The next morning saw Luke and Martha lovingly whispering to each other and stealing little kisses throughout breakfast while Niala was attempting to control her lasting blush.

  David ate and spoke with his niece and nephew.

  He and Niala left for the market square at the same time Luke left for his business. While they didn't specifically need anything, Martha and Luke's “discussion” the day prior had given Niala a few ideas. She seemed to be enjoying herself as they both slowly explored the various shops and market stalls, asking for his opinion on a variety of things.

  His answers left her thanking him and glaring at him in a roughly equal split.

  David proposed splitting up after a while, saying that he wanted to track down a naturalist and ask about the bats. This seemed to upset Niala a lot. When he asked why she was upset, she got more upset.

  David then asked her if she wanted to come with him to talk to a naturalist about the bats and she stopped being upset.

  There was a lesson to learn here, he knew it. He would ponder on it later.

  The first place they looked was the small Bellharbour college and while they did employ a few naturalists, they were mainly focused on marine life. They then tried the various guilds, specifically the merchant's guild, hunter's lodge and farmer's guild. While they did find a few people who generally knew of bats, and certainly offered their ideas and opinions on the matter of relocating a bat colony, neither David nor Niala had much confidence in their expertise.

  They had by now spent close to six bells trying to find a bat naturalist with no clear trail to follow. David was starting to think he'd have to go to a town with a major college or even university when Niala suggested to check with the alchemists and their material suppliers, reasoning that the local alchemists had to acquire guano somehow, and they'd probably attempt to do so as cheaply as possible. It stood to reason that what they were trying to do had been at least attempted before.

  He wished he'd thought of it. He was the Free Courier after all, the finder of things.

  But he also had to admit with a certain amount of respect that Niala did have a good head on her shoulders, even if it often turned red. Revealing this to her netted him a punch on the arm and her blushing a little at the same time.

  After many more bells and a lot of talking and questions, they did eventually manage to find someone who appeared rather knowledgeable about bats, a young woman that had derisively been nicknamed Batty, a not-so-subtle dig at her mental health.

  A thin woman with long frazzled dark-blue hair and twice patched-over clothes, she was no college-trained subject expert. What she was, was a bat Enthusiast, capital E. Some other people might have called her a bat nut or a crazy bat person but David thought that would have been disrespectful. The woman was sound of mind, friendly and socially well-adjusted, with the singular exception that she liked bats and talking about bats way too much.

  She loved to watch bats, to draw them, to study them, to rescue them and nurse them back to health. She had set up a bat sanctuary and helped people get rid of whatever bats had nested in their homes and buildings, and she funded this by exclusively selling bat guano and bat parts – of naturally dead bats of course. She would never hurt one of her squeaky fluffy flying puffballs.

  Her words.

  David should have seen this coming but was still left a little dumbfounded when Batty and Niala simply clicked like a tick and a donkey's ass and started chatting about bats and bat guano. Batty just happy to be talking about her favourite topic to someone that seemed interested. Niala just naturally curious and yearning to learn new and interesting things, and seemingly being in her element when talking to other brainy and nerdy people.

  He pondered what that meant when she and he were getting along so well. Was he... secretly a nerd?

  Batty and Niala chatted away the rest of the afternoon as they explored Batty's bat sanctuary.

  Rolls off the tongue pretty well, all things said.

  They did eventually disengage, wishing each other well and promising to keep in contact through mail. Niala had by then several pages worth of bat notes in her notebook and was pretty sure she knew exactly what they had to build to relocate the bat colony.

  Batty had even asked if she could come visit once the colony had been relocated, wanting to confirm it was adapting well and had everything they needed to thrive. Niala had been entirely too happy to extend an open-ended invitation to Batty.

  David was starting to feel a bit jealous, though he wasn't sure why.

  They finally hugged each other like long lost sisters and parted ways.

  Some time after parting way they registered that they didn't actually know Batty's real name. She had never offered it, they had never asked it, and she had seemed perfectly happy being called Batty.

  David belatedly realized that what other people had used as a slur against the woman was probably a badge of honour as far as the bat-obsessed girl was concerned. He chuckled at the thought.

  As they made their way back to the Wayman's house for dinner, Niala happily and joyfully sang Batty's praises, how she was such a smart, friendly and enjoyable person.

  While David once again felt a pang of unexplained jealousy, which he immediately squashed, he also understood that Niala had basically made a new friend.

  And that made him smile.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The most exciting thing that happened as David and Niala made their way back to Riverwall via the auto-carriage had been a migrating herd of Mosstriches blocking the road for nearly a full bell as the half-plant half-poultry man-sized birds, numbering in the tens of thousands, slowly trundled across the road.

  Niala had been very excited, pointing at the birds and talking about how the lichens that grew on the Mosstriches had very interesting properties, especially in either inhibiting or strengthening the effects of other ingredients depending on if they were added at the start or end of a brew.

  David had apprehensively listened as Niala joyfully explained the lichens' virtues, letting him know several times how she would love to go gather some of it.

  That was how David had found himself wrestling with a bunch of irate Mosstriches as Niala happily plucked at their leafy feathers. Sometimes a little bit too happily, inciting the Mosstrich to bite at whatever was closest to its beak which invariably was David.

  Later, once the herd had moved on and they were back on the auto-carriage, David had been tempted to complain, bruised and stained as he was, but Niala looked so happy as she sorted her samples and took notes in her notebook, pointing and explaining to David all of the important details to look for in high-quality moss and lichens that he instead smiled and listened.

