#velardi (oc)

[yutzen]

Where the Heart Is

"There you are! You’re going to give me a conniption running off like that! Are you alright? I smelled smoke, and I got very worried. Smoke in the lakes is usually terrible news! Oh, thank goodness… I know it’s very little smoke, but you have to understand, any smoke here, where things so seldom burn, it could mean- What? ...Usherrimi, you didn’t grab any matches from the house, did you? Because if you did- Usherrimi? Ushi, please, slow down and tell me what you did, okay? It’s fine, it’s fine. Nothing bad happened, so long as you’re okay, it’s all okay… Oh! Oh… I’m sorry, Ushi, it just slipped out of my mind. I know you wouldn’t do that! I had a student who did once, is all, and I panicked at the thought… ...pardon? Nonono, it’s not dangerous, it’s a fine little fire, and with the crystal here it won’t spread, but… you said you made it? By yourself? Without matches, or tinders, or anything else...? Ushi, it’s not that, you don’t know what it means to- Usherrimi, no. Something that you can do is never a bad thing. You didn’t burn anything down, you didn’t hurt anyone, including yourself, this is fine. Okay? Good. Because what I wanted to say is… This is actually pretty rare! We’re not especially close to fire, not even here, but at your age, and enough to start this one here, that’s… It’s remarkable! Very remarkable! Actually… Can you show me? Just a little spark if you can, okay? If you can’t, that’s fine, these things can be tiring- OH GOODNESS…! Ahahah, this is fire! They’re like little candles on your gills! And- Ow! Oh, it does burn! Wait, you haven’t burned yourself have you!? Okay, good, good…! Just making sure, these are tricky energies to manage, but you’re doing it so well… It’s amazing! I knew it! Oh? I meant, I knew you were a talented young lady, I could see it from the start. Ahaha, no. Talent is talent, no matter where it lies. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?"

“Something up, Sherry?”

Usherrimi – the “Sherry” in question – felt a long-fingered claw lay on her shoulder right as that question snapped her out of some old, old thoughts. The Ifchi’s gills twitched in surprise, but she took her time to actually turn around and face the one who asked… Yep, there she was. Ziv-Ziri was there, her gleaming yellow eyes looking down with great concern. “Usually you’re first up for getting the campfire going, but I found you, well… here.”

Here. Right. When Ziv told her she’d be getting the whole gang together, she didn’t think much of the place she’d pick for such a widespread group. She thought it’d be nice, in fact. She’d never been to the Stonelit Meadow before, and since it was close enough to the Lakes, she expected a little nostalgia. The sodden ferns waving in the warm breeze and the faded lichens that crunched under her steps were familiar enough, but they were thick here, not quite what she remembered…

But when she climbed the last hill and found herself standing before a great quartz monolith, glowing with an inner light just like the ones she knew, and with many more dotting the distance, as a tiny stream of tepid water ran right under her bare feet, just like the ones back-

“Sherry! There’s not something with this crystal, right? Not… burning or anything? You’d know those more than I do, so…”

Of course she would. These luminous crystals, warmed and grown by the streams far beneath, were just like those in the Lakes. Shining down on her with the same light that lit her lessons with her tutors as she perfected her gifts, the same light that let her read her books beneath the surface and get lost in others’ worlds with no one to bother her. Stones like these were the first – and once, only – witnesses to her own light, to the flames she could bring forth… And it was right under a monolith like this one, so much like this one, that she lit the first flames she’d actually share. Her tutor Neshuri had been so proud that day…

“I…”, she began, but the words that’d follow just wouldn’t come out. The Ifchi’s gaze fell to the ground, almost wishing she could close her eyes. ‘I thought I could handle it’, Sherry thought, clenching both her fists, ‘I thought walking away from Ishiss, wandering the caves would do it, would cut those strings that pulled from waters I left behind, and yet here, here…’ Did those strings just never snap, and she’d just managed to ignore their pull, or was taking a glance at just… this, a simple glowing rock, knit them back together? It brought back some old things, the oldest of all, she was a child back then! Right by the weakest spot, yet somehow the most vivid, it had grabbed her and dragged her into all the rest, right down to the last day before she left towards Ishiss. And there she was, the wayward mage, left feeling like it had pulled her heart all the way back to the Lakes.

“How do you do it, Ziv?”, the axolotl muttered under her breath, staring at the shimmering ceiling of the cavern, and finding it, too, brought unwanted reminders.

“Do what, Sherry?”

Sherry swiveled towards Ziv-Ziri, almost startled. Damn it, she forgot she was a bat and had the hearing to match! There had to be an out of that little conversation… Or, at least, a way to breach it gently. She knew Ziv’s parting had been outright acrimonious, so while she may understand, it had to be a far bigger hole in her heart. It only made sense…

First, dismissing the question she shouldn’t have asked. “Nothing, nothing, just… stray thoughts is all. Just taking in the sights, mm?” Sights… That’s one route. She did like this place – that was, in fact, the problem – and it was only right to let her know. The little smile that came next was more genuine than the olm expected. “You sure know how to pick a scenic route, Ziv. Or meeting spot, rather. You have a talent for that one.”

With a grin and a flick of her ears, Ziv-Ziri let out a little giggle. “I know, right? I’ve been here once or twice, I can’t linger around too much ‘cause they’ll find me, but it’s nice for a stop when you don’t have anything to hide. Can’t say I’ve seen any border guard, or even bounty hunters, either! Uh, not counting Vel, I mean.” After that digression, she stepped closer, and leaned in with all her height, her grin turning sly. “And besides, I knew of a certain someone from the Lakes that would appreciate a few sights like these~”

And with that, Usherrimi’s smile faltered, barely even staying on – which in turn, made the bat’s own turn to a slightly baffled frown. “And you were right on the money, Ziv”, she said, before noticing said frown and feeling she’d been caught. Time to salvage this, she hoped: “Look, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the sights. It’s just… You really did hit close to home, it’s just… Too close? Does that make sense? Please tell me that makes sense.” That last one almost came out unprompted, blurted with unbecoming nerves, and if anything it made Ziv look concerned…

“It would make sense to me, Sherry”, answered a different, far deeper voice. The two found a pair of black, beady eyes when they turned, as a familiar Ferigozi crested the hill to join them. “Too great a reminder, I bet. Made you think deep enough about ‘home’ to bring back all of those reasons you left.” The old mole offered a tired, bitter smile as he closed the distance with the other two.

The axolotl answered before the bat could intervene. “First, I was asking Ziv, but, late for that. Second, that’s not what I meant at all, Vel, this isn’t about why I left.”

But Velardi, as usual, was undeterred by that, still with that small smile on his snout. “Was it, though? You said it yourself, a closer reminder of old comfort… Followed, right after, by the thought ‘why am I not there?’, wasn’t it?” He set the indistinct lump of steel he called a weapon against the earth, elongating it until he could use it as a walking stick, and leaned upon it with that sagely smirk of his – with no seeming notice of Usherrimi’s souring expression. “Well, Sherry, in business like ours, home is often the place we can least return to, and honestly, we should hardly want to. Very easy to remind yourself of why you’d never go back.” Then, those tiny eyes narrowed as the mole almost hissed: “Remembering why it stopped being ‘home’.”

With raised brow and narrowed eyes, Sherry didn’t hide how unimpressed she was… But after a deep breath, she softened her expression. “I’m gonna be honest, old man… The reasons are the least of it. Becoming persona-non-grata… You could say it was my fault.” With a flare of her gills, however, her next words filled with hatred: “But I don’t regret even a moment. They knew what they said, they knew what they were doing, they knew what they made up about ME, and thought they’d get away with it ‘cause they were staff. Fuck them, and fuck their academy.”

When the fire died down, all she could add to it – after a heavy sigh – was: “I’ll give you one thing: The part where something in Ishiss, the city, all the way North, is what cost me my spot in the Lakes… That part hurts. Even if it means you get to be wrong about it.”

