224 Hangry

Sweat dripped down Macha's temples as she bent over to rest her hands on her knees. The yellow blossoms from the tree above swayed from a tender breeze.

"Can we stop? I'm hungry," she whined.

Today she and Tyr finished work early and for the past three hours, he insisted that she practice with him. Her muscles were fatigued, and she wanted to eat dinner over an hour ago. It was well past dinnertime, and they had skipped lunch. Her body now pleaded for a meal, not caring about its quality. Her knees wobbled, her hands shook, and her stomach hurt.

Moments like this made him wonder if she even cared about her own life. He only pushed her because he wanted to ensure she could defend herself if someone tried to kidnap her again.

"No. Just a bit more. I want you to be able to counter this sort of attack if I use half my speed."

Her eye twitched upon discovering his goal for her. Now he was being unreasonable.

Her stomach growled, "Tyr, I'm hungry! If you don't let me stop to eat, you can sleep alone tonight."

His eyebrows came together upon hearing her threat. Not once did they ever sleep apart unless one of them was away on business. Her threat was amusing; he did not even know where she would go if he were to sleep alone.

"Fine, how about we train for an hour or two more?" he offered, willing to compromise.

"No," her voice held an edge to it which she could not hide.

In her mind, she screamed, "Are you kidding me? Two hours? Two? I wanted to eat hours ago."

His head tilted at her defiance. She rarely talked like this to him. "Besides, where do you think you're going to sleep? I can follow you to the living room, or the extra bedroom, or even Aži's place," he scoffed.

He put his hands on his hips, daring her to argue. He was growing impatient with her attitude.

She opened her mouth, about to scream that she would go to Luna's apartment when a discrete cough prompted her to turn around. One of Tai Shan's servants stood with her paws behind her back. The calico bakeneko had her tail between her legs, embarrassed to be disrupting their argument.

"Lady Swat I'm sorry for the interruption but Lord Swat requested that I inform you that the egg hatched."

Hearing that Aži's egg hatched helped to ease her anger, "Oh, uh...," she glanced at Tyr.

Her lips wiggled because she wanted to make up with him before going to the family home, but she did not feel like she had anything to apologize for.

The interruption made Tyr realize that his frustration was unwarranted. This was a good excuse for their argument to end. "Why don't I get some food from the mess hall and bring it up while you get ready to go?"

This was the olive branch he tried to extend and hoped that she would let his earlier stance slide. She still eyed him without saying a word.

He picked up their things. "I realize you're hungry because we've been training for hours. Do you not want dinner?" he asked pointedly.

He refused to apologize for the intensity of tonight's training. She should be happy that he loved her so much that he wanted to ensure she could hold her own against any bounty hunter. Today he hurried through his paperwork and skipped lunch so they would have enough time to train tonight.

"Fine. That sounds like a good plan," she capitulated. Turning to the servant, she said, "Tell my brother that we'll be over after we wash up and eat dinner, please."

As Macha and Tyr walked towards the apartments, she reached for his hand. When she touched it, he grabbed her fingers and gave them an affectionate squeeze.

The warmth from her soft touch melted the remaining frustrations he had. He looked around, to see if anyone was nearby. "I'm sorry, I just want you to be safe," he said in a low voice. He did not want someone else to hear him apologize.

"It's fine. I was hangry," she explained using the English term because she did not know what the equivalent was in this world.

"Hangry?" he questioned. "That isn't a word. What are you trying to say?"

He did not understand what word she mixed up. This error in her speech surprised him because she usually was satisfactory with her word usage. Sometimes her pronunciation was off, but he always understood what she meant.

His confusion caused her to laugh and the last traces of anger left her. "It's an English word. It is a mixture of 'hungry' and 'angry.'"

She was happy he was learning how to speak her native tongue because it made this explanation easy.

Tyr tried saying the word a few times. It was an interesting word, and he wanted to remember it. It summed up a feeling that she often felt. Most of their arguments were because of this 'hangry' feeling.

****

Later, over dinner, Tyr dipped his bread into his lamb stew. The starchy slice sopped up the reddish liquid, and he used his spoon to roll a carrot slice onto it.

Now that the egg hatched he needed to go on a mission. There were some infrastructure changes he wanted to implement in the guild's area.

Macha mentioned that her world had large public wagons which people paid to ferry them around the city. The wagons would stop at designated locations and the pros and cons were interesting. This method was cheaper but slower than hiring a coach. This idea was fascinating, and he wanted to try it out.

"What are you thinking about?" Macha asked.

Tyr cut a few more slices of bread for her. It was fresh and the crust flaked as he sawed the pieces. Bits of crumbs cracked and fell onto the plate to his side. A few crumbs dropped onto the table as he put the slices on the plate that lay between them.

Stirring his spoon in his stew, he explained, "Now that Aži's egg hatched, I want to do a mission. Is that all right with you? If not, it can wait."

He did not want to be separated from her, but she still was not strong enough to go on the sorts of missions he could do.

"Oh, I understand," she forced a smile on her face, "We all have to work out sometimes. Can I use the airship while you're away? I would like to get the baby wyvern a gift."

A bit of soup stained the corner of her mouth, so he carefully wiped it away with the napkin. As he did this, he nodded, "That's fine, but I want you to bring some friends along. I'll pay for them to accompany you on the mission."

Macha lifted a brow, "I'm just going shopping. I don't think I need you to make it into a mission. If anything I can just hire a translator and that would be enough."

His hand crumpled the black napkin in his hand.

"There's still a bounty on you. I'm fine with you going shopping, but I don't want you to go alone. You still aren't strong enough that I feel comfortable with it." His voice was strict and he would not give on this topic. Her life was more important to him that a few hundred gold pieces. "Where do you want to go?"

She waved a hand, giving in, "All right, if you really want to, go ahead and make it a mission. There's this place called Stebuchinie, no Chebu, Shtebutineie... I can't say it. It's well known for their fireproof silk. The silk is also said to always stay warm. I wanted to get a silk nest made for the baby."

Sometimes the words in this language were so difficult to say. The accents were confusing and her tongue felt so large in her mouth.

Tyr chuckled. "Are you talking about Szczebrzeszyn?" He leaned in and kissed the top of her head. "I've never been there before, but my mother bought some blankets from them a while back. They make a cloth that's good for undergarment clothes during the winter months. Pick us up a few while you're there, please."