Furrae Chronicles: Webs of Destiny (IC) [M] {2}

[James StarRunner]

Over the horizon where Aisha had her gaze, a figure began to draw near. A fat brown rat with oily black hair. He wore ugly plaid pants and a blue dress shirt stained with sweat. He seemed to have great interest in the group of adventurers and lumbered over towards them.

"Gareeku Manoko!" bellowed the rat in the distance. "It's been awhile hasn't it? Looks like you picked up some new friends. I bet I can still whoop your butt though!"

[Gareeku]

Gareeku was about to set off down the path, when he looked ahead with a raised eyebrow. Making his way towards them was a rat with oily black hair, complete with rather unattractive clothes. ...who the...?
Hearing the stranger call to him, the wolf raised both of his eyebrows in surprise...he recognised that voice...

"Greetings!" He called back, beginning to walk towards the stranger with curiosity on his face. "I'm afraid I cannot recall your name however. You seem unfamiliar to me." ...aside from that voice...where have I heard that voice before...?

[James StarRunner]

"What!?!" gasped the rat. "How could you forget me? Have I changed that much in the two or so years since you met me?" The rat threw his fists up in the air. "I can't believe... err... wait..." he looked at his outstretched arms for a moment. "Oh yeah... hehehe... whoops!" The rat reached for his head and took it off! The head of James StarRunner appeared underneath.

"Hehehe... Sorry, I forgot I was wearing my rat suit..." said the once disguised James. "I wondered why I felt so heavy when I ran to ya. Jakob, Aisha, Gabi! Good to see ya again!" He looked at Blaze. Why does he look so familiar? I swore I never saw him before...

[Gareeku]

Listening to the rat's reaction, Gareeku could only blink confusedly as the stranger seems quite upset. He was about to apologise when suddenly, to the wolf's great surprise, the rat removed his own head!

However, a warm smile soon appeared on Gareeku's face as he found the stranger to be none other than his good friend James Starrunner.
"I should have known!" the wolf said with a laughed, walking up to the squirrel and shaking his hand warmly. "It's good to see you again, my friend."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Ephrael apeared from behind James, thumbing through his wallet. "James StarRunner...Hello I'm Ephrael!" She said as she held is wallet back out to him, grining impishly.

[Gabi]

Gabi recognized James's smell, but chose not to ruin the moment and instead watched quietly to see what happened. She couldn't supress a giggle when she realized the confusion was not intentional.

"James!," she cheered once she found room to get near him. "It's great to see you again! How have you been, and what brings you here?"

As soon as she finished the sentence she thought she might have sounded over-cheerful, but with everything that had happened that day and the day before, no one should blame her for her emotions being a bit high, she reckoned.

[Arcalane]

Anya shakes her head. "Unfortunately, I can't stay long. Who knows, you might run into me again at some point, but I need to get back soon. Aaaaanyway, seeing as you folks are all busy, I'll be making my departure right about...."

She hums and taps her foot. ~Comeonyoustupidpieceofrecallingjunkworkdammit...~ Suddenly, the air around her crackles. "Now. Stay in touch with my brother!" Anya waves, grinning as she disappears with a sharp, electrical cracking sound and a small flash of light.

[RJ]

Blaze raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. Another one of those 'you seem familiar' looks... Seems Sis hasn't exactly told me enough about her adventures.

He gave a slight jump as Anya suddenly disappeared off with a crackling sound and flash of light. Blaze sighed.

Some people are way too impulsive for me... he thought. Geez, I sounded like an old grandfather then...

He shrugged it off and approached to where the others were talking to James, a smile on his face.

[Tapewolf]

"Well met, James," said Jakob.  "Still doing the bounty-hunter gig?
It looks like you missed the 'fun' by the way," he added.

[James StarRunner]

"Thaaaanks..." grumbled James as he snatched his wallet back. Dang this suit, I couldn't feel her snag it through all this padding.

