Grugg yelped and leaped to his feet, hand reaching for the slung Thud before getting a better grip on his nerves.
“Wow, a jumpy one too; what you hiding?” Gregor prodded as he dragged a case in through the doorway behind him.
“N-nothing.”
“Ok, ser big guy.” The ratman set the wizard’s case on the floor, hopped on to sit on it, and folded his arms. “So, what’s with the eye?”
“Grugg is cyclops, is just how cyclops are.” Grugg was taken aback by the intense look in the eyes of Gregor. Perhaps he should be taking notes from the ratman on how to ask questions. He remembered now of the small rodents he played with as a child - that would explain his conflicted feelings of why seeing ratfolk sat weirdly with him. “What’s with the, uh-”
“Tail? Or fur? Not many ratfolk around here; I get a lot of odd glances, just as sure as you probably do. My den usually keeps to themselves, but they sent me away for a while because I am apparently too nosey and bossy. I came here to work, but I think something fishy is going on in this town.”
[Interesting, maybe there is even more going on than we know.]
Grugg nodded. In truth, he would agree that there was indeed more going on in the town than he knew, on the basis he had only just got here. Even if he did know everything, he would surely forget most of it. Even so, having an ally with their ear to the ground could be to their benefit.
“Did you see when big Lady came here?”
“Ah yes, I did! Immediately suspicious, I thought. She was asking lots of questions of ser Innkeeper. She wanted to ask questions of myself too, but I hid. There’s a secret den under the Inn that I dug for myself for when I don’t want to deal with ser Innkeeper's busy work. It makes good for listening in, too. Did you know the Inn is mostly a front for a slightly-illegal fighting ring?”
“What?” Grugg began, his head spinning with the constant dump of information from the ratman.
[Slightly-illegal? Fighting ring? That’s a- perhaps ask him what he found out about the Lady?]
“How I join fighting ring?” the cyclops continued. Punching things sounded much more fun than all these words right now.
[Grugg, that’s not really-]
“Oh, easy; just tell ser Innkeeper you would like a ‘room with the best view of the twilight’, and he will tell you the special location for fights. I do not know of it myself as I am not often allowed to leave the Inn and don’t care to. You might have a day or two to wait before they organize something, though. If you want me to find out anything, I can try tho.” A wry smile spread across Gregor’s face, the sharp rows of teeth picking up the last of the sunlight as it settled into the horizon.
“Yes please, Gregor.” Grugg returned the grin, despite the show of the ratman’s teeth unnerving him. “Is there anything Grugg can do to help Gregor?”
The tip of Gregor’s tail swished in the air back and forth as he pondered this question and scratched at the white fur under his chin with a clawed finger. Eventually, with open arms, he posed his answer. “Take me on as your assistant.”
[That is a big ask. Although he could prove useful…]
“How’s that?” Grugg asked, the question equally poised at both of them. Wasn’t he the assistant in this situation? He barely had a grasp on what was going on in his own life.
“You are investigating ser wizard’s death, yeah? I’m good at finding out information; all I want in return is some free rein of the town… and protection should I poke my nose in somewhere unwanted.”
“Punching people sounds good,” the cyclops admitted.
[Let us accept, he is undoubtedly an odd character, but that’ll put him in good company.]
“Okay,” Grugg nodded. “Gregor, is now assistant investigator.”
The ratman lept up, standing on top of the luggage case, and extended his paw towards the cyclops. Another grin and the light again turned his eyes into glowing reddish baubles. “Then it is decided, ser Grugg.”
Grugg held the paw of the ratman and gently shook it, trying not to be too rough, along with not being weirded out by the small furry hand.
“For now, I will continue my Inn work as a cover - but after I bring breakfast in the morning, we can discuss our plans going forward.” Gregor hopped down from the luggage and started making his way out of the door. “It has been a pleasure to meet someone so interested in rooting out crime; I do hope we will hold no secrets from each other. In time”. His voice carried softly in the air as his light footsteps made their way across the garden away from the barn-house. The doorway slowly closed by itself, again soundlessly, until Grugg was alone in the now barely lit room.
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[He is probably more dangerous than he looks.]
“Little ratman very creepy, good with words.”
[Probably not entirely forthright with everything we discussed. But we had only just met, and it would make sense not to give away the whole goose to a stranger.]
“Goose,” Grugg repeated, his stomach taking control of his brain momentarily. He was more hungry than he was tired, but if he slept it away, then he would get closer to that promised breakfast.
[Let’s get some rest, and we can decide what to do tomorrow.]
“Grugg agree. Goodnight, Bart.” He laid down upon the bed, which complained underneath his weight as he tried to adjust and get in a comfortable position. Thud stood next to the bed now, half in the open-topped crate, still with the leather cover wrapped around. He had considered using the Orb in the bedroom, but mentally he was exhausted, and it could wait. Despite the bed being objectively more comfortable than the one back at home, he still struggled to get to sleep until his brain was too tired to object any more.
