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“Munch, much” the crunch of the fresh grass restoring Milo’s spirit. He’s a simple goat all he needs is fresh green grass, the sun, and his friend Jesper. Milo shook the thought out of his goat mind, Jesper wasn’t here no need to dwell on the past. The barkeep in Ketterdam who he’d been left with was a nice enough man, but he was very busy and didn’t have much time to spend with Milo. There was only a cantankerous chicken, who just glared at Milo when he tried to chat in the little fenced-in yard. Despite his loneliness, Milo tried to look on the bright side. He’s an optimistic type of goat. The sun was shining (rare in Ketterdam), the clouds were big and puffy, and hopefully, somewhere out there was Jesper happy and larger than life, laughing with his 2 best friends, the extremely lovely girl with the long hair down her back and the menacing grumpy one who dressed in all black.
Jesper was the best friend a goat could have, Milo reminisced. He had met Jesper on his journey to Ravka to kidnap Alina Starkov, the sun summoner. They hadn’t succeeded, and he didn’t know why that had been the goal (it probably had something to do with the grumpy boy with the scary eyes and piles of kruge), but he and Jesper had become inseparable. But separate they must, Jesper’s life of crime and adventure didn’t suit a goat. The Crow Club didn’t have a backyard for a goat. So Milo had been given to a barkeep who lived on the outskirts of Ketterdam and had a maybe not spacious, but adequate yard. Jesper had visited a couple of times, but then he’d got caught up in more adventures in Ravka and Shu Han and Fjerda, and Milo hadn’t seen him in many months. He had heard some rumors about an auction, a drug named jurda parem, and a boy called Kuwei Yul Bo. It was exactly the type of mess, Jesper would get caught up in and Milo was worried.
“Bang!” the back door flew open, and there, oh my ghezen, oh my djel, oh my saints there was Jesper. In all his glory, rushing towards him in a giant neon green checked coat and a vibrant purple top hat. Running to him, jumping in excitement, Milo couldn’t believe it, Jesper was back!!! He was back! He was whole and all right, smiling, hugging him, and scratching Milo behind the ears.
“Milo, silly cloven footed you, glad to see you too” Jesper babled in Zemini.
“MILO IS A . . . A . . .GOAT” a voice behind Jesper shouted. It was coming from a short ruddy haired boy.
“Wy, what do you mean?” Jesper chuckled.
“I thought . . . the way you talked about him . . . he was like an ex, or your long lost best friend from childhood”.
Jesper doubled over laughing, patting Milo on the back, “You thought he was an ex”.
“You kept on going on about how much you missed him, and how great he was,” the boy said
“Merchling, were you jealous?” Jesper jokingly nudged this Wy boy’s shoulder.
“No” Wy blushed and looked away.
“Well, Milo the GOAT, meet Wylan Van Sunshine.” Jesper formally introduced them.
The red-haired boy, Wylan, stepped forward, let Milo sniff his hand and gently tentatively patted him between the horns. Milo preened, he liked this Wylan. Wylan’s face melted, and he booped Milo on the nose.
Jesper laughed, loud and boisterous, “I’m glad you too are getting along, I was going to ask if we could take him home for a while, while we're still in Ketterdam and things are calm”.
“Ok” Wylan said, and giggled, hugging Milo, “We definitely have the room for this sweetie”.
Jesper took a collar out of his bag (he obviously had planned for this) and clipped it around Milo’s neck. They set out, saying farewell to the kind but busy bartender on their way out. Milo would miss him, but they weren’t very close, and Milo knew he’d see him again, ere Jesper was taking him.
They set off down the street, the golden bell around Milo’s neck jingling cheerfully, and a short carriage ride later (an actual carriage! Milo had never been in one before, he made sure not to eat the appoulstry) they arrived outside a giant imposing white house. It was surrounded by gardens Milo just couldn’t wait to get his hooves in and chew up.
“This used to be my dad's”, Wylan whispered to him as he walked to the front door. Milo didn’t know what had happened but he had the sense that Wylan’s father was not a good person from the way he had said that.