The Ferigozi was given pause by said outburst, raising his brow even if his placid expression remained. “Ah. Mm, a little more different than I thought… But not quite as different as you would think, Sherry.” He approached the glowing monolith as he rambled, tracing the stone with one claw. “It’s all Ishiss, I’m afraid. The price on your head, or what I assume is one, it’s not the only thing that stretches from border to border… So are the failings and flaws that made sure there was one. Think about it long enough, and you’ll remember all the little red flags, all the indications it wouldn’t be so different, given half the chance… Another easy mistake to make, forgetting that. Why, even I made that one, once.” He looked into the quartz, lost in his words, almost as if he expected to find something in there…

Yet before Usherrimi could pounce on the chance to reply, before she could voice her affronts at the idea her home was anything like the capital, Ziv-Ziri quelled her with a hand on her shoulders, and stepped forwards to answer instead, disapproval all over her face. “Vel, come on. You’re making it sound like she should hate the place, what the hell!? Can’t someone just miss the place, the things they liked about it? The reasons they didn’t leave until they had to? ‘cause I know I do mine.” Then, with eyes narrowed to glowing slits, she leaned all the way down, face-to-face with the mole, before her expression softened, just a little, as she spoke with actual concern. “I know there’s something like that for you too, Vel. There had to be. You’re gonna tell me there isn’t anything you miss from the Kingdom?”

He looked into her eyes, before his gaze turned distant. And with that, Vel’s smirk turned wistful, before falling to a seldom-seen frown… And then, an even-rarer scowl, his claws scraping along the monolith as they balled into a fist, lips pulling back to show needle-like teeth that rarely saw the light. For once – as far as Sherry knew – Velardi of An-Vescaria was caught out with nothing to say, as he looked back up towards the two, turning from one to the other as the gears ground in his head, treading old ground. And in the end, all the mole could offer were four words, almost spat out rather than spoken: “Like I said: Once.”

Silence would’ve followed, broken only by the droplets falling from above and the gentle whisper of water through the lichens… Were it not for the heavy, ironclad steps that sounded up the hill, as the biggest of Ziv’s entourage made it up the hill, casually resting his huge, webbed paws upon Velardi’s shoulders as soon as he made it there. He tried to whisper, yet all could hear the words that brought a quiet sigh from the mole: “Vi, you’re doing it again.”

Sherry could feel the tension drain off the conversation, even if the interaction before her left her a little perplexed. Vel was never touchy as far as she knew – a hard thing to avoid when Ziv’s around – and yet there he was, leaning back into the mountain of bristles that was Askalim. But then again she’d never seen the mole get like that before. With a convo she started, with this moment of weakness of hers. Time to plot out an apology, she thought. “...ssssorry, didn’t know there had been… an incident, there. Or that it was that bad. Sorry.”

Velardi smiled once more, yet it didn’t reach his eyes at all. “I should apologize, Sherry, for losing my temper. I’ve had more time than any of us to get over such a thing, to think of my old place in the Kingdom without flaring up, and yet here I am…”

He didn’t see the shift in the Toskar’s expression when he said that, but he sure felt the squeeze to his shoulders. “Vi?”

“Yes…?”

“You remember what I told you, back in the Empire, with the captain and everything after him, didn’t I?” He leaned down, just to make sure the mole was facing him.

“In detail, yes… So-called soldiers like him, I met far more than I’d like, but you-”

Askalim stopped him with a single finger against his snout. “No, not the point. What I’m getting at is… Knowing that much, and knowing me, if you heard anyone tell me I should just ‘suck it up and get over it’, you’d pluck their ribs out, wouldn’t you?”

It caught Vel by surprise, but he found his answer quickly this time. “It would be tempting, I’ll admit. Very tempting, if they had the details. And if they called you what we know, I’d happily add their heart to it.”

“Right. And now, with that in mind”, the Toskar said, one digit propping up the mole’s snout to look up, “think a little about what you just said about yourself.”

Sherry and Ziv shared a glance, with plenty to say to each other yet fully aware this was a bad moment for it. Looking back to the mole and badger, they could see Velardi struggle with his words again. “Noted”, he began, lingering on the word, before adding a half-hearted “much as your case is different…”

For that, the badger immediately rounded him to speak face-to-face – you could almost see him resisting the urge to lean down to speak at his level, but it didn’t stop him from once again propping Vel’s snout up to look him in the eye. “Let’s retread: You did what they asked, you stood head and shoulders above the rest, you went above and beyond for all a Ferigozi’s supposed to be, only to get fucked over for it. Doesn’t sound all that different, does it?”

And now Askalim leaned in, softening his almost martial tone before Velardi could reply. “Look, I caught a bit of your convo, Zee didn’t make it hard at all.” He glanced at the bat just to catch her embarrassed grin, then continued. “I get why you’d take things like you do… It’s a stab in the back, after doing everything right. But it wasn’t the Kingdom that held the knife, was it? Just as it wasn’t the Empire that buried one into my back. It was captain Valkut – Worm take his ass – and everyone that believed him. Just as in your case…” He stopped, once again glancing at the others present. “…up to you if you tell them, but I won’t.”

Then, a smirk from the badger. “But it didn’t really stop you from being exemplar, did it?”, he began, and the word seemed to freeze the mole in place. “Ha. That one always gets you, doesn’t it, Vi? But I mean it. Way I see it, you took the right lessons, everything your home would’ve looked up to, and took it with you… Like I’m trying to do with mine. Because… Yes, I can’t go back. I am still an outlaw… But I know what a Voskan ought to be. Even one in this business.” He finished with a jab of one finger against Vel’s chest: “Just as you know what a Ferigozi ought to be… And hell, somehow, in this, you’re making it work.”

And, little by little, that sagely little smile was back on the mole’s face, making Usherrimi realize she was actually kind of missing it. “...heh. I did always say you were a sergeant at heart, Askal, that much has never left you.” Then, Vel turned back to the other two – demoted to a mute audience as they’d been – and his smile got sly in turn. “Why, you even perform well with an audience. Well, Sherry, I suppose that might’ve brought you more answers than I could?”

But Askalim just blinked in confusion at that, and interrupted before the olm could reply. “Wait, this was about her?”, he began, before actually addressing her. “Didn’t take you for someone with homesickness, honestly.”

Finally given the chance to speak, Usherrimi began… With a long and bitter sigh. “Neither did I, Askalim, neither did I right until I suddenly was. Fuck, I thought I was over it…”

Ziv pounced on her chance as well. “Yyyyeah, no one ever is, Sherry.” She laid a hand on the olm’s slimy shoulder…

Before clenching it as she was startled – along with everyone else – by a shrill, chirping voice: “SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, BOSS!”

Ziv-Ziri barely had the time to step aside before a runaway Cheli practically crash-landed onto the spot right next to her, claws gouging the lichen layer on arrival. And yet, she had her usual grin to greet her. “Chi! Didn’t hear you arrive! I mean, I rarely do, but this time especially…!”

With a couple flaps and a few sweeps of her claws, Chitwy’s feathers were tucked neatly back in place,“That’s ‘cause I was quiet, quieter even, didn’t want to miss a thing here. Soon as I saw Embers over there with that look on her face I knew I’d want to hear this.”

Violet eyes rolled in their lidless sockets, as an unimpressed Ifchi cut in. “Glad to hear someone is having fun with this little moment.”

“AH-AH-AH.” Sherry found the swallow right in front of her quite suddenly with a clawtip pressed against her snout. Her gills sparking flames at their ends as a reflex. Not that the bird cared, despite her dry, mossy wear. “This isn’t about ‘fun’, Embers, this is about you and this heartache of yours. Better to bring this up here before it becomes a problem on the job.”

