Chapter 9: Unexpected Switcheroo


All I saw and felt was darkness.

But then the light of consciousness came back to my mind.

My head ached a little, but at least I can finally think.

My body felt stiff, like I was bound by some kind of rope.

I heard murmurs, which were a few octaves lower than any yinglet. The murmurs eventually became clearer to understand, and I began eavesdropping.

"So let me get this straight. You're saying it somehow got out of its binds and attempted to escape its pen?" The first voice said as I wake.

"That's right sir." A second voice said.

"Our little would-be escape artist freed himself while we were asleep. We believe he might have tried for the roof hatches, but one of our hill-dogs must have frightened him, made him fall from the top of the pen's walls, and landed back inside." A third voice added. "One of us might have to stand watch over him, while the rest of us clean up."

"Mm. Zipp's 'friend' seems more trouble than we thought." The first voice intoned.

"Well he won't be a problem for us for much longer. Do you know when the representative from The Crown is arriving?" The third voice asked.

"All I heard is someone of high status is coming here in the morning. Which is to say; soon." The first voice said with a huff. "Since we're up, I think it's high time we clean up around here. Okay, shit-boots. Time for some janitorial work."

"I guess that means I'll have to clean my boots." The third voice said.

"That's the idea." The second voice said.

There was a pause before the third voice spoke up. "Hmm. I think Zipple's friend is up."

My eyes fluttered open finally, and I took the opportunity to take in the surrounding environment. Everything seemed brighter than normal. This probably meant that it was early in the morning. I must have been asleep for a couple of hours. Yinglets tend to sleep for an hour or three, depending on their level of activity. I forgot about that. I must have been tired when I was sneaking inside of the Beast-Tamers' kennels. My eyes drifted up and I saw three faces staring back at me curiously.

"Hey scav. Mind telling us how you got out of your binds last night?" This voice belonged to the third voice. He had azure blue eyes, peach-orange hair, and fair light skin. He carried what looked like a leather jacket with thick armor on his arm, and wore a brown vest with a green long-sleeved shirt underneath, and a short brown tunic that covered over half of his work-pants, with heavy leather shoes. A small cloth bearing an image of a red-faced hill-dog was on his left breast. He looked at me with curiosity, and seemed like a polite dude.

There were two other men that wore the same uniform, save for a more elderly man that had gold trimmings on his leather vest. The elderly man had steel gray eyes, thinning silver hair, tan skin, and a wispy beard with black streaks running through it. He stared at me like I was but a headache to him.

The last man I observed in this room stared boredly at me. He had brown hair, while a knotted bun was affixed to the back of his head. His eyes looked like they were a dull amber. His skin color was very pale.

"Uh. I don't know." My dumb mouth said without me thinking.

Okay. Yeah. Great. Good first impression, me.

The elder sneered at me. "I thought Zipple told you to stay put in the pen. You could have gotten seriously hurt, you know."

The brown-haired guy rolled his eyes. "Like it matters to us."

"Darren." The elderly man growled at the brown-haired guy.

"Whaaaaat?" The brown-haired guy said, raising his hands defensively at the elderly man. Darren, I presumed.

"Don't be such an insensitive ass." The elderly man warned.

"Okay, well, the sooner the lords from The Crown gets this scav off of our hands, the sooner we can treat the hill-dogs and get back to training the pups. Or in my case, get a cup of morning tea brewing." The brown-haired guy groused.

The peach-haired dude rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Oh you and your tea."

"Uh..." I need to get a hold of my situation. "Excuse me, but who are you guys?"

The three tamers stopped to look at me. The peach-haired dude smiled and leaned over me. "Oh, sorry! We forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Kanio Hergle. The old man behind me is Mr Grenfack Yacktree. He is my senior. The grump next to him is Darren Farroworth." Kanio said, gesturing to himself, Grenfack, and Darren respectively.

I nodded at the three and smiled. "Pleased to meet you all. My name is Roy. I would shake your hands, but I seem to be tied up at zhe moment."

"Literally." Darren added grumpily.

Grenfack took his turn to roll his eyes before pushing Darren away and coming closer and leaning over me. "Don't mind him. He's not what I would call a 'morning person'."

"Oh I'm sometimes zhe same. Especially when my eyes are having difficulty adjusting to zhe light of zhe sunrise. Oh, and if I don't have juice or fruit when I wake up in zhe morning, zhen I'm pretty much ornery for zhe whole day." I shared.

"Hey, we all got our routines." Kanio said lightheartedly.

