Of minks and men

It had been a couple of weeks since the start of this search for minks, and Russet had found surprisingly little information about their whereabouts. Even at the Black Gull Tavern, where practically every vermin in Mossflower had passed through at least a couple of times, she found only one beast who could give her any sort of clue to finding the pair. A rat had told her hed heard of the break-ins and thefts up in Ferreval, along with all its other troubles, and said that he knew a beast who thought their hideout might be somewhere a little south of Ferreval. Some of the beasts whod been robbed said they saw the minks running that way. Where to find the one who told the rat this, he could not say, but it was a lead. She was now half-creeping through the forest, hoping for any sign of the minks. The wildcat brushed sweat from her brow, silently cursing the afternoon heat. Her eyes were flicking around the trees and her ears twitched this way and that for the sound of any beast approaching.

The forrest was silent. Perhaps a bit too silent. No forrest was ever quiet. BIrds, even insects should be buzzing right about now, especially this far into summer. It was as if a heavy pressence have scared away the other beasts, as if they knew that something terrible, something gruesome, was stalking the woods this day.

With out warning a loud and fearsome yell echoes through the woods. "Son of a...bleedin stupid filth fowl and fowlness!" Is of course not what the beast can be heard to be shouting, but for the sake of decency, let's assume that it is.

Not too far behind the wildcat is a small clearing of tall grass. Along the side of the clearing a badger hangs suspended in the air, caught by a snare around his leg. One can only wonder how strong the rope had to be to support the weight of a badger, let alone this one. The burly badger is dressed in a leather waist coat and hat and spins around where he is suspended, trying to hack at the rope with a short sword, and with little success.

The wildcat spun around at the cry, unsheathing the sword strapped to her back. She turned to see the clearing she had just left and the newcomer who had entangled himself in a trap she had luckily avoided. If it could hold a badger, it certainly wouldve harmed her. Russet stalked up to the dangling badger. How had she not heard this gigantic beast tromping around behind her? Perhaps he was following her. Had she been a more trusting sort she wouldve cut down the badger without a second thought, but, as it was, she wasnt, and she was tracking wanted criminals and could take no chances. She shouted to get his attention. "You! Badger! Stop hacking at that thing and answer me. Who are you?"

The badger stopped in his thrashing. He sighed deeply and remained still until he slowly spun around to face the cat. "Well hello thar." His cheeky smile would not have been charming even before he let his teeth go to rot. "Good mornin to ya lass. You don't know the irony I am feeling right now..." The badger removed the hat still on his head and bowed most awkwardly while hanging up side down. The hat was wide brimmed and flat. And like his coat, made of leather. "Pleasure to be meetin you finally. You are certainly the, as they say, 'real deal.' You are most hard to track." He gestured to his foot paw, "One of your devices or do I have to thank someone else for this little...surprise."

Russet wouldnt deign to answer his question. What he said was not at all comforting, and she showed this with a lash of her tail. She unsheathed the sword strapped to her, but kept it at her side. No need for a fight yet. "You still havent answered me. I want to know who you are and why youre following me, and if you won't give me a straight answer I might be tempted to coerce it out of you." She nodded slightly at her sword.

The badger riased an eyebrow at the felines threat. His yellow toothed smile widened and he let out a harty laugh. "Ah yes. I do see they call you wild cats for a reason eh? But there is no need for dis violence. You could say that I am here to help you..." The badger thought about this, tapping his claw on his chin, "Well, no. Dat's a lie. I'm here to help mai self really."

The badger drew a knife from his belt pocket and threw it upward. It struck the rope wrapped around the tree branch above him. The rope tore under his weight and almost instantly broke, dropping the beast like a bag of bricks to the ground.

The badger landed on his feet.

Standing slowly to his full height the badger let out another toothy grin. "Call me Slade." Free paw on his hip the Badger uses the point of his short sword as a make shift cane, leaning his weight against it. "You an me, we'r huntin the same beasties..."

The wildcat watched quietly as the badger escaped from the snare. Nothing but the widening of her eyes betrayed how impressed she truly was. This badger seemed to know what he was doing. "Russet." She lowered her sword. This badger could be a powerful ally, assuming he was here to join her. "So you're after those minks, too? Hm." She studied him, considering how much he would be willing to tell her. "Well, why are you sneaking around trying to find me? Are you here to help me or not?"

"To avoid this little un pleasentness really. Bounty hunters do not usually seek other beasts company." The badger shifted his eyes to the left. The big grin returned though, "By aye. you could say I'm huntin the minks. I was delighted to overhear your converstaion with that fat bellied fool of a marten back at the tavern. I must say, you are quite the impresive tracker Ma'am. But I wonder how you feel about fightin the trio by thy self, eh? I know I don't like them odds. So how about a...a tr-oo-ce if you will? I agree to hunt my way, you hunt your way. And we try not to stick a knife in each others back till we actually catch up wid em, eh?"

"Seems like a fair agreement to me," she said, with a small smirk at the remark about the marten. "And, well, you must be fairly impressive yourself if you were stomping through the woods behind me and I didn't hear you. You seem capable, badger. We'll travel together until the job is done." She resheathed her sword. "Before we set off, though, we should share the information we have. I don't mean to offend, but if you were following me, I'd expect you know as much about the thieves as I do." She grinned back at him. "But just to be sure, do you have any other clues you didn't get by spying on me?"

