“Now down to business, did you hear my conditions before or do I need to take them again?”

The little fleecy responded by nodding her head up and down.

‘... I probably shouldn’t have asked a this-or-that question to someone who can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’...’

*cough*

“So you did hear then?” I asked once more.

The fleecy kept nodding.

“Which means that you’ve been listening to us, and that could mean a whole lot of trouble for everyone involved.”

I grab Plush by his head.

“Especially for this fellow. Now I don’t know how long you were listening to me for but you’d better not try anything any more heroic than what you’ve already done, do I make myself clear?”

More nodding.

“Well then how about I start the demands off easy? Step out of the shadows would you kindly?”

The fleecy follow my… “demand” and walk forwards so I can see them.

‘Oh I’ve always wanted to make someone do something by asking them that.’

Now this might be rude but seeing this second fleecy finally made me think it looked like the toy of a homeless person.

Its entire body was made up of a patchwork of bits of fade green, red and white cloth.

“Good! Good!” I say and clap my hand-feather things together, careful not to wake Plush up but not careful enough to make the fleecy notice.

“Now this might be my first time having the honour and joy of taking a hostage and blackmailing someone with said hostage, but I ain't dumb.”

The patched fleecy looked at me without reacting to my attempt at impersonating one the looney yet surprisingly dark villains from… well from everything.

Take your pick, the guy with clown makeup and green hair, that one weird dual coloured bear from the franchise I never got into, or whoever else , there were so many of them back home and it has been three years so it’s a bit hard to remember all of them, but I do remember that these “funny” villains were usually also the most terrifying of them all and since I was going for scare tactics that sounded like the right thing to do.

“So you see, Ol’ pappy told me the steps to using a hostage, called them “the three H’s” or something, First step is to Hold them and…”

I raise the wing I’m holding Plush in and look at him.

“Well I think we can both agree to agree to agree to agree that I’ve got that one covered.

Next H is Healthy! Can’t keep a hostage if they end up… expiring, right? So unless you want this fella to go worse than milk that’s been standing out for half a year you’d better do like a tree and lead me… No wait that’s not how it goes... Anyways you get what I mean right?”

More nodding.

‘I really hope I’m not overdoing the zany part here and making myself look like a fucking saturday morning cartoon villain, hopefully holding my… “hostage”... like this is at least enough to make them take me seriously.’

“Next is… Erm…”

I start scratching my head with my other wing.

“Oh bother… I must’ve forgotten. You know sometimes I almost wish I’d never offed Ol’ pappy all those years ago so I could ask him.”

I shrug my shoulders.

“Eh, I’ll just make it up as I go. Maybe Hell would be a good third one? Haphazard torture? Man this is harder than I thought…”

Even though I was joking around I made sure never to loosen my grip on Plush while also shaking him around a fair bit with overexcaturaged movements and gestures while I spoke.

You know, to make me seem like despite being an absolute idiot I could still do something dangerous.

Sort of like if a kid picks up a loaded gun.

I was a dangerous and stubborn idiot that didn’t know the consequences of my own actions.

“Come on then Patches! Oh and I’ll be calling you patches from now on by the way,-” I walk over and pick up the bandana which’d fallen off of the chubby rat when it ran earlier. “-but let’s go already! Bring me to your people or this little guy will get a little dead!”

I put the bandana back in my bag while Patches nervously starts leading me around.

As for the reason I put the bandana in my shoulder bag rather than having Patches wear it like the chubby rat is because I didn’t want them to get suspicious of it.

She’d already seen the chubby rat wear it before so if I try to put it on her she might suspect it being involved in something.

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Actually I have no idea what the fuck I’m talking about, I’m just hoping this isn’t a bad idea.

“And you’d better not be thinking of leading me into a trap.”

Thus Litly and I started following Patches.

* * * * *

-=A while before the encounter, fleecy scout corp’s newbie Sam Ben “Patches” POV=-

*tap* *tap* *tap*

My footsteps resounded through the nearby rooms.

I was supposed to be quiet to make sure no one would hear me if I happened to run past someone but…

The longer I was out here the more I would think about why I was here.

The more that I thought about why I was out here the more excited I became.

And finally the more excited I became the more I would forget all about being quiet.

You see; I was on my way to a date.

One of the scout corp captains recently came back for an extended vacation with his crew after three years of bravely helping keep the deal our ancestors had made with the elves, and to think that of all the people someone of his standing could choose he would be me!