----------------------------------------
Grugg awoke from a dream. It was a pretty nice dream. There was a lot of cheese involved and various cooked meats. It struck him as a little odd, as he had only had cheese a couple of times when he was younger. There weren’t a lot of good options for dairy goods up in the mountain, and after an embarrassing misunderstanding with the goatmen one year, he had decided it was not worth the trouble. The dream started to fade, and the longing for the tasty foods made him a little sad. Sitting up in the bed, aided by a long creak of the wooden joints, he scratched the back of his head where the hat remained attached and yawned.
[Morning Grugg, some good news; you should be fully healed now, and I may have gotten control over another spell!]
“That’s good, Bart. Is it Conjure Breakfast?”
[Well, no, it actually is-]
“BREAKFAST!” Grugg yelled and slapped his hand down on the flat wooden beam at the bottom of the bed.
[That’s not how spells work-]
The door to the barn suddenly swung inwards as Gregor followed in, pulling a small cart behind him.
“These wheels are terrible on the grass. Almost lost the bacon a couple of times. Not that you’d mind a bit of grass in your bacon, would you ser Grugg?” He was standing in front of the cart as if to hide the food, although his attempt at misdirection was pretty transparent. The ratman was also not wrong, as the stomach of the cyclops gave a deep growl of hunger in anticipation of the meal.
“Oh, is that all for Grugg?” he craned his neck to try to take it all in, which was easily enough done given their comparative size differences. Bacon, eggs, a ham joint, what smelled like freshly baked bread, and what was that - cheese!
[I will admit I am actually somewhat jealous of all this food I am unable to eat.]
“Yes it is, ser Grugg. Just don’t ask where I got it or who cooked it. Probably just act as if you didn’t see me this morning.” He leaned now against the wall with his arms folded, twitching his whiskers with mischievous glee.
“Gregor is good friend,” the cyclops began, taking a large handful of the plated cooked food and dumping it into his mouth with the bare minimum of restraint.
“Friend, huh? Nobody has called me that before.” The mischievous tint to his expression now turned to a more thoughtful one, the tip of his tail swirling slow circles in the air.
[Did you want to ask him about Lady Peony now?]
“Gregor,” he slurped between mouthfuls of egg and bread, “What did tall Lady ask with the Inkeeper man?”
“If you want to know, you must tell me something first.”
Grugg nodded, too busy enjoying his meal to respond verbally.
“Why do you wear the wizard’s hat and talk to it?” The ratman stood very still, eyes narrowed at the cyclops, awaiting the response. Grugg licked his lips.
[I don't think it would be a good idea to tell him more than he needs to-]
“Dead wizard now lives in hat, talks to Grugg in head.”
A moment of silence passed as Gregor slowly blinked at the cyclops, the only sound in the room being Grugg eating the small banquet before him - which was quickly running out.
“Ok. Lady wanted to know about the dead wizard, asked about when he came to stay, where he could have gone. Ser Innkeeper didn’t know much; the wizard wasn’t here long before leaving off to the mountain. That’s about when she left. Seems to be part of some kind of investigation organization. There was a logo, but I haven’t seen it before.”
[Did he just totally accept- Just ask him about the logo.]
“What does logo look like?” Grugg finished licking the last plate clean and placed it gently back on the cart.
“It was an eye.” He flashed a fang-filled wide grin, “Funny that, huh? Had some lettering around it but wasn’t a language I could read.”
“What can you speak? I can speak Common and Giant.” The cyclops returned the smile, but more just because he was proud of being bilingual. Of course, a lot of giant-folk like the yeti didn’t bother learning Common, but cyclops tribes still did, even if their integration into most societies wasn’t as frequent as ogres.
“Just Common. Denspeak too, but only ratfolk really know that, and the dialects can change between different dens.”
Grugg nodded knowingly. He was just thinking about how he hoped a second cart was hidden somewhere, waiting. Maybe a third, too. After eating his own cooking and pine nuts for years, the food was especially good.
It’s really quite annoying to be constantly interrupted or ignored, not being part of the conversation properly.
“Sorry Bart, will try to be more nice with including you.” He pat the hat's peak softly.
Gregor observed this interaction but said nothing, eyeing the cyclops with a blank stare.
[Good thing I had practised my new spell then…]
“Grugg was wondering if there was any more food,” he grinned again at the ratman.
The disembodied voice of the wizard rang out throughout the room with an ethereal, hollow tang to it, stunning both Gregor and Grugg.
After a few seconds of silence, the ratman began to slow-clap. “Neat trick, ser.”