A Quest for the Stars

16th of Cobre, 6:27 am, 1659 (169 days before Starflower's trial)

It was too early to deal with buffoonery.

Constable Richards had been summoned by his subordinates to check out the front gate. He was not a morning person and everyone knew that, so he knew it must have been a real emergency if whatever this was couldn't wait until later in the morning.

Chugging his mug of espresso and scarfing down a round pastry, he drove his steam vehicle to the front gate. What he saw there shocked him.

Two giants - cave giants, if the Constable remembered correctly -- were dancing in a circle. One had their hands behind the other, while the other giant had a slightly smaller one carried under their arm.

The sight itself was surreal enough to keep all other policemen present standing around in awe. It was only when the Constable cleared his throat that they finally turned to look at him. "Oh, Constable Richards, s-sir," said a sheepish young man.

"Give me that damn report, rookie," the Constable demanded. "What is going on here?"

"Oh, um..." The rookie reached for his clipboard. "L-let's see. The giants appeared at dawn, sir. They have been dancing in place ever since."

"That's it? Any probable causes?"

"Magic is usually the case for something as unusual as this," another officer said. "An enchantment, perhaps?"

"What kind of hare-brained idiot hatched the idea to enchant these giants and send them our way?" The Constable left the safety of his vehicle, grabbed his baton, and closed the door behind him. His subordinates looked on as he stepped in the middle of the circle the giants had made with the constant walking.

"Sir! Sir! It's too dangerous," said the rookie.

Ignoring the warnings from his rookie, the Constable shouted at the giants. They had to answer to him, now. "Alright, alright! Break it up! Party's over! What are you three doing here?"

The two dancing giants ignored the Constable, and a closer look at the third revealed she was asleep amidst the chaos.

"I said break it up!" Three bludgeoning strikes were all it took to snap the two giants out of their daze and rouse the third from her nap.

The three giants, now fully awake, looked at each other in confusion before turning their gaze to the walls of Helix City. The exit from the forest opened up to a grassy plain spreading a good half mile before reaching the city, safeguarded by a stone wall measuring about 100 feet in height.

And they couldn't help but notice the morsels in blue before them, and an orange one right in their midst.

The female giant smacked her lips. "Are you boys finally done dancing? Looks like that group led us right into a feast."

The two males flanked Constable Richards, while the female stood in front of him. They made sure to block all potential escape routes.

"Constable," shouted the rookie. He aimed his pistol at them, but one of the other officers clasped the barrel of the pistol and pushed it down. "Anderson, what are you doing?"

"You'll be wasting ammo," the officer said.

Looking at the giants listlessly, the Constable decided now was a good time to grab a cigar and light it up. Putting away the lighter, he grabbed his baton with one hand and held the cigar with the other.

Then, he took a smoke.

"This is a bad time to be here today, little man! We're going to eat you now! And there's nothing you can do about it!"

***

7:50 am

The three giants, bruised and battered, were hauled away to a special cell designed for them. Adjacent to the main jail building was another shaped like a cube. The inside was big enough to contain bigger criminals, such as trolls and ogres. Measuring 30 feet in height and about 50 in length and width, the building provided enough room to stretch their legs.

"You can't do this to us," screamed the female giant.

"Our Ma and Pa will come save us," warned a balding male giant, "you'll see!"

"I hope they do," said Constable Richards. "But like everyone else, they have to follow proper procedure in order to see you. Be thankful your only crime is assaulting an officer; if you pressed your luck any further, you'd be in here longer."

The giants yelled and snarled as the Constable closed the cell door. He locked the door and pocketed the keys and made his way outside. On his way out, he walked past the other cells. Like beasts in a cage, they all watched carefully as he walked past them; each individual, ranging from 8 to 12 feet in height, had all been arrested by the Constable himself. They all underestimated him based on his size, and they all paid dearly with broken shins or ankles.

The majority of them were ogres. Nasty creatures measuring about 8-10 feet in height, they possessed brute strength, greasy hair, foul stench, and a savage mindset that is surprisingly cunning when coming up with ways to make the smaller folk miserable. While ogre society has evolved as a whole somewhat, some even integrating themselves into society, a big minority were happy with their lot in the wilderness and often captured their victims and played cruel games with them before finally devouring them. People are usually lucky if they died on the first day of captivity. It was during one of these games when the Constable found the ogres present here, who had traumatized their hostages for a whole week.

