02.13.10 - Consequences
Location: Halyard Docks
Characters Involved: Tameus, Saug, Dagan
A lot of activity can come through a dock, some good, some bad. One said vessel is more of the bad sort that has come in for supplies. Saug is leaning up against some big crates as he talks to another sea rat, both nod as they go quiet on anyone coming past them that aren't of the kind to know such information on their conversation. Once the coast is clear again. "So, pretty good catch this time around, how much you think you sell them for?"
Dagan is not here on such nefarious business. Actually, he is here on... spiritual business! Since sailors are such highly spiritual people, he's attracted a couple, two-three of them, clustered around the grey rat a small distance from Saug and his sea-buddy. "The drowned god is but one aspect of Our Lord," explains the rat. "You must pay obeisance to Him, so that when you finally slip below the waves, you can go firmly to that warm place next to His chest." One of the sailors shivers and walks away, but the other two are mumbling questions at the rat.
The docks are especially verminy, aren't there? But there's also a fair share of woodlanders in the area, mostly otters that work on the ships, and various others. Tam has found occasion to show up here, not something he generally does, but he's relaxed enough as he walks past the various docked boats with a Halyard friend alongside him. The buck's hand is bandaged up, resting on the hilt of his saber as he talks with the other guy, then with a brief friendly handshake they go their separate ways, and he turns back toward the village.
Saug was about to reply back to a question he had been asked and he stopped mid-sentence. "Well, business is going well, should bring some of your cargo to..." A frown forms on the rat as he bares his teeth and pulls the other rat closer to him. "Don't look now but remember me talking to most of the rats here about that hare." Saug looks over the shoulder of the rat he has hold of and back again quickly. "Think this one needs a lesson on not to hit a pretty rat lady." Saug unclips his cloak and lets it drop to the wooden deck and walks out. "Well, well, well... If it isn't the one that likes to hit female rats."
"Now go," continues the grey-rat, to his small congregation, "And consider what I have told you. If you are interested in learning more, you know where to find me." Dag smiles pats the smaller and younger of the two, a cabin-rat at best, on his head. Preaching complete, he can't help but be distracted by the sudden commotion, 'cause Saug walks right past him on the way to Tam. Hitting a pretty rad lady? Well, that could mean only one thing!
Tameus is juuust heading back toward the village... but no. Of course someone has to try to make trouble - and after the other day, could Saug's comment be directed at anyone /but/ him? The buck stops, and seems to consider for about two seconds. Confrontation, yes/no? He turns around to face Saug, ears laid back, and takes in his surroundings with a glance before his eyes focus on the rat. Yeah, he recognizes this one. "Are y' really still stuck on that whole thing? /Really/?"
A sly grin comes over Saug now as he walks slowly to one side and picks up a small piece of wood, just big enough as a club perhaps. He turns back and still frowning. "Actions bring consequences, y'know. Besides I was wondering if you're either just one to hit the females or actually one of those hares that can fight another male." Saug pauses in thought. "Mind you, I was always wanting to know if the tales were true of a long patrol hare able to fight say two or three more as some rumours have been said. So what about it or do I have to insult your family to get you started?"
Well. If it concerns Adriel it's certainly something curious to Dag, so he slinks along behind Saug, resting his forearms on a barrel to look over to Tameus. Doesn't look like anything other than one of those dumb long patrollers, does he? Not the kind to run his mouth, he pushes down on the barrel to hop up onto it, taking a bit of a seat, his tail high and curled in slight anticipation.
"Actions bring /consequences/? Like.. pickpocketin' gets y' hit in th' face?" There's a moment of gruff laughter in the buck's tone, and he shakes his head. "Jus' a thought, mate - how d' y' think Long Patrollers stay alive long 'nough t' learn t' fight those kinds'a odds? Not by risin' t' bait like 'insultin' m' family'... but sure, if y' wann' /try/."
Saug crosses his arms while still holding onto the stick. "Okay I admit it, so Adriel probably had good reason to do what she did, though I ain't sure she be losing that black eye for a while at least." The rat looks about as his tail flicks about. "I wonder how many feel the same as me right about now around here?" Saug gives a toothy grin. "I'd watch your back, you know? But okay, I heard your father was a wife beater, must always follow down the line, right?"
Dagan's seen the black eye, it's a shiner, alright. Frankly he finds the idea of Tam beating up Adriel not insulting at all, but it's good to act like it, he supposes. "The hare's stuck his nose into the wrong part of town," comments the greyrat, slipping from his seat on the barrel to step beside Saug. The docks are generally not woody-dominated, for sure.
