Fruit and Honey

“I have to admit, fruit always seems to taste better when it comes from you,” Arvid confessed as he bit into another red berry, the sharp taste exploding in his mouth and juice running down his fingers. “It must make you incredibly popular.” Perhaps Ibbe wasn’t the only fruit farmer around, but their fruit was fantastic, and amazingly enough, Arvid was capable of acknowledging when someone was good at something. After all, the skills of the residents all aided to the glory of Hedeby and if you knew anything of Arvid, it should have been his pride and devotion when it came to Hedeby.

He wasn’t there simply to stroke Ibbe’s ego, but for another task - conversation, or more specifically the sharing of overheard gossip. There were some people that easily faded into the background, some situations where people would chat while accomplishing some task, not thinking about who might overhear them speaking. “Have you seen many people lately?” He asked, still sounding so idly curious, throwing the rest of the berry in his mouth.

“I see plenty of people each day. You were right. My fruit is good, fresher and plumper than anyone else's.” Idum humbled themselves, thinking it was just their former life as a god that lead their harvest to be so bountiful and ripe. But in fact it was the long and lonesome mortal life that taught them when best to pluck berries from the bush and apples from the tree. To acknowledge such a thing, felt like heresy. “My turn for a question, why do you ask, Prince?” Mortals always liked titles.