"I'm doing great guys, but one at a time please!" James chuckled. "I'm still doing my bounty hunter work and was actually undercover up till now. By luck, I was dispatched into this area because of a bandit problem. I was actually just about to sneak into their ranks and see if they knew anything about the weird kidnappings going on and then end their banditry after. It was great to run into you guys! It's too bad I'm on duty right now though... I'll have to catch up to you soon after I finish my little job." James put on the rat head again and started to speak in a deep airy voice. "I just hope you don't have too much 'fun' without me!"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha's eyebrow quirked the second that a figure on the horizon had caught her eye.  She was cautious about the rat for a second, thinking it another bandit, until he yelled out for Gareeku in a familiar voice.  She was as nonplussed as he was until he had removed the head from his costume, a familiar squirrel's face taking the place of it.

The panthress released a laugh, bowing and adding her greetings with the others.  "Well, by the gods...James, good to see you again."

She listened to the others ask their questions, and to him give his explanation on why he was there.  Right into the bandits' ranks...not even I could do that.  Bounty hunter reputation is gonna go through the roof.  Aisha smirked.  "Well, good luck with it.  We had to dispatch a few ourselves.  They may be on alert."

[James StarRunner]

"Aww nuts!" said James in his normal voice. "Don't tell me that was the 'fun' you guys were up to! Disguised or not, I guess it wouldn't be safe to sneak in for a couple of weeks. Say... I never did ask... What are you guys up to? I haven't heard from anyone in awhile. All I knew is that 'Cross' was still out there. I'm always tearing down those blasted bounty notices."

[Gareeku]

Smiling as the others greeted James, Gareeku listened to what the squirrel said with great interest.
So...I take it word of the kidnappings has got around... the wolf thought to himself as James spoke. Heh...news sure does travel fast...though knowing James, I'm not surprised...

"We ran into a rather large group earlier...it was quite the bloodbath. I think the group we ran into was probably the main stronghold of the gang, though there's probably a few stragglers around..." the wolf replied, his smile having been replaced by a more serious expression as he spoke. "And these kidnappings you speak of...that is why we're on our way to the phoenix temple. The ones kidnapped are people close to a lot of us."

[James StarRunner]

"Really? Well shoot... I may as well come with ya now! I've been working on this mysterious kidnapping case for awhile now, the bandits were only a secondary objective. Shall we talk on the way then? I'm eager to crack this case open further." James looked at himself and snickered. "Maybe I should go on a weight loss plan first. Yoink!" James pulled and tugged on a few places on the rat suit. The heavily padded suit fell away to show the much slender James. There was no change in his appearance over the last two years. His regular clothes were a bit wrinkled from being underneath the heavy rat suit, but he quickly worked the wrinkles out. He threw his disguise into his backpack (which for some would find odd since the suit had more volume than the backpack should hold) and hoisted his pack back on his shoulders as if it weighed nothing at all. He tightened up the backpack's straps to fit his new form and looked back at his companions.

"Well, I'm ready! Perhaps you can introduce me to your new crew on the way!"

[Gabi]

Gabi watched as James put his suit back in his backpack.

"And me with just a bag of infinite cookies," she  said with a smile. "This is Ephrael, she joined us yesterday. The squirrel is Blaze Joybringer, he's Raine's twin brother. And that's Anzimani... and I think you've already met everyone else, right? By the way, does anyone want a cookie?"

[James StarRunner]

"Oh! Oh! I'll take one!" said James gleefully. "Blaze Joybringer though, eh? That's why you looked familiar! I knew your sister! Cool girl! Err... you don't have her cooking ability by any chance, do you?"

[RJ]

Blaze nodded his acknowledgement at James before giving a laugh at his question. "Oh, heck no. If I did, I wouldn't be a baker. Raine inherited most of the power, and I got stuck with being the book-worm of the family."

He scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm glad that I've been able to meet so many of her friends really. We're always so busy- she's always being run around at SAIA and I've been on the road travelling. The only times I get a chance to see her is when I go there to help out new 'cubi with fire magic."

The squirrel eyed Gabi for a second.

"I know I don't really eat, but you know, I wouldn't mind one at this moment if you've got enough, Gabi."

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Can I have one Gabi?" Eph asked after Blaze.

