A Rat of the Empire
Viddick, Dangeon, Tundutwaa
Location: Rocky Pass outside Ruingate
It is nighttime. Just outside Ruingate... the two rats pull the cart to the side of the pass, where the path gives way to a few dry shrubs, now dead, and a thin patch of dead grass. Their footpaws crunch on top of it; the wheels cracking twigs as a voice shouts in a loud whisper, "Quiet! Stop the cart right there..." He comes up from behind them, over a hill - Viddick. "Is she waking up?"
Unsure, the two rats uncover the hare, pulling the blankets off of her. They squint, peering to see if there is any movement.
Dangeon is indeed waking up. Very slowly and groggily. She murmurs, not wanting to be awake, protesting as the rats uncover her and move things. She's aware that she aches, but she's not sure of anything else, nor quite -how- to be awake yet. A small squeak emits as she tries to roll over.
She squeaks no doubt because the hare is tied to the cart by both paws, although they didn't have time to tie down her feet. The rats panick, and one of them answers, "Yes, sir - this one's waking up already, orders sir??"
Viddick thinks for a moment. "Better gag her, then. A bit of the cloth we used for the torches, perhaps? Bind it up in a ball, wrap it around too, so she can't spit it out. We'll need her to speak soon, but better to wait until we're out of hearing of the fortress." The rat sniffs the air. Hmm.
Dangeon mumbles and looks like her eyes might open soon, there's a small bit of a flutter on her eyelids. Her legs move too, her right foot moves up to rest near her left knee as she tries to roll again.
(One of the rats looks hesitant, holding the cloth but standing there looking between Viddick and the waking haremaid. "Uhh... um... she ain't gonna... bite? Is she?" The other looks at him, "Look at 'er, dufus! Gimme 'at!" He takes the cloth and rips a long piece off, "Hold that, mate..." He takes another, even longer piece and winds it around the middle, over and over itself, until it forms a ball around the first strip. "Now, put 'at part in 'er mouth, and tie it around back.")
The first rat does so, attempting to do what the second had instructed... he either is still afraid of the biting or feels guilty for what he's doing - either way, the rat seems overly thoughtful about the act, taking his time...
"..Put wha' in m' mouth..?" The doe mumbles groggily, though her eyes are still shut. It's a safe bet she's not remembered anything nor knows who she's talking to yet. "Mmph!" The something in her mouth gets her a little less air intake and isn't very comfortable, thus she wakes up a little more sharply.
Viddick shouts, "Quick and tie it, Bratsche, if you want both of your paws!" The rat's eyes widen as he sees her waking up sharply, and he quickly ties off the back. "There, sir, done." The other rat chuckles, "Barely, at that. Sir, what now?"
Viddick sighs, "Now? We wait for that fox..." The other rat, Pauken, laughs, "That hide n' go seek fox? Do ye even know his name, sir?" Viddick points a finger at him, "Pauken; you've got a head on that scrawny neck of yours, is it a parchmentweight, perhaps? That fox could be already here, knowin' him."
Dangeon mumbles and tries to sit up. She looks rather angry but is not threat as the ropes jerk her back as she tries to lunge for the nearest rat. This having failed, and realising her legs are still free, the hare aims the best of her kicks his way instead.
Suddenly, a voice - out of nowhere. It actually seems to come from the cliff face itself; actually from all of them. The rats all spin around, and around again, but the voice is helplessly omnipresent. "Fools! Let her speak to me; I am not afraid of what comes out of Ruingate to meet us. Let them come, if she is careless enough with her head." At that, an axe comes spinning out of the sky and impales one whole side of the cart, the leading point just a fraction of an inch away from the neck of the haremaid. Above, on a rocky alcove, the silouette of the fox, darker than the surrounding night.
Viddick gulps, and simply nods over at Bratsche. He seems to know exactly what to do, and he and Pauken go to work untying the knock in the back. Pauken whispers harshly to the other rat, "Get... get off, one's enough!" Viddick glares at both of them, before looking up at the fox, "Well, fox, I was lookin' out for my payment, is all... you said 'when we're safe', if I remember."
Well, that's a pretty effective way to make her stop moving. The haremaid stares at the axe that just arrived and tries to edge away from it a bit. That wasn't pleasant /at all/. "Mmph. Mmph'n' mphs." She grumbles a complaint.
