should I stay or should I go now

*Amaretto* · 10-05-2019, 03:59 PM

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, lady. Where are you going?" the cotton top tamarin asked, his hands in the air in front of Amaretto as though he was going to hold her back if she kept walking forward. His name was Kuzco, and he had been following her around for the better part of a day. He'd plead his case; the bachelor horde he'd been a part of was dead thanks to the volcano. He had no where to go and no one to go with. So Amaretto, the first creature to stumble upon him and not try to eat him, became his new traveling companion.

"I told you," she said pointedly. "I have to find my family." Amaretto began to walk forward again causing the tamarin to screech and slap his paws on the ground. It worked; she stopped and fixed him with a look. "But that is the wrong way! The river is that way." He was right; the river was that way. Amaretto knew that. That's why she was going that way. "Correct. The river is that way. I'll cross it and head west; somewhere around here is a shallow spot that will make crossing easy."

Kuzco shook his head vigorously, his hands back in the air again. One was held palm out but all but one of the fingers of his other hand were curled in. The pointer finger left out he jabbed emphatically to the left. "That will not take you where you want to be. The shallows aren't there anymore; the river is swollen, look at it! You'll need to go north before you can go west." Amaretto eyed him skeptically. She was already taking some of his advice to heart; he'd told her if she wanted to blend in here in Boreas she was going to have to embrace elements of the culture here. It was for that reason she was now letting a little bit of emotion show. She was testing it out just to see how much it changed her interactions with wolves. If she could take his advice to heart there, why not here as well?

Her gut told her the river was fine. Kuzco was right - it was high here. But she knew what she had seen from the outcropping. Down the river a ways there was a bend and at the bend she swore she could see the rocks on the bottom. the water appeared to move swiftly there, but she had seen no foam on its shores or frothy white caps anywhere on its surface to indicate it was moving too quickly. Going the way he proposed would take a great deal longer. Without knowing exactly where they would be able to cross the journey could take them days out of the way. That wasn't a risk she was willing to take.

Amaretto shook her head, but gave Kuzco a little ground. "Do you know where a crossing is?" The tamarin drooped a little bit, his arms lowering slowly to clasp in front of his belly. "Well...no," he finally admitted. After a beat he perked back up. "But think about what's north of here. It's all dry and hot isn't it? Mostly plains and desert. Never heard of a big gushing river in a desert."

That was not what she wanted to hear. If he'd been confident he knew what was out there, if he could have named a crossing, she might have been tempted to take his advice, but she wasn't about to abandon her plan for a vague description of what should be north of them. That wasn't good enough. It made more sense to go west and cross closer which begged the question, why did he want to go north?

She decided to try out her skeptical face; her mouth depressing and eyes narrowing slightly as she eyed the cotton top. "Why do you want to go north badly? Going north simply hoping for a crossing is a bad play. So why, hm?"

The little primate made a face like he was shocked she would suggest such a thing. He opened his mouth like he was going to protest and she cut him off immediately with a sharp reprimand. "If the next words out of your mouth are a lie I will know it and you can kiss this partnership good-bye."

Kuzco huffed, his expression overly exasperated. He spread his hands in an appeasing gesture and poked out his bottom lip in a pout like she was asking him to deliver the moon to her. Amaretto said nothing and just watched him squirm. After a beat he relented. "Okay, fine. Maybe...there's a handsome primate much like myself up there who..." he trailed off and shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "May... or... may not owe me."

Amaretto's expression turned first incredulous then angry. "Let me get this straight," she said slowly. "You were going to sit on my shoulders for who knows how many miles, possibility take me days out of my way - for what? Food? Pelts, maybe?"

"He has a sister and he said he would set me up with her."

Amaretto turned away with a snort of disgust.

"Hey - do you know what it's like to be alone?" Kuzco trotted after her. "All my friends are dead, forgive me for wanting...you know something. And she's gorgeous let me tell ya. Biggest mane on a woman I've ever seen. A total-" Amaretto cut him off. "There's nothing for you there. If you had a shot with her you wouldn't need to be set up with her. I've made up my mind. Good-bye, Kuzco." And with that she set off for the river.

"Speech"|"Ademre"

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