The badger twirled the shortsword as he shifted his weight. Returning it finally to its sheath the badger replied, "About te tiefs? Not too much. But I know beasts. I know where they go, I know der habbits, and I know their patterns. Call it a...trick of me trade." The badger doesn't mention his 'trade' but continues on. "I heard about the minks yeah. A couple of bandits who attack'a de beasties that live in des parts. I don't know where in they may be lying, but I wonder to myself. Slade, if you were a vermin mink and a bandit, where would you be gettin your food stuff? You eat either de fish or the woodlanders. And since we are no where near the river I think they either be eaten the woodlanders, or more likely the stuff they carry. Mink can only travel so far in a day, and loot is heavy yeah? They will be close to de roads to carry their loot, but not so close they can be tracked easily."

The badger crossed his arms, "Now, you kin tell me what YOU know. Starting with your name."

The wildcat nodded at each observation. He was good at...whatever he did. Probably some kind of bounty hunting or spying work. "I'm Russet, if I didn't mention that before. Most of what I know is from inquiries, looking for beasts who might know where they went. Subtly, of course. I found a rat in the Black Gull willing to talk. He told me he'd heard that the minks had been spotted running south from Ferreval. I think they may have a hideout or camp in this area. Like you said, they would need the road for traveling quickly, and the trees here are thick and good for hiding. My employer told me that they robbed many of the houses in Ferreval in the same area, so they must have some kind of base. If they're nomadic, it seems they haven't moved for a while. My plan was to move north and see if I could spot any tracks or find their camp site. What are you going to do?"

The badger sctatched at his neck, "I ain't one to work with strangers, but...I don't see no problem in searching in the same direction at the same time. Besides, we are getting close. The trap says that much. I found this..." the badger grunted with effort as he bent low to snatch a piece of red cloth off the ground. "I found dis attached to a tree branch, right over the trap. I think they might be expecting company eh? The question is, should we wait for the trappers to come back and see what he trapped, or go hunting for their base, eh?"

Russet looked at the red cloth. It looked finer and more colorful than she would've expected for a bunch of thieves. Who would want to visit them? "Hm. It would be best to find their base as quickly as possible. If one of them comes back to find their trap cut up, that'll put them on the defensive. Better to keep searching while we can still surprise them."

The badger took a half bow, "Then we be partners." Slade took to the lead, heading north, "I don't know who might be meetin them. Maybe they set the trap for anyone, or us. We won't know until we find them...or they find us. So keep your sword handy...yah?" With that the badger ducked low under a branch and continued on the same trail Russet was on before she was distracted...

The badger looked behind him towards the cat to see if she was ready.

Russet nodded, and pulled her sword out. She was careful to keep it to her side so as not to accidentally hurt the badger. This one would be a very useful partner. Not many beasts could take on a badger. "Same to you," she said, and followed him through the trees.

Tracking a beast through the woods was no small task. It was time consuming, hard work. But every once n a while the universe would be kind and toss the hunter a boon. Not even an hour went by before Slade held up his paw to halt. There was the snap of a twig somewhere in the thicket of trees to their right. The tree's pine trees were thick and set close together but it looked like there was some clearing in the middle.

Downwind of the thicket the smell of a camp fire wavered through the air. It was old, as there were no visible fires, but present in the wind. Along with the smell of unwashed beasts and ale.

Russet gave him a brisk nod. Her sword was at the ready. She wrinkled her nose at the rank smell of the vermin below, but then silently moved through the grass to inspect the camp site. The trees would offer her and the badger some cover.

For such a big beast, the badger moved quietly, skirting through the bushes and tall grass and making as little noise as possible. Thetree line lay ahead. It provided much cover but made it harder for the badger to move through as quite as he ad been. The time for stealth was almost passed anyway, thought Slade as they came upon the clearing and found...

...Nothing.

The clearing was empty. But the smell of mink was strong here. Slade scratched at his head, eyes peering about the un inhabited thicket as he moved towards the center of the shaded area. His eyes widened out after a moment however and he sighed, "Lass...don't hate me for it, but I just realized I had overlooked a very important detail about minks."

Standing in the center of the thicken the badger looked up and sighed again, "Mink's can climb trees."

High above him in the branches of the trees were several small fort like structures built into the branches and trunks of the thicket. From there eight pairs of beedy black eyes stared back at them.

Some minks were playing cards on tables, others were sharpening blades, all looked shocked to see the pair of travelers.

"How many did you say robbed that place again?" Slade said as he slowly drew his short sword.

"I only heard about the pair," she murmured. Meanwhile, she was sizing up the minks. If they were lucky, they'd just have a fierce fight with the bandits. If they weren't, these minks would be skilled fighters as well as thieves. Their sharpened blades were not encouraging. "Luckily," she said, springing onto the trunk, clinging with her claws, "so can wildcats. I'll try and knock them to the ground." She hadn't met a lot of badgers, but it didn't seem like they'd be very nimble in the trees. "Get ready to fight, friend!" she shouted as she clambered up the tree.