When she walked into a Fox Burrow and ged tis in search of her fiancée, Ele did not expect to be where she was right now. Dang in a barracks, surrounded by cheering men and women who were part of the anization that had kidnapped Kiko for reasons unknown. Still, she trusted Yeni, who was moving like a spirit through the gaggle of people. Not stood in one point like Ele, but drifting through them. No gap too small for her to slip through, no man too ugly nor woman too fierce for her to avoid, they were lost in ts and cheers by the time a red-faced man stormed through the door.

  “What the bloody fuck is going on here?!” he shouted, before ying eyes on Yeni, and freezing up. “.....Fuck. I knew we shouldn’t have taken that job. I told them there is nothing but shit going to e from this” the man was tense, like he was trying to explode as some kind of skunk-like method of escape.

  “Boss? What’s wrong? You…you, didn’t, ihese?” one of the soldiers asked, the atmosphere shifting as several of the soldiers began to subtly reach for their side arms.

  “I did not. And don’t be so fug stupid, you lot. A Kitsuh that many tails is a walking fug bomb. Ya provoke her, and aint nobody but her walking out of this pce” the Captain excimed, gring at everyone.

  Shaking his head, he’d gesture for them to follow him, cursing about the ‘fu’ six tails’ as they walked. It caught Ele a little off guard, and she ted Yeni’s tails again, to hat there was another one. She might have trol of the storm in her heart, but this was seriously getting to her. The Captaihem to his office, and offered them a chair to sit down, which Yeni took politely.

  “You’d think being the biggest Merary anization on the ti would give us some brains, if only by probability. But na, gotta provoke every fucker” the Captain grumbled, mostly to himself as he brought out some expensive brandy from a safe.

  “I thought the biggest merary group was the Joms?” Ele asked, to the Captain’s irritation.

  “Bah! Jom’s aint group. They are more like a fug….ethnicity or some shit. They don’t share anything but a name and that city of theirs” Cappy replied, crag opetle and neg a mouthful, to Yeni’s silent disdain. “Despite many people trying to cim otherwise, you aint a Jom if you aint from Jomsberg”

  “So you win on a teicality” Ele would reply, her voice coy with a bit of venom. The Captain did not like that, and rounded on her with a gre.

  “An’ who the fuck are you even? Holy, kids barging into my camp and slinging insults” despite the question being rhetorical, Ele answered anyway.

  “Ele Ator” Ele would reply, which froze the man mid-swig, and his eyes fell to Yeni.

  “Yeni Ator” Yeni replied, sweet and to the point. It was enough for the man to take a much deeper swig than before. “Fu’ Ator! What the hell are they drinking at and? Certainly a hell of a lot more kick than this piss” the man excimed, before colpsing into the seat.

  “Teically Kruskis. We aren’t married yet. But Atets more of a rea in Skivoa” Ele admitted, though the man didn’t look down from the ceiling.

  “So, I ’t give ya anything, all I do is talk. A few weeks ago, and sends out an -wide mission. Bring a 4 Tailed Blood Moon Kitsuo the dead-drop noticed. Muruk picked it up, and I put in an pint about it. The High King is already breathing down our necks due to the rep. He hears we are doing human fu’ traffig now, and the Skjolds are ing to dismantle us. But they brushed it off, saying there is no way he’d go to war with us over something like that.

  “Besides. How fug specific do you wanhere’s only a few thousand Kitsunes iire North. But four tails, and Blood Moon? We were paid an inordinate amount of money up front and most just thought Muruk would flounder for a few months and then it’d get thrown to a back of a drawer and used as a reason why ya never pay up front. Then you two arrived. And that ain't a ce, ehh?”

  The man would shake his head, and then someone burst in through the door.

  “Sir! Captain Marsi has sent a request for support. Some hypertech Skjold and a fug Demoearing his camp apart looking for a….key code!” the man excimed, not even looking at the two guests.

  “Kiko. My daughter. That you kidnapped” Yeni would put in, her eyes b into the Captain in front of her. “And they are called Ars, not Demons”

  The messenger would see the half-drunk and totally frazzled state the Captain was in, ahe ent that Yeni made, and then scrabble back, pulling his sidearm out.

  “Stow it, Private!” The Captain shouted, and ing instinctively even in this state. The shout broke the already freyed self-trol, and the Private fumbled the already poorly held gun, having it ctter to the ground. “If she’s already here, what the hell do you think yoing to do, ehh? Fuck off!”

  After the private had ran off, e back for his gun, and then ran off again, the Captain would finish off the bottle and lean ba his chair, burping loudly.

  “What’s the ces I’m getting more of those reports?” the Captain asked, swinging dangerously on his chair.

  “Minor. Ranana is more couth than that. She would at very least challenge a Holmgang. I hope Tartarus hasn't fallen so far they would deny a fellow merary that?”

  “Hell if I know. Pffffff. You hear the rumors but you don’t believe them, it’s all just words of rivals and exaggeration. But it turns out that and really doesn’t care at all about the specifics so long as you make quota. And if there ain't enough Beasts, you gotta find some supplements or be repced. An’ so by the time you realize that it ain't just words, nobody else is toug ya due to previous affiliation. That an’ a whole lotta money”

  The man swung some more on his chair, before looking up and at Yeni.

  “So ya gonna kill us all now?” the Captain asked. Yeni would look on for a few seds, and then give a smile.

  “I see no reason to do such a barbaric thing. You soldiers were handsy, but I was dang seductively in their barracks, so you hardly pin about the cold when you go skinny dipping in Wihat said, don’t feel so defeated. The Joms are always open to experienced people joining them. If they would accept an outsider from the tral Pins like me, then some remorse is all you o have a job easier on the heart”

  Yeni would then stand, brush down her skirt, and then leave. Ele would stick around for a few seds, w if she should apologise, and then follow, leaving the man to his misery.