Sorry, but your fox is in another castle.

The sound of the waves serenade the scenery as the otter sits on a sand dune, looking out at the sea. Dragoon leans back on his paws, his scimitars sitting alongside him as he relaxes on the beach, despite the chill.

The beach was in many respects the selling point of the town. In the warmer months it would be crowded with beasts taking leasurly strolls down the sandy shores for a relaxing walk. In the colder months it was all but deserted save for the otter of course, and the rat.

A scrawny creature dressed in a simple red tunic the beast dashes along the coast line towards the otter, waving his paws in the air, "Hey! Hey!" he shouts.

Dragoon lifts his eyes from the sea and stands up, seeing the creature come towards him. Grabbing his swords and sheathing them, he tilts his head. "Aye? What's up, mate?"

The rat comes to a stop. Paws on his knees he hunches over until he can get his breath. "Yer friends with Rioko, r-right?" The rat asks, "She's in danger! Some thugs, I saw some beasts ambush her out on the road! She's hurt bad. Please, you have to come quickly!

Dragoon nods quickly and listens before saying in an urgent tone, "Well, lead th' way, mate! Don't dawdle!" He holds onto the hilts of his scimitars to keep them from impeding progress as he's led to where Rioko had been ambushed and hurt.

The rat nods once taking off like a bullet away from the beach, away from the city. "I helped her get away but...she's hurt bad. They slit her open like a turkey the monsters! They just overwhelmed us both!" The rat says as they draw near to an old abandoned dock set higher on the beach. A small cave is nearby, beckoning the beasts to enter. The rat pauses at the edge, clutching his heart, "Inside. I helped her inside..."

Dragoon grows more and more worried as he hears of the predicament of the vixen. His heart is pounding, the otter panting as he arrives the abandoned dock. He nods to the rat and says, "Thanks, mate. Ye better get t' town an' get a healer, quick." With that, he steps inside the cave, his paws still on his blades as he calls out in a hushed shout, "Rioko? Rioko, ya in here?"

The cave is wide as it is long. A smugglers cave and abandoned it seems the cavern is filled with old boxes, smashed crates and over turned barrels. Off in the center of the cave a lone figure can be seen, back turned to the otter. A red cloak covers the grey fox's portly form.

She doesn't reply.

Dragoon curses as he doesn't hear a response from the vixen. Hurrying over to the form of the vixen, he places a paw on the shoulder. "Rioko? C'mon, lass, say somethin'..." he murmurs in a nervous fashion, fearing the worst as he slowly turns her over.

The fox rolls over revealing a portly well fed beast of grey fur wearing a pair of trousers and a leather vest that leaves much of her lower torso exposed in a very Rioko like way.

The miss matching pair of eyes, one brown one blue, that gaze back at the otter however mark the fox as anyone but Rioko.

"Oh my hero." The unkown vixen cackles as she thrusts a dagger at the otter's chest!

Behind the otter beasts leap out from behind their respective covers. A silver fox and red fox, both dressed in trousers and leather jerkins and armed with rapiers come charging at Dragoon.

It's a trap!

Dragoon's eyes narrow in confusion as he sees completely unfamiliar eyes. His right paw leaps from his sword hilt and blocks the blade, but only by having the blade stab straight through! He winces and pulls back, the dagger still embedded in his paw as he stands up, looking around at the group. "Damn cheeky cowards..." He pulls a scimitar free, gritting his teeth at the pain in his impaled paw.

The foxes close in on the otter and their vixen comrad rolls to her feet, "Sorry? Were you expecting someone else? Rioko Rioko Rioko! Oh poor Rioko, what ever did happened to you? Are you ok? Are you hurt?" The fox mocks the otter as she tosses the cloak to the floor. "Man am I glad you are a bone headed moron. easiest coin I ever earned."

The vixen gestures for the tods to go to work. The black and red fox lunge forward, striking at the otter's head and leg respectivly.

Dragoon gives a growl at the vixen, his eyes on fire as he looks at the imposter. "You'll be sorry you did that, lass." With his teeth, he grips the dagger's hilt and yanks the blade free from his paw in a muffled yell of pain and rage. His paw then reaches down, gripping his other scimitar's hilt just in time to pull it free from its sheath and block the two strikes from the tods. He glares at them both individually. "You have t' th' count of three before you share the same fate I plan for your imposter lassy friend over there."

The tod's do not reply, they simply fight and by the feirce and calculated way they strike they may have seen their share of experience in the field. Continueing to chatter to the rings of steel on steel the vixen hops onto one of the crates, drawing a second dagger to clean her claws, "Tisk tisk. You are a noisy one. Hardly worth the money paid to kill you. But don't worry, your fine ottery hide will cover the effort." The vixen then tosses the dagger half hazardly at Dragoon's back.

Dragoon is matching them rather well. He's fought in skirmishes on ships, where it's close-quarters and, more often than not, against multiple beasts at once. Doesn't mean he isn't invincible. And his paw is aching from its wound, his fingers having to make extra effort to grip the hilt of his blade. Luckily, he was whirling out of the way of one tod's swing when he barely catches a glimpse of the vixen's throw. He crosses blades with one tod and twists, using him to block a blow from the second and get in the way of the dagger.

The black fox let's out a yipe as the blade sinks into his back. It hardly has the force to kill him but serves the purpose of causing him to go stiff with pain.

The vixen cuts her taunting short as she realizes her mistake, a mistake the red fox tries to keep from turning into a disaster by pressing his attack, slashing the otter with both paws once to his head and again to his belly.

Dragoon sees an opening as the black tod grows still, his curved blades slashing across from the right, one slashing his throat and then the other, before the fox forms a perfect square with them to block the two slashes.

Dragoon room-pages, "Before the otter forms....ugh".