A low, throaty chuckle coming from behind Chi turned both their heads to find a smirking mole. “Didn’t know you cared this much, miss Krivru, I’d heard quite the opposite before”, he teased…

To that, the Cheli started numbering on one free claw. “One, fuck whoever said that. Two, believe it or not I like it here. And three, professionalism. You should know, Whiskers, especially if Quills there with you did tell you about his blowout back in the Snowdrifts.” Askalim’s brow furrowed at the comment, but before Vel himself could raise an eyebrow she interrupted herself: “I don’t mean the part where he killed the guy, if anything we need more of that. Cleanses the soul. I mean the part where it froze him in there and locked him in when we had six other guys or so surrounding us! Yeah, sounds like a problem to me.” Then, she swieveled back to Usherrimi, who didn’t bother hiding her judging stare. “Also four: This was about you, he’s just the example. And while I can’t guess how things could go wrong in your case, let’s make sure it doesn’t. And besides, think Whiskers’s covered already.”

The olm glared. ‘What would you know about this, you’ve never been kicked out. You never lost it. You can return any time, with someone waiting for you, knowing there’s a point to it. You can fucking fly home, right now, and no one would stop you. What would you know about missing anything.’… All this ran through her head, but she did not say it. She just sighed, looking down, holding back these aches and letting reason prevail when it told her, perhaps this little hunter had something to help. Perhaps she didn’t know the whole story, and it would aid her to know. When she fixed her gaze back on Chitwy, it had softened somewhat, and she could speak in a calmer tone. “Fine then… I heard these two already, and much as I’d like Ziv’s take, you jumped the line, so tell me: How do you do it?”

Again, a claw raised to her snout, though at least the swallow had the decency not to touch her this time. “Ah-ah, not the right question, since this isn’t just a me thing. When you roam the caverns far and wide, when you’re a hunter like me, you work with many that’ve been just like you, or him, or that one” – pointing at Sherry, Askalim and Velardi in succession – “who’ve been thrown into the outskirts and worse because wherever the law treads is off limits to them. And I’m not gonna lie to you: At the campfire, and with a drink or two, they always drifted back there. Back to whatever house they had, even if they would’ve hated it months ago. I get it: It hurts.”

Sherry raised her brow, letting out a held breath. “So it’s not uncommon then. Helps to know… Much as I didn’t even need to be drunk to feel it. Or get to the campfire.” Right, that was usually her job, even if it was little more than being a showoff it felt good to have those honors… And right now, she had to wonder just how much of that feeling was ruled by those days she had been rudely reminded of. “Still, you said it yourself, better to bring it up here. Let me rephrase then: How did they do it?”

Yet again, a claw raised to her snout, almost poking her with one sharp talon. “Did you miss the ‘not just me’ bit? Pah, no sidetracking! Here’s the outline.” With one quick inhale, and raising her wings in the air as if stretching out paper for display, Chitwy began. “Home isn’t a place. No, it’s not one place. Like I almost want to say it’s more of a when than a where, but that wouldn’t be right.” The olm raised one doubtful brow, but didn’t interrupt yet. “When you get down to it, ‘home’ is more of a feeling than a place – feel right at home, and all, that’s what I’m going off here. You have to find that for yourself, out there, that’s what smothers those aches you’re having.”

“So far, so utterly vague.” Sherry pushed her glasses back against her eyes with a faint scowl.

The bird lunged at her for that, actively jabbing her clawed finger against her snout – and narrowly pulling it away before she could grab it in one sparking hand. “I WASN’T DONE, EMBERS.”, she screeched out, before another quick, sharp inhale, and a long sigh. “But fine, I’ll skip to that, since you’ll get it that way. Lemme… what’s the word? Condense.” Chitwy backed off, wings clasped in front of her beak as she paced, ignoring the Ifchi’s indignant glare…

Before she swiveled in place, and turned back to face said glare. “A personal example, you look like you need it. I know, the Pact won’t kill me on sight or anything, but the thing is: Home? It’s not always a roof, a garden you made all by yourself and a bed with someone waiting on it. It can be that, it has things you yearn for, that you want and get. But sometimes… Often, even. To me, ‘Home’ is often just…” Those big, sharp eyes closed slowly, and a rare smile graced her face right behind her beak. “…the wind against my feathers, heavy with whatever the breezes stir in the cave. The echoes of untamed wilderness, with no bustle to drown it out. Pristine sights, untouched by road and country… The feeling of finding something, sometimes someone, that no one else was supposed to find. Of tracking it and hunting it down…” She opened her eyes, glancing at the group, one by one. “…knowing whoever’s at my side knows what they’re doing. That they see it all just like I do. That they get it. And that whether it all goes right or wrong, they will have your back.”

After letting it linger for a few seconds, with no one to interrupt, Chitwy turned back to Usherrimi properly, and resumed, calmer than the olm had ever known her. “That’s where I feel at home. And of those sorts that kept drifting back to what they’d lost during those long nights by the campfire… By morning, they remembered what they had out there. What they sought and found in those faraway places. The reason why they stayed out there, on hunts of their own… Even if they didn’t always know what it was.” One last time, the bird pointed at the olm, finally keeping a polite distance. “You don’t know what it is right now, but you have it, you’re still with the Boss and everyone else here. Start from there.”

From there, just a moment of silence, and Usherrimi found herself looking down, and back at the monolith, starting to wonder… What had kept her in this track, rather than trying to hide away in the nation’s outskirts, in some dark river somewhere? What made her stay away with her head held proud, rather than trying to bow to the city, begging for forgiveness? …Other than the fact that was pathetic, of course, she had to leave aside matters of self-respect. She had to be enjoying some of this, she knew she was. They’d caught her smiling before, and some enjoyed making a fuss about it. She just needed to put her finger on it, right…?

Much as her actual fingers were back on this glowing monolith before her. Its light was still soothing, even with all its reminders. Again she was lost in thought, and by the time she realized she forgot to actually answer, Ziv had already done so for her, with a “Wow! Chi, you’re actually a pretty good speaker!”… Debatable, Sherry thought, but it didn’t address the point either way, didn’t it. The bat then stepped right between her and the rest, with one hand on her shoulder – a hand she didn’t recoil from, this time, despite feeling just as sharp sometimes. That was something to think about, wasn’t it… Maybe that was the avenue of thought she ought to pursue, once she had some time to herself, and she didn’t have Ziv prattling on about how much of a pleasant surprise it was to see this admittedly feral Cheli being so insightful, as she was now…

…though when that shoulder-squeeze tightened, and she picked up the slightest hint of a giggle in the bat’s voice – she knew that one well after all this time – she turned around, just in case, deciding those thoughts could wait…

And she did so just in time to see a wiry figure in a rainproofed coat right behind Chitwy and her smug little scoff, with a pair of striking green eyes beneath the drooping brim of his hat. Just in time to hear him utter, with a lisping voice that was just a tinge too loud, “Don’t think y’got th’ whole tale there, lil’ hunter.”

Right, that accent of his. This “Liyon Pinweave” was one of the newest in this little… enterprise, as Ziv liked to call it, but he was already damn unmistakeable, especially for one of the Bannerbound. Recognizable enough that even Chitwy managed to remember who he was before she tried to rake his face, but after she sprung in flight, startled into a shriek that sent her twenty feet into the air. It got the tiniest smirk out of Sherry… But she couldn’t help but widen it as soon as the Vez with her started outright cackling at that. Oh, she was in on it, wasn’t she? She would’ve heard Pins coming, but didn’t say a thing. Maybe even distracted her. “Heh. Hah! Oh, Ziv, you’re evil sometimes, you know that?”

“Turnabout is fair play, greeheeheeee~!”, she practically wheezed out in response, as her own laughter made Askalim belt out one loud “HA!”, and even made the mole crack a wider smile he felt the need to hide behind a claw. And once the Cheli landed right in front of her to glare at her, and perhaps yell at her own boss for that little scare… The scowl on the bird’s face just made her cackle even harder, to Chitwy’s resigned displeasure. “Fuck’s sake boss. I guess I earned that, I know I was loud about it too but STILL.”