“Your dad's in jail where he belongs,” Jesper said softly, squeezing Wylan’s hand.
“I mean” Wylan joked “Don’t we belong in Hellgate too?”.
“Excuse me” Jesper gasped “I’ve never committed a single crime in my life, how dare you”.
Both of them broke out in giggles as they walked into the foyer of the grand house, a magnificent staircase leading up to the second floor, Milo’s hoofs squeaking against the marble floors as he followed them.
While they were walking up the splendid staircase, Milo saw Jesper fiddling with a bullet in his pocket. When he took his hand out, he presented Wylan with a golden metal rose, using it to tickle his nose. Wylan took the rose, ducking his head away, and went as scarlet as his hair.
“Thanks, Jes” he murmured.
“of course, Merchling” Jesper responded in a soft voice.
Milo looked away, aware he was intruding on a private moment. But at that moment, he hoped Wylan would be around forever. He’d never seen Jesper this happy before, and he’d never seen Jesper use his powers around another person before, it was like a heavy weight had been lifted from Jesper’s shoulders that Milo hadn’t known was there. He knew Jesper was a Grisha, of course, he did, goats just know these things. Being grisha was dangerous, it came with a certain amount of persecution, no wonder Jesper had hidden it for so long, but the Jesper infront of him now wasn’t hiding, and wasn’t weighed down by the demons of his past. Jesper and Wylan’s laughter was infectious, and it sounded like healing to Milo’s goat ears, two people helping each other become better.
They led Milo out into the backyard, past a women on the porch with Wylan’s red hair who was painting. Wylan stopped to kiss her on the head, “You can join us later Mama, if you feel up to it”, and the woman nodded.
“Come on” Jesper said to Milo “there are people waiting to meet you” as Milo lingered on the porch.
They walked towards four people spread out around a picnic blanket in the grass. As they got closer he recognized two of them, the lovely girl with the long black hair and the grumpy boy with a bowler hat (the hat was off and was actually resting on the blanket at the moment.)
The lovely girl, Inej, jumped up to greet them, getting on her knees, to scratch Milo behind the ears.
“Hello, dear one, it’s wonderful to see you again” she whispered in suli.
Of course Milo knew Suli, what else did a goat have to do but learn languages. She hugged Jesper and squeezed Wylan’s hand, before sitting back down, and tapping Mr. Sullen and grumpy’s hand lightly over his glove, and saying “You should say hi to the goat, I know you want too”. Kaz, that was his name, sighed, reached over and patted Milo firmly between his horns.
Jesper sat down and pointed at the girl in a flowing red dress, “This is Nina she doesn’t like to share her waffles”.
Nina stuck out her tongue at him, and Kaz rolled his eyes.
“And this is Matthias” Jesper pointed towards a tall very broad blonde man sitting next to Nina whose chest was wrapped in bandages.
“Hello Milo” Nina said and presented him with a stroopwaffle, oh, Milo liked her, the sweetness of the treat flooding his mouth.
“So the goat gets one, but I don’t” Jesper said in a despondent voice.
“Shut up, Jes, you can get your own, Milo here is going to be my new best friend.” Nina shot back in a snooty voice.
“Matthias, your girlfriend is being mean to me” Jesper complained as he spread out on the picnic blanket.
Matthias shrugged and said “I do not know what you want me to do”.
“You’re both acting like children, people are dying Jesper '' Kaz added in a flat voice, that nevertheless had a little sparkle of mischief behind it.
Milo settled into the space between Jesper and Matthias, as the afternoon twinkled into evening. Matthias whispered to him about his wolf, Trassel, who he had to leave in Fjerda, and Milo knew that he was his type of person. Everyone chatted and laughed, and snacked on stroopwafels. As the stars came out from behind their curtain, Wylan took out a black battered case, and reached inside for his flute. He started to play a kaelish aire that Jesper’s dad had taught him, and as the lovely music wound into the sky, Milo curled his hooves under himself, fully content.
He was with his family.
He was home.