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Chapter 30. You Got Mud on My Suit!
by Antonio
Dirano was dead. Dirano, the occasionally useful, mostly irritating, somewhat well-dressed cat, was dead. In all probability. Furthermore he was murdered. More than likely. Furthermore, he was murdered by a beast still on their trail.
Night's cold bite had no intensity out here in the jungle. Evnara was quite the humid island and the trees and plant life dwarfing their camp from all angles only intensified the feeling of claustrophobia. Condensation thrived here as well, meaning that everything was wet. Moisture combined with warmth did not make for a pleasant evening. At the same time, there was cold. Even after the occasional stray gust from the ocean lucky enough to make it this far inland. Antonio pulled himself closer to the fire, wondering why it was only he who could not sleep and why nobeast else seemed to feel this strange coldness.
He soon found out that he was not the only beast. Silisk came slithering out of the dark, perching herself beside Antonio. He felt her scales brush against his arm and found himself wincing slightly. Silisk used those scales to get around. It was like sombeast brushing their earth-clogged footpaws against him. With finesse he was able to make the involuntary action look like a shiver.
"I see I am not the only beast in yon troupe who feels the lack of warmth on this night," said the snake. Curious how she could speak so clearly despite her obvious impediments. Her intellect, too, was something very uncommon among her breed from what Antonio had read.
"I find myself unable to sleep tonight. When one's brain moves as much as mine, sleep does not come easy after such a busy day," said Antonio.
"Which is what led to our previous meeting in Sarkleyet's mansion, correct?" asked Silisk.
"Correct."
The adder gave a quick glance to her right and left. "And in the interest of our mutual agreement made then, I feel as though I should tell you an extra bit of knowledge which I gleaned from that night regarding yon marten beast and Sarkleyet."
"Really?"
Although Antonio's eyebrows were raised far above the level associated with simple surprise – it was half a claw length for slight surprise, a full claw length for surprise and a claw and a half length for extreme surprise; he knew because he had measured – he did not feel the information anything but dubious. It would be gossip that exited from Silisk's mouth if it had anything to do with Sarkleyet's relationship with Sybil. Moreover it was gossip that everybeast already knew.
"Sarkleyet has poisoned Sybil."
Antonio's eyebrows remained where they were. This time the surprise was real.
"When?"
"Naught but a night ago. I was passing through the grounds in the night when I espied something that led me to her and Sarkleyet's meeting. There I happened upon the despicable deed."
"Why?"
"This I know not, although my best guess is that it was a sort of ransom in order to obtain the loyalty of the marten beast."
Sinking so low as to poison sombeast in order to obtain their services? Not only was Sarkleyet mad, he was a despicable coward. Only beasts unfit to defend themselves hid behind their potions and their apothecary to achieve their ends. Antonio would do the world a favor to eliminate him at this journey's end.
Why Sybil, though? Why not poison somebeast with more value, such as himself? Antonio felt what he thought might have been jealously but quickly disregarded the notion. He would not have been jealous over something so…petty.
"The poison acts slowly as far as I can comprehend," said Silisk. "Sybil must take an antidote every so often in order to remain alive.
Antonio gave a "Hm," in understanding. It certainly would have explained Sybil's behavior at the warehouse.
The warehouse. They'd only just narrowly escaped. At least he supposed they had narrowly escaped; there pursuer had not shown himself since. He had not even shown himself before, even as Dirano was dragged up through the ceiling. As per the course, Antonio felt his mind drift to the expression on Dirano's face as he was hoisted above, so much chaos igniting afterward.
"What just happened?"
"Did Dirano just–"
"Where did that –"
Ignoring the barrage of sentence fragments, Antonio shouted, "Ladies and gentlement, your attention please!" They all stopped, following his orders. At least they could do that much in a crisis. "Dirano has been indisposed thanks to a boobie trap. We must give our full attention to examining the path ahead as we swiftly exit. Rea, you have senses superior to us, you shall join me at the front of the line. Aras, you bring up the rear with Sybil and keep a look out in case that vile cur from the air vent decides to finally show his disfigured face and attack us from behind. Should I command you all to duck, you all will do so and Mister Thalliv, whom I will thank kindly to stop running away and instead come back here so he can be of actual use to us, shall assume that I mean him to fire and thusly fire in the direction of any danger. Silisk, you stay where you are and take care that you do not fall from my shoulders. Is that understood?"
"We can't just leave him!" The outburst came from Rea. Antonio found he was not very surprised.
"Miss Rea, would you kindly consider –"
"He might still be alive. We can't just abandon one of our own. What sort of Alpha are you?"
Amidst the confusion brought by what Rea had said – what was she talking about, what was an "alpha"? – Antonio found himself hesitating. He looked at the pock-marked ceiling, eyes lingering on the large gap through which Dirano had disappeared. There was no sign of moment.
