FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

**The Missing Lynx - Elin's Story

Chapter One

You All Meet in a Tavern...**

Elin sighed, pausing to catch her breath near the bar. She had been on her feet for the past eight hours, and business at The Cat House was booming. To make matters worse, she still had six more hours of waiting tables and mopping floors ahead of her - Milana Tal'zarian, or just 'Milly' to her friends, was supposedly too sick to work. That meant that the overworked lynx had to cover her evening shift.

Not that Milly was actually sick, of course. Elin had it on very good authority that the tigress was off seeing her sometimes boyfriend down near the commercial district. So that meant that while the tiger was at play, the lynx had more tables to work.

The lynx grumbled faintly, sliding the tray of empty mugs and glasses in front of the lioness minding the bar. The dishware was swiftly cleared away, and the almost matronly beastkin bartender frowned a little.

"Is everything alright, hon?"

Elin sighed again, briefly scanning the common area. There were roughly fifty beastkin crammed into the space, only six of which were fellow employees - and of those, five of them were 'working girls', so they weren't exactly working the tables. Okay, well, they WERE working the tables, just... not in the same way that the lynx was.

"I'm fine, Lena." Elin offered a somewhat weary smile up at the taller lioness. "Thanks."

Lena, the tawny-furred lioness behind the bar, smiled right back down at her. The two had worked together for years, so she was almost like an aunt to the lynx. Even before Elin had been old enough to work in the Cat House proper - when she had scraped by running errands and carrying supplies - Lena had acted as her tutor. It was she who had first taught Elin to read, by tempting her with the fantasy novels that the lynx now loved so much.

The bartender frowned, her ears angled forward as she looked down at the shorter waitress. "Well, if you're sure. Just let me know if you need me to get some of the other girls out here to help."

The lynx stifled a grumble. That's just what she needed - more of the whores out here stealing all of her tips. They were awful at getting drink orders right, but fantastic at monopolizing all the gratuities.

"Er," she shook her head a little. "No, that's fine. I'm just getting my second wind."

Lena arched a brow, but she nodded. "Alright then. What'll it be?"

Elin furrowed her brow a little, glancing about before she gestured. "Uh, I'm gonna need six ales - four light and two dark, two meads, a fluted glass of wine for the weirdo in the feathered cap, and a mug of grog for the weirdo in the eyepatch."

The lioness chuckled, but dutifully turned away to fetch the requested drinks. Although the real money at The Cat House came from, well, the 'working girls', there was still an appreciable income from the numerous working-class tomcats who just wanted to get drunk. Those too cheap to rent a room and a girl often seemed content to ogle, although proper lubrication with alcoholic beverages had a remarkable effect in loosening the drawstrings of even the tightest coin pouch.

The drinks were delivered in short order, and the lynx hefted the heavy tray up against her chest with both hands. It was a little awkward - her sister's teasing was accurate. She had really, er, bloomed over the past year or so. She was still ridiculously short, of course, but where her body refused to grow upward, her curves seemed more than happy to make up for it by growing outward instead. She wavered a little, but caught herself. To call her top-heavy would almost be an understatement.

"Hey, Elly!"

Elin's oversized ear twitched slightly, but she pointedly ignored her elder sister. That sounded like Mia, and she should really know that the lynx took her work seriously. There were tables to wait on, and thirsty customers who weren't going to tip if she didn't-

"Hey!" Mia laughed, crashing into her shorter sibling. The siamese threw her arms about the lynx's shoulders, and both beastkin stumbled, the tray upsetting to spill all ten drinks onto the hardwood floor. Well, most of them anyway, but at least two of them soaked through Elin's top instead. That drew stares that the lynx wasn't terribly comfortable with.

"Miiiiaaaaah," the lynx groaned. Those drinks were going to come out of her paycheck! The broken glasses, too, at least in theory. She knew that her mother would probably go easy on her, maybe punish the siamese instead, but it was still annoying.

"Ha ha, whatever," Mia beamed. She was practically hanging off of the lynx's back, despite the fact that she was easily four hands taller. "But hey! Guess what!"

Elin heaved an even heavier sigh this time, staggering as she tried to bear her overly enthusiastic sister's weight. She glanced to the bar, but she could see that Lena was already pouring replacements for the drinks that had been spilled. She worked at prying her sister's arms from about her shoulders - seriously, she could barely move with the siamese draped all over her.

"Whaaaat?" she groaned, and then the lynx paused. Her ears perked, then flicked backward as she frowned. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be in Room Six with that leopard guy?"

Mia scoffed, finally sliding her weight back onto her own feet as she eased off of her sister. A few of the patrons were watching her, so she gave them a toothy grin and then dragged her tongue broadly along one of her sibling's ears. "Mmn, who cares? He's totally sleeping it off right now."

Elin blushed, hard, her ears flattened against her head as she pulled away from her sister. That was not appropriate public behavior! Her hands flew to her head, covering up both ears - saliva slicked or otherwise - and she grumbled. "You were in there for, like, five minutes!"

The siamese grinned, shrugged, and absently buffed her knuckles against her shirt. It was more like four minutes, since it had taken her a minute to get her clothes back on. "Sometimes that's all it takes, li'l sister. You'd know, if you'd just give it a-"

"Ugh!" Elin muttered, turning her back on the taller feline as she stomped back to the bar. It was a suggestion that she was getting tired of hearing. No matter how many times she made it clear that she wasn't interested in whoring herself out, though, her sisters still persisted in suggesting it. Yes they had far more money than her, and yes they claimed to have a lot of fun earning it, but... no. She wasn't going to lie on her back for a living. Especially not after the, er, first and only time she had ever tried taking on a client when she had come of age.

She collected the new tray of drinks that had been laid out, and made a beeline for the first table. Mia doggedly pursued, but thankfully she did nothing to topple the tray again.

Honestly, it was hard to put up with Mia sometimes. The lanky siamese catkin was the perennial middle sibling, despite the fact that she was just a few hours younger than her twin. She was boisterous, shameless, and perpetually hungry for attention. It was something that might have gotten the catkin into no end of trouble, if not for the fact that she worked at the Cat House. Here, she fit right in, although she certainly had a reputation for scaring off a lot of the more timid customers.

"But hey, hey, listen!" she grinned. "Saga's got a new book out!"

The lynx paused, her ears perked again. "Really?"

She hadn't heard anything about any new books, and she was signed up to receive all the magical newsletters about them. She couldn't help but think that her sister might be teasing her, but she didn't have time to ponder on that - an angry shout from one of the tables set her back into motion.

"Sorry!" she mumbled, swiftly laying out three of the ales and one of the meads onto a table. Just as quickly she hastened away, moving to the next table.

"Remember," Mia purred as she leaned over the table of irate beastkin. She hooked one finger into her top, pulling the collar down just far enough to give the suddenly mollified customers a peek. "Tip your waitress."

Elin moved to the next table, and the next, and the drinks were swiftly delivered to their destinations. Of course, no sooner had she finished, than another half-dozen orders were shouted at her. She rushed back toward the bar and requested the additional drinks.

"Sssso-" Mia had beat her there, and was bouncing excitedly from one foot to the other. "It's totally another spin-off book, so that's probably why you didn't hear about it."

"Oh yeah?" the lynx murmured. She was interested, but she was also very busy. Despite that, she couldn't help but wonder which of the characters this novel might focus on. Nightengale, pacifist healer? Grunt the savage barbarian? Oliandra the profit-hungry archer? Ray-Lynn the Soaring, dashing wizard? She liked them all, although perhaps not as much as she liked the Alleycat himself. But still... that would have been mentioned in the newsletters, too!

Mia grinned, absently plucking one of the drinks from the freshly-filled tray and sipping at it. She made a face, apparently not approving of whatever beverage was contained within. "It's about a new character!"

Elin scowled, glancing to Lena. "Another dark ale, please."

And she looked back to her sister, "A new one?" She couldn't help but be a little put off by that. Why in the world did there need to be more characters? There were already so many, and she had grown attached to each of them. She wasn't certain about how she felt knowing there was going to be yet another character drawing focus from the ones she actually cared about.

The siamese bobbed her head in an eager nod, "Oh, and she's great!"

Mia paused and stuck her tongue out at the lioness behind the bar, but relinquished the half-empty glass in her hand before she could be scolded. That barely slowed her down, though, because she went right back to talking excitedly at her younger sibling.

"I, uh, borrowed a copy from my last client's jacket." She grinned a little smugly, her ears flicking forward. "But I totally had a chance to skim through it, and-"

"Oh, Elin!" Tia suddenly appeared as if by magic, although in truth she had simply emerged from the back room when neither beastkin was looking. Elin was fairly certain that the elder twin was supposed to be in Room Ten with a portly lion merchant, but... she didn't question it.

Tia was the elder of the two twins, and the two siamese catkin were almost identical - something that they often used to their advantage. But despite their similar height, similar lanky builds and attractive but muted curves, their personalities were starkly different. Where Mia demanded attention with every single thing she did, Tia was always more apt to draw attention because she was genuinely pleasant.

"Hi Tia!" The lynx was marginally happier to see her eldest sibling, because at least SHE wasn't likely to start tackling people and hurling glassware. "One sec!"

Another batch of drinks were doled out, and the lynx hastened back to the bar. Her sisters were already engaged in an animated discussion with each other, so Elin took the chance to fetch a mop and bucket from the supply closet. There were still drinks all over the floor.

"-it was MY book!" Mia whined, her tail lashing. "You can't just give it away without asking me!"

Tia frowned, a finger bobbing in front of her twin's nose like a metronome. "It most certainly was NOT your book, you stole it from a client. And besides, Veri only wanted to borrow it. She'll give it right back when she's-"

Mia scowled, pointedly ignoring her twin as she glanced sidelong at the lynx. "Hey, what the heck are you doing?"

