"17... 18... 19 pennies..."
"Funny how all these Royalist gangs we keep bumping into all hate each other, they really are at 6s and 7s."
"Gah! I've got to start again now! 1... 2... 3..."
The gang were sitting round a fireplace in various sizes of comfy chairs in the 'Tipsy Teal', a small inn just outside Clappersgate, famous for its food and beer, after what had been a very successful day. All bar one held a glass or tankard or flaggon (or a tea cup), and helped themselves to the large selection of delicacies and snacks spread across a low bench between them and the fireplace. They watched as Martyn the mouse tried to count up the exceeding large pile of pennies on a separate little table set by the inglenook. Each in turn had also cottoned on to the sport of adding a numerical phrase in just as Martyn got into the flow of counting the piles of coins.
"Meeting one Royalist band was bad, but two..." Flash chirped.
"SHUT UP! One.. Two... Three..."
"What is zat, our four band of Royals?" Arimouse interupted.
"One... Two... Three..."
"Meeting Sir Oliphant's mouse heavy band again, after last time, I could see you were all up for revenge." Sir Ca'stle commented, nibbling a biscuit with cheese. "What are there, six out of ten in that group are mice? They fanned out with the Ele... Badger covering their six"
"One... Two... humph..."
"Praise the Horned God, the other Royalists only had six hardened fighters, " Alk added, grinning over his cup of tea, "Sixteen is quite the nunber for six to take on."
"Well done Flash for taking the early lead, at least 60 yards." Sir C'astle added.
"Three... Five... Dammit!" 
"Ze broken ground gave us plenty to hide behind on ze way in. Zom of zoze boulders must be three times as 'igh as us." the musketeer grinned from his glass of red.
"SIGH! Five... Six..."
"That wheat you hid in will need taking in in a week or two," Flash said to the shrew knight, turning to the lizard, the kingfisher quickly downed a piece of whitebait, "I noticed you were straight into the fight this time, Pebbles."
"Decided my worst half could come straight out," the Pebbles the lizard grinned, "it was easier than sharing my brain between two, just let her out and count the ninety-nine things she does after. I've decided that if I'm Pebbles, she can be Magma, hot and firey and unpredictable" 
"We chose to go left of the houses, as it was obvious both Royalists would meet around half way into the centre of the village, if they ganged up on us, our number was up, but Sir Oliphant's gang needed thinning down quickly. Ten is so dangerous." Sir C'astle added.
"Sixteen, fifteen... oh come on!"
"Sneaky move by Sssynthia, scaling ze tower, so she had un grand field of fire for 'er fireballs," Arimous added, taking a corn kernal he had popped in the fire, "Ze tower is at least four stories 'igh."
"Grrr.. One, two..."
"The two Royalists really went for each other around the porch, must have been what, six, seven of them there?" Sir C'astle winked at the others, "Rufus the hound trying to catch that mouse was a something to appricci-eight!"
"Not as much as Pebbles, being charged by Sir Oliphant!" Flash added, "I did get a good shot or two in., but that parry by Pebble... err Magma, was amazing. You stopped that one-ted criminal in his tracks."
"Please, all of you... Just..."
"Syd left himself in the open, allowing me to ambush him" Alk added.
"I took him out in one!"
"Oh, guys, at least make an effort if you are trying to distract me!" Martyn drummed his fingers.
"Ze fight round the porch was getting bloody now, cinq, sorry, five of zem, all in." Arimouse added.
"There were even three of them fighting at the fountain that I could count, two of Rufus' vs the one tortoise of the Oliphant's gang." Alk chimed.
"He has a ten-dancy to be surprisingly quick that tortoise." Sir C'astle put in.
Alk continued as he popped a roasted chestnut into his paw, "Synthia had really damaged the two Hares, the mage and the warrior, mages were trading spells. What was it, at least three lightning strikes on the two of them?"
"There will be more magic flying if I'll be to catch you lot and I CAN'T CONCENTRATE!" Martyn growled from his piece of paper that he scratched his count out of..jpg)
"You did do a number on Mousetagnion, making his sword all floppy Martyn, merci mes ami!" Arimouse smiled innocently as he reached for a handful of grubs. 
"Hartley the Hare warrior charged in on the Oliphant gang mice, six were fighting, at three a side." Flash added.
"But it was soon minus one as the hare, damaged by lightning, was felled by Squint, then there were five." Flash continued.
Flash clinked glasses with Sir C'astle, "Your charge on on Sir Oliphant, from ambush, one in a thousand."
"Thousand and one with Arthur's charge that you blocked with your lance," Pebbles smirked, crunching a nut.
Sir C'astle turned to the kingfisher, tossing him another nut, "Where were you and Alk off to in such a hurry, you must have been going 100 miles and hour?"
"If I hadn't known you for years, you would be toast now!" Martyn uttered under his breath.
"Mousetagnon had scarpered, so I was chasing him down," Alk replied, catching the nut past on by Flash the kingfisher, "While out pescaterian friend here was making sure we claimed the Oliphant's exit route.".
"Amazing how we ended up with one large ele-badger shaped hole in the gang." Pebbles added, cracking a wallnut, "that perfect strike on Sir Oliphant was one heck of a strike, really knocked seven bells out of him!"
"COMMMMMMMON!" 
"The combination of Little Red and the rabbit ranger was too much for the tortoise, and they took him down, even with all his armour. That finished off Oliphant's gang and the remaining seven members, without their leaders, scarpered." Sir C'astle toasted their opponents, "Thankfully, the other Royalists struck a deal and we split the booty in two." 
"Thirty-six, twenty-four, AAARGH! I swear, if I start again one more time, whoever does it, I will fireball you into, out of or even through your beds!" Martyn fumed.
"OOOOOOHHH! Saucer of milk, table one!" came a cry
"THAT'S IT." The mouse got out of his seat, and started drawing forth a fireball in the air.
"STOP! Martyn, that's just the waitress! The cat over their ordered it just now!" Sir C'astle laughed as he restrained his friend, "Let's all chip in, and see what we got."
"Right, we started with 31 pennies, as we did not spend after our last fight." Martyn started.
"Magic garden, five pennies." Flash added to the pile.
"36."
"Gambling den 17 pennies." Sir C'astle put in.
"We got paid 15 pennies today." Pebbles noted.
"Zat makes thirty-two more of your pennies." Arimouse listed. "Puts us on sixty-huit, plus I 'elped un money lender for a further huit, sorry, eight pennies, zat is seventy-one."
"I helped the farmer gather in those crops, got us another sixpence."
"The Royalist sparrow wasn't fighting today!" laughed Alk.
"But that makes eigthy-two pennies, that's a huge amount." Martyn gasped.
"The tollbooth netted us another eight pennies," Pebbles counted out her coins and putting them in the pile.
"Ninety pennies, that's gross. I'm sorry the chapel was closed today so I could confess my sins of greed,"Martyn added.
"It's alright, after last time I think I've seen enough of the place." Alk tossed a grub in the air and gulped it down. "the copper mines weren't very fruitful, I only got one materials, added to the two we got for winning."
"Enough to build something next time, old bean," Sir Ca'stle slapped him on the back.
"We all gained a skill or a stat due to the two ambushes and holding Sir Oliphant's ground, plus I found my old regimental quartermaster, so we had twenty-one pennies worth of free kit, as he owed me a favour. I make that one-hundred and eleven pennies, that's been a pretty good day, cheers all!" Sir C'astle raised his goblet.
"Cheers!"
"Still hate you all..." muttered Martyn, only to be showered in food.
Comments
Post a Comment