Scotch Muffin

by TheFoxern

14: The Purse

When Scotch woke in the morning, she forgot for a moment what had happened, dismissing it as a dream. Until she saw Sir Antwan standing outside the glass door, calmly watching the streets. She grumbled slightly, trying to convince herself that there was still the chance that it was a dream and he was just there because he was waiting for them to get up, but that was a bit too far-fetched for it to just be a coincidence.

“Good morning!” Cookie was up and about already, eating the breakfast that was brought for them.

Scotch was curious as to if there was any reason Cookie needed to eat since he was a changeling, but she knew so little about them that she guessed they needed to eat as well. “Morning,” she said with a yawn.

“C'mon and eat! We've got a lot to do today!” He was trying to grin but also remain polite and not show her a mouth full of food.

“Do we?” She stumbled a bit off the bed and towards the food. There was more food there than she had ever seen in her life, and she could barely name a quarter of the things there.

“Yup! Arthur came by with the food and said there's lotsa people we need to talk to.” Again he tried to grin with his mouth full.

“I...see...” She didn't, but it seemed to be the polite thing to say before she dug in. She had thought the food at the restaurant was tasty, but this was delicious.

“Yes. The librarian librarian wants to speak with you.” Scotch nearly choked on what she had been eating. She had not noticed Arthur among the piles of food. “He would not say why why.”

She gulped down a large amount of what she could only guess was some sort of juice, as it was sweet and tangy. “Alright...sounds good to me. Hopefully it's some good news.”

“Why? Have you had any any bad news?” Arthur was walking between plates towards her.

“Not particularly bad. I would just like something that makes sense and leads to something good.” She went back to eating to avoid the subject.

Arthur did not press her. “Tacky is waiting for us downstairs downstairs. They refused to let her bag onto the lift, and she refused to leave it in the lobby lobby.”

Scotch chuckled softly though she did her best to not. Scotch had found it impossible to imagine Tacky without her large purse. But the real question was: “Why wont they let her bring it on the lift?” Cookie asked, his head tilted to the side and a confused look on his face.

“They are afraid of it it.” Arthur had taken a seat on an overturned teacup. Overturned cups seemed to be his favorite place to sit, probably because they matched his size so well and were made of similar things.

“Why would they be afraid of a purse?” Scotch had the same confused expression as Cookie.

“Because it is a Devourer. It eats things things that get too close. No one is sure how she tamed tamed it, probably feeds it a lot of things, but it can be quite dangerous dangerous.” Scotch found that Arthur was very good at explaining things in this world. “It usually does what she says. Emphasis on usually usually.”

The glass door opened and Sir Antwan stepped inside. “It's officially morning,” he said.

“They didn't have a problem with it last night...and what do you mean officially?” Scotch had never heard it put that way before.

“They didn't know last night. And it means that it's morning.” He didn't seem to understand the question.

But Sir Antwan seemed to have a better grasp, “It is not officially morning until the sun can be seen over the wall.”

“But that would mean that the lower places start morning later?” Cookie said, his brow furrowed in an effort to think. “Those high up would see the sun first, and so they would have morning earlier?”

“Yes,” was all the answer he got.

~

Down in the lobby, Scotch had a new worry in the back of her mind: Tacky's purse. She had not given it much thought, other than it was gaudy and an eyesore, but now that she was actually looking at it with new found knowledge, she noticed it quite resembled a scrunched up crocodile wearing some sort of harness. It took quite a bit of looking to actually see it due to the fact that it seemed to be wearing a large handbag. The way it wore it allowed it to not only use it as a sort of turtle shell, but apparently the bag itself was still fully functional as Scotch had seen Tacky put in and pull out several things. It was also giving her quite an unsettling look. She moved towards Arthur, not taking her eyes off the purse. “So, what exactly is a Devourer?”

Arthur looked at the purse, and the purse looked back at him. And Scotch thought the look it gave him was unsettling... “It's a creature that eats anything. They take random random shapes dependent on their environment. You would have to ask Tacky Tacky for more information on this one...”

She did not like that idea, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. So she went up to Tacky, who was reading a magazine of some kind. “Uhm...Tacky?” She looked up with a large beaky smile. “Can I ask you about your purse?”

“Hm?” She looked down at her side, and then her other side as if expecting the bag to have disappeared. “Ah, of course deary.” Tacky picked up the bag and set it on her lap. “I'm sure you've been hearing those nasty words that these people say about it, and I can assure you that most of it is untrue.”

“Most?”