[Gabi]

Gabi handed everyone the cookies, and laughed at Blaze's comment.
"Enough? Take as many as you wish! I found this bag in one of my first journeys when I was travelling with my brother. It doesn't do much, but it never runs out of cookies."

[Aisha deCabre]

"Well, had we known that you were around, maybe we would have saved you some bandits to take care of," the panther laughed and shook her head at James' remark upon getting out of his suit, hopefully having not gone too far with the slight joke.  In reality, she was glad that nobody else was there to witness such a bloodbath...it was in the past, nevertheless.

But, at least the others were good to keep the mood up.  She laughed again upon hearing Gabi's offer of a cookie.  "I'll have one, please and thank you," she smiled to the vixen, keeping up a steady pace with everyone as they walked.  Listening to the conversation, all of the familiar voices that came with it, the felid felt as if their previous adventure had never ended.

[Tapewolf]

"Do you have any that are a bit more meatlike?" asked Jakob, passing his uneaten chocolate cookie back to Gabi.  "A blood cookie would do."

Jakob had a tendency towards the carnivorous streak of his feral ancestors, and he was in the mood for something rather more savoury.  Of course, he was also keen to see what would happen if Gabi tried to put a cookie back into[/I the bag.

[Gareeku]

Staying silent as the others talked, Gareeku smiled as he offered a cookie but declined. Hearing Jakob's asking of a blood cookie however, made him raise an eyebrow.
"I know you're a wolf Jakob, but a blood cookie?" the wolf asked with a somewhat funny look.

[Gabi]

"That's a new one," Gabi commented after a brief grimace. "I would have thought we'd seen enough of that already. I don't know, you could try taking it out yourself. It usually comes up with ones I like... even the ones I'm thinking of sometimes, but never a cookie I haven't seen or at least imagined. And I'm afraid that's not a kind of cookie I'd like to visualize. That, and I'm not even sure it will recognize it as a cookie. I tried to get crackers once and it didn't work."

[Tapewolf]

"I must be showing my age," said Jakob as the others stared at him. "I don't mean they're coated in raw blood.  You just add some to the dough mix.  Back when I was a kid there was a baker in town who had a shop just down the way from the slaughterhouse, and he made these really nice savoury pastries from the leftover blood.  Mother used to buy us some as a treat if we did well at the marketplace."  He smiled at the memory.

"Most communities have some traditional recipe that uses blood, although I suppose if you're used to modern supermarket food it might come as a shock."

Jakob tried the bag himself and drew out another chocolate cookie.

[Gabi]

"Sorry," Gabi said. "I've seen some foods which contain blood... meat normally does in any case. But never cookies. Then again, I'm very young compared to you. We don't live nearly as long as Cubi do."

[Gareeku]

"Heh, I prefer the term "local groceries" to supermarkets, thanks." Gareeku replied with a chuckle. "I remember my mother talking about recipes with blood in them when I was younger, though I didn't realise they put them in cookies as well."

[James StarRunner]

"Oh thanks guys..." said James sarcastically. "Now I have a huge urge to sink my teeth into something meaty... and juicy... with nice helpings of BBQ sauce..." The rest of James' mutterings were unintelligible as he started to drool and smack his lips.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha quirked an eyebrow, listening to Jakob suddenly talk about blood cookies.  Despite the strangeness of the concept, she was able to eat her own while listening to the others.  She had only heard of such things on her travels...never had anything really come up back when she was a child.  But the panthress couldn't remember much of back then anyway.

Coming out of that thought, she laughed when James started going on about it.  "Now you're making me hungry...but I do prefer my cookies without entrails, thank you," she smirked.

[Gabi]

"So do I," Gabi agreed with Aisha. "Maybe we should make a short stop and have something more substantial to eat? The bag can be handy, but I can't live on cookies either."

[RJ]

"I've never really eaten meat," commented Blaze. "Though, the last time I really ate any vegetables was probably over 400 years ago. The elders made us stop eating when we gained our headwings and could survive without it. I've always had a bit of sweet tooth though."

He pulled out another cookie and chuckled.

"This bag reminds me of Raine's hat... though gods know what you might pull out of there. Last time I had the courage to, I somehow ended up with some rabid-penguin creature that wanted to feast on my hand."