Igor finishes setting out the laundry to dry, and tips out the big washtub he uses to clean things in. Once the mostly-Skreek is done, he wipes his hands on his apron and ambles though the back door into the castle. This does not go unnoticed by the pair hiding behind a bit of broken wall.
"Are you sure I can't hold the pie?" Nene whispers to Gunther.
"No, you'll eat the pie," Gunther claims, tail twitching frantically. "We should have drugged him," the kadie adds in a mutter.
"Maybe I'll smear it all over myself and let you eat it.." Nene teases, then blinks. "You have knock-out drugs? Where do you keep them? How long do they last?"
Gunther eyes Nene, apparently actually considering that use of the pie. "Of course I have them. They're secret! And it depends how much you use," the kadie claims as he now shuffles out, trying to sneak closer to the castle.
"Did you steal them from the witches?" Nene asks, whispering as she shadows the Kadie. "Or did you get Amelia to make you some? Why not put some into the pie, so the dragon-creen will fall asleep?"
"No, I just collected them instead of taking it when my parents tried to get me to sleep," Gunther claims. "Cheek pouches and all. And they may not work on dragons, can't risk it."
There's no motion from the castle, other than some high-pitched squeaks from the remaining tower. It doesn't look like Igor is going to be coming back with a fresh load of laundry.
"What is she doing now?" Gunther has to wonder when the squeaking starts. He shakes his head and continues on with the pie in hand. "That think is probably in the kitchen. It is always around food," he mutters.
"Dr. Pike needs oiling, I think," Nene notes, and points to.. the greenhouse, which is closer to the castle. "Hide behind that?"
"But it has glass and such," Gunther points out. The kadie then shrugs and heads towards it anyway. It must be love.
The glass is green, and difficult to see through - there are just shadows visible: leafy outlines that sometimes twitch. And lots of warning signs. Nene sniffs at the edges of the panes. "I wonder what's really in there?" she says to Gunther.
"Monsters, duh," Gunther points out and rolls his eyes. "There are monsters around every bush. But, the town won't let me burn the place down," he complains.
"It looks like someone already tried," Nene points out, giving the dilapidated state of the castle. "And.. uh.. aren't you trying to get your own monster from all this anyway?"
"A special kind, a dragon. Not just any old monster. If I wanted a generic monster, I would just trap Amelia," Gunther claims.
"A dragon is easy to tame than Amelia?" Nene asks, whiskers quivering in silent amusement. "So.. what do we do once we get inside? I haven't been inside the castle itself before. Are there booby traps, like in a regular house?"
"Always plan for traps. A house without traps is ... kind of boring," Gunther says, sounding deflated. "You wanted to look in the greenhouse, didn't you?"
"I dunno," Nene says. "If there are monsters in there, opening it up might endanger the pie," she points out. "We can raid it later, with the dragon!"
Gunther eyes Nene for a moment. "Remember, you might have to dress like a princess if the pie doesn't work," he points out. Onward towards the castle he slinks.
Nene examines the clothes on the line, looking for princess gowns. "It's a castle, there must be some princess clothes inside, right?" she reasons as she scoots behind Gunther.
"I'm sure Pike wears then around at times. Why else live in a castle?" Gunther points out as he heads for the kitchen door.
The door is ajar! But that's normal, since if you hang clothes (or anything else) outside you need to be able to listen for creens coming to destroy them. Of course, the chances of Igor making the hinges extra-creaky are always pretty high.
Gunther hmms. He then actually dips a finger into a corner of the pie! Why becomes clear enough; he starts using the sugary goo from the inside to grease the hinges.
"Hey, how come the door gets pie?" Nene complains.
"It squeaks more than you do," Gunther points out.
Who knew pie-filling could be used to oil hinges? Except for Gunther Kettenrad anyway. The door moves a bit more quietly now.
And so Gunther opens the door slowly, then peers into the kitchen.
There's a long, dark hallway - and Gunther knows the basement access to the Rooms of Terror is along it - with the kitchen at the far end. It too is dark and smoky, as if someone had been frying old socks.
"No dragon yet," Gunther mutters. He crouches down and scoots slowly into the kitchen. The pie is intended as bait, of course. "Come out, come out..." the kadie mutters.
