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?"

 

[Mariel Rustyfangs]

Mariel was spending the night on the prowl. Of course she couldn't hide it from her mom, not that she tried to either, and as such it was with some rules. No night prowls in the Slups. No walking into anyplace military or government. No serious crime attempts without telling Naika. No pestering the guards... the list had a few points but the kitten wasn't planning on breaking any of them tonight. She was happily perched on the top of the roof in the trenches, looking around for any fun to be had... or maybe even an adventure she so much craved.

Spotting earlier as some beasts with bows climbed upon a nearby roof, thanks to her stellar nightvision, she could hide before they've spotted her. Billions varied ideas crossed her mind as she had observed the pair, pondering what they were possibly up to. Could they be a noble bandits like one fox in the very famous story, stealing from the rich and giving back to the poor? Were they ones who fought crime at night when the regular guards slept and all sorts of thieves (like her mother) had their time to strike? Or maybe they were agents of evil, seeking a demise of some poor beast...

It mattered not, for it was definitely a great adventure brewing. That was the only thing that mattered to Mariel now. The rusty spotted kitten then climbed down effortlessly and suddenly realised she was between two beasts. A jill and a vixen. Two femmes, that meant they could be reasoned with, even if one was a fox (at least such was her mother's wisdom).

"Um... hi! Don't mind me please, I juuuuust... was stargazing!" The kitten tried to put on a friendly and innocent voice, not wanting to get in trouble, especially not with the more interesting beasts with bows on the nearby roof.

 

[Marble]

Marble would pause and slowly turn to the figure in the shadows as they would make themselves known, seeing them at the end of the road as they come forward calling out to them. Something about an exchange of goods, it would take them a moment to figure out what the Jill was on about. Well this was awkward.

The huntress would come out of the slight crouch and straighten up, clearing her throat.
"I do apologise, malaka, but it seems that you have me confused for another folk. That said perhaps you could help me and direct me towards the dockyard and I may also be able to assist in your endeavours" She would offer towards them and move forward with her paws palm out by her side to show that she was not a threat. Hopefully this was an easily resolvable situation and nothing more exciting would come of the-
A small kitten would move into the middle of the street.

She would just look at the small thing off to her side and just blink a few times before lowering herself down to address the child,
"It is quite the night for it isn't it little one. Are you lost by chance, I believe myself and this Ferret over here is also lost and I would hate for all three of us to be lost. It would be quite the, uhh, conundrum, yes?" It was only then that she would glance up at the stars and just there, only slightly caught by the brighter sky, was some beast sitting atop the roof looking down on the three of them.

Without giving any hint that she was aware, the vixen would look back at the kit and ever so carefully shift her crouch so that she was ready to pounce on the kitten and get them out of the way should the beasts atop the roof decide that she was part of whatever illicit trade this Ferret was involved in.
"What is your name little one?"

 

[Morgan Liu]

Morgan frowned as she was addressed as malaka, her mind immediately going to the colorful curse word she'd picked up when her mothers had moved the family to an archipelago in the southern seas. The pronunciation was slightly different, and he assumed, by the respectful tone, that this femme was drawing on a different language altogether.

The kit who appeared in the mix, by contrast, seemed to be trying fairly hard to appear innocent, which told Morgan, based on her own experience in getting into trouble, that whatever the kit was doing she probably shouldn't be. Morgan's mouth twitched upward into a smile, a spot of affection growing in her chest. "Y' don' 'ave t' answer 'at, kit," Morgan advised. "Ne'er answer questions from grown-ups wi' out a lawyer present." Of course, at her age her mother had been the arresting officer in a couple of those cases, so the whole 'lawyer' trick hadn't won her any relief.

