Much reaches out and grabs a horn, giving it a twist and sending the mpeshi to the ground. Laesah quickly follows up with a kick to a leg, before the crocodilian tail can swing around to ward off her next blow.
Okoro's battle standard pulses with soothing magic as he reaches out to Much and slaps a balm on some of her electrical burns.
And then gives the fighter a slap on the back to motivate her. "Again, Much! Hit it again!"
Another swing, another welt. This one splits a little showing a thin line of blood through the fur.
Haunt shakes himself out of his paralysis and runs up to lunge at the lightning goat again.
[/ooc]
The mpeshi has been battered by the nonlethal attacks of Much and Laesah and unprepared for the deadly assault from Haunt, who drives his rapier into the ribs of the creature. It screams, a bleating, hissing sound which shakes the air. Badly wounded, it tries to rise and continue the fight.
Much sees the wobbling beast and lashes out...
...but sends her blow wide.
The mpeshi spins towards Haunt and attacks with renewed fury...
...its horned head smashes Haunt's unhorned head, and the horns win. There is a crack of bone, a crack of lightning, and the amurrun drops to the ground in a heap. The lightning arcs off of him and towards Much.
Then the tail of the mpeshi whips out at Laesah.
She arches her back, moving her head out the way. The tail sails by, inches from her face, and she snaps back to a fighting stance.
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The moment the mpeshi turns its back to lash out at Laesah, Much strikes.
Before trying to strike it again.
That was for Haunt, you cruel shit.
Much thinks before saying out loud;
"You're lucky we're holding back Mpeshi!"
Much watches the beast sway, ready to help Laesah should it choose to fight on. But the mpeshi's brain is several steps ahead of its body, and the lights in its eyes go dark a moment before it collapses to the ground, unconscious.
Much's sigh of relief catches in her chest when she sees the blood pooling around Haunt.
"Please help him! I don't have the skill. I can get this goat back in its cage though."
Okoro is close to Haunt and rushes over and sees to his wounds, rapidly treating and bandaging.
With Haunt out of immediate danger, Much surveys the area.
"It might be worthwhile to see if there is any solid proof that Froglegs did this. I know Oba says they did, and I tend to believe her, but she is far from a trustworthy source.
Much pauses for a moment, creating a list in her mind before turning back to the group.
"Search a bit more here, talk to Oba, and then head back to school for healing and to speak to Janatimo?"
The pack combs though the animal lot, looking through everything more thoroughly. While checking back at the griffon cages, Haunt makes a discovery.
An infiltrator’s pick is stuck in the mud. The specially made pick is longer than most, with strange grips and pads that make it awkward to use for typically "human" hands.
Aside from that, there is some basilisk blood preserved in a bottle near the basilisk shack. Okoro knows that this is what you'd use had anyone or any tiger been petrified.
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With the mpeshi down, Laesah rushes to Haunt's side, tears in her eyes. She lets Okoro tend to the fallen amurrun, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder.
"Is Haunt going to be ok?" she wonders aloud. When the catfolk open his eyes again with a pained cough, Laesah laughs, the tears dripping from her eyes. "You know, it was going to be have to be the GOAT that took you down, Haunt."
Later, as the bruised team performs a meticulous search of the perimeter, Laesah considers the information. 'It would seem that Froglegs has been implicated here, but there are still some questions that I have for Madame Oba. Chiefly, WTF?"
Laesah is keen to return to Oba to question her a bit more.
The Pack returns to Oba's office, bringing some answers and some questions.
"What so many questions for ME? I'm the victim here!" She asks, her voice shrill, and clearly aggrieved. "I don't know why this happened. Froglegs wanted a deal, I wanted a better deal. That's business. Then they tried to ruin me. Maybe kill me. I want to go back to how things were before all of this, and the only way that happens is if I keep my mouth shut and hope that Froglegs thinks they've punished me enough."
She steadies herself, taking a deep breath and pushing a loose lock of hair over her ear.
"Look... I appreciate you. Sincerely. I can't believe you saved all of my beasties," Oba says with relief. "You should consider going into business with me, we could make a killing. And I must say, the Magaambya has never been my friend, but perhaps I've been too quick to cut ties completely if you are the sorts of students they produce these days."
"I owe you one, and I hate that. So keep that feather. It looks good on you, but it'll probably fetch a decent price with a buyer." She rummages under her desk for a moment and comes back up with a potion and a token.
"And take these... A Cheetah's Elixir and a Beastmaster's Sigil. That Sigil is for saving all my creatures. Use it well... I have a feeling you're not done looking for trouble. I'm also hoping that convinces you to leave me out of that trouble. I don't want it, I don't need it, and if anyone else asks me about Froglegs, I'm going to tell them I don't know who they are talking about. Never heard of 'em."
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Laesah discounts the elixir gifted by Oba, but looks curiously at the sigil with the ever-changing animal logo.
"Thank you for letting me keep my gift," the anadi says, looking with a smirk at Okoro. She loses the smirk as she turns back to the duplicitous business owner.
"Where would we find Froglegs? We have business to discuss."
"I don't know how to find Froglegs, which suits me, because I don't WANT to find Froglegs." She looks desperate for you to understand. "Look, I'm not some criminal, or part of their world. I know how to buy, keep, and sell animals in a way that makes me some money. That's it! I wouldn't have any idea how to find this person."
"I still appreciate what you've done, but this conversation is over. My goal is to move past this and hope nothing like this ever happens again. Come back if you ever have business to do with me, but otherwise, I think we're good here."
