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Chapter 2-15

This version was saved 10 years, 6 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Anonymoose
on September 12, 2013 at 10:25:22 am
 

     “So that's when I said to her, 'maybe I oughta?' Heh? Hey! Hilarious right?” The little girl sitting right next to me on the couch latched onto my arm and pulling squealed.

 

Sitting on my left and right, behind and around me were similar and familiar faces, short little girls, with little horns on their heads and elven like ears. To say I was uncomfortable was an understatement. They looked like children, but they had dirty mouths like an inner city blue collar worker. They were just short, that's all, but that's still not what my gut was telling me. Their mischievous devil may care attitude certainly made it convincing they were still kids, but I was assured they were more than capable and responsible enough when it was needed of them. Still, that didn't make the situation any less awkward while waiting around like this.

 

     “What do the big sises see in you?” Said another of the girls who had crawled up over the back of the couch and plopped herself down on my lap.

 

I frowned and tried to bare the mob that was crowding all around me, but when the one sat herself down on my lap and while steadying herself put her little hand on my thigh and her thumb went over the inside...

 

     “Oh~? Is that why?” She said with a wicked grin on her face.

 

The other girls gave out a scandalous squeal and erupted into a maelstrom of giggling.

 

     “That's enough you cheeky little-” Rose yelled ready to leap from her chair bull rush right at us from the other side of a low coffee table.

 

     “Ahem!” Susan coughed, seated in another chair on Rose's left.

 

Rose halted half out of the chair with her claws gripped on the arms, the wood finish creaking and on the verge of cracking from the vice-like grip she was clamping down with. Her eyes were fiery, full of anger. Susan sat with her eyes closed and arms crossed over her abdomen and remained perfectly still. Despite her attempts to appear calm with her eyes and indifferent to her surroundings, I noticed her ears twitching and rotating, following every little sound and picking up on every errant little comment the goblins made.

 

     “Yeah! That's right. You just sit down like Frank said,” One of the other girl's taunted.

 

     “Frank said we could play with big bro until he got back,” Said another.

 

     “You think he's gonna help you lot if go causing trouble?” Said a third.

 

     “We got work we could be doing. Not helping you out.” Threatened the forth.

 

     “We only get half pay today because of you.” Complained a fifth.

 

     “So you let us have our fun. Capisce?” Said the goblin sitting on my lap

 

Rose sat herself back down, albeit reluctantly and visibly shaking with barely contained rage. I almost wish she would dare do something, but Susan was right, it would be bad manners and Frank, the construction foremen and her goblin crew were sticking their necks out for the lot of us.

 

It was late afternoon and more than half a day had passed from the daring rescue and escape from both Typhoon and the Vilmheim authorities. I had already heard all about how Rose and Susan managed to pull of the caper that they did. I had to say I was impressed. More impressed the two of them somehow managed to work together actually.

 

The two of them didn't wake up yesterday morning until about thirty minutes after I had been dragged unconscious from the inn. Apparently one of the tavern maids came barging in tearful and screaming. I had been kidnapped and Goose, feeling responsible for all his guests, went out looking. A likely excuse, but they did confess they were part of Typhoon, so Susan told me. The story was that I had been taken by the Church in the night. They even had badges, real badges so Rose claimed when she saw them. Painfully obvious evidence to plant on the scene. It seemed that Susan was already suspicious then.

 

I can see why, for one, the Church's crusades hit this place just over a year ago. Of course fallen soldiers would litter insignias around. Especially if they lost, and lost badly, which was likely because the city seemed to have not fallen. Rose was ready to go on the warpath when she heard the Church was involved and was. Only one maid was left to inform us and give the well practised spiel Goose and Viper had given her before hand. One maid that Susan cursed, paralysed and neutralized shortly after. Rose had been livid at first, but Susan actually manged to calm her down. Just how did they expect both of them to believe the Church sneak me out from under their noses?

 

Once Rose had been calmed down, the two of them did a number on the whole inn. They did everything short of ransack it and scare away the other customers who would then in turn grab the guards. Susan with pride boasted that she actually managed to find the secret cellar. Claiming she knew all about traps, secret passages and the like. She went so far as to say that elaborate set up was child's play. Even though the place had been cleaned and swept, every drop of blood or sign of conflict, it was Rose who somehow smelled something wrong. Her battle mania, for reasons unknown to me, and even Susan, could tell a fight had happened. When she went on the hunt like a blood hound, outside the inn, she found just that. The blood from my palm.