Elin frowned as well, brushing her bangs out of her eyes as she leaned her weight onto the mop she was holding. "Cleaning up this mess. You should be the one doing it, though, 'cuz its totally your fault."

The younger of the two siamese scoffed, her arms crossing defiantly. "Whatever, just let the janitor handle it. It's what he's here for."

The lynx rolled her eyes, trying to hold onto what little patience she had left. "Mia, for the last time, I AM the janitor-"

Tia wrinkled her nose distastefully, promptly piling on. "In a brothel. It's really not appro-"

Elin groaned aloud, absently thumping the handle of the mop against her forehead. Her sisters were driving her crazy, there were customers that wanted drinks, the floor needed to be mopped, and now she wanted to rush out to the book store. "I only clean the common area!"

That much, at least, was true. They had other employees to handle the less savory cleaning assignments. That never stopped the lynx's sisters from needling her about it, though. They simply wouldn't be happy until she was ready to stretch out on her back just like they-

"Oh!" Tia perked, promptly derailing Elin's train of thought. "Did you hear?"

Mia stuck her tongue out, "About the book? Too late, I already told-"

"No," Tia scowled a little in turn, and for a second the twins looked almost exactly alike. But then Tia smiled pleasantly again, and the resemblance evaporated. "There's an adventurer at the Drunken Dragon."

Elin's mopping slowed, one ear angled toward her eldest sibling. "There is?"

Tia nodded smartly, her paws folded demurely at the front of her immodest dress. Elin hated that dress. It was black and slinky and left almost nothing to the imagination, but apparently it made the lovely beastkin a significant amount of money on a daily basis.

"And he's looking for other adventurers to join him," the eldest twin continued. "Apparently the world is in great peril!"

Mia frowned, looping one long arm about her twin's shoulders. "Um, Elin, excuse us for a second."

The lynx arched a brow, but she nodded. That would buy her a few more moments to finish cleaning the floor.

"What are you DOING?" Mia hissed, once she had dragged her twin clear. "Are you crazy? You know she's just gonna go running off to-"

Tia set a finger to Mia's lips, shushing her. "Please, Mia, this is a perfect opportunity to finally dispel Elin of her..." she almost said 'ridiculous', but the demure siamese quickly rephrased. She was fairly certain that the lynx couldn't hear her, but it was still best to hedge her bets.

"...unrealistic life goals," the elder twin smiled. "The beastkin doing the hiring is one of those unpleasant nobles from the clanhouses. Elin can go there, see how terrible he is, and then she'll swear off adventuring forever."

Mia considered that, then turned about to address the lynx again. "So, Tia and me were just talkin', and we think you should go."

Elin frowned, eying both of her sisters with open skepticism. She had heard everything they had just said - her large ears weren't just for show, after all. "Really? You don't say."

"Oh yes, absolutely." Tia smiled.

The lynx snorted, but... there was some appeal to the idea. Even though she knew that this was part of some ploy on her eldest sibling's part, she knew that the only way she'd ever really make any progress on her adventuring career was to actually try her hand at, well, adventuring. Saving the world sounded a little daunting, granted, but...

"Okay," she smiled. "I'll do it!"

She leaned back onto her heels. Oh, there were going to be so many things to do first. She had to refit her leather armor, purchase a new dagger, read up on the latest adventuring techniques and- oh, she was supposed to be working.

"No, wait. I can't," she sighed. "I'm supposed to be working."

Mia stuck her tongue out, "Oh please, I'll take care of it."

Elin snorted, eying her sibling once more. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. "Really?"

"I'll help her," Tia smiled, setting one hand to her twin's arm. That was a little more reassuring.

"Weeell..." the lynx finally relented, grinning a little as she passed the mop to the younger of the two twins. "Okay. Thanks!"

And she hastened off, a bounce in her step. So many things to do! Oh, and she was going to have to stop at the book store!

"Heh," Mia grinned. She promptly dropped the mop, then plucked up a new tray of waiting drinks. It might not be as profitable as working the beds, but there was some fun in teasing the drunks.

"Oh, uh..." Tia glanced down at the pile of broken glasses and mugs heaped on the floor. "Mia, aren't you going to...?"

But the younger twin was already halfway across the room, ale and beer sloshing all over the tray as she swung it about. "Let the janitor take care of it!"

The elder twin's eyes rolled. She sighed, exchanged glances with Lena, and then headed toward the back room in search of a broom.

And Lena smiled politely, at least until all three siblings had set to their varied tasks. She wasn't entirely certain she had overheard the conversation correctly. Still, the lioness couldn't help but think she might need to have a little talk with the Cat House's owner about this.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

"So," Rhaelyn paused as he glanced over the application in his hand. "Mister Kavah."

The fox nodded eagerly, his hands set to the other side of the table as he leaned over it.

"Kavah the, ah..." the wizard arched a brow. "Kavah the Swift?"

The fox nodded again, a broad grin on his muzzle. The nickname was both new and self-appointed, but he felt it added a dash of the melodramatic to his name. Adventurers loved that kind of thing, so he figured it certainly couldn't hurt his chances of landing the job.

Rhaelyn arched both brows now, glancing over the beastkin before him. Kavah was a fox, a somewhat rare sight in the feline-dominated city of Ma'Karach. Still, exotic or not, he didn't really look like much. The vulpine was a little shorter than the panther, perhaps topping out at just over sixteen hands high, and he was whip-thin.

He certainly wasn't a warrior, and he didn't have the bearings of a fellow mage, so Rhaelyn simply wasn't certain what the fox might have to offer. Honestly, he had even shown up for the interview without any weapons or armor.

"Er," Kavah finally broke the awkward silence, with a question he was eager to ask. "So does this gig come with any medical perks? Like, uh, do you have a healer? Or, uh, maybe some kind'a healing potion reserve?" There was an odd look on the vulpine's face as he asked. Honestly, it made the panther a little nervous.

"Let's, ah, not get ahead of ourselves," he murmured. He plucked the rumpled application from Kavah's grip, smoothing out the pages before he flipped to the first one. "There are a number of qualified applicants at this point."

"What, ah..." and the panther frowned a little as he scanned over the hastily scrawled information. The vulpine beastkin's information read more like an erotic novel than an adventurer's resume. "Have you had any prior experience in this field before?"

Kavah straightened up, his bushy tail swaying behind him as he rubbed his chin. "Well, uh, I stole the virtue of the Wastelord's daughter? Had t'scale a tower, sneak past ten guards, and-"

Rhaelyn started shuffling through the other applications on his table. He was really going to need to start skipping over any applicant with a colorful nickname. With that in mind, he pre-emptively crossed Balgor the Bold, Tiranol the Mighty, and Royce Silver-Heart off of the list. Or was that last one an actual surname? Hm.

"I stole the Ruby of WonTon from the Bamboo Village of the pandakin!" Kavah blurted. He needed this job. Or, at the very least, he needed to tag along with the group until he could reach the next town. If he could steal a few valuables along the way, all the better, but if he had to stay in Ma'Karach any longer he feared that it might actually kill him.

The panther arched a brow, glancing over the sheaf of parchment in his hand. Was that a real thing? Or a real place? He had his suspicions that they were, in fact, not.

His lip curled a little, "So you're a thief, then."

Kavah hesitated. Was that a bad thing? Every adventuring party needed a thief, right? "Uh, yeh, guess so. Best thief in the biz'ness, in fact!"

Rhaelyn snorted, crumpling the fox's application up and dropping it into the wastebin next to him. "Sorry, we don't need a thief. Thank you."

Kavah's ears drooped, his tail sagging limply behind him. He leaned against the table again, his voice just a little desperate. "L-... look, Mister Wizard-"

"Rhaelyn," the panther frowned.

"Mister Rhaelyn," the thief nodded.

The panther rapped a clawed finger against the table, his whiskers twitching. "Ser Rhaelyn."

Kavah had to keep himself from sneering. Honestly, nobles were so full of themselves. But, then again, they had money. Money that he desperately needed. "R-... right, Ser Rhaelyn. Sorry."

He stowed his ego, leaned over the table, and tried to connect with his potential employer. "I just, uh, I need this. If yer not gonna hire me, can you at least-" and he almost whimpered, "Can, like, uh... can I come with just to the next town? You don't haf'ta pay me or nothin'. I'm a great hunter, a halfway decent tracker, and I can hold my own in a scrap."

The panther's frown didn't budge, although his brow arched again. He leaned back in his seat, making no move to recover the vulpine's application from the trash. "This isn't a liesurely walk through the country, Mister Kavah. The world is in peril."

"Well, gimme a chance to prove myself, then!"

Rhaelyn sighed, but he nodded his head ever so slightly. "Angie, could you set up the first trial for Mister Kavah here?"

"Sure thing, boss!"

Kavah jumped a bit at the unexpected voice, his neck craning as he scanned the room. It was a soft and high-pitched voice, like what he'd expect to come from an excited chipmunk, but he didn't-

"Oh," the panther smiled a little. "I'm sorry. Mister Kavah, this is Angie."

The wizard gestured to the diminutive idol, and the fox stared. He had thought it to be a decorative statue, or perhaps an ornamental paperweight, but the hand-and-a-half high statue was suddenly moving. It was humanoid, vaguely avian in appearance, and distinctly feminine with a white-painted body wrap and sparkling gold halo.

To be honest, Kavah had kind of been thinking about stealing it. He had been thinking that he might be able to get a few coins for it down at the marketplace. Now, though, he was rather glad that he hadn't tried to slip it into a pocket.

Wizards. Honestly.

"Erm," the fox hesitated. "Angie?"

"Hee, Angel is fine, too," the idol giggled. Her wings stretched out, barely three hands wide, and she fluttered off the table. It defied all logic. She was a stone statue, whether small or not, so the idea that she could somehow take to the air was an absurd one. Nonetheless, she did it with neither a second thought nor a hint of difficulty.