Finally, the knot is untied and the gag is removed from the haremaid. Pauken looks at her and spits into the cart, narrowly missing her. He whispers, "If you try to kick me again, miss, that fox'll take your leg clean off, he'll do it!"
"Silence!! Now...." A shadow seems to gracefully fall across the cliff wall and the cart, but there seems to be no owner. The fox had jumped down from his perch over the group, and scatters both the two rats still near where the haremaid is tied up. "...Dangeon. You look astonishing tonight, if I may say..." His voice is still muffled by the hood over his head.
Dangeon would poke her tongue out at the rat, but that's a little hard to do right now. Her ears quiver as the fox jumps down and her scowl, that was directed at the spitting rat turns to him instead. "Get lost." She tells him.
The fox chuckles, looking around him, "Well, do you haf any idea where you are? It seems I haf, and you're here with me. Don't worry, we might as well be, to your friends." He paces around the perimeter of the cart, pulling his axe out of the side of the cart when he gets around to it, "By the way, what impressif friends they are... a horse, efen! Fiddick, remind me to take care of him first." He grins down at the hare.
Viddick grins. "Sure, there, fox... I might need a little incentive to remind me to remind you, though..." The rat is tapping his footpaw on the ground. "Fleeing horses ain't cheap, neither..."
The other two gather themselves, and quickly head over to the opposite side of the path, where Viddick is. They keep quiet, but make themselves useful by keeping a lookout on the path itself.
The does lays her head back, deciding to study skywards, looking kind of relaxed for her position. "Don't know where we are, don't bally well care. And, you can try, but Maney's not just a horse he's a..." What the heck does her call himself? "...Dancing Sword thingy, so you'll be dead b'fore y' get close t' him."
(Tundu just laughs, presenting the edge of the blade square down the middle of her muzzle, pressing just a bit. Viddick gets an annoyed expression, and a bag of coins are flung in his direction as the fox takes up the axe again and walks around the cart once more.)
Dangeon finds herself looking at an axe edge on for a few moments. Her right foot twitches, perhaps considering an attempt at a kick but she clearly decides against it, blowing out air and then continuing to look back up at the sky.
Ooh! Money!! Viddick seizes the bag and rips it open, emptying and counting the contents. "This is only half! You're a cheap fox, you know that... fox? Gah, ain't even enough to get me back home - 's enough for food along the way, maybe, and not much left ov-" The rat gulps as the fox jumps over the cart and presses the rat up against the rock, the axe against his neck. "I'f killed for less! For /free/."
He gives a sharp nudge with the axe and pulls it away, shoving the rat aside. Turning around, the fox slams the axe down into the backboard of the cart, where it hovers unsteadily, square above the hare's face. "Business, now... you are a wanted hare, are you not?"
Dangeon looks up and up to an axe. Oh. Good. It's back. "Well, I'd bally well hope so by now; My horsey friend's more 'n a little fond o' me, I'm sure he wants me back..."
The indignant rat wipes his dirt-scraped paws onto his trousers, bending his knees and springing back up. "'Snot what he means, darling. You know where I'm from - look at me. Well, if you can, from in there. Who's been lookin' for ya longer still?"
(Tundu answers part of the question for the hare, "I'f gifen the rat half of what he's after... the half that I owe him for getting you. He'll be happy to note that the half I haf yet to pay him... the half for /keeping/ you, is on its way. Otherwise, I can let them take you far from here.")
Dangeon shakes her head. "Looking for me longer? ... 's not that pub 's it? Those fights were nothin' t' do wi' me an' I only drank those drinks aftah they were abandon'd... C'd e'en pay f'r them now anyway, really..."
Viddick grumbles. "Darkfur ring any bells, marm? Empire of the Risin' Sea? You's supposed to be our queen, remember now?" Just then, Bratsche comes back from behind a steep rise in the path, and whispers something to him. Viddick clears his throat, "'Fraid now's not the time to give the whole history - we got company... Pauken, hide 'er behind that bush, take that tumbleweed there and cover the rest of the cart... hide yourselves behind it." He looks at the fox, "I assume you're gonna take your previous perch, then?"