“Well, obviously you don't gain the nickname Devourer for nothing. But Zipper has always been a very good boy. He's not even so much as bitten anything he's not supposed to since we got here. Isn't that right, Zipper.” Scotch hated that goo goo type of voice, but Zipper seemed pleased at the praise.

Scotch moved a few hooves closer to Zipper, who eyed her with a sort of annoyed curiosity, giving her the impression the only reason it was not trying to eat her was the fact that Tacky was there. “How long have you had Zipper?”

“Oh a very long time, dear. Can't quite remember when exactly, but he was in a box that got delivered to me. I assume he was some kind of gift, as it is very difficult to accidentally deliver something to me.” There was an oddly knowing look on Zipper's face, as if he knew that they were discussing him.

It brought to question his intelligence. “He is very interesting. Is he...wearing that handbag, or is it part of him?”

Tacky stared at her a moment, processing the question. “Oh it's one of his handbags. He has dozens of them, but this one is his traveling one.” She lifted him up slightly, showing the bottom of the bag, his legs flailed slightly. “It's got a tougher bottom than the others, cus he tends to drag along. Short legs, you see?” She was using one of her flippered legs to wiggle his foot.

“Yes, that would cause him do drag his stomach against the ground.” Zipper was still vaguely flailing his legs in an attempt to climb the air and looked quite annoyed when Tacky put him back down.

Scotch watched as he stomped around a moment to make himself comfortable before laying down again. “Are we ready to go go now?” Arthur asked as he landed upon Scotch's back. She realized he weighed practically nothing.

Tacky put the magazine into her purse and stood up. Zipper reluctantly hopped down off the couch, though it looked as if Tacky pulled him down. “Yes, we're all here, so let us be off, to the library.”

Scotch nodded as she looked over at Cookie, who was looking at his reflection in a rather polished pillar. There was this intense look on his face as though he was thinking quite hard. She moved up to him and Arthur fluttered off to join Tacky more towards the door. “Cookie?”

“Hm?” He did not look away from his reflection.

“Are you ready to go?” She couldn't help but feel concerned.

“Scotch...what are we going to do?” He was having one of his odd bursts of intelligence. His gaze turned to her reflection.

She looked at her reflection as well. “I don't know. Everything is all...muddled.”

“So we just...keep going till we find out?” He looked down at her with his head tilted to the side.

Cookie's expression made her heart feel twisted in knots. It was the most lost, yet hopeful look she had ever seen. “Yes...we just keep going and find out what we're supposed to do. Together.”

“Together,” he said with a nod as he looked over at Tacky and the rest of the group. “Together with our friends.”

Scotch smiled a bit. “Yeah...a bit of a ragtag group we've got going on.” Cookie stared blankly at her; apparently the burst had been spent. “Ragtag, it means untidy, disorganized, or varied in character.”

He continued to stare blankly at her.

“It means we're all different,” she tried.

“Yes, we are.” He smiled and trotted off towards the door. Scotch was fairly certain he didn't entirely understand it, but it didn't really matter with how scatter brained he was. “Come, Ragtag!” Cookie announced as he walked outside. “To adventure!”

Scotch frowned slightly. Apparently he was going to take that word to heart. Tacky, Arthur, and Sir Antwan, who had been outside, exchanged glances. “Ragtag?” Arthur said and looked back at Scotch.

“I like the sound of that,” Tacky said with a large smile, somehow standing up straighter. “Makes us sound important.”

“Not...really what it means,” Scotch mumbled.

“So we are the Ragtag?” Sir Antwan looked at Tacky and then at Cookie.

“I...does no one know what that word means?” Scotch said, a tad flustered.

“It is good to have a name name for our group,” Arthur agreed, smiling at Cookie, who had taken up what he must have thought of as a heroic pose.

“And you're all going to ignore me?” Scotch said as the rest of the group started to move on, chattering excitedly about their new title. That frustrated Scotch. The only one who seemed to notice was Cookie, who looked at her.

“I'm listening,” he said with a smile. “I don't understand it, well I mean I kind of do, but I still like how it sounds. And it makes them happy.” He nodded towards to the rest of the Ragtag.

Scotch sighed softly, admitting to herself that it was already too late to take it back or change it. “Fine...I guess we're the Ragtag, or something.”

Cookie smiled at her and then picked her up, placing her on his back once again. “We're going to have adventures, right?”

She looked at him a moment as he followed after the rest of the Ragtag, and couldn't help but smile a bit. “Yeah...adventure.”

“Or something?”

She smiled a bit more. “Yeah. Or something.”