Flitting about the fox's head, she threw her hands in the air. "Angel Sparkles!"

Rhaelyn rolled his eyes, shaking his head a little. "Angie, no one is going to ever actually call you that."

The animate idol stuck her little stone tongue out at the wizard, then winged her way right past the flustered fox. "'Scuze me, cutie."

Kavah blinked again, peering over his shoulder as the idol flitted off. "Uh, what was...?"

Rhaelyn chuckled. He really shouldn't have found the fox's confusion so amusing, but the idols often had that effect on people. "That is the Idol of Pure Goodness and, ugh, Sparkles. I recovered it from the Cult of the Obsidian Temple during my very first year of adventuring."

There were four idols in the set, one for each point of the moral compass. Good, evil, law and chaos - and the panther had three of them. He wasn't entirely certain where the Idol of Pure Evil and Naughtiness might be... but he had his suspicions. In theory, they were supposed to unlock the infinite secrets of the arcane world to their owner, but in actual practice... well... that was something else entirely.

The fox boggled, one ear skewed as he tried to digest that. "Goodness and, uh, Sparkles?"

The wizard shrugged, "She chose the name, not me." And he smiled, leaning over to fish the vulpine's resume back out of the wastebin. "She's not terribly useful in the field, but she makes a marvelous administrative assistant. A bit of an airhead, but she's certainly preferable to the Idol of Pure Chaos and Headaches."

"Er," Kavah skewed both ears now. "'Kay?"

Rhaelyn smiled politely, smoothing the crumpled parchment back out on the table. "And easier to deal with than the Idol of Pure Law and Technicalities."

Kavah frowned. He was fairly certain that the panther was just messing with him now, and he didn't like it. Honestly, who did this guy think he was? "Rf, whatever. So, what's'is about a trial?"

"Ah, nothing fancy," the panther smiled. "Just a quick test of your ability to act gracefully under pressure."

"Yeh?" Kavah smirked. He was all ABOUT acting gracefully under pressure. The job was as good as his.

"Excuse me," someone chirped cheerfully from behind him.

"Buzz off," he grunted, glancing over his shoulder. Honestly, who had sent the next applicant in already? He wasn't done!

"Boo." Kira chuffed, reared up on her hind legs to set eye-to-eye with the rude fox. Her talons curled about his shoulders for balance, and her beak practically bumped right up against his nose.

"Gah!" Kavah tumbled over backward, crashing into the table and then bouncing off onto the floor. He crawled backward rapidly like a crab, until he abruptly hit the wall and his escape came a sudden end.

The gryphon laughed, circling the table to sit next to Rhaelyn. "Never gets old!"

And the wizard sniffed faintly, absently snapping his fingers. The fox's resume, freshly unmangled, went up in a puff of smoke and blue flames. "Well at least he didn't wet himself like the last one did. I'm sorry Mister Kavah, but your services will not be required at this time."

Kavah wheezed for breath, his eyes still wide. He felt like he was going to have a heart attack! Still, the point was made, and he reluctantly pulled himself back to his feet. "Rrrf, that was a dirty trick."

Rhaelyn smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Kira gets a little over-excited sometimes. But you get my point. Were she hostile, you'd be dead now." And he paused delicately, glancing to the hen. "Or worse."

He smiled politely, looking back to the fox. "Better luck next time."

The hen snickered, waited for the panther to pat her on the beak, and then hustled back off to the closet to lie in wait for her next victim. At the same time, the Idol of Pure Good and Sparkles returned.

"Next one's coming in, boss!"

"Thank you Angie," the wizard smiled. "Mister Kavah, if you would show yourself out...?"

The panther reshuffled the pile of applications before him, trying to find the next one on the list. Ah, yes, that would be-

"Oh no," he murmured.

He suddenly found himself wondering if he should extend his interview with this Kavah fellow instead. Or maybe just knock off early for lunch. Yes, that certainly sounded like an appealing course of action. "Er, Angie..."

The fox snarled softly, but he didn't argue. That arrogant noble may have pulled a fast one on him, but he'd be the one having the last laugh when-

"Nf," he grunted, bouncing off of the next applicant as they both tried to pass through the door simultaneously. "Hey!" he growled. "Watch where yer-"

And the cheetah looked back at him, her expression vaguely quizzical as she eyed the vulpine she had run into. "Do I know you?"

Kavah's muzzle snapped shut, his eyebrows shooting skyward. That was-! She-! Oh no.

The newly arrived feline curled her lip, her ears twitching forward and her eyes narrowing. Ah yes, now she remembered. There were only so many non-felines in Karash, and even fewer foxkin, so the odds that this was a different pickpocket were slim.

"W-... wait!" he gasped, his hands shooting downward to protect himself. He was just a half second too late for the gesture to make any difference whatsoever.

The cheetah's thigh bulged as her left leg shot upward, the rounded cap of her knee crushing brutally into the vulpine's crotch. Thankfully the joint wasn't plated in steel like her boots were, but the impact was still impossibly vicious, and the casually violent feline had put her all into the gesture.

Kavah bounced upward, physically displaced as the female's knee tried to simultaneously exist in the same region that was currently occupied by his pelvis with near-neutering results. Then, just as quickly, her leg was lowered again as if nothing had happened.

"Nnnh... b-... bitch," the fox managed to squeak. He uttered a wavering groan, almost managing to stay upright, but then toppled as the cheetah simply pushed him over. He didn't get back up, instead curling up where he lay.

The female curled her lip into a deeper sneer, her tail lashing back and forth behind her as she looked down at the thief. "You going to throw up again?"

Rhaelyn rose to his feet, although he was careful to keep the table between himself and the new arrival. "N-... now, see here! You can't just burst into my office and start kneeing people in the balls-"

"Ball," she interrupted. She was very matter-of-fact about that.

The panther blinked. "Excuse me?"

She smiled slightly, fixing her gaze on the mage now. "Kneeing people in the ball. Singular."

Rhaelyn swallowed a bit nervously, promptly sitting back down. He wasn't entirely certain just how the cheetah could be so certain about just how many balls the fox had, but he WAS certain that he didn't want to know. His ear twitched slightly as he made out an odd sound coming from the closet - apparently the hen in hiding DID want to know, but thankfully she had the restraint to keep herself hidden.

"And," she snorted. "This isn't an office."

The cheetah leaned down, grabbing the whimpering fox by the scruff of his neck. Hefting him up, her other hand slammed between his thighs to get a good pawhold, and she lifted him bodily from the ground.

"This is the back room of a tavern," she grunted, moving toward the entrance to the common area. She opened the door with the toe of her boot, then pitched the maimed fox out into the bar. She was a little surprised at the distance she got - he was impressively aerodynamic.

There were a few indignant shouts as the vulpine crashed through a table, but the feline ignored them. Looking back to the mage, she shut the door behind her and moved back to the table opposite the panther. "So the only folks you're going to hire here are drunks and alcoholics."

Rhaelyn frowned a little, absently dipping one hand beneath the table to shield his own crotch. He really felt like he should object to the way the cheetah had treated the last applicant, but at the same time he was more than a little worried that he might be next. He'd have to choose his words carefully.

"Ah, well... every good adventure starts in a tavern."

The cheetah eyed him hard, then snorted back a laugh as she flopped into the chair opposite him. "You're an idiot, Rhae."

And the panther rolled his eyes, relaxing a little. "Well, it's certainly... good to see you too, Raffina. I didn't realize that you were back in Karash again."

She chuckled, her booted feet propped up on table. The entire piece of furniture almost groaned under the weight of the impact, but it held. Barely. They were big boots, and the mage knew from experience that they were reinforced with steel. "Could say the same about you, Rhae, but my crew just rolled into town last week. Figured I'd see 'Rena while I was in town, and she told me where you'd be."

Ah, of course. Rhaelyn suppressed a sigh, glancing over the new application in his hands. He was going to have to have words with his sister, later. "Ah. Remind me to thank her for that." And he gestured to the cheetah with the neatly printed resume. "Hm, is this for real? Are you actually abandoning the illustrious life of the mercenary to turn to adventuring instead?"

Raff snorted, her ears twitched forward. "Me? Please. Adventurers are opportunistic scum bags." She paused for a long second, then spoke again when the panther seemed ready to object. "But I thought it might be fun to catch up. It's been a long time."

The panther tossed the application onto the table, his frown deepened. "People catch up over drinks, Raffina. They don't both sign up for the same suicide mission and then hope they'll have time for small talk."

"Right," she snorted. "Because this is going to be sooooo dangerous."

"It is." he stated simply.

Raff arched a brow, her feet sliding back to the ground with an audible thump as she sat up in her chair. "You for real? Rhae, I fought in the war."

Rhaelyn scoffed. He didn't mean to sound rude, but honestly... how could he expect a mere soldier to understand where he was coming from. "The first, maybe, but not the second. And don't forget, Raffina, that the first one only ended because of my efforts."

The cheetah smirked a little, making a visible effort to be polite. "Right, sure, I totally forgot. All hail the conquering hero, the mighty wizard Rhaelyn, who apparently thinks that the death of a single delusional necromancer can end a war."

He frowned a little deeper this time, the panther's tail flicking behind him. Although he didn't make the conscious effort to trigger it, a few soft sparks shot from one of the rings gracing his finger. "She was the Bitch Queen Cygna, necromancer without peer. She raised an army, destroyed an entire country, and attempted to sunder the world so she might recreate it in her own image."

"I, uh... hey..." Raff backed down quickly, her hands held up with palms wide. She could probably take the mage in a fistfight, but she wasn't eager to have the tavern burned down around her.

Rhaelyn continued, making a conscious effort to dampen the ring. They acted off of his emotions sometimes, without his prompting, but he was confident that he would never accidentally hurt anyone with them. Not unless he intended to. "And I ended her. Twice."

