Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Seven

"No!" Ashsib flailed, seeing that laughing non-face and not noticing it was actually Vel until he had punched it. "Oops!"

"Oops?" Vel glared, holding his jaw.

"I mean, I'm sorry! Forgive me! I beseech your forgiving nature to excuse a peon such as myself!" Ashsib prostrated himself and cringed, "I'm so sorry, Vel."

"One sorry was enough, Ash." Vel grunted, getting to his feet.

Ashsib also stood, "So, I see we're not on the Mermaid." He spun around.

"We are not." Vel agreed.

They were surrounded by fog on all sides, further shadowed by trees. Not even the mountain that had to rise in one direction could be seen through the fog. The sky was a solid storm cloud settled around their shoulders. Visibility was maybe ten feet, so all Ashsib could discern was a small clearing. It held one more person and nothing else.

"Ey, Cap'n." Vel lightly slapped Quinn's face. "You awake?"

Quinn revived with an even bigger punch than Ashsib, sending Vel sprawling.

"Oh? Sorry, Vel." He blinked.

Vel just glared.

"Where are we? Where is everybody else?" Quinn asked, also rising and turning a circle.

Ashsib offered to help Vel up this time, but Vel slapped his hand away and rose unaided.

"We woke here, same as you." Vel grouched, patting at his side, "Weapons gone, separated, and lost."

"And feeling hungover." Ashsib added, rubbing his temples against a headache.

"The sleeping gas did that part, no doubt." Quinn didn't seem affected in the slightest, judging by his loud, reverberating voice.

"What do we do now, Captain?" Ashsib asked meekly.

"Blindly rushing into the forest doesn't seem like a good idea, but," Quinn grinned, "It seems like the only course of action available."

"Do you think the others are here somewhere?" Ashsib peered into the gloom as if he would magically be able to see through it.

"I can shout for them." Quinn offered.

"Please don't." Vel responded in a hoarse voice. He shared Ashsib's heavy squint, the headache with him.

"Fine." Quinn picked a direction and strode into the trees.

The other two sped to follow, not wanting to be even more separated by the fog than they already were. There was no point in trying to stop Quinn, he was all nervous energy.

"Man, that cloaked guy was frightening, wasn't he?" Quinn began a conversation after a few minutes.

"Yes, he was very suspicious." Vel agreed.

"What was that laugh?" Ashsib wasn't so cavalier, "So disturbing." He shivered. Half of it was the damp, but thinking about how the flat mouth moved in phases made his skin crawl.

"Yeah, it was like, Haa- no, that's not right. Hee-" Quin tired to puzzle out the sound, to no avail, "How would you even spell it?"

"What does the spelling matter?" Vel rolled his eyes. He did not share the whimsy the Captain had with some of the others.

"H-I-" Quin tried, "Hmm."

"H-I-C-H, maybe." Ashsib joined in, much preferring conversation over silence.

"Isn't that just 'hitch'?" Quinn responded.

"What does it matter?" Vel repeated.

"Knowing the enemy takes some of its power away." Quinn said.