The Warm Thrill of Confusion
✧ ✧ Reavers ✧ ✧
- Bafaloukos, Piffle, Hannah, Kevi, Darcy, Vannon, Panther-Lily, John Wesley
- Halyard Village: West Square
Continued from Torch It.
Bafaloukos trots along the shadowed fringes of the square, an ill-defined glob of dark wool and bootfalls. When he reaches the mouth of an alley, the fox ducks into it, and tilts his chin so that he might peer out from beneath the billowy hood of his cloak. Gold eyes scan the area, then settle on a quartet of hares gathered yonder. From his vantage, he cannot glean their identity or purpose, but hares all look alike to him, anyhow.
"Right sah! Won't ask!" The private /does/ salute however as she's introduced. "Here t' keep the peace and save the bally streets miss Hannah! Nice t' meetcha!" A burst of further pride wells up in the doe and she feels she should be -doing- something as part of this hand-picked unit. "If y'll 'scuse me! Still on duty! I'll get back t' kickin' the rabble outta y' fine town, doncha fret!" Another salute and she's off into the surrounding streets. [Piffle]
Hannah wraps an arm around Darcy's shoulder, smiling. "Good ole Mum," she confirms - and then as Piffle heads off she chuckles. "Quite a fanciful one, she is." She chuckles, and then turns Darcy towards the tavern. "Why don't we go get a drink? Looks like you could use it."
Kevi follows the older, golden-eyed tod into the alley, where she peers over his shoulder, "Blast, I can't be recognized by them--wait, the one that attacked me is leaving..." Well, there's a chance she /hadn't/ described Kevi to the others, however miniscule. "Should have brought something with me, I suppose. Do we wait for 'em to clear out, Baf, or what?"
By her expression, Darcy is dying to do just that, but she sets her jaw and stubbornly shakes her head. "'m not duty, so, best stay out here. Booze-free, too. If you wanna grab somethin', y'know... /not/ alcoholic, you can keep me company out in th' square f' a bit - y'know I'd love that."
"Patience is a virtue gall. Sometimes you just got to wait a moment..." Vannon watches the hares dissapear into the tavern and smiles. "And the universe provides." Thank all that is holy. That saved him some embarrassment in providing a distraction.
"Yeah," Bafaloukos grunts, then falls quiet again, until he chokes on a tiny laugh. "Look at 'em all linin' up f'r the surprise." He cocks his head to indicate the steady march of hares into the tavern. "Gonna' be a real hoot f'r 'em." Taking a step into the square, he draws his cloak tighter to deflect the chilly night winds. "If only we coul' block their /exit/ somehow..."
Kevi taps her foot. "Something's not quite right, there should be some kind of panic already. I think we should go check on things. Baf?" She walks out with him, making sure she isn't seen by those entering the tavern, "Well, we could start confusion inside the tavern, and it would make those brutes slower to realize what's going on.."
Vannon follows shortly behind, "Yeah. We could totally plug up the exits." There is another smile on the fox and then a pause as his brain catches up with the situation at hand. Something clicks. "Um...why, are we thinking about plugging up the exits?"
Bafaloukos sinks into the wall behind him, arms folding over his chest. "No, s'fine. Give 'em time," he insists, intently gazing unto the tavern. Now and then, his eyes flick to the roof, or to the alley beside it, but mostly the old fox fixates on the front door. Though he denies apprehension, Bafaloukos is uncharacteristically fidgety, like he just /can't/ get comfortable.
Kevi paces, wincing and keeping her paws clasped together, "If they touch a single hair on his head, I'll.. rrrrghhh, those hares will need to hide in their mountain..! We should have never come here, it's no better a place for foxes and cats than the other place!" She leans her forehead on the opposite wall Baf is occupying, and isn't concerned so much with watching the activity near the tavern. She has knots, and she wants this to be over.
Suddenly, a hare! She might not have been raised with the thought of harmony and equality among the species, but she's around Halyard enough to not play too much mind of the stereotypical vermin kinds. Besides, the hare is, funnily enough, heading towards the alley in question, having just left the tavern. No hard cider for youngsters? Pah! She takes her procured flask to the nearest delinquent-friendly place. [Panther-Lily]
The third fox can not help but notice that they both dodged his question. Crossing his arms Vannon replies, "Loom. Im sorry I came in late ok? But I'm going to need to know whats going on to-" his head turns around to see the young hare. "Hold that thought. Trouble coming. I'll handle it." The grey fox half walks, half limps down the street toward the hare in question. He can't have her stumbling upon their opperation, less they have to take drastic measures. Which would be...bad. Fights draw attention from guards... Walking strait up to the hare Vannon flashes a toothy smile, "Evenin lass. Care to spare a coin for a beggar? Anything to 'elp the poor kits at home eh?"
Of all the alleys to defiantly stumble into, the young recruit sure picked a winner. A trio of foxes, in various stages of disguise, lingers in the gloom of its mouth, exchanging terse whispers and anxious movements. They are surely up to no good. As one of the vulpine villains slinks into the open, Bafaloukos withdraws deeper into shadow. His hand dips into cloak, headed for the sword at his waist. This party may get going sooner than expected.
Panther-Lily is so close to the alley with her illegally-gotten gains, when out springs the tribalesque fox, begging for coin. Instantly the flask of cider is held behind her back with both paws as she smiles sweetly. It's not clear if she's savvy enough to perhaps realise that this 'beggar' owns some rather coveted lizard hide, for a start. Her ears lop slightly to frame her sweet smile. "Oh, um, sorry, sir, I don't. I was just heading by, actually." she says, peering past him toward the alley, unaware of those that lurk within.
