Frost 28, 4622¤
"Been here for a season, ain't found shit."
Hawking some mucus into a spittoon Miki looked at Izul who had joined her on her journey once the old group from before dissolved.
"Surely there's something we're missing."
Izul replied. They were sat in the back of a bar in Lanbridge. The locals were less friendly than even the ones in Greater Daravin. Pulling information out of them, in Common that is, was damn near impossible. Took them an age to even find the town, people on the road were extremely fearful of their chariots and refused to speak to them most of the time if the chariots were in sight. To this end, they had stashed the chariots in the woods about a mile's walk from the town and covered them in branches to discourage anyone from fucking with the hardware. The duo still had their guns, unfortunately, which earned them a lot of looks and ire from the locals as well. But both women refused to leave behind their guns which won them few friends but did afford them protection. It was a difficult trade off, no one seemed to want to talk to them with the guns. So this night Miki and Izul got a room at the Inn and stashed their guns and things in there, then waited around the tavern to see if anyone would speak to them.
They stuck out like sore thumbs unfortunately. No one bit, that was, until Miki saw someone else come in the bar with a gun themselves. She tried not to make a fuss, tapping Izul on the arm while pointing slightly to the man, slipping her wooden tankard as nonchalant as possible. Izul though stood right up and went to talk to him in another spot across the bar, Miki saw coin change hands but knew better than to come closer to eavesdrop. When Izul came back she explained he had gotten the gun from Zero and after paying the man he told her where they could find him. Miki couldn't believe it, but there was truly no honor among thieves. They spend the night in the bar.
That night Miki could have swore she heard gun shots in the distance but tried sleeping it off. That was until her eyes ripped open late to see someone's darkened form hovered over her, hand to her mouth and finger pressed to their lips. They said to her in a hushed but plainly Badlander accent,
"Don't move a fuckin' muscle. Listen, Zero knows you're lookin' for him. Do yourself a favor and don't get messed up with this one, punk. Go back to the Badlands and stay there."
They receded from the room and Miki could see another dark form leave Izul's side, who seemed to still be sleeping. Miki didn't sleep another wink that night but let Izul get her rest, in the morning she explained what had happened. Izul was pissed,
"So the man took my fucking money and still decided to threaten us. I wonder if the info is even good..."
Miki grinned and replied,
"Only one way to find out."
They went back and gathered the chariots. Luckily still intact. Starting up the growling mechanical beasts they startled some people passing by as the duo ripped from the tree line and headed south towards where the man said the first marker would be. The two of them had their eyes peeled for a large boulder, from there they would head into the trees, dump the chariots somewhere safe, and follow the trail on foot. It was a days walk in the woods until they got to a stream, which they would follow downstream until they got to another trail. From there they would head west and they would eventually, after some time, find Zero's hideout.
~~~~~
They had made it to the stream and were taking their time walking down it, paying attention for ambush and the like, when they heard something in the brush. It was definitely large, not a person, they began stuffing their guns with the powder and just as it burst through the brush they took aim but were surprised what was before them. It was a droopy looking hound dog. Long flappy ears, droopy eyes and face, fawn, short brown hair. He looked cute but angry at them. Were they being tracked? It bellowed and barked at them as they tried with all their might to calm the beast. Finally Izul pulled out some meat from her pack and offered the dog some. It seemed to work and he followed them after that quietly much to their regret. Try as they might they couldn't shoo the dog away. Instead he followed them as they continued down the path, occasionally running off and barking at a sound, but always trotting back happily.
Eventually they got to the offshoot path from the stream and followed it for some time, but on the trail something interesting happened. The dog wouldn't let them go any farther and insisted they turn down a smaller dirt path away from the main one they were told to walk. Trusting the dog's intuition on a hunch they followed him down this new path. What they discovered is the dog lead them to an empty shack. It was a large shack and when they went inside it had many stuffed hunting trophies mounted on the wall, along with traps, knives, and all manner of hunting equipment. There, oddly enough, in the corner was a dog bed and bowl where the dog headed right for and laid down, falling right asleep.
"Dammit. The dog lead us straight to him, but looks like no one is home. We should stake the place out and use it as leverage, if he won't comply we'll kill the dog and burn the place down."
Miki told Izul, who looked at her shocked,
"Miki, have you not a drop of class. I agree we can leverage the place but let's keep the dog alive at least-- if we have to burn the damn place down we can take the dog back to the city. He's a good dog."
Miki mulled it over and then decided,
"You're right, I shouldn't have been so harsh-- wait did you hear that?"
The sounds of voices came from the treeline and the girls hid under the windows inside the building filling their arquebus' until the first person came close enough an Miki took the first shot, blowing a hole through their chest and dropping them dead. It wasn't Zero but it got the message across. They hazarded a peek out before the rain of bullets came for them until a voice started yelling,
"WAIT WAIT STOP!"
As the dog ran out of the door and straight towards Zero himself, knocking him over and licking his face. He wondered incredulously aloud,
"Where did you come from?!"
Miki took the momentary cease fire to answer honestly, calling out to him,
"Wandered up to us in the bush, brought us straight here."
Zero was dumbfounded;
"You're kidding? He's been missing for three weeks!"
Miki replied while sticking her gun back out of the window to aim at the next fuck who decided to point their bullets at her,
"Take better care of your hound then, Zero. Now, if you don't mind, I have a bone to pick with you..."
Zero coughed and made a strangled noise,
"Bone.... but how can you know that?"
Miki and Izul looked at each other genuinely confused. Miki called out,
"Know what?"
Zero replied with his voice cracking,
"His.... his name! It's Bones!"
And with that the firing was completely stopped for good, Zero started crying and holding the dog while his troop looked on confused at what they should do. Miki and Izul stood up and walked out with their guns raised ready to fight. Miki asked in a gruff tone,
"So we have a truce? You don't look to be in any way to fight."
She was glad they decided to not kill the dog, who turned out to not only be named Bones but be the greatest boon to them as well. They were out matched 4:1 and would have died had that dog not saved their asses. They spent the night with them there eating deer steaks and potatoes talking over the finer points of the gang. With the dog found Zero was in their debt, he explained. The dog had ran off some time ago during a hunt while following a scent and hadn't returned. It had been so long Zero was sure his dog was dead, with them returning his precious pup he declared they must be good people-- any friend of his dog's was a friend of his.
