Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Seven, Shrew-d Operators: Meeting plans.

-Kuril-

Fizzle came to sit with us and told us what Jade was up to, I sighed and shook my head. I and Jacky were talking about what we saw, what we heard and what we think is going on in this town.

“Why did the Captain do all of that and how did a fight come out of it?” Anyone could see that Jacky was a bit excited about the bar brawl going on and I had several hunches as to why my little tom cat did that.

“I know why she did it, it’s really quite easy to understand. I think she just helped one of the less visible factions of this city with her actions. The pigs are the largest faction and the bartender is obviously in someone else’s pocket. Jade just helped him out and now they’re trading information with one another.” I could see Jade talking fast and the bartender was talking equally fast while sending glances at the brawlers every now and then, he was looking out for when they eventually stopped. “She’s actually live action roleplaying right now, we’ve had quite a few Ogre’s and Oubliettes games based around a town of thieves’ scenario. How she caused the fight is simple, she got someone to agree with her original assessment. Somebody didn’t like that she changed her mind and someone didn’t like it at all when they agreed with her about it being exactly one foot.”

“What’s rather interesting is that she threw the stool away from herself so that its length is at least within a foot of all their answers.” Don’t look so confused Fizzle, that’s how you start a bar brawl the smart way without having to resort to violence personally. She could have still started a bar brawl by hitting someone with the stool, but my daughter would have been on the wrong end of a thrashing. Jade had backed out correctly.

“She let them all build up to it too, that’s my girl and I wouldn’t exchange her for a pretty princess version of her on any day.” I was quite proud of Jade, she managed to start a bar brawl without investing herself in it personally. She wasn’t being attack by all the pigs currently beating the literal snot out of each other. “She’s much more interesting as she is anyway.”

“I can’t imagine Captain being a pretty princess… eugh…” Jacky looked like she was about to throw up, even I was beginning to see the merits of having a complete tom cat for a daughter. “The thought gives me a shiver in my timbers and that’s not even an actual pirate saying. It could just be the piece of wood digging into my side.”

Jacky picked up a small plank of wood she had found lying around at the shipyard and docks, we needed an airship and there were a few around we might have been window shopping for. This was when Jade took Fizzle sightseeing around the city. I really wanted to see those two go on their first date together, that’ll be so adorable to watch.

It would do as a weapon in a pinch, but I wasn’t going to let Jacky rely on it. I wasn’t about to let any of my girls get hurt by anyone if I was around to do something about it. I had a waffle mallet and I knew what its sustain did. I wonder if my daughter would start using it or if it would be my main weapon, magic users did tend to use magical cudgels as weapons. A hammer was a cudgel right?

Jade suddenly got up and skirted around the fighting with a small smile and made her way over to us, she sat down quietly and rested her chin on the table and her whiskers twitched imperceptibly. She had certainly found out about something interesting.

“Did you find out where Merriami Sorex is Jade?” She lifted her head and nodded to me with a grin on her face.

“I did, apparently Mr. King really doesn’t like the pig crime faction being in his bar. We need to go back to the changelings and have them scout the city patrols from the air tonight. We’ll check and see if Ami is where she is said to be some time tomorrow. The bartender is going to tell his ‘friends’ that a fight took down a number of the pig enforcers. The number of guards will be a bit light tomorrow.” Jade moved closer to Fizzle and wrapped an arm around her. “In other news, thank to my actions, the rats, moles and several other factions are going to be on the move soon. The pigs here were celebrating their boss’s anniversary of taking over Klugetown. The big pig Gonnan has too much of a monopoly on things around here and the crime boss for the shrews wants his daughter free…”

“Now I know why you think it’s important to walk around and listen to the people.” Fizzle nuzzled up against Jade and they looked so cute together, I give it another second before Fizzle catches on to what Jade just said. “Wait… Merriami is part of a crime family here?!”

“Quiet down Fizzy. That’s just the kind of trouble that Tarsus has involved himself with, it’s on him whether he wants to continue pursuing this. Merriami is actually a good girl, in the same sense that our Jacky here is.” My daughter apparently got all that she needed from her quick discussion with the bartender. Jacky is a good girl, but she’s willing to lie, steal and cheat if it means helping us, and she’d do it without regrets. “She’s not exactly into the family business so to speak, but she certainly knows about it and we’ve got a meeting with the boss of the local shrews. Tarsus needs to join us for that tomorrow morning.”