Pins joined the group proper once his “victim” had landed again, and the moment died down. “I’ll be apologizin’ fer that one”, he said, “that bit of braggin’ had me mighty tempted. But it ain’t th’ reason I wanted t’pipe up about it all. ‘cause I was hearin’ all of ya on this-”

Sherry outright hissed her interruption: “Yes, again, without warning. Is everyone in this enterprise of ours going to just eavesdrop on this? Ziv, have you hired anyone recently, so that I may know before they just show up having heard this little convo?”

“Uh, no, that should be it. I swear I didn’t plan on this, I didn’t know…” Ziv lowered her head, just a little. “I really didn’t know, actually. Sorry.”

“Th’both of ye can hash that out later, yeh? I ain’t about to start mockin’ or anythin’, but I did have a bit to add.” Already he was striding closer to Sherry herself…

“Of course you do”, she bitterly replied. “Everyone in here just seems to be bursting with advice today, just for the occasion…”

Again, a clawed grip on her shoulder – both her shoulders this time – and the friendly voice of Ziv-Ziri. “Sherry… We’ve all been through one measure or another of this. And no one wants to see you like this… Not here at least. And those who would, I think you’ve toasted most of them, hee…!” After a little chuckle at her own joke, she sighed, and rounded to face the olm properly. “Sometimes it just comes out all at once, when you get a reminder, right? Like just now. It had to be bottled for a while…” Then came the sharp-toothed smile. “I did have something to say too, even if you don’t wanna hear it anymore, but I don’t think I’m that good a… consoler, I guess? Not the sharpest tool in my skillset? So I was leaving me for last, but if this is too much…”

“No, no, it’s not…!” Sherry blurted, almost in a slight panic, but swallowed, cleared her throat, and continued with more composure. “It’s not too much, just… Needed a moment to pace myself. Hard to remember to expect help out there. And in here, in fact. But… No, I’ll hear it out.” And from there, the lightest of whispers, not even coming closer to Ziv to say it, but knowing full well ears like hers could catch it, and no one else’s. “I think yours is the one I’d need the most. I don’t care if you think it’s terrible, Ziv.”

And taking a moment to smile warmly – and then a little smugly when she saw Ziv practically melt into one of her widest grins – Sherry turned around, and faced the Bannerbound. “Very, Mr. Pinweave. What did you have to offer?”

“Pins is fine, y’know”, he said, making Sherry’s smile a little smugger still, “but I’ll give what I got. ‘cause y’see, ‘s a bigger thing than any one fella, bigger ‘n you or me. Can get big like a whole damn country, ‘n I know it ‘cause it did. To us.”

“You mean the Clans…”, Sherry replied before the others, though there were mutters she couldn’t pick up among the other three. Right, the Seven were more attached than usual to their ancestry, to their time before the caverns and the land outside their Exit. Far more attached, at that. But the comparison seemed unfair, to compare a whole nation to just her. Could an entire country miss something, was it enough of an entity to feel such a thing…?

“Yeh, th’ Clans.” Out came his gloved hands, starting to enumerate as he listed out what he’d expect of those gathered. “I know V’lardi’d knows Zau, ‘n maybe Sofize.”

“They do good business with a mole like me, much as Sofize likes to obfuscate the way they do things, and Zau’s little… Proselytizing problem.” Seems Vel sure did.

“Ashk’lim’d fer sure know Norrish-”

“Yes, yes I would, and the fact they kept showing up baffles me.” Why and how a Clan kept sending raids across that patch of caverns would baffle more than a few, Sherry would admit.

“‘n our hunter’d been t’ Vesh, knowin’ ‘em ‘n what they’ve got down there.”

The little bird grinned at that. “Oh they are fun, some of the best tours of my life~.”

“Anyone’s ever touched th’ Consortium’d know Vesnor, but I know our bossh’s been wheelin’ goods t’Zau ‘n Heese.”

“And also Vesnor, in fact!” Ziv grinned, proudly. “The silk bans were their idea but they sure kept buying!”

“‘n as someone from th’ lakes, I know ye’d hear some less ‘n fond words ‘bout Issouf.”

“...I will give you that one. Mother had some choice words about the Rishim Aquifer.” Sherry could remember those rants very clearly, and the less of Father and his words on the incident, the better.

“Mill-Iron Aquifer if y’ask ‘em. But ye know ‘em all between th’ lot. Good, makes it easy. ’cause it lets me get t’the gist.” With a motion within that coat, Pins cracked his shoulders and neck very audibly. “Y’see, I’m a Sofize hob, ‘n even as a hob I don’t always get th’ other six. ‘n you don’t always get th’ ones y’see. Might not get ‘em at all even. But if y’gotta get one thing ‘bout th’ Seven, it’s th’ common thread. Th’ Urul Peaks. Th’ frozen land on th’ other side. What we all lost, ‘bout as lost as it can get. Turns out y’can miss somethin’ y’never even knew. ’n so, the Seven work with that lil’ weight on ‘em. Whole damn history with a home that’s dead ‘n buried, pretty damn literally. ‘s one of th’ first things we all learn…”

“Followed by how y’deal with it.” With that, he raised the brim of his hat, and one could tell there was a smile beneath that scarf… Much as it would be a crooked smile with a sharp tongue, as some there would know. “Y’see it in all Seven, th’ common thread of it. Home ain’t quite one place, Chitwy got th’ gist of that one. ‘s somethin’ you bring with yerself. ‘cause it ain’t just vistas ‘n buildin’s ‘n landscapes, there’s plenty of non-material there. Th’ ways folks were with each other, th’ things ye praised ‘bout it, th’ stories ‘n lives of th’ place, that’s th’ real heart of it, th’ parts that aren’t luggage ‘n land. Ye pack it all up… ‘n then set off with it in yer pack, knowin’ they can’t get it off ya. ‘n when you set roots again, wherever it is, however long y’have in there… y’get to unpack it. Get to be it. Show it, praise it, let ‘em all know that’s what made ya. ‘n by layin’ it down, by puttin’ it out there, by bein’ it all… Even a windy, sand-choked hellhole will be a little more like home, every day. ‘n even a campfire with folks y’ picked to be surrounded by, ‘cause they’d be right at home with ya, can be like th’ place ye lost, in th’ ways that matter.”

…huh. Once again, Usherrimi caught herself looking down at the lichens beneath her feet, eyes unfocused, with no real answer to that. Pins didn’t exactly have a way with words, but there was enough to parse, there. Enough to pick through, and get the base ideas. At the very least… She now knew more or less why the Bannerbound were the way they are. It was hard to understand missing something you never had, and so, she – whose only thought on the lands the Ifchi lived in before the caverns was that it was a monument to her species’ mistakes – had never thought of how doing so would shape a nation. But down to the individual, and realizing she was now stranded from something both beloved and impossible…

“Wow! You’re actually a pretty good speaker- Hee! Not pulling that one twice! But I mean it, though!”

“Might’ve been cheatin’ seein’ this is somethin’ most hobs get, but ‘s what I got. Hope it helps, yeh?”

Maybe it wasn’t so impossible. If she brought along the parts that weren’t old slate rooms, glowing monoliths and steamy water between her fingers. It was a place where talents were seen and recognized, maybe she’d have to do that more for others, as they were doing for her. A place away from cold judgment, away from disappointed eyes of those who saw her through a skewed lens… A place where she was free, too, wasn’t she? Where light and flame were welcome, where she could actually roam, and see a little more beyond walls of black and sodden stone…

“You’re missing the whole POINT of being in a new place! You can’t just impose yourself like that, where’s the thrills!? The discovery of things you’ve never seen, all the things you haven’t even TOUCHED!”

