"Enough!" Kolris snaps, anger rising. "No more of these shenanigans. We've caught you; you've lost! Show your face and let's end this!"
"Oh, you're no fun anymore." says the Fox now himself again.
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With a sigh and a grimace, Deluge replies, "The riddle? It's a hodge podge of characters described in none too flattering terms. Sounds like a teen hate letter written by a bad poet. You really should stop reading such drivel. Bad for your brain... Well, out with it. What was the answer you gave to this here lord fellow and is that what got you in this mess in the first place. Um, don't mention what I said, will you?" "It was just one of those typical contests between a gentleman and a deity, such as everyone gets into. The ultimate answer to the overall riddle as to who is 'the last to dine' is 'the worm' of course." explains the Fox smugly. "As 'the worm' eats everyone after they are dead. But my opponent cheated, and refused to acknowledge it as the only correct answer."
"Oops." says the Fox with a shrug and an embarrassed grin. "Sorry, but alligators will be crocodiles after all." There is something about this poem that reminds her of that test. That first couplet... It is almost as if the second line is saying "Ignore the rest of this tomfoolery." That would leave only... Hmm... Off-handedly, she remarks in her customary grouch manner: "Hmph! A convoluted mess like that is bound to be contrarian. I would not be surprised if the last to dine is the first diner mentioned: the loser. The line right after that seems to imply that everything else shouldn't be known, after all. I quite agree with that sentiment!" "Wait! What? What did you say. 'The loser'?" The Fox runs the poem over in his mind from memory--TWICE as the procession returns to Mistress Koi. When he finishes he looks aghast. "No, I couldn't have been wrong all this time. I am Caught after all."
"Wait..." Kolris begins, ignoring Virml's flubbered outburst. "Do you not even know your own name?!?" "Of course I know my own name, man. It just grieves me that you do not." And then Fentar shoves a backpack over his head.
"Oh! Done already? That was quick." says the Fox from over a mound of books on top of the desk at the head of the room. Free of his bonds, he gives in without a fight as if his escaping was all part of the party and his plans. "I assume you are waiting for me to escort you back to Mistress Koi. You haven't thought about the riddle have you? I stand by the answer I gave to lord who imprisoned me, but I would be interested in your thoughts on the subject."
The sly fox visibly deflates, at the implication that Kolris doesn't know. "My name, it twas once writ large." he says sadly.
"... Now please get me down." says the Once-Shaine fox man now stuck up in his place.
"I said I didn't have it." says the Fox indignantly at Deluge's groping. "Trust me when you've lived with the riddle as long as I have, you know." He perks up a bit at Xusius's news.
{Rolls eyes, and smiles.} "Don't look at me for this one. I probably dropped it downstairs while I perusing the stacks."
The Fox shrugs again, and changes back.
"Once upon a time, in a place where time had very little meaning, there was a young, devastatingly handsome homo vulpes who was renowned throughout lands as the most gifted dramatist, poet, and dilettante of his day. He was both an artist and a muse to those around him." "As it happens though, the Lords of the First World are jealous of their portfolios, and and so it was our that hero was confronted by one these lords who engage him in a battle of wits. Our protagonist was given a riddle in six parts (seven if you count the header) and challenged to solve it. When he gave his answer, the spiteful Elder reneged upon their deal, and imprisoned him within the confines of the poem with a band of make-believe wardens drawn from the riddles themselves--to keep him company though his timeless imprisonment I suppose." "It was the hero's hope that once freed he might find a way back to that world of yore, and take to task the one who had falsely imprisoned, but before he did, he lingered among the books of your collection, and noted that he did not appear in any of your histories. Not one poem nor tall tale. All memory of of him had erased. It was as if he had never existed...."
Breathing and bleeding heavily, Yangrit glares contemptuously at the fox as she grabs her rope from her pack and proceeds to tie him up very, very well. Maybe a little over zealously. Only then does she take the time to drink her very last potion. The Fox doesn't even bite her once as she works on securing him. In fact, he helpfully suggests a knot she can use, and puts his finger 'just there' so she can tie it correctly. Her still-bloody lip curls as she growls: "Heal up Pau quickly! We still need to find the other Virml. Be sure to grab the other scrap of the poem. We should drop them all off with Madame Koi fish so she stops flooding the archives at some point, too." As Yangrit goes through her plan with he back to their prisoner, the Fox's face suddenly morphs into Virml's visage. He smiles and waves at everyone else from over Yangrit's shoulder. He stops waving, and switches back to the smiling fox face when the dwarf spins back to him. "Now, fox, you will tell us what you know about this whole situation, as we walk, if necessary." "Of course, but first I have to ask--do you like puzzles?"
Yangrit comes whirling into the melee like low-to-the-ground cold iron, monk-weapon dervish! But comes up short*.