 

I had been carried out of the inn, the mess had been cleaned up, but my clenched fist with the glass stuck inside and in my palm. By the time I was being carried out and away to the safe-house, I might have had my hand jostled loose, or the blood ooze out and it made a very faint, but to Rose and Susan, an obvious trail of bread crumbs. When they asked around outside, they claimed to have come across a succubus and an old man on an early morning walk, which seemed to have started as a late night walk. What a man who was described as being in his seventies doing out that late for a walk I don't know. When they described me, the devil-woman seemed to recall me immediately and in the barely dawn light recognized it was me being carried away by a man that couldn't have been anyone else other than Goose. Their suspicions were thus verified.

 

I don't believe all things happen for a reason. That would be silly, but helpful coincidences do happen I guess.

 

They almost rushed in to bust heads, but Susan's intuition picked up on my reluctance to tell her about the run in with the Rangers... She sensed something was wrong. They knew it was Typhoon behind the kidnapping, but she felt someone else was after me too and it wouldn't be safe to move until they showed themselves. 'Then they'd be watching us right now?' Rose asked. Susan couldn't argue with that and Rose was right. Still, they had to find me, make Typhoon think their plan was still going smoothly and draw out the third party watching from the shadows.

 

So Rose, the highest profile player in the game, decided to pretend she had already left. She'd no longer be a threat and the Ranger's would move. Rose walked right out the city gates, only to return later without anyone knowing. Susan tracked down the safe-house after losing the pursuers, most of them worried just about Rose and not so much about her. After the Rangers struck, she emerged and Rose who had been hiding waited in ambush. How did Rose manage to get back in? Only after they both had the bright idea to get some help from a few new friends...

 

     “Say that to my face and not in here and see what happens, runt!” Rose said fuming while looking down at three of the goblins standing opposite of her, with their arms on their hips, grinning.

 

     “Make us.” All three said at once.

 

     “We'll clock ya good.” Said the right one.

 

     “You ain't got nothing!” Said the middle one.

 

     “More like Corn Knight.” Said the left one.

 

     “Yeah. Corny lines.” the right one added.

 

     “Uninspired.” Said the left.

 

     “Lame~” The middle sighed.

 

They all giggled at once which only caused Rose to infuriate further. Her tail went rigid and stuck right out like a meter stick, the ridge burning bright and furious. I was a little afraid for the furniture actually. It was Susan again who had to cough loudly again, reminding Rose to mind her manners.

 

     “Really now, Rose. You should not allow such crass, unsophisticated and juvenile attempts to make you angry placate to their infantile games.”

 

     “Hey. Hey!” Called one goblin cresting over the right arm rest of Susan's chair.

 

     “Big sis~” Smarmed another on her left.

 

Susan started talking louder over the two goblins, “All that is required is to ignore them and they will eventually...”

 

     “How was he, really?”

 

I could see Susan's brow furrow and her lips previously frozen in a straight line crook into a frown. Her ears twitched, her nostrils flared and I think I could see her eye twitch underneath her eyelids.

 

     “That's not a nice thing to say Tal.”

 

     “You're right. An uptight girl like her wouldn't have anything to compare it to.”

 

     “Laven~” the one on the left called out to me, “Who was better of the two? Was it her?” She said pointing to Susan, her finger index hovering, shaking annoyingly just milometers from Susan's cheek.

 

     The one called Tali just had to ask, “Is she uptight as much as she's tight-”

 

     “AHHHHH!” Susan screamed with a furious blush on her face, and a pair of lungs bursting that couldn't swallow down her anger anymore.

 

Susan flung her elbows out at the girls and tried to claw at them with her paws but the girls easily ducked and ran away giggling. Like a dog after a rabbit she flung herself off the chair and gave chase. Rose without the voice of reason also gave chase to the goblins who ducked, dodged, crawled under furniture and ran rampant, cutting one another off and tagging in and out over who got chased as Rose and Susan were on a rampage after them.

 

In the eye of the storm I sat there on the middle of the couch as the cacophony of noise and chaos swirled around me. I tried to keep a straight face, look dead ahead and maybe I'd just meld into the furniture itself. Until one of the goblins leapt onto my lap and hung off me by my neck like a bar floozy. She gave a mischievous smile at me and a pair of very dangerous eyes. I've seen that look in a monster before and that wasn't ever a good sign. She closed in and planted a very wet and exaggerated kiss on my cheek and giggled. All the while her eyes were never on me, but on Rose and Susan on the other side of the table, who were now looking on, furious.

 

I was going to say something, I really wanted to, but I didn't have enough time to catch another breath and articulate anything. Rose and Susan equally enraged pounced and borh in a single bound went airborne on an intercept course. It all happened in slow motion, I could see where things were going when the girl quickly scrambled and jumped free of the imminent collision. The force of her jump off my thigh pushed me back into my seat and Rose and Susan slammed into me. The couch couldn't take the weight and force and it tipped over on its back, the three of us along with it. Lying on the floor now was some modern art piece of various limbs, torsos and a couple of tails sticking out of a big mess. Meanwhile the goblins all giggled.