"Miss Rea, consider if you will the safety of the remainder of the group. To tarry here would spell certain doom for the lot of us. Dirano's…fate is…regrettable, but there is nothing we can do, unless, of course, one of you has a pair of wings hidden in their haversack. Now, kindly take your place at the head of the line."
Antonio did not waste time trying to see if Rea reluctantly or begrudgingly followed his orders, no matter how much the urge to turn around tugged at him. At least Thalliv had fallen back in line. As quick as they could manage while surveying the way ahead, Antonio's group made haste to the top of the stair. The warehouse grounds spread out before them, blank and foreboding. Antonio's vision searched for anything resembling a trip-wire or snare, but found his attention tugged away by the disheveled remnants of an experiment to one side or an untidy work desk to the other. He closed his eyes, shook his head. When he could sight no traps, he was sure there were none. He would have noticed them if they were there, keen senses that he had.
As they jogged onward, a noise from behind caused Antonio to turn around. Sybil and Aras were not the brightest of beasts – although Aras had shown yet more hidden talent as of late with his discovery of a hidden room – and so, agile defenders as they were, may not have thought to sound the alarm should something creep up behind them. After sighting nothing, Antonio was about to turn back around when Rea snatched him. Not courteously informed him of any danger, not nudged, not carefully grabbed, but snatched him, stopping him from moving any further. He looked down to see a trip-wire mere inches from his footpaw. The light must have obscured it before.
Rea must have read the frustration hidden behind Antonio's eyes; she released him moments after callously gripping his arm with all the strength of a berserker. Antonio adjusted his clothing before properly thanking the wolf. Her method may have been uncouth but she had prevented him from befalling disaster.
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry."
Antonio frowned. He cursed himself silently. He had let his anger show. Now she would become upset and if she was upset she would be less likely to follow directions, thus less likely to follow him.
"It is quite alright," he assured her.
"I'm very sorry. Really."
He was about to ask just what it was she was sorry about when Silisk hissed in his ear, causing him to jump slightly.
"Sir Antonio, hark! Dost thou hear yon noise?"
There was indeed a great clamor coming from the rooftop. A sound of heavy pawsteps combined with a dragging noise emanated through the entire warehouse. The noises morphed into a ceramic warning rattle thanks to the shoddy roof design of the decrepit building.
Antonio quickly and carefully stepped over the tripwire, instructing his group to do the same. Fifty agonizingly slow paces and they were at the door to the warehouse, the rattle like that of some giant serpent continuing to rustle in their ears.
"Our foe is clearly upon the roof, expecting the rest of us to show ourselves," explained Antonio. "There is cover within running distance in that direction." He pointed to a makeshift barricade that must have been used in the past to confine the 'Marties' to this half of the city. Furniture limbs twined with other rubble, making for a well-contstructed interwoven structure. Still, it hurt to look at.
"When I signal, we shall run as fast as possible to that cover. Ready? And…now!"
Thalliv more than outright outstripped him, with Sybil as a close second but still unable to run much quicker than Antonio. Behind he could hear Aras making his way. Beside Antonio ran Rea, who continued to give him that blasted look despite how they were now more or less running for their lives. Petty things such as who touched whom did not matter with a mentally ill villain on your heels.
Evnakt's streets must have once been clean and efficient things before the disaster. But the city itself was obviously not at all storm-proof and so debris barred the way to the barricade, making direct movement limited. One had to examine the way ahead and think quickly or one would fall, just as Sybil did when they were more than half way there.
The marten's feet flew out from under her as she slipped on a spare rock. Her knees instantly collided with the ground with enough force to knock her backpack off of her shoulders. As Antonio passed her, he stopped. Roughly grabbing her under the arms, he hoisted her to her footpaws. He bent over to retrieve the backpack next.
"Get yer filthy claws offa that!" she spit at him, more literally than figuratively as actual beads of spittle flew from her lips to be dodged by a wary Antonio. So startled was he by her outburst that he complied immediately, dropping the bag and letting her carry it the rest of the way to the barricade.
Panting breaths were all Antonio heard. The run was only a short distance. Why was everybeast winded so? His attention was immediately drawn to the rapid rising and falling of his own chest. Well, perhaps it had been a bit of a run.
"Does anybeast hear anything?" asked Antonio.
Everybeast shook their heads. As their collective breathing slowed, the ambient noise of the city filtered in. Nowhere within it was the shrill cry of a flute or the weighty stomping of a beast with a body in tow.
"So he's not following us anymore," said Sybil.
