The Fox, the Rabbit, and the Witch

Yeah...This was pretty much what she expected from the boy. She payed him no mind, raising a finger, silently asking him to keep it down. Did he not care for the woman in the room? She wanted to sleep after all.

Hitomi gave a short sigh, lightly resting one hand on her short blade. Of COURSE she wasn't going to attack a child, but she also wasn't going to underestimate anyone. If he struck faster than she thought he would, she could at least deflect the blow with her sheath. Beyond that, she'd probably give him a good whack for his idiocy. One should train with a weapon extensively before trying to attack someone!

She was quite the good example of consequences.

She confidently strode towards the boy, her body tensed and ready for any tricks he might have ready. She assumed she would be quite fine though. Her main goal was to simply open the door behind him and let her companion in. She expected him to stab at her. If that was the case, she'd be able to step back and catch the end of the spear with her prosthetic, it was strong enough to handle the resulting cut, if any. Next would be a simple kick towards the middle of the spear. If the boy didn't let go, he'd most likely stumble and fall.

Hitomi supposed that it would be a good lesson.

Of course, if he was more skilled than she thought...Well she would need to be a bit more reactive.

The boy's long, right ear twitched on the top of his head as he heard Tala warn Hitomi that she might kill him, and his eyes narrowed even further. Any chance at this not being a brawl was quickly and mercilessly being snuffed out, and sure enough, as the rabbit advanced without saying anything, the boy quickly spun around and his crescent blade lashed out, finding itself captured by her prosthetic arm... but that seemed to be where Hitomi's plan ended, as the boy dropped to a knee as soon as the blade was caught. Now caught between his knee and arm, he was braced against the kick, and the rabbit Enkidu in front of him could finally see something peculiar about this blade.

It was half-set into the pole, and the part of the pole that managed to overlap the top of the blade was hollow, tubular. From his position, he looked up and grinned, a stick of burning incense held between his lips... no, not incense, it was a wick, a wick he dipped against the top of the pole arm in front of his face. He'd used this elaborate spin to mask him plucking it from the incense burning by the door!

"<Nife try!>" he sniped (as best as he could with the wick between his sharp teeth, mind you), as sparks flew out from the small hole and for just a split second illuminated the interior of the barrel, revealing a small, round bullet and tightly-packed wad.

And then, a thunderous "BANG!" shook the insides of the thatch cottage as he pulled the trigger on his hidden weapon.

For the second time, Tala was slumped against the door, simply waiting for Hitomi to open it. She hated to admit it, but the wounds still hurt and she was finally feeling the repercussions of thrashing about carelessly.

"I really am too old for thiiiis..." she said bored.

Her ears pricked up when she heard the explosion. She straightened up and backed away from the door, almost certain a bullet was gonna go through, but it hadn't.

"Oh, crap, did he pull out a gun!?" Tala shrieked. She frantically grabbed at her scythe. She considered going through the door, but upon looking around she saw Hitomi's footprints in the snow. "D-don't worry, Hitomi! I'm gonna save you from that maniac!"

She eventually found the window Hitomi had snuck into. She quickly climbed through it, losing her balance and falling onto the ground clumsily.

"H-Hitomi!?" she called out, her cloak covering her face and thus failing to acknowledge the bundle of blankets that was the old fox. She instead crawled on all fours as she tried to pull off her cloak towards the main room where the two were. She tried to pull it off, but it was hard to do with one hand while your other held a weapon.

Hitomi's eyes momentarily widened as she caught sight of the hidden weapon. She knew the boy was giving her a moment to react, but she honestly didn't need it. As the weapon went off, Hitomi dropped low to the ground. It appeared the boy was cocky, maybe she needed to teach him a bit of a lesson then...

She'd place her hands on the ground and swing her legs around quickly, trying to trip the boy or force him to jump. Once she passed, she'd suddenly kill her momentum, shift and deliver a harsh back kick. Her hope was to send the poor boy flying into the door. Still, she wouldn't wait around to see if her attack was successful. She rolled forward and pivoted, staying low to the ground as she prepared for any counterattack the boy might have planned.

The boy jumped, as expected, but he seemed to be full of surprises; as she kicked backwards, her foot connected, not with his body, but with the pole of the spear, thrust downwards after he kicked off the ground. The blow still sent him backwards, but with the blade firmly planted into the dirt ground, he only went back a foot or two instead of flying into the wall. His feet on the ground again, he kept a grin up as he pulled back on his weapon, dislodging the blade and pointing it back at Hitomi.

