The walk down the cobbled road is pleasant enough, and the weather isn't too bad for mid-day in Sylvania. The square ahead is active, with people doing work and business. There's some sensation around a wagon where a Rath'ani man is loudly boasting the health benefits of pickled kyootcumbers. There are quite a few Rhians taking an interest, but the bulk of the crowd is Rath'ani, Eeee and Korv. A tall, dark Eeee with a wide-brimmed hat seems to be paying special attention to it all.
Aviri shrinks slightly away from the crowd, though he tilts his head toward the wagon and kyootcumber salesperson, mentally comparing the list of supposed benefits of the product with plants he knows more about.
The list seems to go on and on, as if the spicy vegetable attained supernatural powers once pickled. It will make your fur or feathers glossier! Improve digestion! Cure hangovers! Spice up your marriage!
The Lapi begins to chuckle quietly to himself as he hears them, thoroughly enjoying the claims.
Linyala tugs on the corner of Aviri's shirt. "What's a kyootcumber?" she asks, standing up on her toes to see a little better past the crowd. She sniffs around a little to pick up a hint of what all the fuss is about.
"Only read about 'em," Aviri replies. "Kinda like a gourd. Spicy seeds. .... I highly doubt they have such properties." He chuckles again.
"I had a pickled peach once," Trilup claims. "It was pickled in honey!"
"I bet we could prank Emmett if we hid a few in his lunch box. Or maybe sprinkle them in the peanut bowls in the Boathouse." Lin cackles and rubs her paws together.
The tall dark Eeee turns his attention on the newcomers, but it doesn't seem to hold any malice - although his eyes do glow red under the brim of his hat.
"Tell him it'll increase is prowl-ess and Emmett will eat anything," Trilup notes with a giggle.
Aviri laughs, his eyes going toward the Eeee, and then away again, so as not to stare. "It'd be fun to see his reaction to the seeds," he agrees.
"How do we get one?" Trilup asks, watching the hawker. "I bet this guy sells them for more than they're worth, or else he wouldn't be tryin' so hard."
"From what I've read, we could probably find 'em around Stonebarrow," Aviri says, lowering his voice a bit when he says the name of the town and trying to see if anyone noticed. He glances again at the Eeee, wondering if they were still the center of his attention.
Lin notices the Eeee looking at them and gives a little wave. "Ya think you can track some down fer us?" She asks.
"They're imported. Maybe Jack knows how to get them," Trilup suggests, then looks to see who Lin is waving out. "Hey, that guy's a vampire!" she blurts out, pointing to the dark Eeee.
Aviri jumps at Trilups blurt, quickly pushing her arm down. "Yes yes," he says, giving the Eeee an apologetic smile.
"Oh, cool!" Lin chirps, "I've never met a Vampire before. Is it true they have removable fangs?"
The Eeee tips his hat, and goes back to watching some other part of the crowd.
"Removable?" Trilup gasps. "You mean.. they get stuck in you when you're bit?"
Letting out a sight of relief that the Eeee didn't take apparant offense, Aviri diverts his attention to the rest of the square. "I'm not sure," he says to Trilup. "You'd have to ask one."
"Like Lilith, the gypsy dancer?" Trilup asks, and does a very poor impression of someone bellydancing. Probably because she doesn't really have have hips yet.
Linyala peers at the vampure from under the brim of her hat. "Do you think he'd bite us if we asked? We go up, ask if vampire fangs are removable. Next thing we know we're being chased around the town by a grumpy vampire. This is not a good plan." Lin shoves her hands in her pockets, realizes she doesn't have pockets, and resorts to griping the edges of her vest.
"Maybe we could ask him how to find the Duchess," Trilup suggests. "Do either of you know what she looks like?"
"I know one of the gypsies is a vampire," Aviri says, nodding. "At least ... she looked vampiric...."