The kitchen is big, as befits a castle. There's the long table where the previous pie had been, the giant stove and oven, various things hanging and clanking from the ceiling.. and the hall leading to the rest of the castle. There's a sound of feathers flapping about down there, and a tiny voice cursing, "Cheese! Manky cheese! CHEEEEESE! Getitorff!"
"Aha, target acquired. BE prepared to wrestle a slippery creen," Gunther warns Nene. He crouches even lower and heads down the hallway.
The evil black creen, Gaspode, is sniffing at the bottom of a locked door. "Cheese?" he hisses invitingly through the gap between the door and the floor, which is very narrow. He hops from foot to foot, wings raised up, and single red eye glinting. "Baaaaacon?"
"No, no, pie," Gunther hisses right back towards the creen. He even sets the pie on the floor and slides it towards the hateful thing with his foot.
Gaspode gives the Kadie a withering look, head bobbing up and down and wings still spread.. then takes a hop closer. "Bacon?" it asks.
"Pie," Gunther counters, crossing his arms.
A few more hops, more bobbing and hissing, and then, "Knickers!"
"She doesn't wear any. I know," Gunther remarks, then thumbs towards Nene.
"What's it talking about?" Nene whispers to Gunther, half-hidden behind his tail.
The gesture makes the creen rear up and flaps its wings threateningly. "Hah! MINE! MINE! The PAIN! GetIToRF!"
"No idea," Gunther admits. The kadie is soon glaring right back. "No, she's mine..." he growls.
"Gimme!" Gaspode declares, hopping more to the side so he can see Nene better. Maybe it's never seen an Akwavi before?
"No, mine!" Gunther growls right back. Nene is soon wrapped tight in kadie tail.
"Ack!" Nene goes, and starts sneezing as Kadie-hair gets up her nose.
"Pieeeee?" Gaspode asks, suggestively, while tilting his head to the side and leering. "Trade?"
"No. Mine," Gunther argues. My can a kadie tail grip tight.
"Cheese!" Gaspode spits, and then darts forward to try and take a bite out of the pie!
Gunther actually waits to see if the creen does bite ... so when it is busy, he can grab the bugger!
Chomp! Gaspode bites down at the edge of the pie, grabbing onto the plate itself! And then starts trying to drag it back to the locked door, grumbling to itself.
"Now!" Gunther says. His tail releases the otter and he makes a running grab for the creen!
"What?" Nene has time to bark, before instinctively pouncing as well! This pushes Gunther forward a bit faster, causing him to land in the pie.. but also gets his hands around a screaming creen's neck! "Getitorf! The Pain! Getitorf! CHEESEANDCRACKERS!!" it wails.
"Ahahahah!" Gunther decrees. He has the creen! And a squished pie! But that doesn't matter, he has the creen! "Gotcha!" He tries to keep a firm grip on the bugger, and positioned such it can't bite or claw him!
This is tricky, since the creen is big. Bigger than any creen Gunther's ever seen in the wild, certainly! And its battering the Kadie with its wings to boot, while Nene manages to get around and grab the tail so it can't lunge with its claws. "Noooooo! Cheeeeeeeese!" Gaspode wails. "Knickers!"
"Geeze, be quiet! My dragon gets to destroy stuff,not get stuck in this horrible castle," Gunther tries to tell it.
Getting Gaspode to be quiet is something that only Madame Natasha has managed easily. As long as that mouth is free and not stuffed with pie or tied closed the creen is going to keep making a racket. Thankfully, it's always making a racket anyway so the current one isn't bringing anyone running to investigate.
"We need a sack or something," Gunther grumbles, "So we can drag this thing out of here. Nene, find something we can stuff a large snake-thing in!"
"Bite it's neck, behind the head!" Nene suggests. "It'll go limp!"
Gunther tries pinching it behind the neck. Biting might be a bit drastic; especially with kadie-teeth.
"Bugger!" Gaspode yells, but.. amazingly.. seems to calm down afterwards. "Bacon.. show us your knickers.." the monster mumbles. "Milk'n'cookies.."
"Well, hey, that worked!" Gunther says, surprised. He even pets its tummy with his one free hand. "Now we have to get it out of here."