"Anyway, I believe Zipple said you were quite uncooperative with him last night." Grenfack interjected. "He wanted to know why you were within the Larrow Viggs marketplace, but you just kept screaming for him to let you go after he caught you. May I ask what you were doing last night? And were you with other yinglets?"

Hmm. I better not overshare. I looked down and away shyly. "I was uh... I was looking for zhe reason behind all zhe hill-dogs getting rounded up. We found out zhat zheir ears were getting infected because of zhe ear-wigs." ... Dammit. I think I overshared. I guess being a yinglet makes me even more nervous. Especially when I'm around people that are leagues stronger than myself.

Darren narrowed his eyes at me. "... Come again?"

Grenfack's expression became confused. "You were sneaking around in the market district because you found out that the hill-dogs had been infested with ear-wigs?"

"Well uh... Yeah. We was eavesdropping, but zhen I got separated and caught by a hill-dog and zheir masters. After zhat... Well... Here I am. Apparently" I answered.

Grenfack looked at Darren and Kanio for a brief moment before looking back at me. "Uh. Okay. Where did you come from?"

"From zhe east." I answered. I technically came from the north, but saying I'm from the east is also a true answer, and I'd rather not say that I came from Sharp Rock Enclave, which so happens to be north of Arisota's Hold. "Um... Are you interrogating me? Did I do somezhing bad?"

Grenfack shook his head and hand dismissively at me as he stood up straight. "No no, I just wanted to hear your story."

I looked down at my person before looking back at them. "But why am I tied up like zhis? Did I do somezhing bad zhat made everyone angry?"

Grenfack reached a hand to my head and rubbed it. "Hmm. I guess the hill-dog that got a hold of you last night must have bumped your head. It's a surprise you're mostly uninjured."

Darren shook his head. "Oh please. You don't remember biting Zipple six times? You're trying to butter us up in letting you out of your binds. Sorry, but that trick will not work on us."

Kanio's face grimaced as he took his turn to pet my head. "Never heard of a yinglet developing amnesia before. Dementia, yes, but never amnesia. Poor little guy."

Darren scoffed. "Oh not you." He said, staring snidely at Kanio.

"You know you can go away and drink your morning tea elsewhere." Kanio shot back.

Grenfack turned to the two beast-tamers. "That is enough. Both of you. Representatives from The Crown will be here very soon, and I want to get this place tidy enough to at least be respectable." He then turned to Kanio. "Since you two seem like fast bosom buddies, you'll be keeping watch on him while we clean."

Darren grumbled. "Damn. That means I'll have to cover his duties too." He pointed accusingly at Kanio. "You owe me one for this." Darren then left, with an agitated Grenfack following after him.

Fifteen seconds must have passed before I broke the silence. "Wow. You guys sure seem like a cheery bunch. ... Well, you're cheery, but zhose two are, like, super grouchy."

Kanio chuckled. "Well, Zipple didn't want to take care of a yinglet in his home since the divorce kicked him out. He tried to pawn you off to Darren or Gren, but they were against babysitting a yinglet during an ear-wig pandemic, and were too tired to deal with you. He might've had me look after you, but alas, everyone was exhausted, there were no free hands, and my sister and mother forbids me from bringing a pet into their house. So, Zipple told us that he decided to tie you up and put you in one of the pens in the hill-dog kennel, while he joins with the skeleton crew back in the guild building."

I blinked at Kanio. "... An interesting series of events. How long has zhis ear-wig zhing been going on?"

Kanio sighed as he leaned on the wall of the pen I was in. "Oh! Hum! I'd say about a good three or four weeks now. New cases of ear infections have been slowly petering down recently, which I think is good. Tends to happen every eight years, I believe."

"So Arisota's Hold hasn't found a cure for zhe ear-wigs, huh?" I said with a pout.

Kanio looked down at me before a sad smile crossed his face. "Sadly, no. It's a seasonal thing. Just gotta weather it. Do yinglets get ear-wig related health issues?"

Okay, maybe now is the time to make stuff up. "Um... Not always. Most times we have a yinglet buddy fish out zhe ear-wig using zheir tongues and eat zhem. But if an ear-wig gets too far inside, I'd imagine zhey use special medical techniques to draw it out. Like using tweezers wizh alcohol or soap or somezhing."

"Huh." Kanio replied. "Sounds similarly like what we do when removing ticks from our hill-dogs or from ourselves." He then chuckled. "Well... Except for the part about tonguing them out of the ears and eating them."

I chuckled with Kanio. He seems like an alright kind of dude.

Unfortunately, it seems like our revelry was cut short. Grenfack returned to me and Kanio with a determined step. "Representatives from The Crown are here. Grab the scav and bring him."