  The bruises and stains weren't even that bad anyway.

  Once back in Riverwall, the rest of the day went by quickly. With all of Batty's info fresh in Niala's mind she dragged David to go explore the general area around her home.

  As they explored further west from the town, she explained to David that they were looking for fruit bushes or trees as well as areas that would have a lot of flying insects, both food sources for the bats and thus being a good area for them to resettle to.

  Soon, after Niala had stopped for the umpteenth time to “gather samples of an interesting plant”, David had usurped her explorer privileges and was leading the way, feeling like he was trying to marshal a cat through catnip valley.

  On second thought, that's exactly what he was doing.

  They still managed to map and roughly sketch a large area of sparsely forested gently rolling plains which seemed to dominate the land west of town, nestled between Riverwall and what he knew were some small farming communities farther out west.

  On that patch of land they had found several thickets of berry bushes and even a few wild apple trees, all situated a few minutes north of where the Southern Sister river flattened out on its way to the sea to the west. The shores in that area were muddy and had several small half-pools of slow-moving water which were excellent insect breeding grounds, at least if the small swarms of mosquitoes they encountered were any indications. Coupled with what appeared to be the tail-end of a pasture or grazing field and at least two wild bee hives, the area seemed primed to receive and support a large colony of bats.

  Niala confirmed David's hypotheses by saying that this was where the bats probably already came to feed.

  David asked why they'd been traipsing through the countryside for the past four bells if she already knew the bats would be happy pretty much anywhere.

  She'd replied. “Since we have to evict them and that's never a pleasant experience, I thought by building their new home closer to their food source would make them a bit happier.”

  It was a very Niala answer.

  He shrugged and started walking back home, asking exactly where the bats would go after their eviction. She replied that they would build what was essentially a house-less attic somewhere nearby. Batty had given her a few sketches of bat-houses that she had already set up around Bellharbour, so Niala said all they needed now were the materials and to figure out exactly where to build it, pointing out that she already had a few ideas about that as well.

  The rest of the evening was spent doing some more cleaning and repairs on the house. Night was very welcome for both of them after their long day.

  The next day, sometime early morning after they'd had breakfast, and David had his now-customary Old Woman brew, they were interrupted from their house renovations by a knocking on the door. Puzzled, Niala made her way to greet their visitor.

  At her door was one of the town guards-woman, who greeted her.

  “Miss Niala of Riverwall?” She asked.

  “That's me, yes. Can I help you?” Niala answered.

  “Would you know where Free Courier David Wayman is? I was told he was often seen with you. I'm actually looking for him.”

  “David?” She frowned. “Ah, just wait a moment, I'll go call him.” She said before stepping back inside.

  She found David in the water room, having started to disassemble the water heater.

  “David, a guards-woman wants to see you.” She informed him.

  “Hmm, did she say why?”

  Niala shook her head. “No, I didn't think to ask.”

  “That's fine.” He said as he got up and cleaned his hands with a rag before going to greet the guards-woman himself, followed by a curious Niala.

  As the guards-woman spotted a man coming out of the house, she hazarded a guess. “Free Courier David Wayman?”

  “I am David Wayman. What is it?” He asked.

  The guards-woman pulled out a letter from her pouch and handed it to him.

  “Mayor Caleb and guard captain Ma-Ke-Lo wish to talk to you. I think they want to offer you a private courier posting.” She said, nodding towards the letter in David's hand. “They asked me to let you know they would wait for up to two days before they'd make a public posting. They also said they'd rather you accepted the private posting and that they would make it worth your time.”

  On that, she slightly bowed to David and Niala both before departing.

  David fanned the letter as he pondered. Glancing at Niala at his side, who was stealing not-so-discreet glances at the letter, the tip of her tail swaying, he grinned impishly. “Oh, I wish I could accept this mysterious and most probably quite interesting posting. Unfortunately I'm very busy with the repairs on your house. It looks like I will have to decline...”

  Niala visibly flinched. “What?! No! I mean... it's ok we aren't in any rush to get everything fixed. We can spare a little time away from the house. Besides, you need some work right? You said that you didn't have much money anymore and...” She trailed off as she noticed his grin, ears slowly flattening.

  She scowled before punching his arm. “I hate you!” She blurted out before turning around and pouting.

  He laughed as he went back inside to retrieve his coat and courier pouch. Walking back out he called to Niala, who was still pouting by the front door, furtively peeking at him out of the corner of her eyes, “Assistant Niala, come on, we have a mysterious and probably interesting adventure to attend to. Unless you don't want to...?”

  He waited a few moments and observed Niala, who was furiously debating between not wanting to let him win but also not wanting to miss out. She eventually came to a decision.

  “Urgh! You can be so annoying!” she complained, grabbing at her face, before turning his way and marching to him. “I'm coming, but you're not getting any old woman brew for a week!”

  David's smile volatilized. “Niala, please. I regret my actions and have reflected upon them. Never again will I commit the same transgression. I need my morning old woman.” He pleaded.

  She froze mid-step and stumbled. She locked gaze with him, glaring, ears pointing straight up. “Two weeks” before marching past him.

  “Two days.” He tried to barter, locking step with her.

  “THREE WEEKS!” She counter-offered, accelerating away.

  “Niala, please!”

  “I CAN'T HEAR YOU!” She shouted as she plugged her ears with her hands.

  “Niala! My old woman!” He called out, chasing after her all the way into town.