Zocalo and the Best Boss Ever
The night is violent. Wind is whipping through the trees and the storm that has been threatening all day has finally decended with fury, sending rain pouring down everywhere. Lightning flashes and thunder booms out, sending most sensible beasts into their homes or other respective shelters. The marketplace is empty and dark except for a few courageous lanterns which gleam pitifully from the shelter of the various shop windows. It is into this dramatic scene that Zocalo enters at full speed, running straight out for the safety of the carpenter's shop, followed quickly by two stoats and a rat, all with evil expressions on their faces and short knives drawn, obviously intent on doing some harm to the otter. At the most unfortunate moment Zocalo missteps in a puddle of mud and goes sprawling onto the ground, sliding several feet before he skids to a stop and rolls over onto his back, propped up on his elbows. It is, however, too late to get up and flee. He is completely surrounded by the stoats and rat who converge upon him menacingly.
The lights in the carpenters shop still burn brightly, atleast one could judge that from the bright lances of light that shine through the cracks of the storm shutters. Inside the shop Sarnith is standing over a work bench pulling an oddly shaped blade over a squared hunk of timber, rounding it. Next to the workbench there is a set of three chairs and the beginnings of a fourth laying in unfinished pieces on the workbench. The hob has his vest off and the fire stoaked high, the wood he is working with was only recently pulled in from the outside and needs to be warmed to a certain point to help prevent warping.
"Eh heh heh! We gotcha now, ottah!" The stoat, Skaggs, laughs delightedly and oddly licks his blade before pointing it down at Zocalo's throat. "Where's y' friends now, huh? Ain't nobuddy gonna come t'save ya dis time!" The stoat's friends laugh and scoot in closer. Zocalo tries to scramble backwards in an odd crab-walk but the rat blocks him. It's beneath the otter to beg so he just glares up at the stoat and spits. "You're an idiot, Skaggs." "Oh, I am is I, eh?" The stoat leans down and picks Zocalo up by the sleeves of his tunic, holding him up at eye-level. "An' whose d' one wit' three beasts what wants t' kill 'im, eh? Looks like yore the one wit' th' stupid problem, /mate/." Danging in the air, rain pouring down all over the place, Zoaclo realizes, finally, that he's not going to be able to do this on his own. "SARNITH!" He yells, at the top of his lungs. "CHRIS! SARNITH! ANYBODY!!" He continues to yell, wriggling back and forth frantically, all to no avail.
A slight flick of the ear is followed by Sarnith turning to look at the door huh? The hob had been concentrating rather hard on this work, seeing as his other /apprentice/ recently got himself thrown in jail Sarnith has had to burn the candle at both ends to keep up with the back log of work. Then it finally strikes the hob that someone is shouting his name, he wastes no time getting his vest back on as he drops the drawknife ontop of what was working on becoming a chair leg and starts pounding towards the door of the shop. Once at the door the hob pauses long enough to get his paws on his spear, and to slap on his belt that holds his short blade. In time with thunder the ferret shoves the door open and peers out into the rain, once he sees whats going on by the illumination of lightning flashes he starts down towards the crowd of beasts scowling.
Skaggs doesn't notice the approach of the hob, he being much to concerned with trying to scare Zocalo whom he is now shaking violently before he drops him ungainly on the ground and stands on the otter's long tail, preventing him from going very far. Zocalo, a bit dazed, shakes his head and attempts to stand up but falls back over when he can't pull his rudder out from under the stoat's foot. Skaggs' companions begin chortling and waving their knives around. "C'n we stab 'im yet, Skaggs? Eh, cn we?" The overly eager rat passes his knife from paw to paw, obviously way too excited about this. Furious, Zocalo bares his teeth and stares at the rat and stoat, desperately wishing he hadn't left his weapons at home earlier.
Apparently making use of stealth with out really intending to Sarnith walks right up behind the stoat that has his back to the shop raising the haft of his spear as he goes. Not really planing on fighting fair or giving the other vermin a warning the carpenter aims to crack the ignorant stoat in the ribs with a real grand slam swing of the spear, because whats a little back stabery, well bashery between vermin? To follow up the swing Sarnith plans to level the spear point towards who he has figured the leader of the merry little band is, Skaggs.
The spear hits home and the raggedy stoat is soundly bashed in the ribs and sent sprawling head over heels out of the way. Skaggs, not drunk right now, looks down at the spear leveled at his chest and arches an eyebrow. "Ah, I sees th' otter has at least /one/ fren' 'ere, eh? An' wha' makes you so loyal t' the woodie, /ferret/?" Skaggs is not at all intimidated by the spear and keeps his footpaw firmly on Zocalo's tail. The nervous rat glances back and forth worriedly between Skaggs and Sarnith, still wondering when he'll get his chance to stab someone.
Sarnith eyes Skaggs for a moment, the stoat has never really impressed this ferret, and his constant picking on Zocalo is really getting on his nerves, so he tries something that in his experience is usurally effective on what he thinks Skaggs type is, intimidation. Narrowing his eyes and shifting his arms for a quick stab the ferret jabs the spear forward a fraction saying " 'Acuse 'e work's for I's an if'ins yer's don' get's off o 'is rudder righ' now's I'sll put dis spear in yer's gut's low an's stake yer's carcas ou' back o I's shop an's let's yer's die slow from der's gut wound, after I's put yer's two friends ou' nex'ter's yer's. " Something Zocalo could tell, if he could see Sarnith's eyes is that the hob is serious.
