More Adventure Than He Wanted to Find

Characters: William/Orph, Kip(spoof) and Anba_Hor.

Location: Moss River

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Orph had gone straight from the Abbey to Moledeep the evening before to find it just as he'd left it. The tree-rats from before had never touched it, as he'd feared, and Racky was still asleep in the dibbun hole. The rat settled down in the old study to read the maps and look through the book on shields again. He fell asleep in one of the armchairs with the book open in his lap. The dibbun slept peacefully through the night and when morning came he made his way down river to Camp Willow to visit with Kip. The dibbuns hadn't seen one another in a while and were soon off running about the woods. William showed the young otter the sling he'd made himself from his old shirt and Kip tried to teach the ratling how to use it properly, with mixed results. After a little playful sparing and general tomfoolery they ended up in the river, swimming and splashing about.

Moss River - Between Camp Willow and Moledeep

Orph hauls himself out of the river shaking himself as the otter continues to splash water at him. "Cut it out, Kip!" he growls splashing back at the young otter with mild annoyance. "Aw, come on, Will!" the other dibbun calls, "Ya can't get out /now/, ya hardly got wet," the otter laughs. The rat shoots a stern look at the otter and shakes his head, "You always say that, Kip. I'm done swimming for now, alroight? You can keep on if ya want but I'm gonna do some else now," The rat gathers together his belongings from the bank. "Fine," the otter grumbles climbing out of the river, "What we donin Matey?" he grins cheekily as he gathers his own stuff. A muffled respones comes from the rat, who's in the process of pulling his shirt back on, " 'ooin' ina 'oodz." is all the otter can make out. "Huh? ... The woods? Didn't we do that already?" he raises a brow at the smaller dibbun, "What's so great about the woods?"

Orph pulls his head out the top of his shirt pulling his arms through the sleeves as he answers, "Lot of things. We jus go where ever looks interestin an ... maybe we'll find an adventure or somethin'. Never know some times ya do." he checks over his gear and looks over to see if the otter's ready to go. Kip shrugs, "Maybe matey. Might not ya know. Mossflower's know for being peaceful and quiet so don't get your hope up too high." The rat snirks that this, "Yeah real peaceful an quiet all th time ... sure it is ... tell thet th all those tree-rat's wot keep throwin rocks at me!" The otter rolls his eyes, "This might be a shock t ya MessMate, but you are a /rat/. That might have something t do with it, don't ya think?" William dismisses this idea with a wave of his paw, "Yeah sure, sure. Ya ready yet?" "Yeah. Where we headed this time, Fearless Leader?" Kip teases starting to walk ahead of the rat along the river bank.

Orph narrow's his eyes at the otter for a moment, "Didn't you learn anything?" The otter blinks confused. "I lead you follow," the rat clarifies pointing first to himself then to the otter. Kip ohs. "Sorry. Lead then," he give a mock bow and follows the rat off into the woods.

Orph and Kip wander about the woods headed no where in particular. The ratling is in the lead as has become the pattern for the pairs exploring trips. Wiliam as always is alert and armed with dagger and buckler his eyes and large ears as always on the alert for danger. The larger otter dibbun follows close behind, his sling tied to his belt and battered walking staff in his paw as he looks about himself not as sure of himself out here alone as the rat is.

Suddenly there's a rustling from the bushes. The fox, Anba Hor, pokes his head out of a rather thick-looking overgrowth by the side of the path, and smiles down at the two young dibbuns. "My... what a fearsome looking bunch. Woe to anybeast they encounter... have mercy, please!" He snickers.

Kip blanches slightly at the fox reading his sling. William's is prepared for a fight should it come to that, "Hello," he says to the fox as though they were at the Abbey, "We are passing through here as we explore the woods. What is your business here?" Should the fox attack the rat will fight, however the otter will likely try to run as he's better suited to fighting with a group and if alone he's quick to turn coward

Anba_Hor is all too ready, but he doesn't think there will be much of a fight should it come down to that... he's pretty well-trained and has seen some awfully bloody battles. His paws come up to part the bushes as he pokes farther out, "Of course, my business... of course... is... well, I'll be honest - I'm lost, young fellow... I've no idea where I am, but I'm trying to get to a road, or a well-populated place. Do you know of any place like that? It's urgent!

Kip lets loose a rock from his sling before running off into the woods. William tries to grab the young otter's arm to stop him, but he isn't quiet fast enough and the otter is gone. "Stupid otters," he mutters under his breath before answering the fox, "The road is west of here. No much around ... Heard there's a city up north a long ways ... may be a tavern or two a long th road. What's th emergency?" The remaining dibbun is tensed and ready for battle should this fox make any wrong moves. The rat's also started to wonder again /why/ he's friends with Kip

Anba_Hor shakes his head, clicking his tongue at the cowardly otter, "Now, now it's always best to pick a good, strong-hearted companion for such a walk. In case there's a dangerous situation, and you find yourself all alone without anybeast to help you... that's what I find is best, anyway." He walks out of the bush, his tattoos and cloak visible. He's dressed all in black, in a sleeveless tunic. "West, you say? I'm terrible in finding my way... north, south, east, west... all the same to me!" He chuckles.