“Burnin’ ‘n buildin’s a whole ‘nother business that-”

“Okay that’s kinda true in ways, but in others, none of that means tearing everything apart, and besides, you need a place to settle even if it’s just to sleep once, right?”

Roaming, right… She’d seen far more of the caverns, of the Subterraneum as a whole, than she’d ever dreamed about. And she had always wanted to see more… Granted, some places had been a little disappointing, but even the Great Dust Gyre of all lands had a charm of their own. And she hadn’t regretted it one bit. One of the pleasures she never got… There was something to that, about the road. But it didn’t mean she couldn’t bring a bit of her home along in every path…

“Some things must unfortunately be changed, miss Krivru, if only because they will be the end of you if you don’t. Though that is true even of a land you live in all your life, isn’t it?”

“That’s the thing, Vi, not changing it means letting it fester, it’s something you need to work on. Even when it’s your very own home you need to work on it, and some of it’ll be ugly. But when it’s done, when you leave it all better than you arrived…”

“Hey, just one person can only do so much there, but then again, I’ve found after a little bit it’s never really one person, right, Sherry?”

…not just a bit of home, a bit of her, in fact. Because throughout it all, she was still Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var. The same that refused to be pulled off her own talents just to beat her head against disciplines she hated. Who strode into the academies of Ishiss ready to rock their foundations, thanks to one tutor that actually knew how to teach. A teacher who actually knew what to do with her… She was the one who refused to bow to anyone, especially those who taught her such in the first place. Who refused to bow her head even if it meant being nothing more than a drop-out, a criminal, in the eyes of those who’d demanded it. Even if it meant striking back at the ones that thought tormenting her and ripping into all she held to her heart just for the sake of some “experiment”… Even if it meant making examples of them, and never seeing the ones that made her who she is, ever again, for good or ill… No matter what, she’d been her, that much was true, no matter what anyone else thought. Even if it meant having to leave them, leave those that welcomed her, once, twice-

“Sherry? SHERRY!”

She made a startled yelp, suddenly finding Ziv-Ziri was practically in her face, a mere inch away, and with her voice rattling her ears. “...sorry, Ziv, just needed to process for a moment, is all… Where were we?”

Ziv looked just a little concerned. Less than at the start of… This, but still. But then, a little smile crawled onto her lips, and she turned to the others. “Guys, and the one gal, you mind setting up the camp? Right over there, the dry spot next to that little stream down there! We’ll get there when it’s time to light the actual fire, okay? Just need a little moment is all!”

“Yeh, sure”, said Pinweave, his very voice a shrug, before turning around and walking away without a word.

“About time, boss! I’ll get to that right away!”, followed Chitwy, immediately taking flight to beat the others to the spot.

“As you say, Zee, I’m gonna grab our stuff, we left it all the way down.” Off went Askalim, in a fairly different direction, his stride unperturbed.

“I’m sure you two’ve got plenty to ruminate on, after this all, don’t you? Why, I know I have my share.” Unhurried, Velardi followed the badger, with a strange smile on his face.

And as soon as they were alone, without a word, Ziv laid one clawed hand across Sherry’s back and urged her back, to walk just a little further away, behind the glowing monolith that had started this whole… Affair. The olm was just a little weirded out by it, but walked forwards, looking at her in confusion. Once in its (nonexistent) shadow, she finally turned to face her… And sighed, looking around. Was she unsure where to begin…?

“Feeling better, Sherry?” was the first thing Ziv said, at last, once she found the words.

It’d be the polite thing to say yes, but here, with just her, she could be a bit more truthful. “…A little, Ziv. Just a little. I think I still need to process that whole… Affair. It’s a lot. And honestly… Honestly, I think this is the first time I realized this was an actual problem. Does that make sense?”

“Oh, it does, Sherry, it really, really does. And I kinda wish I had seen it earlier.” All of a sudden, the bat looked slightly uncomfortable, conflicted even. “Sorry, I really didn’t know it stung so much…”

“Neither did I, Ziv, I said that already. It just… Hit me. All at once, and I didn’t even know it was waiting there.” Once again the olm’s gaze drifted down…

“Still feels like I should’ve seen it coming, you know? We’ve been in this longer than any of the others…” More conflicted still… Right before she looked back into her eyes. “But better late than never, right? Right…? Now we both know…! And… Oh, lords, what I wanna say is gonna sound so selfish, I’m sorry, Sherry…”

That didn’t seem right. And she wasn’t afraid to say it, along with some other thoughts along the way. “That doesn’t sound like you at all, Ziv. I want to be the judge of that. Say it, you’ve been quiet long enough and it doesn’t seem fair to me.”

“Okay okay, so, how do I put this…” Ziv-Ziri started pacing, fretting with fingers interlocked, trying to keep her eyes on Sherry’s throughout. “When I got thrown out of the Consortium, I was… Terrified. Even by the time you met me. I just kind of stapled a smile over my face and kept going while I could, for several reasons, but one of the big ones was… Well, after everything, getting split away from the friends I did have back there, and family, one of the things stuck in my mind was… “I’m never gonna meet anyone that understands me ever again”. ‘cause every other place is so different, and sure, I’m pretty good at reading others, I could adapt and I did, but…” Her pacing quickened, and her voice rose in volume and pitch. “Sometimes you just want someone to understand you, right? That can see a bit more than just a saleswoman, or a smuggler now I guess. Nothing but business associates from here on out, Ziv-Ziri, have fun dealing with yourself all by yourself! No one out there has what you need anymore!”

Usherrimi could almost feel Ziv’s voice quivering now, she hid it well at first, but now it seems either she couldn’t, or she wasn’t even bothering anymore… But on the bat went: “And at first, I kinda… Kept thinking that, for a while. Though you helped a lot there, because we were on pretty similar boats, but with others… I thought Vel just had enough time to get over everything, but I guess he’s just scarred so thick you can’t reach him – or at least I can’t. I misread him a little there, but even then! And then, Chi just doesn’t have the same trouble, nowhere NEAR, even if she knows those who do, she still has a partner somewhere in the Pact and everything! And then Pins is… Pins. I guess he had a lot more to say on the general level, if not on the personal one, that surprised me, but they all surprised me, and that helped… More than I thought it would, right now, but I’m getting sidetracked.” From there, a sigh, as those big yellow eyes looked down, and closed. “And Kal… He was hardened, and even just learning the name of the guy who screwed him over was hard. He was closer, we could relate a little, but his case was just… Different, he had a face to give his woes, and I think that kept him going. And when he just stumbled into a reckoning in that castle, after that, he’s been… Calmer. It’s helped him. And that’s something I don’t think I can get, or ever will…”

The Vez turned around to face her again, but couldn’t quite look her in the eye yet. Sherry didn’t remember seeing her like this, ever. Not this deep. And it concerned her, outright worried her. Ziv needed to speak this piece, didn’t she? “And… Sherry, I am so, so sorry, but you asked for the truth, and you’ll get it. At first, I saw you so… Not stoic, but… Solid. Steadfast! That’s the word. You were handling all this so well, I thought. Our starts into this whole… Life, they were so much alike, but I… Sorry, I thought you were handling it so much better, way better than me! You were like an anchor sometimes, keeping me grounded on things, and I asked myself, more than once, ‘how does she do it?’” Those words, those exact words, made Usherrimi’s thoughts stumble. She asked that about her? She felt a pang very, very deep in her chest with that, losing her breath for just a second. “But I kept hiding it and never asked, and I never knew. I guess I was getting comfortable, getting used to it, and with the things folks did understand, it was enough, it felt nice, but the depths still stung a little, I thought I just needed time! So I never asked…”

At last, Ziv looked at her straight in the eye, with a hopeful, almost trembling smile and eyes that could barely focus. “But you get it, right? I’m sorry I never realized, but… You get it, right…?”

