Page 10 of Hell-Bound

She felt a tug on her tunic.

“Wait, miss!” It was the Gnome, only about waist-high to her now. “You have to take your earnings!”

He shoved the hat towards her enthusiastically.

She looked at the hat.

“But…it’s your hat, and you’ve been playing all night.”

He looked a little embarrassed and scratched the back of his neck.

“Yeah. But eh, I just play at a local bar, you know? How much can you expect from a bard who plays at a doorless bar? And besides, those belong to you. It would be ungentlemanly if I took money from such a talented lady.”

He looked bashfully down at his feet.

She smiled small at the male.

“Thank you.”

“Say, where’d you learn to toot like that?” he asked, seeming genuinely interested.

“I...uh, you know here and there.”

He eyed her suspiciously. Something she said hadn’t convinced him, and she didn’t know how to escape from yet another uncomfortable conversation.

“Well, thank you so much for letting me use the stage,” she said, backing away, trying to put a smile on as a mask. “I’ll be seeing you.”

She headed quickly for the doorway, hearing the jingling of coins in her bag. She immediately thought of Benji and wondered if he had found the best cake in Ataria. If not, she knew exactly what she would do next.

Benji was ecstatic when Renata arrived to give him half her earnings. He refused at first, “Look, Ren, I ain’t no charity case. I get my earnin’s fair and square!”

“Okay then, how about this? We play cards and you can win it off me. Fair and square?” she offered, trying to hide her smile,

His eyes lit up.

“Yeah. yeah! I could do that.”

They settled in, using an abandoned crate as an impromptu table.

It wasn’t the fairest game. Benji was obviously cheating, and Renata couldn’t remember the rules, but it was a silent agreement to save egos.

She spent the rest of the day with Benji, learning to play and enjoying how the hard cardboard felt against her hands, perhaps an echo of familiarity there. Benji also insisted that she perform a lively sea shanty.

“It goes like this…dun dun dooooh deeldl dee dee…”

“Um. Like this?”

She tried to match his cadence as best she could but, judging by his expression, failed miserably.

He grimaced.

“Yeah, ugh…that’s about it.”

Unsuccessful in an attempt to also not wound her pride. But she didn’t mind.

“Benji?” she asked as she watched him shuffle the cards with skilled hands. “How did you first begin working on ships?”

Renata was surprised that Benji stopped shuffling and puffed out his chest.