The cheetah was equal parts disgruntled and impressed, her arms crossing as she fidgeted a little. "Okay, well, uh... hey. If the world's all in peril and whatever, then I want to help. And, uh, you really need to put an 'off' switch on those things."

The mage arched a brow, but he carefully twisted the magic ring off of his finger. It sparked a little, a short line of electricity arcing between the electrum band and the tip of one claw, but then it went quiet. He set the ring to the table, close enough that he could retrieve it in a heartbeat, but far enough away to assuage the cheetah's concerns.

"My apologies. Is this better?"

Raff eyed the panthers hands, glancing over the twelve other rings festooning his fingers. "Er, not really."

"You've been gone a long time," Rhaelyn chuckled. He flexed his fingers, and as if on cue a flame appeared at the tip of his index finger as if it were a candle. It was a mere parlor trick, but conjuring flame always seemed to impress the mundanes. "I've truly mastered the mystical arts over the past five years. I'm a fifth tier arcanomancer these days, with a specialization in geomancy and artificing."

He paused deliberately, letting that sink in. The female didn't look nearly as impressed as he had hoped she might. "So, what exactly are you bringing to the table?"

The cheetah snorted, resisting the urge to sneer outright. Instead, she kept her expression as neutral as she could manage. "Well, I'm one of the best damn scouts in the northern reach, Rhae. Maybe not THE best, but you're going to have a hard time finding someone who can hunt or track better than I do. Plus, I'm a damn good skirmisher, with a focus on hit-and-run tactics."

She paused, the faintest smile gracing her feminine lips. Her whiskers twitched slightly, and the panther could swear that there was an oddly familiar sparkle in her eye. "And you know how fast I am."

"You're..." Rhaelyn hesitated, leaning over to pointedly glance at the female's absurdly armored boots. "You're a scout? Like, an actual stealthy woodsman?"

"Rhae," she laughed. "I'm a fucking ghost."

The wizard wrinkled his nose a little, his whiskers twitching distastefully. "Eloquently put."

"But," he continued. "We don't need a scout. We already have one."

Raff snorted, "So what? Hire two scouts, then. Then you can see the bad guys coming from two different directions at the same time."

Rhaelyn smiled a little at that. "Raffina, my scout can see in ALL directions at once. She can fly, and possesses telescopic vision."

The cheetah rolled her eyes, emulating the panther's oft-used expression of exasperation. "What, you talking about the gryphon squatting in the closet over there? Yeah, great, nothing stealthier than five-hundred pounds of giant, flying kittyhawk."

Almost immediately, the door to the closet came crashing open as Kira tumbled out. She had been eavesdropping on the conversation, and at that last bit she had taken offense. "Hey, I'm not THAT heavy!"

She darted to the wizard's side, staring defiantly at the cheetah.

The panther smiled a little, patting Kira lightly on the head. "It's true, she's only half that."

And Raff rolled her eyes again. "Oh, great, so you got the world's smallest gryphon to scout for you instead. Guess it's still a better choice than using the little golem on the table, at least."

"Raffina, I'll have you know that-" and he paused, glancing to the idol. Angie was still in exactly the same pose she'd been since before Raff had entered the room. "How do you know that's a golem?"

The spotted feline arched a brow, then sniffed lightly at the air. "Are you for real, Rhae? It's..." and she sniffed again, her ears twitching forward. "It stinks like magic. Hard to miss."

Rhaelyn arched both brows in return, holding up his hands. The many rings glittered. "And, what, I don't stink of magic too? How could you tell the difference with me in the room?"

"Heh, well you stink too," she grinned. "But the little statue stinks all different-like."

The cheetah leaned over the table, reaching out to poke the little idol in the head.

"Ow, hey!" Angie protested. She scampered away, her stone wings flexing as she flitted up onto the mage's shoulder for safety.

Kira growled, her taloned hands planting against the table as she started to pull herself up. "You leave her alone!" She liked the little bird-thing. Statue or not, the avians needed to stick together.

Raff snorted, flopping back into her seat. Again, her hands were held in front of her, palms outward. "Hey, whatever, just proving a point. That's totally a golem, and I can tell the difference no matter how much it pretends to be a paperweight."

"She!" Angie protested, one fist set to her hip. She looked rather cross, especially for an artifact that supposedly represented absolute good and sparkles.

The cheetah snorted again, grinning. "It."

Rhaelyn held up one hand, cutting off the argument before it could begin. Setting it to Kira's beak, he eased the gryphon back down from the table. "Enough. Raffina, tell me how you were able to-... what do you mean by 'she smelled different'?"

"It." she repeated. "Rhae, I don't care how many curves that thing has, it's still a golem. Last time I checked, those things don't come with naughty bits."

Angie crossed her arms now, her beak aloft in haughty fashion. She could argue that point, but that would take the conversation in a direction that she was distinctly uncomfortable with. "Hmf!"

The wizard set the fingers of one hand to his brow, drawing in a slow breath. One... two... three... four... five... six...

Raffina knew that look, so she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. The panther had always done that when he was younger, whenever he was trying not to lose his temper. "Sorry, nevermind. Uh, she totally smells like old world magic. I dunno, it's hard to explain to someone who can't smell it. She's... old. Like, real old."

Rhaelyn steepled his fingers now, looking thoughtful. "I see. You would have made an exceptional wizard if you only had the patience for it, Raffina."

She arched a brow, "So, does that mean I get the job?"

"Hm," he murmured. He was going to have to think about it a little more, but for now... "Yes, I think it does. But-"

"WHAT!?" Kira shouted, rearing back up again. She didn't like that decision at all! The cheetah was rude, and ugly, and stupid, and she was pretty sure this was the same beastkin that Rhaelyn said he had slept with, like, a hundred times. "No way!"

"BUT-" the panther frowned, setting a paw to Kira's beak again. "There are conditions. Raffina, you're going to need to learn to play well with others. Kira is both a scout and my personal bodyguard, so she is also coming. That is non-negotiable. If you don't think you can get along with her then I suggest you quit now."

He set his hands back to the table, absently tracing an 'X' across it's surface. Where his finger touched, the wood charred and smoldered. "Or I will fire you. Possibly with actual fire."

Raff seemed ready to argue, but she hesitated. She glanced back and forth from panther to gryphon and then back again. There was something... off about those two, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Er... fine, whatever. Yeah, I can deal."

"Good." Rhaelyn nodded slightly, sliding the cheetah's application into the 'accepted' pile. It was very lonely there. Now he just needed to find another two or three acceptable applicants, and-

"Oh come on," Kira scowled. She clearly wasn't content with the ruling, and to make matters worse Angie was now perched on the gryphon's shoulders. From there, the little idol was making all manner of absurd faces at the cheetah. She really did have the most remarkable emotional range, for a creature of living rock.

Rhaelyn sighed. "Kira, we'll talk about it. Could you please take Angie outside so she can cool off? I'm certain I can handle the next few applicants on my own."

"But-!"

The panther turned slightly, a brow arched and a faint frown on his lips. The gryphon groaned, then nodded and padded out into the common room. The wizard was such a jerk sometimes. Honestly, she didn't know why she put up with it!

Ah well, she'd get him back later. When they were alone. No need to make a public spectacle of it.

Rhaelyn rubbed the bridge of his muzzle wearily, taking a moment to clear his mind before he turned back to Raffina. "Now, where-"

"Hey Rhae," Veridia mused. The husky-wolf hybrid's frame filled the entire door and then some, to the point where the amazonian dogkin had to actually duck down a little to fit through it. "Did'ja know there's some fox-guy throwin' up outside? Plus, some gryphon's scarin' off all yer adventurer-"

She stopped abruptly, as she realized the panther had company. Oh, well that was awkward. But at least they both still had their clothes on.

Rhaelyn smiled, rising from his seat to circle the table. "Ha ha, Veridia! I was wondering when you'd be coming to visit!"

"Rhaelyn!" she grinned in return, and the two exchanged a brief hug. It was almost absurd, the massive amazonian seeming ridiculously large next to the slim panther. "Great to see ya again!"

Raffina wasn't really sure how to take that. "Uh..."

The wizard, still smiling, looked back to the cheetah. "Oh, where are my manners? Raffina, this is an old adventuring comrade of mine. Veridia, this is-"

The cheetah frowned, rising from her seat so swiftly that the chair clattered to the ground behind her. Her gaze flicked to the canine's face, then to her chest, and twenty years of repressed issues about her figure came flooding back. "I was just leaving. I'll be in touch."

"Ah, Raffina..." the panther trailed off. The cheetah brushed past him, and out the door.

Veridia arched a brow, looking a little uncertain. "Err... was it somethin' I said?"

Rhaelyn groaned, tapping his forehead. "Oh, right. Of course. Raffina served in battle against Cygna's forces. Her, ah... father died during the war."

"Oh," the canine murmured. Her voice suddenly seemed far too small for the rest of her. She glanced down to her top, absently adjusting her collar to better cover the Bitch Queen's brand against her neck. And here she had been thinking that the cheetah was staring at her chest.

"Just, ah..." Rhaelyn gestured dismissively, then moved to pick up the toppled chair. "Have a seat, Veridia! Tell me how you've been doing!"

"Eh, you know," she grinned. "Just enjoyin' my retirement. Been workin' at the Cat House for the past year or so." And she paused, looking to the panther with a slight frown. "You should stop by some time. Could've visited me whenever y'wanted to."

Rhaelyn wrinkled his nose a little, his whiskers twitching and his ears sliding back. "Ah, yes, The Cat House. I'm familiar with it." and a sigh, "Really, Veridia. Of all the places to work."

The canine shrugged, watching the panther sit before she took a seat herself. She eyed the chair he was offering, though. It looked awfully small and flimsy. Still, it held when she sat on it. It protested with a low creak of strained wood, yes, but it held. "It's an honest livin', hun."

"A whore house?" The panther looked a little incredulous, but he didn't argue.

