#beruru

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Minti Chocolate had traveled this road before, in a time not too long ago.

On that day, the trip was a muddy, rainy mess in the North Shroud, ending with a equally mushy and cold snow in the Highlands at the First Dicasterial Observatorium. Riptide, the viera's trusty chocobo, had had a field day hopping from mud pool to mud pool, making sure that his rider and their armor were just as dirty as he was. Why had she gone up there? To make amends with Ser Bale, and to continue the dragoon training she'd had so many years ago. And, she supposed, it was to show the Frost Queen, one of her Choir, that she was a woman of her word. That despite the many wrongs she'd done over her long lifetime, she was a good person. She wanted to make amends.

As Minti walked through the Observatorium on bamboo zori, accompanied by a moogle she'd met only a few days ago, she wondered if there were still things she needed to ask forgiveness for. Maybe there were, for the snow and cold clung to her dōgi and hakama, eagerly waiting to feast on the exposed skin underneath.

Their name was Kupopo. The moogle, not Minti, she knew her chosen name well enough. Kupopo was looking for Beruru, a young lalafell and pictomancer who'd gone missing recently. "Well, she's missing in the sense that I don't know where she is," Kupopo had explained while the two were in Gridania, "but I don't fear for her safety." For a time, the two had traveled with an older scholar, Janquetilaque, someone who was like a grandfather to Beruru. Much like me and Mamam, Minti thought at the time.

While Minti understood that the lalafell was a good friend, and that the two had separated after "a terrible argument," it felt like there were important things being kept from her. The viera was well versed in keeping secrets, after all. Still, no point in trying to pry what didn't wish to be pried. Maybe after the tour of the realm, she'd get to the truth of things. For now, there was the role of a virtuous pictomancer to play.

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Much as Minti may have wished to get back to the comforting climes of the Lavender Beds, or maybe under a shady tree in the Goblet, Kupopo seemed to want her to stay. First with the quest for the hartebeest's horn, and now with cups of piping hot chocolate in one of Camp Dragonhead's common quarters. Did he think her as another lonely adventurer, maybe? Was this the first time he was well and truly alone?

"It's important to us, as pictomancers, to capture the essence of the places we go to," Kupopo was saying, their tiny paws barely able to wrap around the brim of the mug they were drinking from. "We can't stay in one place, see. We need to be inspired!" They loudly slurped up cocoa. "Mmm. Excellent recipe, this. Someone ought to write it down."

Minti, meanwhile, was having a hard time drinking hers. "Someone ought," she echoed wistfully. It wasn't the cold keeping her from enjoying the drink; no, there were a great deal of things at work in her mind.

Kupopo continued. "So, you've been to Ishgard before, right?"

"Aye." Minti nodded slightly, trudging through the blinding snow of her mindscape.

"Surely you must have something that'd inspire you. Perhaps some strong emotions, or, or, sensations." Kupopo gestured widely with his mug, splashing coca on the wooden table between them. "Pray forgive! ...How about the first time you came to Ishgard. Can you remember that?"

The viera leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Imaging things had never come easy for her; one could say "Imagine an apple" and instantly see a bright, red, juicy apple sitting on a table in their mind. For her, that same apple was a flicker, a flash of red and juice and table and then, nothing. Maybe that's why she liked writing much more than drawing, when she was younger. For a young girl like her, it was easier to write out what she was experiencing in her mind, than it was to picture it.

"The warmth I found amidst the bitter cold, from a woman who was incredibly dear to me, when I needed help the most." Minti didn't feel comfortable enough sharing everything with Kupopo, not yet. Maybe, further along the journey to find their lost friend, she'd say everything. She'd pour her heart out to them, talk about Lady Sabbatine, the House, Haurchefaunt, everything...everything that made her, her. Important time spent, time that lit the fires in her heart and made her not run anymore. Time that turned her from a girl not ready to face the world into a woman grown. An adventurer. Minti Chocolate, not Marget Djt-Gilda, daughter of Skeld and Anja.

Not now. Soon but not now.

Kupopo sipped their chocolate in silence. For a moment, the only sound to be heard was that of their wings fluttering, loudly keeping the fluffy creature afloat.

"An difficult journey indeed, from what you've shared of your life." They gently put their mug down on the table, and floated over to where Minti was sitting. "But, you were shown kindness, were you not? From the moment you stepped foot within those walls. Someone cared for you."

"You could say that."

Kupopo dabbed away some cocoa that was dripping down Minti's chin. "And, you're driven to show that kindness to others, right? That's important to you?"

"I suppose so."

The moogle nodded, shaking their fur out and splashing cocoa against the stone walls that surrounded them and their pictomancer protege. "...that's good to know. It inspires me, you know? Gives me hope.

But I should get to poking my adorable nose around the camp, see if I can't get some leads on where Beruru might have gone. Take care of yourself, alright?