With a pained gurgle the fox's black and silver coat is stained red with his own life blood as he collapses onto his back, paw outstretched to the vixen for help. Help that never comes as the fox slowly slides her way towards the exit. She survived enough of her own battles to know that this was not going according to plan.

Blast it! The beast promised them an easy kill! Not some hardened warrior!

The red fox is filled with determination at the sight of his comrad meeting a grizzly end, and his desire not to join him! Drawing a dirk from behind his back the red fox slashes at the otter with the blade and blocks incoming strikes with the dirk. "You'll pay for that river dog! You'll pay with yer filthy LIFE!"

Dragoon growls and presses his advantage. This tod is used to attacking in conjuntion with his partner on the ground, not one-on-one. The otter begins a whirling dervish, his blades slashing from both sides at one to make the air hiss and whistle at their speed as he pushes the tod into a corner, the otter falling silent at his concentration.

"Yer gonna die otter! yer gonna die!" The fox says in more desperation than anything else, "I'm going to lop off yer tail and feed it to ya! I'm going to...kill you...dead..." he grunts with effort with each strike until his tail end pushes against a crate and he leans backward, trying to lock blades with the otter before they can sink into his furry hide. "Eli! Help! Help!"

Eli though is quickly leaving the building. She isn't the spry skinny thief any more! She needs the head start!

Dragoon waits for the tod to grow desperate, when the tod raises both blades at the same time. At that, he swings a single scimitar blade, the sharp blade cutting both paws off of the tod's wrists simultaneously in a single swipe before he brings his blade along the fox's neck, slashing hard as he turns on his footpaws to dash for the opening.

The tod dies. Horribly. The horror of losing his paws quickly silenced by the slash to his neck. Despite her girth the portly vixen is making good head way from the cave. There is a boat at the bottom of the beach. Having watched the fight from a distance the rat is already pushing the boat into water long before the vixen even get's there.

"No, no, no no! You get back here you coward!"

The rat looks up at the vixen's shout and then see's the otter racing out of the cave and squeaks, pushing the boat further out to see.

Dragoon glances around, trying to spy the vixen until he hears her calling out. He then sees her straightaway and dashes towards her, his face still a picture of rage, just now covered in the sprayed blood of his foes.

The fox would have gotten away, if some cowardly rat had not pulled the boat out to sea. She falls to her knees, letting curses vile enough to cause the rat to blush as he rows away.

Knowing that she is now forced to fight off the otter Eli gulps. She turns quickly, paws raised in the air as she backs away from him. She can feel water drifting over her paws. "Parlay!" She shouts. "I call parlay! You got me! Parlay you woodlander monster!"

Dragoon stops a few feet away from the vixen, his blades still clenched in his paws, blood dripping from them as he yells, "Parlay! How dare ye call parlay t' me!"

The fox let's out a nervous chuckle, "Call me odacious but I would rather die of poor liver than violent disembowlment. You wouldn't actually do that last one, would you?" The fox asks nervously then steps deeper into the water, "Er, point is. You obviously know what the word Parlay means and know what kind of a dirty rotten scoundral you would be to murder-ify a poor defensless fox beggin fer mercy." The fox pauses again before adding, "And just incase you are a dirty rotten scoundral you should know that I can't tell you who hired me to kill you if I'm laying in a pile of me own steaming entrails...or have my throat slit. Gotta say the latter is a bit more fearsome than the former. At least you get to yell out what you think of the person stabbing you or chopping you open like a melon. All you get to do is gag and gurgle with a throat wound, wot?"

Dragoon growls, his blades still not put away as he says, "Spit it, vermin! Who hired ya? Is Rioko in trouble? If so, where is she so I can find th' real her?" He raises a blade. "An' if I don't like what I hear..."

Paws still up in the air the fox rolls her eyes, "The fat bellied mut? Pfft, as if I would try to hurt a fellow vixen. Well, I would actually, but it was easier to just steal the drunks cloak and lure you out here with a sob tale about her being attacked by bandits. She's safe and sound, probibly still belly up under the table at the tavern where I left her."

She stares at the sword, vivid images flashing through her mind of where it was going to end up. "The rat hired us for a friend, back at the clinic. Some beast there appearently as a an ax to grind with ya. Didn't pay me near enough for this." Through a nervous smile she says, "You...you are going to let me go now, right? Right?"

Dragoon sheathes one blade, still keeping the other upraised as he listens to the story. The bloody ferret survived?! That's the only one he can think of who would be taking residence in the village clinic who would be after him. He squints and says, "Toss me her cloak. She'll want it back." He really didn't like the insults the vixen was saying about her. It left a bad taste in his mouth and a pang in his chest. "Don't talk 'bout her that way."

The fox doesn't seem to like this 'half way' let go stratagy the otter seems to be employing. She unslips the cloak around her shoulders and hands it to the otter. "Pitty, it was nice taste. And fine, you don't want me to toss out insults about some bar bouncer fox. Now I've told you all you wanted to know, now let me go and I kin promis you'll never see hide or tail of me again!"

Dragoon takes the cloak, his blade still out and toward her as he nods. "Aye. You're free to go. As per the parlay. But here's somethin' t' keep in mind: if I do see yer hide or tail again, I'm keepin' both."

The fox twitches an ear. For once Eli is quiet as she backs away from the otter, keeping her eyes on the beast until she turns and makes a sprint down shore away from the city.

She has no doubt the otter would make good on his threat.

Dragoon watches her leave before wincing and collapsing to his knees. He grits his teeth, looking at his injured paw and shakes his head, dipping the wound into the seawater. As much as it stings like fire, he knew seawater is best to clean wounds with. He sheathes his other blade, hefting the cloak onto his shoulder as he wraps his paw with a makeshift bandage from his sash. "Bloody hell..."