Petos
Petos
Elara kept to all fours, stopping only now and then to eat young voles that made the mistake of leaving the dirt. Tied to her collar was a note from Vernon informing her of the situation as he knew it.
She approached the turn that continued the road between Baguba and Sprohm, and suddenly stopped. In front of her was a magnificent Judge's Chocobo, decked out in white and golden fineries and currently pecking at the ground.
Elara fled behind a tree, remembering that Vernon had said something about not letting any Judges see her. When asked why, the answer was "to protect the person whom the letter's addressed to." Elara couldn't understand why she wasn't to be seen, however, not knowing that Alk was trying to stalk Allison.
After a few minutes, a Xweetok Judge, wearing the same color robes as his steed and muttering profanities in his own language, appeared from the wooded areas of the marsh. Making one check for any hostiles, he hopped on his bird and rode off towards Baguba. Elara waited a few seconds more, then went in the direction the Judge came from.
Retracing the footsteps of the Judge, Elara was led to a large ramshackle building that had seen better days. Inside she could hear very loud croaking. This must be the place, she thought, and silently entered. The smell of feces and pitch permeated the air.
Entering the hallway and looking to her right, she saw a Politoed doing his best to croak, but it was mediocre at best. Another loud CRRRRREEEEEEEUP issued from the same room, so Elara decided to approach it.
"Who the fuck are you?!" challenged Banon when Elara came within sight of him.
"A friend, here on Vernon's behalf," she said. She grabbed the letter from her collar. "Is Allison..."
"I'm here," she said in Common. Standing up, she walked over to Elara, who couldn't help but admire her body.
"Erm... here," said Elara, handing the letter over, eyes fixed on her breasts.
"What's it say?" asked Banon.
"You'll find out momentarily, honey," replied Allison, opening the letter:
Dear Allison:
Chances are, if Alk's made it to your neck of the woods, you may have noticed that he's not exactly in a right state of mind. Stay out of his sight, no matter what - regardless of what the circumstances are he may end up "purifying" you through death.
I want you to be incredibly cautious from here-on-out. I do not like the looks of things, and I fear this is going to come back to bite us in our collective arses.
The note bore Vernon's signature.
"So the bastard didn't betray us... Little dildo's just obsessing," observed Banon, shifting his position in the mud.
"Thank you," said Allison to Elara, petting the anth's head. Has Vernon left his home?" The answer was a vigorous shake of the head "no." "Alright. Tell him that I've received the letter and that Alk has indeed come here to try and torment me," she said. "Tell him that he should stay there until such a time comes that he has to leave for here, and that if he does come here, he has to make sure he sabotages Nono's craft."
Elara nodded. "I'll make sure of it," she said, walking out.
What she, Banon, and Allison failed to notice, however, was the Kacheek following her.
Alk burst into the Judgemaster's office, storming up to Marche. "What's this bullshit about you taking me off tomorrow's engagement between Clan Terra and Clan Blue?" he demanded.
Marche, who was busy writing a writ out for a diplomat, looked up at Alk and dismissed him. "Go away, Alk."
"I demand an answer, Judgemaster!" he shouted, hopping up on the desk and deliberately knocking over the inkwell with his left footpaw, covering it with black ink.
Marche sighed. "I have every right to refuse to answer your question."
Alk stepped on the body of the parchment, leaving a black inkprint of his footpaw over the writing. "Answer my question!"
Marche growled. "Tell me, Alk, do you always show contempt to your superiors, or is Mrs. Linguss wrong in saying you called her a Chocobo-fucker?"
"I had my reasons," rebutted Alk.
"And I have mine. I'm receiving complaints from every Judge in that area, who are saying you're flatly abandoning engagements, using people you've red-carded as manservants in exchange for annulling their jail sentence, and that you're yellow-carding other Judges. Other Judges!" shouted Marche, banging his fist on the desk and causing the spilt ink to run onto the parchment. "I did not take you off tomorrow's engagement; I took you off every engagement. Consider yourself on unpaid administrative leave. And it's Builders' League United, not Clan Blue. Now get out of my office."
Alk's response was to kick Marche in the forehead, leaving a nice pawprint on the Judgemaster's forehead. "Traitor!" he stated firmly, storming back out of the office, every other step leaving an inky pawprint.
"Damn slaver," growled Vernon as he placed a Shuca Berry into a new pot and watered it, spreading mulch all over the top. Part of the mulch was an annihilated copy of The Homoerotic Adventures of Fox McCloud, which Vernon had not only never read, but had vowed to destroy when a Moogle judge gave it to him as a housewarming present as a lark.
Vernon was skyclad, not wanting to bother getting clothes on in case he needed to run again. His mother's Pokeball was on the floor; he'd had to tap into the victims' fund to get new furnishings, since either Elara or her bumbling father destroyed most of them (only his bed and endtable were intact).
Behind him, he heard the door open and Elara call, "Vernon, I'm home!"
Vernon turned around. "Ah, welcome back, Elara. I tr-"
His eyes flicked downward to a very familiar Spotted Kacheek snuffling her nose on the floor for food.
"Erm... was she following you the whole time?" asked Vernon, a bit concerned. Doubtless Allison would freak out once she realized the Kacheek was gone.
"Who?" asked Elara right before she felt the tail touching her leg. She looked down to see the skeletal runt wander over into the kitchen. Vernon followed her, grabbing some jerky out of a top cabinet and giving it to her. She quickly scarfed it down.
"How long has it been since you were decently fed?" asked Vernon. The Kacheek just sat there and awaited more handouts, her tail twitching. "You can't speak Common, can you?" was his next response, met with a cocked head. Vernon sighed.Chapter End Notes:Another chapter w/o start notes. I apologize for the long delay in getting this up, but I've been stuck with writer's block for some time and other crap's been popping up...
Anywhoo, Chapter 8: Petos. I'll try and be more timely with new chapters to KU, but I can't guarantee anything