“So where do you live?” Dodger asked Donny once they got back in the city.
“Oh, come on. I’ll show you!” Donny said and they went clockwise northward from the gate till they came to an otherwise unremarkable building.
“We live on the third floor. There’s stairs just inside.”
Dodger looked around, sure that she recognized the area. “Wow! This is just a block from where I’m staying. You know Luther Broad’s place?”
Donny nodded, “Sure! It’s right down there around the corner. How long are you in town for?”
Oh, probably about a week I guess. Kinda hard to know for sure.“
Kitty’s stomach growled and she looked up apologetically. “Sorry,” she said.
“Hey, why don’t we go to Luther’s?” Dodger suggested, an inspiration striking her. “I won’t have to pay there, or at least not much. We’ve got a tab. And then we can buy Kitty some food for the rest of the week.”
“Dodger, you don’t have to do that. I’ve already eaten more than I usually do in days.”
“Tell that to your stomach. Besides, I saw you when you were wet. You could use some more meat on those bones,” Dodger replied.
“Not really, that’s pretty much how all Khajiits look when they’re wet,” Kitty explained. “We’re not as big as we look usually. At least, not my kind of Khajiit.”
“Well I’m going to anyway. Let’s go,” Dodger declared, deciding for the others, but they followed along gratefully.
Dodger stopped by the room, but it was still locked and no one answered the door so she figured Yellow-Eyes must still be out. Instead they went back to the common room where Luther got them a table in the back away from all the other patrons.
“Sorry guys, no menu here. You get what Luther brings you.”
“You know what they say, beggars can’t be choosers.” Kitty said with a little smile while they waited for Luther to come back with their food.
“This place is nice,” Donny said while looking around. “Not all prissy like the King and Queen and not as crappy as the Bloated Float. So, where do you live Kitty?”
“Pretty much anywhere I can stay without someone noticing me. Right now me and another couple of guys are staying at an empty house out by the lighthouse. But I just go there to sleep really. Mostly I hang around the city.”
While the stew Luther came back with was certainly no high cuisine, it was filling and he didn’t ask for any money even for the other two. After they’d finished, Donny came back from the restroom with an odd look on his face.
“What is it Donny? Are you alright?”
“Fine!” he snickered. “Let’s get out of here though.”
Kitty looked at Dodger who looked back at her with a shrug, and they left the inn.
“Ever been on top of the wall? I know a way up there. It’s a great view!”
“Donny,” Dodger said with a frown, “we just got out of prison. I don’t think they’d want us up there.”
“No, really, I know a place the guards don’t go. Come on!” Donny insisted, and led them back the way they’d come. But as they entered the next district, Kitty protested.
“Can we go around this area. There’s some people here I don’t like.”
Donny thought for a minute. “Sure. We’ll go towards the tower, then come back out on the other side.”
Kitty explained without prompting. “Just some girls I got into a fight with a while ago. But they’re pretty mean.”
Donny nodded. “I think I know who they are. Real bitches, but one of their dads is some high up guy in the Council, so they get away with anything. You’re right to stay clear of them.”
“Did they do that to you?” Dodger asked, indicating her ear.
Kitty nodded. “They called it ‘notching’. Said all animals need to be tagged. It hurt. A lot.”
“You’re lucky it didn’t get infected, Kitty!” Dodger said, examining the scar under her eye closer. “Donny, isn’t there anybody that could do something about them?”
Donny shook his head. “Not them. Sometimes it’s better to just avoid trouble. Sorry you had to run into them though Kitty.”
“Me too,” Kitty agreed.
Eventually they came to a section of the wall where a tall tree grew next to it. Though it was dangerous, Donny showed them how to crawl out on a big branch, then drop down onto the walkway of the wall when the guards were gone.
“Now, check THIS out!” Donny said, and hopped atop one of the openings in the crenelated wall and stepped out onto a little platform on the other side.
“Whoa,” Kitty and Dodger said together.
The platform apparently had been built for a statue that was long gone, but it made for a beautiful view of the landscape outside the city. The sun was just low enough now that the clouds were lit from below while the rolling hills and woods nearby gave way to mountains in the distance that were red with the color of the setting sun. The first stars were just beginning to show and they all sat with their backs to the wall, taking in the spectacle before them.
Dodger felt something cold and hard against her elbow. When she looked, Donny was grinning from ear to ear, a square-ish glass bottle in his hand that he was tapping her with to get her attention.
“Donny! What’s that?”
“Some hooch! Nabbed it from behind the bar at Luther’s!”
“Hooch?”
“Hell, I don’t know what it is. I just grabbed it. Want some?”
“Gimme that,” Kitty laughed and snatched the bottle from Donny’s hand. She opened the top, sniffed it a second, then took a long pull.
Her eyes bulged for a second as she handed it to Dodger.
“Wow,” she said between coughs. “That’s strong stuff!”
“Oh, you’re just a lightweight,” Dodger bragged, “We Argonians can take twice what Humans and Khajiits can take!”
When finally she stopped sputtering after her drink and handed the bottle to Donny, she concluded, “…or so they say.”
