"They are clearly marked forty thousand each, my friend." The woman was rather curt.
"Awww, c'mon." Niko looked positively hurt by the woman's refusal to barter with him. "You're supposed to haggle with me!"
"I don't want to," the Elezen woman replied. "They are quality pieces of body armor and I won't take less.
Niko wore the face of a small child who had just watched someone step on his favorite stuffed moogle. "Blah, what's the fun in this?" He questioned and, with that rhetoric, handed the woman eighty thousand gil for the two pieces of mail and bid her farewell.
"Eighty thousand is less than I woulda expected to pay anyways," he said to himself and boarded the recently-arrived ferry.
After a quiet journey across the channel from the mainland to the island country of La Noscea, Niko exited the arrival terminal and walked out onto the twisting suspended bridge walkways of Limsa Lominsa. Despite the recent trouble he had gotten himself into with the Krakens, the Sanguine Sirens and the Barracudas...and the surrounding controversies there-outlying, the bustling port city was beginning to feel like home.
He arrived at his estate shortly thereafter. Twisting the doorhandle, he found it to be locked tight. He retrieved a key from his pocket and opened the door. No lights were lit; he adjusted his eyes and stumbled over to a lamp.
"Alice?" He hollared, but was responded to only by the echo of his own voice. He wandered through the house, setting his belongings down here and there until he came to the kitchen table, upon which he found a piece of unfurled parchment. "A note," he said to himself. He picked it up and began reading.
"I have gone fishing at Aleport," he recited the letter aloud. "I hope your day of adventuring was prosperous! You had better have brought me home something nice from Ul'dah!" Niko looked over his shoulder to the two sets of scale mail he had bought.
"She loves it when we dress alike," Niko said to himself, though he found the practice to be a bit tacky. He continued reading. "The fish I'm going for don't come close to shore until the late hours before sunrise, so don't expect me home until late tomorrow morning. Cook yourself some supper and I'll see you tomorrow!"
Niko made himself a small meal and then played a card game that he and Alice ritually played after supper (he played her hand for her). Afterwards, he read the tribune until his eyes grew heavy. He went to their bedchamber, laid down and drifted fast to sleep.
"Don't pluck me feathers!" Niko exclaimed oddly, waking from his slumber to a start. He had been dreaming that he was a chocobo. He was surrounded by dozens of mischievous Lalafell who were trying to steal his feathers for their caps. Escaping the disorientation of waking, he placed his hands upon the landmarks of his upper body, to assure himself that he was, indeed, Elezen once more.
Finding this to be the case, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, got out of bed and did some squats and other stretches as was his morning regiment. After cleaning up and donning some clean clothing, he strapped on one of the new pieces of body armor he had purchased the day before.
"Lighter than my haubergeon," he noted as he buckled the last body strap and tested his motility. "More maneuverable. But I suppose I shall keep my chain armor for when the situation demands a bit more protection."
Niko decided to head out of town and train a bit near Camp Bearded Rock. He arrived at the encampment after a short stroll out Zephyr Gate and northward. He began doing a few preliminary stretches before heading out to test his new body armor. He had leaned down to make sure his boots were well-laced when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Niko Bloodmoon," A cold voice beckoned. It was of monotone timbre and, with the unexpectedness of the address, sent a bit of a shiver down Niko's spine.
Niko stood quickly upright and turned to see who had spoken. It was a man of medium physical stature. He wore blood red chain armor, gilded with silver buckles and ornamental polished steel shoulder pauldrons.
A hyur, by Niko's assessment; however, it was hard to tell. The man wore a full plate helmet which concealed his face entirely, except for two slits about the eyes. The headpiece was plain except for being adorned with a crown.
"Who's asking?" Niko demanded before devulging his identity.
The man pointed to his chest, upon the left breast of which he wore a silver badge. "I have some questions for you."
"Anything I can do to be of assistance, officer." Niko scratched the back of his head a bit, wondering introspectively what he must have done wrong.
"There have been complaints from citizens of several cities and their surrounding territories of dead squirrels being found at their doorsteps, near the perimeter of encampments, et cetera." The inspector
began. "Nine accounts in all."
"And what do I have to do with all of this?" Niko asked.
"All nine of these squirrels were reported to have correspondences tied to their tails," the officer continued. "All of which were signed by one Yuumi Timori, and addressed to you, Niko Bloodmoon."
Niko was both partially nervous, and yet, rather excited that his name was getting around Eorzea with a certain amount of notoriety.
"I can't see that I've done anything wrong in all of this," Niko protested.
"You're not being accused of anything, Mr. Bloodmoon." The officer replied. "However, we have not been able to locate Ms. Timori with regards to this matter, but we *have* found you."
"If you are in contact with Ms. Timori," the man continued, "Would you be so kind as to pass on a message to her?"
"I suppose I could," Niko chuckled a bit to himself as he pictured himself sending out dozens of courier marmots to every end of Eorzea
in order to carry-out the authority figure's request.
"Please inform her that, while the authority *does* encourage adventurers to work together in order to make Eorzea a better place to live, we simply cannot have dead squirrels piling-up in multitudes hither and thither."
"Right," Niko nodded, assuring the officer of his compliance. "'Twould create a dead rank smell, no doubt."
"Indeed." replied the man. "Not to mention the bacterial concerns. Noone wants another plague, Mr. Bloodmoon."
"Agreed, sir." Niko did his best to contain riotous laughter over being pursued by the authorities over such a silly occurrence. "I'll keep my eye out for Ms. Timori!"
"Right then," the crimson-vested figure concluded. "I shall consider this matter closed, and in the future, please encourage your friend, Ms. Timori, to utilize a linkpearl. They are much more efficient."
Unable to contain himself, Niko broke into rauccous laughter. "Would you mind taking a photograph with me, officer? I'd like to capture this moment for a page in my journal."
Without another word or gesture, the officer disappeared into thin air.
Niko looked all around for a trace of the man, but found none. He giggled and said to himself, "Guess that's GM for 'no'."
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