Veridia frowned a little more, her broad tongue licking thoughtfully over one of her sharper teeth. It was a metal fang, implanted in her jaw to replace one that she had lost in battle. The panther was a good friend, but he was also awfully full of himself sometimes. And far too uptight. "Anything's gonna sound ugly if you say it like that, Rhae."

He opened his muzzle as if to say something, but then stopped. Another sigh, and he nodded. "I'm sorry, Veridia." And a smile now, "Veri, I mean. Or do you prefer Vee these days?"

The husky chuckled, the deep bass rumble setting her whole ample chest to jiggling. "C'mon, hun, only Al calls me Vee. Veri is fine."

His smile held, and the panther bobbed his head in agreement. "So, Veri, don't tell me that you're thinking about coming out of retirement now? You know that I'll always have room on my team for a warrior of your caliber."

She laughed this time, the sound of her mirth almost like barking, but she shook her head and managed to stifle it after a long moment. "Oh no, no, gods..." and she grinned broadly. "Hun, I'm flattered, but I've done more'n enough killin' for one lifetime. I'm a lover, now."

He snorted incredulously, but his smile still didn't waver. "And yet you work as a bouncer, hm?"

"Oh sure," she smirked a little. The panther wasn't very subtle. "I bust up the occasional set of kittenmakers, twist the occasional arm, but you'd be surprised at how many guys actually like that kind'a thing."

Rhaelyn blinked. "I, ah... oh come now, not you too?"

"Not me too?" She cocked her head, one ear perked curiously.

"Well, Al had this crazy theory," he chuckled. It was such an absurd thought that it didn't even seem worth repeating, but... "She tried telling me the same thing. That, ah, some people LIKE that kind of-"

And a grin, "What, izzis about Saga?"

He groaned, his head dipping until his muzzle banged against the tabletop. "Gods, am I the only one who didn't know about that?"

Veridia laughed again, reaching across the table to pat the panther on the shoulder. It hurt a little, and his shoulderblade grated against his ribs. "Ha, yeah, you kind'a were. Y'know, hun, for such a smart guy you're actually kind'a dumb sometimes."

Rhaelyn lifted his head again, rolling his shoulder as he tried to work the sting out of it. "Rmf, so people keep telling me."

"But speakin' of Saga..." she drawled.

"Oh, must we?" he frowned deeply. So deeply that Veridia feared his jaw might fall right off. "If you tell me that he wants to come along on this mission, then I'm going to have to call the whole thing off. The world will just have to save itself."

She smirked, absently producing a book from the voluminous confines of her taut-stretched top. "Nah, he's off in the Swamps of Sorrow, I hear. Somethin' about frog-men." And as delicate a pause as she could manage, before she licked her lips. "And, er, frog-women."

Rhaelyn sighed, "Of course." And he perked. "But good! That means I can save the world in peace, with only the constant threat of death to annoy me. I, ah... what's that?"

Veridia tossed the book onto the table, and the panther swiftly snatched it up. "Thought you might wanna see it. One of the girls at the Cat House had it."

"One of the whores, you mean." He wasn't trying to sound nasty, but the sight of the novel had immediately set him to a foul mood. He turned it over in his hands, studying it front and back.

"Rhaelyn," the husky growled in warning. She didn't have to say anything further - the tone was more than enough. He knew what would happen if he pushed it.

"I, ah..." and the panther's sagged into his seat. He swallowed, hard, and spared a fleeting glance at the dogkin's feet. Thankfully she was going barefoot at the moment, as most dogkin tended to. She wasn't wearing... The Boots. "Apologies, Veridia."

Oh sure, he had poked fun at Raffina's boots, but those were mundane chunks of leather and metal. Veridia, on the other hand, had served for over a decade as one of the Bitch Queen's elite - and some even insisted that she was directly related to Cygna by blood. In accordance to her station she had been granted a number of powerful magical items to augment her skills, among them a set of enchanted boots that, well...

Suffice to say, it was a whole 'thing'. Rhaelyn preferred not to think about it. The memory made him a little queasy.

She shrugged, smiled, and gestured to the novel in the panther's hands. "Don't mention it, hun. So, thoughts?"

Rhaelyn stifled a groan as he glanced back down to the novel once more. It had a gorgeous hand-painted cover, although to his trained eyes the signs of magical imprinting were obvious. The artificially reproduced image was that of a fanciful gryphon, posed dramatically in front of a centaur and-

No, this time he really did groan. Loudly. "Oh come ON..."

Veridia chuckled a bit apologetically, "Sorry hun, but it looks like Ray-Lynn the Soaring has magicked his way back into bookstores everywhere."

The panther made no secret of his grumbling as he eyed his fictional counterpart. The carefully rendered panther certainly bore a resemblance to him, but then again most panthers did to the untrained eye. To him, 'Ray-Lynn' was a little more graceful looking - and a little more feminine than he was comfortable with. The pastel wizard's cloak didn't help, and his Ring of Eternal Fire most certainly was NOT shaped like a little glittering heart.

"By Beak and Claw," he murmured aloud. "A Gryphon's Tail."

Brow furrowed, he flipped the book in his grasp, studying the back. "What should have been a simple diplomatic mission turns into a fight for his life, when the bumbling wizard Ray-Lynn the Soaring journeys to the forbidden Gryphon Territories. There, caught between the hunters of the dread Gryphon Queen and miles of monster infested wastes, there is only one brave soul who can save him."

He practically spat the last few words, then dropped the book back to the table. Almost without a second thought, he slid it off of the table's edge and into the wastebin.

"Hey now," Veridia frowned, leaning over to rescue the novel. "I haf'ta return that to-" and a pause. She was fairly certain that Mia had stolen it to begin with, but... well, yes, she should still return it.

"Ugh," the panther groaned. His head bowed again, and this time his forehead banged against the table's edge. "Ragh!" he mumbled inarticulately, as a followup.

"Uh," the canine fixed him with an odd look. "Hun?"

"Blugh," he grunted again, his forehead once more thumping to the table's edge. "I just... how did he even find out about this? How does he do it?"

"Well," Veridia mused. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but ain't that Al on the cover there with ya?"

The panther opened his mouth, but no words came out. His brain was broken. One gear whirred and clicked cheerfully in his head, oblivious to the fact that every other gear had been smashed into a thousand pieces. Tiny imaginary workers came rushing in, put up new gears, and restarted the wizard-brain machine.

"Ugh," Rhaelyn moaned. His head dropped again, and his forehead banged into the table harder than before. He was going to have a bruise. "Al, gods damn it..."

Veridia frowned a little, reaching over to pat him comfortingly again. He quickly shied away, abandoning his seat entirely as he set to pacing instead. He moved with the slightest limp - a holdover from his time in the Gryphon Territories. Gale had set his broken bones - his right arm, left leg, and ribs - but his knee just hadn't healed quite right. Magic had its limits, but still, it was barely noticable.

The wizard paused in front of the lone mirror hanging against the room's wall. He had moved it when he had first set himself up here, so he could watch the applicants from multiple angles at once, but now he was just using it to inspect himself. Really, given everything that he'd been through over the past decade, he looked rather good.

He flexed his arm, absently - Gale did good work. There wasn't even the slightest hint that his arm had ever been broken, and few of his wounds had left scars. Now that he was back in the civilized territories, he also had access to proper grooming implements, and it showed. His clothes were properly fitted, his glossy black fur neatly trimmed, and his odor once again well within the acceptable olfactory range.

"Should've shelled out for the non-disclosure contract, hun."

Rhaelyn's brows arched, his ears perked bolt upright as Veridia's word snapped him back to the present. "But I did! I gave her-" and another pause as gears started falling back out of place. "Gods! By Arcanos, I can't believe I-"

Yes, the memories were back in full force now. He had been a little addled at the time, what with the nightmare-inducing level of trauma that his testicles had soaked up, but there it was. He had bribed Alandrea to silence about how they had first met, but he hadn't extended it to cover anything else.

"I'm..." he paused, his eyes looking a little distant. "I think I'm going to kill her. Yes."

No, wait, he couldn't do that. She had saved his life, and by extension Kira's, and she had almost died in the process. Murdering her wouldn't be appropriate. "No, I'm going to kill Saga this time. I really am. It's been a long time coming."

Veridia snorted, but she looked a little amused. "No yer not, Rhae. You say that every time, but the little guy's saved yer life a dozen times over."

He scowled, "Well I've saved HIS life a HUNDRED times over!"

"It's, uh..." she glanced away. "It's not a contest, hun. Yer the one who always goes on about group efforts 'nd all that. Without him, we'd all be dead at least a couple times, and the world with us."

Rhaelyn's ear twitched ever so slightly, but- that reminded him! There were much more pleasant things to think about, such as the world and it's current impending state of doom! He shunted all of this 'novel' nonsense into a dark corner of his mind and covered it with several tons of imaginary locks and chains.

"Ah, that reminds me." The smile returned to his muzzle, and the fire to his eyes. He gingerly sat back down in his seat, his elbows resting on the table and his fingers clasped. Veridia was almost twice his mass, but she still found it a little disconcerting.

"You may wish to reconsider my job offer," he mused. "To be honest, if you hadn't come to visit, I would have actively sought you out."

"Yeah?" Her interest was piqued, but she was far from convinced.

He nodded slightly, looking particularly solemn and studious. "At this very moment, I have within my private chambers an artifact of untold and, to be honest, practically unimaginable power."

Veridia snorted, "Is this about those silly little statues again?" The canine shook her head in turn, her chair creaking alarmingly as she leaned back a little. She liked the little statues, to be honest, but they hardly ever struck her as particularly powerful. At best they were fonts of useless trivia, and the occasional halfway decent cake recipe.

"No," he hissed. "This does not involve the four idols of arcane knowledge." Honestly, why did no one take those things seriously? Well, they'd all be feeling pretty ridiculous when he eventually united all four and cracked the secrets of the universe wide open.

