Book Four – Chapter Three – Part Five – The Joy of Assisting Others

Jon, the client, kneeled down and offered a supportive hand to the crying girl’s shoulder. Momo stopped her whispering for a few seconds so Jon could say what he needed. “I’m sorry I had to go ruin the mood… I hope you can forgive me… But if I can say something about it, it is this. I have never met someone who cried on my behalf like this, so it is nice to know that empathy is still spreading around this dangerous world. Servy, you’re a nice, wonderful, helpful girl at heart, and I hope you never lose that. The world needs more people like you in it…”

Unbeknownst to him, the words he spoke had the opposite effect of what he wanted. They were meant to be encouraging, yet his gentle voice only made Servi cry even more. Discouraged, Jon stood up and scratched his head.

“Boss, you didn’t do anything wrong. Servy is a girl who…who is just sensitive to these kinds of things. She hurts when we hurt, and she cries when we cry. I’ve been with her the longest, and the only thing I can do is just hug her until she stops by herself. It won’t do her any good to forcibly ignore her feelings…” Momo looked up and nodded at the client. Right as those words left her mouth, she felt Servi shuffle as the wails died down. The endless water flowing from her eyes suddenly stopped as if a switch was pressed. The emotional outburst was close to being just another memory. “But… Thank you for saying those things about Servy. She’s… I know she’s thankful for them, too.”

Jon cracked a solemn smile and wiped his soaking brow. He had been feeling like a bastard about the entire thing, but the words from Momo were just what he needed. He extended a hand to the tearful girl, who peeked up at him from within Momo’s grasp. Her expression was one of a blank doll, but he swore he saw her lips curled upwards by just a hair’s width.

“Servy,” Momo whispered in a voice that was so quiet she didn’t even know if she was speaking. “You know what you gotta do, right?” Servi blinked twice and slowly stretched a quivering hand towards the support she saw. For the rest of his life, Jon would never know just how much that act of kindness meant to Servi. Whether by herself or someone else, he would eventually come to understand the truth. Would Jon forgive her after realizing the meaning behind her tears? Would he curse her name and try to kill her?

No one knew the answer, and anyone claiming to know was a flat-out liar.

When Servi’s hand clasped around Jon’s, she found a source of strength to stand up. Her face was still reddened from the crying, but that would be taken care of relativity soon. Momo stood off to the side, but she was still physically connected to Servi.

It took a few seconds for Jon to realize just how soft, small, and slender the hand he held was. A rush of excitement flooded his face. He hadn't failed to notice Servi’s cuteness, but now he found it impossible to focus on anything else. How could he? That playfully cut hair was just so inviting, those red eyes were so tempting, and those quivering lips had done something to him. In a flash, he let go of Servi’s hand and coughed to regain his composure.

The mood was awkward, but Jon expertly swirled around the conversation until it was back to normal. He walked away to examine the windows, his footsteps drowned out by the collective volume of discussion. “Servy, I think our client likes you. You are a pretty girl, so it’s just natural that people will develop a crush on you like I have… But I’m not gonna give you up! Even if you don’t accept my confession, and I know you will, this is just me speaking. I’m not gonna let anyone have your heart! And that’s because I want it to belong to me… And in return… In return, you can have my heart…” Momo whispered. She was looking straight at Servi when she said that but couldn’t help but avert her gaze because it was too cheesy, even for her. Her face became beet red, then she giggled and squeezed Servi’s hand.

Soon after, Jon jogged back over with two completion slips in his hand. His breaths were deep and heavy, meaning he hadn’t taken a substantial break at all. It was all work, work, work with this man.

“Here! These are for you two,” he said, giving them to Momo.

“Eh? But what about work? We aren’t done,” Momo replied, looking at the slips. She glanced at the work that still needed to be done.

“While that is true, just look at what’s done. I never expected we’d have the floors clean, the counters and drawers spotless, and the wagon unloaded before nightfall. I talked it over with the others, and they agreed you two have done more than your fair share.”

After hearing that, Momo didn’t press the issue. Arguing with a client was almost the most disrespectful thing an adventurer could do, so she graciously stored the slips in her bag. Jon held out his hand, and Momo shook it, marking the successful completion of their quest. She shared a few more words with her former client and left with a wave. Servi waved too, but she wasn’t smiling.

“Dang, I guess Happy Servy has to rest for a little bit. She was out for a long time, so that’s understandable. It’s a good thing I love this Servy just as much,” Momo said when they were back on the main road. She took one last look at the street which led to the Old Onyx and smiled, giving it one last goodbye from the depths of her heart.  Then her bright eyes turned to the Human by her side and tightly hugged her.

