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With that, they set off.

Lawrence extended a hand to Holo as she approached the wagon.

She gave him an innocent smile and took his hand.

"I give my thanks."

Lawrence sighed, "It is the least I can do to show my gratitude over you not drinking my wallet dry!"

Holo dug her index and middle fingers into the merchant's side, twisting them angrily.

"Ow! Holo! I'm sorry!" Lawrence plead to the beautiful deity of bountiful harvest.

Holo huffed and pointed her nose to the radiant blue sky, not looking unlike a pampered daughter of a wealthy noble.

"'Tis untrue of you to assume that this wisewolf," she touched a hand gracefully to her chest, with a piercing gaze aimed at Lawrence, "does not earn her wine." she huffed indignantly. She turned then extended her arm and pointed squarely at Lawrence.

"Yes, I earn all my wine.I would not be so petty, it hurts me to think that you view me in such a way." She gave one last twist to Lawrence before retracting her fingers from his side.

Lawrence blinked and the wolfgirl was gone.

"You must remember," he felt a tail brush up against him on his left side, then he felt the warm breath of a girl on his right. She was extraordinarily graceful. "I'm not one of the girls from the town."

"Alright, you win. I give up." Lawrence gave in, and snapped the reins on his chestnut colored horse.

The girl plopped down in the driver's seat next to him with an, "Oomf!"

"Ah, so quick to give up I see? Maybe not all males are as dumb as I think." she trailed off, staring at him, leaning towards him teasingly, looking more like a wolf than a teenage girl.

Lawrence reddened and glanced at the pitiful display out of the corner of his eyes. He said nothing and focused on driving the cart forward.

Holo huffed, "Oh, you really are no fun." after trying for several more minutes to bait the seasoned merchant. She dove under the tarp that laid over the wagon portion of their cart, her tail protruding from the thick, durable fabric.

Immediately he heard a sneeze and saw Holo's monotonously groomed tail puff out.

"Not in the cargo Holo. Please, don't ruin this for everybody. You do realize this is going to be paying for our room and board right?"

He watched as she backed up out of the tarp with one arm, wriggling her backside furiously trying to get out from the tarp.

Lawrence sighed at this childish, but admittedly charming, performance and reached behind him to lift up the tarp.

"Oh, thank you." Came Holo's muffled voice.

She sat her butt down on the seat and then proceeded to turn the rest of her body, including the arm she used to capture her sneeze.

"Do not worry," she sniffled, rubbing her nose with her arm and finally lowering it, after inspecting the dirtied sleeve. "Your precious cargo was not harmed." The wisewolf assured him, picking salt crystals from the minute grooves in her hand.

Lawrence looked at her with an expressionless face. "I wasn't asking about my precious cargo, I know it wasn't harmed. I was asking about the salt."

Holo shot back, "I do not very much like repeating myself, I just tol-" she finally realized what he meant.

A blush crept over both of their childish faces.

"Bless you, Holo." Lawrence said sincerely, taking his eyes from his traveling partner and back to the road.

"Thank you." Holo sat straight, staring out in front of her, still not all the way over what just had happened.

Nothing changed as they sat in silence for a couple minutes more, letting instead the songs of birds, whispers from the trees, and percussive, dull thud of the cart-horse's hooves on the dirt path be the soundtrack of their travels.

Lawrence felt then, a pressure on his left shoulder. Upon looking, he found Holo's uncovered head leaning upon him.

"Hang in there Holo, we're almost at the town. Give us a couple more hours and we can stop at the inn and rest for the night." Lawrence put one hand around the resting girl's waist as she adjusted her body, wriggling to get comfortable on the wooden seat.

Lawrence asked her, "What would you like to eat for dinner?"

She did not open her eyes, but she did respond with a bit more life than Lawrence was expecting from her. "You're asking me?"

Lawrence brought a hand down to her face, clearing a few strands of her long brown hair from her eyes. "Mmhmm. Within reason, of course." Lawrence said the last part with no ill-intent and was simply trying to get an answer."

"Hmm..." Holo thought, cuddling into Lawrence's shoulder even more, curling her tail so it sat in both of their laps. "I can not think of anything right now." the wisewolf said honestly, yawning. "May I think about it as we travel?"

"Like I said, you have a couple of hours to think about it; take your time."

Lawrence set a hand on Holo's tail, gently, causing it to tense up. "You are foolish." The corners of Holo's mouth curled in a vague smile, but she did nothing to move his hands and gradually it became relaxed again.

Holo made a quiet moan, which told Lawrence that she would indeed think about what she would like to eat, and that she was going to sleep.

Holo flicked her tail idly, sprawled out like a starfish across the bed, staring at the ceiling. Two freshly empty bowls lay on the nightstand, both belonging to Holo. "Thank you Lawrence, the soup was very good; the meat, tender."

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's the least I could do, and it has been getting colder recently, so, I thought we could use something warm."

"And I'm assuming that that's the same reason why you allowed us to be put into a room with only a single bet?" Holo turned her face toward Lawrence, without changing her sprawled out position.

The man who sat across the room from her at a wooden desk blushed hard and tried to disguise his embarrassment by sucking on his spoon. "No, vhat izh not zhe cashe." Lawrence swallowed, a look of displeasure on his face. "No, Holo, you know as well as I do that the rates for this place were higher than expected. And the fireplace was extra, not to mention your little treat that I bought for you. These things add up, you know."

