A New Buddy Unlocked

It had been a long night of uneasy sleep that had left Malakai tired and irritable. Some of his crew were gone for days now, on their way to bring some merchants over and exchange some goods. They had recently gotten a few nice shipments of varying ingredients and luxury goods they were excited to sell. Well, Malakai in particular was way more excited over the new wine and the profit he was going to make but, despite them saying otherwise, he suspected the rest of the lads and lasses were excited about similar things. 

 

Barring the wine, that is, that one was mostly Malakai's.

 

Still, the fact that his friends and de-facto family were away for the minute wasn't what had kept the merchant up all night. Not at all. After all, it happened once every couple of weeks and was how they ran their business and what they counted on to make their living. 

 

No, where the issue had come from was the constant thumping around their beach house and the phantom moving objects. 

 

While some of the succubuns staying in the house were more than getting freaked out about what had been happening, already speculating things about ghosts or demons or all sorts of nasty stuff, Kai and the rest were still fairly chill about it all. After all, it wasn't the first time something like that had happened, and if anything it seemed like a pretty standard case of loose demonic energy - AKA imps.

 

'So they're not too far off with suspecting demonic intervention, I guess.' he thought to himself. Similar situations in the past had led to his current pet imp menagerie and somehow the captain suspected it was only going to grow larger. And sooner than later as well.

 

The sound of a door creaking and slamming shut was followed by a holler from one of his crewmates: "They're here!" 

 

Malakai's ears perked as he urged his imps to follow along. Splotch had been playing around with Shelly for the last while during their wait as the bun himself was snacking on a simple sandwich. The little thulu flew right over to Kai's shoulder and relaxed on it, a lightweight yet cold and slimy presence the bun had more than gotten used to over the past couple of weeks. 

 

From behind him weak chirps and the sounds of the shelon desperately trying to catch up on her little flippers had Malakai sighing as he turned to pick her up and place her on his other shoulder. How the little imp had gotten this attached to him was beyond the tentacled bun.

 

As they arrived down the stairs into their lobby area, Kai saw several familiar faces mingling with his guild family. And despite his grumpiness, the captain's face lit up at one of them. He dismissed the bun trying to give him a report on their trip with a wave of his hand and quickly mumbled "Just leave it in my room, I'll look at it later." Soon enough he stopped, his figure towering over that of Hutch who was busy talking with another bun, a Chirop resting on their shoulder and keeping hold of their leash. 

 

"Hey, there." his deep voice rumbled, startling the shorter bun as they anxiously turned in his direction, fixing their glasses in place as the motion had made them slip. They looked a bit intimidated and Kai did his best to soften his expression so he wasn't... as frightening. "Hutch, just the mate I need!" Malakai tried again, with a broad smile and a friendlier tone this time around, opening his arms wide in welcome. "I know you're probably here for other business but there's been a little something around the house that's been bothering the boys around here and was wondering if you'd be interested in helping me hunt it down?" he tried his best shot at puppy eyes "I'll give you a discount on anything you'd like to buy if you help me get the rascal under control." He was a businessman through and through and refused to ask for free favors. 

 

Still, Hutch looked interested. After all from what Malakai knew they were always interested in imps.

 

"Is that right?" their face lit up. 

 

'Gotcha.' Malakai thought. "Yes, of course. I remember when this little one was rummaging through my inventory and how much of a ruckus he caused as we tried to find him..." he started, poking the thulu on his shoulder which just gurgled in response, something he had begun to identify as a giggle in its own weird way over their time together "and since an expert like you is around I thought I could use the help in locating it." he gave a toothy grin.

 

Hutch looked around in anticipation before leaning forward and giving the thulu quick pat before reaching to do the same with the shelon and being met with a small hiss. They recoiled their hand and looked at Malakai, a tinge of guilt and upset in his eyes but that quickly gave way to his previous excitement. "Well, let's get going then! Where is it? Have you seen it? Do you know what it is?" he bombarded the captain with questions and he was momentarily too stupefied to reply. Hutch looked eager to follow and so Malakai unconsciously started leading the way to the inventory room.

 

"Uh, no, nobody's seen it yet. That's why a few are all creeped out about it." he gave a laugh "It's been knocking over boxes in the inventory all night long, there's been so much thumping as well, would've thought it was another bun walking around if we hadn't checked on a few occasions and not found anyone."

 

"So you think it's a big one?" the inquiries continued.

 

"Well... not too sure. No one's seen a horn or flipper of it yet."

 

Malakai could tell that Hutch was excited at the prospect of finding the imp. He could understand why, after all the little things kept on manifesting in all sorts of shapes and places, for all they knew it could even be some new kind of imp.

 

"Do you have a net? Or any boxes we can set up as traps?" By this point they had arrived in the room. 