"Not quite," Antonio rebuked her, albeit a tad reluctantly owing to how she had snarled at him moments ago. "We may very well still be pursued. The excrement of a knave we encountered in that warehouse was able to set up a trap for Dirano without us even knowing of it. Stealth is clearly his expertise." Antonio began to laugh. "More than likely, the poor fool is not much of a fighter."
"Don't assume that," said Ikaras. "He sounded crazy. Crazy's dangerous."
"Right you are, Mister Aras. And I have no intention of merely assuming his weakness." Convinced as I am he would not be able to hold out more than five second's span against somebeast of my skill. "Which is precisely why we must stick together, Mister Thalliv." The grit of anger began to creep back into Antonio's voice as he saw the pitiful servant begin to creep off once more.
"Now," Antonio continued, "we need to get our bearings. We must find a secluded area in which we can take shelter as well as a place along the way to our destination. Which reminds me, has anybeast made anything of that daft riddle I discovered?"
Besides being poorly scrawled onto the parchment with an over abundance of simple script errors, the poorly constructed prose did not posses a scrape of sense. "How far can a beast walk into the woods?" Was there a more subjective question? However far a beast could walk into the woods depended solely on who that beast was, what their motives were, what provisions they were carrying, what wears they –
"Half-way."
Everybeast looked at Rea.
"Half-way into the woods. You can only walk half-way in, the other half you spend walking out."
"Then that must be where our goal is. I believe I may know the way." Again, Silisk hissed this very close to his ear. Antonio wished greatly that she would stop doing that.
"In any case, our goal lies in the jungle as, clearly, there are no woods on this island. Therefore, we shall set up camp near there and enter in on the morrow; the sun is setting and we do not want darkness to encroach on our mission, not with the possibility of somebeast following us." Harmless as he may prove to be.
Everybeast silently agreed. There was no noise all the way to the threshold of the forest, nothing to disturb Antonio's swiftly working mind other than the helter-skelter debris, the slip-shod construction of the still intact buildings and the more than occasional glare from Sybil each time he got a bit too close to her backpack.
"It is not as if I do not appreciate this information, Silisk, but why are you telling me this?" asked Antonio.
"I am merely honoring our agreement."
Yes, there was that. "Thank you, Silisk."
All the better that they preserved such cornerstones of civilization as agreements and contracts in this increasingly dissolving scenario. This mission was proving increasingly more perilous than Antonio had anticipated. Where he had thought a half-destroyed city would mean less forces of resistance instead meant more obstacles in their way in the form of demolished buildings, opportunistic woodlanders, deranged plague contractors, a psychopathic and more than likely cannibalistic hunter and other such unsightly edifices and creatures. Moreover, his group was showing tell-tale signs of dissolving from the inside out. One of their ranks was poisoned. Another of their ranks was gone. Dirano was gone. Deceased, rather. Probably.
Such unrest only opened up the possibility for treachery and retreat as Thalliv himself had attempted in the midst of the chaos. Antonio would need a way to prevent further threats of insurrection.
"If you will pardon me for a moment, there is something to which I must attend," said Antonio to Silisk.
He crossed the camp in search of Thalliv. Though the servant may not know his place, there was a chance that he had the needed supplies.
"Morning, all!"
His cheerful-as-he-could-manage cheer was met with only despairing grunts and groans from his group with the exception of a still visibly shaken Thalliv. Antonio found his faith in his little troupe fading fast. Nobeast could get anywhere if they did not greet the morning with vigor.
Begrudgingly, he granted them a short grace period in which to pack their sleeping bags and consume breakfast. Antonio himself had done both of these long before they had awoken, although it had taken him considerably longer than they; his infernal sleeping bag refused to roll properly, causing him to restart nearly ten times so he could make sure it was perfectly aligned when he rolled it. He'd cursed all the way but luckily nobeast had been awake to hear his disturbance.
"Anybeast hear some shoutin' and carryin' on about last night?" asked a clearly weary Aras. Damn that wolverine's ears.
"Gather around, all, there is something which I must show you."
With considerable pride Antonio unfurled his previous night's labor. The parchment stretched about a foot, limited space with which to work, but, struggled though he might have, he valiantly completed his task and had only to wait for this rabble to recognize his efforts before he could reap the praise.
"It's paper. No doubt that'll save our miserable hides."
He stood, dumbfounded at Sybil's comment.
"It's not just paper," Rea corrected her. Antonio began to brighten. Rea was much more perceptive than she looked. After her deciphering of the riddle the previous day as well as rescuing him from the boobie trap, he was considering changing his mind about her, despite her intellectual limitations. "It's a paper with, what did you all call that squiggly stuff? Writing, that's it. It's a paper with writing on it," she finished. Some things never changed.
"It is a contract," said Thalliv. Finally, something useful from the sniveling coward. Now if he would only stop running like a scared little cub at the cue of every loud noise.
