Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One - Gangsta Bun

“We know where to look!” I called out to Amaryllis and Cholondee as I raced back to them. The mugger had been very informative after a little bit. He was even kind of nice.

The streets were still mostly clear, though a few people were poking their heads out of alleyways and over the lips of the roofs to stare down at Cholondee. The dragoness was, after all, a very impressive lady.

We would need to move though, there didn’t seem to be that many exits to the Scumways and we were effectively blocking one of them which was a bit rude.

“What did you learn?” Amaryllis asked.

I came to a bouncing stop before her and looked over to make sure Awen was still on my heels. “We found out where the Morepoles have their big base. It’s way on the other side of the Scumways, near to the docks.”

One of Amaryllis’ eyebrows rose up a bit. “I would have expected them to be closer to the nice parts of town, not so close to where the smell is this awful.”

“Maybe it’s for solidarity?” I asked.

“Broccoli, they’re a criminal organization, I doubt solidarity is a major factor.”

I shook my head. “It should be. Think of how it would look to their members to see that some of them are living way better than them. It sends the wrong image.”

“Awa, do you know a lot about gangs and such, Broccoli?” Awen asked.

I tried not to flush. “When I was little I had different goals. I wanted to either be a veterinarian so that I could spend the day playing with cute animals, or an anthropologist so that I could meet new sorts of people, but for a little bit I wanted to be a gangster.”

“A gangster,” Amaryllis repeated, her voice so flat it could have been used as a level.

I tucked my hands away at the small of my back. “They have cool beanies.”

Amaryllis huffed her ‘this is silly, let’s move on’ huff and fluttered a wing about in a ‘go on’ gesture. “We could get moving. I’d like to get this business done sometime today. I do have things I’d rather be doing.”

“You do?” I asked.

“Idiot, of course I do,” Amaryllis said. “But we can get all of this stuff done first.”

I grinned. “It’s really nice of you to want to help Booksie this much,” I said.

Amaryllis glared. “You said near the docks, right? It should be that way.” She pointed off to the side. “We’ll use the widest roads we can.”

“Oh please, if you’re going to try and find a route that I can fit in then just give up, I’ve seen this place from the air,” Cholondee said. “I’d have to tear down half these buildings to pass through, and while that would be amusing, it would also scuff my scales. I’m going to fly off my breakfast, maybe find some Sky Murgh to snack on.”

“Ah, okay,” I said. “How will we find you again?” I asked.

The dragon eyed me, mirth making her eyes twist up at the corners. “Foolish bun, I’m the predator here. I find you.”

With that, she spread her wings wide and started to beat at the ground. I had to press my skirts down and cover my eyes as huge gusts of wind rushed past. When they abated, Cholondee was far above and circling over the city.

I waved up to her and saw her waving back a moment later.

Dragons were so cool!

Once I was done fangirling about my new friend, I skipped over to my more ground-bound friends, grabbed their hands and/or talons, and started pulling them along after me. “Let’s go find the boss!”

The roads of the Scumways needed some serious maintenance. Pulling my friends along already made travelling hard, but the missing cobbles and the cracked pavement made it harder still.

As soon as we were a block over, the city became a little livelier.

Or maybe that wasn’t the right word.

There were more people about, definitely, but they were shifty. Grenoil in long coats standing by the entrance of alleys, women of a few races in revealing clothes leaning next to houses with red bows over their doors.

A few folk eyed us mistrustfully as we moved by, and I was getting the distinct impression that we weren’t welcome.

Maybe it was because we stuck out like sore thumbs. My armour and dress were both bright, Awen’s long coat and fancy crossbow too. Amaryllis was the only member of our group wearing more muted colours with her brown over brown outfit, but the way she walked and her white feathers made her stick out anyway.

Other people I could see were all dirty and hunched over, wearing grey rags or simple brown clothes, with pant legs that were muddy to mid-calf and their long coats were torn more often than not.

I was considering maybe buying a few coats that we could toss over our clothes to better fit in when we rounded a corner and found ourselves on a road with a single man standing in the middle of it.

He was a taller, bulkier grenoil, lips curled up at the corners and a long wooden bat over his shoulder. “Heard you girls were lookin’ for us,” he said.

I slowed to a stop, then let go of my friends. Just in case, I looked over my shoulder to make sure there wasn’t another group of girls he might have been talking to. It would have been really embarrassing if he was and I replied thinking he meant us.

“Maybe,” I said. “We’re looking for the Morepoles. Are you one of them?”

“Oh, we are,” he said. The grenoil whistled, a sound I didn’t know grenoil could make, and a dozen people appeared out of the alleys and buildings around us. They were a scruffy mix of grenoil and humans, all dressed in Scumway chique and carrying bats and chains and a few knives.

I felt Amaryllis and Awen tense, the air around us filling with the faint scent of ozone as Amaryllis’ magic started to seep out of her and made her feathers rise. Awen pulled her crossbow off her back and had it ready to shoot though she didn’t seem to know where to aim.