“That’s one down! Come on, Servy, we’re making excellent progress.”

“It has been a while, friends!” growled a very familiar Kobold. His massive tail relentlessly hammered into the pavement, showing off his happiness as if he was a canine.

“Feral!” Momo said upon seeing him. She and Servi were on their way to the Rude Crystal when their path brought them in front of Madam Canary's Sweetie Tweety. That was a shop owned by Feral’s aunt, and he was living there during his time in Canary. The friendly Kobold was hunched over a collection of wood. It seemed to be the materials necessary to construct a food stall, considering there were four of them sitting off to the side. A smaller desk nearby had buckets of paint, paintbrushes, and a handful of nails. The road in front of the shop was big enough for two wagons to pass by side-by-side, so even someone as big as him didn’t have to worry about blocking anyone.

Even with that space available, Momo didn’t want to just stand in the middle of the street, so she walked over to him. As always, Servi was right there beside her, and her glassy eyes absentmindedly refused to settle on anything.

Even with a building between them, the sweetness of cookies and cakes managed to reach Momo. She wondered if Servi was smelling them.

Feral stood up straight and stopped slamming his tail. He growled and racked his brain because even someone as slow as him knew something was odd. Momo watched as he put a green hand in front of Servi’s eyes. When she refused to focus on it, he growled.

“Hmm… What happened to Servi?” Feral asked, pulling his hand back. He tapped the unfinished stall with a thick finger.

Momo then explained what happened to them, but the truth she told was the one that Claire was privy to. She trusted Feral enough to know the general gist.

“… she had to kill to protect me. Until she comes to term with it inside her mind, it’s up to me to take care of her until.”

“Aaarrghhh!!!” roared Feral, raising two trembling fists to the sky. It looked like his tail was about to rampage out of control, but that was only a worry and nothing more. “How terrible… I am sad that this happened to you two!!!” Feral roared again. He only stopped when Aunt Canary rushed to the window and slammed her fist against it.

He turned to the window with an apologetic look on his face. Perhaps Aunt Canary would’ve taken it further since he was making a disturbance, but she saw his friends and chose not to. Regardless, he surely understood that he had to calm it down.

“Feral, I’m glad you’re getting all worked up over her. I’m sure it means a lot to Servy to know that she has a close friend in you. But her state isn’t permanent. It’s just one of those things that can only be healed by time,” Momo said. She smiled at her hulking friend.

“I am not one who prays. I do not know how to do it, but I will learn and pray for Servi's quick recovery. Wahahaha!!! I suppose our rematch will have to wait! But that is no problem. You are the strongest Human Female I have met, so I know I will need the time to train. Be ready, Servi, because I will win this time!”

Feral, you’re so sweet, but after knowing Servy's true strength... I don’t think you can win. Ah! That’s bad, Momo! Don’t think bad things about your friends!!!”

“I can’t wait for the rematch! I won’t know who to cheer for. I guess I have to root for you both.”

“Wahahaha!!” This time, Feral was far more gentle with his tail slams. As Momo smiled at their happy companion, she realized he had a task he was supposed to do.

“Oh, this? My aunt is preparing for the festival. Such an occasion should mean a lot of people, and that means she stands to make a lot of money. And as well she should! She makes the best sweets in the world.”

“You can be sure Servy and I will stop by. Oh, if you need any help, don’t be afraid to ask us. I know Servy wouldn’t mind it, and I wouldn’t either.”

“That is kind. Well, if you are fine with it, might I ask you for help painting? I have to build this stall and paint the ones beside me.” When he asked for that favor, Feral’s face had a slight crimson hue to it. “No, I shouldn’t ask you to do that. Shouldn’t Servi be resting?”

“You would think so, but Servy isn’t the kind of girl who wants to wait around. Please, Feral, let us help. It’ll be faster if the three of us do it.” Momo was staring at Servi’s face when she said that, noticing that it slightly twitched.

After growling a few times, Feral handed a bucket of paint and brush to the two willing helpers. He had intended on building, then painting, so he kept the lids off. However, the clumsy Kobold enjoyed putting the stalls together so much he had forgotten about the open buckets. He accidentally swung his arm a bit too fast, causing paint to spill over.

Or so it would have if not for Itarr. She had believed something like this had a chance of happening, so she ended up stacking Pixie Gust a few hundred times to create a wall of air that acted as a lid. The paint ended up splashing against that, meaning there were no spills to clean up. Feral almost noticed this, but he just shook it off as Servi and Momo grabbed the buckets and brushes.

