[Mkguild] Nunly's Lutins - part 10

[Mythril Vulpes]

                          Nunly's Lutins

                         by Mythril Vulpes


------------ Part 10 - Changes Brewing


  Chief Yammi sat on the rock he called the throne in the valley. Since
the night Nunly cast his spell, things had become very different. "The
Change" as the tribe now referred to it, had not just upset the routine of
the tribe, but turned it upside-down and inside-out.  The "new" Hi Ho Hock
tribe now demanded so much of his time, Yammi found his only escape in
valley the tribe originally planned to settle. Few came back to the
desolation of the valley for more than a quick look, or to pick up
something they left behind, and soon gone again. This gave Yammi the
perfect place to sit and think unbothered by anyone.

  Well, unbothered by any Lutins, that its. Every time he came down
the path to the valley, Nunly Cat would follow. When he sat on his
throne, Nunly Cat would sit on his, and stare at Yammi.  From time to
time, Nunly Cat would glance off in one particular direction, and then
return his gaze to Yammi.  Usually, Yammi was deep in thought, and
ignored Nunly Cat, but today was different. Nunly Cat practically bounced
up and down, staring in his usual direction. The distraction was so
great, Yammi finally lost it.

  "What do you want?" Yammi screamed at Nunly Cat.

Nunly Cat headed off in the direction he always looked at. He stopped
after going 20 feet, and looked back to Yammi. Yammi had the strangest
feeling that Nunly Cat wanted to tell him something, but he just didn't
get it. Nunly Cat let out a long wail, and started walking away. Yammi
decided that something strange was going on, and decided to follow.

  Yammi chuckled to himself. Strange was the only thing that seemed to
be normal, so Nunly Cat acting strange must mean that he was just
being normal. Yammi realized that trying to determine what was normal
would just have him thinking in circles, so he just continued following
Nunly Cat.

Nunly Cat soon stopped and sat down next to a pile of rocks. He looked
at Yammi, and then stared at the rock pile again. Yammi took the hint,
and walked to the rock pile, trying to see what was so important.
Nunly Cat jumped up on the pile, and started pawing at one specific
rock. Yammi reached out to move the rock, and saw Nunly's back pack
wedged between two of the larger stones. When he pulled it out, Nunly
cat gave a satisfied meow, and sat down to groom himself.

  Yammi jumped down from the rock pile, but when he landed, his
foot landed on a small rock, causing his ankle to twist. Yammi dropping
the pack and rolled, trying to take the weight off of his ankle to relieve the
pain.  He wound up sitting on the ground, facing the back pack and Nunly Cat.
Nunly Cat seemed to be laughing at him. Yammi growled in reply.

  Nunly Cat walked over to the back pack and started batting at the strap
holding it closed. The strap came undone on the second hit, and Nunly
Cat was able to flip open the flap and stick his nose into the pack.

  Yammi watched in fascination as Nunly Cat grabbed something with his
teeth, and started pulling. After a bit of effort, Nunly Cat succeeded in
pulling out a book. Nunly cat pawed at the book, flipping it open, and holding
his face to the pages. With a meow, he batted the book away and started to
paw at the pack again.

  Yammi found it fascinating that Nunly Cat would be trying to read a book,
and the fact that he was particular about what he wanted to read was even
more interesting. After Nunly Can managed to pull out a second book and
discard it, Yammi felt sorry for him and decided to help.

  Yammi walked to the pack and picked it up. Nunly cat pawed at the ground and
mewed. Yammi took the hint and turned the pack upside down and started
dumping out the contents, and dumped, and dumped some more. Nunly Cat watched
intently as the books and other goods came crashing out, while Yammi tried
to figure out where all the stuff was coming from.

  After one large book hit the ground, Nunly Cat mewed and started to
paw at it, and Yammi tried to close up the pack to avoid hitting Nunly Cat
with any other books. One last item slipped out of the pack and hit the
pile of books, causing Nunly Cat to start and back up. Yammi looked down
and saw the last item was a flask. He picked up the flask and set it aside
so that it wouldn't leak and ruin any of the books.

  Nunly Cat looked at the flask, and cautiously walked to it. He batted
at the stopper on the flask several times, but it didn't move, so he
started mewing at Yammi, looking between him and the flask.

  Yammi took the hint, again, and picked up the flask.

  "Nunly Cat, next time you want a drink of water, get it yourself."

Yammi was surprised at the weight of the flask. He twisted the
stopper out, and took a drink, and immediately began coughing and choking
with liquid running out of his nose.

  "What is this?" Yammi roared.

  Nunly Cat answered with a "Meow" and sat licking his lips. Yammi glared
at him and asked "What do you think is so great about this stuff?"

  "What stuff, Chief?" Yammi jumped a foot into the air and spun around to
face Mock before his feet touched down.

"MOCK! What do you think you are doing sneaking around when I'm trying
to think?" Yammi screamed.

  "He's not sneaking, " Goom said as he came around a rock pile. "He was
trying to get to our cave first. He always tries to get there first.
Last week he got there first four times, and the week before..."