 

I could see the spirals in Rose and Susan's eyes and the way the world was spinning I'm pretty sure mine were too. Once the ringing stopped, I could hear the chorus of giggles from the goblins. Yeah, you girls are lucky we're just playing games. Even I'm starting to lose my patience now. These two are holding back, even I can tell that much, but you're really starting to push your luck and getting near a dangerous threshold of my cost benefit of revenge right now with getting the hell out of Vilmheim.

 

The giggling kept going until the saviour had arrived, the hobgoblin Dolly had snuck up on the pack of hyenas and like a Newton's cradle slammed the head of the girl on the far right until the chain reaction carried on, like a series of coconut clonking together. Each of the goblins grabbed their heads in pain and squatted down on the floor moaning, complaining and making themselves even a nuisance during their punishment.

 

     “Laven and Big Sisters, guests.” Dolly said sternly.

 

I say sternly, but with that perpetual dopey look on her face, even frowning and trying to look upset, she still looked ridiculous and not a threat at all despite her improbable and overwhelmingly brutish strength. That was a hobgoblin though. Even if the goblins were rather clever in a mischievous trouble causing way, they listened to Dolly like she was infallible. Except for one errant horn on her head which was lopsided and three times the size of the other and the breasts which were as big as her head bouncing against her petite body she didn't look much different nor was she any taller. Her strength might be greater than all five of them combined though.

 

     “I thought I told you girls to behave.” Frank said walking through the doorway.

 

     “Sir, we're sorry, sir!” They all said getting back to their feet and saluting.

 

No, we weren't at Frank's house, with his bulldog of a wife, we were holed up in his office which also served as a... well a barracks for the goblin girls I guess. Nestled deep inside a small quaint building, away from the windows was this little meeting room meant to discuss business with clients. Frank himself, the middle-aged pot bellied but stern and kind foreman I had met yesterday was one of the only people Rose and Susan could fall back on. After hearing the story, Frank didn't even hesitate. He agreed to help and didn't even want to be paid. Maybe our sad little story stirred his heart? Maybe he's just a genuine kind soul? I'm grateful for whatever the reason is.

 

     “So, it's gotta be tonight.” Frank declared.

 

Frank plopped himself down onto one of the chairs opposite the couch. After untangling ourselves and settling down, the goblins under the taskmaster Dolly lifted the couch back up and pushed it back into place. Seating myself back into the centre and with Rose and Susan on my right and left we began our strategy meeting. The goblins fanned out across the room and Dolly returned to Frank, stood by next to his chair and when he ruffled her hair with one hand while speaking to us, she smiled brightly and giggled softly. Like a puppy, almost.

 

     “Sooner the better.” I said sighing relieved. “I don't think we have any time to wait.”

 

     “They're gonna learn you're not here eventually.” Frank stated. “News gets around fast. You're gonna get through new town before word gets back, but they'll be on you after that.”

 

     “Not a problem!” Rose said clenching her fist dramatically. “Once we're in the open, they can keep coming as much as they want.”

 

     “To stay back and volley projectiles at us.” Susan sighed.

 

That put a damper on Rose's mood, who instead of responding crossed her arms, went silent and into deep thought. Was that seriously your plan Rose? This isn't some show where you take the fight outside the city and in the middle of nowhere just to save on production costs.

 

     “We must carefully choose out next destination. I am under the suspicion that Vilmheim is surrounded on all flanks by nations of varying hostility, but hostility nevertheless. No doubt news has travelled far enough that troublesome company will soon be on our heels.”

 

     “The Church.” I brooded.

 

That was a thought that put Susan and I reeling back into silence. The last time had ended in our favour, but not without costs. Ones that I'd no doubt be dealing with the PTSD for some time. Seeing Goose gunned down in front of me didn't help either. It was quite a graphic death to witness. I'd seen people hurt here, indirectly killed in brutal ways, but seeing it in person, with my own eyes had a terrible weight with it. Only Rose seemed unaffected in the entire room to the idea of going head to head with the Church.

 

     “No big deal.” She cheerfully said. “They don't have anything I'm scared of. They can try to get their hands on Laven.” Her voice then became quite dire and serious, “Next time I'm not holding back if someone lays their mitts on my husband.”

 

     “Ahem.” Susan coughed loudly. “We need a safe path out of Vilmheim first. Now that the gracious Mr. Guts and his labourers have involved themselves.”

 

Everyone in the room went silent and deep into thought. Except Dolly, but that's goes without saying. It was Rose's head that jerked up first and like something had lit her ass on fire she jumped up.

