[Chapter One](https://steemit.com/story/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala)
[Chapter Two](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala-chapter-two)
[Chapter Three](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala-chapter-three)
[Chapter Four](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala-chapter-four)
[Chapter Five](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala-scifi-story-chapter-five)
[Chapter Six](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/cliffs-of-utpala-scifi-story-chapter-six)
[Chapter Seven](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/cliffs-of-utpala-scifi-story-chapter-seven)
[Chapter Eight](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/cliffs-of-utpala-scifi-story-chapter-eight)
[Chapter Nine](https://steemit.com/writing/@anzha/the-cliffs-of-utpala-chapter-nine)
**Chapter Ten**
Kyra popped the capsule and was about to lash out in full sound and fury, despite the rules of the library and the wrath of Sanjay, but then, Arjun simply kept his smile and handed her an old, battered, dumb thermos. Nobody used a dumb thermos anymore. There were far better things to use for keeping things warm. Smart thermos' could keep something warm at the exactly the right temperature. Some could connect to the dishwasher and make sure they were properly washed on time and in a regular manner. Others could even deliver themselves with their contents hot to their owner and then when done, go back to the kitchen, get themselves washed and then refill. However! This was a dumb thermos. It didn't even have a power source or an uplink to the crystals.
Kyra looked at Arjun confused. And then at the thermos. She looked back at Arjun. Then she opened the thermos. Then the smell hit her like a wall of bricks moving at relavistic speed: it was coffee. ***Real*** coffee. It must have cost a fortune! How had *Arjun* gotten coffee! She breathed in the aroma and then out once more. It was delicious. Few things smell as good as coffee in the universe, not even with all that humanity had explored. Not in all the star systems. Coffee. On Utpala. She closed her eyes and breathed it in again.
Coffee was more than enough to stay Arjun's execution. Coffee was more than enough to even get a pardon. Lucky, smart, tricksy Arjun. He'd get off this time. He'd best not *ever* attempt anything so foolish again or not even *coffee* would save his life. She breathed the scent again once more and opened her eyes.
And then noticed other patrons of the library were beginning to notice the smell and were raising their noses like wolves for the scent. Arjun bringing her coffee would have been taken wrong. Rumors of that sort were not what she wanted or needed. People bugging her for her coffee, no, no, that never crossed her mind as a worse thing. Not at all. She quickly closed the thermos and hustled away with Arjun.
*This*, this *coffee*, this precious, wildly expensive *elixir* was his apology for this morning. It was also a bribe to come with him on the adventure to find the shuturamurg. She glanced at him and wasn't sure whether to be pleased and delighted or very annoyed. He'd spent a stupidly ridiculous amount to get this for her. More so since a supply ship had not come in months and was not due for some time. The coffee was truly expensive right then. It was obscenely so.
Had she had any feelings, even the slightest feelings more than friendship for Arjun, she'd have considered a proposal from him if he promised her an unending, life time supply of coffee. She might have been a horribly over caffeinated wife, prone to massively dangerous fits of danger and talked at ten thousands words per minute, but she would have been a happy woman. Alas, for poor Arjun, he was completely and utterly doomed to be *just* her friend. And much to her delight, Arjun completely felt the same about *her*. And as friends, they were doomed to be friends and only friends. Even so, a lifetime supply of coffee...it would have made it tempting. Had he thrown in *chocolate* as well. Well! She laughed at herself and Arjun smiled down at her. He didn't ask. He didn't need to.
Just leaving the library, at the front door, but within, she couldn't help herself: she opened the thermos one more time and breathed in the heady aroma. It smelled so good. Sanjay came in right then and smelled the scent. His eyes opened wide and he stopped cold, colder than normal at leas for Utpala and stared, first at Kyra and then at Arjun.
Such wonderful timing. And curse her weakness of needing to smell the coffee again.
Kyra closed the thermos, rolled her eyes at Sanjay and glared at Arjun. That made Arjun laugh loudly. That earned him another glare. That made him laugh louder. Sanjay started to say something, but instead his mouth worked like a fish's. It opened and closed, but no sounds escaped. He stayed where he was and didn't follow. That was truly wise at that moment.
Even so, the rumors this was going to cause. The headaches it was going to create. The massive mother drama it was going to spawn. And to make matters worse, all of it would be compounded by her leaving with Arjun to catch the shuturamurg.
The glare Kyra gave Arjun would have blistered the surface of the sun. That only made Arjun roar with laughter. He *knew*. He knew what she was thinking and found the whole thing hilarious. Hilarious as a word couldn't even to the depth and breadth of how funny the whole situation was to Arjun. He was going to burst from the riotous roar that wanted to escape from his chest. And all Kyra could do, would do and did do was glare.
They went to the edge of town and sipped the coffee. It was good. Really good. Far, far better than the ersatz coffee that people normally consumed. Far better than the synthetic people would drink on special occasions. It was delicious. And for about 3.14 seconds, Kyra worried Arjun was about to toss another proverbial pie in her face. None came. They drank half the coffee and they did agree: yes, they were going shuturamurg hunting, as if that were really in doubt.
However, she knew she needed to dig at Arjun for this and Kyra decided it would be in a different way. This was surely not the entirety of Arjun's coffee. She turned to him and gave him the most flirtatious and cute expression she'd ever made to any man. And Arjun became immediately terrified.
"Arjun, you have more, right? I need two thermos' full. Please."
Arjun groaned. He knew she'd not ask unless she really needed it. He knew she was being a toad for the sake of yanking his chain. He knew she was not actually flirting. He also knew she couldn't help being a toad. This was Kyra and Kyra was going to Kyra.
For about 3.14 seconds, he thought about doing something to the coffee, something gross and potentially even obscene. However, he decided against it. He needed her good will. The shuturamurg capture would be worth a lot. A lot, a lot. More than enough to set him up to not just be a hunter, but one of the exclusive collectors from the low lands. Then he could have as much coffee as he wanted. Kyra was one of the very few people he knew he could trust, so...he needed her help. Coffee would be more affordable, to him, at least, if they were successful.
Or so that's how Kyra thought he was thinking. So Kyra, Kyra'd. And crossed her fingers.
When he got up and started walking, without a word, towards his place, she knew she'd been right. For a hot second, she had been worried she'd been wrong and misread the whole situation. Kyra and Arjun, quite a pair of troublemakers. And *she* was going to get more coffee.
She actually *did* need it.
For Sanjay. She just needed to make sure Sanjay *also* didn't take it the wrong way!
But that was a problem for tomorrow.
Tonight, she needed hot, fresh coffee...for her Mother.
And that was a whole lot more challenging.