It would be hard to say the rest of the trip goes smoothly. No trip through such an area goes without a hitch, but it goes reasonably. They stick to the path, anything that tries to snack on them gets a 'suggestion' from Chago to go away, usually after a bit of a scuffle, since it often takes the scuffle to get them close enough to yell at. It all works out in the long run.
How long the trip is before the darkness begins to ease is hard to say. Long enough that Genny, for one, is glad to see the fog easing and the sight of a small well-built town in the distance. It's not the effort of the walk or the fight that makes her glad, but a rumbly stomach, much to her amused chagrin.
"Well...that weren't so bad. See a place that looks likely fer drinkin' an' cleanin' up?"
Hey now... some toys are allowed in the kitchen. After all, he cooks too. That aside, he seems to feel much the same about the trip as she does. The fights are good, but nibbling on trouble just means he wants something real to eat that much sooner. It's like getting appetizers and no dinner, damn it. Thankfully, town is soon seen and he looks around, then sniffs the air. "That way. I smell the cooking fires."
With that, he starts out the direction he pointed, just in time to hear a small commotion from the building he seems to be going toward as a young boggan is thrown out of the place. "Enough of your tales! Get out!" comes the cries from the innkeeper.
The boggan rises to his knees, looking somewhere between terrified and pleading as he calls back. "But sirrah, it's true I say! Just come and look!"
The obviously elderly innkeeper gives a shake of his head and points away. "Off with you! It was true all the other times too, and I've lost enough food to your troublemaker friends while you laughed at me to not want to see it again!" Then the innkeeper notices Chago and Genny. "Hoy! You there! Would you eat a boggan for me if he tries to come in again?" he asks before turning back to go inside and slam the door behind him without waiting for an answer. In fact, it was quick enough that he likely didn't want to hear in case the answer was “yes”.
Genny arches both eyebrows as the boggan comes to a stop at their feet. A nice satyr would comfort the kid, or tell him an even better story. Genny is only nice when she feels like it and is currently hungry and has ichor in her fur. She leans down and pinches the kid's cheek none too gently. "Mmm...meat is tender enough. A few spices maybe..."
The boggan's eyes widen and he just might hyperventilate. Scary Redcap, scary satyr chick, may be willing to eat him. So he does the brilliant thing and covers his head with his arms, since running just might encourage a Redcap's hunting instinct. "Please don't eat me!"
Chago smirks at Genny when the boggan covers up and can't see the amusement. Then he bends and pokes a couple spots along the ribs since the fellow's arms are out of the way. "Maybe. Open pit barbeque might work. Have to render off a lot of fat, unless we made some chittlins." he muses thoughtfully. Good thing the boggan wasn't ticklish too. The fellow didn't try and protect his ribs and lay his arm on those barbed and hungry Gauntlets.
"Please..." the boggan all but blubbers "...I gotta find help for my mates." Then he starts to try and inch away with small shifts of his knees while not looking. Inch. Inch. *bump* It's a shame he went the wrong way and ran right into the redcap huh?
"The hell is going on?" Chago asks while taking off one Gauntlet to free a hand to lay a sharp backhanded slap to those 'protecting' arms.
"IPE!" The boggan yelps, lunging away from Chago and ending up falling backward heels over head. When he comes to a stop again, he almost looks like he might cry before managing to gasp out. "They're being held. In a place like nothing I've ever seen before. It's like a heat shimmer or a television, but when they touched it, they just got stuck there. And it’s something… it’s connected to… to the outside."
Genny rests her hands on her hips, looking between the boggan and the redcap. She chews her lower lip before asking. "Can ya show us where this thing is?" Without waiting for an answer, she mutters. "Might be what I felt back there... What're the odds, darlin'?" With them and him a Soother...prolly pretty damn good.
With another of his infamous snorts, Chago flicks Genny a glance. "Think about all the shit we been through." he points out. "I figure we had a better chance of getting caught by that shit than a beer and a bath since we're just outside a f-ing inn."
