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"I beg your pardon, Sir..." Kitwana replied, lifting a finger to point at the destroyed figure that Hanse held in his hand. "That particular ward was crafted to keep demons away from the one carrying it." He raised a furry brow, retracting his hand from the air to tap one side of his muzzle thoughtfully. "Are you a demon?" The insult toward his work didn't seem to irritate him, at least not that he had shown. The foxen gave a light shrug of his shoulders, tilting his head to one side. "I presume that you believe your talents are of higher quality than mine?" He gestured toward the doorway behind him. He didn't have to turn, he knew the girls were eavesdropping. "Perhaps you would desire to read their fate? As the expert in this establishment, that is."

Without hesitation, Riyo followed Neko and did as he instructed. Though, she couldn't help but look around at where she was. She remembered when she traveled with Hitsu, Poke, and Mitsu to a similar place. While it wasn't exactly alike, there was about the same smell there.. And that odd liquid substance that made her... Well.. Feel funny. Not to say she didn't like it! But it was "bad". That's what they had told her...

Her attention was drawn toward the stranger as he stood next to them. She stared at him like a child would. Was this man going to feed them? He spoke of food... But what exactly was a "sammich" or a "soup"?

When Neko asked her what she wanted, her eyes widened. She just threw something out there. "Beef sammich, nyuuu?" It sounded good at least. Beef was cow, right? She wasn't exactly sure, since she'd just recently learned all of this stuff.

"That explains a lot." Yuki said dismissively. "You must have a concussion, or something. You're probably lucky you woke up." He tapped the side of his own head, gesturing to the area in which Skye had his injury. "Here I thought you were just an idiot." The thought of offending him? Yuki didn't seem to care, at least not currently. "Isn't he supposed to be your friend?" He asked soon after, grimacing a bit. Sure, he knew from experience the dragon was an a*****e, but to his partner as well? "He could have killed you, and he just left you lying there?" Maybe he'd spoken too soon, anyone who'd stick around a guy like that was an idiot.

((Mitsu said I could go ahead and rp so... here goes nothing!))

s**t! Why did this have to happen?

Darting through the streets, a young man weaved through what people were around as quickly as he could. His hands seemed to be clenched as if they were holding onto a few small items or something along those lines, and he was certainly in a hurry. Though if one were to look a ways behind him, they would soon find out why.

A few of the town guards were making the chase; each one of them shouted at the man as if that was going to stop him from running.

Though he wasn't one to really run, he knew better than to try and fight off a handful of well armed and trained guards on his own. One or two he may be able to fend off, but this was a bit too much. Not to mention that he didn't need more reasons for guards to be hounding after him. In any case, he just needed to get away right now.

Nearly running into a few people along the way, he kept a sharp eye out for any place he could possibly duck into. With endurance not being a strong point for him, he couldn't keep up this chase for too long. Along the way, he went past a small shop that seemed to have some sort of trouble going on within. He went past it too quickly to really get an idea of what was going on though, and he wasn't about to duck into a shop of any sort when he was just caught stealing.

Stupid kid... messing everything up...

Needless to say he was a bit disgruntled about it. And now he was starting to run out of steam. The guards may have been a good distance behind him, but he still couldn't just stop in the middle of the street. With a quick glance around, he spotted an inn just further ahead. In front was standing a man clad in black with a top hat, but he didn't really pay much mind to him.

Deciding it would be the best thing in this current area, at least for now, the young man hastily ducked into the tavern, hoping that the guards were far away enough to not see this. He hadn't checked over his shoulder in awhile, so he couldn't be sure where they were right now. For now he just needed to try and lay low... and possibly bribe whoever ran this place to keep their mouths shut about seeing him.

Letting out a deep sigh, he looked about for a moment or two before shoving whatever he was holding into his pockets and making his way towards the bar. Two people were seated there already, so he just took a stool that was a few spaces away from them. He leaned against the counter for some time as he recovered from sprinting across town before straightening up a bit and glancing over at the bartender who didn't seem to be in much of a good mood either.

"Hey, what's on the menu tonight?"

Taking up his spoon Neko began to down a few scoops of stew before he took up his sandwich and took a rather large bite out of it. At the moment manners were as far from his mind as they could possibly be. “Eat up, Riyo.” He said through a bit of food in his mouth and scooted her bowl of stew a bit closer to her. Swallowing what was in his mouth he continued. “I’m sure it will make you feel better.”