Lin rummages around in her bag and pulls out the scrap of paper with the stick figure of the dutchess and the train on it. "We just need to look for someone wearing a-"She turns the paper upside down then sideways, "-a big, fancy hat and a dress?"
There are several women (and men) with fancy looking hats - so long as fancy means 'there's a feather or a flower in it'. One hat turns out to be a pet Creen that was just perched and possibly napping on a straw hat.
"I think Aviri and I are the only ones not wearing hats," Trilup notes. "Do.. do we remember her name?"
"Well, I'd presume the Duchess is in the castle itself," Aviri says, with a slight question-mark at the end. Strangely, botany doesn't cover royal behavior.
"You see?" Lin scolds and waggles a finger at Trilup. "I'm blending in with the locals." She adjusts her hat to increase its swash to buckle ratio.
"Excuse me," a Korv fellow says as he hops over, looking at the trio by twitching his head from side to side. "But are you pirates?"
Aviri turns, as though trying to imitate a bird's motion. "What? Oh ... no. Just travelers. We're looking for the Duchess. "
"To kidnap her?" the Korv asks. "I only ask because of the tales of River Red, the Akwavi pirate." He looks lin up and down a bit more. "But you don't have red hair or.. other features.. she is reknown for. Are you sure you aren't part of her crew?"
Lin holds up the crude drawing. "Deffinitely not pirates. Why'd ya think that?" She asks, eyebrow raised.
"An Akwavi pirate GIRL?" Trilup asks, her whiskers twitching. "I know what I want to be when I grow up now!"
"You're wearing a pirate hat. It's got a buckle and is all swashy," the crow points out. He looks at the drawing and asks, "Did you draw that?"
"Ye'll need a better hat, Tril." Lin chirps.
"'Cuz a swamp's a great place to go pirating," Aviri mutters quietly. Aloud, and to Korv, he says, "Not pirates. And we have a package for the Duchess. Not a death-package, or anything like that. Just the regular kind."
Lin looks up at her hat. "Oh, right, that. A pirate lady gave it to me. Well, she might have been a smuggler. They're never very clear on the important details like that, ya know?" She beams up at the korv, "Anyways, we're courriers from a little backwater place out in the swamps. It's real important that we find her."
"You lot are.. uh.. couriers?" the Korv asks, tilting his straw hat back a bit. "Buy you ain't got wings. Don't couriers fly? What town're ye from then?"
".... Stonebarrow," Aviri says reluctantly, bracing himself for follow-up questions.
Lin's whiskers droop and she shoots a sidelong glance at Aviri. "So that's why we keep having all these setbacks. Courriers with wings makes so much more sense! Can we fly on the way back?"
The Lapi rolls his eyes. "Sorry, I forgot to give us wings for this journey...." He chuckles. "You can flap your arms all you want, but I think we'll still be walking back."
"Wait.. ain't that.." the bird starts to ask, then beings cawing in alarm. "Stonebarrow! BLOODFURS! ASSASSINS! THEY'RE GONNA KILL US ALL!" This has an amazing, in not surprising reaction on the crowds, which swiftly vanish, followed by the sounds of slamming doors and window shutters.
There are, however, a few abandoned hats left on the cobbles. And the vampire.
Lin swats Aviri on the back of the head.
Aviri groans and hangs his head. "Sometimes I really hate history...." he says. He spies the vampire and gives a little wave.
The Eeee walks over with a casual gait, and still manages to loom over the three smaller folk. "So, dat true?" he asks.
"Not the bit about being assassins," Aviri says. "Or ... Bloodfurs or anything. Just ... messengers." He looks around the now-empty square, then back. "I'm Aviri, by the way."
"Sheriff Darken," the Eeee offers in reply, and then looks to the otters. "Just what are you messengering then?"
Lin nudges a stray hat with her foot. "Me an' Tril are just scouts, an' he's a botanist. I'm Lin." She says quietly. "We keep gettin' these reactions. What did we do fer people to act like this? It's not how we smell, right?"
