The Stray

2-24: Blame

It was V's idea to retreat to a safer, closer place, rather than deal with "This bee shit" in a burned out, slimy berry patch. It had to be— to be honest, Timothy was outta ideas and way outta fight. Following her lead was natural as could be.

...Well, when she was done fielding calls from what had t' be half of Fresa. The wolf sat there in a daze as the sentry ran through the story of the whole mess at least five times. Er, run mighta been exaggeratin', because she was clearly gettin' pelted with questions like melon seeds.

"I mean, yeah, I did start the fire, but it's out now! ... Well, how else do you take down a slimeoid? ... I tried the solidify spell too, yeah, but they were huge, y'know?"

...Stuff like that. V finally just asked her to "please please please make sure half the town doesn't run out thinking the Cobalt Lamp's back!" The wolf idly wondered if the captain was regretting letting them work together.

V called Amos 'bout two calls later, muttering something about "can't just kick ass, gotta make sure nobody panics about how you kicked ass, being a cop sucks ass," and so on. "Oh-kay, first of all, everything's fine, okay? ... Y-yeah, but it's out! ...Yeah. Yeah! Well, I'm not. ... No, no, Timothy'll be fine, I got him!" V sighed but good-naturedly. "Timothy, Ames says he owes ya a drink."

Timothy just stared blankly at her. After a moment, she added into the spell, "He says thanks! Listen, do me a favor, make sure none of your neighbors freak out...?"

By the time that and several more calls were done, Timothy had a poundin' headache, not to mention a throbbin' and stingin' leg. The terror of facing the Lord of the Black Lake had twisted into the fear all prey felt. Eyeing every shadow, twitching at any sound, nervously watching the sky fade to gold and purple. He might be watching.

"Ugh, finally." V grumbled as she dismissed her last phone spell. The dragoness shot him an apologetic smile. "I'm real sorry. Here, lemme give ya a hand." She went over to the poor tree that'd been shot down by their enemies, and with as much effort as he'd take to snap a twig, she broke off a thick branch for him to use as a cane. It would probably have some interesting arcana if he lived long enough to work on it.

"We need to get out of here." Timothy groaned as he hauled himself up on the branch. "This ain't safe."

"Relax, nothin's getting through me." V flexed her guns at him, which was probably supposed to be reassuring. Really, the bigger reminder of her strength was her hauling a beehive that weighed more than him without any struggle at all.

...She did still insist on wrapping the thing in a dense bubble shield, though. "I told ya, they ain't gonna sting ya..."

"Sez you!"

Well, whatever. The wolf shrugged, shifting his leg as Mandy sawed the smaller branches off his new crutch. "Are you sure we shouldn't just head back to town, V?" His eyes darted back and forth yet again. "We're still way too close to the shadowmarches."

"I ain't dragging this beehive into town without making sure your bees won't go nuts and kill someone." She said stubbornly. "And you've got a bum leg besides, so we're hitting the gym."

Mandible nodded sharply where she floated before him. Well, if Mandy agreed... Timothy changed his focus. "A gym is like a drilling ground, right? What's it doing so far from town?"

"I needed someplace to throw cabers around." V said, like that didn't need any more explanation.

"I... okay?"

"Me-sized workout gear makes a ton of noise slamming around, and, you know, it's big enough that if your grip slips... oops, there goes a wall, or a floor, or, well, you know. I got really good at repair magic when my growth spurt happened." She said it a little sheepishly. "So I take it outta town."