Open The Trenches Unsmudgables Spilling Sweet Wine

[Liza Fairpaw]

Liza lifted her nose, sniffing the still, night air. Above the usual stench of the harbor, she smelled the telltale scent of fried noodles and questionable meat. Scooting away from the peak of the pitched roof upon which she perched, the mouse Rangeblade slid down to the gutter and peered to the balcony below.

"Oi," she called out quietly to the beast exiting the building onto the balcony. "Did y' remember my sweet rolls?"

Rory, the sea otter Longblade commander, tossed a paper bag up to her. "Got a double order, not to worry."

With a small squeal of glee, the mouse snatched the bag from the air. She opened it and pulled out a steaming, soft roll. "'Gates, I've been cravin' these. Thanks, mate."

"Don't eat 'em all before I get up there."

The big otter hauled himself onto the roof, a short spear strapped to his back and a bag of fragrant, savory food slung over his shoulder. He and the mouse climbed back up to the peak of the roof once more, and he began to dole out the containers of food. "Any movement yet?"

"Nah," Liza said, shaking her head as she spoke around a mouthful of bread. "Makes me wonder if we got bad intel."

Liza had been staked out overlooking a particular alley for two hours since nightfall, waiting for a suspected Alkamarian spy to meet with an Imperial contact. Inside the building they were perched upon, more Smudgies waited. Her orders were simple: provide cover for the Unsmudgables on the ground below when they made a surprise attack on the surreptitious meeting.

Rory shrugged and was about to speak again when Liza put up a paw to quiet him. She pointed towards the shadowy entrance of the alley where somebeast moved. "Think that could be them?" the mouse whispered.

The sea otter commander swallowed a mouthful of noodles. "Can't tell from up here. Tiff on the ground probably has eyes on 'em, though. Just wait for the signal."

Indeed, from the height and with the way the moonshadows fell, it was impossible to tell just what manner of beast lurked on the ground below.

 

[Marble]

It had been several weeks now since Miothiyle had made her way to Bully harbour and the vixen could say that she was settling in quite nicely. The hunts in the nearby forest were good enough and the beasts she found always got a fair price from the butchers, there was plenty of work down by the docks where she didn't need to do much more than show up and move boxes. All in all she was living well and taking her time to get to know the area and the people of the Imperium and was considering what she wanted to do in the long term.

As she wondered down the streets though, lost in thought and the wonder of the night there was a thought that creeped up on her and she came to a stop in the street.
"Where have I got myself now?" She said in slight frustration, speaking in her native tongue. Looking around the unfamiliar streets of the trenches and trying to find landmarks, of course if it was a forest it wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately the huntress was not in the forest. With a sigh she looked around, unbeknown to her there was an ambush laying in wait just above her head and she was inadvertently going to walk right into it.
"Well at least I got you to guide me." Looking up to the sky and the moon, her goddess, moving across the night sky giving her plenty of light to navigate, with few street lamps around.

She would mutter in thought, trying to figure out how to best work out where she was given the moon and stars of all things, and find her way back to her lodgings.

 

[Morgan Liu]

Morgan was fairly certain, based on the sketchiness of the alley, that she was about to get jumped. She'd seen an advertisement in the Smelt classified pages boasting 'wepponree of a distinqued and unique nature, toatle discreshun'. It had given a date and time, as well as an alleyway, for the sale. Morgan had come in the hopes that they would have brass knuckles. She'd seen the weapons used overseas, and had been enamored of them immediately. Bezine had flatly refused to allow her daughter to purchase them, and even Eirene had backed up her wife on that, calling them 'foolish and dangerous'. Now, though, Morgan was a navybeast, with her own money to spend, and she was going to fulfill that kithood dream.

It was too bad that, unknown to her, she was in Brownwater Alley, not Brownwater Lane, which was five blocks away.

She wandered down the alley, spotting a vixen coming from the opposite end. "Oi," she called, her voice, though lowered, echoing off and amplified by the brick walls. "You here for the exchange? You have the goods?"