In a mayor's dining room...
Martingold and Whiskers, having between them brought all matters they have seen fit to the mayor's attention, quickly excuse themselves from the dining room and walk out into the hallway, speaking to each other in a hushed, conspiratorial fashion throughout, Whiskers getting a bit indignant with his acquaintance even before they've left the room, leaving the mayor and doctor both alone to hash out their matters on their own. Walking into the hallway, they notice the servant of the mayor, Tim, standing off in one corner, giving the two of them a polite wave and a nod. Not minding him to any particular degree, they step away to a respectful distance and exchange a rather heated conversation for a bit, occasionally looking at Tim to make sure he isn't listening in.
At the tail end of their conversation, though, both Whiskers and Martingold hear people conversing - the latter recognizes one of the speakers as Ray the guard. The other, it seems, is a woman of some kind, much less familiar. Both of them, interrupted in their conversation, turn their heads to look at the door, and it is at about this time that the door opens, and a familiar militiadwarf rushes in, only to stop at the sight of the two foxes, the door getting shut behind her. She gives both of them a distrustful glare, then runs along toward Tim.
"Tim. Where's the mayor?" she asks in an urgent tone. Tim responds by pointing at the dining room and sighing. "Thank you," she says curtly, then turns around to look at both Whiskers and Martingold again. "You two, stay where you are."
With that she rushes into the dining room, slamming the door behind herself.
In the wilderness near Crawlinghome...
Faer narrates his failure with gusto as he looks about for all those lost pieces of himself, unfortunately finding only two, and even those seem to have been burnt to a crisp and if not, then at least melted beyond usability - poking at them, he finds the bits entirely unreactive. Suppose that was the point of peeling them off in the first place, he thinks out loud as he approaches the logging camp again with catlike tread, muttering quiet plans of revenge against the goblin sorcerer.
Getting within striking distance of the camp again, Faer sees that the goblins seem to have gone off high alert as quickly as they went on it, and merely seem to be regarding the sorcerer's handiwork - a very respectably sized area of charred, collapsed wood and destroyed vegetation - with admiration, laughing to themselves as they pat the sorcerer on the back. Using their position of vulnerability, Faer attempts to strike the blue-cheeked goblin with a more directional fear than usual, seeking to turn the sorcerer into a being more hideous than most can contemplate. Working his dreadful magic, he starts to warp the goblin's perception, drawing on his fears and projecting them onto the blue goblin, which causes the blue-cheeked goblin to gawk in a most unfortunate manner, but not quite move him to any sort of action.
"Hrm..." the blue-cheeked goblin says, looking at the blue one. "Sargon? You feeling all right?"
The blue one, presumably named Sargon, looks right back. "I feel things far beyond your perception. 'All right' is handily encompassed by my range of experience," he says, stepping closer. "But you. You do not feel 'all right', do you?"
"I, uh..." the blue-cheeked one begins.
"It is coming to you now," Sargon says, looking all around, which causes Faer to pause his persistent mutter and duck carefully. "It watches. We must cleanse it with fire."
"More fire?" the red goblin asks.
"Much more fire," Sargon replies, starting to generate spheres of flame once more at a slower pace than before. The red goblin starts nodding with excitement, looking out into the woods as well. The blue-cheeked goblin, meanwhile, sits down, still keeping eyes on things no doubt only he can see.
Outside one of Crawlinghome's largest buildings...
Viri relates her sad story to the dwarf woman, all the while strengthening her shield and fitting it to the contours of her body, which leaves her defenses seemingly quite impregnable indeed.
"If by associate, you mean me, then yes. Currently the captain is laying in the barracks with severe bone breakage due to charging full force into a mageshield and getting launched across the room by it. I said attempted for a reason. She doesn't seem like the smartest of people and from my very short encounter with the guards, I noticed at least three that were considerably more competent. Why exactly is the the Captain of the Guard insane and vindictive? Why is it tolerated?"
"He, you mean. Captain Jim the Elder," the dwarf woman notes, otherwise listening very attentively.
"I made no aggressive acts towards her. Simply put up my shield when she started charging. Stupid of her to assault a mage."
The woman's about to make the same note again, but stops herself.
"Regardless. She failed to provide charges. She assaulted a civilian without just cause. She showed signs of having a vendetta against magi, marking her a biased judge. She attempted to kill a civilian without just cause. She attempted to kill a Healer who had offered to heal people within the town. And she appears to have a suicidal idiocy. Absolute incompetence."
The woman in the door considers this with some worry, then speaks.
"I sympathize with your case, having had dealings with the captain before, and I will provide this free piece of advice first of all - the streets will not be safe for long. Come inside, and my master may protect you for a time while we consider your escape and prepare a case to present to the mayor. Rest assured that we bear no love for the captain." She leans outside, looking around. "I would advise you do this quickly, however. You have tarried at the door for long enough."
In Crawlinghome's jail...
Rev tries all manner of bait in hopes of luring answers out of these two nincompoops.
"Good thinking, June. That should save our lives; and hopefully not Tom's." Rev replies, glaring at the incarcerated dwarf. "What do you think the best way to sneak out of town is? We need to get to the camp as quickly as possible, but if the sorceress sees us we're worse than dead!"
"Wait!" June says, having a good listen. "I... think things have calmed down," she says, then moves to unlock the door, taking a look out. "Yeah. Things seem to have calmed down. Er, slightly. I think she's gone."
"She's probably moved on to the civilian population," Tom notes with amusement. "You guys better hurry before she comes back!"
June sighs and rolls her eyes. "Okay, so I think we can make a break for it. You ready?" she asks of Rev.
Author
Topic: Outfoxed - Chapter 1: A Sense of Direction (Read 14510 times)