sparrow and lion

Chapter 6: twice, never thrice

There were signs of a struggle. Tall grass had been broken down by the side of the road. The tattered remnants of a glossy scarf lay in the dirt. Ants crawled over breadcrusts.

He had followed the hound's eager whimpering and this was what he'd found.

All signs pointed to a bandit abduction.

Wren was disappointed but not surprised. If he'd really thought things through, he would have realized that Leo's next step was to be kidnapped by a criminal organization. She lived by the notion that even total failure should be tried again, just in case it worked the second time. But he knew well enough by now that she never made the same mistake a third time.

And she'd already been arrested twice.

So, of course, she'd gone looking for bandits to befriend. And, of course, she had found them.

This was oddly reassuring.

Wren thought hard. He could almost remember the story of a young noble turned bandit. It had been all anyone had gossiped about one season. But that had been years ago. And it had been mentioned mostly in passing. So much had happened since then.

It made perfect sense that Leo remembered.

But Wren did not. And that was a problem.

But that wasn't the only problem.

The second problem was the pack of dogs he had recently accumulated. Leo's dogs. Because, of course, she had disbursed them throughout the countryside before being kidnapped by bandits. Probably on purpose. And probably to make it easier for said bandits to kidnap her.

Wren rubbed his eyes. He looked at his third problem. His third problem looked back. Then it brayed loudly in his face.

He was now in possession of one stallion, six dogs, and a mule. But still no Leo.

Because she had gotten herself kidnapped by bandits.

Probably on purpose.

There was nothing else to do but keep going. Wren knew well enough that he would find something. All roads lead to somewhere. And most roads are dotted with experiences to be had on the way to wherever they may lead.

He tied a rope around the mule's neck and hooked it to his saddle horn and whistled for the dogs. Then off he went.

Maybe he would find Leo. Maybe he would be set upon by bandits. Maybe he would find a town with a kennel and a stable where he could store this unruly mix of preposterous animals. Maybe he would wake up and this would all have been a dream. Anything was possible when Leo was the cause.

Alas, he had no such luck.

One might have thought that the hound was ideal for tracking and scenting. In truth, she was an utterly useless mess of a creature. Palace physicians refused to administer the same calming draughts to the hound as to hysterical noblewoman on account of her being a dog, but the poor thing really could have used them.

No. The keenest nose belonged, in fact, to a fluffy little flat-faced thing that Leo had plucked from the garbage a few years ago. It just so happened that "the garbage" Leo was referring to at the time was the snooty wife of a lord who had spoken rather unkindly of Wren during a feast, but that was besides the point.

As mentioned earlier: Wren was having no luck.

Which is probably why it took him so long to realize that the dainty, flat-faced dog had disappeared at some point along their trek.

Which is why he had to turn around and go looking for it.

Which led to the initial, unfortunate discovery of the bandit leader's corpse.

Which the aforementioned little dog was determinedly eating.

Which resulted in Wren being bitten quite brutally by the tiny fiend while trying to pry its jaws from the dead man's body while also trying to keep the rest of Leo's dogs from joining the feast.

Which is why, when he finally made it to the next town and immediately bumped into the constable, Wren was already quite put out.

And that's the story of how the constable found out about the bandit leader's body and immediately went to investigate.