She opens a ledger and starts reviewing and making notes, set on going back about her day and ignoring you. The conversation does seem to be over, and you sense she's genuine about not knowing how to find Froglegs.
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Laesah stares at Madame Oba a bit longer, then turns to her comrades and shrugs.
"It might be that we need to ask around about Froglegs," she suggests. "Maybe we go somewhere else? Back to the Academy......or we could try and head out on our own."
She looks cheeky as she mentions the latter option, secretly hoping that the others choose it.
"I'd like to talk to this Froglegs, but we need to rest first. I'm pretty sure I even have blood matted on my back."
Much twists her body to inspect the state of her fur, and also to glance meaningfully at the heavily wounded Haunt.
"I suggest a bath, a meal, and a night of rest before we head back out. We can talk to the teachers or not while we're there. I'm starting to feel like they aren't really holding up their end of this relationship."
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"I've got an idea," Laesah says as the friends meander down the streets of Magaambya near the school campus.
"Why don't we stay at a hostel instead of going back to campus?" she suggests, pointedly avoiding looking at Okoro but feeling her face flush. "You know that when we go back there, teachers and all sorts are going to want us to report and socialise and...." She trails off, tugging at her braid with the inner turmoil of not playing things by the rules as she so normally does.
"Anyhow, I thought it might be fun." She catches Okoro staring at her, his deep-set eyes reading her like a book.
"Huh?" Still limping but keeping up with the Pack, Haunt turns to look at Laesah in surprise. "Why would we want to pay for rooms when we've already got rooms on campus? And the Old Stump? I'm with Much - a bath, a meal, and about thirty-six hours of sleep sounds pretty good to me."
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Much takes the limping Haunt's arm and props him up a bit before turning to Laesah and Okoro with a smile.
"We'll meet you on campus in say, 24 hours? Have some fun, we'll see you then!"
The furry, bloodied, pair limp off towards school.
Okoro looks back and forth between Much and Laesah, settling on Laesah. "You know I'll follow you anywhere. Just tell me where we're going." He has a brave face, but you can all hear a slight waver of concern in his voice.
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Laesah winks at Okoro, then sneaks back to the dorm/tree stump and slips into her dorm window that she often keeps open.
"A guaranteed bath as opposed to a common shower stall will be much more my style," Laesah murmurs, pulling down the blinds to her window and dimming the lights of her jellyfish lantern.
In the low light, Laesah can barely see Okoro's nervous, but excited, expression, but she can hear the unsteadiness in his voice get even worse. He tries to play it off with a joke.
"Was this a trap? Now I know how the fly must feel," he says with a chuckle. His hand reaches out and toys with the golden feather, smiling as it sends dazzling scatterings of blue bio-luminescent jellyfish light across the wall.
His voice finally calms. "Beautiful. A bath sounds lovely, but maybe it can wait?"
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"....and she talked about this Froglegs like she was truly scared of her. I believe she really does care for her animals, but to fear someone or some thing so much that you'd turn your back on your base instincts just confounds me." Laesah looks down at her cup of tea and then back up to the kind countenance of Madame Yao. "I don't know what to do next - in so many ways." The memories of her evening in Okoro's embrace rush back into her head, swelling her perceptions beyond all measure to stifle her desire.
She clears her throat.
"We haven't talked to the teachers about this all yet - I'm worried that they'll take the responsibility of this case out of our hands. I didn't necessarily want to return to the Magaambya just yet, but...."
"Froglegs... Chef Yao murmurs to herself while sipping her own tea. "I have heard the name. She's a thief, but she's also runs protection rackets, extortion... any angle that makes money and expands her power. But she's doing her best to stay out of the limelight, and she's never crossed the school - she operates in the city. What I have heard is that people who spread any gossip don't do so for long. But I don't see why this needs to be your problem... The link between Oba, Froglegs, and the Magaambya seems accidental. Provided Oba doesn't say too much about it, that is likely the end of it. If she does say more, or someone says it for her, that'll likely be the end of her."
She pauses and gives Laesah a look to make sure her meaning is clear. Yao clearly thinks that Oba is correct: Oba's safety relies on Froglegs moving on from her as a target of disdain.
"As for the teachers... I don't know what to expect now that you're with Janatimo. Ot trusts him, and I trust Ot, but from what I've seen there's a difference between the two. Ot, and this school, try to make students into wizards, and set them on a path to expand the knowledge of this place. Janatimo wants to make heroes - and he seems to have a knack for it. I'm proud that he's taken to you, but worried too. Heroes make good stories, but they don't always have happy endings, or even happy lives."
"I'm not concerned Janatimo will take away this 'responsibility.' I'm worried he's going to pile more on tell a better 'story.'"
Much, refreshed after a few days without an adventure, is eager to get back in the fray.
Over breakfast, she brings the conversation to the pack.
"I'm ready to continue our search. I'll leave it up to you two whether we check back in with the teachers, but either way I want to get off campus again!"
Okoro sits down next to Laesah, scooting his chair in closer to her. "Well, for what it's worth, the teachers want to check in with us. Jantanimo is one of my instructors in the Uzunjati classes, and sent me along with a note."
Okoro places a folded piece of paper onto the table. It unfolds itself and you see words written in the same iridescent ink Janatimo uses in his notebook. As you begin to read, the words enter your mind, spoken in the voice of the teacher.
Greetings to The Pack,
Please join me for afternoon tea today. I would enjoy more tales of your investigation.
With Curiosity,
Janatimo
Okoro looks to Laesah. "Should we go? I mean, I kind of have to, he's the head of my branch..."