The vixen sees Bafaloukos' paw at his waist before anything out in the square, "Where did Van-- oh, great. What is /he/ doing? Who..." She looks at Baf again, "Are you sure? I think stepping out of the alley would surely intimidate this one enough. What was Vannon asking? Are we going to cut off the exits? A bit gruesome, but I'm in if that's the plan. As long as none of ours are inside and we're sure of it."
A rotund little weasel appears next to Vannon, clutching a cup despite the cleaver shoved through his belt. "Come on dere, long-ears, gib gib! Long-ears norra care about John Wesley's emp'y tum-tum?" The eponymous weasel rubs at his stomach as his tone takes on a whiny, wheedling note. "All-a us needs dem foods, an' long-ears gib-a me, or John Wesley's chilluns starve!" The prospect of John's progeny running about should be enough to frighten any passer-by into a donation.
It certainly frightens Vannon. Oh for all that is holy, where did the fattened weasel come from? was he there the whole time? An even scarier thought is that John coukd sneak up on Vannon! "Hey! Who let you outa your cage! Git lost. I'm workin this side of the street!" The fox turns back to the hare, "Please lass. I'm starvin here. I havn't had a decent meal since they laid me off from the warehouse. Surely you got somethin...like that thingy behind yiur back..."
Panther-Lily's eyes do widen a bit. She might be a sneaky young snip, but these are still two bigger, armed vermin types. She even takes a step back at how... animated... the weasel is. She reaches into a pocket, there's a slight metallic rustle, and out comes a measely copper coin. "Oh, I, um, just have this, I guess..." she explains.
Bafaloukos' ears pin against his skull at the unmistakable peal of John Wesley's voice. Who invited /him/? He recoils in knee-jerk dread as now Vannon /and/ the weasel have begun to size up their mark. Tightening his grip on the hilt of his ratty old sword, the fox snorts his displeasure while listening to the vixen. "I... I don't know." Again, his gaze alights to the second story of the tavern. "C'mon, Tim... c'mon." Just then, a boom! A /loud/ one. Almost like a lightning clap, except it's a clear night in Halyard. Then, all at once, a strange smell is on the air, and the upper windows of the pub begin to glow.
John_Wesley reaches forward to grab at the copper with a cackle, but then a bright light startles the little weasel back away from the other two. "What-a that?" he half-shrieks, pointing animatedly towards the roof of the tavern as the windows begin to glow.
Kevi rushes to the edge of the alley by instinct, revealing herself to the hare and weasel, looking just in time to see the glow brightening in the windows, "That's my little rat, run those long-earred fancy-talkers right out of their wits!" She watches to see what commotion her little brother's deeds stirred up, waiting.
The grey fox nearly jumps out of his own fur when there is a loud 'POP'. His head twists and he stares up at the glowing light. Smacking his fore head he shouts, "What in the blazes did-" remembering the hare he turns back to Panther-Lily, "Uh...uh...would you believe you are dreaming all of this?" he offerse hopefully. Hey! it might work!...maybe.
Panther-Lily jumps violently at the loud bang - or pop! - and the coin clatters to the ground. She looks up as the orange glow begins to light up the windows - wow, what an accident, and nothing to do with the vermin types here... at least, that was the assumption until a couple more appear at the entrance to the alley, and the fox tries to... convince her it's a dream? Again, she might be sneaky, but she's far from being without merit, and she turns and runs for the tavern door.
The hare is either very brave or very confused about how fire works, as she charges the tavern. Whichever, John Wesley decides to take advantage of her negligence and pluck the copper from the road. The plan is already reaping profits! "Look-a dis!" he crows to Vannon, or... Baf, or whoever is watching him. Everyone, right? He's way more interesting than the burning building.
As smoke billows from the second story window, drifting for the moon and stars above, Bafaloukos relinquishes all caution. Nevermind that now is the /perfect/ time for caution, the old fox grabs the rim of his hood and yanks the thing off his head. His snout remains covered by the kerchief, features obscured, but he throws back his head in a victory howl. "He did it! Th' kid pulled it off." Sword and Panther-Lily and Vannon and Wesley all forgotten, the hooting fox lunges for Kevi, excitement compelling him to put her in a brotherly chokehold.
Vannon can only stare. The tavern was burning. The taver. Was. Burning. It all made sense now. They were burning the @#$!#@ tavern down. Huzzah, Vannon woke up a bandit and will now go to sleep as an arsonist and potential mass murderer. Even Vannon finds a way to ignore John for the moment. He comes up behind the two foxes and growls, "What did you //DO//?"
Kevi is choked, and howls too--with pain! But it's not that apparent in the excitement, perhaps, and she deserves it for all the unwanted attention she's given him. She winces and mutters, "Errff... yeah, er, yeah that's my broth--ugh, ow, wh---" She gives a pat or two, but somewhere in there she's storing the memory of the only time he's likely to /hug/ her, let alone smile at her. "Sure, it's great, we did it, all that an' everythin' else..!"
Panther-Lily isn't stupid - she lives in a volcano, she knows that fire is dangerous, but at the same time she knows - 'knows' - that fire on an upper floor doesn't magically appear on the ground floor instantly. It needs to travel. And so, she opens the door just to peek her head in. Backdraft? What's that?
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