The sheriff's eyebrow rises up. "Ev'ryone knows the Bloodfurs of Stonebarrow, what marched from Tursdi and tore up ev'ryting in their path 'til they reached Stonebarrow. And who some say you can still hire if'n you need lots o' folks murdered."
"We mostly fish, now," Aviri says light-heartedly. "We're honestly not a danger to anyone, Sherrif. I'm a botanist. Linyala and Trilup are scouts. Not sure if the Bloodfurs are still around--I've never heard of 'em before leaving Stonebarrow, honestly--but we're just messengers. Have a package for the Duchess."
Lin lifts her hat brim and raises an eyebrow at the sherrif. "But me an Tril are too small ta be 'Bloodfurs' or warriorly slaughterpeople and he stares at moss all day if ye leave him alone. Hardly the stuff of ledgends." She huffs.
"Botanist," the Eeee repeats, testing the word out. "That a fancy name for someone that makes poison?" He looks at the girls again. "Small don't mean nothin, 'cept for it to be easier to squeeze through small openings. But.. the legends were just about Kadies and Lapis, not otters. What's the package?"
"I just know about, and collect, plants," Aviri says. "I try not to make poison." He looks to Linyala to answer the package question.
"So you admit to accidentally having made poison?" Darken asks, glowing red eyes narrowing a bit.
The Lapi blinks. "No," he says. "I ... look, I know where plants grow, and people want plants. I go get them. I've never made poison, and so far as I know, none of my clients have, either."
"And just who are your clients?" the sheriff queries.
Lin comes to Aviri's aide before he puts his foot in his mouth. "Ye seem trustworthy, bein a sherrif and all." She chirps. "There was a delivery bound for Blackshire keep, a leftover from the Necromancer wars, that got lost near our home in the swamp. We found the crashed airship an thought we could do some good by gettin it to where it was s'posed to go." Lin expatiates, "I guess it wasn't absolutely vital but it musta been real important back then. Prolly some anti-zomby thingamabob ta protect the keep against the undead hordes or somethin' like that. So, ya gonna help us?"
Linyala takes a very deep breath after saying all that.
"People of Stonebarrow. An Akwavi named Parsly, mostly," Aviri says. "Not an assassin or anything."
"And the witches," Trilup prods Aviri. "See, he's trustworthy 'cuz the witches trust him," she tells the sheriff.
"An artifact of the Necromancer Wars," Darken repeats. "And you jus' assume it not a weapon meant to kill old Lord Phelix?"
"I don't see how the lady supposed to deliver it would be paid upon delivery if that delivery killed Lord Phelix," Aviri says.
"Because the person who sent her didn't expect her to survive, and was saving money," Darken suggests. "I think you all bes' come with me for a bit, 'til I can sort this out."
Aviri tilts his head warily. "Where would we be going?" he asks, obviously not wanting to go to any kind of jail.
"My office," Darken says, and gestures to.. a small building wedged between the inn and a bakery. At least it probably smells nice.
Lin frows then asks, "Why don't we just ask if there's a record of this package being ordered? That'd clear up weather or not this was actually s'posed ta come here, or if it's just a really anoying box of tricks."
Aviri looks toward Darken's office. "Sounds reasonable," he says. "I'd assume such records are either lost or in the castle, and if it's really a weapon, I'd rather not take it to the place it was supposed to be ... activated."
"Records?" Darken asks, and chuckles. "I think a dragon ate them. Now come along. Have you eaten yet today?"
Lin's stomach makes a most perturbing growl at the mention of food. An Aquavi is always hungry.
Aviri follows cautiously. "We've had breakfast," he says, looking toward his companions.
"I could eat," Trilup mutters, once they get close enough to smell the bakery.
The Sheriff's Office is small. There's a desk, two wooden chairs, a wall-rack full of torture implements, a closet converted into a cell, and a long bench (that faces the torture instruments). "Wait on the bench," he tells the travelers.