Usherrimi wanted to say ‘Yes, I get it’. And she attempted it. But what came out was less than coherent. She tried again, with better focus, but what she said was barely passable as a ‘Yes’, before a sharp inhale- was that a sob? Her eyes were almost burning, so it checked out- Was she crying!? Right in front of Ziv, right now!? After she called her an anchor to her own pains!? Pains like hers at that!? No, she couldn’t, she had to stay strong, she had to stay strong for her, she knew how this hurt now and if Ziv had been hiding it all this time, while she, the fool, had been too deluded to realize it hurt, she didn’t have the right, she owed it to stay strong! She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t cry-

No can do. There she was, the mighty and steadfast Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var, brought low by a sobbing fit like she’d never experienced, one that made it hard to even stand. All she could do was try not to fall to her knees, lean on her pressed-down tail for balance, and cover her face with her hands so Ziv didn’t see her like this. She didn’t need to. Hearing her sniffle and struggle with words, and seeing just the teardrops that made it off her face, was beyond enough. But few could hid a fit like this, and an Ifchi least of all, with how those tears streamed. Lords damn it all, she couldn’t do it. And in the midst of this all, she couldn’t see how Ziv took this. Maybe she’d blame herself, or maybe she’d just broken the pedestal she’d been put onto, but either way, she’d disappointed her. That was the worst part, she’d been an anchor and the one time she’d found out how deep it went she blew it, and it only made her sob even harder-

“Sherry? Sherry, it’s fine- actually, come here.”

Familiar words said by the one usually receiving them. And when she opened her eyes, she saw Ziv with her arms outstretched in the exact same manner, too, even through the blur of tears. The Ifchi would appreciate the irony later, but right now, all she could think to do was to lunge towards the bat, and wrap her slimy arms around her cloak, sobbing openly into her chest and immediately staining the whole thing with her tears and slime. Almost bowled the bat over with her mass, but she couldn’t hold back right now. She needed someone who understood, and she was needed as someone who understood… The clawed hands pressed against her back, pulling her in so she could be embraced properly, only confirmed it.

Minutes passed, and neither of them let go. Sherry could barely hear Ziv’s little sniffles over her own breakdown, no matter how much she tried to muffle it against the fabric, and the soft fur she could almost feel beneath it. All the while, the bat laid her own head between Sherry’s frills, where she could definitely feel the fur getting slimed up, but she didn’t care one iota… Lords below, she felt like she was messing everything up just being there right now, and yet… Much as she wished she’d known it sooner, that behind that smile was a common wound, or that she herself had said wound, they knew it now, and selfish as it sounded, knowing someone hurt the exact same helped a little-

...that’s what she meant, wasn’t it. Selfish, in a way, but if Ziv-Ziri felt any better from it herself, in any way, it was worth it. Maybe she really did get it, after all…

And so, the sobbing died down to mutual sniffles, then to silence, broken only by soft breathing and the distant dripping of the caverns, with chatter from what’d be their camp once this was done. Everything that had been bottled up, coming out at once… They weren’t empty, but it was manageable, now, pouring out even in this growing quiet.

“Feelin’ any better, Sherry…?” Ziv was the first to break the silence that had settled.

“Think so”, she answered, before having to swallow just to continue. “S-sorry about that Ziv, so sorry…”

“Sorry about what, you did nothing wrong…!”, the bat answered, almost a little startled by the insinuation. She lifted and pulled her head back just so she could look her in the eye.

And the olm almost wilted under it, despite the kindness in that gaze. “Y’called me an anchor, y’said I was helping you, and here I’m just… Jus’ findin’ out you hurt like me and I’m the one breakin’ down-”

“Shh.” One clawed finger over her snout muted Sherry. “You needed that. More than I did. You held strong way longer, and I…” She sniffled again. “…it means something that you opened up like this, y’know?”

“’cause you get it! You always got it! Fuck!”. Unable to make herself let go, she just shamefully rubbed her face against the cloth to wipe some of her tears. “And I didn’t know… And here you are, opening up to me. Just this… Spoiled drop-out way in over her head who couldn’t read others for shit as far as you knew, j-just some newt with barely anything, who almost dragged you down, a-and you took me in, and you helped me, a-and you j-just- you just let me shine…!” It took effort not to hiccup right then and there.

Something about that made Ziv pause, almost as it if confused her… And then, she put both her long-fingered hands on either side of the olm’s snout, and leaned in closer, where she could see the little streaks of tear-stained fur under those big, glowing golden eyes of hers, gleaming like beacons to her… “Sherry, why wouldn’t I? I meant… Honestly, because you prefer that, honestly at first you paid your dues, so I had to, but then I saw what you could do… A-and then I saw who you were!” Something about the tone she said that in got to Sherry, who leaned back to look into her eyes properly, and her face as a whole, listening quietly. “You dealt with everything in stride, you’re good at what you do, too, and… It’s a spectacle, watching you work! It’s like everything some blowhards in Ishiss claim to be, but you don’t brag, you show! And it’s so… Pretty, too! I honestly kinda like how you look with your gills lit up, you know…?”

And that got to the olm even more. She’d love to have a sly little boast to offer, but right now, all she could do was listen, unable to see her own starstruck gaze – it’s not like Ziv’s eyes could reflect it – getting a little lost in her words.

“A-AND I MEAN- You’ve been pretty clever too, and so honest, and it’s so rare to see either, let alone both, and I can just be straightforwards with you with everything in our business, and I should’ve known it applied outside it too, but still…!”

The bat was getting warmer, Sherry could feel it. Part of it may have been panic from realizing what she just said, and trying to slide into something else, something more… Publicly acceptable, maybe? But part of it had to be something else. Could she relate to that, too…?

“A-and you have an eye for places, too, you really do have a traveler’s heart, I’ve liked that from the start, you know…? Though you’re pretty knowledgeable in general, I don’t think I ever told you that, but I should, because it’s like… Like those stories I hear here and there, of those roaming sages and wizards even, wiser than any of the ones from towers, a-and I always liked that thought, even if it was through my filter, of traveling artificers and traders of secret wonders, you know…?”

Usherrimi found herself leaning closer, ever closer, almost standing on her toes just to look deeper into her eyes even as they looked about as she tried to ramble away from a truth she wasn’t sure she should’ve said, burying it under her honest thoughts that only made it stand out more… Lords, those eyes. And that smile she had, when she meant it, when she let her teeth show without a care for tweaking how it looked. And that soft fur of hers, that felt like it shined even in the muddiest, bleakest holes in these caves. Closer still, and with wider eyes and mouth slightly agape, as she thought back, upon all those outings, all those times whether alone or with the others… Ziv had a light of her own, she shined as well, as herself, unashamed and bright, in a way that…

In a way that… Oh Lords…

“A-and I guess I just like how you’re you, if that means anything…? Like you’ve made all of this so much easier even when everything goes smoothly, you know? A-and, I mean, it’s just- Sherry? What- mmh!”