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“Are you here to escort us to your boss?” I asked. “Because that would be real helpful!”

The big grenoil smiled wide and shifted his bat so that he held it before him. “I’m here to beat ze crap out of ya, zen we’ll see ‘bout bringing you to ze bosses.”

I blinked. “That seems really counterintuitive. We just want to talk. I don’t think you know what we want to talk about yet. What if we’re customers?”

“Are you customers?” he asked.

“Well, no, not really,” I said.

“Broccoli, I think that would have been a good moment to lie,” Amaryllis said.

“Oh, right, oops.” I tapped the side of my helmet with a knuckle. “But yeah, we’re not here to fight; so maybe we could just not fight and become friends?”

Big Green

Desired Quality: Someone who admires how big he is.

Dream: To beat up anyone who steps onto his turf.

Big Green tightened his grip around his bat and pointed at me with it. “Are you saying we’re too cowardly to fight?”

“No? That’s exactly what I didn’t say,” I said.

“You hear zat? Ze girl is mocking us!” Big Green said. “We should teach zem a lesson, zen have our fun wiz zem after!”

I felt a pit opening up in my tummy. Maybe going to the worst part of town was a bad idea, after all. I pulled my warspade around and off my back while eyeing our surroundings.

The street wasn’t too narrow, but it wasn’t all that wide either. Not enough that we could use it as a chokepoint. There was an alleyway nearby, and I could see a set of fire-escape like stairs in its shadows. That might be handy, except there was a young human between us and it. “Insight,” I whispered.

An excited human Scavenger, level eight.

Weaker than any of us. But I couldn’t bet on that being the case for all of them.

“The alley,” I whispered.

“I see it,” Amaryllis said.

I looked around, other than that one alley, there weren’t that many places to go.

“When I say ‘go’ we run,” I muttered.

“You think you can just leave?” Big Green asked. Had he heard me?

“No sir, I think that instead of fighting we should just-- Go!” I spun on a heel and darted towards the alley.

The Scavenger in our path looked at us with widening eyes and started to raise the nail-covered piece of wood he had.

I batted the wood aside with the end of my spade, then spun around him. As I passed, I flicked out my foot backwards mid-hop and hit him behind the knee. He squeaked as he went down.

Amaryllis and Awen slid into the alley and I moved after them in a hurry.

“After zem!”

The alley was a mess, but I could see the light from another street out ahead of us. Amaryllis cast a bit of light to allow us to skip over some of the trash left on the ground.

Booted feet thumped behind us, the thugs getting closer, but we burst out of the other end of the alley without any of them catching up.

Amaryllis slid to a stop, raised her hand, and frowned as she focused.

“No killing!” I shouted.

She huffed. “Close your eyes!”

I did as she asked.

Light burst out of her hands, followed by a sound like an empty steel drum being flung off the roof of a building. Screams came from within the alley as our followers dealt with the magical equivalent for a flash-bang to the face.

“Nice!” I said as I looked around. This street was nicer. Barely. It had a couple of shops, and some crooked street lamps dotted the sides of the road, most missing the two lamps at their tops.

“Awa, that way!” Awen said as she pointed to the end of the street.

We started to move, only to come to a scampering stop as half a dozen thugs ran out from another alley and cut off our path. Turning around was no good, those Amaryllis hadn’t caught in her blast were moving out behind us, followed by their blinded and dazed buddies.

“Shop!” Amaryllis said.

She ran over to a store and unceremoniously smashed through its window shoulder-first.

Awen jumped in after her.

I was too slow to act, before I got to the storefront Big Green landed before me and brandished his bat my way. “You’re not escaping me! None of you are,” he said.

I tightened my grip on my spade and looked around, all my ears perked to listen for an opportunity or for trouble. I couldn’t see an easy way out. Maybe I could jump to the roofs?

A glance at the two or three grenoil that had followed by jumping over the buildings nixed that idea.

Big Green didn’t announce his attack. He just rushed towards me, bat swinging down for my head.

I hopped to the side, then had to skip backwards as that brought me into stabbing range of another thug.

I was caught in a circle, one that was quickly growing smaller. I tossed my spade up and slid my backpack off in one smooth motion, then caught my spade again. Now I could fight unencumbered.

“Fight, you moron!” Amaryllis shouted.

A blast of wrist-thick lightning shot out of the store and hit one of the grenoil goons in the side. The grenoil was flung off his feet, his entire body twitching and writhing in midair before he crashed onto the sidewalk.

Another man screamed as a bolt appeared in his shin.

I decided to take Amaryllis’ words to heart. If these people wanted a fight, they’d get one. And when I was done beating the stuffing out of them I’d lecture them real hard about how to greet people nicely and be friendly because this sort of behaviour was unacceptable.

***