Neko only managed a few more mouthfuls of food before a young man took a seat not far from them at the bar looking rather ragged and out of breath. He looked a little shady to say the least but right now Neko had other things on his mind so his attention was quickly drawn back to his food.

Being called to attention again the bartender made his way to this new customer a little concerned as to why he was so winded. His expression may have show what he was thinking but he didn’t bother to say anything other than what was asked of him. “We have vegetable soup and beef stew, turkey, ham, and roast beef sandwiches, and a variety of salads.”

Taking up the rings the barkeeper examined them thoroughly checking every nook, cranny, and cut of the stones. After a few minutes of inspection he gave a swift nod before depositing the rings in a lock box behind the counter. “Very good, Sir.” Hustling now the bartender rushed to the back to return only a few moments later with a fairly large bowl of beef stew, much larger than the bowls Neko and Riyo had obtained. Placing the bowl and fresh spoon in front of Blade the bartender also produced a key with a number on it. “Here’s is your room key, Sir. It’s upstairs and to the left.” No need for him to sign in if he technically didn’t exist here at the moment, right?

Meal half way finished Neko couldn’t help but over hear the conversation between the bartender and this new patron. Not that he was noisy mind you, but they were only a couple of feet away. Tuning them out would have been a much harder task. Taking another sip of his stew keeping his focus on his bowl Neko caught a glimpse of something shiny being passed between the stranger and the barkeep. Glancing over he saw that it was rings. A grin began to tug at his lips as he started to piece the puzzle together.

This man wasn’t here by chance. From his looks and how he dressed jewelry of that kind obviously wasn’t his thing. That left only two real reasons for a man of his sort to be in possession of such fine jewelry. He had either bought it for a woman or he had stolen it and the fact that he was giving them away as payment eliminated the first choice. “Hurry up and eat, Riyo.” Neko instructed turning back to his own food. He had a faint idea that trouble was following this man and wasn’t far behind and he really wanted no part of it. Best to finish their food and go out for a bit and come back when things had calmed down.

Glad that he didn't need to pull out more of his loot, the young man nodded with a slight grin as he took his bowl and key.

"Thanks," he said quietly.

Before digging into his meal, he noticed that the other two patrons were watching him somewhat. He didn't really mind, just as long as they didn't start making a fuss of sorts. Even then, he might not really care a whole lot depending on what the fuss was.

And just as he was about to take the first spoonful of the stew, he froze slightly as he had a very slight feeling that someone had just entered the premise. But it was far too quiet for it to be the guards so he relaxed somewhat and finally started to eat. He was going to need to be a bit hasty about finishing up the stew, as the sooner he disappears into his room, the better off he'd be.

Outside, the guards were quickly making their way down the street their target was on some moments ago. They had missed seeing him enter the tavern, but the man was no where to be seen. Knowing that he couldn't be too far off, they split up to begin searching all the buildings in the area. The thief had to be hiding in one of them.

Skye pondered for a moment, obviously it was a little painful from the slight throbbing. "Friend... stretches things a bit." He motioned circularly with his hand, "It's rather... convoluted. I saved his life, thus in his culture, he owes me a life debt. Until he either saves my life in returns, or one of us dies, he must travel with me." He shivered lightly, "Not entirely pleasant. But because of that, he usually does what I ask from time to time." He gently touched the side of his temple near his eye, "Apparently this was another one of his attempts to off me. Foiled again though."
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Hanse's eyes pierced through his hair towards the doorway, almost as if he was glaring at the girls. He spoke a little bit more softly, "It does not take any skill of magic to tell them general statements of hardship, loss, and love. Anyone can do that." He turned his attention toward the shopkeeper again, and held up the figure once more. "If you want to ward evil spirits or demons with something like this, you'll have to infuse it with an intense amount of white magic." Hanse clinched his fist tightly around the doll, crushing it into a powder. His brow furrowed slightly as he concentrated the magic he hated using into his hand. From the burrows of his fingers, and the cracks between his hand, a bright light slowly made itself known. It intensified for a moment, then dulled away a good deal, almost to the brightness of a lightning bug with the same pulsing. "Here. If you want to study it to figure out how much magic it really takes." Hanse opened his hand, and the crushed figurine was no longer present. In its place was a woven cross that had a subtle glow and pulse to it, "Or if you think one of those ladies would be better off with it..." His voice trailed off as his gazed turned back to the doorway.