Twins Missing in Dual worlds chapter 29: The mystery out of the Inn.
Grimes growls looking at a collection of papers, wondering when his second in command would appear.
Sasha strolled in fashionable late.
"Lieutenant, where were you?" He asked, the massive toad growling, he clearly did not like the position of power the child had in the tower, nor how she didn't take it seriously. He also knew he was not much of a politician, and she was more than able to beat him at that game. "Anyway, I got a mission for you." He wanted this to be done professionally.
"What kind of mission?" Sasha asked looking over her nails, they found some berries which make for a perfect nail polish for the Waybright.
"There been reports of frogs, Toads, and a few newts going missing a mile off the Valley opening. I would ignore them, but after the first dozen it is just more trouble to ignore it than to deal with it." He said, "You may choose whoever you want will be your muscles."
"Alright then. Anyone?" She smirked. "Then get packing Grimaey you're with me."
"You know if you get eaten my hands would be spotless." He said, giving a non-too-subtle threat.
"You need me." She said to him.
"That is true for now." He said it would do her well to remember her place.
"Let's head out then." She said, not wasting time learning about the background.
HE grabbed his club, grumbling to himself. Sasha enjoyed the power they had.
"I'll ready a spider for the trip." He said, probably just some frogs deciding to be morons and got lost.
Sasha didn't find Grime's hypothesis convincing.
The only saving grace is she needed his force to get safely to Newtopia to find her friends, and if she tried a coup the other three toad towers wouldn't be so easily persuaded to listen to an outside. "It is ready."
"Let's roll on out then." She said, shrugging her shoulder as she got over the side of the cart, and sat down on the bed.
"Off Defenestrator. North Eastern hoe." He said, using the reign to get it moving, nearly knocking Sasha off her feet. He did enjoy that, luckily he found a lackey that could do his job for a bit.
She grumbled. "You're doing this on purpose."
"Steady, steady." He ordered the roads were wet from the rain from a day or two ago. "Hold on tight Lieutenant the roads are old and wet." He said, that while he gave the warning, he was more than happy to hear her cry of pain from every bump and every slide. She was a city slicker.
"You are the worst driver ever." Sasha was starting to wonder why she did this.
"Don't blame me the roads here were extremely slippery." He said, then again he was enjoying being able to make her bounce in the back. He might be a large toad but deep down he was a petty small person on the inside.
"Okay Grimsy, that is it, let me drive." She said.
"Okay," Grime said, giving in to her demands too easily. It was almost like Captain Grime leader of the South Tower, and former gladiator knew something about the giant arachnid that the blonde human from another world did not.
She was not an amazing driver, but she was trying for five seconds.
For five seconds before the spider stopped moving and decided that Sasha was a threat and used its urticating hair for defense. Sending the sixth-inch long hair at the human's undefended face. "Did I forget to mention all our mounts are trained to attack anyone who isn't a toad if they take the reigns?"
"You jerk!" Sasha said, being less acerbically than normal.
"You're the one that wanted to drive." He pointed out. "If you want to act without getting the required information, don't be surprised when it comes to impaling you know the face."
"That's not how things work."
"Says the girl with hair that can cause blindness on her face." He said, not aware how little she understood about the situation she just came in.
"My hair is fabulous." She wasn't having her hair go gray at an early age, no siree.
"I wasn't talking about your hair." He said.
"Ack!" She brushed them off, realizing what he meant.
"Let me take a reigns so that we can get somewhere." He said, taking control of the young girl without a driver's license.
She grumbled but let him.
He drove until they reached a little inn. "This is the only place in the immediate area, so we shall set up base here." He said, setting up the spider to a post.
"Wonder why it's here." Wouldn't someone setting up a business want to do that where the people and more importantly the money was?
"For travelers who lack the willpower to keep going to their destination." He said, "No good lay about, I went from Newtopia to the South Tower on my own without any kind of break." He said, that insane travel plans were considered normal for toads commanders.
"I guess so. You'd just think they'd want to have some local regular traffic." Sasha said.
"What do we know about business." He said he didn't know. "We need to tell the owner that we are talking over their property for our investigation. Thank frog for the eminent domain." He said, ready to break down the door of the Inn. "Get out, we're using the inn for our base." He said breaking down the door with a powerful kick.
