Open the Chest

C-clang. Clat-clatter…

"... Thank your manager, men," Ayse laughed and slid three knives back into his pocket.

"What the hell, Fred?!" 

Boss Forde's crackling fists swung toward the manager. But Fred hopped backward after freeing a chain around Baloo's tail. "What's wrong?! He didn't ask to remove the muzzle, and I wasn't going to take off every chain–"

"I gave no order!" Forde roared. 

Leaping off his half-lizard seat, Forde charged after the evading manager. "You're a coward unfit for your position!"

"And you're a coward too afraid to fight a kid!" Fred shouted back, shifting his hands and feet to hooves. 

Crack! C-crack!

Forde's swinging fists and stomping feet cracked the ground with each blow. And Forde's speed wasn't any slower than the shifted Fred's. 

"Who's your boss, jackass?! That no-name kid! What bounty does he hold?" Forde mocked the evasive manager.