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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 3, 2013 0:51:32 GMT -5
There was no conversation between the two griffons while Lucky waited for Bolo to arrive. After a short span of time, the pegasus could hear the sound of a set of wings slowing the descent of a third griffon. He was carrying paper bags, the kind you would get from a grocery store, as evidenced by the unmistakable sound being made as the items inside shifted against the material. The new arrival could be heard making his way towards the door, followed by two knocks.
"It's me."
The door opened a few seconds later, shutting behind Bolo as he stepped inside. "It's about time," Lucky could hear the arsonist say. "What'd you get?"
"What I could," Bolo answered as the bags were set onto a surface. This was followed by a continuing sound of someone sifting through their contents, setting each one aside one by one. "I saw you took care of the library."
"Yeah, who knew books were so flammable."
"Don't mind him," the smaller griffon piped in. "He's hungry."
"Starving. Excuse me while I make myself something to eat."
There were several seconds of silence as the arsonist left the room, broken by Bolo speaking up again. "My bro wants to know when we're no longer gonna need food from him."
"Hey, we did him a favor. He's in our debt," the smaller griffon retorted. "Sides, you two are family. Didn't your parents raise you right?"
"They raised us just fine." Several more seconds of indescript silence passed. "What next?"
"We wait. Go too quickly and things start looking suspicious."
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 3, 2013 9:07:53 GMT -5
Lucky debated his options as things fell silent again. Okay, so he could try to sneak inside and see about finding some actual evidence or something he could turn against them... only he currently reeked. They'd smell him the moment he went through the creaky, old door, if they didn't hear the hinges first. He doubted he'd have time to bathe, unless- The Griffon did say they were going to wait. How long? If they were trying to pull off some kind of conspiracy and were worried about being found out, it could be days after a stunt like this. Even weeks. He filed that away for further consideration.
It occurred to him that he could also lure one of them out and ambush him, try to get him to talk. That thought was dismissed almost immediately. Ambush? Really? Not only did he not have a weapon, he wasn't even a good fighter. He hated having to fight. Next plan, please.
He could also just wait here until one of them left, then shadow that one. But that would involve waiting in this barrel even longer, and he could feel the stench working its way under his coat. How he could feel that he didn't know. He'd had to poke his head up to breathe (quietly) every thirty seconds or so up to now, and he did not relish the idea of continuing that. Plus, there was only so long he could shadow a Griffon from downwind.
There was only one thing for it, then. Whatever he did next, it would have to be step two of the plan, because step one was the only way to make any kind of stealth possible, and it was a welcome thought. He hopped up out of the barrel, hovering in the air silently, and savored his freedom from it. As he'd learned the last time he hid in a trash pile (in Canterlot - long story) there was only one way to quickly get rid of the smell without replacing it with an even stronger one: Tomato juice. He didn't know if those were in season, but a bottle or so should do. If he was lucky there'd still be a grocer somewhere that sold one.
It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all he had. There was still a fair amount of daylight left, but he hurried to the market square to begin his search. He did not intend to smell this bad a moment longer than he had to.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 3, 2013 14:52:10 GMT -5
Lucky managed to spot a grocery in one of the smaller neighborhoods, one with a small green and white awning and several residences stacked on top. Inside, a row of four cash registers were placed right near the door. The employee working the one nearest Lucky, a middle-aged griffon wearing glasses and a green apron, was unoccupied at the moment. He opened his mouth to speak, shutting it a moment later and covering his nares after getting a whiff of the pegasus.
"Can I... help you?" he asked, keeping his hand on his upper beak. He seemed torn between being polite and stating the obvious.
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 3, 2013 17:38:49 GMT -5
Lucky nodded, well aware of how he smelled. He tried his best to keep a distance from the Griffons in the store, both the clerk and the customers, but he did have to get there. "Yeah, I'm gonna need tomato juice. Enough to cover the smell. Three- No, four bottles. This calls for a little overkill. Word of advice: Next time you're chasing a criminal and end up eavesdropping on him and his cohorts, don't hide in the trash. It may keep everypony, Griffon, and for that matter Diamond Dog away, but you'll never sneak anywhere outside a garbage heap."