"What in tarnation is going on here?" An elderly male toad said.
Sasha's face palmed. "Sorry. He's tired from the long trip."
"Maybe some freshly bake cookies will do, there coco bugs. I am Martha and this is my husband Teddy." She said, offering them a plate. She figured that might help elevate the situation.
"WE don't want any we are both on strict military diets." He said, giving Sasha a sideway glance as he spoke, since he found a lot of human food disgusting and full of fat and frankly shouldn't go in a living body.
Sasha rolled her eyes and then whispered to him. "Hey lay off it will ya? They might have information."
"You're saying we should torture them?" He asked, raising his arm club.
"Torture that doesn't seem necessary." She said, gently putting the cookies down on a nearby small side table, covering up most of the small table by the plat and any cookies dangling around the edge.
"No, you meathead, I'm saying let's try talking to them," She saw him raise the club again. "Nicely."
"If it all the same to you, miss...you know, you never gave me your name. I think my husband and I would rather talk with you and not your partner." She said she could tell easily he was part of the toad tower but knew nothing about the rank of the toad's forces since they were civilians from out of the Valley.
"My name's Sasha, and it's lovely to meet you both." She knew how to seem friendly when it suits her.
"I don't think we saw anything like you before." She said, the older toad was rubbing her chin then raised a single finger, "Oh, wait I think I saw a smaller one of your kind once, but she ran off before telling us where they were from." She said.
This got her attention. "Did she look like either of these girls?" She held up her photo of her and the others. Could Anne and Marcy be in the valley with her?
"Fraid not deary, she had this one hair color." She said, pointing at Anne, "But less curly. Doesn't have the tan of your two friends though." She said, "She was this tall, went to put up her snail yelled something, and left with some frogs."
"Wait, that sounds like Mabel?" The girl she had been trying to get to join their circle because Sasha found her amusing was here.
"I think I hear that name, I wonder why she left," Martha said, she knows why but no need to reveal anything she didn't need to Sasha and Grimes.
"She probably ran off to chase a butterfly." Sasha liked the girl, but she could go from one hundred to zero and back again on whatever she happened to be interested in at the time.
"That sounds about right. Crying shame too, it was a real slow time, we could have used the business." Martha said.
"Has it been slow for a while?" Sasha did notice they were the only ones here.
"It usually is during the winter, but don't you worry now deary the second that glacier dethaw we will have plenty of customers." She said, "We always do." She said she and her husband rubbed their nose together.
"Really? How many?" Sasha looks around, the fireplace, the soft furniture, even the smell of the cookies. This would not be a bad place to peacefully rest.
"Never more than twenty but more than enough to pay our taxes." She said.
Teddy spoke, "Don't worry about that." They always did their taxes, no need for angry Toad Tower.
"I'm glad to hear that. But speaking of hearing, we've heard that people have been getting lost in the area. Have you heard that too?" Sasha noticed that Grimes was actively tapping his foot, yeah choosing him was one of her poorer decisions honestly.
Teddy looks nervous, "I hear that roads were treacherous, we never assumed that they were any more dangerous than the rest of the Valley."
Grimes wanted to smash stuff but Sasha kept a steady head, "Could also be the elements. Maybe you should put up more signage along the paths. Make it easier for people to find your lovely place."
"We can do that sweeties, well we better not be keeping you. "Martha said, being nice. "Feel free to have some cookies." She offered, she saw no reason to be anything but nice.
"Wait. Have you met any of the missing frogs?" Sasha should have started with that.
"We might have, you wouldn't happen to know any of their names would you?" Teddy asked, wiping down his counter.
She listed off about a dozen names, she grabbed the list of missing Amphibians from Grimes's desk before leaving.
"I think a couple of them went by, all travelers of course." Martha pointed out. "Maybe you two can stay the night and relax."
"That sounds nice. We can check the surrounding area for hazards." Sasha is way too sweet.
"Sounds good, although the younglings are doing some cleaning in the kitchen so we would appreciate it if you stay away," Teddy said.
"That's not a problem," Sasha said, literally hand-waving that concern away for the moment.
"Come along lieutenant, we might as well search the grounds maybe there is a clue or two." He said, trying to be professional now that his field of interest of in.
"Don't be a stranger," Martha told them as she waved them bye.
