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Cherri stared down at the thick old fabric at her feet. It had been probably thirty minutes since the Hero Parrot had flown after the person? When he stole her bag. It was a problem for sure. but she couldn’t stop herself thinking about the person who stole it rather than what he? it? they? What do you call a person that shouldn’t exist, did.
Explosions rang throughout the city. signaling another villain attack. She would be more curious about what was happening… but instead she stared at the poorly crafted cloak. She had to tell Apo about this. She picked up the cloak starting to fold it. She would catch the next bus and show it to Apokuna!
Oh… She paused folding looking up at the large trash can. Her bus ticket was in her bag. along with her money… That was going to make getting back to Apo difficult. Well it wasn’t the first time and it wasn’t going to be the last either. She finished folding. On her right something caught her eye. There on the window sill the boy had jumped too was a grocery bag. Something evidently in it. It was the one she had seen the store manager hand to him. A smile crept onto her face.
She still couldn’t reach it. but she had more time now. She reached up jumping in an attempt to reach the ledge. She missed by a mile. If she was able to pull the cloak off it, she could reach a bag sitting on the same ledge.
Cherri copied the the motion she had tried the first time. She crashed landing on her back. It hurt, but that wasn’t going to stop her. She tried again. This time she actually got close. The time after was worse than the first. and then—Her fingers snagged the plastic of the bag ripping it and sending the contents toppling on top of her head. It was food. Normal for a shopping bag she supposed, except these looked homemade, and they smelled incredible. Surely it wouldn’t mind if she kept these right? I mean it had left them behind, she might as well make sure the meals don’t get wasted. Plus it stole her…everything she had on her. So this was more than fair.
She wrapped the food containers in the cloak using it as a sort of make shift container. Now for the long walk home.
Cherri hadn’t known what she expected to see when she stepped outside the alley, but whatever it was, it wasn’t this.
Parrot stood in front of of her and in his hands was her bag. It was a little dirty but nothing in comparison to Parrot himself. The hero looked tired.
“Are you ok?”
Parrot smiled at her. “Yeah, sorry it took so long to get this back. I had to deal with a villain attack. Oh also, you won’t need to worry about him again. Apparently He didn’t mean to grab the bag but panicked that I was chasing him, and so he didn’t return it. Sorry.”
“Oh.”
That made her ‘trade’ feel slightly worse… “How did you get it back?”
Parrot sighed placing the bag on top of the cloak in her hands. “Long story. I need to head back to hero quarters and get checked up, but if you need anything let me know.”
Cherri nodded giving him an awkward thumbs up, while attempting to prevent the bag from slipping out of her hands. Parrot smiled flying into the sky.
Well that made things easy again.
When Cherri Reached the manor house it was sunset. Which was lucky. It was a lot easier to sneak onto the property without the sun giving away her every position. It was already harder with the the increased security, but thats what she gets for getting caught.
Cherri scrambled up over the fence, making sure to be in the security camera’s blind spot. or one of them. Realistically they needed to update these. Once she got on the property she has less to worry about. No one was really paying attention at night. she walked along the side of the manor house, eventually she reached the garden. Apo’s light was still on, good for cherri too climbing the trellis was significantly harder without any light at all.
Cherri took no time at all scaling the wall. With a quick tap on the window she was let inside.
“You told me you would only be an hour miss Cherrifire.” Apo did not look amused. “Do you have any idea how much I worried about you? Not only could you have been caught by my father. But you also could have gotten seriously inured in the villain scuffle today.
“I obviously didn’t get stuck in either of those.” Cherri grinned dropping her stuff on the window seat.
“Evidently, Which is why you should have known to come back sooner so I didn’t think you did!”
Cherri rolled her eyes, pulling off her boots. “Worrier.”
“Obviously Cherrifire! you aren’t exactly the most careful person.”
“and you are?”
Apo glared.
Cherri smirked. “Plus I am plenty careful.”
Apo straightened her night gown sitting on the cushioned chair across from her. “No your not.”
“ya-huh”
“no,”
Cherri’s grin widened “Yes.”
“No your not.”
“Yes I am, I’m the most careful.”
“I’m going to strangle you.”
Cherri laughed.
“Ok but there actually was a reason I was so late, look what I found.”
by the time Cherri finished the story of the day Apo had long forgotten the argument and they had both forgotten about how late it was.
“Ok so let me get this straight you met a boy who was blue, slimey, and he stole your stuff.”
She nodded. ‘And I met the hero Parrot.”
“Right right.” Apo responded offhandedly. walking over to her bookshelf and retrieving one of the books. It was honestly impressive she knew which books were which. She flipped through the pages quickly scanning for something rather than reading it. “That combination doesn’t make sense. There are slime-ish folk, but none of them are blue. The closest person to that description are sea-bunny-folk but they aren’t common around here, not to mention they are white, and even their slimy parts don’t cover everything.”
Cherri nodded. “That what I thought! thats why I was so surprised! Because blue people don’t exist!.”
‘Well actually there are a few people who can be blue avians being the most obvious.”
Cherri rolled her eyes. “Ok yeah, but not like that!”
Apo nodded “True.”
“That means I found a person that doesn’t exist. like your fantasy book.”
Apo laughed “Thats not the name, and it’s a horror mystery romance series not fantasy, but yes. If what you saw was real then you found a person that shouldn’t exist.”
Cherri clasped her hands together. “I know I found him, because I have his cloak.” she pulled out the cloak carefully unfolding it, setting the food containers to the side as she did so. “He wore this.”
“huh.” Apo looked over the fabric and then up at Cherri. “I think you may have found a cryptid.”
Cherri beamed. “And I’m gonna find him again! and I think I may have a lead. He got these,” She motion to the food containers. “from on of the market store owners. So at least one other person has seen him.”
Apo smiled back at cherri. “You’ll have to keep me updated.”
“Yes Ma’am! Night night Apokuna!” and with that Cherri climbed back out the window.