“Well come on then, all we have to do now is exit the bar calmly without drawing attention to ourselves.” I stood up and waited for the others, they followed me past the pile of groaning, pummeled pigs and out of The Whole Hog bar.

We quietly made our way down the street and Jade stopped to look behind use and was acting a bit paranoid. Even I was feeling some paranoia myself, everything in Klugetown has a price and Jade might not have paid enough for the information she received.

“Did you two hear anything about the lizard faction?” Jade asked of us, she was unsure about the bartender then.

“A bit, I heard they were trying to stay neutral.” Well Jacky did leave my sight a few times while we were at the airship docks, so I wasn’t so surprised to hear that she heard something while I was looking into ships we could possibly steal.

My daughter sighed with relief as we exited the town watching our backs.

-Tarsus, campsite-

I was so worried about my belle, Merriami Sorex was a beautiful shrew and I was idly eating a pickle in memory of her. Sharing the love was all well and good, but I wanted to share mine with someone special to me. I was afraid of going into town, but I would still do it if they didn’t return soon.

We heard someone coming and four cloaked figures approached the campsite some way down below Klugetown and hidden among the rocks near the walkway leading into town.

“Did you find her, is she okay?” I was up and running over to them immediately.

“Calm down, we know where she might be.” At Jade’s words I sighed with relief, it seems she was as professional a mercenary as she tried to sell herself as. I don’t know what I can do to pay any of them back. “But there are a few… complications.”

Huh… there’s something wrong with my belle?

“W-what is it?” My friends came over to me when they heard a tremor in my voice, we had all been relaxing and waiting. We had even did an a-cappella or two while we waited.

“First of all, did you know that Merriami Sorex is the daughter to the head of a crime family?” Fizzle seemed more than a bit mad at me.

“No, but I don’t care. I want to help her if she’s in trouble!” Even if she was the daughter of a crime family boss, I couldn’t care less as long as I got to see her again and at least tell her how I felt.

“Which may involve shifting the entire nature of the city to do it. Are you willing to live with the consequences of that?” I didn’t immediately answer Jade, she seemed to be giving me a cool glance while I thought things over.

“Yes, I’m willing to do anything for her.” That was when I was approached by Jade, who kneeled down and patted me on the head.

“Good, because you’ll be meeting her father tomorrow morning and I don’t think he’ll be very happy with seeing you.” She just patted me on the head to be comforting before delivering that news. “We need your friends to do something only they can, we need them to watch and map out the porcine patrols in various parts of the city. You guys are at least good at stealth right?”

“We’re not good at direct confrontation, except maybe for Mr. Huge here, but we are changelings.” Clypeus moved forward putting a hoof to his chest, Mr. Huge and the trumpet twins nodded in agreement. “You won’t find another species more natural at stealth than we are! If it’ll help our buddy out, then we can do that much at least. We didn’t come all this way to sit around and do nothing, just give us some paper, ink and quills. I swear by tomorrow morning, we’ll give you a comprehensive list of their patrols without being caught.”

“We’re not asking you to replace or get anywhere close to them.” I had wondered if Kuril was going to say anything, she was the eldest here. “This is strictly a keep your distance and don’t do anything stupid kind of thing. We already have an idea of what airships we can procure for our escape, but we need to work with the locals if we’re to get anywhere.”

“We’re not that stupid, the town has many magical measures against changeling infiltration. It’s how we were discovered and ran out of town the last time we were here.” I stated sadly. There were some magical artifacts littering the town that could prevent us from shapeshifting entirely, some created a zones where a changeling let loose burst of magic randomly and some artifacts were even contact based. It was a dangerous no bug’s land for my kind. “They’ll keep their distance, trust me on that. They wouldn’t be able to get too close to Ms. Sorex if they tried to sneak in disguised as guards anyway.”

“Well mom, best get started on dinner.” At Jade’s words, Kuril nodded and started getting out our limited supplies. She turned to me. “You’re friends are in for a long night Tarsus and you absolutely need to get some sleep.”

