're worth a lot," Ganyma rambled slowly. He puckered his lips in thought before shrugging and giving Rasali another big grin.

"Good idea!" Ganyma quickly whipped the pack around, unleashing another wave of dust. He slid one strap over his shoulder, then the other with great gusto. Ganyma did a little shoulder shimmy and twirled around, laughing as he looked at his own back like he was chasing his own tail.

"It's awesome! It's already been breaked in and stuff! What do you think?"

The troll extended his arms out with pride and turned around on his heels, exposing the back of the bag.

Ganyma had stars in his eyes. Rasali's budding aptitude for flattery had completely won him over. If he didn't get this bag now, he would probably die.

"Let's go ask!" He blurted without hesitation. He looked down at the various trappings on the ground and furrowed his bushy brow. "I don't know if I should keep these..." A realization came shortly after.

"Ohhh-- Ya know what? Strochio wouldn't like me havin' this other stuff I think. I mean, I'm already bringin' home a surprise an' all," He looked a bit anxious for a moment as he mentioned his lusus, then smacked his fist seriously into his palm.. He was refocused. Time to take charge! "I'm gonna get this bag!" He announced.

The child assuredly looked about, and then turned right back around and pointed at Rasali. "Lead the way!"

Ganyma wandered through the store behind Rasali, bumping into her back numerous times due to a concoction of clumsiness and obliviousness. "Wow! I can't believe we didn't notice anyone here," He observed, backing up as she stumbled over her pantleg.

He was still over the clouds his new soon-to-be purchase. Just wait until Strochio sees this! It'd definitely be a good distraction-- maybe even enough to avoid an extra walk to make up for this one. Whoops! There went Rasali again. Ganyma barely came to a stop before he also slid into Rasali (who was busy sliding into the counter).

Using his mighty stature, he gazed around the room. Rasali was already in the process of requesting assistance -- but none came. How strange! Surely there must have been someone here... Who owned this place anyway?

In a serendipitous moment that seemed to answer Ganyma's question and throw his little mind into an explosive tailspin, Rasali had taken the spot of the owner. With a semi-conscious movement, Ganyma pulled the required beetles from his sweatpants pocket. He looked at her cockeyed, brow furrowed and head at a rather apprehensive tilt. He reached his arm out and managed to make the exchange over the vast counter.

After a moment of stunned, agape silence, Ganyma shook the fog out of his head and basked in a moment of clarity.

"WOW! DO YOU WORK HERE?"

Mind blown. Ganyma took her neutral to positive reaction as an absolute affirmation. He bounced up and down again in anticipation. It wasn't until this moment that he realized all of his running and prancing had really made his legs tired! He let out a breath and slowed to a stop, still smiling.

"I can't believe that!" Ganyma chattered. "I'll have to come back here all the time! Woooooow!"

He laughed and slapped his hands on the counter. "Sealed!" Then Ganyma blinked and looked about the musty room. "Did you want to take anything? You said you wanted to get stuff from here earlier!"

Rasali was really little for someone who worked at a place like this, thought Ganyma. He mused about what she could have done to get a job here -- she must not have been older than him, based upon her size and all that. She was too nice to have taken out the previous owner. Maybe she's a volunteer or something! Or maybe that... Big beaver tailed lusus owns it! That seems weird-- he couldn't really fit through the door... Maybe not. Maybe she works there because he can't fit through the door! That could be it.

After an unrelenting moment of thought, he rapped his fingers on the table. "Though I guess you could just grab stuff from here whenever you want. 'Cause... Ya know..." He returned an equally exaggerated wink, more so mimicking what she had done earlier instead of truly understanding any implications in his words.