 

     It all came pouring out of her mouth at once, “Somewhere the Church ain't got the gall to go... A demon realm!”

 

Everyone went quiet and no one seemed ready to second that motion.

 

     “Whoa now.” Frank said with a worrisome tone. “You don't just stroll through a demon realm. Besides. You're monsters with a human that you're well... Kind of...”

 

     “Lovey Dovey~!” One of the goblins teased.

 

They all started to giggle and laugh, but the three of us seemed out of the loop and Frank had a serious face as he looked down deep in thought.

 

     “Yeah.” Rose said, stalling to article and defend her idea. “I've walked through em before. They're a little weird, but nothing to-”

 

     “With your husband?” Frank interrupted.

 

     “No?” Rose titled her head wondering what Frank was trying to say.

 

     He rubbed the back of his head, even Frank was now blushing. “Well, these are just things I hear, but I don't have a reason to think they ain't the truth. Demon realms have a lot of that energy stuff. Lots of, well, lust and stuff. Maybe you go in there and you all don't feel like leaving.”

 

     “Wait.” I said, that last part sounded a little serious. “What do you mean not leaving?”

 

     “Just places that turn into demon realms. Anyone not getting out of them in time when they turb, well no one else leaves. No one human at least, certainly only anyone single. Men don't last long single in those parts.”

 

     “I-I think we can handle a l-little magical subliminal suggestion.” Susan said blushing and stumbling over her words.

 

     “Stay forever? That's boring.” Rose declared. “That sounds like no more adventures. No more fighting. There ain't no fun in that.”

 

Frank sighed and everyone went quiet. So that was the only option, was it? Heading deep into the demon realms I've only heard of. Everyone made them sound like some sort of hell on earth. Cursed lands with stories around them the likes you'd tell disobedient children to get them to shut up and go to bed. But that's only the first problem.

 

     “What about after?” I asked. “We can just assume we slip through one of these places. Where to after?”

 

     “Somewhere we can easily lose anyone tracking us.” Rose said crossing her arms.

 

A nation which is not within the Church's sphere of influence” Susan added.

 

Rose's eyes lit up as she pounded her clenched claw in an open palm. Some idea had leapt into that thick head of hers.

 

     “The Mountains. They're south of here. Same direction we need to go anyways. Think they called em the Wyrmbacks.”

 

     “Some manner of hinterland?” Susan asked.

 

     “It might be high up, but even then there's still summer.” Rose said dubiously, wondering what Susan was going on about.

 

     “No Rose.” I said, holding back a headache. “Does anyone live there.”

 

     “Yeah yeah. They don't bother with anyone though. We don't start trouble, they wont mind us.”

 

Great. So we need to flee through Switzerland without passports. Sounds like fun. I'd have to once more become Hannibal and appear where it was impossible.

 

     Frank responded with a dubious tone, “The Wyrmbacks? You're not serious are you? You'd scale those death traps? Even if did, you'd have to pass through Beitterheim first. That's Vilmheim's second largest city. You'd be going right back into the fire. And getting across the Marru River. That's not just some water you can swim over-”

 

     “Tsk tsk tsk.” Rose clicked her tongue and waver her finger at Frank. “We just need to get over Marru Bridge.”

 

     “The one under control of Duke Billum? You think he'd even-”

 

     “We'll figure that out when we get there.” Rose said with finality.

 

I didn't have any clue what we were talking about anymore. After a few eras under the sand, neither did Susan. We were running out of time though. If Rose had a plan, as dreadful a thought that was, we didn't have much choice. We'd slip out of Vilmheim tonight, race across the countryside south, through a demon realm, hopefully come out the other side, shaking off any followers and with the time we bought, get passage across a mighty river in a sheer mountainous region where we'd completely lose anyone following us. I suppose we weren't going to do any better...

 

There wasn't anything else to say. Frank and his girls had arranged our escape and we'd be on our way. A rather simple means of escape. Frank was involved in the rebuilding and construction business. The walls around old Vilmheim were part of that which needed to be repaired. On the south side of the city, a crane used to hoist stones to the top was currently located. We'd sneak in with a load of stones and be lifted right up and over the wall. Then we'd run like hell. With their strength, the goblins could build not a pile of stones, but one with an empty space beneath it all. Rose had enough strength, proven since last time, to remove at least one.

 

It wasn't much of a plan, but it's all we had. These demon realms I was told later where no small plots of land. It would take two days and one night of rest to get through. But to go around one to our south, it could take a week. We'd gain five days on anyone chasing after us It was simple and easy enough. What worried me was the demon realm afterwards. I just had a bad feeling.

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