Aviri stops in the doorway, eyes wide at the tools. He gulps. "Er ... just to clarify ... we're not ... uh ... bad?"
"That is why you are not in de closet," the Eeee says.. then leaves and shuts the door behind him. There's the sound of a key in the lock, so he's obviously not trusting them that far.
Aviri sighs and sits on the bench. "Silv? You there?"
Linyala starts examining the tools and tries to figgure out what each one does. "So," She whispers really quietly to Aviri and Trilup, "Think we should escape?" She patts her knife sheath where her lockpicks are hidden.
"Tall dark and spooky.. not a bad combo," Silv comments.. apparently admiring the sheriff rather than the situation.
"We can't escape," Trilup says fretfully. "What if he's bringing us cake?"
"Let's wait on that a bit, Lin," Aviri says, giving her a pat on the head. "Silv, I meant the box. Is it a trap?"
"The box? Oh.. uh.. I don't know? It never occurred to me that it might be a trap. Why make it so damned hard to open then?" the Rath'ani spectre speculates.
Linyala shrugs and goes back to examining the torture tools. She sniffs at them and checks for blood and signs of use.
"Well, if only the target can open it," Aviri ponders, "then you're assured of killing the right person."
The torture implements look a bit off close up. The spiked mace might be made of paper-mache. The flogs look real though.
"So.. we got like, two keys left before it can be opened," Trilup says. "But.. Silv, didn't you say the duke or count or whatnot had the combination?"
"Yeah.. I think he had it, or it would be obvious or something," Silv replies. "He was a powerful earth wizard after all."
"So a good target if someone wanted to hamper the non-necromancer side of the war," Aviri says slowly.
Lin holds the mace up to her ear and knocks on it. "Well, zombies shouldn't be able to crawl up through stone. If an earth wizard can make the dirt into stone, then the necromancers are kind of up the creek. Also, this is fake." She bops Aviri with the mace.
At the mention of stone, the large stone tile (the floor is made of flagstones) underneath Lin starts to wobble.
Aviri winces and glares at Lin. "Careful none the less," he warns, and sighs. "I just ... wanna make sure it's not some kinda ...." he lifts his feet up off the floor. "Uh ... no. Bad floor!"
"Wha-woah, nope!" Lin barks and jumps off the wobbling tile.
Trilup climbs up onto the bench.
The stone wobbles, the settles down. Then it rises up a bit.. and keeps rising until a very hairy and wolfish face appears under it. It stares at the otters and Lapi for a moment, then puts a finger to its lips in a 'hush' gesture.
Aviri lets out a little eep, then stills. "Are you ... a prisoner?" he asks.
"He's obviously a wolf spider." Lin whispers. "I know a scout who saw one once, he barely made it back and his fur turned white!"
The wolf.. is pretty short, so probably young. He slides the stone off of his head and onto the floor, then shakes his head to Aviri and says, "Oops." Then he disappears back down the hole that was under the stone.
Aviri stares back down the hole a moment. "The door up here's locked," he says into it.
Linyala drops a fake pear of agony down the hole.
There's some talking, and then the odd device is tossed back up. A new figure begins to emerge.
Lin catches the torture device and puts it back on the wall.
"I gotta wonder why normal stuff doesn't happen to us," Aviri mutters, shaking his head slightly.
Lin looks incredulously at Aviri. "Seriously? We're three people from a mysterious place that everyone is terrified of, we walked into town and the moment the name of our home dropped, everyone ran for the hills. How can you possibly expect normal things to happen?"
A leather cap, with goggles, is the first to rise up, followed by the head it rests on: that of a white Khatta kitten (although she's probably nearly as old as Aviri). This is followed by an oversized knitted scarf with entirely too many colors, separating the head from a baggy leather coat. A dark skirt barely covers the oversized leather boots on the feline's feet.. which stand on the upraised hands of the wolf thing, until she can just step off onto the floor besides the hole. The girl is filthy. It's not just dirt, but grease and oil.