He got out his bits. He had no intention of telling the cashier this, but he'd happily pay half again the actual worth of those bottles to be rid of this stink. Then again, the Griffon would probably sell them for half to be rid of this stink. They could compromise on market value, but frankly he'd rather just take the first offer and go.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 3, 2013 18:20:31 GMT -5
The middle-aged griffon didn't seem to have a response for Lucky's explanation. He merely looked over to the cashier next to him, who shrugged in response. "Eight bits," the griffon spoke, turning back to Lucky. "Leave them here and wait outside."
Two minutes or so after Lucky had left his bits and exited the establishment, the griffon re-emerged from the store entrance with a bag in hand. He quickly handed it off to Lucky and turned back towards the door. "Have a nice day," he said, already half-way back to the store.
Inside the bag was Lucky's receipt and four glass bottles of tomato juice.
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 3, 2013 19:37:57 GMT -5
Lucky looked inside the bag. Perfect! And only two bits a bottle. "Thanks!" He called after the Griffon heading back into the store, then he took off. It didn't take long to find a secluded spot next to a small waterfall (the term was probably a bit too strong - it was basically a creek that ran off the edge of Royal Rocks) and start pouring the tomato juice over himself. As he suspected, three bottles more or less covered his body, saddlebags and all, but he used the fourth to double up any spots that still stank. After giving it a while to settle in, he hopped under the falling stream and began washing it off.
The difference once he got out was remarkable. Granted, now he smelled like tomatoes, but the smell wasn't nearly as carrying. It would be easier to sneak, as long as he kept a few feet of distance between himself and anygriffon he was trying to sneak by, which was always a good policy anyway.
The flight back to the cote was quick - years of travelling as a lifestyle had left Lucky with a pretty good sense of direction. He touched down lightly just outside the run-down place, looking around to see if there was anygriffon nearby, and when he found the street to be empty he peered through one of the gaps in the boards again, near the door. That was his most obvious way in, best to see if there was a guard or something.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 6, 2013 19:21:05 GMT -5
There was no one standing guard per-say, but Bolo and the smaller griffon could be seen sitting at a table playing cards. Lucky had been right, Bolo was definitely a big griffon. He had the same slicked back head-feathers and jacket as the other two, but was much larger than the average griffon. The two were playing mostly silently while the arsonist was nowhere to be seen.
On the side of the cote closest to the two griffons was another boarded up window, this one above the sink of a dingy kitchen. At the back end of the house were two more boarded windows, each belonging to a different room. Enough light from an open door revealed one of them was a makeshift bedroom with a single mattress lying on the floor. The other was too dark to see into.
The cote didn't look like it had a full second floor, but maybe an attic. In fact, there was a cord hanging from the ceiling in the room with the two griffons, probably connected to a trap door of some sort. But with no windows above the first floor, there didn't seem to be any other way of accessing what it led to.
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 6, 2013 20:28:46 GMT -5
Okay, Lucky thought, so I know where the arsonist and his buddies hide out. Rushing in could get me beat pretty bad. I'm gonna need a plan. He frowned. Lucky did not make a lot of plans. It wasn't that he was reckless, exactly, but he knew that no plan ever survived first contact with the enemy. Usually he would figure out his first move, maybe his second (which he probably wouldn't end up using) before getting down to business, but after that it was all improv because by then something completely unexpected would have happened. Still, winging it now wouldn't end well. If there was ever a time to plan...
Time to take stock. Two Griffons inside, one pretty big and named Bolo, the other small and named something else. Third one might be out, he did mention being hungry, but he could also be in the dark room or the attic. The two I can see are in the first room, and that door is seriously creaky. They'll know if I try to get in that way. Every window's boarded up; can't get in that way. Even trying to remove the boards would make way too much... noise. One of the oldest tricks in the book, and there was a chance they'd see right through it, but if they did then he'd know ahead of time. It was worth a shot.
The plan was simple: He'd drag the old trash barrel behind the cote as quietly as he could (while touching it as little as equinely possible) then kick it over, adding a curse to make it sound like an accident. One or both of the Griffons would come out to investigate, and he'd slip in through the front door while they were busy. Could it go wrong? Undoubtedly. In fact he was sure it would somehow. But it wasn't an adventure without a little risk. They would have to at least check - they'd just burned down a library, finding somepony (or whatever) sneaking around behind their cote was sure to tickle their paranoia. And if not, then wow, they were really bad at this.
With everything set up, Lucky took a deep breath, immediately regretted it as the barrel still stank, shook off the nausea and knocked over the barrel. He let out his best imitation of a Griffon's squawk (a little screechy, but there were a lot of types of griffon) and moaned "My wing!" before immediately going quiet, as if he'd just realized he should not have said that.
