If the surprised emotion had a sound effect, then it'd have sounded like a Boing! Sound as the tips of Brigid's tail and ears shot straight up, and her eyes widened.
"It's him!" she said a bit too loudly, smashing her finger against the black and white paper and catching the attention of the beasts at the next table over.
Eligh took a slow, deliberate sip of his coffee, his voice a low rumble, "Who's that?"
Brigid flipped the paper around and showed the bear: There was a black and white photo of Advrik standing beside the strung-up corpse of the Chimera. "Don't you act like you don't fucking know!"
"Oh, wow, yeah. Would you look at that?" He said as his eyes scanned the headline he had given the local paper,
"Nue Chimera defeated; Local Monster Hunter Claims Rampaging Monster!"
The fox sat back down with a huff, "Did you know about this?"
The waiter/barista appeared. A mole with an unusual appendage on his snout placed and a small saucer with a cucumber sandwich atop in front of Brigid.
Her gaze gravitated to the fleshy, wriggling tentacles, failing to notice that he'd been craning his neck to read the headline on her paper.
The mole shouted, "Well shit!" as heads turned toward him.
"Excuse me?" Eligh said, snapping the mole out of his trance. He scurried off back into the kitchen. "Strange little guy."
Brigid sat staring; an unenthused, stoic expression bled across her face. She'd crossed her arms, pressing her breasts together and causing the tops to bulge out of her tank top.
"Uh, Brigs, your--"
"Stop staring at my boobs, Eligh." She said, loud enough to grab the attention of other customers yet again.
"Tell me everything you know about him. But first, start with why you didn't tell me about this SOONER."
The giant bear hunched over the table, now-ineffectivly-as he tried to hide his shame. "Okay, okay. Just stop drawing attention to me, please!"
"You promise?" She said, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Yes, I promise. Now, please!"
"Fine," She said. "He's not looking at my chest, everyone. He's gay; go back to minding your own business."
Brigid ate her cucumber sandwich as she listened to her friend explain the chain of events that had rapidly transpired within town hall over the last few days.
"First, I didn't actually know about the monster hunt contract until the mayor briefed us yesterday morning, and by that point, the chimera had already been killed by--"
"Advrik." She injected. "Did you get to meet him?"
"Yes, Advrik. And no, the mayor had kept the whole thing pretty hush-hush; He'd gone to meet the wolf at the location where the hunt took place, had the picture taken, and then later came back to the office and asked me to supply the local paper with a headline and that," He said, pointing at the low resolution, grainy photo that had been printed onto the first page of the Brickhedge Times. "It was a polaroid; I digitized it, then tweaked it the best I could, but man, just when I think I'd seen all of the mayor's old-timey electronics, he brings out another one.
"Do you still have--"
"No, I am not giving you the photo, weirdo." He raised an eyebrow and then asked, "Did you order a cucumber sandwich at a coffee shop?"
It had been a rare day off for the town planner, and one he hadn't intended on spending indoors, Much to Brigid's delight(He did have the money, after all).
The sun was sweltering, with temperatures forecast to climb high into the nineties today, with low humidity. It was the peak of the summer season and the height of the mass cicada brood awakening as well!
Brigid had overheard some kids complaining about the cicada's constant drone as they played on the sidewalk this morning, with one having cited the song as a warning of bad things to come. The fancies of children, she thought. But then remembered the mention of a heat wave that had set itself up on the west coast and had been predicted to move east in the coming weeks.
Noise pollution was at an all-time high, with the millions of insects all having emerged at once, their somber song drowning out most other outdoor noises and making it difficult to spend time outside.
And even should one be able to tolerate it, the swarms of dying bugs that covered every surface possible made it a problem just keeping the window open on most days.
The brood wasn't seen as an annoyance by all beasts, however, as certain races were apt to use them in their cuisine, Particularly that of the moles and other rodents. Local restaurants were gathering the bugs up by the hundreds and stashing them in their freezer for later. Ingredients in timed exclusive menu items as long as the ingredients would last!
"Get it out. Get it out. Get it OUT NOW!"
The bear was slow and lumbering, unable to keep track of where the bug had landed, let alone actually grab it. "You need to hold still, Brigs!"
But the fox wasn't having it as she frantically shook her head in an attempt to dislodge the red-eyed noise-maker that had entangled itself in her loose-flowing hair. "The one fucking day I don't braid it, shit!" She yelled, grabbing the attention of nearby beasts yet again.
Finally, Eligh placed a massive hand atop her head that had proved successful in halting her movement. He gingerly reached forward, index and thumb together in the pinching gesture, and lightly plucked the dying bug from the fox's hair. He allowed it to crawl clumsily around his hand.
Brigid gathered her hair and stuffed it down the back of her shirt. "Oh, oh, thank god. I hate those things." She declared, watching the tiny creature crawl up Elighs arm and find its way into his beard.
"It's dying. It probably already passed on its seed. It'll be close to two decades before this little guy's offspring emerge, long after he and his remains have returned to the earth..." The bear looked longingly at the cicada as its movements became less and less lively.
"But you know what?" He took out his phone and snapped a quick photo of it. "This one? He won't be just that. He'll now be a memory on my Facebook timeline, and..." He took a quick photo of Brigid, her shirt bulging at the back, giving her the visage of a hunchback.
"It was all thanks to you and your little freakout, Brigid."
The fox looked at him for a bit, then said, "You get sentimental over some of the weirdest shit, Big Guy." Then they turned and headed for home. "Hey, hold up, what did you say about me in your post?"
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