The rest were trolls. Bulky giants in various shades of green, with stringy hair, and slender yet strong builds, with tusks on their lower jaws. They would tower the ogres easily if it were not for their hunched bodies. Trolls usually keep to themselves, living anywhere from burrows, caves, even under man-made bridges. But the ones present here were incarcerated for assaulting traveling merchants, and it took some of the strongest men and women on the force to bring them to justice. Despite their regenerative abilities - allowing them to heal their wounds as long as they made no contact with acid or fire - the strong fell while the weaker ones survived and faced jail time.

None could get out of their cells, but the thought of them breaking out gave Constable Richards ceaseless anxiety. "That'll be the day," he thought to himself.

***

I noticed the image back in chapter 7 had a bad link and some of you may not have seen it, so here's an image of Starflower.

~Starflower~

"Say 'ah.'"

Starflower stared at the nurse as if she had offended greatly. He made a great effort to keep his mouth shut, refusing to show her the contents of his mouth.

"Feeling sour today, Mr. Grumpypants? I have to check your tonsils to see if the medicine worked."

"It did. I'm not a child, you know. You don't have to pretend I am."

"I have to make sure Horseface didn't leave any permanent damage before you go back with your jail mates." The nurse clasped her hands together, giving the elf puppy eyes. "Pretty please?"

"Where's your pride, woman? Ugh. I feel dirty just thinking about seducing her." Knowing he had to be cooperative to an extent, Starflower finally decided to open his mouth and stick out his tongue. "I have to cast my pride aside, as well."

The nurse clapped her hands with joy. "That's a good boy!" She took advantage of this opportunity to inspect the inside the disgraced headmaster's mouth. "All set! You're cleared."

"Good. Maybe now I can go back to a life of meaningless labor."

"You say that, but I know you will miss me."

Starflower forced a smile. "Maybe you're right, Ms. Sarnai. Why did you come back, anyway?"

"Hmm? What do you mean? You're my patient, so I have to check up on you."

"Allow me to rephrase that. Why are you really here? I couldn't help but notice the rest of the nurses don't care about the rest of us, so all inmates in this jail get a different nurse each visit. You, on the other hand, came here to see me again."

"I can't hide anything from you, can I?" The nurse put away her tools back into her medical kit. "And you're saying caring about my job gave me away?"

Starflower nodded.

"If you have to know, I got curious when the officers talked about you. They said you were arrested because you instigated bullying in your school. Worst part was how you tormented some poor girl from my homeland."

Starflower didn't like where this was going. With no means to defend himself, he braced himself for the worst-case scenario. "You're right. And you're here to take revenge on her behalf."

"Goodness, no!"

"What do you mean, 'no'? You could strike me down while I'm still weak, and no one would bat an eye!"

"That may be true, but revenge just poisons the soul!" Ms. Sarnai looked down to the side. "And so does racial prejudice. I think what you did to that girl was horrible, but my job isn't to judge; it's to heal."

To heal? An admirable goal, but not everyone can be saved. Someone her age must have already witnessed the ugliness of the world, and yet she insisted on seeing the best of people. This woman truly believed Starflower could be 'healed' as if his mindset was a disease that could be cured overnight.

He thanked the gods for providing such a naive girl within his grasp. But he had to work fast.

The elf chuckled. "You could get in a lot of trouble for being chummy with the inmates, you know. A beautiful woman such as yourself should not be endangering herself like that."

"Eh?" The nurse's face lit up like a lighthouse. "M-Mr. Starflower?"

"I will be upfront with my feelings, Ms, Sarnai. The world is ugly and cruel, so we must take every opportunity to make ourselves happy, for tomorrow we could die."

"But I want to live!"

"A sense of humor? I like that. But there's no need to be afraid. Together, we could be happy."

He did not mean any of it, but boy could he put on an act.

"Mr. Starflower!" The nurse covered her face. "I'm an old woman! I-I'm not here hunting for a man!"

"It seems to me like you are hunting for one, what, with that tight uniform of yours."

"I can't help how I look!"

"Besides, judging by your appearance, I would say I easily beat you by a hundred years or so, but as you can see, I've aged like fine wine." Starflower rose from the bed and grabbed the nurse's warm hands. "It would mean a lot to me if you would consider it."

