Magic and Mint
✧ ✧ Reavers ✧ ✧
- Mint, Bafaloukos, Adyna, Otto
- Guosim Camp
Mint is still in the hut and has been the last few days. She has been feed a little bit of food, but not the best kind of food and then they place the gag back on her moth and keep her tied up. She has cried herself to sleep numerous times, she lost count, and now is awake again.
It would appear that Bafaloukos has been entrusted with guard duties again, now that the dust from the hut fiasco has settled. The old fox sits in the dirt by the door of the prison hut, drinking some foul brew from an earthenware bowl. Steam rises from its surface, and its odor is so powerful that it has infused the air around him.
Mint whimpers as she happens to be close to the doorway. Her fur is matted with tangles and dust now and her paws aree sore from the ropes. She has tried to get away a lot of times, but has failed and so has given up.
Bafaloukos' ears have gone flat from the constant whimpering of their captive. "Hush, lil' one," he coos in a pause among sips. His head tilts back against the frame of the door, and an eye dizzily rolls to find Mint. Though the prison is without the benefit of a lantern, her huddled silhouette can be seen among the shadows. "Shh."
Mint only manages to whimper more now at the sound of the voice and then coughs a little bit. She has done very little since she has been here but cry alot, she is a dibbun after all.
Bafaloukos polishes off the contents of the bowl in a final and flinching gulp. Immediately doubling forward, the fox braces himself against the earth with a palm, looking as if he were about to retch. His other hand continues to hold the bowl, almost protective, while the fox sucks sharp breaths, coaxing the tea to settle in his belly. "Th' spirits 'ave been talkin' about you," he tells the otter, voice extra hoarse.
Mint frowns, she doesn't understand a word he is saying and has no idea whi these spirits are and sniffs as a couple tears go down her face.
Unconcerned with whether the otter is mature or lucid enough to understand him, Bafalokos heaves a few more labored breaths, before he crawls on a wrist and two muddy knees into the prison hut. Now he sits on his haunches, still clutching the bowl, to stare at their tiny captive with foggy curiosity. "Sayin' a lot of things, aye, but not clear just yet."
Adyna takes in the scene with a critical eye as she makes her way across the camp. For once the alcoholic stoat doesn't have a bottle in her - oh. There it is. "Ye botherin' it?" she says, after wiping her mouth, sounding like she hasn't spoken in days.
Mint tries to scoot back when she sees the fox looking at her and mutters something but it's unclear what as she has the gag on and shivers a little.
An unsteady hand reaches to undo the knot in her gag. Fear has nothing to do with his tremor, though; Bafaloukos fumbles with the dirty cloth like a beast who just took a blow to the head, or one in the throes of a bad fever. "I got to let it speak," he divulges to Adyna without turning from Mint. "They want 'er to speak."
Adyna considers this and eventually consults her bottle for advice. "Wha'd Jaksor plan then?" she says, in a low voice.
Mint coughs as the gag is removed and sniffs as she looks between them.."Me..hungie.." She says in a weak voice.
Bafaloukos responds with a wag of the clay bowl. "No, not... not them," he grunts, bringing the mortar to his nose for a whiff. Though the acrid stench makes the fox screw his eyes shut, he pushes the bowl to the pup's snout, coaxing her inhale. "Big breath, lil' one," he warbles. The bowl is empty, of course, and though the odor of the sediment in its bottom may make Mint briefly lightheaded, it's not meant to harm her.
"Eh?" Adyna frowns, gesturing to the dibbun with the half-empty bottle. "Who took it?"
Mint whimpers as he gets closer and then sneezes and starts wailing loudly, but it doesn't last too long as her throat is once more sore and she coughs again and shivers in far of the two vermin.."Wanna..go homes"
"Th' others," is Bafaloukos' nebulous reply to his stoat chum. When the pup sneezes, he fetches the bowl back to the safety of his chest. "From th' camp over the river. But old ghosts guard this forest." The old fox moves back from Mint--far enough to skirt any unexpected kicks--and uses his palm to brush away the wet hay on the ground, revealing the smooth earth beneath. "We took somethin' without 'eir leave."
