Kindling Favor
✧ ✧ Reavers ✧ ✧
- Timeon, Twitchtail, Otto
- Halyard Village: Back Alley
Continued from Torch It.
Timeon is sweating. This... has not gone well. Tim had packed an old pot full of an explosive powder, and he'd imagined that it would just be a matter of lugging it to the alley behind the tavern then carrying it up the back wall and in through the window. He hadn't really thought it through, though. Between then, he and Otto managed to transport the pot to the second floor, but... The young fox looks despairingly at what's left. A quarter of the powder spilled out on the journey to the back alley, and another half ended up sprinkled over the rear face of the tavern. "Bafa's gonna kill me..." He's on the edge of tears. "Bafa's gonna KILL me."
"Probably." Twitchtail is completely and utterly unsympathetic while she sits on the windowsill frowning as she tries to dust the powder from her behind. "Campfire strategy then. Otto? Let's just. Burn stuff. We got flint? Kindlin'?"
"Cheer up mate, at least Baf wont kill me." Otto grins cheerfully, shrugging, "We ain't done too bad, should still be enough to get the job done eh Twitchy tails?" Otto hrms at the weasel's question, searching himself for anything of that sort. There is a worrying couple of minutes, "Uh..." He looks sheepishly at his comrades, "Oh, wait!" He disappears back down the wall, and returns shortly with the flint and fuse, "Heh, must of dropped it. Ah well, no harm right Twitchy?"
"Y' call me 'twitchy tails' again and I'm gonna eat your ears." Twitchtail informs Otto with a glare- he's probably heard similar threats before though. She then gapes at the feline as he does what she can only hope is a comedy bit about having nearly lost their tools. "Why do I always end up working with you..?"
"Learned the first time I tried this," Timeon explains, regaining two thirds of his composure, "it's best t' make a long fuse." He takes the slender length of string from the cat and goes about attaching it to the device. "Maybe's enough left inside t' do some damage. Jus' needs t'..." he mumbles the remainder to himself at a volume too quiet to be made out clearly; he's preoccupied with salvaging this slapdash operation and maybe saving some of his skin.
"Just needs to what?" The tribal jill watches Timeon with suspicion. She doesn't trust this 'new fangled' way of starting fires. It /seems/ to be taking to long to her as well. "If you say we gotta rub sticks together I'm gonna eat /your/ ears..."
Otto grins at Twitchtail, "Aw, ya know ya love working with me. We're a great team. We ain't not got a job done yet!" He turns to look at the fox, "This feller isn't no fun though, not like ya. Too bloody serious for my taste honestly, " Otto chuckles, "You's always threatening to eat every beast's ears."
"Wouldn't have to if ya weren't all such dolts..." Mutters Twitchtail.
Timeon finishes his work and stands up. "There." He ignores Twitch's question. In fact, in the course of this short mission, he's already developed a selective deafness to the pointless banter of the cat and jill. "Flint," he commands Otto.
"Oh! Look out! 'S a fox of action now! Should we all stand back?" The jill says it mockingly but there's probably a real question in there.
Otto hands Timeon the flint as ordered, "Aye aye sir tightwad, we're finally going to light this fire!" He says with some excitement in his voice, "Probably, " Otto replies to Twitchtail, "Ya ever start any fires Twitchy?"
Twitchtail slowly turns toward Otto, glances down at herself and her own attire, and then back at Otto. "No. I froze t' death every night."
Timeon kneels by the end of the fuse and strikes the flint unsuccessfully. "You should really keep your voices down," he says, a bit sheepishly. Then after another failure: "Why don't you do it, then?" he looks with mild reproach at the jill and holds out the flint.
"Ya know what I mean Twitchy, " Otto grins, and as Timeon offers the flint to the jill, the cat laughs, "Yes, show us all what a little firestarter ya are! Burn it, burn it good!"
Twitchtail immediately sighs as though it's just -so- much trouble. "Hate the say Fox-dolt's right about anything, Cat-dolt, but we probably should keep our voices down." She moves to take the flint and give it a casual flick. One failure. She shrugs and tries again to be rewarded by a good spark. "So how long 'til this stuff does whatever it's meant to do then?" She takes only a couple of steps back after lighting it.
"Well, uh," Tim prevaricates, "just a bit." He glances toward the window. "... Probably." The spark is eating through the fuse at a steady clip. Maybe they'll actually pull this off... "Better take cover." He eyes the fuse with alarm. "Take cover!" In a panic, he leaps through the window and hangs from the sill, so that just his eyes are visible. His hind paws grapple noisily for purchase on a drainpipe.
Otto grabs Twitchtail, tucks her under his arm and jumps through the window.
"Oi! Put me down you dolt! Not the window! Why are you go-!" Twitchtail's words are lost as they sail through the window...
The cat ignores Twitchtail's protests, having sense enough to follow Timeon's lead. Seconds later after he flies out the window with the jill the explosion lights up the second story of the tavern and there is a boom. The cat and Twitchtail land in a pile of garbage that breaks their fall, "Cat's still can't fly, " Otto says sadly, "Weasels neither I guess. Ah well, maybe the weasel was too heavy?"
So about that "boom". "Boom" might be a little bit of an exaggeration. It's not the sort of boom that shakes the rafters and sends a shockwave through the walls. But the powder, burning red-hot, does succeed in shattering the enclosing pot, and the improvised bomb begins disgorging a great deal of smoke into the enclosed space. It coughs out a few gouts of ocher flame, some of which catch and begin crawling along the floorboards. From his perch by the window, Timeon's eyes widen. He lets out a little victory yelp. Or it might be another kind of yelp, because just at that moment, the drainpipe decides it's had enough and collapses beneath him. The young fox goes sliding down it on a riotous journey earthward.
"G'r'off m' fzz!" growls the weasel from slightly under the cat unaware of the inbound fox.
Otto gets off the angry weasel quickly, rolling off onto his back in time to see a flying fox.
Timeon survives his slide down the wall. He stands up, checks that all of his limbs are intact, catches his breath. The light from the tavern's top floor is growing brighter. He looks up at it. He smirks.
Otto stands up, still somewhat covered in garbage, but he grins, "Another job well done!"
Twitchtail stands and checks out her snout. Thankfully it seems to be okay. Not broken. Nor are any limbs. Despite Otto's 'help', she seems okay, if coated in refuse. "I am takin' half your share of our next job!" She hisses at the cat then looks from Otto to Timeon and spreads her paws. "Enough admirin' ya handy work, let's scamper!" And does just that, hoping they'll follow.
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