Tales of the Village Msagro continued

Last time in the Tales of the Village Msagro…

Long-Tongue stood for a moment outside of her darkened home, allowing the heat from the souls of her feet to saturate the moss beneath them, taking in deep, calming breaths. Fire-Crotch was safe in a room with all of her friends. Gandalf and Mr. Sparkles were large and the rest were clever. She was safe for now. Long-Tongue focused on calming herself. It was halfway through one of these breaths that something small but powerful threw itself into ribs and the darkness flooded up from her lungs into her brain and the night and all of its characters were lost to her. Her eyes fluttered shut…Back at the hut, Guppies absently noted that Fire-Crotch had stopped her stirring and now lay very still.

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Only Dances-with-dildos and Runs-with-guppies were aware of the connection that existed on some intangible plane between Fire-Crotch and Lezy-Long-Tongue, so they were the first to feel stupid when Fire-Crotch's eyes snapped open and a look of terror flittered briefly across her face. She locked eyes with Guppies and mouthed: not me. It wasn't Fire-Crotch who was in danger of being taken by The-Camera's thugs. What's worse, by clumping them all together in the hut to protect her they'd given them the perfect chance to slip in and take Long-Tongue and get a decent head start before they could all even put the pieces together.

    The next few hours were a flurry of curses, arguing, packing and unpacking as the plan was changed or modified a hundred times. The only thing that kept Fire-Crotch from chewing her lip into ribbons was the knowledge that The-Camera wouldn't allow her daughter to come to any lasting physical harm. The only danger would be if Lezy was stupid enough to try and escape and ended up wandering around alone in some foreign area. Fire-Crotch knew her well enough to guess she would be feeling burned enough to try just that.

    In the end it was Fire-Crotch, pack slung over one pale but strong shoulder, who stepped calmly into the clearing, scattered with angry villagers and discarded scraps of packing. She cleared her throat. The sound was such a contrast that they all looked up, slightly dazed.

    "I'm leaving now. There's only one way out of the valley so I'm gonna go ahead and guess they went that way. Anybody who doesn't have an elaborate strategy involving inventing a helicopter from a horse skeleton" here she looked pointedly at Mr. Sparkles who glanced down "has ten minutes to get their shit together and catch up with me." She nodded and started down the valley. The villagers looked at each other.

     With a cheerful shrug Tweak jumped up and began securing a giggling Enchanted Bug to the saddle of their mule. In succession Bends-for-Bottoms, Runs-With-Guppies and Dances-with-dildos followed suit, leaving Mr. Sparkles and Gandalf to hold down the village and track down The-Camera for a much needed little chat.