"See wasn't that easier?" Sasha said once they were outside alone.
"That only part of that conversation that didn't disgust me was at least you were making a deal with toads." He said. "Annoying toads, but still toads." He said, something seemed off about them but he didn't know what.
Sasha rolled her eyes at this but then decided to talk about what was on her mind. "They seemed a little off."
"It's probably a long time with only family who have been slowly driving them mad." He said, "They claim they got guests but could be grubbug wash." He said, looking around the grounds. "See if you get anything that says there was a sign of struggle."
"Can do boss man." She said."I guess that could be it."
"It sounds like you have your theory lieutenant." He said, might as well see what she has to say.
"They're a business, right? But there was just something off about the way they talked to us. And how they reacted when we brought up the missing people."
"I can get wanting to make it sound like we are going to love every second here but that seems wrong...but we're stuck here, no point wasting any of our time going back on the wrong people."
"Alright. Where should we check first then?" She was still uneasy.
"Let's start with the perimeter of the Inn, maybe see if there is anything suspicious about the area." Maybe there was some broken window.
"I'll check the barn." Sasha honestly couldn't believe she said that, she hated the country.
"Excellent work lieutenant." He said.
She grinned and walked off.
The thing was free of any snails guessing they didn't like to travel themselves.
She looked at the ground. There were a lot of tracks. Fresh tracks. Someone was in here recently.
There were a lot of snails and they came out quickly. They weren't too busy lately.
"Okay, this is weird." Sasha tilted her head.
There was a whole lot of dust and dirt but could tell there were a few things not supposed to be there, maybe if Sasha got dirty and investigated.
Underneath some of the dirt, a triangle sticking out of the ground looked wooden but it was impossible to tell from the angle. She would have to pick it up if she wanted to see what it was.
She reluctantly picked it up.
It was an old sign the paint was faded but Sasha was able to read the words 'Just Married' in English for some reason. If she wasn't careful she'd easily get a splinter, but the cracks and rot made one thing completely clear this sign has been here for a long time. She decided to bring it to Grime. It was a just marry sigh so that explains why it would be in the snail barn but not why they didn't get it when they were leaving.
Sasha explains, "There is something off in that barn."
"Do you have any proof I can use, I have been told that until we deal with the problem in Wartwood we have to try to slow down on the assault if we can help it. Can kick people out of their homes easy enough but don't think it applies to imprisonment sadly."
She facepalmed, how could he be so dense?
"Hey, you knew what kind of force you were joining when I hired you." He said, a bit upset that she was like that. "Don't act like you're suddenly a moral paragon." He said.
"I think that the owners did it," Sasha said.
"I think you're right, but we have to get the evidence we don't need Newtopia coming in to mess with us. Sadly you chose the wrong toad for the job."
"I don't think I did Grime. You act mean but I know deep down. And I mean REALLY deep down you want to solve this."
"Oh course I do, the sooner the two of us solve our annoying case, the sooner we can go back and we can plan to crush this rebellion of ours." Grimes said, "Now I have to waste time with problems for the local sheriffs.
She snorted at him. "No signs of broken glass or wood, so I have no reason to believe anyone tried to break out of this place. So at least that's a good sign."
Sasha decided that going inside was the only way she could go for this mission, and would do so alone.
It had two floors the bottom for the owners to do their jobs and the top floor for the guests to sleep in.
The guest rooms would be the best place if she wanted evidence.
She entered a random room on the left side of the hallway, the inside of it was a little messy the owners did not bother cleaning up beforehand. This was very odd. But not incriminating.
The room had a messy bed, a nightstand, and a mushroom lamp maybe if she investigated something.
No signs of a struggle. Even around the messy bed. It looked more like it just wasn't made... but wait. Was that... She crouched down. Someone left behind their wallet?
That is something extremely important why did they leave it behind?
She decided to look for other forgotten things.
She found a little doll. Must be important it looked handmade
It was a little newt, it was kinda of cute. Something Marcy would like, Sasha to look behind her no one to judge her, and the person wouldn't complain about a little thievery so put it in a side pocket in the back of her cape.
Once done there she decided to head to the other side of the room.
"Okay Sasha, you need to find something incriminating." She said, Sasha chuckled since she was used to hiding incriminating stuff as opposed to finding them.