He pauses then to pull his Gauntlet back on and flex his fist, making the boggan flinch again with the noise. Once the weapon is settled properly, he turns his focus fully to the little fellow. "Now listen. You and me need to be real clear on something mula...I don't like assholes that jerk me around, comprende?" the redcap moves slowly closer to the cowering boggan, licking his lips and rolling his head to pop his neck. "If you try and play us..." and then he just smiles that shark toothed grin of his. Does he really need to say more?
Say more? Nope. The poor boggan looks like he just might wet himself. He nods, turning his gaze to Genny in hopes she might save him from the mean ol' redcap with all the teeth. He don't know her very well do he? She nudges him in the ribs, the barbed wire wrapping her hooves awful close to his tender skin. "Let's go back ta the original question. Can ya show us 'r na?"
"I..." His lip quivers and he manages to sit back on his haunches. It's not bravery, as much as sitting back a bit from both of them. "I can take you there." A glance to the inn and he offers quietly. "If you want to eat first, I can wait." Yes, try and get them to sate their appetites on something besides him.
Chago flashes Genny a glance and a smile at her handling and then looks back to the boggan. "Ain't no need. We can grab something as we pass through. There's a market, ain't there?" he asks. "Why go clean up and eat fancy when we're about to make a bigger mess anyway, right?" Out of what's there or the boggan. Doesn't matter which. He gestures lazily with one hand, then pauses to work a tiny scrap of something dark and slimy looking from under a fingernail. "Besides, my girl ain't got to kick the shit out of enough yet. We could use the extra workout before bed."
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And the boggan's eyes widen more as they lock on the satyr. A redcap's girl? The boggan's lips move soundlessly as he seems to be in a state of shock for a moment. Traveling companions, he was handling. His girl though?
If Genny can read lips, he's saying 'I heard goats would bed anything....' in that soundless moment. Good thing Chago -can't- read lips.
Genny's gaze sharpens as the boggan's lips move. She can indeed make out what's being said. Her fingers twitch towards the whip that hangs on her hip, the blades woven into the leather tipped with the ichor of the beasties they've already fought. She's not so much upset over the ideas of goats bedding what or whomever, but doesn't like it applied to -her- redcap.
She takes a step forward, lunging down and catching the boggan by the front of his shirt, lifting him by main strength. Genny may never be as strong as Chago, but working out with him has increased the muscle mass of the wilder goat. She holds the boggan up so her nose is about half an inch from his and growls, a feral noise. "One more comment an' I'm gonna be the one ta take a bite our 'f yer ass. Now, I am hungry an’ I want whatever’s tuggin’ at me dealt wi’. I suggest ya show us the way. Market, then yer disturbance, an' ya may jus' live ta see the dawn.”
How does one define 'not good'? Well one way is upsetting the trueheart of a temperamental redcap. After all, she has to be able to handle his moods for one, and her being upset means "What the hell did that little bitch say?" Chago growls, looking ready to go ahead and eat him on the spot. His hands curl into tight fists as he speaks, then he opens one and holds it out in a stopping gesture. "Shit. Don't tell me. You tell me and we'll need another guide. If you ain't already ripping him a new asshole, I don't need to know." See? Smart redcap. From the reaction of Gennny's 'burden' it's a suddenly religious boggan too. Looks like he's thanking whatever saved his ass alright.
After a moment though, only enough to recover his wits, likely after a shake to help that along, the boggan is pointing and his short little legs are working in the air like he's forgotten he's been picked up. "This way. This way! Come on!"
Genny nods, her eyes snapping but she drops the boggan, who hits his butt, but bounces back to his feet almost as quickly. She rolls her neck, can't imagine where she picked up that particular motion from, and then gives Chago a faint little smile. "He's jus' lucky that I don't have any garlic." That's all she says, since she does realize they need a guide and she turns after the kid. Her tail flicks slightly, a twitch that shows agitation, but that's it. Heat up and reign it in, that's Genny's mo, then use the reigned in to kick something's teeth in later or cook up a storm.