"... Ah." The doe is rendered speechless for the moment. She's looking up at the axe again, running her lips over her teeth nervously. The information that someone is coming, though, seems to perk her up. "Hey!"
The two rats drag the cart behind the bush, and the gag that was taken off Bratsche attempts to put back on once the cart is safely hidden. Viddick has done a quick change into some of the clothes that were in the cart - he now has the appearance he had back at the inn - a poor, homeless rat. He sits against the cliffside, an empty mug in his paw, shivering down to his tail.
Meanwhile, the fox has taken his axe and climbs the rock face back up to the alcove. He pauses as he sees the beast coming up the path already, the fox knowing that movement would surely be more noticeable than his shadow-like impression on the rock. The axe is hidden behind him.
Dangeon manages one more "Hey!" Before the gag is back in place. She does attempt to at least scratch the rat a little with her teeth if she can't quite get a proper bite.
The moonlight brands in white a crescent of fur, bulbous and undulant, as Niptuk the rat bobs into view over the crest of the hill. "Fa lee, fa lay," he huffs in a merry, if strained, tenor. "Twere new year'th day, an awl tha galth were danthing." He performs on the spot a sweaty little pirouette that sets aloft a delicate cloud of starlit dust.
Viddick holds out his paw as he sees the flamboyant rat peek over the hillcrest, dropping a coin or two from the bag into the mug to give it a nice ring as he shakes it at the poor oncoming beast. "S-s-some s-s-spare change, f-f-for a pore rat like myself, m-m-mister!"
Bratsche and Pauken snicker in the bush, and Bratsche leans up to push the gag farther into the mouth of the hare, whispering to her, "Now you keep quiet an' still! Damn hare, nippin' at me like that, I'll give ya what for..."
Dangeon squeaks a little as the gag goes further in and tries to wriggle a bit. "Mrrmf!" She does the closest thing to a yell that she can.
The rat tenor freezes in mid-pirouette as he sees the poor rat along the side of the road, and looks around. "Awww now, wath's this? Poor guy, here'm I thingin' and yore... yore..." He scratches his chin with one paw, and his enormous gut with another, "Why... yore a bit out of plath, you are. Whatcha doin..." He pauses again, turning around, "Thomebody th--"
Before the rat is even the full way around, the black shadow springs from the rock face directly at the unfortunate, merry soul and swipes downward upon the haft of the axe, betting to himself how far he can get the axe to go through... it goes through not quite as far as he'd hoped, but there's still tension in the air, as the fox hangs onto the grip of his axe /and/ holds up the weight of the rat.... Finally, Tundu heaves upward, and the rat that was prancing just moments ago dislodges and flops to the ground.
"Owwww, ooow... owww! Y'got his bloody mess all over me, y'uncouth vermin! How's am I supposed to pretend to be a poor fool now - look more like a bloody murderer I do!" Viddick wipes red from his face, spitting at the ground as he leans up against the rock.
The two rats giggle to themselves behind the bush, holding in their laughter and failing miserably as it erupts into snorts and bursts of chuckling. "Vid... Viddick mate, y'look... look a right mess, hahahaaaaa!"
Dangeon makes a sort of whine. She can't see what happened, of course, but she can hear and imagine. She bangs her right foot, hard, on the wood of the cart in frustration.
The fox ignores the insulted rat, and grins, turning around and climbing back up the cliff face, dead rat in tow. He heaves the beast upward onto the alcove before he climbs up himself, and stands looking down at Viddick, "It's time to stop pretending, Fiddick... you're no longer a rat of the Empire, nor are you a horderat. A murderer is exactly what you are... hehehe..." There is a gross 'snapping' sound, and the fox looks back over the edge of the alcove down at the trio, "Take her to the edge of the Broadstream - for the next phase of my plan."
Viddick grumbles and walks over to the pair with their long-eared captive. "You heard the moneybags, we ain't stoppin' here! Get 'er outta the brush and on the move... dunno why we're takin' her there, but we are." He calls back to the fox as they start to move, "Seeya later, fox! Maybe?"
Her ears perk. The broadstream..? The hare whines again and tries to drag herself out of the cart with her feet, realising though, that her paws are well and truly stuck.
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