The Defence of Sudborough Manor - Burrows and Badgers returns!

The gang settled into their usual seats around the bar table. Some on taller chairs than others, each at equal height and each enjoying a feast set before them. Lightning flashed past the condensation covered windows, nine pairs of eyes looked at the hooded otter archmage as she took a sip of wine and skewered another brown shrimp with her fork.
"Hey, that's NOT my fault!" she grinned.
Bowie put his cat paw on the table, face up, "Okay, cough up, what did we earn?"
Berry Town the Shrew rubbed the scars across his face "A headache from the flat of Big Yin's blade!"
Abi Berry, his cousin shrew grinned across the table at him "You're lucky he didn't take your head off this time, he was in a bad mood!"
"We were being paid to keep him and his gang out the manor, think we did that well enough!" Batty chirpped in from the beams above them in his bat roost.
"Sudborough is a lovely place, maybe we need to do more work round there," Sneaker the mouse mused.
"Only because you are 'friends with the postmistress!" Snappy Squirrel laughed.


"Yeah, good thing some of us were ahead of the gang, Sneaker and I had gone in the night before, otherwise we would be out of pocket," Snappy looked at L'Ouseux the sparrow warrior, "glad you guys fluttered in so quickly. They were in a hurry."
"Despite hugging that wall, we knew we were okay vs Bovva's Little Brova, that cheeky weasel and Archie Mouse who were on the move." Sneaker raised a eyebrow so it almost touched his upper whiskers.
"Oi, I was going as quick as I could to catch up!" Bowie moaned.
 

"I was only too happy to go and meet him," L'Ouseux grinned through his scars.


"Yeah, you softened him up nicely for me, thank you!" Bowie slapped the sparrow across the back, almost sending him across the table, but without spilling a drop of his beer. "Style, elegence, superior swordsmanship counts for a lot you know, one charge and he was down!" The cat grinned rakishly.
"All I saw was ball of spitting, swearing, fur, sword and claws Bowie, were you afraid of him?" Sneaker flicked a perfectly aimed nut shell at the cat's nose as L'Ouseux picked himself up.
"Thanks Bowie, you did well there." The sparrow grinned.
 

"It allowed me to get after that mouse ranger of their's, Archie, was definitely being a tough mouse to shift."


Lightning crackled past the windows again, yes, eyes turned to the archmage...
"What?"
Berry combed his whiskers and looked at the others "While you lot were having fun, did anyone notice Big Yin and Bovva sneaking up to the well, two weasels on the hunt. It felt kind of lonely out there against those two."
Abi looked over the brim of her cup, "Yeah, we had you."
Red the Mouse turned round from his roasted hazelnut and laughed "No, I had him, you were more worried about tending dinner on the campfire!"
"Oi, do you know how expensive dragonfly larvae sausages are? Wasn't letting them burn!"


"Like no one noticed Little Yin rush up on me!" Sneaker moaned. "That squirrel hurts!"
"You got a good arrow in him, I saw that," Bowie chipped in.


"Yeah, we had your back, Berry!" Snappy added, both Batty and I got good shots in on Big Yin as he charged you. He was pretty beaten up when he got to you."
"Thanks. That sword still hurts though!" Berry moaned.
"That's why I put at least three healing spells into you and I know you had your healing potion!" L'Otter grinned, munching another shrimp "These are really good you know!"


Sneaker twirled his knife on his claw, and looked side-long at Bowie, "Can we mention the wall?"
"No."
"Oh, we need to mention that wall. The one Bowie tried to vault?" L'Ouseux, obviously in on it, added.
"You try jumping a five foot wall in armour!" Bowie protested.
"Hold on, in mastercrafted armour?" Berry protested.
"That nearly bankrupted the gang?" Batty ginned.
"That fits you like a glove and weighs nothing?" Abi added.
"Hey..." Bowie complained.
"And yet you slid back down that wall like it had been greased." L'Ouseux chirruped.


The gang laughed and it was Bowie's turn to be slapped on the back. His beer did not stay long in his tankard and soon the rabbit barmaid was bringing many more drinks to their table and taking away more than her pay in tips. Thunder rumbled outside again.
L'Otter looked at the storm and shook her head, "Lady Door, can we talk about Lucy, Big Yin's squirrel mage?"
Lady Hazel Door had been quiet up until now, brooding or lost in thought "You got her pretty well with lightning" the dormouse confirmed, "that was one roasted squirrel!"
"It was immediately after that I was referring to..." The archmage steepled her scarred paws, fixing her with her black eyes. The rest of the gang fell into silence, an unsual moment for them, someone normally had something silly to say. Lady Door picked up a grub from her bowl and slurpped it down.
"Urrr... that's still alive." Abi groaned.
"So, a lady can change her ways?" Lady Door looked at her friend, licking her canine as her eyes flashed.
"I thought you were following the wild school of magic, like me?" The otter intoned, "yet when you cast that spell, it was..."
"What?"
"Well. Dark."
Batty flipped down from the rafters to sit next to Lady Door, "I saw it, a black cloud wrapped round Lucy, it would not leave her alone, she looked terrified when I charged her. Her eyes were wild, like she was being haunted by demons. What did you do to her?"
"I found a spell I like, it makes the victim fear the world."
Lightning arced past the window again.
"Victim..." Batty nudged her, "you're starting to sound like me! Lucy really wasn't in that fight when I tried to take her down, she was so distracted."