One last inch up, and their snouts met. Then their lips. In a moment, a single, fiery impulse, Usherrimi just went and planted a kiss, right on the lips of what until moments ago had been her boss and friend. With closed eyes, she couldn’t see her reaction, all she could do was feel the warmth, the rising warmth, and hear the silence that set in as their breathing stopped… No, it wasn’t quite silence, she simply stopped hearing anything that wasn’t each other, and she could swear she could hear the bat’s rising heartbeat-

Usherrimi pulled away, as reason came screaming back into her mind. What had she done, what the fuck had she done!? “Shit shit SHIT Ziv I’m so sorry I AM SO SORRY I DIDN’T- PLEASE DON’T-”

But she stopped, almost biting her tongue, as she saw the bat’s expression. There was no anger, no disgust, there were just a mouth agape in surprise, and those eyes, those great, glowing, tender eyes… Wide as could be, and… Starstruck? Pupils wide, and with just the slightest hint of new tears at their edges-

A rush of movement, pushing Sherry back on her feet. A lunge from above. And she felt Ziv-Ziri’s lips pressed on hers by her own volition, and reason, sated, stepped back to let everything else take over. To let their embrace tighten once more, and feel each other’s heartbeats and warmth, with everything else, even the monolith that shone a spotlight upon their encounter, fading into the background. With closed and teary eyes, and their ears focused on naught but their breaths and hearts, they let their other senses take over, melting into each other, slime and fur meeting with little more than joy in it. Feeling one another, with fingers that trailed along their backs, grasping each other in search of more. Tasting one another, as the bat started to give in, slipping the tip of her tongue into the axolotl’s mouth, pushing against her thick tongue, feeling each and every one of those tiny, sharp little snaggleteeth that she loved to see whenever Sherry truly smiled…

And in the end, they parted, with Usherrimi’s gills stretching wide as she gasped for air, and Ziv-Ziri simply smiling as she took in a deep, longing breath, smiling at the olm… Who, at last, smiled back, with glistening eyes. And with still-flared gills, that refused to stay put, her breathing heavy and heated…

“Sherry… I really wish we weren’t being waited on, because I would’ve liked to keep going.”

“…Same, Ziv. I could’ve gone for hours there, that felt… This is…”

“Shh, I think you’ve told me all I needed to know… You need a minute to calm down a little~?”

“...actually? Yes. You can always claim the stains were water, but I can’t face them this… Flushed.”

“Hee~! Nah, if you won’t hide it I won’t! Still, they can wait a minute longer!”

“…Actually… I have an idea to pass that minute. Want to help me with a cairn, here?”

“O-oh, you’re gonna mark the occasion? Like, to the whole Subterraneum like that? I-”

“I feel it’s right, you know? And besides… This quartz right here, lighting up the dark… I was fond of them then, and what can I say, after this, I’m fond of them now. It feels right to mark it, don’t you think?”

“...yeah, yeah I do. Look, that one could make the base, wanna help me with it?”

“Like I always have… Like I always will~.”

[yutzen]

Where the Thrills Lie

(another from the archive, another main crew story, introducing the oldest of our enforcers, prompt by Make Up a Criminal on Cohost)

Bounty hunter who won't stop backseat bounty hunting

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"Vel, it ain't my first time here, come on!"

Two shapes, one tall and one squat, walked the bottom of a rust-red ravine. Small cliffs with strata of red and black rose at their sides as they walked a labyrinthine arrangement, striding a cracked basin with only a tiny stream of soot-choked water running through the iron-heavy stones. The ceiling above was out of sight, the air choked by smog both volcanic and industrial, but the two figures hardly needed their eyes to see.

"The Red Plateau's treacherous land, Zi-Zi, it pays to keep some things in mind." The shorter, bulkier figure walked on almost stubby legs, with a traveling cloak laid upon a thick plate of strangely noiseless metal serving as his attire. By his face, this was a mole - something close enough at least - with whiskers long enough to droop and smooth brown fur upon a visage that barely even showed its beady eyes. He was smirking with needle-like teeth lining his snout, while a claw - long as a dagger, yet thicker and so much blunter - scratched a spot around his neck where it found a thick scale rather than skin. "Like your compass being useless here, for example" he spoke, pointing at a pendant hanging from his companion's neck.

"Zi-Zi", a tall, bat-like figure, rolled glimmering yellow eyes as she jangled said pendant in one long-fingered hand. "I know, force of habit, it's really hard to get used to that and I keep grabbing it to check, but it doesn't mean anything, okay?". Letting go of said pendant - which let one see the needle stuck firmly downwards at all times - Ziv-Ziri strode ahead, humming a song barely on the edge of hearing. Her ears twitched as she went, always oriented towards the walls, whether far or near, seemingly spotting a hole in the cliffside far earlier than her eyes ever could. "See? There's the turn! Just as the map said!", she almost yelled, immediately heading for the passage in question... Before letting out a breath, turning to the mole once more. "Granted, tracking 'East' by where the earth is grumbling constantly feels a little menacing. I have no idea how the entirety of Ferigoz is just fine with it."

"Vel", or rather Velardi, chuckled to himself. "Speaking as a Ferigozi in birth and in species, you get used to it. Just another little thing that might one day try to kill you, in a place with plenty of things that already are..." The little smirk never left his face as he shrugged, his armor raising with his shoulders. "Still, can't lose track, especially when you're tracking someone, Zi-Zi. You've got the maps right, you now need to see if you've pinned things right. You've got where this guy's struck before, you've got his kinda target, and I'm guessing you've got what he's been swiping." He counted on his claws as he went, right behind the bat.

"Yeah, yeah, I have plenty". The Vezarym spread her fingers as if there paper in the smoky air, outlining her own points. "Gotta be in a place thick with the stuff because all around this one's always been disappearing into the smoke after striking. Smash and grab every time, and you get it whether you're a big caravan or just a humble entrepeneur like me." Her knuckles cracked as she tensed and flexed her claws, withdrawing them back into her cloak. "Which is half the reason why I'm here. Tensions flaring, powders of all sorts gotta move from Ferigoz to the East, they gotta move quietly and I can't have some stick-up kid making a mess, thinking of jumping me and generally and drawing eyes." Finally, after a snort, she let a smile creep back on her face. "Or whiskers, 'cause my eyes and yours sure don't see squat here!"

The smirk on the Ferigozi's face lost some of its slyness. "Yes, you don't use your eyes in a place like this one. Good, you know it, saves me time." The bat glanced at him again, and before she could ask what he meant by that, his raspy baritone went on. "Now, the part you don't need to forget when you're hunting someone like this, they will leave tracks. Even if they erase their usual trails, they have to keep track of what they do, and they must leave markings that they think only they will recognize. Hidden goods, and sometimes-"

"Vel, I know what a stash is", Zi-Zi interrupted before he could proceed, rubbing her face with her claws. After a cough, she piped up again in a more neutral tone: "Still, those aside, and I'll keep track of those, there's gotta be other tracks around here. Robberies are messy, fleeing is also messy, you think they'll have dropped something off on the way that we can follow?" One hand went into the cloak's pockets, briefly fiddling with a folded piece of paper with a picture on it. "This one has been enough of a pain in the ass to get a bounty, so there's gotta be a lot of stuff being moved." By the time her smile was back, it had turned coy. "Heh. It's like getting paid twice for one job."

"You see the good of it already... Heh. It's a rewarding job, sometimes. Risky, of course, but that is why it's up to those like us, isn't it? The truly adept." Ziv glanced at Velardi as he continued with ever more theatrical motions of his claws, his whiskers twitching as he went: "It's challenging work in need of bold moves, of audacity as well as sagacity, sharp mind and skills, and just because it's in the fringes of it all doesn't mean it's not something to respect." His claws clenched, and he turned to his companion with a hopeful smile as they both emerged into a crossroads, a joint of what had once been tributaries in a canyon's stream. "Ah... You understand, do you not?"

He found himself being stared at by the Vez, who had stopped cold in place, her expression baffled... before something clicked, and she just grinned. "Hah! Even as an outlaw, you're Ferigozi through and through~ Don't get carried away, okay? You can boast for the both of us once we've found this guy. Now, tracks! We're gonna need to pick a direction here. Spot anything yet?"

The mole lowered his hood, trying to hide his expression - and perhaps himself as a whole - as he parsed through his previous outburst. Trying to cast the slight embarrassment from his mind, he peered towards the ground, sniffing-

And he took a deep, deep breath, with his head close to the cliffside.

Trailing one claw along the rock, digging in just enough to gouge it, he rubbed the ensuing dust between both fingers and sniffed it. "Damp", he whispered, knowing his big-eared partner would hear it. "You said this was an Ifchi, then this one's been here. Must've touched the rock in his hurry. Left some slime." Pushing himself off the rock, he walked in a direction that would've been upstream if these were rainy days - just close enough to let his whiskers touch the rock.