"Already?" Kanio said before sighing. "Alright then." He then turned to me and picked me up from my waist. "Here we go, Roy. It's time we meet the aristocrats."

Okay, things were happening too quickly for me. "Uh. Can we delay zhat so I can talk wizh you more? I'm worried zhat zhey won't be as nice as you."

Kanio chuckled as he cradled me like some stilted baby. "Oh it won't be bad! I promise! just be as nice as you can possibly be and don't embarrass yourself."

"Or us." Grenfack added, leading the way for Kanio.

I gulped nervously.


I was moved into the main building of the Beast-Tamer's guild shortly after. The interior was a simple design, though most rooms functioned similarly to a barracks. Some rooms were given the purpose of managing all of the paperwork, which I suspect each room had different forms of documentation, possibly detailing which hill-dog gets positioned in the outer perimeter or what level of training each hill-dog had received during its life or even archiving the family line of each breed. There was one particular room that had a lot of activity, which was filled with men and women donning white gowns and protective cloth masks as they were grinding various plants, boiling different types of liquids, and combining fluids to create some concoction unknown to me. The smell emanating from that room was heavy, like it was filled with chemicals. They were probably trying to make a type of pesticide, or a form of medicine. There was an open door that we passed by, and I saw a plethora of leather vests and green shirts of varying sizes, all freshly laundered and ready for later use, but that didn't seem to interesting.

Grenfack and Kanio, with me in their possession, eventually entered into a fairly professional room, looking somewhat similar to an office belonging to a CEO, but medieval themed. The walls were lined with shelves containing books. One wall in particular had a map hanging on it, which was an overview of the town surrounding Arisota's Hold, and the outer perimeter that was highlighted with an outline of a red circle. There was a desk, surrounded by two chairs, one that had its back facing a window, that had a map that showed a more-detailed outer perimeter. It had pins of various colors stabbing into the parchment, mostly green, yellow, orange, and some red.

There was also a man that was sitting in a comfy couch on the side of the room. He seemed very important, since he was clad in extravagant set of clothing made with silks of green, gold, black and red striped colors. He was armed with a sword, but the size of the sheath signified that he carried a rapier. His skin color was medium golden and had piercing green, perhaps even emerald-green, eyes. His hair was hidden by a conical hat. I think it was similar to a striped fez or something? It had bits and bobs on it that dangled all around it, looking like several beads on strings strung together to look like a table doily. The doily part of his hat was all yellow.

When Grenfack and Kanio entered the room, this man got up from his seat and greeted us with a smile. "Took your sweet time?"

"Apologies, sir." Grenfack said in a kind demeanor. "Had I known your patience was dangerously close to ebbing, I would have hustled faster. Alas, with the earwig infestation with the hill-dogs, and my old age,-"

"Oh fret not. Your excuses and tardiness are easily forgivable." This new person walked up to me and began looking me up and down. "... My word. This scav has an unusual fur color."

Grenfack nodded. "Quite. He's a bit frazzled from last night, and gave one of our tamers some nasty bites. At least he's being cooperative with us now." He said, giving a pat on my head.

"I see." He stared at me for half a minute before speaking again. "Do you have a name?"

Against my better judgement, I turned away from him and whined. I don't know why, but I didn't exactly sense friendly intentions from him. Of course, from the way Grenfack Yacktree responded to this guy, he must be someone that's higher on the social order.

Kanio cradled me softly. "Hey hey, what's the matter?"

I replied with no discernible answer. I just whined again into his leather vest.

Grenfack sighed. "Put Roy on the table. I think I can handle it from here. Go ahead and help Darren."

"Yes sir." Kanio nodded before seating me neatly on the desk and leaving the room. Once Kanio left, Grenfack and this extravagantly-dressed man seated themselves at the desk I was sitting on.

Grenfack laced his fingers together and sighed. "Right. I'm assuming you're acting as the representative of the Exotic Animals Registry Guild up in The Crown?"

The other man nodded sagely. "Yes. Since my brother hasn't any important duties laid out for me for today, I decided to ask the guilds up in The Crown how I might assist them. So here I am. Upon hearing that a scav was sighted and captured within our city limits, the guild contacted me to represent them." He then shifted forward with elbows on the desk. "As you already know, the Exotic Animals Registry guild made the proclamation long ago that scavs are an invasive species within our territory of Arisota's Hold. Thankfully for us, the hill-dogs in the outer perimeter keeps them at bay, but they seem to continue getting into our fine city despite everything. They agreed to pass a law in which they would pay a small reward of four hundred gold grains for any pelts of adequate condition, or for eight hundred gold grains when captured alive, with a bonus two hundred gold grains for unique fur patterns or coloration."