She wondered if they left anything else maybe something other than money or a toy. She looked under the bed. She saw some crumbs on the floor they did not do a good job of cleaning the place up.
She saw a mouse run over and eat some of the crumbs…her eyes widened as she saw it was out cold. She rushes to the door wanting to talk with Grimes.
Grimes was complaining, "Nothing." He said, "I been looking for an hour and got nothing." Sasha made her way over to him. "Lieutenant do you got anything?" Captain asked.
"Yes. But. I need to ask you for a favor." Sasha asked.
"I can do it if the favor is small enough." The Captain wouldn't allow her to boss him around, he was the captain here.
She smiled and…
A couple hours later at the dining room:
The two decided to meet up with the family over the last supper.
Sasha sat down with them.
Martha smiled, "Here you go sweetie we made cookies."
"Aww, you are so sweet," Sasha said, with a wide smile at this.
"You both look so exhausted from all the investigation," Teddy said, they were sure they had the place clean.
"Ya. Unfortunately all that searching and no leads." Sasha said Grime was upset by this.
Teddy smiled happy they didn't catch onto them, "That is a shame, we were rooting for ya, we were."
"It's worrying. You guys could be in danger." That would be the best if they were gone from here.
"Don't worry about our honey, we are pretty adept at survival. I may not look it but I am pretty tough." The older horn toad said.
"Really?" Sasha asked, as Grimes was eying the window and gave a smile.
"Yeah, the travel here was a bit rough." She said, "But we won't bore you." she said, waving her hand at Sasha.
"Oh, I'm sure you're never a bore." Sasha keeps focus on her and her husband.
"Aren't you just the sweetest," Martha said, giving an honest compliment to the bizarre creature.
Sasha gave the same smile she did when Marcy was talking about Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons.
"You should eat, you're going to just blow away at your current way." The husband said.
"Don't mind if I do." She said happily eating some of the cookies herself.
Grimes watches this, putting one in his mouth as well. After a few minutes of eating the two started to pass out.
"What what is happening?" The teenage human started to look dizzy as she was talking.
"What did you puuut in thooose co ookies." Grimes said.
This got Sasha to say, "Oh we've been tricked!"
"Oh dearie, just relax and fall asleep," Martha said.
"Wh att did you do to, to us...?" Grimes asked, his head struggling to try to keep from raising itself.
"Just a little something something to help you sleep. No need to fight it. You could bruise." Teddy said.
"Wh...at?" He said his voice slow, "Why are you doing this?" The captain of the guard asked.
"It's nothing personal. This is just how we are." The wife said.
"What do you mean?" Sasha asked.
"We like fresh food." Teddy laughed.
"Explain yo yourself now." Sasha said.
"We're cannibals sweetie. Though we haven't eaten whatever you are before. But I'm sure you'll be delicious." Martha said.
"You have no rights, any signs of resist tance by you will be met with punishment up to and including execution," Sasha said.
"Just calm down and go to sleep," Teddy said, trying to have a soothing voice.
"You won't get away with this." Sasha made her voice clear she was threatening them, and not sounding as drugged.
"Oh, I think we will." They felt they were the ones in power.
"We, we will stop, stop you." He slurred rotating his neck at this
"And how exactly do you plan to do that? You're all alone." Martha said giving them her full attention.
Sasha just started to laugh at their comment. They were taken aback, looking concerned at one another. A voice was heard from behind them, "They are not alone." Percy said he and Braddock were both well-armed with spears.
"Took you long enough." Sasha said sitting up straight, "Thanks again Braddock for swapping the cookies." She said.
The cannibals try to run out, but the guards block the doorway. "No way are we going down." The wife said throwing a knife, Sasha did a backflip to get away, and the blade landed on her cape, in the doll.
Grimes looks at her worry, "I am fine GRimes." She said, leaping over to the big toads Sasha kicked the legs out from under them, "If you spend more time running and less stuffing your face that might not have happened." She said, seeing no reason not to toy with her prey.
"You brat!" The husband said.
"Percy Braddock take out the trash..." Sasha saw Percy grab a trash can, "I wasn't being literal." She said rubbing her temple.
To Be Continue…
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Reviews: RonaldM40196867 chapter 28 . Aug 25
Yes, yes he was.
Blunt get the job done.
I think she own her own fashion store.