"<Stealing from a fox's den is a mistake a rabbit should know better!>" he taunted in his mother tongue. As Tala crawled across the floor, finally catching sight of the chaos, she found two bare feet suddenly on either side of her.

"<ENOUGH!>" the order was curt, demanding, and coming from a weary-sounding voice... that sounded even younger than the boy's. Yes, standing above the 38 year old human was the other resident of this hut, still wrapped up in a blanket, but with her head now visible thanks to her large fox ears pushing back the blanket. This was it, the woman that came with such high regard from Tala, an apparent requirement to the task at hand. Despite her voice, it carried an air of command that had caused the boy to freeze up, a panicked look on his face as he thrusted an accusing finger at... Tala, of all people.

"<S-She brought a thief, and distracted me while she snuck in!>" he protested, withdrawing the blade of his polearm and glaring down at the still-prone woman under the tiny figure.

"<You shot a hole in our wall. And tore up the floor! Fix them now, the cold's getting in!>" she shot back, and the boy glared at Hitomi before tossing his weapon back against a wall and rushing outside.

Finally, the tiny figure sighed... and flopped down onto Tala's back. It was truly, in this motion, that her age, or lack thereof, seemed way more apparent than even her voice let on. S-She looked even younger than the boy that'd attacked Hitomi!

"Taaaaaa-laaaaaa... Is this how you visit friends? Causing a ruckus, antagonizing your only romantic admirer that flat chest will get you, bringing strange people who crawl into my window and don't even have the common courtesy to close it after them, AND on top of this, you don't even think to bring a gift? At least, I assume that's why you're crawling on my floor like a snake, instead of getting up and giving me a bottle of some of that sweet Aldmerrowan wine, or some of those southern herbs," she mused, not getting off her friend's back as, without a doubt, despite her appearance, this seemed to be "Mei" alright, cupping the bottom of a pipe a bit oversized for her in one hand as she puffed on it and exhaled more of that foul-smelling smoke. She tossed a look back up at Hitomi, then back down at Tala, and reached down to mess the other woman's hair through the cloak that she was still practically tied up in. "I've got the world's worst hangover, you'd better have a good excuse for your behavior, or I'm going to make this cost you."

And yet despite being looking like a child, this woman had one hell of a dangerous glint in her eye as she glared down at her friend, very, very obviously displeased with the fact her ears were still ringing.

The shout was enough to make Tala wince. Despite all her bravado earlier, it was NOT a good sign that Mei was cranky. She was suddenly starting to question her decision to disturb the old woman and--

Tala felt a small figure flop onto her back and start talking.


...okay, Tala was REALLY starting to question her decision to disturb her. So much so that most of the insults kinda just flew over her head because she was fearing for her life.


Nervously, Tala turned her head, pulling away the cloak to meet with Mei's eyes.


.
.
.

...yeah, that was a mistake!



A cold sweat started to break out on Tala's forehead and she offered a wide albeit nervous smile.

"O-oh! Mei-chan! Hi there!" she said. "You know! If your grandson had just said you had a hangover, I would have tooooootally understood and just been on my merry way! Welp! You're awake now, so nothing we can do about that save for make use of the time we got, eh? Haha...Because we're really...REALLY good friends and you'd never kill me right?"

Looking up at Mei even more, Tala cleared her throat and forced a small laugh.

"Aaaaanyways, funny thing! We were coming over here to ask your help to overthrow the princess!" she said. She tugged at her collar. She was suddenly getting REALLY sweaty!

"That should be...uh...worth waking up right?"

A few seconds into waiting for a response, Tala would try to make a break for it by trying to get up and reach out for Hitomi.

"Hitomi, help me!" she squeaked.

Wow, this boy was actually skilled. While Hitomi didn't want to up and hurt him, she might have to try just a bit harder her. Well, at least she would have if not for a shout that echoed across the room. She saw the boy freeze and turned idly, getting a chance to finally see the person who was supposed to help them.

...

She was pretty underwhelmed.

She stood there, silently staring at the woman as she, quite rightfully, whined about their intrusion. Still, Hitomi found her words a little annoying. She was insulting Tala's chest! There was nothing wrong with Tala's chest! She probably had plenty of admirers! In fact, she pulled out her paper and quickly began to scrawl a few words as Tala spoke back.