Berry slid the flask of blackberry gin over to Red, the newest gang member, in an effort to disrupt the gang. "Thanks for coming over to help with Big Yin, your spear work is becoming more impressive everyday."
"Thanks Berry, pity Her Ladyship got the better of me, that ferret packs a mean punch!"
"No harm done though?"
"Nah, she just knocked me for six, ear were ringing for a bit, it was like one of Bowie's training fights!"


This seamed to lift the mood.
"Did he ever clear that wall to help you Sneaker?" Snappy asked.
"Nah, he didn't need to, I landed a massive stab on Little Yin, taking him right down!"
"Impressive mate!"
"Then I ambushed Archie by jumping the wall, it wasn't that high Bowie!"
"Oi!" Bowie flicked a fresh hazelnut back at the squirrel assasin. "You're getting good in those shadows mate!"


"I got a few good blows in on Big Yin," Berry added, "Your shots definitely mad it hard for him".
 

Red rubbed the side of his head, "Pity I wasn't awake to see that, thanks for getting me out guys!"


"Oh, you can thank Bowie for that" Abi put in, "he was across the village like a shot of lightning."
"About that, who is casting all that outside?"
"Her ladyship caught one of those," Berry added, "came right past my ear!"
L'Otter grinned, "Sorry, she was just standing there gloating, so she needed to be taught a lesson."
"Oh she got a lesson alright," Bowie grinned "a lesson in never let a handsome cat distract you!"
"Would have prefered another well-aimed healing spell!" Berry laughed.
 

"You know those sausages were done to a tee while you lot were running around?" Abi added, "I would have hated to see them wasted!"


"You didn't have to yell 'Grub's up!' so loud," Berry laughed, "it made me forget I was being smashed up by that massive weasel and that sword, I was starving when I came round!"


"Yeah, their heart wasn't in the fight after that, Big Yin legged it, scooping up Lucy on the way, he practically had to haul Bovva off me in the doorway of the manorhouse." Snappy added, "but we held our ground and got paid well!"
"A second or two more, and I would have had a pretty bounty for taking down that mage!" Batty pouted.
"When did you become a fighter?" Bowie laughed.
"Always!"
"Anyway, as I said, cough up, what did we earn!" Bowie demanded.
"When did you become an accountant?" L'Otter laughed.
"A cat's got to have a retirement plan for his last life you know!"
"That lightning is really weird," Snappy shrugged as he reached for his purse from his pocket, "It appears to be coming out of a barn about two miles down the track."
Lady Door looked up with a grin and a dark red flash in her eyes "Guess Lucy is still fighting her demons then!"

The gang emptied their pockets and pouches, it had been a good haul, after feeding everyone, they were well in the black. They had 7p and 4 materials for securing the manor house, 8p from the sale of magical herbs from the burrow garden; 14 p had been lifted off the pockets of the fallen, Lady Door had trailed the other gang as they had worked with a money lender, and had shaken him down for 9p shortly after. L'Otter had helped out with some protective charms on the bar of the hotel and keep freshness charms on the beer cellar, earning them 10p and useful information on other gangs in the area. Batty had found a forest shrine, allowing both magic users an extra chance of getting spells off, Sneaker had reaquainted himself with the postmistress! Apart from his grin, it gained the gang more knowledge of other's movements. L'Ouseux and Snappy had also met the money lender, and 'helped him' to a tune of another 17p. 57p added to the gang's 23 in the (earth) bank meant that several members were looking longingly at extra armour. Lady Door had found a magic tome with a Dark Magic spell from a local trader, and her eyes glazed over as she picked it out, costing the gang 11p (The plus 2 sword of wounding at 31p had been quietly turned down), but Sneaker was allowed a mastercrafted sword for 15p. Red had met a local scout and had given the gang concealment lessons. Bowie and Berry had met up with a local priets, and had talked philosphy and ethics late into the night, there was no bonus to the gang, but the two had reached certain understandings about life. Abi had followed a slaver, and in the tradition of the gang, and although the gang was full, the later would not be trading in the area again, or anywhere, and several creatures were now freed. 

Both Berry and Red were completely unharmed by the other gang's attacks, but the reports that came back to them via the postmmistress's pillow was the other gang were all fine too (after Lucy recovered from the terror spell, and the barn was rebuilt). In fact, Bowie and Berry had come back from the priest determined to be more agile on their feet, and kept up sprint training, which Red was putting them to shame with. Sneaker, after his close combat ambush, was developing his lurking abilities, with an ability to 'Melt into Shadows', leaving the ranger pretense behind, and heading more to the path of assassin, while Abi earned a higher strike skill practising with Bowie.

L'Otter turned to Bowie and grinned "Should we be worried that we have fought that gand so often we know them on first name terms?"
"I find it pays to be polite!"