~ 2.30 - The Baron ~
Baron’s Compound
4th Moonday of the Full Moon
Flea walked as silently as he could towards the manor. Finding the door Bob had told him about, he put his ear up against it and listened. Not hearing anything, the Gnome opened it slowly and walked into the kitchen. Looking around and not seeing anything of interest, Flea walked towards the hallway’s opening.
With no guards in sight, he crept to a closed-door down the hall. After listening for a few moments, he opened the door a crack and peeked inside to find a study. Covering three of the walls were bookcases filled with hundreds of books. Against the farthest wall was a massive wood desk. Behind it, a large bay window that looked out towards the rest of the compound bathed the room in a low, soft light.
Walking inside and up to the desk, Flea found it to be taller than he was. Making his way around it, the Gnome jumped onto the massive leather chair. Now he was high enough to see what was on top of the desk. A small plush dog bed sat on one side. Papers and folders, stacked at various heights, littered the rest of the desk. And the last thing of any note was a single oil lamp which sat at one of the corners.
Carefully taking out his own lamp and turning the knob on its side to turn the brightness down, he began looking through the small stacks of papers. Everything he was reading regarded the current state of the territory. A stack of documents inside one of the folders seemed to be a ledger of the territory's taxes. Looking closer at the line items, Flea found the flow of gold had reduced to a trickle in the last few months. The last page had a list of dates with amounts of gold.
Done with the contents of that folder, Flea rummaged through the other papers. This time he found a thin book at the bottom of a pile. He quickly recognized it to be a communication book. Flipping to the last page, he read the last entry.
3rd/Moon/Full
My patience is running thin, Baronetti. If you can’t find out how she was able to regain her ability to transform and pass it on, then I will have to send someone else to take your place. Remember, there are far worse things than the containment cage you have her locked in.
- ᛜᛜᛜᛜᛜaᛜᛜaᛜ
Please, Old One, give us more time. Once the three at the mine are captured, she won’t have a choice. Esalune will provide us with what we want to know, or I’ll rebirth her entire clan.
- Baron
What is so special about Esalune? I thought the ability to change into a dog had been a trait of their race. Was there something else to it? And it seems Baron isn’t a title. It’s a name short for Baronetti; a very female sounding name. Then who is the large dude from before? And what’s with the symbols in the name of the baron’s master? Why can I only see the letter A? It’s like the bug with the book back at Xarrie’s shop.
Flea was quickly brought out of his thoughts by the sound of an alarm bell ringing outside. Looking out the window, he spied a score of guards in red plate armor streaming out of the two buildings on either side of the tower. In moments the squads of guards were all standing at the ready in front of the tall spire.
“Busted,” whispered Flea to no one in particular.
Flea tossed the book onto the desk, hopped off, and quickly crossed the room. Cracking the door open, he looked down the hallway just in time to see a small group of guards come down the stairs and head out the front door.
“Make sure you capture both of them alive!” a very high pitched feminine voice yelled.
A moment later, a massive looking man came into view. With yellowish skin and what seemed to be spikes for hair, Flea guessed this guy was probably not human. The giant yellow man had come down the stairs carrying something. Unfortunately, the Gnome didn’t get a long enough look as he immediately ran out the door after the guards.
Ok, considering the voice, maybe not a man. Not sure what race she was, though.
Flea waited for a few moments in case more guards came, but none did. Running back into the kitchen and out the back door, Flea made his way around the wall and towards crates that were stacked on top of one another. Peering around the boxes, he could see the guards had now surrounded the tower, with the yellow giant at the center of them.
“Come on out Gnome. And bring your cat with you as well!” yelled the feminine voice again.
Everything was silent for a moment. Then a loud agonizing scream came bellowing out from the tower.
“Get in there and find out what’s happening!”
A couple of guards had begun stomping towards the tower’s door when Flea saw movement from the small window high up on the tower. Looking more closely, he spotted what seemed to be orange fur. The next second, arrows rained down on the guards closest to the entrance. A couple of the red plates were fast enough to raise their shields, blocking the incoming projectiles. One chap wasn’t so lucky. He fell to the ground, yelling pain.
“My knee!”
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Flea immediately covered his mouth, stifling the laughter as best he could. Another arrow slipped between the crease where a guard’s shoulder meets his arm. In only a few seconds several men were howling in pain from their injuries. The commotion was enough to draw red plates in the rear to the entrance.
More movement from behind the tower caught Flea’s attention. A rope was being lowered down from a window at the tower’s back. The guards and crazy looking yellow chick couldn’t see it from the front. Moments later Flea saw what looked like an Elf, followed by a Dwarf, climbing down the rope.
Turning his attention back to the front of the tower, Flea watched as some of the guards entered the tower, with a second group closely following. As soon as the last red plate had entered flames suddenly shot out of the door. Even from a distance, the Gnome clearly heard the guards’ screams of surprise and pain before they were quickly cut off. Flea thought it was safe to assume they were all now dead.
“No! Everyone to the well, get buckets of water. Do we have anyone with a hydro skill?” yelled the yellow female.
Flea could now see the flames had caught, and the entire bottom of the tower was ablaze. Seeing the guards running towards the other side, the Gnome ran for the back wall and approached the panicked couple of prisoners backing away from the tower.
“Where is Bob?!” yelled Flea.
The startled wide-eyed Elf looked down at Flea, then pointed to the window above.
“He’s up there trying to get more of us out of the cages. Only one of us knew how to pick locks.”
With a nod Flea turned, jumped up grabbing the rope, and then began climbing. Getting to the window and falling through the portal onto the floor, he found many eyes staring back at him.
“Bob!” he called out.
“Over here!”
Flea walked towards the voice, passing a naked Dwarf working on a lock, and found Bob guarding the stairs, bow drawn.