"I'm not feeding it my milk," Nene declares immediately. "Are we gonna clean up the pie or leave it? There were blankets on the clothes line.."
"You don't have any more milk," Gunther reminds Nene, "And er, uh, yeah, probably. Otherwise there is a crime scene! And that is bad I hear."
"Crime? We aren't doing crime, right?" Nene asks. "It's just a fat creen. With an eyepatch. How do they get it to stay on, glue?"
Gunther tries to lift the eyepatch up to see with his free hand. "Well, not really a crime, I guess. If we leave a note saying we're borrowing it," the kadie rationalizes. "You can write, right?"
"What what?" Nene asks. Gaspode hisses angrily when his eyepatch is touched, despite being in some weird half-asleep state.
Gunther isn't giving up. He's actually gently trying to see if the patch can move. Then the kadie just straps. "Ever wonder if its comment about getitoff is about the eyepatch?" he asks Nene.
There's more squirming, but the patch can be moved at least. And underneath is.. an eye! Except that it's green, and angry looking. "Kill kill kill kill.." the creen mutters now.
And Gunther puts the eyepatch right where it was. "Yeeeah, I think it has to do with that," he admits to Nene.
"So.. who gets to clean up the pie and who gets to carry the creen?" Nene asks, eyeing the remains of the pie. What's a bit of squirrel fur?
"Er, do you want to clean up the pie? I can carry the creen," Gunther offers.
"I will clean up the pie scene," Nene volunteers.
"Eat it, you mean?" Gunther has to ask.
"It'll be cleaned up either way, won't it?" the Akwavi points out. "Besides, you'll like apple-pie-breath better than fish-breath right? Oh, write! What did you want me to write? I can write 'Nene Wuz Here'!"
"Er, maybe just. Borrowed Gaspode. Will return him later once hordes are devoured," Gunther suggests. "And I dunno, I kinda like your fish breath now..."
"What's a gaspode?" Nene asks. "It sounds like some sort of farting beetle."
"The name of this thing," Gunther explains, waving the horrid snake thing at Nene.
"EWwwww.. where are you going to keep it, Gunther?" Nene asks, realizing that they're actually taking the creen back with them. "Does it fart?"
"My secret place of course. I have cages there," Gunther points out and rolls his eyes. "And I have no idea if it farts." So, he asks Gaspode, "Do you fart?"
The creen burped. It smelled horrible.
"You have cages?" Nene asks suspiciously. "Were you trying to catch me in a cage?"
"It farts with its mouth," Gunther explains. "And of course I planned to keep you in a cage. Once."
"Was it a nice cage?" Nene asks, rubbing up against Gunther's shoulder. "Do I get to see the secret place?"
"It had very nice chains," Gunther claims. The question about the secret place makes him twitch. "But, no one gets to see the secret place. Well, Olivia did, but she was a test subject..."
"Olivia??" Nene asks, aghast. "You didn't exchange dragon juices with her did you?"
"What? No! I had her test the trap she was buying from me," Gunther says, looking confused.
"Well.. okay then," Nene says, before asking, "What sort of trap? And if you don't show me, who will take care of the Gasplode when you're busy?"
"She didn't like the snot canon or the shaker. She bought the gift wrapper," Gunther explains, "And I can just build a machine to feed it at intervals, of course..."
"Well.. if you say so," Nene says, and pouts. "But I want to see it sometime. You can blindfold me and tie me up!"
This gives Gunther pause. That idea is far more exciting than it should be. "Well ..." he relents, "I guess ince, erm, well, you're, kinda my girlfriend now I could show you."
"Are you gonna tie me up?" Nene asks excitedly. "Oh.. guess we should get the monster out of here first though. I'll clean up the pie and write that thing you asked."
"I'll tie you up anytime," Gunther promises. "And yeah, I gotta get out of here before anyone sees my big snake."
Nene tries not to snicker at that! "Yeah, can't let them know you're hiding a monster.." she says, and pinches Gunther's butt before starting to scoop the remains of the pie back into the plate.
"Seeya outside!" Gunther squeaks. The kadie heads for the door ... and in true gunther style, cackles the entire way.