Adyna looks from Bafa to Mint, and back, finally noticing the bowl in his paws. "Ye took 'er from 'cross th' river? D'they /know/ then?"
Mint whimpers and coughs and...oh no she barfs now all over the ground and herself.
Suddenly out of nowhere comes a screaming cat running about near the hut, his clothes on fire until he finally trips on himself and smothers the fire with the dirt and his rolling around, "Ain't got no cookin' skills, good to know, " His eyes focus on the hut and the activity around it. Sheepishly he grins, approaching the hut as if nothing happened, "What's going on here eh?" [Otto]
By now, the stoat and the old fox speak of two separate groups, though neither seems aware. When Bafaloukos is satisfied with the circle he has cleared among the detritus of the hut floor, he cautiously places the bowl in its center, and moves to collect his rucksack from outside the door. "Of course they know," he grunts as he maneuvers by Adyna. "Now we make a deal." His ears swivel up as the cat careens into the scene, but a surge of vertigo simultaneously pushes him into the wood frame of the hut. He slides to the floor, coughing, right into a puddle of otter puke. "Or they come f'r us."
Mint blinks and whimpers and she had calmed down but now she wails again, even more loudly!
Adyna turns at the commotion, paw on her rapier, the other clinging to the bottle - it takes her a moment to recognize the cat through the alcoholic haze. She doesn't say anything, mind still mulling over what Bafa's said.
Otto grins as he approaches the group, his clothing singed and smelling slightly burnth. He curiously looks over every beast, but focuses his attention on the otter since everyone else is, "Eh, a captive eh?" He doesn't seem to mind either way.
When the fox raises himself from the floor with an arm, his head remains hung and golden eyes linger on the spew, unfazed. Then they travel to the quaking otter pup, then to the door and his comrades. Bafaloukos says nothing to any of them, but he glimpses something that reminds him of what he meant to do, and tows himself and his bag over to the circle again. "Hushh. Listen," he abruptly tells the others.
Mint coughs and whimpers again, and yes throws up again. The gag is still off as he mutters "WANNA GO...GO HOME!
Otto does as he's told, not that he's doing much but gawking at the situation to begin with.
"You will, lil' one," Bafaloukos comforts, removing several items from the rucksack. A pair of stout candles are positioned to either side of the bowl, along with a tarnished metal crock, to which he adds the contents of various cloth pouches. "Fire," he says, vocalizing the realization that he forgot this very basic magical ingredient. "Bring me a torch?" is the pursuant plea.
Mint blinks, wait did they say fire, fire is bad! Very Bad! And now she wails louder and sniffs, she could care less if her throat hurts, she just wails loudly
The cat tenses a little bit, in agreement with the Mint even if he doesn't know it. Fire is indeed bad. He shrugs though, and seeing nobody else snapping to it with a salute towards Baf, "Aye matey!" He runs off to where he was experimenting with cooking and returns shortly with a torch.
Mint eyes close as she finally runs out of screaming energy....that lasted about half an hour, she is a sleep now and that could be good or bad.
Bafaloukos musters a weak smile of gratitude for the cat, visibly relieved that he did not have to undertake the task himself. When the captive youth ceases to howl and finds a dream in which to hide, the old fox regards her with a look of mild envy before he returns to his task. With the torch he ignites each candle, then swiftly plunges the flame into the metal crock. The matter inside burns fast, a bright jade flame, then extinguishes just as quick into a puff of aromatic smoke.
The cat returns the smile, mostly pleased with himself for not setting himself on fire even once in his handling of the torch. He is uncertain though as everyone either goes quiet or slinks off.
Flickering candles now illuminate Bafaloukos' circle in the dirt and its items, but when the torch goes out, the rest of the hut is relinquished to shadow. As a claustrophobic dark invades heaps of hay and the rotten rafters above, the old fox hunkers closer to the makeshift altar, so that he can more easily peer into the clay bowl from earlier.
Not wanting to break the silence, and feeling as if he's intruding Otto hangs back watching. Soon though, feeling out of place weighs on him a little too much for him to stay in place and he quietly disappears into the night.
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