-The next day, Jade-

I woke up, with Fizzle’s head pressed against my neck. She was nuzzling me in her sleep, I enjoyed the affection for a bit before shaking her awake. We had a meeting to get to this morning, once the other changelings got back from their scouting.

-Fizzle-

So it was just the two of us and a cloaked Tarsus who was trying to not to seem skittish about walking around Klugetown. We were almost at the meeting place according to Jade. I was just waiting for something to go horribly wrong and if it did, I had the sword to do magic with on me.

We stopped in an alleyway and looked about, this was the location of the meeting.

“Are you guys the ones that Chlam told us about?” We turned around and saw a tall shrew that had appeared behind us from out of nowhere, he looked rather wiry to me. His clothing looked Saddle Arabian.

“We are. Are you our contact?” Jade stated calmly while her eyes darted about, it seems she was just as tense I was about all this.

“Good, follow me and try to avoid getting spotted by the patrols.” He stated looking out from the alleyway, his dark brown fur made him blend in around here quite well.

We followed the male shrew across the town and avoided several patrols while doing so. We used a lot of back alleys, jumped between buildings and even used some bits of scaffolding while sneaking around. It was a bit rough for me and Tarsus as we had hooves instead of the dexterous fingers the shrew and Jade used to maneuver about.

“Inside, quickly.” The shrew eventually opened up the door to a building on the lower side of town while keeping look out. Once inside we were met with a large number of shrews geared for desert survival.

One of them had been in the middle of saying something. He stopped upon seeing us, stood up and came over to look us over.

“So you’re the ones that Chlam was talking about, you’re a bit young to be mercenaries.” He pulled a scimitar from his side and held his blade pointed towards us. None of the other shrews in the room look worried or even seemed to be anything more than relaxed, this guy was quite capable of taking care of us himself it seemed. “So who are you with and why are you asking questions about my daughter’s captivity? We ‘The Desert Shrews’ would certainly like know that, as I’m their leader Soricini Sorex. Answer quickly and I may have some time for you, the bar fight you started helped us quite a bit last night and you have garnered my attention.”

He didn’t look that old, even with a scar over one eye, underneath the other and two crossing across his snout. His tail was missing a bit at the tip; it whipped back and forth agitatedly as he stared us down. He had some muscle on him and he looked quite tough.

“We’re free agents helping someone that your daughter possibly fell in love with. He returned with us to see about meeting her again. He was run out of town by some thugs the last time he was here and I’m sure they’ve been quite a thorn in your side since then.” What are you doing Jade? Why are you telling him that to start things off with? He probably won’t like hearing his daughter was in any kind of relationship. Kuril taught me how protective parents could be about this sort of thing. “Mr. Tarsus here is absolutely smitten with your daughter’s beauty… and her apparent love of pickles. We wish to help see your daughter safely out of her predicament and very far away from town.”

“What kind of pickles does she like the most?” Soricini said, staring sternly at Tarsus who pulled his hood down and stared back. The muscular shrew didn’t seem too surprised that Tarsus was a colorful changeling.

“That’s a trick question, she likes all kinds of pickled things!” There was a fond smile on Tarsus’s face. "I met her over a jar of pickles with twelves spices and herbs, it's how I got to know her.”

Author's Note:

(New alchemy Ingredient!)

18. Waffle Mallet.

Cast: ???.

Sustain: Random confusion effect chance (Weapon specific offensive buff). While sustained, the hammer has a low chance to cause confusion and or dizziness upon any impact. Said chance goes up significantly when hitting the head of a target.

Self-sustain: ???.

Comments

[Honestblade]

Because he has to buy replacements if something breaks?

[Darkonshadows]

8924810

Something like that.

8924840

Lampshades

8924854

Might fix.

8926478

Yes, but what if he's already losing a lot of money thanks to his current patrons that he can't get rid of or he'll be slaughtered?

8926722

Yep, because it ends in rainbow barf.

[The Faceless Maker]

Hammer sustain. It's a concussion.

[Eroraf86]

The big pig Gonnan

You cheeky bastard, I love you.