 

Malakai turned the lights on and nodded to one of the piles next to the wall. "Feel free to help yourself. I'll go look around on the other side." With that said Kai poked the thulu on his shoulder. "You should help out too. The quicker we get this mess sorted the quicker I get to have a good sleep again." While he didn't say it out loud the imps were plenty smart to know that once Kai's mood improved they'd get to play with him again so it was plenty of motivation to get them moving. The thulu fluttered its wings and flew away while the shelon wiggled on his shoulder with meek squeaks, asking to be let down. So he helped her and they were off on their way.

 

It took them a while but eventually a pile of boxes fell over and started a wild goose chase around the inventory room. Hutch was running around with a net while Malakai tried to keep some distance from them so he could chase anything they found toward the Imporium owner. Shelly was now back on his shoulder as well, Kai fearing another boxslide might crush the poor thing. 

 

An excited gurgle caught his attention and he saw Splotch floating in the air waving his tentacles around frantically. "Hutch, I think Splotch found it!" he hollered in the direction he had last seen the other bun.

 

"Yeah, I see him! I'm heading over from the left!" The quick response came and without delay, Malakai headed in the opposite direction. Splotch was moving now, still giving the occasional gurgle and wave. He was surprisingly good at this whole tracking thing, which Malakai made sure to make note of for later. 

 

It didn't take them too long before they were standing in front of each other, a pile of boxes on either side, Splotch back by Malakai's side, and between them all a confused and frantic little imp. It was quite a pudgy little thing, tried to get under the boxes nearby but failed miserably due to its size. At that point in time Hutch and Malakai both lunged forward, grabbing at the critter and quickly got down to petting and soothing it in an attempt to calm it. Hutch also took a treat from his pocket that he offered to the squirmy imp and it seemed to do the trick. It happily munched down on the cookie, letting itself be picked up without much fuss.

 

"Whew, that was a workout!" Hutch laughed breathlessly. "You're pretty good at this." he turned to Malakai.

 

"Thanks. Had some previous experience," he admitted. "Not as good as you yet, though. I don't always bring treats around." his voice rumbled in a quick chuckle.

 

"Don't worry, you'll get there! Now, what do we do with this little guy?" they gave a pointed look to the imp in their arms. 

 

"Do you know what it is?"

 

"Yeah! It's a harpup. They pass by once a year in a huge migration. Speaking of... that's today. This little one must've been an early imp. There'll probably be dozens of them passing by throughout the day."

 

The thought alone made Malakai cringe. "In that case, I should make sure the house and ship both are plenty secured so we don't need to keep chasing them around all day. While it is quite cute and I bet selling a few would be no problem at all I don't want my whole stock to get destroyed in the process of capturing them." He waved in the direction of the toppled boxes. Some of them definitely had their contents broken in their fall.

 

"Hm... I'd love to get any extras you catch off your hands tomorrow?" Hutch offered. He could definitely rehome some through the Imporium. "I'll help you catch them as well."

 

"Sure. If you help me imp-proof any important areas you can have the crew assist you in the hunt. Even these guys." he said, pointing toward the thulu and shelon playing nearby. 

 

"They seem to like you a lot." Hutch smiled.

 

"Seems like it." Kai scoffed but his gaze on the imps was gentle.

 

"Would you like to keep this one too?" they asked, extending the harpup toward Malakai. It was so chubby and just flopping in Hutch's arms. Admittingly, quite an endearing little blob.

 

"I guess I wouldn't mind too much. Don't you want to bring it back with you, though?"

 

"I'm sure we'll catch plenty of other ones." Hutch grinned and it was all Malakai needed before taking the imp in his arms. It was much more calm now than it had been originally. Splotch came by and gurgled at the harpup.

 

"Do you like your new buddy?" He presented the imp to the other two. Shelly also moved closer to inspect the harpup which squealed at the tentacle that had just smacked its snoot. Splotch replied in turn with his own gurgle before flopping entirely on the harpup. "Seems like they like each other," he noted.

 

"What are you going to name it?" Hutch asked, curious.

 

Malakai hummed in thought. "How about Polf?" 

 

They both looked over to the playing imps, the harpup now jumping about with the thulu still on it. 

 

"I like it! I think it suits it!" Hutch agreed cheerfully. "Shall we head out and prepare for the others coming, then?"

 

Malakai also got up off the ground and dusted his pants off. "Don't have much of a choice there, do we? Where would you like to start from?"

 

"Since we're already here might as well do this place first."

 

"Sure, I'll go call a few helpers. In the meantime, feel free to grab whatever you need from there" he pointed at a pile of boxes off into the distance as he headed back toward the lobby. It was going to be a busy day ahead.