L'Otter cast one weary eye on the fire as the fox's scared face appeared for the second time in the day amongst the flames. This method of communication was all well and good in your own studies, but in the middle of a crowded bar? The poor rabbit serving girl had already had to have the rest of the evening off with shock. So uncouth, but what did she expect from dark mages?. L'Otter shook her head, certainly not for the first and definitely not the last time this day.
"So?" The masked fox enquired, showing a little more tooth than was strictly necessary for a public conversation, "What happened?"
The archmage picked up a golden flagging, looked at it's empty state, and poured herself a refill of fine white wontinental wine.
"Twice in a day my friend, curiosity is normally a cat's remit." She took a draught of wine, it was a good brew, no mustiness and a hint of elderflower over buttery oak. "After you left us, my feline friend Bowie had commented: "Well, that's not something you see every day!" A fair comment as we are in the bar of the Severed Paw.
"Don't get too comfy, now we we've got uninvited visitors!" I informed him, then knocked his feet down to the reeds on packed earth floor, telling him "Someone thinks they can make a move on our territory!"
The tabby cat brindled and rushed off to gather the rest of our Freebeasts, thanks to your warning, as I picked up my goblet of wine, and sipped it I was thinking if this band have the reputation you claim they have, I remembered our family toast:"Might as well enjoy the pleasures, they may be our last!" and left the inn after the gang."
"The Barbaric Pedestrians had decided to try and grab our territory before dusk set in, a bold move as they did not really know our reputation; but as ever, Snappy the Squirrel and Sneaker the Mouse had found cover deep within arrow range of the invaders. The rest of the gang scattered to defend as many pieces of our territory as possible. I cast haste on my friend Bowie who ran, no, galloped, to occupy the ruins next to the largest dwelling on the village other side of the village. Batty our bat joined Sneaker on the left, while a Barbarics owl blockaded the door into the manor that Snappy was already sniping from, Red the mouse and L'Ouseux were not happy about that"
I heard a scream of "Get him!" Red the mouse warrior charged in, hitting the perplexed owl with his spear, wounding it gravely. Then he proceeded to parry many blows from the raptors as Kyle the Kite popped up over the manor to join the fray. Always puzzles me how mice are so good with their parries. He was soon joined by L'Ouseux, our sparrow warrior, and Snappy too as the three bravely burst out of cover to take on two huge birds of prey who are decent fighters."
"Impressive!" The fox head nodded, "we have had issues with those two in the past ".
"Batty got rather close to Honey the hound, while the frog snuck up her from behind, causing her to flit away to safety after hurting him badly," the Otter gesticulated.
"Bats are notoriously fragile, getting out was a good plan!" The vixen nodded sagely.
"Batty is rather slippery."
"My friend Bowie was charged by their badger, but due to EVERYONE loving Bowie, he had no fear of the striped behemoth, who was somewhat distracted by a pain spell cast by one of my accomplices. She is definitely heading down your path of magic, all the badger's attacks were easily parried by our expert swords-cat!" L'Otter took another sip of her wine.
"If your accomplice ever wants to train, when I am done in the North, send her my way." The vulpine face happily grinned from the flames.
"Bowie was doing really well, until their mage heald that black and white killing machine. They were joined in quick succession by Honey and our shrew piratess Castle, but that fight was inconclusive. All Honey's frenzied blows were parried perfectly, I suspect our pirate has been training again!" The archmage smiled.
"As all this was going on, you have to remember there was lots of lightning and arrows flying about from both. Honey caught a zap from me, leaving her very singed, and Sneaker and Batty were both damaged by missiles and lightning. Although the frog was about to join the brawl on my right, he thought better of it as I think he could see which way it was going for the raptors, he sensibly decided he was better off taking a house."
"In fact, Red, despite being the least well skilled of our gang, being a recent addition and suffering a few knock outs blows before, did impressive work taking down D'Owl, aided a bit by a mad sparrow, a plucky squirrel, a luck spell and pain being inflicted from afar." The goblet was swished around, the nose was heady and peachy.
"Red then turned round and battered Kyle the Kite. It was very impressive indeed for a small mouse. His parrying was first rate I will say!"
"Certainly sounds like you had more luck that us," the Fox added.
"Indeed, as night fell, the Barbaric Pedestrians retired to kick their many wounds. Annoyingly, their mage had secured several pennies from the large mansion, but their kite appears to be limping, clutching a hamstring."
"Excellent news, glad they got a good pasting!" The vixen grinned again.
"What will amuse you even more, the owl was found later on, wounded and hiding, we captured it."
"The Barbarics will not like that, they'll be back for it straight away!" The fox gasped, aghast.
"We are counting on it, plus we have also invited a couple of local gangs of our acquaintance, some we get on with others, less so, who might have something to say about these upstarts getting too big for their boots and straying into their territories!" The otter winked, poured her wine on the fire, dousing it, and cutting off the conversation. As the hubbub returned to the bar, she walked off from the smouldering ashes to join Berry the Shrew and others at a long dining table, where a disconsolate owl was bound to a chair and was being fed titbits by the gang.
"Whooooo fancies a fight tomorrow!" Bowie laughed.
"Twit!" Sneaker giggled, throwing a nut at him.
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