Lucky Charm darted up into the air and over the cote to hover on the other side of the street, watching the door. If both of them came out he'd just fly through the door as quietly as possible. If one of them came out, he would check through the window to see if the other was watching the door before going in, and if they were, well, he'd improvise. As his plans went, it was pretty solid. Even had contingencies. Good thing, too, it took him nearly fifteen minutes to think up, and sitting in a hiding spot got boring fast.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 6, 2013 21:28:04 GMT -5
Bolo emerged from the front door less than half a minute after Lucky knocked over the can. The big griffon left the door only partially shut behind him, making his way around to the back of the cote to see what had happened.
Lucky would remember that the smaller griffon had been seated with his back to the door, and peeking through the window would confirm that this was still the case. He was idly shuffling the deck of cards, waiting for Bolo to return.
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 6, 2013 21:46:36 GMT -5
Lucky grinned. This was going way better than he'd expected. The smaller Griffon wasn't even looking at the doorway, and even flying Lucky was thin enough to slip through the half-open door without nudging it aside. Soon he was hovering silently near the center of the room... and realized that he hadn't planned this far ahead. This was another reason he didn't make plans: He wasn't much good at it. He'd pull something clever, then leave himself in a vulnerable position, like this.
Of course, there was only one thing to do. There were two doors here to two rooms, one open and one mostly closed, but he already knew what was through the open door and it was just a bedroom, if it could even be called that. That left one way to go that would actually have a point to going there. He wasn't quite thin enough to slip through the crack of that door, because that would require him to have no bones, but he could use his feathery wings to cushion the impact if he ran at it, so it wouldn't make a noise, which he promptly proceeded to do.
Lucky was almost sure he was fast enough that he hadn't been seen - the door was still out of immediate line of sight, but it creaked when it opened, so Shorty might have looked up when he dashed through. Frantic, he skittered behind the door itself, only to realize that would be the first place to check for a potential intruder, even in a very dark room. So he took to hovering well above the ground, still behind the door but now about a meter in the air. The Griffon might look up, and he might check behind the door, but would he think to do both at once?
Well, if he did, he'd get a rear hoof to the face. Lucky wasn't a fighter, but a pony's buck was always something to worry about. They had fierce rear legs, and his got a lot of exercise walking everywhere all the time. But hopefully it wouldn't come to where he had to hide an unconscious Griffon.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 6, 2013 22:05:45 GMT -5
There was a loud curse a moment after Lucky had entered the room, coming from a familiar voice near the far wall.
"Flint?" he could hear Bolo say from outside.
"There's someone in here!"
The griffon had soon ignited a lamp, bringing light into the entire room. It was another bedroom, one where the arsonist had been sleeping before being awoken by the loud sound of a garbage barrel getting knocked over right outside the window.
The arsonist let out another swear as the lantern revealed the pegasus. "It's a pony from the library!"
"What?!"
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 6, 2013 22:31:29 GMT -5
...Horsefeathers.
And things had been going so well, too. That probably should have been a warning sign, things never went well for very long. He wiped the shocked look off his face, replacing it with a carefully-honed poker face he'd learned, well, playing poker. He tried to look confident, despite that he was hopelessly at sea right now. Any second now Shorty and Bolo would come busting through the door behind him. There was only one way out and a Griffon, soon to be two, on the other side of that. He was cornered and outnumbered with no weapon and no knowledge of how to use one. Horsefeathers, indeed.
He knew his first move: The moment he heard talons scrabbling just outside the door, he would kick it shut, hopefully right into Shorty's beak. If the Griffon now known as Flint lunged at him, he'd fly upward and let him hit the wall. And if Flint proved somewhat more intelligent than the average Manticore and didn't lunge then, well, he was bucked.
No matter how Lucky tried to picture a positive end to this, there didn't seem to be one. He could delay his capture, but escape was pretty much impossible at this point. That left him with only one thing: His wits.
He smiled, for all the world as if the prospect of being beaten up, captured and possibly killed by a trio of criminal Griffons, one of whom had already tried to leave him in a burning building, was an amusing one. "Bravo," he said casually. "You can tell one pony from another. You're smarter than you look... though dressing like that, it's almost impossible not to be. Now tell me, are you smart enough to figure out why a lone, unarmed pony would sneak around in a run-down shack full of hostile Griffons? C'mon, smart guy. What's wrong with that picture?"
