For Love of Chocolate

She had made a new friend, and Trinity couldn’t be more pleased! Despite everything that had happened back at the village, Ehoron seemed to be a gentle soul. It had taken them a bit of time to adjust in the communication department, as it usually did for her. Being a mute certainly made conversation difficult. Thankfully, she had picked up an iLac at some point during her travels, and that had helped her tremendously. She was easily able to type up any kind of words and responses that her mouth couldn’t say, using it to introduce herself and make small talk with the man as they wandered.

Eventually they found themselves in a sizeable town where they came across a warehouse that manufactured chocolate. Trinity could practically smell it from miles away, and once they were close she eagerly bounded over toward the building, letting her nose lead her toward the delicious smell. When she got there, she was practically drooling. Her eyes lit like a child at Christmas as she beheld the baskets of goodies all tied up and themed for Valentine’s day, ready to go to their destinations.

A worker approached them, wiping his hands on his apron. “Ye here abou’ the job?” he asked in a slight accent. “These here gotta get delivered t’ the store down at the other end o’ the road. Just gotta see the clerk in the office there and they’ll get ye squared away.” He pointed at a door a couple feet away from the pair and then went back about his business, disappearing into the warehouse before either of them could really reply. Trinity cast Ehoron a curious glance, confused but also intrigued as she silently asked him what he wanted to do.

She followed Ehoron into the frilly little office, eager to work for the people that made such delicious smelling sweets. Trinity barely even read the paperwork as she signed it. Thus she was equally as surprised as her companion when the lady stamped the documents and referred to them as husband and wife before ushering them out. She blinked in confusion for a moment before turning to look up at her companion. Or, well, husband? This wasn’t exactly how Trinity had ever imagined herself getting hitched. She knew a little about marriage and relationships from what she’d observed of others, but had no first hand experience with either herself.

What was she supposed to do, now? What did married people do? Were they supposed to kiss? Her face turned beet red at the thought as a look of bashful panic swept across her face. Ehoron was definitely attractive, though she hadn’t really stopped to think about that until this moment. Her miscolored eyes looked away and she started fiddling timidly with the long strands of her pink and brown hair.

They were saved by Louie approaching them with the boxes. “Here you go,” he told them, handing the items off. “These need to be delivered to the store down the street. Just make sure these get there without losing any chocolates. The payment only applies if the boxes are delivered in full. Once you’re done, come back here and your temporary union will be annulled.”

Trinity was completely confused as to why they needed to be married for this job, but the deed was already done -- plus there was chocolate in her hands now, and that was far more interesting than what the man had to say. She was already busy trying to peek into the boxes to see what delicious morsels waited within.

It wouldn’t take long once they were off and on their way. Trinity was still tempting herself with the idea of sniping a piece -- surely they wouldn’t notice if one was missing, right? -- when they were suddenly assailed by four children that were quite insistent on getting some of the chocolate for themselves. Trinity frowned at the kids and held the box above her head in an attempt to keep it out of reach from their grubby, grabby little hands.

Unfortunately, she was not very tall. At just under five and a half feet, most of these kids were already about her height so they could easily reach for the container. Determined not to let the brats steal her sweets, she continued to duck and weave out of their way with a determined look that was almost a mixture between a frown and a pout before ultimately settling on the one place she knew she could go where they could not reach her.

Tucking the box under her arm, Trinity scrambled up onto Ehoron’s back until her lithe form was sitting on his shoulders. Considering that he wasn’t exactly expecting this, there was surely a moment of struggle as they both fought to balance before finding their centers again. She’d even hold his box for him if that made it easier. With a triumphant smirk she stuck her tongue out at the kids and giggled a bit proudly to herself for her genius.

Ehoron definitely had not been ready for her to leap on his back, though he recovered well enough. He managed not to lose his balance completely, at least. The man chastised her and told her not to get comfortable, but she could hear the smile in his voice as he said it, just as he’d been smiling every time he’d stubbornly slapped her hand away from trying to get too curious at the contents of the boxes.

Trinity held on tightly with her legs as he leaped up above the vendors and ran along the roofs or whatever path would help them get away from the children more quickly. Soon they were free of the little pests. As her friend mused about the name of the shop he set her down. She gave him the stink eye when he teased her about eating chocolates while he did the hard parts of the job, but there was a twinkle of mirth in her eyes as she showed him that she had not, in fact, partaken of the goods during their escape.

The mirth was immediately wiped away when something extremely hard hit her on the back of her shoulder. She gasped in pain and turned her face to look behind her. Standing there was a disheveled looking man in his late thirties. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days, and teetered a bit like he had been drinking. A glance at the ground showed her that it was a knife that had been thrown at her. The only reason she hadn’t been lacerated was probably because the nature of her magic gave her thicker skin than most and the dull weapon had not been able to pierce it.

Her eyes went wide with fright and she immediately began to shake in fear, instinctively turning back to Ehoron and trying to hide against him. “Look at you two!” the man said, his words a little slurred. “Disgusting. Valentine’s Day is disgusting! People walking around and shamelessly flaunting their intimacies. No one cares! Keep it to yourselves!” He ranted like a man that had clearly been heartbroken recently, his voice dripping with bitterness.

A second knife was sloppily thrown at them, bouncing off the back of Trinity’s head. She yelped again, already crying from fright. A dizzying sensation filled her head from the blow, momentarily drowning out her terror about the violence. The young woman hated physical altercations. The very thought of it was traumatizing to her, but right now there was a stranger trying to harm her and her new friend.

In a rare show of initiative, she looked at the man with anger mixed into her scared tears. Without even stepping closer to the assailant, Trinity lifted up one of her hands in a fist and slammed it down toward the ground. By the time it came down, the size of her arm had increased several times over until her fist was almost as tall, if not taller, than her entire body. The massive appendage came down on top of the man over and over with such brute strength that by the time she stopped he was fully unconscious in his own personal little crater in the sidewalk.

The whole time Trinity flailed at him -- for that was the manner with which she’d attacked, was more of a feminine swat from a school girl -- she continued to cry. And by the time she was done and the man was unable to attack them anymore, the young woman went right back to trying to hide against Ehoron with the boxes of chocolate protectively clutched between them.