She rights herself and tries again, but the smug-looking Fox merely extends his thin blade into the dwarven monk's maelstrom of flailing limbs,
"OH ALRIGHT!" cries the Fox stepping away from the fight. "I yield. No need to drag this out. Though you have to admit if I had been just a hair more precise...." he smiles again in appreciation of his own imagination of what might have been.
If a fox could look annoyed this man-sized one certainly does.
The Fox looks at Bernard and sniffs.
"That might work too, I suppose." muses the Fox to himself.
Hannar shakes free of his belly laughs, just as Xusius seems to get the punchline. The elf collapses to the floor amid peels of laughter. Bernard's arrow misses the slippery fox and instead strikes the ceiling mural, making it look like the gnome's head has been transfixed by the shaft right through the ear. Deluge rains lightning down upon the white crocodile, just as Yangrit winds up, and punches the crocodile on the nose causing its eyes to roll up into its head.
The thing collapses threatening to squash her and Pau both with its great bulk, but when it hits it explodes into a swirl of pale vellum the same color as the cursed scroll. It whirls about like a tornado before fizzling out into small motes of dimming fairy dust that rise up through the ceiling as if it wasn't there. "Oh bother." says the Fox looking down at the dissipating crocodile. "I suppose I'll just have to escape back into the library again and then we can begin the chase anew. HA!" "You there, Hannar was it? Be a sport, and clear the door for me. I can't very well exit with everyone standing around right there, now can I?" he says suggesting a course of action to the sorcerer backed up by words of magic.
He scuttles down from the ceiling like an athletic spider monkey, lands, draws his rapier with a flourish. At the same time he swirls his cape dramatically about him which causes a bit of distortion in the nearby air .
"Well, laugh." says the Fox to Xusius with utmost seriousness, mingling the words with magic. The Fox himself seems inspired by all the verbal interplay, and his zeal seems contagious as it encourages the albino crocodile below to snap its jaws and slaps its tail more vigorously.
The crocodile lunges at Yangrit jaws agape. Yangrit rolls away, but the damage is done. The white lizard crushes more furniture with its tail.
The fox grits his teeth and eyes the elf again.
"Eww." says the fox looking down upon the mess all over the floor.
The magical bolts of energy sting the fox man. "Some friends you are, leaving you party hair-phobe to be devoured by my hand bag. So sad it is almost funny." As he scuttles uncannily across the ceiling mural, he works another spell targeting Hannar.
Before Yangrit can move. The Once-Shaine puts his hands behind him and scuttles up the surface of the glass. Reaching the apex of the dome sticks his tongue and pulls upon his lower eyelid with one hand while invoking a bit of magic that falls upon the group of men standing around the room's entrance.
"Well, this has been a very good meeting, but I must dash. You can schedule your next visit with my scaly secretary, Miss Bitey." The giant lizard lashes out at Pau with its teeth and tail! Grabbing him in her teeth it tucks in its legs and rolls rapidly, wrenching Pau to the ground, and slapping him with its heavy tail.
But when he looks up he looks different. "You can tell me; student-teacher confidentiality."
"Oh for Pantheon's sakes it me! She means me!" barks Caught. "Turnkeys...." mutters the kitsune. "Well, it's been fun, but I should be going. We'll have to do it again sometime." He shakes hands with everyone, smiles and tells Dawn. "You can keep the scar to remember me by." He steps next the fish and stands there expectantly for a moment. Then he nods meaningfully at the fragments of the Name of the Fox scroll and in a loud whisper says "Command word."
"Yes, but the smaller bits don't all seem to make a whole? See there may be crocodiles in a couple of the poems but then there is a 'worm' in one and a 'wyrm' in another. I'm missing something, I know it! And knowing the source I'm sure it's obvious and written in plain sight. 'Who is the last to dine?'" Caught puzzles as the party tramps through the archive toward the mezzanine. They pass the little featherheaded spearfishermen who make faces at Caught who smirks back at them. The group tromps up the spiral steel stair to the puzzled looking fish who looks flummoxed to see them.
"That was my guess, worms eat everything in the end after all, but no, apparently not. The Count has some deviously different answer in mind. I shall not give up, though the elusive answer vexes me so."
"YOU DO? I mean, well of course you do. It's obvious isn't it? It's practically a pun. Any fool could see it. I am Caught." "Still that is mere decorative bit of wit and not the TRUE riddle which I am interested in--the answer to the query who dines last?"
The hand holding the fragment suddenly seems covered in red fur and more paw-like. No longer is it the Master of Scrolls standing in you midst, but a rather clever-looking kitsune. The sides of his mouth arise forming a crooked (if predatory) smile. "Oh, and 'boo.'" says the fox-headed man to Vina. |