/That/ makes him laugh. Oh, if only Saug knew who Tam's dad actually was. Tam's head tosses back briefly, his muzzle breaking into a grin. "He'd be more likely to be the one getting /beat/," he snickers. It's an affectionate comment, though. Ah, Harper. XD Still, he rests his bandaged hand wearily on his saber's hilt, eyes flicking to Dagan as the other rat approaches now. "Gonn' try again? Or y' could always skip th' formalities an' try attackin' me." It's a casual kind of bravado, but he does look slightly on edge.
Saug turns his head slightly to look at the other rat and grins. "Hmm, have to admit they are klinda brave in a dumb way, surprised any of his lot family wise got to a high rank." He turns his head back towards Tameus. "Oh wait, maybe your father was too yellow bellied to even cut it in the patrol, hmm?"
Any which way this fight could possibly go excites Dagan, his tail curling and uncurling in a random fitful fashion. The hare dead, Saug dead, him dead! Maybe some combination of the three! A little current of excitement ripples under his voice. "We should teach him a lesson," he says, a little hastily.
Tameus's ears tick just a little at Saug's guess, but that's the only reaction. Maybe he's made his peace with his father's life choices by now. "Or maybe y' ought'a hang 'round jus' /talkin'/ 'bout teachin' me a lesson... oh. Y' already 're. Does that mean I c'n go?"
Saug shakes his head and walks right up to where Tameus stands a few paces from him. "'fraid not." The rat takes a swing for the hares head with the wooden club.
Dagan is more conservative. He doesn't want to miss seeing the club smack Tam in the side of the head.. the impact would be /delicious/. That is, if Tam doesn't do something inconsiderate like duck. Tsk, hares. Still, Dag is a rat, and if there's one thing rats do best it's work together to do something that you don't want.. in this case, he's moving around Tam from the side, as if to worry him about being surrounded.
Tameus takes a few measured steps back as Saug comes forward. It gives him enough time to slide one of his brass knuckles onto his hand, while the other tugs his saber from it's sheath. When the club swings for his head, he ducks instead of trying to block it, and uses the moment it takes for the swing to keep going. He lunges at Saug to plant his shoulder hard in his chest, trying to shove him backward or off balance completely.
The rat still off balance except for his long tail which helps to get him to continue to move in the direction the weight of the club had shifted his weight and Saug just about moves out of the way, partially though as he feels the shoulder just brush past his side. He continues to fall, then rolls sideways and gets back up again. Oookay, another plan, he picks up a barrel top and holding it, uses it as a shield and lunges at Tameus again while thrusting said wooden shield at the hare, club ready to swing again.
Dagan successfully slinks around behind Tam, pulling a knife from his belt. It's wicked and long, curved on one side.. perfect for his two favorite activities.. the stabby and the throat-slitting. When Saug is throwing himself at Tam from the front, the greyrat attacks with much, much less fanfare and noise and just swipes the dagger, aiming to make a long but shallow cut across Tam's back.
Tameus is still on his feet, which brace with one back behind the other as Saug comes at him. The collision makes his teeth grit, head ducked and shoulders hunched forward as he pushes back against the shield. This promises bruises later. There's a soft 'nnh' from the buck as he pivots on one foot to get a bit of a twisting motion, and the arm that wields his saber arches around and up, to aim the blade at a sideways angle to get around Saug's shield and stab him. The gash along his back comes just a moment later, and his back arches as the buck responds with a hiss of surprised pain. He jerks back from the close quarters with Saug, turning to lash out at Dagan at face-level with the fist that sports the ridged metal across the knuckles.
As they say, rats work best in groups more than one member. However, he does get a shallow cut to his side before the hare's attention is elsewhere and hisses in anger. But as they say, being distracted in a fight isn't a way to win and using that moment, he swings the wooden club again at the back of the hares head, teeth bared, not showing it but enjoying a unfair fight, as long as you're on the side with more members than the other side. For the moment in battle, the rat ignores the pain at his side.
It isn't anything like slow reflexes that endangers Dagan, it's more like watching Tam's skin open and weep that sweet red blood. The sound of it is just as delicious, accompanied by the hiss of pain. Dagan could have just buried the hilt of it in Tam's back, but he didn't. With an almost surprised squeak at the incoming metal-covered fist, he ducks, getting his ear severely cuffed, making him shrink back from Tam. It rings loudly.
It's turning his back on Saug that does Tam in. He steps after Dagan with a downward slash of his saber, and halfway through the stroke, Saug's club hits the back of his head. His knees buckle, vision going dark as he drops to the ground - not blacking out, but almost. There's a pained grunt from the buck as he stays down on hands and knees, shaking his head to clear it. Stunned.