For the next thirty minutes, there was an enjoyable conversation in the air. Though that soon turned to surprise when Momo asked Feral how he was putting the stalls together.

“I take a nail and hold it like this. Then I press my thumb into the nail’s head and push it into the wood. I am not that well-versed in using a hammer. The last time I did, I missed the nail and broke the table I was trying to fix. Hmm... Truly, tools like those do not suit someone like me.”

“Wow...” Momo looked at her slender thumb and shuddered. “I don’t think I would ever be able to do that,” she said as white paint dripped down from her brush to the stall. She got right back to work and continued. Glancing over to Servi, she realized that Itarr was at work again. An unnatural amount of paint amassed itself on Servi’s brush. When it touched the wood, the paint spread out like white waves, completely covering the entire stall in literal seconds.

Okay, that’s a little bit unfair! Cleaning is one thing, but how the heck is Itarr doing that? The paint’s just... dissolving into the wood? No, Servy said Itarr had Absorption… Unless…

Though Momo had a good guess, it was wrong. In fact, Itarr was taking the paint molecules, grabbing them with Telekinesis, and pressing them into the wood. Then right after, she altered the effects of Pixie Gust to accelerate the drying process. She needed to do this multiple times for every millimeter of surface she wanted to cover, but there was no faster way to complete the job.

Momo stared with disbelief as Itarr moved on to complete her work as well. She wanted to say that there was no need for that, and she hoped the subtle shaking of her head was enough to convey that, but it wasn’t. Or if it was, Itarr ignored it since she thought that Momo was better off spending time with Servi than wasting it on menial work.

“Hmm... She is my superior in both combat and painting... I have to work a lot if I want to surpass her,” Feral said upon looking over. He had just one last nail in his hand, and after pressing it in to connect two boards, he was finally done.

A few minutes later, Aunt Canary walked out of the store with two bags of fruit-flavored gummies in hand. She gave them to the pair of hopeful lovers as thanks for assisting her nephew, and Momo said it was no problem. With a nod, she walked back inside the store, leaving the three friends alone. Momo said her goodbyes to Feral and walked away while waving. Servi didn’t raise her hand, nor did she even look into his gaze when the Kobold tried to talk to her. No, the poor girl just looked at her guardian with eyes filled with sadness and regret.

“Don’t be sad, Servy. Feral’s our good friend. We’ll see him around. Here, do you want a gummy?” she asked as the two turned a corner, leaving behind one of their favorite stores. Instead of replying, Servi stopped moving and fell to the ground. She clutched her head in pain and jittered as if electricity flowed through her veins. She writhed on the ground, the filth abandoned the paved roads for a supple girl and her outfit, staining her brown and black with trash and gunk.

It all happened in a flash, and Momo could only hold and support the girl she held. The sweet words she wanted to whisper had already been uttered, so there was nothing more she could say. Instead, Momo just had to rely on her physical affection to ease Servi through this tumultuous period of pain and grief.

“There it is, Servy... The Rude Crystal...” Momo said when the bar came into sight. Servi’s panic attack had come and gone, but Happy Servi wasn’t anywhere to be found. In her place stood a stoic, apathetic girl who never once changed her facial expression in the thirty minutes they had been walking.

The Rude Crystal was in a state of utter disarray. The sigh that once stood above the decrepit building had since rotted away, leaving only half it up. The other half had slammed into the ground sometime prior, and it was currently being hefted away by two Koena. Just like before, Servi and Momo were the only female Human and female Singi present, which caught the eye of an elderly woman. Her hair was gray like dirty ash, but she held a surprisingly soft gaze. With a wave of her arm, she motioned for the two hopeful lovers to approach. They joined the rest of the Kobolds and Koena, who were awaiting orders.

“Hello, thank you for answering my request. Umm... To start off with, the main thing that needs to happen is the delivery of wood and supplies from a nearby warehouse. I had them delivered to warehouse 013. That’s just down the street to your left. The gate and door should be open, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find. When you’re tired and thirsty, let me know because I baked some cookies and brewed up a few pots of tea a few minutes ago. If...”

“Ma’am, I don’t wish to be rude, but is it fine if we start work? I have a date with my wife tonight, and I’d like to get home as soon as I can,” said a Koena. He had his hand raised.

The old woman started laughing and apologized for her tendency to talk and talk and talk, then said it was fine if they wanted to go ahead to the warehouse. Momo and Servi were going to follow them, but they were stopped. Their employer wanted to know if they could handle the heavy lifting since the wood was thick and dense, and Momo just reassured her that it was fine. They could handle it.