The Vez followed on very light steps, her claws kept off the rock and her profile low to the ground as her ears rose, aiming to hear anything at all... And the first thing she heard was Velardi's further whispers: "They have muffled steps, so keep an ear for voices. And of wheels, they have to be moving things somewhere in here. And when you do, tell me, because we'll need a plan." The only response he got were wild hand gestures in his general direction, bearing an air of annoyance, before she just kept going further into the smoke.

Though twenty minutes later, she would indeed hear something: The gentle ding of a canteen being placed against the rocky ground.

A crack in the cliffside. A gentle spill of glistening, clear water, picking up enough soot to go gray moments after touching the ground. A thick pocket of smog that would've stopped any sight cold at twenty feet. And nearby, all around an unhitched iron wagon packed high with crates of various stamps, five people rested silently. Three of them were Ferigozi wearing patchwork armor, just old enough to start growing their scales. The other two were fully-covered Ifchi, keeping only their gills and faces visible to keep the soot off themselves as much as they could. One such face, greenish and laden with rust-red freckles, would be one few would recognize in but a singular Wanted poster in a town ten miles from here...

If that poster wasn't in the pocket of the Vezarym that landed right behind him, unlatching from the cliffside above them - presumably, with the fog too thick to tell - and quickly hooking one arm around his neck. Before he could react, flaring his gills in preparation, he found the point of a long, silvery knife, thin as a finger and sharp as a needle, placed right against his neck. "Any of you even twitch wrong and I'll open him up!"

She held as much bravado as she could as the other four turned to her and pointed their respective weapons - one spear, one axe, and two crossbows - right at her, forcing her to lower her face until it was right behind the raider's shoulder. It wouldn't do to get shot in the face in a hostage situation like this one, but as soon as she saw a finger twitch, she tightened her grip on her knife and pushed just a little more, tearing through the cloak's fabric like it wasn't even there.

It was a standoff now. None of the six involved could make a move without risking death, of themselves or another they needed for their work. Deadlocked in place, they stared at each other for seconds that seemed perpetual...

Right until the six became seven, unbeknownst to all but the boss and Ziv-Ziri. Out of the smog, Velardi walked out, claws hooked on a lump of iron and squeezing it as if he expected it to bend and give way like a stress toy. It was amorphous and oblong - right up until it wasn't, thanks to a glimmer of red from his claws and motions that sculpted it into a rod, then flattened it into a blade, shaping metal like it were clay.

The four saw the bat look directly downwards, turned around at the sound of breeze, and the last thing two of the three Ferigozi saw was a slightly older mole swinging a rough proto-sword right across their necks. And the last thing they felt before collapsing to the ground was confirmation that just because it was rough and unfinished, didn't mean it wasn't sharp enough to go right through their neck guards.

The other two engaged Velardi as soon as they could, bringing spear and axe against him. Quickly he flattened this same lump of sword-like iron into something like a shield to stop both weapons from hacking into him, and getting them stuck in the amorphous shape. All the while, the boss struggled, finding the Vezarym that held him hostage lowered a wing right into his cloak, its (strangely mangled) finger rummaging through deeper and deeper. And before he could wonder if she was trying to molest him, she found something, and reached in with her knifeless hand...

As the mole kept trying to pry his axe out of Vel's shield-like glob, the ifchi decided he had no time for that, and left the spear in place to pick up something else. Quickly he spotted the crossbow of one fallen comrade, and lunged for it. Taking aim at his opponent, pointing right at his face at this close distance, he held as the bounty hunter struggled to cover himself.

And then: SHUNK. A bolt was loosed...

Right through the Ifchi's skull, and out the eye, dropping him to the ground. Behind this fallen foe, Velardi saw something that made him smile again: Zi-Zi holding a crossbow that belonged to their quarry, empty of the bolt that had just saved his life. She grinned back, and was left to watch as his companion took care of the one remaining grunt before she had time to look away: All he had to do was "flick" a piece of the lump forwards, shaping a vague spike aimed right towards his opponent's gut, and bash him with his "shield", letting said fragile, improvised shank stab itself into his gut and snap off in there, bringing the last one to the ground at last.

Ziv-Ziri's grin trembled in place, as she let out a breath she'd been long holding. A full three seconds passed before she did anything else. "I told ya I was a perfect distraction~!", she chimed in suddenly and manically with a tilted head, making their captive wince while she closed her eyes to avoid seeing him finish off his fallen foe - especially because she hardly wanted to see him dig part of his weapon out of his guts.

"Never told me you were good with a crossbow, though." Vel wiped off the blood as casually as could be, rejoining the parts with a quick motion. "A good snap-shot, that, though you should tell me that next time."

Ziv's face fell a little. "Yeah that one's on me. Funny, I keep asking for skillsets and forget to give you mine!" She giggled, almost nervously, keeping her eyes very much away from any of the fallen, fixed right on her companion - those parts of him that weren't bloodstained, certainly. There was just the slightest twitch to her wide-open yellow eyes.

"Now then", he began while he approached, "we have who we came from, yes? Take a look and confirm, check the accessories, the crossbow seems right, but do check the rest just in case. You'll need confirmation, for when you turn this one in. But first things first, before you do that, safety." Out of his cloak came a set of white ropes, their ends frayed but otherwise impeccable. "Shipping knots aren't going to cut it here, you need something that won't slip under duress, that he cannot cu-"

Another interruption, this time by a near-shriek from the bat. "VEL ARE YOU SERIOUSLY DOING THIS RIGHT NOW!?" was her deafening outburst, that had the captive struggling and trying to yell out - right before she pulled her chokehold tighter and yanked the hood over his face. Blinking rapidly, she looked down at the ground, trying to avoid any bodies with her sight. "Sorry, it's- it's a bad time for that, okay? I know I brought you along to help me with something that was more your style, but- I hate this part, okay...?" She sighed at last, looking back into his eyes, speaking with a lower tone: "I also brought you along so you could cover... that. I know it needs to happen, but... still."

Velardi stared, and could only offer a tired smile. "You were enjoying a bit of this until then, though. The tracking, the hunt, the actual thrills... Shame this bit's just for me, having someone who gets it is a joy, but I guess I can't have that in everything..." He approached with a shrug, taking the captive right off her hands and into his powerful claws. "But yeah, I can handle that bit. And this bit if ya need a moment."

"Yeah, just a moment is all, get the... blood outta my head. Sorry about the... snapping earlier." The Vez turned away, facing the wall with a deep breath... "It feels dumb, doesn't it? We're still in the business and everything, I knew I had to do this, and I know what I'm carrying over there and I still hate that part. How does that happen?" She stopped herself from turning her head to give the mole a side-glance...

The Ferigozi worked a gag and ropes with practiced ease, speaking nonchalantly as he went. "You weren't looking forwards to the chance we'd have to end someone, did you? I get that. As to the rest... guess it's just how minds work. Might make me worse, handling this, but I know who I am." He turned to her, catching her sideglance. "It was fun until that though, right? Guess it was for me. Got carried away and all, heh..."

Ziv-Ziri had a sad smile upon her face. "Yeah, I get the thrill. I had the thrill when I wasn't thinking about it. That's the business for you. I know it, and I've seen it plenty... In so many others I know." A thought crossed her mind, and her expression perked up ever so slightly. "Heh, I think Sherry'd like you. She's had to help me with... moments like these before."

"Would be happy to meet her then!", the mole spoke as he slung the captive over his shoulder. "By the way, it did say wanted alive, yes? I'm afraid I forgot."

"Y-yeah it does, wanted alive!", she blurted out reflexively. In truth, she had forgotten as well, but did not want to check. Otherwise things would be bloody and awkward, the worst combination she could think of.