'There's nothing wrong with Tala's chest! It's great! It has helped draw many admirers!' She didn't really know about that last part, but at lea-

Her thoughts were cut off as Tala yelled for her. The woman was quick to drop her paper and move forward, taking Tala's hand and trying to pull her into an embrace. If successful, Tala would find Hitomi's arms wrapped protectively around her. Even through the mask, Hitomi's glare towards the fox could easily be seen. Maybe this whole thing had just been a bad idea. Briefly, she looked down at Tala and lightly nuzzled against her. Why did she seem so afraid?

The girl, Mei, listened quietly to Tala's excuses, offering a laugh to join Tala's own forced one.

"Of course I wouldn't kill you! Why would I kill you, Tala, my dear human friend?" she said, and was about to continue when Tala blurted out why they came. The warmth in her eyes had vanished, and instead was replaced by a cold, ruthless look, not unlike that of, well, a fox cornering a chicken. It was a look that could freeze blood, the look of someone who had personally seen to--

Oh, wait, Hitomi interrupted it, protectively wrapping her arms around the downed woman. Mei, however, remained on her back with an impressive show of force.

"Hooooo? You interrupted my peace and tranquility to offer me a place at the hangman's gallows? Now I can understand your concern, my... dear friend. ... It HAS been a rather cold winter, too, Koko hasn't brought me a hare nor stag in so long, a fox could get rather bloodthirsty in these conditions..." she mused, locking eyes with Hitomi. Unlike her look at Tala, this one was more of amusement, a tiny grin forming on her small face and showing off a glistening row of sharp fangs before being covered by a paper fan.

"... I kid, of course! Besides, I could do better than some skin and bones snack, I'd like to think, even in my age and condition!" she suddenly announced, rising off of the small of Tala's back to allow her to flee to safety. She let out a little "fufufu~" from behind that paper fan standing up finally to look down at the two. "Besides, 'tis just a joke on your end, is it not? Surely you would not come to suggest such a ludicrous idea without even offering a gift! You are, after all, an adult, and adults know better than to ask for help with foolish things without so much as even something to sweeten the bitterness! Riiiight, Taaaa-laaaaa?"

Behind her sing-songy tone was a rather authoritative tone to her voice, as if critiquing an out of line disciple on their behavior, and for a moment, there was a pregnant silence settling into the room... before banging came from the hole in the wall, as the boy from earlier was clearly getting to work on patching it.

The only moment Tala's focus on self-preservation shut off was when Mei suggested having Hitomi as her next meal. At this, Tala hugged the girl tightly, her hand on the girl's head and her arm wrapping around her back.

"Bah! D-don't eat Tomi-chan! She's only full in the chest area!" she blurted.

It totally flew over her head how wrong that rationale was.

Of course, Mei continued to speak, brushing off the TOTALLY PLAUSIBLE THREAT of eating Hitomi off. She also didn't seem very happy with Tala's proposition and when she mentioned a gift, a cold sweat broke on Tala's forehead.

"T-to be fair, if we won, your head wouldn't be at the gallows so, y'know, it's not THAT bad," Tala said, trying to feign laughter. "As for a gift, well..."

Tala dug into her satchel and rummaged around. She pulled out her flask, but of course, when she opened it there was only water inside. She offered Mei a small smile before looking at Hitomi. She'd grab the girl by the collar, lean in close to her ears, and whisper.

"Hey, uh...you wouldn't happen to have any booze on you, would ya?" she asked.

While neither could see Hitomi's face. As mei began to threaten her, the hair began to bristle and she rested a hand on her blade. She wasn't about to let these threats just go by. Mei was scaring Tala and threatening her, she didn't care if she could help them or not, she would teach her a lesson i-

"She's only full in the chest area!"

...

????

Hitomi was suddenly being held by Tala as she said...some interesting things. Hitomi looked down at her own chest. What did she mean by that? Well...She really didn't have time to worry about that. The fox continued her threats and Tala continued freaking out. Hitomi was just...really underwhelmed right now. When Tala leaned in and asked about booze, Hitomi shook her head. Her hand reached out and traced a small message on the woman's arm.

'Why are we even bothering with this angry...small...woman? All she's been good for is threats? How can she possibly help us anyway?'