Smugglers and Dungeons!

Icarus laid down; his body being riddled with leaves.

 They had told the guards that they wanted to do something nice for the town, so they had volunteered to sweep the streets.

No one noticed when the two insane kids, as more than one passerby whispered behind their backs, stuffed their pockets with leaves.

"Hey! No napping," Basila nudged him. Icarus opened his eyes and glared at her. "I mean… come on. Give me some tips, please. How do I do this? Leaves shouldn't stick to you so easily."

Icarus sighed.

 Basila had not agreed to break the contract, but she wasn't ordering him around anymore, either.

He supposed that one more sword, or knife, as the case was, was better than him and Master Tang going alone.

"Just breathe and try to calm down," that was the wrong thing to say, but Icarus didn't care. She never did what he told her to, anyway.

Why bother?

"You're angry at me," Basila said, her eyes glistening.

"You're angry at yourself," but Icarus could be stubborn when he wanted to.

"I used to have 1,000 dresses," Basila said, as she laid down next to her Champion. "They were a gift for my first birthday. From my relatives, from all of the people living on our lands, from foreign nobles. Can you imagine? I had warehouses just for my dresses!" she sighed, closing her eyes. "Now I have none."

Icarus snorted. Oh, that little princess…

"And I used to eat three meals a day, no mold on them, no fingernails, no hair…"

"Yes, you had it good," Icarus said, as he used his mana to send a leaf flying at her.

He let it stick to her nose. Hoping she'd think that she was the one who had done that feat and leave him alone.

She blinked, then touched the leaf.

The bracelet around her wrist, the same one which had let her chop firewood faster than he, glowed.

"Oh, so that's how you do it!" She pumped her fist in the air, and soon there were leaves forming a dress around her shabby boy's clothing.

The girl jumped up and began to twirl. Laughing all the while.

Icarus pouted.

He was mad at her. He didn't want to be reminded that she was the way she was just because she had lost much.

He had lost much, too, but he wasn't taking it out on others.

"Come on! Make a suit!" Basila urged.

Icarus snorted.

As if!

"Or armor! Horselord armor! I will be the elven princess, and you will be the barbarian who protects the Pearl of the World from the People of the Desert!"

Icarus blinked. Wait… was Basila that kind of elf?

"Will you pay me a tax, then?" He teased her. For all that the horselords and the elves had a bloody history, the humans from the desert made them join in arms pretty quickly.

After all, that strange mix of human and horselord was out to get them both. The enemy of my enemy and all that, Icarus supposed.

Not that it mattered anymore.

Basila chuckled. Some of that teasing confidence she had shown under the shade of the tailor's shop, back when she tricked him into the contract, coming back to her.

Icarus didn't blame her. He had walked into that one.

"Yes! My tax is a dance!"

Icarus snorted once more, but did use the leaves to make something that looked like armor. As best as he could. He could not use the leaves to become something that should look like leather.

"That sounds so, as if I am the one paying the tax," still, he felt the need to protest. To show Basila just how she had behaved.

Basila placed a finger under her chin, hummed, and then began to sway in place.

Now that she was clean, and her hair was tied in a girly fashion, Icarus supposed that she was pretty.

And the leaves she had fashioned into a dress did make her look almost… delicate.

Icarus shook his head.

Nope, this was Basila. She was one of the boys.

"Think about it, Icarus!" Basila said, as she made a step towards him.

A leaf fell off her dress.

For a second, the girl looked determined. She stared at the leaf.

It flew back to its place.

Icarus' eyes widened!

"A training exercise! We can use this to fight! Basila, you are a genius!" Of course, he had misunderstood what the elven girl wanted out of him, obvious drake that he was.

But as he placed his arms around Basila and began to lead her into a stomping horselord dance, leaves flying everywhere, he supposed that he might need her help still.

And her giggling was pleasant to listen to, he supposed.

0000

Master Tang looked at the mess in his living room. Green and yellow leaves had redecorated his carpet to the point of beyond recognition.

"Hey! You will be cleaning this mess!" He yelled, only to be ignored.

Icarus was reading out loud again, and the kids were… using mana to weave spiderwebs!

"Huh?" Master Tang had never seen such a thing.

Then he saw his shirt, his only white one, on the floor. Slowly being unraveled.

He took off his sandal, aimed, and threw.

His aim was true.

"Listen here, you brats!" He was famous for the ability to use sandals like a chakram. Both kids were rubbing their heads, looking confused. "New rule: pick up after yourselves and don't ruin Master Tang's clothes!"

Basila was on her feet the next second. Master Tang thought that the girl was going to yell at him.

He was already preparing his second sandal.

He did not have the patience of a saint. Basila had it coming.

"Teach me!" She was waving the sandal Master Tang had used against her and Icarus like a weapon.

"How to throw sandals?" Master Tang was confused. Did he feed the two poisoned rats?

"No!" The elf said, as Icarus jumped to his feet as well. "How to throw daggers!"

Master Tang smiled.

"You don't need that," he said, as he took out two frisbees. "Daggers are outlawed."

He felt ready as neither protested.

"And you are smugglers," he proclaimed, throwing the frisbee at them.

"Ouch! Thank you, Master Tang!" Icarus yelled.

"Old man, darn it!" Basila snarled.

Their heads caught them for them, but as soon as they were done whining, it was training time!