The boggan leads them quickly, he doesn't want to die, and nothing else seems to be willing to get in the way of the pair. That might have something to do with the fact they're both covered in unspeakable slimy stuff...or not...
Genny stops them at a couple of booths, just long enough to grab foodstuffs and something to drink. Nothing fancy for now...that will wait.
Once finished with the market the boggan picks up speed. This isn't just motivated by fear for himself, but also for the friends that have been trapped in the anolomy that they found.
Chago notices that twitching tail. What? She's got a nice butt. Of course he looks at it. Anyway... when the boggan is distracted, the redcap reaches to run his palm down Genny's back lightly in a soothing gesture. After all, there's time to be upset later. For now, marketplace and then following the bouncing boggan.
The gesture doesn't go unfelt, and it's like easing a current off of a wire. Her fur settles, resting against her spine again as it should. Ahh...the touch of the master's hand.... or something like that.
He leaves the food and drink selection to her since he mostly needs it to clear some tastes from his mouth. He's had a lot of things to chew on already. Thankfully, that saves time too, since it means the redcap doesn't have to make the salespeople even more nervous than an ichor stained satyr does. Soon enough they're on their way and the boggan is telling the story of what happened to his friends as they go.
"So it was Shova that found the thing first. It looked almost like a big pond in the air, all shimmery and stuff." The boggan's chatter is pretty nonstop once he gets going, his voice annoyingly chipper. The food Genny has chosen is nutrient dense, not for flavor so much as giving them the energy to keep moving and clearing the stench of chomped monster.
"He brought us all back there. We were thinking it was a good place for a party later." Yes, he's a boggan but there has to be some kind of weird blood in there...or more likely his friends aren't boggans. Poor young man, falling into such influences. "When we got there you could see...something. It wasn't a mirror as much as some kind of...well...window. To a dark place, all pulsing music and...erm...women...and a troll...and Shova touched it and started wailing and..."
He ran. He doesn't say that part, but the guilt is written all over his face.
Chago flashes a look to Genny. No. F-ing. Way. He doesn't have to say it. Those exact words can almost be heard from just the expression. Then it's right back to the boggan. "Then what? After you pissed your pants, I mean. What else did you hear?" he asks. Oh yes, the picture of tact and decorum. Well, for a redcap anyway. After all, he didn't make a single threat or point out the boggan ran, more than asking ehat he heard instead of what he saw.
Of course, the grind of those Gauntlets as Chago flexes his hands open and closed at the mention of a dark place that sounds a lot like a club with women and a troll can't be all that comforting.
Genny nods a bit at the look. Yeah, she recognizes the description too since they worked and lived somewhere much like that. Though Kink is a much better place now. Dark still, but in its own special way. It's home.
The boggan flushes and stares at the Gauntlets, not liking that noise at alll. He swallows hard, a look from Genny nudging him to answer the freaking question.
"I...the big guy...the troll...I heard something from him about a pocket within and a pocket without...making sure they were only found by those they wanted around."
Chago nods to that. "Figures. Eric was always careful about shit like that. If he knows about this fucking thing, he'll be watching it extra close now." Then he grins a little and moves suddenly forward to clap a hand firmly on the boggan's back, sending the little guy staggering and then running forward a bit more with a small shriek. "Good thing our new friend here told us we can see while still staying back enough to be safe, huh?" Why does a redcap saying 'new friend' in that chipper a mood sound an awful lot like 'who had the ribs'?
"Pocket within a pocket..." Genny repeats the line, thoughtfully, looking at Chago. "Even odds it is what felt weird near the club. An' he may be doin' more than watchin' it. Usin' it somehow..." She shakes her head, chuckling as the boggan tries to keep his feet. The little man looks back at Chago, and one can see that he's beginning to wonder if he shouldn't have taken his chances with the grump back at the inn.
Brilliantly the boggan doesn't say anything and just runs faster. He's latched onto the idea that getting these crazy people to the thing he saw as fast as possible is the best way to get them to leave him alone!