"This," he frowned. "Is about Cygna."

And now Veridia was frowning, and she was all ears. "Cygna?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Cygna. Also known to the world at large as The Bitch Queen."

The husky growled a little, leaning forward as she rested her elbows against her knees. "I know who The damned Bitch Queen is, Rhaelyn."

"Ah," he paused. "Right, of course. How silly of me." He held one hand up, trying to soothe the canine's rankled nerves. "I, er... well, I appear to have chanced upon her phylactery, and all of my tests have proved conclusively that it contains her still living soul."

"What." Veridia stared blankly at the panther. It wasn't even a question, but rather an utterance of both confusion and utter disbelief.

He nodded, his back straightened as he gestured sweepingly across the table he sat before. "Yesss, the soul of the Bitch Queen is in my possession. Wrested from the grip of the Lich Queen Cygna when we slew her a second time, it was thought lost when-"

Veridia closed her eyes lightly. She wasn't going to get mad. "Rhae, hun, I was there."

The panther stumbled verbally, looking a little sheepish. "Ah, apologies once more, Veridia. I've gotten rather used to making a production of it when performing these interviews.You would not believe how many times I've had to repeat that story today."

The husky stifled a chuckle. She would believe it no matter how high the number. She knew full well just how much the panther liked to talk. "Well, how d'you know it's even real?"

"Well," he tapped his muzzle. He was going to need to drop the theatrics, so that meant rethinking his approach. "My myriad of arcane tests should be more than enough proof-"

Veridia gave him a look.

"Fine," he sighed. "Saga sent it to me. Left the damned thing right on my doorstep while I was away. My sister almost opened it up and, I'm sure, would have tried wearing it. Who knows what would have happened then?"

The dogkin's eyes widened, then narrowed, and then settled somewhere in-between the two. "Saga. Damn it."

"Yes!" the panther pointed at the canine, looking particularly vindicated. "You agree with me! That stupid runt of an alleycat is a menace to everything we've fought to protect!"

Veridia snorted, leaning back in her seat again. "Er, no. Hun, I just mean that if Saga sent it to you, that means its probably the real deal. You may not think much of him, but he really knows his stuff."

His lids closed lightly, and the panther gently rubbed his eyes. "Yes. Fine. You're right. Saga, the fantastically famous and incredible adventurer-thief somehow stumbled upon the actual, genuine phylactery of the Lich Queen, wrapped it in wax paper, and then dropped it on my front stoop."

"Really?" Veridia wasn't a wizard, but that sounded a little odd. She couldn't help but smile. "Was it really wrapped in nothing but wax paper?"

"Well," he frowned. "He had scratched a dozen runes of binding all over it, and the wax paper was layered over a crystal-hardened lead box filled with Incense of Nullification, but... yes. That's basically what he did." And a pause as he sounded just a bit defensive. "I was simplifying."

Veridia chuckled, shaking her head a little. "Well alright, I'm in."

Rhaelyn perked, his frown inverting into a broad smile. "Really? Well that's fantastic, Veri! I can't tell you how happy I am to hear you say that!"

The dogkin grinned in turn, slapping the panther on the shoulder again in celebration. It still hurt. "So," she prompted him. "Who else have you got so far?"

The wizard faltered, glancing to the lone application atop his 'approved' pile. It wasn't really a pile so much as it was a single resume. The rest were either unprocessed or crumpled up in the trash. There were a lot of resumes in the trash - he was going to have to empty it again, soon. "Er, so far there's you..."

Veridia nodded, "Of course."

"And me..." he continued.

"Right."

"And, uh, Kira..."

She arched a brow at that. "Who?"

"Oh, uh..." he scowled, reaching over to pluck that novel from the canine's grip. Flipping it onto its back, he tapped the gryphon depicted on the cover with one finger. It was actually a pretty decent likeness of her. "That. That's Kira."

"Rhaelyn," she grinned. "You dog."

"Shut up," he snorted. She kept grinning. "And there's, ah, Raffina."

She arched a brow once more, "What, the cheetah with the attitude?"

Rhaelyn sighed. It felt like he had sighed a thousand times already, and he was doubtless going to be sighing a thousand times more. "Yes. She's a fantastic scout, a decent fighter, and she can smell raw magic without the need of specialized tools."

Veridia eyed the panther. She could sense that there was more to it than the wizard was letting on. "And...?"

He grunted. "And she's my ex-girlfriend, alright? We went out a few times, like, a hundred years ago. It doesn't even matter."

"I'll bet," she chuckled.

"And," he hastened on, "There are a few other promising names in the pile. Most of them are garbage - thieves and amateurs - but some have potential. The next person I'm supposed to be interviewing is a tigerkin soldier who fought in the first war."

"Oh?" Veridia didn't sound particularly impressed by that. The first war had wracked the entire continent from one end to the other, so there were hardly any soldiers over the age of twenty who hadn't participated in some way.

"Well," he continued. He shuffled through the remaining resumes, coming up with the one he was seeking. "He sounds particularly adept. He boasts exceptional swordsmanship skills, he's served admirably in two border skirmishes, and he currently serves as a very reputable caravan guard."

Veridia smiled. That sounded a little better. "Well don't keep me in suspense, sweetheart."

"Ah, right, his name is Tanner Ta'nari."

The husky suddenly glanced ceilingward, seeming hesitant to look directly at the panther. "Oh."

"Yes, so once we've finished-" and a pause, as the panther smiled. "Actually, why don't we both interview him together? You're part of the team, so he might as well meet you now instead of later. I have a good feeling about this one."

"Er, Rhae..." she murmured uncertainly. "Hate to tell ya, but Tanner ain't coming."

Rhaelyn blinked again, his head cocked a little. "What? Why not?"

"He, uh..." Veridia coughed lightly, smiling faintly. "I know the guy. He, er, asked me to come over to tell you that he wasn't gonna be able to make it." He hadn't, but nonetheless the husky knew full well that he wouldn't be making it to the interview.

"What, did something else come up?" The panther was a little disgruntled at this news. "Something that's more important than, say, the fate of the world and all life as we know it?"

The canine worked her jaw, trying to think of a way to put it delicately. She didn't want to spoil the tigers chances of working with Rhaelyn in the future, especially not since he seemed to be one of the few beastkin that the panther had ever spoken of in such glowing terms. "Well, he was injured."

Rhaelyn arched his brows, "Oh no. How?"

"Er, he... was in a bar fight?" she rumbled unconvincingly.

"Ah, a drunkard." The wizard sighed, tapping his muzzle. He hated to admit it, but Raffina had called that one. "A shame. Ah well, I'll just throw out his-"

"Oh, er, he was protecting the virtue of an innocent woman," she hastened to add.

"Tch, misguided sense of chivalry," the panther grunted. "That's even worse. I don't have any room in my party for a drunken lout who picks fights over bar wen-"

"The other guy was a murderer and known bandit," she continued. "He had just killed the bartender, and he was gonna murder a noblewoman next. He saved her, but got stabbed, okay?"

Rhaelyn was a bit taken aback, and he couldn't help but look mollified. "Ah, well... that's terrible. I apologize if it seems that I jumped to conclusions. I, ah, haven't been keeping up with the local news as of late, so I must have missed any word of that incident."

Veridia nodded, uttering a soft sigh of relief.

"And I'll keep his resume on file for next time," the panther mused.

"Good," she nodded.

The panther pursed his lips, "What bar was it?"

"Look," she growled, her temper snapping. "He's not gonna make it, okay? Let's just leave it at that! S'that okay with you!?"

"I, uh..." Rhaelyn peered at the snarling she-bitch for a second, then decided that it was in his best interests to move on. "Well, ah, let's move on to the next applicant then, shall we? I'll just summon them in and..."

He steepled two fingers, channeling power through the thin silver band on his left thumb. He preferred having Angie summon the potential party members in, because she was more personable than a disembodied voice whispering into the ear of a distant target. But, on the other hand, the magic voice was certainly more dramatic. He could work with that.

Veridia fidgeted a bit awkwardly. The panther wasn't saying anything out loud, and since the message wasn't directed at her she couldn't hear it anyway, so she just sat in slightly uncomfortable silence.

"So, uh..."

"Sshh," he hissed. He resumed sending.

She waited another few seconds, and finally the panther lowered his hands again. He gestured graciously to the husky.

"So who's the next guy?"

Rhaelyn glanced to the pile, then frowned a little. "Tyronius, mage and scion to the House Darktide."

Veridia rolled her eyes, but she smiled. She was having a hard time imagining two panthers in the same room, let alone two panthers from rival clans. At the very least, this would be... interesting.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

"And stay out!"

Kira huffed, glancing back over her shoulder as the tavern door was slammed shut behind her. Well, it had been fun while it had lasted. She had made three passes on the hapless adventurers within - one right after Rhaelyn had dismissed her, and twice more after she had taken Angie home.

Honestly, even though it had gotten her banned from the Drunken Dragon, she still felt much better after having had the chance to terrorize a few more would-be adventurers. Honestly, one would think they had never seen a gryphon before.

Of course, that had just made it more fun. Really, she had been doing Rhaelyn a favor, right? She had shaken the metaphorical tree a bit, and the bad adventurers had all fallen out. Or, uh, something like that. Now he'd only have brave and fit adventurers to recruit!

'I don't think that's how it works,' the little voice said.

"Ugh, you again." she groaned. "Shut up and go away."

"Nng, w-... what?"

Kira paused. Had that pile of smelly garbage just talked to her? She paused, circling back to investigate - oh, it was a person! There, huddled near a sewer grate was a beastkin, and a rather sickly looking one at that.

Kavah groaned, shrinking back as he recognized the gryphon. Honestly, if there were few foxes in Ma'Karach, there were even fewer gryphons. "H-... hey, I didn't... I wasn't even saying anything."