"Mister Thalliv is quite correct. Last night, I realized that our quest is a mite more perilous than first anticipated. Because of this, it is imperative that we stick together, honor one another and assist everybeast. You may read it if you so desire, but for the benefit of those less…literate than the rest of us, I shall summarize. What this contract basically says is that whomever signs it agrees to do their utmost to assist the team in retrieving the Red Brandy and that they agree that they will in no way, shape or form betray the trust of the rest of the team."
"What's that mean in normal speech?" asked Sybil.
Aras explained. "Everybeast do your best and don't stab anybeast in the back." The wolverine didn't at all sound enthused.
"Pray, I understand the majority of the symbols, but what signifies the strange markings?" said Silisk.
Antonio wrinkled his brow. "Strange markings?'
"Yes, the ones that reign over the entire left side of the document."
"Those? Those are merely small corrections I had to make to the document. Writing in quill without scrap parchment does not make for a clean final draft."
"You made errors all along the left side of the document?"
Antonio winced. He had made a few errors on the left of the parchment near the beginning, before he could get his thoughts organized. But he hadn't made errors all up and down that side. He had blackened that section out because with the scratched out words hither and thither, the page was unbalanced, uneven.
"Yes. No. That is…that is beside the point. This document is more a symbol of our mutual trust and as such we should all sign it. I have already read and signed it, as you can see." He gestured to his near perfect signature at the bottom. It would have been completely perfect if only that "o" didn't lean slightly too much to the right. "Silisk, so as to compensate for your…handicap, would you permit me to sign for you as soon as you have read the document?"
She nodded and her name was written carefully upon the document after she confirmed she had read it. Good that there were no pesky o's to get in his way that time.
Aras was the second to sign the document, scanning it over far too slowly. Smart as he was, the wolverine was still clearly less literate than Antonio. Sybil signed it almost immediately with an untidy x, causing Antonio to question if she had in fact bothered to read it at all. At least she was not as much of an irritation as Rea, who asked him to read over a score and a half specific sentences before she agreed to mark the document, signing a curious symbol at the bottom of the page. Rea's diamond embedded within a circle and Sybil's blotchy x clashed with the otherwise neat signatures at the tail end of the document– neat for the most part; Aras's signature was far from polished. After Thalliv signed, Antonio rolled up the paper, placed it in his backpack and addressed his group once more.
"Now, I understand that our goal lies within this jungle, roughly half-way in if Miss Rea's astute observation is correct. Mister Thalliv, if you would be so kind as to lead us."
"Actually…" the servant hesitated. Out with it already! "Although I am quite learned in the layout of the city, the geography of the jungle escapes me."
"Ah. Quite alright, Mister Thalliv." Stupid, worthless, cowardly fool!
"Sir Antonio, I may be able to lead us to the landmark which we seek," said Silisk. "I used to dwell within this jungle, reigning over part of it until I was most unceremoniously captured." At this she punctuated her sentence with an irate hiss. "But, after pondering on the cryptic writing in yon warehouse, I have discovered that I may in fact have once seen the place of which the riddle speaks."
Antonio nodded. "Very well. Silisk shall acompony me near the head of the line and instruct me as to which direction we should travel. Thalliv, you shall take up position in the center once again so that you may easily defend should attack come from any side." It will also make it more difficult for you to escape. "The rest of you, stay behind but keep close. The jungle's perils may be many and we do not yet know if our…friend from the warehouse is still on our trail."
The jungle's layout was horrid. Trees were strewn hither and thither with no more order than the disorganized remnants of the city. Paths more made by happenstance than trampled into the earth by past explorers would occasionally end abruptly thanks to random overgrowth or green webs of vines littering the way. The rest of the jungle was little better. Humidity, combined with heat and a sense of confinement made for a very irate Antonio.
Silisk's directions had led them to the side of a cliff. As if trudging through these Fates forsaken woods wasn't enough, now they had to walk on uneven ground, nearly falling over each time they took a step.
"Sssh! Does anybeast hear that?"
The entire group wheeled around at Sybil's cry. Antonio listened, sure that it was that sack of excrement from the warehouse.
The sound which greeted his ears, however, was not the soft, quiet noise of sombeast attempting to sneak up on them. Nor did it emanate from behind. It came from their left. Antonio could feel the ground beneath his feet shudder as he turned to look, spying something knocking trees and rocks and foliage down the cliff. Behind the green-gray blur was a solid wall of brown, viscous mud.
Two thoughts hit Antonio as he tried in vain to run downhill away from the mass of earth. The first: that gunk was going to hit him, permanently ruin his clothes and be near impossible to get out of his fur. The second: What sort of pitiful pun would Dirano say in a situation like this? The answer hit him just as the brown wave crashed over him.
Quite the messy business