"O-oh." The nurse seemed enthralled at first, but something in her snapped out of it and pulled her away from Starflower. "No, I can't do this! It's against government policy to enter a relationship with any of the inmates! B-besides, I'm a married woman."

Married? This would be a lot tougher than Starflower initially believed.

"I meant no disrespect. Had I known you were married, I would not have said anything."

"It's okay, I should have said something earlier. It's just, hearing a young, er, I mean, youthful-looking man pour out his feelings like that was a surprise. My mind went blank."

His prey may have avoided the jaws of death, but soon she found herself caught in his paws again. "You sound like you don't hear it a lot. Does your spouse approve of your profession?"

The nurse smiled sadly. "He doesn't know. He would never approve because he always wanted me to be a housewife. I was happy when we got married two years ago, but ever since he enrolled in some adventuring guild, he's rarely home. At first he was away for days, then days became weeks, then months. It puts food on the table, but at some point, I decided I needed to get out of the house and applied here. At least here I get to see so many people."

"I see." A pitiable situation. The woman was lonely, and isolation due to her marriage meant she likely had no friends. Abusive men would isolate their wives to weaken their courage and keep them submissive, but the nurse didn't seem to have any past trauma at a glance.

He can't afford to let go.

"I'm sad I cannot win you over, but I'll be content if I can see you any time I need you. And I would like to apologize again for my earlier act of disrespect."

Nurse Sarnai blushed again. "D-don't be! I thought it was sweet. It's not every day I hear a compliment, so it was nice."

There was a lot to unpack there, but Starflower had pending business elsewhere.

"Then I'll be seeing you." His seduction plan failed, but a seed had been planted regardless. The gears in his brain were already in motion, but now he had to see the head honcho amongst the jail birds.

***

9am

The sun was hot in the morning.

The jail birds who were served with community service had the task to pick up the trash left on the sides of the road that led to the main gate out of the city. Guards were posted to keep watch for suspicious movements, giving Starflower very little breathing room to scheme.

Speaking of breathing, Starflower had to hold his breath at intervals. Not because of the trash, but because Thomas had been placed next to him.

"By the gods, man! Have you not bathed since yesterday?"

"That's ridiculous, Jean," Thomas said indignantly. "I haven't bathed since I was arrested, and two weeks before that."

"You smell worse than a homeless man!"

"Hey!" A nearby homeless man paused from his trash-collecting venture to stare angrily at Starflower.

"At least you don't have a choice," Starflower said to him. Back to Thomas, he adds, "I have to hand it to you, I can't think of a worse method of torture than hanging out with you."

"Don't be mean, Jean. I know there are women out there who love a man's natural musk! Besides, bathing is a scam by soap merchants just so they can make money off of people like you! Bathing actually breaks your skin."

"That's if you do it three or more times a day, you imp!"

One of the guards walked by them, prompting the two to keep picking up the trash. Once the guard moved to another group of inmates, the two paused once again.

"Look, forget the bathing thing. Any news from the outside?"

"Oh, yes. Looks like my sweet Lenoria is making her way to the mountains. Valentine followed her a good distance before she returned here to give me the news."

"I knew I could count on her. I do have a vacation house in Ulysses Crossing. I'd have to take the long way if we want to take the cable car, but from there I can find my way to Bisset Manor."

"Oooh, I can't wait! What's the plan?"

Starflower grinned. "Get the old horse on our side."

"Horseface? You know he's the don of the Greco family, right?"

"That is precisely why we need him. He may have been arrested, but a guy like him should have connections to the outside. Question now is how we get on his good side."

"Yeah, it was pretty funny when he knocked you out. Good luck getting on his good side."

Starflower scoffed. "Lucky for you, I already know a little about him. He'll probably be skeptical if I personally approach him. That's where I need you."

"Me?"

"If you can simply arrange a meeting between us, I can handle the rest. He'll think I'm more of the respectable sort if I do the exact same thing he would do."

Thomas growled. "What, and make me look like your lackey?"

"Do you want to break out of here or not?"

After a moment of weighing his options, Thomas reluctantly nodded. "Fine. But you owe me, Jean."

Starflower nodded and got back to work. He was looking forward to freedom, from both jail and Thomas. "I refuse to be stuck with him any more than I have to, but I still need him. But this will all be worth it in the end."