Saug looks to the other rat with a glare. "No kill him, but beat him up is okay." The rat steps back and then kicks Tameus side with his footpaw as hard as he can. "Besides..." The rat snarls. "Much more fun if he has to recover slowly and painfully..." Dropping the wooden barrel top to the wooden dock floor, he looks at the wooden club in his paw and grins, oh he's going to enjoy this...
The saber might have just cloven poor Dagan in two. Not that the rat would... mind, especially. But when Tam gets the whoomf knocked out of him and his strike goes all fumbly, Dagan just earns a cut down the front of his chest, the tip of the saber drawing an especially agonizing shallow slash down his fur. It ruins his shirt, is the worst part. "Ahhff," he says, questionable whether that's a sound of enjoyment or not. But, Tam is down. The rat's eyes glitter, seeing the hare in this vulnerable posture. Dagan drops to his knees in front of the hare, eying him. "I hope you don't need to go anywhere for awhile," he whispers, before raising the dagger and jabbing it down onto Tam's paw, driving it all the way through paw, bone, and the wood of the dock, putting the hilt square against the back of Tam's hand. This is slightly /before/ Saug kicks him in the side.
Tameus's heavily dazed state is quickly clearing, his shoulders tense and upper lip curled to bare his teeth. He takes in a few harsh breaths, gathering himself as his focus returns - but Dagan gets to him before he's quite ready to rise. The buck jerks, a growl working out of his throat, then stiffens and goes arch-backed in pain as the dagger pierced right through his hand. "/Aahgh/!" It hurts so much it has him barely able to breathe, fingers splayed, his hand pinned palm-down to the wood of the dock. It's as he's reaching for the handle of it with his other hand, to try to pull it out, that the kick lands hard in his side and Tam drops to his side, groaning breathlessly and curling up a little. Good chance that did more than just bruise his ribs.
Using the wooden club, he gives a few whacks to the back, side, arms and legs before the rat steps over the hare and Saug smiles as he kneels down to nearly sitting on the hare itself. Using the club he pushes it under the chin and lifts the hares head up, the club pressing into the throat of the hare as he speaks slowly but with malice. "Not up to much are you? You know, perhaps I should see who knows who your father is and pay him a visit." Making the club press harder into the throat as he holds Tam's head up from the ground a bit he looks to the other rat with a grin. "Hey, an idea... Since he hit Adriel, why not finish it that way." Saug looks at the brass knuckles. "Knock yourself out and as for you." Returning back to Tam again. "Next time I'll either kill you or enslave you. You remember that..."
Dagan was kind of dreamily watching the blood well slowly up from the back of Tam's hand, when suddenly the buck jerks and falls over. Oh right, Saug's here too. "An idea?" questions the priestrat, his eyes once again falling back to the pinned paw. "Oh, yes..." Since the brass knuckles are in front of the dagger, he need only hook a claw into them to tug them from Tam's knuckles. Putting them over his, he draws back and punches Tam in the face, hitting him directly in the eye. That's a black eye at least, cracked eye socket at worse. But he doesn't stop, choosing to hit him several times about the face, cracking the join between jaw and skull, and then the middle of Tam's forehead. Knockout blow!
Tameus's free arm, the one not pinned to the dock, comes up over his head and the back of his neck, protectively, while he draws up into a defensive curled position. The bludgeoning of the club leaves him gasping, his body just one persistent throb of pain. Anything said by the two rats, to him or each other, gets no response, and by the time Saug backs off and Dagan takes over, to bloody his face with his own weapon.. Tam is half passed-out, and not offering much resistance. He does bare his teeth, though, making a half-wild snap of teeth at Dagan, just before the blow lands against the corner of his jaw. Feeling explodes in his head, dizzying - dislocated jaw, or even broken. He gets a few seconds to really enjoy the experience before he's struck in the forehead, blacking out and slumping to the ground.
Saug slowly gets up and looks at the club before throwing it into the sea and looking at the other rat. Some time at least before perhaps all hell to break loose. "Well, I wouldn't be around when they find him and especially once he wakes up. One thing I've learnt is that they come back in a larger pack." The rat looks about with a thoughtful look. "I need to finish business here and either catch a boat south or head in that direction." He gives Dagan an approving nod. "But we should have a few days before we see any hares roaming about here looking for us. At worse in a day or two." Turning around, Saug makes to leave. "I wouldn't kill him though, that would bring the badger onto you and you see your god much sooner than planned."
With the last thud of Tam passing out, the rat shrugs. "If he dies it is because our Lord has called him to his arms because it is his time," murmurs the rat. Putting his foot on Tam's wrist, he pins it in place so he can pull out his dagger. It's a nice knife, he's not leaving it behind. The brass knuckles he also tosses into the water. Plump. "See you," is his simple goodbye, before turning around to return to Halyard. Let the patrol try and find him.