"Since my son was the one that found and captured the yinglet, I'll make sure the reward money goes to him." Grenfack added with a nod.

"Why is he not here with us?" The other man asked.

"He had to visit a doctor to get his wounds checked. Yinglet bites tend to fester if not treated fairly early. Anyway, would you regard this yinglet as having a unique fur pattern or coloration?" Grenfack asked.

The other man nodded. "Very much so. That would make him have a worth of a thousand gold grains. However, I did notice that you said its name earlier."

Grenfack nodded. "Yeah, well, he was pretty talkative when he woke up. See, he had somehow gotten out of his binds last night and wandered into the pen one of the sick hill-dogs we were treating. We figured that it must have been caught and was tossed back into its pen. Lucky for him, he only sustained minor injuries to his head. We tied him back up and watched over him all night. When he woke up, he said that he was investigating the earwig infestation in Arisota's Hold's outer perimeter. He says he came from the east."

The other man raised his eyebrow up. "Really? From the empire, or from the peninsula?"

Grenfack shook his head. "I didn't ask beyond that."

The other man looked at me again. I turned away and looked down at the ground.

Grenfack reached a hand over to me to poke at my tail. "Come on, Roy. Don't be shy. Remember what Kanio said about being rude?"

... Grenfack might have a point. And since I have nowhere else to go, I guess I don't really have a choice in the matter. I inhaled and sighed for a few seconds before I faced this new person. I raised my bound legs and waived a hand-foot at him, since my hand-hands were bound to my sides. "H... H-Hello. I'm Roy. Is it a nice day outside?"

The man smiled. "Apart from the infestation of earwigs in the outer perimeter, yes. My name is Zuddul Arisota. I am vice master and advisor to the master of Arisota's Hold. Pleasure to meet you."

"I'd shake you by zhe hand, but I'm kind of tied up." I said with a sheepish smile.

Zuddul snorted in an amused tone. "Well it's so you won't be a bad scav and bite us when we're least expecting it." He then crossed his leg over his lap and leaned back into his seat. "So tell me, Roy. Is there an enclave of yinglets somewhere in the east?"

Yeah, I don't really like that he's starting off this conversation asking that question. "I zhink my matriarch wouldn't want me to tell you where I came from."

"Come now, we're all friends here. You can tell me." Zuddul said in a friendly tone.

I shook my head at Zuddul. "Considering zhat you are paying Gren here a reward for my live capture for some guild high up in zhe hold, and zhat zhey'd pay for pelts harvested from yinglets, I'm of zhe mind to believe zhat I'm in grave danger here and you would have my skin flayed once zhis business is done and over wizh."

Zuddul's eyes widened once I finished my sentence. Did I say something smart to him? Fekk. "Now now, Roy. I'm more concerned with any and every yinglet being within the boundaries of Arisota's Hold itself. Yinglets are, shall we say... disruptive to the human communities. That, and humans are not kind to yinglets that are disruptive to their day-to-day affairs and duties. It would be in everyone's best interests to ensure that order is maintained for all parties involved."

"Wizh all due respect, Vice Master Zuddul, zhere is a great disorder beyond Arisota's Hold's boundaries. I'm here looking for answers, and I don't want to make compromises zhat would light a fire under my ass." I stated honestly.

Zuddul seemed like he wanted to press this issue further, but a knock on the door disrupted the conversation. Kanio peered into the room we were in. He seemed somewhat nervous. "Hey, um, not to interrupt anything, but there is a VIP that is coming here to see you two. Immediately."

Zuddul looked behind himself with an incredulous glare. "VIP?" He asked aloud.

Grenfack scowled at Kanio. "Can this wait? I'm having an important meeting."

A new face strode into the room. Zuddul got up from his seat upon seeing the new face. "Brother. Where is your bodyguard?" He asked with stern annoyance.

This new face was similarly dressed like Zuddul, but he had extra accessories tied to his clothing. He had a short sword sheathed to his left hip, which had a tassel on the chafe and another dangling from the weapon's pommel. He had clothing that was like Zuddul's, all green, gold, black and red, yet all gold-trimmed. His hat looked like three fez hats stacked on top of each other, with each one a smaller size the higher they went. Each fez was adorned with intricate doilies and beads, with etchings filled with gold and silver on each bead. His skin color was slightly darker than medium golden, and his eyes were an azure blue.