Morgan sighed, looking around the alley, before jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "Docks are 'at way," she indicated. "Jus' keep walkin' down'ill 'til ya hit water. I swear th' ad said 'is was th' time an' place for the buy..."

~~~

Daniil crouched with the other Unsmudgeables in the dark of their ground-level surveillance post, his paw clutching the hilt of his mother's katana. It was his first mission in his new role as a Bladedancer trainee, and he was more than a little anxious. After his disastrous run in the Stoatorian Guard, he was determined to prove himself reliable.

He watched through the boarded up windows as a few beasts entered the alley, and his heart dropped as he recognized one of the voices. What was Morgan doing here? Daniil's mind raced, trying to assess the situation. They were here to catch an Alkamarian spy, or so he'd been told. Hadn't Morgan and her family lived in Alkamar at one point? Morgan certainly spoke a couple of languages, was well-traveled and worldly... In a way, she was the ideal candidate for recruitment as a spy. Her mother Bezine had even been a spy for the Imperium in her own youth, and presumably had passed along those skills to her daughter before their return to the same Imperium that had exiled her as a traitor. Was that why the family had come back - for revenge? Had Eirene taken a Stoatorian Guard position in order to gain access for her family into the elite levels of Imperial society, even going so far as to befriend two members of its most powerful dynasties, the Freemonts and the Ryalors?

His mind racing with visions of treachery and deceit, Daniil held there, frozen, fearful of learning a terrible truth about the family he called friends.

 

[Mariel Rustyfangs]

Mariel looked between two femmes as they had shown both approval for Mariel's presence and some care for their well-being. She knew well that, as a kitten, it wasn't hard to convince people into believing one is innocent and cute, hence why she was assured (incorrectly) that the two adults around her bought into her story. However there was one weird thing. The vixen was talking about being lost and acted as if ready to fight. A confusing thing as she also seemed a good bit interested in knowing the kit better...

But she was a fox. That made Mariel distrustful already, and she was glad for the jill to chip it. "Right'o! Sorry Ms.Vixen, but I will have to wait till morning for my mother's lawyer to wake up to give you that one!" She explained resolutely, not knowing that said lawyer was actually one of her mother split personalities. Even Mariel didn't know all of them.

Then she however listened to the Jill more and her big eyes sparkled. Place for the buy... Clearly, Mariel found herself in the middle of a trade, with the beasts on the roof either serving as watch or trying to ambush the traders! That meant danger, but also adventure. Thrilled beyond the measure, with tail happily swishing around, the kitten jumped and perched upon a nearby flat surface with feline agility. "If ya won't mind misses, I just will be watching here! I won't say a work, you can trust me!"

She couldn't know that her tail and hind paws were now obscuring the small group of unsmudgables, line of sight, as the wiggled and danced right in front of the small window they were using to look at the street.

 

[Ressik Pike]

Ressik stepped into the mouth of Brownwater Alley with a curt flick of his tail, the movement sharp enough to betray his irritation before he managed to mask it. His cloak settled around him in a soft sweep, and he paused long enough to pinch the bridge of his snout.

The night air still carried the faint, sour stench of crushed cabbage. His route here had been thrown entirely off-course by a collision between two carts in one of the narrower streets, forcing him into an aggravating detour just to avoid the knot of rubberneckers clogging the way.

"Hrrm… two cartsh collide, one shpills a mountain of cabbagesh, and suddenly half the damned district decides t’ shtand around gawkin’…"

A low, irritated growl slipped between his teeth.

"Ushlessh…"

He exhaled hard, smoothing the fur at his collar before lifting his gaze. Three beasts stood in the alley, but not the ones he expected. They were not even remotely the right shape, stride, or scent.

His brows knit.

"…thish is wrong."

Still, he forced his posture to soften, shoulders drooping into an air of weary travel rather than coiled purpose. His paw drifted to adjust the satchel strap at his side to look casual, while his eyes slid past the trio toward the deeper shadows of the alley’s interior.

He cleared his throat, adopting polite awkwardness with practiced ease.

"Good evenin’ to ye'," he said with a small nod, voice mild but accented. "Pardon the intrushion. I wash supposed t’ meet shomebeat further up the lane, but… with that cabbage debacle, I fear I might’ve been delayed long enough that they wandered on ahead."

He gave a rueful, sheepish shrug, playing the role of a traveler inconvenienced by local absurdity.

"And I’m… well, I’m new t’ Bully Harbor." He sighed in what he hoped was a disarming manner. "The trenchesh all look the shame at night."

His dark eyes flicked over the three again, before drifting once more toward the shadowy inner stretch.

"Could be they ducked down here lookin’ for our lodging. Hard t’ tell, in thish lighting."

He took a few slow steps inward, posture loose, as though searching for a doorframe… or a familiar silhouette… or any sign that the beast he was “staying with” had passed this way.

He muttered under his breath as he walked, just faintly loud enough to carry:

"Hope they didn’t take off without me…"

A soft curse in Alkamarian followed.

"…I really don’t need another night shleepin’ on the floorboardsh."