Skaggs' mouth slowly curls into a broad, toothy smile. "Oh, is tha' true den, mate? Stake me out back, willyer? Lemme die out back wif a stake through me, eh?" The stoat deliberately shifts his weight onto the paw that is standing on Z's tail. "I'ma haf ta think on tha' one fer a bit. Seems 'scary'. Wooo!" Skaggs holds his paws up and shakes them in mock fear before turning to the rat and laughing harshly. Stupid, the rat follows along. "'e's gonna stake us out back, mate! Wif stakes!" The rat repeats, like the idiot he is.
Sarnith wastes no more time with words, seeing as Skaggs is not going to listen and thrusts his spear straight towards Skaggs belly button. The hob makes the thrust with only one paw, leaving the other free to draw his short blade. Once the short blade clears the leather scabbard Sarnith lets go of the handle so that the blade will fall near Zocalo's paw shouting " DEN DIE! " During that frame of time the hob has enough time to wonder how he is going to make Zocalo pay for this.
Skaggs is clearly not expecting the sudden blow to the stomach and stares blankely at Sarnith for a few moments before turning to look at the spear protruding grusomely from his belly. "Wut?" He manages to ask, before falling over backwards, most likely mortally wounded. Zocalo is no slouch either. As soon as he sees it start to fall, Zocalo reaches out for the short blade and catches it by the handle in what can only be called a miraculous bit of luck. The otter turns the sword forcefully on the rat, swinging at the only accessible part of the stocky vermin's body: his legs. The idiot goes down with a cry of pain and dismay, one leg almost severed through. With both vermin out of action, he scrambles to his feet and is staring at Sarnith just in time to see the other stoat come running out of the darkness with his short blade aimed at Sarnith's back. "Watch out!" He yells and goes to push Sarnith away.
Sarnith spits at Skaggs as the stoat falls off of his spear saying " Darned fool of an idjit. " The hob has about enough time to turn his head and look to see how Zocalo is doing when he hears the shout to watch out. A flash of movement is about all the time that the hob as time to see, he starts to duck down and shove the haft of his spear backwards hopeing to wind the stoat before it can get close enough to use its blade, then in comes Zocalo. Sarnith did not have the best of balance with how he was starting to crouch, so the shove from the otter sends him sprawling into the mud, if it was in time to stop the blade from getting o him or not is hard to tell though.
The blade misses Sarnith and buries itself to the hilt into Zocalo's shoulder, dangerously close to the otter's most vital organ. He falls to the ground, stunned and in a small amount of pain which will soon become much worse as the adrenaline wears off. The otter is breathing somewhat heavily and stares down, shocked at the weapon that is seemingly growing out of his shoulder. The stoat, surprised that his attack has been so interrupted, and with the wind knocked out of him by the haft of Sarnith's spear, just sort of stands there, looking down confusedly at the carnage of dead Skaggs, limpy rat, sprawled ferret and stabbed otter before he, too, topples over backwards into the muddy ground. All around the rain is still pounding, sending up little splashes of mud and, now, blood.
Sarnith curses vehemently while getting to his feet and turns to look back at the stoat with another set of foul language forming at his lips when he sees Zocalo. The hob had managed to hang onto his spear when he fell so with quick steps he heads over first to where the stoat is on the ground and lays a double pawed over the head swing on the stoats chest with the spears haft, just to make sure. The next order of business on the muddy ferrets list is to check on Zocalo, on seeing how the blade protrudes he lends out a paw saying " Do I's need's ter carry yer's carcass ter's der's Infirm again? "
"Gah, no. I can walk on m'own." But Zocalo does reach up to take Sarnith's proffered paw with his right one, avoiding the use of the left for obvious reasons. "Just got my shoulder, not my leg." He looks down at the carnage around them, including the pathetic looking, now one-and-a-half legged rat. "Eesh. What'd you /do/, boss?" The otter cringes and about goes cross-eyed as he moves wrong and jostles the hilt sticking out of his shoulder sending excrutiating amounts of pain shooting into his head. Unwilling to ask for help, Z grits his teeth and asks, "Which way to the infirm again?"
Sarnith Stays close to the otter figuring that the beast is likely to fall over at any moment. Shaking his head and sending watery mud flying off into the rain the hob says " I's just pulled yer's 'ead off o der block if I's ain' mis'aken now's le's get's yer's over ter der's infirm, disaway. " The carpenter points off to the north as he looks over the three beaten forms of the other beasts. With that Sarnith sets a slow pace towards the infirm while keeping a close eye on Zocalo. The rain, cold as it is has already run a good part of the mud from Sarnith's fur.
Zocalo sludges off through the mud towards the infirm, his steps growing slower by the minute. He hasn't been injured anywhere else, just the knife wound to the chest and shoulder, but if anyone (including Zocalo) had taken the time to take a closer look at the wound, they would've seen that he has begun to lose quite a lot of blood due to the knife's proximity to his heart. The otter's breath grows more labored as they walk along and he eventually stumbles, landing on his knees, unable to go any further. "Hurts..." He gasps and then flops forward, landing face down in the mud.
Sarnith stops as he ears the plop of otter going into mud and curses to himself for not being quick enough to grab onto the otter. Jabbing his spear into the side of the bakery so that he will be able to come back for it later Sarnith carefully reaches down and grabs hold of Zocalo on his uninjured side. Lifting the beast slowly upright and off of the ground the hob tries to settle the otter over his shoulders. If successful the ferret will be making use of his flexible mustelidae spine and knees to cushion the otter from to much stress as he runs him to the infirm.