Donny took a drink every bit as much as the other two, and handed it back with no obvious reaction.
“What can I say? I have a lot of practice. It’s Whiskey. By the taste, it must be some good shit too.”
“Whiskey,” Dodger said, forming her tongue around the unfamiliar word. “What’s that made out of?”
“Wheat, rye, barley… who knows? I just know what it tastes like. And this is some primo stuff.”
Kitty crawled out on her belly to look over the ledge. “Damn it’s a long way down. You know, if we get drunk up here, someone’s going to fall and kill themselves probably.”
Dodger took up position beside her. “Wow. It is a long way. How about we just barf over the edge when we get too drunk instead?”
Donny was last and literally crawled on top of the other two, forcing them to slide to the sides a little to make room. He conjured up a rather impressive ball of spit and let it drop. A breeze grabbed it as they watched it fall, hitting a bush below.
“Oh no. See that man and woman walking this way?” Dodger pointed out.
“Those two?” Kitty asked, pointing at a couple that were walking on the path below, towards underneath them.
“Lovers for sure,” Donny speculated.
“Think I can hit them?” Dodger asked with a mischievous grin stealing over her face.
“Never!” said Kitty.
“No way,” said Donny.
The two were strolling slowly along below while Dodger estimated the distance, trajectory and wind speed before producing her own spitball, taking one last look, and letting fly in a strong outward trajectory. Then all three watched the speeding wad of lizard spit shrink with distance. It hit the lady square on her head and the three instantly retreated out of sight to the safety of the wall, snorting mirth in their every aspect.
“oh my god!” Kitty squeaked out in a whisper.
“what are they doing?” Dodger giggled to Donny.
“I’m not going to look!” he whispered back.
The sun set as the three continued to drink like drunken gargoyles against the darkening sky as the stars came out.
“I need to piss,” Donny confessed.
The other two looked at the edge of the platform.
“No, I’m not going to piss over the edge!” Donny laughed. “Let’s get down.”
Though it was a challenge, all three made it back to the walkway atop the wall without falling.
“So… how do we get back up to that branch?” Dodger said, looking up the way they’d come.
“We don’t. We’re escorted down by the Imperial City’s finest.”
As if on cue, a voice shouted “HALT!”
Donny stepped towards the voice.
“Oh, it’s just you. Come on, time to get down,” said a female guard’s voice as she came into view.
“I brought some friends to enjoy the view,” he said without slurring his words at all. Dodger was impressed.
“Well bring them along too. And stop doing this. You could get in real trouble. I saw your dad looking for you earlier Donny. You’d better get home.”
“Was he drunk?” Donny asked
“I don’t think so.”
The three climbed down through the guard station, which was thankfully empty, with Donny’s guard-friend ushering them along.
“I guess I’d better get going,” Donny said with a sigh.
Dodger looked at the night sky above. “Yeah. Me too.”
“I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” Kitty offered. “I’m not heading back for a while anyway.”
They ended up walking hand in hand with Kitty in the middle till they were standing in front of Donny’s building.
“Thanks guys,” Donny said, “I don’t suppose you’d like to get together again tomorrow?”
“Sure!” Kitty said enthusiastically. “I got nothing better to do.”
Dodger shook her head. “I think I’m going to be busy. Sorry.”
“Well, we’ll miss you. But drop by sometime if you can Dodger,” Donny said before giving them both a hug and heading inside.
Kitty and Dodger walked the block-and-a-half back to Luther’s hand in hand.
“Kitty,” Dodger said, digging into her pants where she kept her coins. “Here, have this.”
The coins sparkled in the eyes of the vagrant cat as much as in her paws. “Dodger… I don’t know what to say. Thanks!”
“No problem, Kitty. I don’t need it as much as you do. Spend it wisely.”
Kitty’s face turned dark. “You know, if I wasn’t a bum, I’d refuse it. That’s what they do in the books I read.”
Dodger took Kitty’s shoulders in both hands. “But you are a bum. For now. But only for now. Only people who WANT to be bums stay that way.”
Dodger hugged Kitty fiercely. “Take care of yourself Kitty. I don’t know if I’ll be around much more, but if I don’t see you again, say goodbye to Donny for me, okay?”
“I will. He’s fun, isn’t he?”
“You’re both fun. Goodnight Kitty.”
“Goodnight Dodger,” Kitty said as Dodger turned to step into the inn.
“Dodger?” Kitty said and Dodger turned back to her.
“Mmm?”
“Today’s been really special to me,” Kitty said stepping up to the Argonian.
“Me too, Kitty. Very special,” Dodger said, taking Kitty’s paws. They felt warm and soft and furry.
“I won’t forget you, Dodger,” Kitty said and kissed Dodger’s cheek, tickling her with her whiskers. Dodger’s hand went to the spot reflexively, but when she looked back, the cat was walking away quickly, her tail twitching in embarassment.
“What a sad cat,” Dodger said to herself, then turned back to go inside.
Once inside, she found Yellow-Eyes waiting for her, but once he’d let her in, she went straight to the window and looked out at an angle to see if she could see the street out front. But she couldn’t.
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