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Save Point: Resource Gathering Phase

Uruk City Outer Walls

While Cleo is out and about on her mysterious errand, Terrowne has taken the riding cat out to the markets beyond the walls, wherein all manner of goods are lain out on widely spaced trestle tables. This is quite handy because circling a huge riding cat takes quite a lot of turning space and a decisive presence, and it is far more convenient to purchase directly from saddleback.

Grunter takes quite a lot of feeding, even though it's far less than you'd proportionally expect due to the same augmentations that give Cleo her own unique physiology. It's easy to forget that Cleo weighs just short of two hundred kilograms, given the way she uses her strength to offset her own forceful gravity, and she should be a challenge for most modes of four-legged transportation, but Grunter can sprint with both of them aboard and doesn't seem to find it particularly hard.

Fortunately Grunter just loves the bits nobody else wants, in short offal and off-cuts in impressive quantities, the subsequent snarfing down of which with minimal chewing could disturb a weaker stomach. He is perfectly happy to eat things that resemble the aftermath of a small pony getting hit by a rocket propelled grenade. They are in fact enormously good for him, loaded with taurine and other healthy substances essential to a maintaining a shiny coat on a giant lovable monster-cat that could bite your head clean off.

Sometimes when they find especially interesting or impressive bits, he wraps them up, puts them in a saddlebag and takes them home to Cleo, who also likes to mix up her diet with an assortment of things unsuitable for human dentition yet delicious to more feline tastes. She's become fond of making braised hearts, with the leathery muscles sitting in the center of the pot, surrounded by a thin and watery stew containing more mundane meats that gradually simmers down over a slow fire, with occasional interruption to ladle it over the hearts to keep them moist. He has the stew and she tears into the hearts, hooking them open with her canines to rip them into manageable segments and then chow them down.

Today is kind of cold, at least compared to what you'd expect for someplace this close to the main equator, but it's still morning and events near Azatlan are starting to impact the wider ecosystem, causing unexpected and highly contingent conditions. It'll warm up later but in this early hour the subtle effects can be seen, during the transition from dawn to day. The flies have not been swayed by the weather at all and are buzzing about eagerly despite the desultory efforts of stall-keepers to keep away the worst of the swarms.

One of the more useful accessories that came with the riding cat is a sort of saddle-blanket, light but padded, which is handy because you can drape it over your lap and flick it back to the sides like a caparison. It's good for keeping warm and helps to shrug off an incessant rain, in fact it was invaluable when crossing the mountains, and it has a machine-embroidered pattern on it in metal thread, mostly designed to look like bronze-gold. The pattern depicts an endless tessellated sea of alternately leftward and rightward-facing feline creatures that might be lions or tigers, each made of woven curlicued lines like ribbons, fraying off toward the edges.

Which is a nice touch, but makes it almost irresistible to thieves. It practically demands a snatch and grab, so if you go out wearing it in a 'civilized' area you have to keep a very close eye on it at all times. Even the manufacturer appears to have considered this and has included a set of straps designed to fasten it to the saddle-grip and other points of attachment to prevent casual lifting, although this could conceivably just be for covering and securing large loads.

Terrowne pulls the blanket more firmly around and underneath himself, on the basis that sitting on it will probably increase the challenge to passers-by, and concludes negotiations for another big bucket of inedible scraps. Reactions to Grunter are mixed, from men who are terrified and try to stick to the other side of the street, to fascinated young ladies who pet him and scratch his ears and are dismayed by his breath. Merchants of fragile objects cry out '....watch the tail!" as Grunter slides effortlessly past and around corners and through narrow spaces he shouldn't really be able to fit, then endangers premium ceramics by wheeling about in large open areas that would seem perfectly safe. Every once in a while he does something that a mere riding-animal shouldn't really be able to do, like put both paws up on one of the trestle-boards and inspect the merchandise, or crouch low to traverse under large loads being carried on poles over peoples shoulders.

Some of the more ambitious thieves, thwarted of the tempting possibility of the saddle-blanket, are probably thinking right now about how they could actually steal Grunter himself. The smarter ones will most probably decide to let it go after they realize that this would simply be providing him with free food if they make even the smallest mistake. Ending up as dinner would be a rather undignified fate for an up-and-coming mastermind of crime, not to mention entirely against their admittedly somewhat limited principles.

~*~

"You all right there? That can't be very comfortable," Terrowne notes solicitously.

Cleo slinks her hips, but not uncomfortably. It seems the movement penalty is minimal.

"I think it's really quite brave. I mean, I'd definitely have second thoughts about putting a firearm there, even with the safety firmly on."

"These are moments that I train for," Cleo rejoins in a tone that makes it very hard to tell if she's telling truth, maliciously enthused by the possibility of violence, or just irritated by the reminder mention. "If anyone bitches, I'll simply snarl and say that it's my time of the month and do they have a problem with that?"

She curls a lip aggressively and fingers her sword-hilt in a way that persuasively deflects further imposition, then suddenly smiles and seems to melt. "Don't worry, I have it covered. A couple of loops of cheap bandage around the hips to keep the gun up close, and a thick wad of additional padding around the grip to smooth the outline. I went all out, you know. I considered cutting my arm and bleeding a little on it to make it more convincing, but the sethura seem to have a pretty good sense of smell, so I used my own superior senses to wander down into the city, sniff out a girl on her time and steal some 'used materials' that were still good and fresh and wet."

"Which is not disturbing at all."

"I left her a couple of those tiny copper coils. So she can buy something a little bit better than the cheap 'boil-em-clean' ones next time."

"Remind me to give you a good soaping afterwards."

"You just want to use that bathtub again."

"I definitely want to use that bathtub again."