The hen blinked, circling the fox again. Yes, she knew this one. He was, oh... what was his name? He was that funny little fox that Rhaelyn had interviewed an hour ago, and then Raff - such a stupid name - had come in and kicked him in the balls! Or, er... the ball?

The fox coughed, but backed away a bit more. The staring was making him more than a little nervous - did gryphons eat foxkin? Or, er, if she did make a move to eat him, would he be able to flee quickly enough? He glanced around, hoping - for the first time in his life - that a guard might be nearby.

"Guava!" She suddenly blurted. That was his name, right? Yeah, Guava the Swift, or whatever.

'No it's not,' the voice snorted. 'His name is Kavah'.

"Er, right," she offered as friendly a smile as she could manage. "Kavah. Sorry."

Kavah eyed the leering gryphon nervously, his eyes flicking down to her beak. Yes it was clearly supposed to be a reassuring expression, but that didn't change the fact that it was plastered onto a beak that could easy rip his throat out. "Uh, d-... don't mention it?"

"So," she grinned. "You okay?"

The thief groaned, shifting a bit as he eased himself to his feet. It had been an hour, and his legs were still feeling rather unsteady. He was a little surprised when the gryphon flicked out a wing to help, and he gratefully accepted the assistance.

"Ugh," he grunted. "I'd feel better if, nf... some bitch hadn't just kneed me in the nuts."

"Nut," the corrected him. Oh yes, she had certainly heard that part of the conversation. Honestly, it was one of the main reasons she had stopped to talk with the fox.

Kavah winced, glancing sidelong at the gryphon. "W-... what?"

"Nothing!" she chirped innocently. Her beak gaped into a wider grin, and she withdrew her wing once the fox seemed steady enough. "So, you want to go get a drink or something?"

The thief twitched an ear. A good, stiff drink sounded pretty good about now, but if it meant going back into the Drunken Dragon, he'd pass. There had been a lot of laughter at his expense after he'd been ejected from the interview, and they had eventually just ejected him from the bar as well once he had started throwing up.

He paused, both ears perked now. There HAD been a few rather attractive female adventurers in the common room, though. At the very least, their wardrobes had been very adventurous, and the fox could appreciate that. He certainly wouldn't mind another chance to hit on them - but would they take him seriously after he had gotten his tail so thoroughly kicked? Hrm, maybe that incredibly cute little Lynx in the leather get-up...

"Uh, hey?" Kira peered sidelong. "You still there?"

"Rrf," Kavah grunted. No, his ball hurt dreadfully, so it was probably in his best interest to hold off on ogling any more felines today. No matter how revealing their 'adventuring gear' might be. "N-... naw, I think I'm good."

The gryphon arched a brow, glancing at the obviously pained beastkin's face, then at his crotch.

"I'll bet," she snorted.

"Look," the fox sighed. The hen's idea of subtlety was about as gentle as a ten-pound mallet. Worse than that, though, she simply wasn't his type. He could appreciate a gal who went naked at all times, but he also liked them to be a little more... uh... bipedal. "What, uh, do you need somethin' from me?"

Kira sniffed, circling in front of the fox before settling back onto her haunches. Kavah was shorter than Rhaelyn, so when she sat up she could almost-but-not-quite go eye-to-chest with him.

'Bleh,' the voice muttered. 'We really need to hang around with some shorter people'.

The gryphon twitched an ear in acknowledgement, but otherwise tried to ignore the voice. It was annoying, especially when it was trying to get back on her good side. "Just trying to be polite and stuff," she murmured, and her tongue protruded from her beak as she teased. "Kavah the Swift."

Kavah grunted again, his arms crossed as he looked down at the gryphon. Okay, yes, she was a little cuter now that she wasn't looming over him like she was about to eat him. Still not his type, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to be a little friendlier.

"Heh, don't get me started." He shrugged a little, sticking his own tongue out in reprisal. "Just figgered a nickname might help me t'get the job, is all. Normally it's just Kavah."

"I'm Kira," the hen chirped. She bowed her head a little, politely, and the fox offered a forced smile in return.

Kira grinned, her wings ruffling a little as she peeked down at the vulpine's crotch again. Okay, she couldn't hold off on asking any longer. The curiousity was eating her from the inside out. "Well, just Kavah, can I ask you something?"

He blinked, his head cocked ever so slightly. Hell, he felt a little embarrassed that the hen could somehow speak the common tongue more eloquently than he could - and she didn't even have any lips or teeth. Eh, no matter, his accent still drove the femmes wild. "Er, yeh? Guess so."

"Do you really only have one ball?"

Kavah blinked. Maybe he hadn't heard the question correctly? No, she had said it very clearly, with that odd twinkle in her eye and the unwavering grin on her gaping beak, but... "W-... what?"

She glanced downward, one forelimb raised to point a taloned finger at his nethers - just so there would be no misunderstanding it this time. "Raff, uh... the cheetah beastkin with the stupid name. She said you only have one ball left. Is that true?"

The fox growled, his tail swaying behind him with irritation. His arms crossed steadfastly, his ears slanted forward, and his eyes narrowed. It might have almost seemed intimidating to someone other than the gryphon. It wasn't much of an answer, though.

"Oh come ooooon," Kira sighed. "I'm just curious!"

"Don't wanna talk about it," Kavah grumbled. You know what? Maybe he could really use that drink after all. Getting drunk seemed like a good idea about now.

"Hey, you still willing t'get me that drink?" he mused. He shrugged his shoulders, grimacing a bit as he grumbled moreso. "Don't got no money."

"Sure!" The hen bobbed her head enthusiastically, grinning. From his attitude, that certainly sounded like a 'yes' - both to her question, and to the offer of a drink. She glanced back toward the tavern, then made a face. "But not here. This place is dumb."

The fox smiled a little, his tail still swaying, but with just a hint less irritation. "Suits me. I know just the place, too. C'mon, s'down by the docks."

He set the pace - a little slow for the hen's liking, but Kira fell into step beside him nonetheless. As they walked, she peered sidelong in sly fashion. "Ssssoo... how's it feel?"

"Hm?" Kavah's ear twitched. He knew exactly what the hen was asking about, but he wasn't about to make it easy for her.

"Having one ball," she chirped innocently. She was genuinely curious, knowing that she had rendered one or two drakes lopsided herself. Or was it a sore spot for the fox? Well, no, of course it was a sore spot - the cheetah had just kneed it up into his throat a while ago - but that didn't explain his reluctance.

The fox stifled a groan - well, the gryphon certainly was straight to the point. He had kind of hoped she'd keep beating around the bush, so he in turn could have continued putting her off. "Hff... look, can we not... could you maybe hold off on askin' me that until I'm good 'nd drun-NK!"

Kira bobbed her head, then paused as she realized the thief had suddenly lagged behind. Peering back, she blinked. Had the fox just sprouted a new foot? Or, er, no... that probably wasn't his foot, since his feet were bare, and the new one was clad in some kind of leather sandal. Also, it seemed to have sprung from his-

Kavah coughed, his eyes crossed, and then he collapsed heavily to his hands and knees. "Oh," he wheezed faintly. "Gods...!"

Mia panted, trying to catch her breath as she leaned against the wall behind the fox. It hadn't been her best kick, but she had just sprinted a block and a half to catch up with the fox. She was winded - although not as badly as the foxkin was - and she hadn't even thought to bring her boots this time. Or, er, no. If she had worn those, he probably would have heard her coming.

She glanced back, ears perked. "Hey Tia, I was right!" She grinned, her tail swaying like a snake as she purred. "It totally IS Kavah!"

"Um," Kira blinked again. Had she missed something? "Excuse me-"

The younger siamese panted, glancing back to the gryphon. Was this really the sort of girl that the fox was hitting on these days? That was a little sad, to be honest. "Hf... hey, I'm in a hurry so, hf, I'll totally make this short. This guy's my ex - me and my sister, both - and you should, like, totally dump him."

"Er," Kira leaned her head back a bit, her neck crooked. "What?"

"Or kick him in the balls!" Mia corrected herself. "Or, hf, kick him and then break up, whatever. Just, like, don't go out with him."

The hen furrowed her brow, her head cocked now. "I wasn't planning on putting out or anything. Was just offering to buy the guy a drink."

Mia snorted, "That's how it starts. Just you-"

"Kavah, you jerk!" Tia huffed as she hastened over, the hem of her dress lifted in her hands so she wouldn't accidentally trip on it. "Are you hitting on my SISTER?"

The fox was still on his hands and knees, his muzzle set to the ground as he tried to shut out the 'explosive pain' section of his brain. Still, it was hard not to hear Tia coming. He swallowed back spit and bile, then managed a plaintive whimper. "W-... wait!"

Far too late, though. With his head lowered and his rump in the air, the elder twin certainly wasn't going to let the opportunity go to waste. After all, proper or not, her younger sibling was already a full kick ahead of her - she needed to catch up, or Mia would never let her hear the end of it!

She moved into position behind the protesting fox, and swung her leg smartly up between his thighs. She aimed lower than usual - she knew his balls would have to be dangling low in his current position, so she compensated by moving as if she were trying to kick him in the stomach. It worked, and she could feel the male's softer bits smack against her upraised shin, swiftly sliding down along her leg until they were pinned against the top of her foot instead. She marveled at that - she could almost FEEL one of them flattening against her furred skin!

Kavah uttered a plaintive whine this time, his hips lifted and his knees bouncing an inch or two off the street from the impact. His muzzle hit the ground, his fingers pressed firmly to the cobbled road, and what little breath still remained in him was lost. Again, it wasn't the worst he had ever been kicked - that would be the blows he had received from Raff - but given the circumstances it was more than enough.

Tia pulled her leg back again just as quickly, her dress settling into place and her paws clasped demurely as if she hadn't just swiftly punted the fox with her shin. She bowed a little, her eartips flushed with embarrassment as she ignored the vulpine's faint sobbing, instead addressing the gryphon.