This newcomer spread his arms apart in a friendly gesture towards Zuddul. "Greetings to you too, Zuddul. And as for my protection, I left her to look after Ingred's children."

Grenfack bowed immediately. "Oh! Fortmaster Arrinoka! What a pleasant surprise to see you! And here in my office, of all places!" He then stared at Kanio, looking like he had daggers in his eyes. "Kanio. Go help Darren."

"Yes sir!" Kanio said with a hurried nod and hurriedly jogged away.

Zuddul got up from his seat and approached the fortmaster apparent. He then gestured to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Arrinoka snidely teased. He then walked around Zuddul and went up to me. "... But to be honest, I hardly expected you to have business with a tied up yinglet. To think that you would be into this sort of thing."

Zuddul scoffed. "You crass ass. This is just some volunteer work I'm doing for the Exotic Animal Registry guild back at The Crown. Nothing more than that."

"Oh I would believe you, if you haven't been so cagey lately." Arrinoka turned to Grenfack with a sly smile. "Say, has he given you the reward money yet?"

Grenfack shook his head. "No sir."

"How about if I payed you two thousand gold grain, plus the agreed-upon reward, if you let me deliver this yinglet to The Crown?" Arrinoka offered, as he went to the desk and knocked on the table twice. "I'll be registering this yinglet to my name once we are finished here."

Grenfack blinked a few times. Zuddul walked in front of Arrinoka with a scowling and annoyed expression wrinkling his face. "What are you doing?" He barked.

"Offering a better deal to the gentleman in charge of the Beast-Tamers guild. Want to jump in with your bid?" Arrinoka replied with a smirk.

Grenfack slowly had a bemused smile spreading across his face. "Ah, so we're auctioning for this yinglet now? Alright then. Two thousand grain, plus the reward money of a thousand grain, is the current bid. Master Zuddul, will you bid or pass?"

Zuddul huffed and stamped his foot. "This is absurd! Why do you even want the scav?"

Grenfack waggled a finger. "Ah ah, the auction is in progress. Unless you want this scav, you will have to bid for him. Going once!"

Zuddul growled as he knocked twice on the desk I was sitting on. "Five thousand."

Arrinoka knocked twice in response. "Ten thousand."

Zuddul knocked twice again. "Twenty thousand."

Knock knock. "Thirty thousand."

Knock knock. "Forty thousand."

Knock knock. "Fifty thousand."

Knock knock. "Sixty thousand."

Knock knock. "Sixty one thousand."

Knock knock. "Enough of this. Sixty five thousand."

Knock knock. "Sixty nine thousand." Arrinoka turned to face Zuddul with a serious grin. It was the most strangest expression I have never seen before. Was this smile of his from the thrill of competition, or was he giving Zuddul a subtle message?

Zuddul growled louder this time. "Oh... You..."

Grenfack took a few moments to catch his breath before addressing Arrinoka. "Uh... Ah... Going once! Twice! Sold! The winner of this auction is Fortmaster Arrinoka, with a bid of sixty nine thousand gold grain!"

Arrinoka bowed. "Wonderful. Unfortunately, all I brought with me is five thousand gold grains. You know. For odds and ends I might purchase in The Purse. I'll have to send someone to my treasurer and have my money delivered to you. Would you mind if I stayed here until the treasurer arrives?"

Grenfack nodded with a broad smile. "Please stay for as long as you intend, my lord."

Arrinoka turned to Zuddul. "Could you kindly send for the treasurer and deliver sixty nine thousand gold grains to Master Yacktree of the Beast-Tamers guild?"

"As you wish, brother." Zuddul growled before leaving the room.

I blinked a few times. "... Wait. What zhe fek just happened?"

Arrinoka walked up to me to pat me gently on my back. "It means I am now a proud owner of a new pet. You'll be living in your new home with me now."

... Oh.

Uh.

I think I am now in even deeper shit than before?

... Oh well. So long as they think I'm the yinglet they captured last night, and not Patriarch Mazhink, then the enclave should be okay and safe. That is unless they decided to send out a scout party to look for yinglets east of Arisota's Hold and then spread out in all directions. But then there is the issue of getting back to the Sharp Rock secret enclave, or even getting into contact with Matriarch Rhondy and the patriarchs under her.

And where did I hear that name before? Arrinoka Arisota, was it? Hmm...


A/N: Sometimes the best way to survive is to act dumb and let things happen.

Also, the tradition of knocking on wood to signify a bid is a tradition that started up in the northern territories, before Arisota's Hold was even built. Nowadays, it is a tradition that is more common among the aristocrat class in Arisota's Hold.