CHPT 367: Information Seeks an Interested Participant....

The longer Claude spent out in the wild, the more imposing the enemies that circled his pack grew. It was like a noose, a binding rope that shrunk and grew closer to squeezing the breath of life out of their throats. Each finger of the deadly hand representing a different faction of adversity for the Multi-Raced Pack.

Demons, Monsters of Rivaling Mythos, Detectives, Ronin. And now, Raiders. The reinforcements.

Not a known fact yet. But an assumption made within reason. Claude remembered Rikah's words. He remembered the promise he made to the unmarked graves. Even in all the chaos his life had recently descended into, every fiber of his being had remembered that one day they would come.

The question was, had the day come so soon? At such an inopportune time?

He had no idea. And as Ursula strode beside him with Blackbeak flying overhead, the thought slowly ate away at his brain, emboldened with swaying power by his anxiety that was slowly transforming into paranoia like a beast under the Moon.

Every breath, every step, every nervous tick-- a hand through his hair, a clenching of his fist. A new thought on the subject was born until Ursula snarled and came to a stop, right at the gates that would've led them out of the City.

"Alright FUCK IT!"

Claude was pulled from his anxiety riddled ruminations, "What?"

"I think you're forgetting we share a head-space.....quite literally..!?" She expressed, motioning from him to her with a calloused hand as the odd person or two walked past them.

Claude sighed and shook his head as if he was physically shedding the thoughts, "My bad."

Ursula waved it off before turning back towards the City, "Don't worry about it. Anyway, why is this possible Raider sighting so important?.....and who's Rikah?"

Claude's jaw clenched in response to hearing the name outloud, "I've dealt with Raiders before...other than that, it's not something we should talk about in public."

Ursula's face went hard as she shrugged, "Fair enough. But we're not going to have a nice walk back until you get some of those questions swirling around in your head answered."

"Well. Those answers will take some time to get...."

"Not exactly."

Claude turned to look at Ursula, watching as she peered over the small collection of people walking the city streets and took in deep inhales through her nose.

"What are you saying?"

"I think there's a place we may be able to get some answers. Usually it wouldn't be available to us...but I look like I'm eighteen....you look at least twenty. And you have a Hero Licence".

Claude still didn't full understand what she was insinuating as she repeatedly scented the air and continued looking somewhere down the street.

"[Smart girl indeed.]" Arne commented.

"I'm not following..."

Ursula sighed in defeat, "Sometimes you're so smart.....and then we step into a city and have to deal with people and it's like your brain shuts off.."

"Ursula."

"Alcohol." She relented, "Your nose is better than mine and even I can smell the high concentrations of it in the air...."

Claude took a sniff, "Higher than usual."

"Exactly. And one thing I remember about all the parties and bashes my father used to throw at his Estate is that Alcohol brought people together, you know what else it did?"

"Hm?"

"It made them give up information....information that no child should ever hear most times." She said, shivering slightly at the last statement.

Either way, Claude now understood her idea and Arne's very fair assessment of her.

"You want to go to a Bar and see if we can get anymore information than a couple dead bodies robbed of their valuables."

Ursula smiled from beneath her mask, causing the freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks to dance against her tanned skin, "It's worth a shot, unless you'd rather go back to your alcoholic hermit of a teacher?"

Claude ran a hand through his hair in a self-soothing manner, weighing the options-- the risks. He seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

"[As your guide I can only do just that. Guide. But beforehand, allow me to lay everything out on the table for you. One, if you go about this wrongly, people may begin to eye you with suspicion. More eyes can only do you more harm. Two, you may run into Detectives..need I say anymore? Three, this could be a good practice run in using a plethora of your Lupine gifts that often fade out of importance in your many bouts of brutal combat. For now, these are the things you must consider before making any decisions.]"

Claude played with the possibilities, ran through a myriad of scenarios with a few ending in Ronin coincidentally stepping into the bar and slicing everything into ribbons with his Hallowed Blades. A low probability....but never zero.

Even so. He couldn't get the questions out of his head. He had to try for answers. Try for something so he wasn't completely naked in mind in any future endeavors. Plus, he had identification that pointed him away from his true name. And Ursula looked entirely different. More so than just the change. She'd grown in the past month, and with her help, he could get more information than he could on his own.

Ursula continued to watch him, waiting for an answer.

"Ok. Let's try and get some answers. If it gets too hectic or something feels off, we get the hell out, deal?"

"Deal." She said, slapping him on the shoulder before they both turned and headed back into the City, letting their noses lead them to the source of alcohol and loosened morals.