The Lapi pulls backward onto the bench, curling his legs out of the way. "Er ... hello?" he asks the Khatta, giving Lin a sideways glare.
"You see?" Lin gestures to the newcomer, "That's normal now." She offers the khatta a hand up.
The Khatta looks over the trio.. and seems to be hiding her disappointment. "You don't look like an invading horde," she mews. Then immediately cheers up, and says, "But you're cute! Are you two otters? Are you girls or boys?"
"That information is on a need to know basis." Lin chirps.
"Which.. the invading horde bit or the girls or boys bit?" the kitten asks.
"Yes." Lin repplies with a grin.
"We're ...." Aviri says, and sighs, obviously getting tired of explaining the situation. "Why do you wanna know?"
"I see," the Khatta notes, and turns her attention on Aviri. "Are you here to sassify me? Because my grandma is a sassin. One of the Compass Rose even! She promised to teach me when I'm older."
Aviri says, "Lin's our sassifier," Aviri says with a grin."
"In training." Lin chimes in. "But we're not here for any of that though it was pretty cool when everyone ran screaming at the sight of us." Lin pokes Aviri, "D'ya think we can do that trick in every town we visit? Then we can have all the fancy hats."
"I meant you're full of sass," Aviri says. He then tilts his head. "Are the Scouts ... I mean, I never thought that ..." He falls silent a moment, and bites his lip. He shakes himself. "No stealing hats."
The kitten puts a hand on her head to protect her hat. "If you're not here to sassinate me, what's going on? The Sheriff is getting confession-cake.."
"I knew there'd be cake!" Trilup says in triumph.
Aviri starts. "Confession cake?! You sure you don't mean 'confectionary' or something?"
"It's really good cake," the Khatta professes. "He'll let you have one bite.. then hand it to a fat man who will slowly eat it all in front of you until you confess!"
"Confess what?" Aviri asks.
"Whatever you're guilty of, I suppose," the girl notes. "But you can bypass all of that by just telling me why you're here."
Lin sizes up the khatta's hat then snugs hers down protectively. "Then we'd better get going!" Lin exclaims, "I'll never admit to pilfering those windowsills!"
"Woah, we're not running away," Aviri says, putting a hand on Lin to prevent her from escaping down the hole. "We already told the sherrif why we're here."
"So.. wait.. is she the Duchess then?" Trilup asks the others.
Lin pulls out the piece of paper again and holds it up next to the Khatta. "I'm not seeing it." She tries turning the paper again to no great success.
"Wouldn't be surprised," Aviri says. He turns to the Khatta. "I'm Aviri. This is Lin, and Tril. We've got a package for the Duchess. That's all we're here for. No 'sassinations' or anything."
"Of course I'm the Duchess Eve Kurai!" the kitten claims, and tries to strike a noble pose (while still holding onto her cap).
"So, now that introductions are out of way.. what'd you bring me?" Eve asks, like an excited girl on her birthday.
Lin isn't buying it. "How do we knoe you're the Duchess?" She asks, "Can't just go handing off our delivery to anyone who claims to be she."
Aviri frowns and nods with Lin. "Should wait for Darken. He'd be able to verify."
"Noooo," the kitten wails. "He's a spoilsport!"
There's a rattle at the door. And the 'Duchess' drops back down the hole with a squeak. "Don't tell on me!" she calls up. "Oh.. and put the stone back!"
Aviri nods and hurriedly works at the stone, dragging it back to cover the hole.
Lin carefully puts the stone back in place and starts playing with the fake mace again.
The door opens and the sheriff returns.. with a pie. He sets it on the desk, and asks, "So, did I just miss her?"
"Miss who?" Aviri asks, sitting on the bench casually, though genuinely curious as to who that was.
"The curious kitten," Darken notes, and produces some small dishes from his desk. "She always forgets that Eeee have very good hearing and I was only next door."