“You set the tower on fire, man. They won’t be coming up anytime soon. Give me a pick so I can help the naked Dwarf with the other cages.”
Putting away his bow, Bob handed Flea a lockpick. Flea went to the closest cage and had it open in seconds. With the naked Dwarf’s help, they had the rest of the pens open in two minutes.
“Go, everyone! Climb down the rope. Sneak along the wall and towards the barracks. You’ll find large crates there that you can hide behind. Once we are done here, we’ll get you guys over the wall.”
The group started to climb out of the window one at a time. Flea looked the other way, as almost everyone who had been a dog was now a naked Elf or some other humanoid with opposable thumbs. A painful scream turned Flea’s attention to a larger cage against the wall. Going over to the cell, he found a woman holding her throat while rolling on the ground. Looking around the cage, he couldn’t find a door, hinge, or even a lock.
“Is this Esalune?!” Flea called out to Bob.
“Yes! The venom hasn’t killed her yet. I don’t know what to do. I stabbed her again with the venom, but she just gets better.”
“We need to figure something out soon. It’s getting hot in here. I don’t think we have much time left before the flames reach us.”
“Damn you, Esalune! Just tell me how to become a Tanuki again! If you don’t, it’s over! I’m done! I’m going to allow you and your clan to burn up there, and everyone will rebirth.” shouted the female voice from outside.
“I wish that damn dog would stop yelling. I think her voice is giving me a headache,” said Bob.
“Dog?”
“Yea, go look, the big yellow ugly dude is carrying her.”
Flea ran to the window, peeked out too far, and quickly backed away just as a flame licked his face. Looking out the window a bit more cautiously this time, he could see the large yellow guy cradling a small red chihuahua in his hands. The dog seemed to be yelling at everyone and anyone around her.
“The baron is a small dog?”
“What? That’s the baron?” said the surprised Bob.
“She finally did it!” screamed Esalune from her cage.
Both Flea and Bob ran over to the now perfectly healthy Elf.
“What did she do?”
“She’s removed my permission to spawn at the Crystal. I can no longer spawn in Dustgrove. Please, can you get everyone out of here and to safety?”
“Don’t worry, I will. Flea, hand me a grapple and rope.”
Flea removed the items and passed them over to his companion. Bob removed a hand full of arrows from his bag and gave them to Esalune.
“These are Fire Arrows. It’s the only thing I can think of. Slam them into the floor, and it should set off the runes. This many should burn you to a crisp before the healing can repair the damage. I just hope your nerves burn out first.”
“Thank you, Bob. Thank you, for helping my clan and trying to save me. Let Zan know if I can escape, then I’ll contact him as soon as I can.”
Bob nodded and then dashed out the back window, not even bothering to grab the rope. Flea wiped away the sweat from his forehead as the room was now sweltering. Flea saw the flames had crept into the other side of the room, coming through the window.
“Your companion is truly selfless. They usually take after their owner,” said Esalune.
“I’m not sure about that, but he’s been a great friend so far. I’m sorry we couldn’t help you. I hope you don’t spawn far off and can meet back up with your clan soon.”
“They’ll be fine without me. I’m not their leader; Zan is. I’m just the lucky one who had been bitten by a Werewolf cub when I stumbled into its territory. Whatever turns them into Werewolves allowed me to turn back on that trait of our race. I could once again use the ability to change into what you call dogs.”
“So you’re a Weretanuki?”
“Something like that. We are no longer normal Tanuki. I didn’t even know I had been changed until the last Moonday of the cycle. On that fifth Moonday, I changed back into an Elf. For cycles, I traveled until I was killed by something in the night. The next thing I knew, I had access to my home again. I tried to contact everyone I knew, but got no responses. When my death timer was over two days later, I spawned here in Dustgrove. While walking around town in my canine form, I got into a fight with Zan over some scapes of food and bit him during the scuffle.”
“Let me guess the last full Moon of the cycle he changed as well?”
“Smart one you are. Come here. I have one final request and a gift for you; for all of your help.”
Without waiting for a reply, Esalune grabbed something out of her bag and held it out to Flea.
“Take this and give it to Zan. He’ll know what it means.”
Flea extended his hand out, palm up. Onto it, Esalune dropped a pendant with a circular flat stone tied to the cord. As he closed his hand around the pendant, Esalune grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the cage.
“And here is your reward, my hero.”
The Elf pulled hard, causing Flea’s entire body to slam into the metal cage. Esalune then bit down on the Gnome’s forearm. Flea could feel something pump into his arm; then he fell backward as she let go.
“Why did you bite me?!”
“It is your reward, of course. Now, you should get out of here, Flea. This room will be ablaze soon. I can’t have you dying while your companion is leading my clan to safety.”
Getting up and looking at the rapidly closing bite mark on his arm, Flea shook his head as he walked to the window. Looking back at the smiling Elf, he grabbed the rope, gave his best revenant nod and then hopped out the window.
“Remember Flea, the last Moonday of the Full Moon is next week!” yelled Esalune, as Flea began climbing down the rope.
Did she turn me into…
Flea didn’t have time to finish his thought. Before he landed on the ground, the Gnome was slammed by something heavy and sent flying into one of the nearby stone buildings. Groaning as he picked himself off the ground, Flea looked over to his attacker; the massive-yellow, and spiky-haired, unknown race, holding a large club in one hand and the baron, Baronetti, in the other.
“You bastard! You ruined everything! The Old One will not let this transgression pass!” Baronetti yelled as she shivered in place in the massive hand.
“I’m really sorry! Want to know what will make you feel better?”
“What?!”
“She told me her secret,” Flea said, smirking.
“Than’ro! Kill him!”