‘It’s a dream come true!’

I was raised on stories of the scout corp so that truly is what this feels like.

‘Not only was I allowed to join the scout corps despite being a woman, but to go on a date with my hero!’

The man in question had sent me a very touching love letter that said to meet him at the front door.

*tap-tap-tap*

At this point I’d broken into a full on sprint as my thoughts were completely covered by fluffy pink clouds of happiness without even a hint of worry over being caught.

I was running and-

“WHAT THE FUCK?!?”

*thud*

-almost bashed my head in as I fell backwards of fright when I heard someone screaming.

I got up from the floor and continued running running towards the meeting place.

Then I started running slower.

I tried to speed up again but felt like something was trying to pulls me the other way.

‘No no no!’

It felt as though I was trying to walk against a windstorm.

‘Not now!’

It took everything I had to keep walking.

Right foot forwards.

Left foot forwards.

Right foot-

‘I don't have the time for this!’

My right foot stopped in mid air, as much as I tried I couldn't put it down.

‘Of all the times for my damned scout’s pride to be acting up why’d it have to be on the way to a date!?’

I turned around and started running towards where the scream had come from.

As I got closer I suddenly started hearing a huge ruckus but as I got closer it stopped.

“Try that again and I can’t promise I’ll be too fed up with your bullshit to not let my little friend here make you her chewing toy...”

Then a bright orange light flashes from around the corner and as I reach it I see a fiery humanoid creature and a small animal standing in front of a very scared fleecy.

“... Or maybe you’d prefer me doing something a bit more hands-on?” The fiery creature said with a ball of fire in one of their hands.

Their hands and arms looks kind of like wings but it was hard to tell due to the fire.

As for the fleecy wasn’t anyone I knew, or even recognised for that matter, but it was someone that needed help.

‘Help that I, as a member of the scout corp, can give.’

I slowly walked out from the corner I was hiding by and started sneaking up to the trio.

Then I started retracing my steps and walked backwards right back to my little hiding place when I saw that there wasn’t just one fleecy in need of help, but two.

‘If there was only one of them I would’ve been able to grab him and run away from him, I have confidence that my legs wouldn’t lose to that animal, but there’s no way I’ll be able to pull that off with two people. And also what in the world happened to that guy!?’

On the floor between the three of them there was a second fleecy laying in a puddle of its own vomit with its casing, or mask as some people called it, missing, most likely the creature’s fault.

In response to the fiery creatures question the grey fleecy who was still awake shook his head frantically and the creature let up on its fire until it only covered the tips of its feathers.

Oh yeah, apparently it had feathers.

“Now what to do with this other one…?” the creature asked while looking at the one on the ground.

‘Just leave him! He’s already incapacitated so please just leave him here!’ I prayed.

But my prayer wasn’t answered.

“Oh! Let’s keep him as a hostage! I’ve always wanted to keep a hostage!” it said before picking up the purple fleecy.

‘No!’ I screamed internally.

If they’d just left the purple fleecy I could’ve hidden him somewhere and come back to save the other one.

The only thing that made it somewhat better was that the creature had calmed down its fire so that the purple fleecy wasn’t being burned alive while the creature held it.

“This is the first time I’ve had a hostage, so how about this, I’ll let you run away and save yourself if you want to without chasing you, but if you do I’ll kill this one instead. If you don’t want that to happen then come with me.”

‘The answer is obvious, you stay with the creature and try to keep everyone alive as long as possible until you can either escape with everyone or help arrives-’

And then the grey fleecy ran off faster than an oiled weasel.

I was completely caught off guard and surprised by the grey fleecy’s actions and apparently the creature was as well as it just stood there.

‘No no no! How could you!?’

As I was screaming internally the creature’s arms started moving, the one not holding the purple fleecy closing in on it and it looked ready to strike.

‘No!’

“My my, what could this be? You wouldn’t happen to intend on taking that chubby rat’s place would you?” The creature said.

At first I was confused but then I realised that I’d subconsciously stepped out from the corner I was hiding behind.

Seeing no other option I started nodding my head.

“Goodness me, an awfully brave fellow aren’t you? Now normally I would’ve killed this one regardless, but just for you being so brave I’ll let him live a bit longer.”

The creature smiled and I felt relieved.

‘Maybe this creature can actually be talked to?’

But then the creature stopped smiling and spoke seriously.

“Now down to business, did you hear my conditions before or do I need to take them again?”