Helena, the Rude Crystal’s new owner, wasn’t convinced, but she let them go after seeing the determination well up in Momo’s eyes. It reminded her of her son's resolve when he promised to take care of the Rude Crystal. She sent them off with a grandmotherly smile, staring at the pair of friends who rushed to join their co-workers.

“Servy,” Momo said when they slowed down to a walk. “Grampy used to talk like her. He could go on and on and on about pretty much everything. I remember I once asked him about a rainbow. He talked for forty whole minutes, and I still hadn't gotten an answer. For some reason, he was talking about a lake he used to swim in when he was younger, but I didn’t know how the conversation turned towards that.  And now that I think about it, I never did get a proper answer because I was having too much fun listening to grampy’s story of his childhood.”

About seven minutes later, the group came upon the fabled warehouse 013, located inside a fenced-off area. The gate was open, so there was no problem there.

The difficulties started to come when they peeked inside and saw just how much stuff had to be delivered. There was wood upon wood upon wood, and it varied from dark brown oak to chocolate cedar to red mahogany. And it seemed there were more boxes than stars in the night sky. The only saving grace was that everything was neatly organized, and that had the side effect of making the multi-colored stacks of wood seem like an artist’s magnum opus in how they were laid out.

“Listen up. I think this is the best way to proceed,” stated a black and white Kobold who suddenly spoke up. He explained that it would be better if there were four teams. To lay out his reasoning, he mentioned that two teams would go into the warehouse and bring out the supplies since there wasn’t that much room to maneuver around, and the other two teams would deliver the supplies back to the Rude Crystal. He then asked for volunteers for the four teams. Then mentioned that they could swap members as necessary.

That’s just making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s too confusing, and I’m starting to get a headache trying to follow his plan. Wouldn’t it be better to just...? Momo vocalized her thoughts to Servi, who closed her eyes and spoke as fast as a geriatric snail.

“Confusing... Help... No... Time... Waste... Help... Help...” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Momo squeezed Servi’s hand a little bit. “It’s all confusing. They wanna talk more than they want to work. Come on, let’s get to work.”

“Hey, wait!!!” said the self-declared leader of the workforce. He raised a hand towards Momo and Servi, who walked right past them into the open jaws of warehouse 013. Even for a skinny Singi and a slim Human, they had to wiggle their way in just a bit. When they later emerged, Servi was carrying five long planks on each side. They were under her arms, and she was pressing them against her body. In all honestly, and if it was possible to perfectly stack them with Telekinesis, Servi could have carried everything without breaking a sweat. And she was going to do just that, but a particular Singi put a stop to it, citing that they weren’t in any particular hurry. She also mentioned that they had to leave some work for the others.

Momo had emerged carrying two boxes, each fully stacked to the brim with all kinds of supplies. Even without Itarr’s assistance, she could have only just barely lifted them, but the problem was that she couldn’t see in front of her.

Her vision was blocked. Thus, she had no other option but to rely on Itarr to be her guiding Goddess, and a few minutes later, it all worked out in the end. They had come to a slow stop in front of the Rude Crystal. Helena was tidying up on the inside. She only came out because she heard an odd noise, but she didn’t expect to find the pair she thought was too weak to handle this quest.

“Well... I guess I’ll take my words back,” she said as Itarr assisted Momo in placing down the stack of boxes.

“Servy is a strong girl, and I’m not so weak myself!” Momo curled an arm and smiled, her face blossoming like a flower in bloom. “Umm, where do we put the wood at?” Momo asked.

“Follow the grassy path right there to the back of the bar. You can set it there.” Servi did just that, and Momo followed behind.  A few seconds later, they came to a spacious spot of land that would have made for a fine garden and dropped off the wood. When they came back, she and her best buddy transferred the two boxes from outside the bar to the inside. Helena was there to greet them with two cups of tea in hand.

After a somewhat quiet, forced, but happy conversation, Momo brought up the topic of chairs and tables after seeing that the inside of the bar was completely empty.

“I have some people coming by later today to make them with the wood y’all are bringing.”

“I don’t know all that much about woodworking. My grandpa did a little bit here and there, but I never had a chance to learn all that much,” she said, sipping her tea. It was tern and hot, yet a fruity fragrance remained behind on the tip of her tongue. It warmed her body, making her feel similar to how she felt when she hugged her darling Servi.

“It’s the same with me. I barely know my way around a hammer, let alone a saw or a sander. That’s why I looked up a respectable carpenter before I left home.”

“Oh, you aren’t from Canary?” Momo and Servi both took a sip of their tea, but the latter downed the entire cup in a single swallow.