If the fox wants to bad mouth Kip that's fine with the rat, the otter will be getting a piece of his mind next they meet as it is. "The river is east and road is west, so walking with your back to the river bank will take you to the road," the rat glares at the fox griping the hilt of his dagger tighter. "May I pass or do you need to see how /helpless/ I am?" the ratling growls wishing the fox would leave or attack already.

Anba_Hor doesn't need to attack. He takes out a dagger, balancing the tip of the blade on his finger, "You seem eager to be on your way... or is it eagerness to fight I see in those cute little dibbun eyes?" He laughs, "You know, I always find it funny when a beast wants to fight - I suppose you have some chance with another dagger of your own, but... well... you're so small." He laughs again, "...and my daggers kill on contact, unless you have something to treat the poison on them." He transfers the dagger from a finger to his outstretched tongue, balancing it for a few seconds.

"Thought you were inna hurry yourself," the rat replies sharply. He doesn't know if the fox is telling the truth or not, but he'd rather not chance it. He shrugs a little, "These woods aren't as peaceful as some believe them to be, one can never be too careful." He watches the fox closely, his ears as always swiveling about after every little sound as he makes his way around the fox heading up river.

Orph turns to face the fox again walking backwards, he knows this area very well since his home is only a short walk away from here ... but the fox doesn't need to know that. "I doubt we're goin th same way so I'd be of little help t you," he says with false sweetness. Which might have been more convincing had he not been so sharp tongued right before.

"Oooh, but you'd be so /much/ help to me, and you don't even realize it." Anba Hor takes advantage of the rat's awkward backwards gait and rushes him, hoping to force him off his balance and take the dibbun without a scratch or fuss. "Just tell me where you're going!"

The rat puts his buckler between himself and the fox, stopping and braces himself should they collide. "I'm jus walkin about in th woods. I'm not even from around here so how could I help ya?" It's true, he wasn't born here.

Anba_Hor pushes against the buckler with as much force as he can in such a short distance, hoping his heavier bulk will knock the rat over. "Oh, you don't have to be /willing/ to help /me/, lad... all you need to do is be /helpless/. And that's exactly what you'll be before long!" How did he always manage to stumble upon these little gems wandering alone?! He makes note of the buckler, though, definitely not a starving rat, anyway...

Orph is angry now. He nearly stumbles as the fox pushes against him. Re quickly repostions himself and lashes out at the fox with his dagger. "I don't know wot ya want but I supects a thing or two an I am /not/ gonna die today or go no where without a fight!" He didn't inherit the name Redfang without earning it.

Anba_Hor is surprised that the rat recovers so quickly and pushes back against the buckler to put space between him and the dagger swipe. He still laughs, though, and pulls out six or so odd daggers, mostly mismatched, and fans them out in his paws. "Are you sure you want to do this, lad? /So/ much easier if you lay down your weapon and come along with me - I don't even intend to hurt you, very much at all... be reasonable."

Orph keeps an eye on the fox. He is angry and isn't likely to win this battle ... or is he? He focus hoping his crazy plan with work, he's never tried this before and why would he - yet he fills his mind with things to fuel his rage to unleash the rouge rat on this fox. The ratling has no idea if this plan will even work and if it does ... /no,/ he tells himself inwardly, /it's has to work./

Anba_Hor puts five of the daggers away, "That was merely a show of force... I do not have to waste them all on such a young and inexperienced beast... I don't miss. He walks towards the rat again.

Orph seems to nod, but the dibbun isn't exactly himself right now. The rat looks up at fox with angry red eyes before becoming quickly confused and squeaking out in fright. The 'rouge rat' drops to all fours and shuffles backward a little, wanting to run, but held in place by something he can't quite place in this state of mind.

Anba_Hor looks confused down at the desperate rat, seemingly something altogether else... the fox brings his paws to the rat's throat to stop the desperate act which would ruin his perfectly good bounty, and yells, "Enough of this nonsense!! Surrender to me at once, or I'll make you chew both arms off!"

The rat squeaks or tries to anyway, hard to do with a fox at your throat. Frightened he tries to bite at the fox, but in this position he can't, unsure what to do and relaying on instinct alone he lays still and squeaks as best he can in submission telling the fox the only way he can that he won't fight anymore. In 'rouge rat's' mind the fox challenged him and won, thus the fox is now Alpha and 'rouge rat' is not.

He senses Orph calming down a bit, so he continues, "Now... you're coming with me, rat." He grabs the paw with the dagger and tries to force it out..

'rouge rat' squeaks a little in pain as the dagger is taken out. He lays still before sitting up on his haunches eyeing the new 'Alpha rat' of what was once /his/ woods. The rat knows that the fox will either kill him as a fox or as the new Alpha, though as the Alpha he could let 'rouge rat' live and join him as his Beta or one of his Betas anyway.