Linyala looks heartbroken at the sight of the pie and says, "Noooooo! The cake is a pie!"
"Who was she?" Aviri asks. "And ... why is there a hole in your office?"
"She is the Duchess, and she has a tunnel-digging machine for some reason," the sheriff notes. "It's strawberry pie."
Lin holds up the paper mace. "Oh, and your torture things are fake, thought you should know."
The Lapi's eyes brighten at the prospect of the pie. "Oooo, strawberry! A very good choice for pie!" He licks his lips. "So she really is the Duchess?" he asks the pie.
"The real torture tools at Blackshire Keep, in the dungeon," Darken says ominously. "Please show me this package you are meant to deliver and tell me everything you know about it. Unless you already gave it to her?"
"I will give you anything you want for strawberry pie," Trilup promises.
"We can show you the package, but we're not giving it to anyone until we're sure it's the right person. There has ta be integrit in the postal system." Lin claims. "But pie would be nice, please."
Still looking at the pie, Aviri says, "Can't open the thing anyway." His eyes widen and he breaks pie contact. "And don't try to open it!"
"What is it then?" Darken asks, as he slices the pie.. slowly. So the juice oozes up. This can't be good for a vampire to be watching either.
Aviri licks his lips again, his eyes locked on the pie. "It's a box," he says. "That's got something for the Duke. Now Duchess."
Lin thinks for a moment then settles on, "It's a box that makes freaky illusions. It turned me into soup once. Then it made clones of all of us. It's kind of fun but kind of scary. Actually, I'm still not sure if we got the right Trilup back. Clone Aviri was... Err... Clone me was just mean so I exploded her, and clone Trilup was Trilup but we switched off the box so we should have gotten the right one back. Magic, right?" She smiles disarmingly but doesn't quite get all the way there, leaving her expression slightly lopsided.
"And there is something in this box, besides funny mushrooms?" Darken asks.. but serves Lin a piece of pie.
"Presumably," Aviri says with a shrug. "Something to help the Duke win the war, apparently. Something really important as the person delivering it pretty much ... er ... dedicated her ... life ... to delivering it." He grimaces, realizing how that sounds in light of Darken's theory.
"And how did you get the job to deliver it?" the sheriff asks, plate of pie hovering in his hand.
"Yeah, she died. Tied to the mast of her ship. After what looked like a mutiny of some sort." Lin deadpans, "Do you have any whipped cream?"
"That's ... where it looks bad for us," Aviri says. "She's a ghost. The whole 'unfinished business' thing. We agreed to allow her final rest and all that ... and now we're here."
The pie is handed over to Aviri. Leaving Trilup without one. "I don't need whipped cream!" she claims, and just makes her cutest face at the Eeee. "I'm a little girl far from home and never cause trouble to summon demons or stuff. May I please have a slice of pie?"
This still earns her a pie. "Wow, we need a bakery-jail back home!" Trilup enthuses.
"Have you had the box examined by a practitioner of magic?" Darken asks them all.
Lin nods, "It would deffinitely make getting gaught more fun."
Aviri Mmmmmms as he takes a bite of the pie. "This is delicious," he says. "We had a ... gypsie-witch-person look at it."
"An official witch?" Darken asks.
Aviri tilts his head. "Er, she has a familiar?"
"Sounds official enough then," the Sheriff notes. "Now, you know how to get to the castle?"
Lin gestures towards the floor. "I'm guessing tunnel?"
"I would not trust the tunnel," the Eeee notes. "I meant the road."
"We don't," Aviri says.
"You follow the road through the woods. If you hear anything noisy coming down the road, or see mysterious clouds of steam or smoke.. step to the side of the road until it goes past," the vampire notes.
"Alright. The dragonwagon uses that road?" Lin asks.
"You mean the train?" Darken asks. "No. The Duchess uses the road. Usually for riding one of the Titanian contraptions."