  "GOOM, stop talking" Yammi interrupted. "I don't care who gets there
first, where ever there is. You are supposed to be helping Wat-Chee
right now?"

  "Oh, that's all done" Goom says.

  "Yeah" Mock added, "He said we could take a break until his head
stopped hurting, so we came down here. Hey, Nunly Cat wants some of
that stuff to drink."

  Nunly cat had been bumping his head against the flask, but Yammi had
not noticed.

  "Fine, here Nunly Cat, you can choke on this" Yammi said as he poured
some liquid from the flask into a depression in a rock. "Let's see how
you like it."

  Nunly Cat bent down and sniffed the liquid for a moment, then started
lapping up the liquid, and soon started purring. Mock and Goom started
punching each other and laughing, and then walked over to see just what
Nunly Cat was drinking.

  Mock stuck a finger in the liquid pool, and then stuck his finger
in his mouth. "Hey, that tastes good. Better than ours." Mock proclaimed.

  Goom pushed Mock out of the way and stuck his own finger in the
pool so that he could taste it. "Hey it is," he said as he put his
finger into the pool again. Nunly Cat gave a loud hiss, and Goom yanked
his finger out of harm's way.

  Turning to Yammi Goom said "Chief, can we have some of that? Nunly Cat
doesn't want to share."

  Yammi said "I don't blame him. Here, take a drink each." and Goom
grabbed the flash from Yammi's hand almost before the chief stopped talking.
He poured a long drink down his throat and handed the flask to Mock.

  "Oh thats good" he said, and then gave a belch that echoed off of the
rocks. "We need to make that stuff."

  "Yeah." agreed Mock. "Maybe we could just drink this instead."

  "Give me that." Yammi said as he grabbed the flask back. "That belongs
to Nunly Cat, not you. And what is that you are making down here anyway?"

  Mock and Goom looked guilty, and started shuffling their feet.

  "Nothing really" said Mock.

  "Yeah, we just used some old fruit that were laying around no one
wanted to eat." Goom added. "We squeeze them and mix the juices up."

  "And then Muddo told us to try this." Mock added.  "We just pile them up
down here in the sun, and after a while they taste good."

  Mock started laughing "And when you eat enough, it makes you warm all over."

  "Yeah" Goom said, "and when you eat enough you sleep real good."

  "Why did Muddo tell you to do this, anyway?" asked Yammi.

  "I don't know." said Goom. "We were just trying to help her clean her
cave and we brought her some juice and told her to taste it and she said
no but we said it was good and she said no and we said try it and..."

  "Yeah" broke in Mock, "She said she had a headache and told us to try
putting the fruit down here, and it worked real good and.."

  "Enough" proclaimed Yammi. " Just -  go to whatever you were going to do
and leave me in peace. And leave the flask!" Yammi added when he saw Mock
reaching for it.

  Mock and Goom started laughing. Mock punched Goom in the arm and yelled
"Me first" as he ran down the path.

  Goom yelled "No fair!" and ran down the path after him, leaving Yammi
and Nunly cat alone in the quite.

  "Meow!" said Nunly Cat looking in the direction they went.

  "I agree." Yammi said to Nunly Cat.

  Yammi looked down and saw the pool was empty, so he poured more liquid
from the flask in to the pool. Nunly Cat started lapping it up without
hesitation.

  "What is so good about that stuff?" Yammi asked, but Nunly Cat was too
busy striking his nose into it to answer. "Maybe I'll try it again. It
didn't kill Mock or Goom."

  Yammi took a small sip, and was surprised that it tasted much better when
he swallowed it instead of blowing it out his nose. He took as second drink,
and then a third before he recognized what he was drinking.

  "Oh Nunly Cat, I know what you have here. I have had good ale once a long time
before you joined the tribe, and we tried to make some,  but it didn't taste
anywhere as good as this.  If I remember, and you have to make it some how.
I don't suppose you still remember how to do that now that you are a cat?"

  Nunly Cat looked up, and walked over to the pile of books. He reached a paw
out and batted a book. The book flipped up into the air, and just floated.
Yammi's breath caught as he waited for the book to fall. Finally
he could hold his breath no longer, and the let it out with a loud whoosh.
At the sound, Nunly cat gave a soft mew,  and the book slowly floated down.
The book landed with the cover flipped over showing a page with a picture
of a tall flagon on a table, with some foaming liquid coming over the top.

  "Ok," Yammi breathed softly, "Hmmm.. Lets go find someone who might know
something about this, like Muddo.  There can't be much left in this flask,
so we'd better get someone making more now."

  Nunly Cat looked up from the ale in the rock and seemed to smile. When
he went back to lapping up the ale, Yammi placed the book he was holding
along with all of them in the pile, back into the pack, picked up the pack
and the flask, and said "I'll hide the flask for now so there will be some
left. If those two get a hold of it, they will drain it dry."

Yammi looked and Nunly Cat and considered him for a minute. With a smile,
he said "I'll see about Muddo helping us make some more ale. When you get
a chance, come on up."

  Yammi decided it was time to be polite to Nunly Cat. After all, making an
enemy of a mage was not a good idea, even if he was a cat.

!DSPAM:4b1b329f225532612618147!