"A thousand pardons, Miss Gryphon." She smiled, her own ears slanted forward as she ALSO ignored her giggling twin. "We have a history with Kavah. Suffice to say, you can rest assured that he fully deserved that."

"But..." Kira sighed, her tail flicking behind her as she flopped back down onto her haunches. Really, it was hard to be TOO upset - it wasn't often that she got a front row seat to see some beastkin get thumped in the gonads. Watching those long legs at work made her a little jealous, though - her own hind legs couldn't quite bend that way, nor get that much momentum.

No, she was definitely a little put off, both by the legs and by - "He was going to tell me how he lost his ball!"

Mia blinked, then sputtered as she tried not to laugh. She failed. "How he lost his-snrk... are you kidding me?"

Tia looked a little more put off, one dainty paw held to her muzzle. "Oh my. Well..."

And she frowned, glancing down at the fox again. He had rolled onto his side now, in an all-too-familiar posture of abject agony. His paws were plastered between his thighs, his ears slicked flat against his skull, and his eyes closed tight as he tried to choke back another sob.

"Well," the elder twin murmured. "Now I feel a little guilty."

"Ha!" Mia snorted, fervently disagreeing with her sister. "Not me! Now I can just check one more thing off'a my to-do list!"

Tia frowned again, her face unaccustomed to such an expression. She set a hand to her sniggering sister's arm, shaking her head. "No, Mia, this is serious. What would people think if they knew we had-"

Kira glanced back and forth between the two - what were they, magical clones or something? She shook her head, and spoke up. "Uh, if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure he lost his kittenmaker to-" no, that wasn't right. Catkin had kittens, so what did foxes have?

"Kitmaker," Tia corrected her, uncertainly.

"Right," she grinned. "Thanks! Uh, I'm pretty sure that he lost his kitmaker to-"

"Ooh, or a puppymaker!" Mia interjected with a good deal more excitement than she should have probably been showing.

The gryphon's brows arched. Oh, that WAS better. She smirked a little, her head cocked to the other side. Yes they were a little annoying, but the two beastkin were also rather amusing. "Okay, so, I'm pretty sure he lost his puppymaker to this cheetah back at the Drunken Dragon?"

"Aw, damn it!" the younger of the two seemed genuinely upset about that, and from the look she tossed toward the fox it was obvious that it made her that much more determined. If he was going to lose the other one as well, she wanted to be the one to take it.

"Oh, well." Tia blinked, her ears perked upright once more. She looked relieved, if anything, and certainly didn't seem to share her sisters enthusiasm for fully neutering the poor fox. "That's certainly good to-... ah... thank you, Miss Gryphon."

Mia grumbled, her arms crossed sullenly. "I just can't believe he lost one and I missed it!"

Kira flexed her wings in a casual shrug, grinning. "S'okay. That's why beastkin have two, right?"

"Er, well..." Tia hesitated, then smiled politely. "I don't think that's EXACTLY why they have two, but... ah-" And her face suddenly brightened, her ears twitching forward. "Oh, wait, did you mention that you were at the Drunken Dragon?"

The hen cocked her head to the other side, a bit put-off by the sudden change in direction. "Uh, yeah?"

Tia smiled, leaning down a little to address the gryphon more politely. It seemed rude to just tower over the shorter creature while speaking with it. Kira actually appreciated the effort, although even bent over the siamese catkin still stood significantly taller.

"My sister and I were trying to find the Drunken Dragon," Tia purred. "But we don't come to this part of town terribly often, so do you think you might be able to give us directions? It's terribly important that we get there as quickly as possible."

Mia licked her lips, having slowly worked her way over toward Kavah. They might be in a hurry, but there was no reason they couldn't spend a few more minutes working on the fox's remaining puppymaker-

Tia stopped her, a hand on her shoulder. "As quickly," she frowned, "as possible."

The younger twin grumbled, but relented. "Oh fine. Spoilsport."

Kira glanced back and forth between the two. You know, now that she had started talking to them, she actually didn't seem to be having nearly as much trouble telling them apart. It helped that they were dressed completely differently, though.

The nice one seemed clad in some flimsy black thing, like a... what did they call those? Ah, a dress. The other one was wearing little more than an apron, with very little beneath it. Every beastkin that passed behind her was getting quite a show.

She frowned. Were these adventurers? Some kind of sister team of, what, brawlers? They had no weapons, so that's the only thing she could imagine they might be. They weren't nearly as dramatically curved as Alandrea had been, but they certainly seemed to be more shapely than the cheetah.

'They're whores,' the voice muttered darkly. Kira ignored it, although that didn't mean that she disagreed with the assessment. Having lived amongst the beastkin her whole life, she had long since learned that less clothes somehow seemed to translate into more promiscuity. Not that she was one to talk.

"Oh," Kira smiled. She decided to hedge her bets. She crooked one talon, pointing in the exact wrong direction. "Sure. About five blocks that way, then take a left, and another three blocks. If you pass the weapon shop, you've gone too far."

Tia glanced in the direction the hen was pointing. She looked back, smiling. "Thank you very much, Miss Gryphon. Oh, and tell Kavah that we're terribly sorry for his loss."

"No I'm not," Mia snorted.

Tia frowned, rolling her eyes a little. "Come on, Mia. Let's go find Elin."

"But-"

"Come ON, Mia!"

Kira grinned a little, watching as the twins headed off down the street, one walking purposefully and the other reluctantly dragging behind. Once they were out of sight, she twitched her head about to peer down at the whimpering fox.

"So, uh... you still want that drink?"

Kavah coughed, then moaned pitiably. You know what? He really, really did.

Maybe something with a lot of ice.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** "Thank you for your time," the panther sighed. He glanced at the ratty paper in his hand, then looked back to the tigerkin across the table. "Mister Gange Southpaw."

The tiger blinked, his one ear twitching. He absently scratched at it with his one good arm - the other one ended in a scarred stump - then hawked up a loogie and absently spit it on the floor. It wasn't that he wanted to spit on the floor. There just weren't any spitoons handy, and he needed to spit.

"Whatever," he grunted. He absently scratched himself again, this time in a far less polite place. He had been leering in the canine's direction ever since he had entered the room, and now he was not-so-subtly 'adjusting' himself. She might have been flattered, if he hadn't looked like someone who wrestled fire elementals for a living. Plus, he was disgusting, and he made the whole room stink of sulphur.

Veridia glanced distastefully at the glob of snot and saliva, then to the obviously disgusted wizard, before she growled. "Get out."

Gange shrugged, scratched his rear, then meandered out.

Rhaelyn sighed again, snapped his fingers, and watched as the stained resume went up in smoke. Honestly, he had burned so many applications today that he was actually starting to get rather tired. Conjuring up such a small flame was a trivial task for a mage of his caliber, but to do it so repetitively was - well, it made him feel like he was an apprentice again. Not that that was a bad thing.

He smiled faintly at the memory. Honestly, as a youth, his studies were the only thing that had given him an excuse to avoid engaging in clan politics. Ugh, politics. That, at least, was an opinion that he shared with his sister.

"Well, so much for getting a bomb guy," Veridia mused.

"Eh, just as well," he mused. "From the looks of him, I imagine he'd have posed more of a danger than a boon."

The mage looked to the ever-dwindling pile of applications - he was down to the bottom of the barrel now. Over the past few hours, the beastkin had eliminated applicant after applicant. It was like a never-ending parade of every thief, bum, or down-on-his-luck loser that Karash had to offer. One by one, Rhaelyn was turning them away, but they never seemed to stop coming.

There had been a few notables, but personality conflicts were an issue. Tyronius Darktide was actually a moderately accomplished arcanomancer, although certainly not as accomplished as Rhaelyn. Unfortunately, he had also been a snide, arrogant pain in the ass. When he had been turned away, an absurd challenge to a wizard's duel had followed, but Veri had thankfully nipped that nonsense in the bud rather quickly.

The panther snorted, his ears flicking slightly. Yes, it was generally difficult to focus on spellcasting while having your delicates stomped flat. He was, sadly, rather familiar with the feeling. After that, his would-be rival had been far more co-operative, and rather eager to show himself out.

Then there had been Royce Silver-Heart - which, incidentally, WAS his surname. It was a clan that Rhaelyn had been unfamiliar with, and it turned out that they were apparently a leonine pride based out of Stillwater Port. They were locally famous for both their exceptional agility and adept fencing skills, from what Veridia had told him.

Unfortunately, Royce had also adamantly refused to work with the husky, due to her history and lineage. If he were to sign on with the group, then she would have to leave. Rhaelyn hadn't even needed to give it a moment's thought - Royce was sent on his way, and Veridia stayed right where she was.

After that, it had only been downhill. There were a few more mercenaries, mostly old or crippled, with more muscles than brains. There had been some dabblers in the arcane, but mostly the sort one would expect to see at parties. There had been a juggler - that one still baffled him - and no less than five wanted criminals attempting to find gainful employment. They had actually taken two breaks, just so Veridia could turn a few of them over to the authorities. She was, after all, a former bounty hunter. Even retired, she still kept up with the latest postings.

The panther plucked the next application up, glancing over it. It wasn't much to look at, barely a page long, with almost non-existent work experience. Still, it was written neatly and legibly, despite the alarming number of hearts dotting the 'i's. Experience or no, he had to appreciate enthusiasm, and being a wizard he could admit that penmanship certainly counted as a plus.

"Elin T. Cat." He mused on that, "Not much prior experience, but-"

Veridia's jaw dropped. "Elin!?"

And the door closed quietly, the lynx in question squeaking in surprise. "Veri!?"

"Ah, good!" The panther smiled, nodding his head smartly. "So you two already know each other! Well then, this interview is off to a good start already!"

Veridia scowled, and Elin's heart sank.

Well... so much for THIS adventure.