Holo grunted, well at any rate, thank you. Those honey-peach preserves were simply delectable," he saw her lick her lips as she relived the experience of eating them. And the po-tate-oes were much more enjoyable in their smaller, more manageable size. So, I applaud your effort on trying to make me feel comfortable before you try and bed me tonight."

Lawrence growled angrily as Holo made her last comment, although found no words to express his displeasure with her unfair teasing.

"Oh, he's getting mad." Holo's signature manipulative laugh sounded through the room, only adding to Lawrence's frustration.

"Although, if it really was your wish to have me tonight, I would not st-"

Lawrence threw a coin at Holo to shut her up.

It missed, but landed by her side.

"Hm..." Holo studied the coin, flipping it several times, inspecting it in the brightly-lit candled room.

"Fake-Trenni-Silver coin." she finally announced.

"Good, I'm glad you're learni-"

This time, it was Holo who cut Lawrence off.

"So, you throw money at the girl that you intend to sleep with. I daresay, that coin won't even get you a second with a STRAND of my tail."

"Jesus, Holo. Could you stop. Please." Lawrence begged, not wanting to call any more attention to the fact that, due to his poor planning, they must share a bed.

Dissatisfaction dripped from her monotone voice, "Okay fine, you win." She plopped her head back down dramatically, her neck aching from staring up at him without sitting up.

SWISH, SWISH. Lawrence could tell, Holo was still feeling playful.

"Why again is it that we do not have blankets on the wagon," Holo inquired of Lawrence, staring again at the ceiling, hands on her belly, fiddling with the coin that was thrown at her.

"Well," Lawrence began, standing up and walking over to the bed, sitting at the end, "It would be ill-advised to pick up blankets and put them in your cart if you are carrying such fine materials as salt or sugar. For many reasons. A few being, it is nearly impossible to shake every little grain from the little nooks and crannies that they like to engrain themselves in, it may, in our case with the salt, leave an unpleasant aroma on the blankets due to residual grains floating around, thus, causing little princesses like you to sneeze, and because they can attract insects. Placing them outside of the tarp would invite insects regardless, so storing them inside is a must, unless, like I mentioned, you are carrying cargo like I am."

Holo wore a sour face after he mentioned the part about sneezing.

"Well, why exactly is the salt so important? It is not as though I do not wish for you to prosper, Lawrence. It's been just been quite troublesome for what it actually is. It smells much too strongly and tickles my nose." Holo was a little bit irked.

"Well, you see, salt comes from the sea, so on the coastal regions, salt is abundant and pretty much worthless. But, the further away you get from a saltwater source, further inland-"

"In other words." Holo interrupted him, "because the people more central to this land do not have the luxury of producing salt, they will pay much higher prices for any amount they receive. Holo finished Lawrence's lecture, now sitting up on her legs. Her tail swished back and forth across her soft-looking feet.

"Ugh... yeah." Lawrence pushed his fashionably-silver hair back with his hand, obvious defeat shown on his face. "Why would you ask if you already knew the answer?" The young man stared at the floor, amazed.

"Do not be sad, Lawrence. It is rather simple actually." Holo wrapped herself around Lawrence playfully.

"Yeah, I suppose it was for you."

Lawrence fell back onto the bed, arms outstretched, legs hanging off the edge.

"Don't worry though Holo, I will sell the salt tomorrow, and we can buy enough blankets to last us through the winter. Your tail has been a nice impromptu blanket on our journey so far, though, thank you."

Holo laid down beside the merchant, on her side, holding her head up with her hand. "Well, you'd better wean yourself from it, because it's presence shall no longer be your luxury. Especially as seeing as how you value me at a measly one fake-lute-silver.

"Holo..." Lawrence scolded the childish girl.

"It is so easy to get a rise out of you, Lawrence. You have a bit of a temper." she laughed at him playfully.

"I do not have a temper." Lawrence said flatly, looking to the girl who laid next to him.

Four feet, two feet and two shoes, to be exact, and one tail hung of the side of the bed.

"Oh? I bet you had a right temper when you were negotiating with Milone Trading to get me back those many moons ago from the Medio Trading Company. Or how about when that womanizer of a man... what was his name? Oh right, that friend of yours, Weis. Yes, when he was holding my hand I saw you contemplating murder!" Holo was right, as usual.

Lawrence had no response and proceeded to get up and blow out the candles.

Upon returning to the bed, Lawrence found a pile, as always, of Holo's clothes that she somehow managed to change out of while his back was turned, blowing out the candles.

He took them up and folded them neatly, placing the warm bag of wheat, in which she dwelled, on top.

He then undressed and folded his clothes, setting them beside Holo's.

"Scoot over," he said, as he nearly sat on Holo as he got into bed.

The lump moved, her tail acting as a divider between their bodies. "And now the fun begins."

"I don't have to get blankets tomorrow." Lawrence threatened, flatly.

The swishing of her tail died, "You are truly no fun."

Holo faced Lawrence as they laid together on the same bed. "If you hug my tail while you sleep, be glad if you even wake up in the morning."