Hopefully Flint would have a better answer than he did: Because clearly he was just plain stupid.
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 7, 2013 18:02:53 GMT -5
Like Lucky had expected, the smaller griffon in the other room had made his way over to try and open the door. A well-timed kick slammed the door shut on the unprepared griffon, and Lucky could hear him get knocked backwards.
Flint, meanwhile, had gotten visibly more ticked off after Lucky had decided to insult his attire and intelligence. "You got a lot of nerve, hay-boy," he spoke, pulling something from his jacket that was too obscure to see at first. "That or you're just stupid." *Flick* Switchblade.
"Considerin' you decided to follow me here and wake me up, I'm votin' the latter." The griffon ascended towards the pegasus. If Lucky didn't want to meet the business end of that switchblade, he was going to have to do something other than just fly upwards.
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Post by Lucky Charm on Nov 7, 2013 20:08:04 GMT -5
Well, he'd successfully delayed and annoyed one of them. That was something. Sort of. Okay, not really.
When Flint drew the switchblade Lucky's nerves, already strained, started to really fray. A weapon, now? Like the beak and talons weren't dangerous enough? Still, he did have a response, of a sort. Still feigning confidence, he flicked open one saddlebag with the rising motion of his left wing and drew out his survival knife.
The survival knife... was not really much of a weapon. The blade was sharp enough, and sturdy, but it wasn't meant to harm people. The tip was mostly blunt. It was a good few inches long, which helped, but frankly it was no dagger. Worse yet, Lucky had never learned to knife-fight. But he had learned something that was almost as good: How to look like he knew. He could grip the blade right to make it look menacing, so that even a seasoned bandit would think twice about approaching him. He could swagger. That usually kept him from actually having to fight.
Lucky hovered cautiously, thinking of a few first moves. It all depended on how Flint came at him. If he came in with the blade coming down, he could dodge to the side. If he slashed with the blade horizontally, Lucky could drop to the ground and dart under him, maybe get close to the window. If he could kick the boards apart he might make a hole big enough for him to escape through. That would mean turning his back on Flint, though...
Then again, what if the other Griffons barged in? Considering this, he carefully shifted, hovering now above the doorway, his eyes locked on Flint the whole time. If it opened, he would drop down and buck whoever came through straight on the head. If it was Bolo, he was in luck, his head would be at optimal bucking height, and a two-hoof buck to the top of the head would daze a manticore. Most Griffons would be out like lights. If it was Shorty, he'd probably be just within range, and might just get clipped. Being short did have advantages.
"Well, one of us is certainly stupid," he said in response to Flint's jab, neglecting to mention it was him. "Just wonder who it is. The pony who sneaks into hostile territory alone... or the Griffon who assumes he is alone." He waited, tense, for Flint's reaction. With a bit of luck this would give him pause and he wouldn't attack. But since when was he that Lucky?
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Post by King Tidal Wave on Nov 9, 2013 18:59:45 GMT -5
Brandishing the survival knife didn't deter Flint from attacking Lucky, nor did the threat of not having come alone. Perhaps neutralizing the now-armed pegasus was deemed a higher priority. The griffon flew right at Lucky, the two's knives coming into contact with their intended targets.
Flint hadn't gone for a downward stab or a horizontal slash. Instead he stabbed Lucky right in the side, then quickly went in for another jab near the same location. Lucky was able to Slash at Flint's lower chest, but his leather jacket kept the result from becoming anything more than a scratch. The jacket was ruined, however, a large gash now running through where Lucky's knife had been.
In the span of a second the two were separate again, Flint pulling back to recreate the distance between him and Lucky. He brought his free hand down to where he had been scratched, bringing it back up to get a quick look at the blood on his talons. He then looked over at Lucky, who with two stabs in his side, had clearly come out on the bottom of the scuffle. "Drop the knife, kid," the griffon spoke. "Odds ain't in your favor. Drop the knife, and then we can talk about whoever you brought with you."
At that instant the door below Lucky opened. With the pegasus not yet adjusted to the stabs he had taken, the smaller griffon had plenty of time to duck out of the way of a poorly executed buck. Lucky could hear him take a step or two back into the room, followed by the sound of another switch blade flicking open. "Watch the door," Flint spoke. "I don't know whether this punk brought friends."
"Bolo," the smaller griffon called. "Keep a lookout. Twerp might have company."
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