"So ... different kind of dragonwagon." Aviri says, nodding. "We'll stay out of her way."
"This explains the grease. She'd probably get along great with the Wingnuts." Lin muses. "Let's invite her to visit! We can be friends and get some not-terrible reputation with people!"
"If you want to see her, you should leave now," the sheriff advises. "If you get there by dusk, she'll let you stay the night."
"Then we best be going!" Aviri says brightly. "Thanks, Sherrif!"
Linyala nods emphaticaly, "And thanks for the pie!"
"If you explode, get crushed or otherwise vanish, it is your own fault," the mans says, and opens the door for them. There's a bit more activity outside, since the town wasn't destroyed.
"We understand," Aviri says. He tilts his head at the sight of the town. "Do people really think we're assassins?"
"Legends stick around if they are popular and gruesome enough," Darken says. "And it is nice to think there is a Sylvanian assassination squad that can be called to get rid of Gallisian invaders."
"And said squad would look like us?" Aviri asks in disbelief.
"They come from Stonebarrow, and are the Bloodfurs," Darken seems to recite. "They are small and swift and carry the night and the fire in them. And they have no mercy or hesitation."
"Sounds like folks are settin' a bit of a double standard there." Lin says, "Sleep safe believin' there's some mystically powerful fighting force that you can call on for help whenever times're rough, then ya go an' treat people from that town like they're gonna kill ya where you stand." She plants her hands on her hips and glares at the sherrif.
"Well, if the Bloodfurs show up.. why else would they be there, if not to kill?" Darken asks, leaning down to be nose to nose with Lin.
"It makes sense," Aviri agrees.
"Maybe ta help?" Lin grumbles, "I wouldn't know 'cause they're a myth!"
"Nobody sees the Bloodfurs and lives, you understand?" the vampire says with a grin. "All you see are the victims."
"Nobody ever leaves our town.. hardly ever," Trilup notes quietly, her mouth and fingers coated in pie.
Aviri blanches at Darken's description. "I'm definitely not an assassin, then!"
"No.. I don't suppose you're the type to cut off the heads of soldiers while they're sleeping in the houses of the folks they's occupying," Darken says.
"But we just want to meet new people, have adventures, and get this ghost out of my hat. She's a nice ghost and all, but there is a ghost in my hat." Lin sighs, "And we have an inn. We have tourists sometimes. Almost none of them get eaten by unspeakable horrors."
"Stonebarrow is far from here, so.. legends are more informative than reality, eh?" the bat claims.
"Well, we also have Dontgointhe," Aviri muses. "And a haunted swamp...."
"And Gunther!" Trilup adds.
Lin nods and cheers up a little. "Ya know. There's nothing like presonal experiants to quell those rumours. Come visit! Stonebarrow is only a few days away by river, road, and swamp."
Linyala whispers to Trilup, "We should put that on our sign. You will probably not be eaten by unspeakable horrors. We could put a picture of Swampy on it!"
"But Gunther took down the 'you must be this tall to enter' part already," Trilup notes.
Aviri shudders at the mention of Swampy. "No thank you," he says to her. Then, to Darken, "Well, thank you very much. And Stonebarrow is a nice place. IF you like swamp."
"Well, we should get going, then," Aviri says, looking at his companions. "Ready?"
"Sure," Trilup says, after she finishes licking her fingers. "We gotta remember to get arrested again on the way back too!"
"Or we could just, you know, buy the pie," Aviri notes, nodding again to Darken and heading toward the road.
"We got arrested?" Lin asks as they head out, "I thought we just talked with people and played with the paper torture things. Maybe you got arrested. A good scout never gets caught!"
"I certainly didn't get arrested," Aviri says with a smirk. "But I'll be sure to tell everyone you did, Lin."
Lin guffaws. "Yer killin' me. They'd never believe they gave us pie in jail. They'd think you'd gone mad as a march hare."
"We don't have a jail at home, remember?" Trilup notes. "The witches just glare at you.."