"Slowly?" Blue replied, confused, looking at Kamille who had slid down into the canal with them. Why would she want them to do this more slowly? Wasn't this a competition? Oh, she wanted them to slow down so she could save more mantas than them! Well, they weren't going to let her win!

Blue smiled and then sped up, dragging the manta faster down the channel behind them until they reached the ocean. Blue gripped the tail firmly with both hands and spun around, the manta spinning along with them, until they let go and sent the manta flying through the air to land in the deeper water with a splash.

One down! Blue turned around and ran to go grab another one, not wanting Kamille to catch up to them in score, but then they were confused again. They already won? But weren't there still more mantas to save? Oh! Was she already admitting defeat? Yeah, there was no way she could save these mantas faster than Blue could and she must have realized that! They were just too amazing, weren't they?

"I love to eat! Let's go get some food when I'm done winning this!" Blue announced victoriously as they grabbed another manta by the tail and started dragging it down the channel. They'd make quick work of the rest of these mantas and then have a feast to celebrate their victory!

If Kamille was catching up on Wolfe's thoughts it was hard to say, but she was kinda slow that day...

"No no no don't throw it!!!"

But Wolfe had already gone and threw the first manta on the sea. The manta spun in the air before safely landing with a distant splash. Wolfe wasn't kidding on that one: He was strong.

"Yes! I'll pay your dinner! But remember: You can't hurt the mantas!"

The Witch apparently had gone content on just barking orders and stressing over the way Wolfe handled the situation. Well it was nice, wasn't it? She could stay back and watch the glistening muscles under the sun while Wolfe...

Wait.

Wolfe...? Where did she hear that name before...?

It was a familiar name, now that she came to think of it...

"................Have you been to Moonglade before, Wolfe?"

Instead of walking over to drag the remaining manta, she remained close to Wolfe to try and cast the Slow spell on the last minute as he yanked the manta from the pool and flung it towards the sea. She couldn't avoid the man from yeeting them, but at least the spell would give the mantas a much gentler landing.

Or so she hoped.

"Huh? Yeah, I've been to Moonglade lots of times! Why?" Blue replied, not really knowing what that had to do with anything right now.

They just kept going about their business, running back and forth to grab a manta, drag it to the ocean, and throw it out into the deeper waters. The mantas seemed like they were completely fine. A couple of them even started gliding after Blue threw them, spreading their fins out and catching the air beneath them to go even farther out into the ocean than they'd been tossed and gently diving into the water.

It went surprisingly quickly. Blue didn't even notice that Kamille wasn't actually helping any of the mantas back  into the sea herself. She was content just watching them hard at work. Well, that was fine. That just made it even easier for them to win that free meal! They were already excited, thinking about all the tasty food they were going to scarf down once this was done. Not eating any of the mantas was worth it.

Blue tossed the last manta into the ocean and turned around to see that there were none left. They looked at Kamille with a big, toothy grin.

"I win! Now you owe me dinner! Get ready, I'm gonna eat a pile of food as big as all those mantas put together!" Blue declared, easily confident in their ability to pack away that much food with little effort.

Kamille squinted her eyes at them. At this point, she didn't seem worried in paying dinner for Wolfe - although she probably should - as she already had the experience of feeding Astrid, and her grandaughter was known for eating a lot...

Huh... Now that she thought of Astrid........


Wait. "Eat a pile of food as bit as all those mantas"? That... Sounded familiar... Didn't Astrid...?

WAIT.

"Wolfe, did yo-"

No. Wait. Play it cool.

Kamille smiled back at Wolfe. At the very least her job was done, right? The mantas were safely back at the sea, her friend's wife would be pleased and their partnership would carry on...

She had no idea how much poorer she would exit the tavern after paying dinner for Wolfe. Maybe she could cast some food while he was not looking - she promised them dinner, whichever way the food came, right? It was funny to think about the spell, because she first learned it to avoid going bankrupt from merely feeding Astrid while the girl was in her house.

"Ahm... Yes! You won! Congratulations! It's a story worthy to brag about to your friends! I'm sure someone as strong as you must have a lot of friends..."

Blue was easy to flatter and even easier to trick into giving away information without a second thought. Blue smiled wide with a proud smirk as Kamille went and complimented their strength and mentioned how they must have a lot of friends. They sure did have a lot of friends! 

"Yeah, I got lots of friends!" Blue declared proudly and then held up their hand to start counting them off on their fingers." I got Astrid, Cantio, Melodia, Cirice, Mister Zarius, Cyran, Mister Jonesy, uhhhh, a bird named Fish, Morry Gan...? Oh, Gwen! Uhhhh..."

Blue rattled them off, trying to remember all the names of the people they'd met and considered a friend. Some of them they'd met longer ago than others and so they had a harder time recalling their name, or they just hadn't met more than once and didn't think of their name off the top of their head. One or two they remembered the name of, but didn't think of as a friend, so they didn't say their names.

"Thadda and Mizzy, can't forget them. Hmm, Russelbert? No wait, Russel and Robert! That's two!"

To her surprise, Astrid was not the only familiar name along the list of Wolfe's friends. Astrid, Cantio, Cirice... even Zarius! Fish and Gwen! Even Morrigan...?!

"That’s... a lot of friends! Why don't you tell me about all of them as we eat?"

Kamille was feeling a bit less confident about her promise now. If this was the same person that "ate the chairs" of a tavern back at Moonglade - she still had doubts about what that meant, to be honest - the least she could expect was to end that day much poorer than she started it.

She shook her head, expecting Wolfe to follow her as she guided him to a tavern. She had to think twice before taking Wolfe to her usual fancy places and instead was taking him with prices that were a bit more... friendly. Perhaps a good amount of cheap alcohol would be enough to help her forget the holes in her pockets by the end of the day.

And hopefully she would still remember everything that's been talked about....