NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilex" data-source="post: 5836420" data-attributes="member: 82687">27x05A belated happy birthday to Fajitas and, by extension, to this story hour! And a (nearly) belated happy Leap Day!Acorn was now sinking his tiny teeth into Arden's fingers, and she was surprised how much it hurt. The little mouse was no Ketkath rat, but he wasn't joking around, either: he was drawing blood.  Arden held him up in front of her face, wondering if he could understand her speech."I will find her," she said. "Calm down."Acorn stared at her straight in the eye for a moment, then turned his head and chomped through the flesh at the base of her thumb. Arden fought the urge to fling him across the room and, instead, turned back to Kormick and Mena."We need to start a search," she said through gritted teeth."Yes," said Mena, still drunk (at best) from whatever drink it was she had downed. "End the bad guys. Stabbity stab.""Thud," added Kormick, with a hammering gesture. "None of that yet," said Arden. "First we—" She broke off.  Kormick and Mena had begun staring deeply into each other's eyes. "Never mind," said Arden, and turned away, scanning the room for Nyoko.  The Adept was nowhere to be seen, but Tavi was still sitting near the stage, barely visible in a crowd of women and a couple of men.Arden marched over to the fringes of the crowd.  "Signor Octavian!" she shouted.  Tavi, ever dutiful, turned immediately and looked for the source of the voice.  When he spotted her, he blinked out of sight and, before Arden had a chance to think Not another one, reappeared at her side.  "Seemed quicker," he said, waving off his teleportation. He was drunk and shirtless, but he did a fairly good job of focusing on her.  "What's wrong?""Twiggy's missing. She took a drug, teleported somewhere—and now I have this." Arden held up Acorn, who promptly seized Tavi's chest hair in his tiny claws.  "Right," said Tavi, staring at the mouse.  "Signor, can Phoebe fly around and try to find her?" Arden asked, struggling to contain Acorn."Phoebe's … not flying very straight right at the moment," said Tavi.  Mena and Kormick strode up.  "We had an idea," announced Mena. "Tavi, she's a very nice girl. We think you two would be very good together." "Which one?" Tavi asked, just a hint of mischief in his eyes as he turned back to survey his crowd of followers.  Behind his back, Mena winked meaningfully at Arden and Kormick soundlessly mouthed "It's you!" while pointing from Arden to Tavi with what he no doubt considered a subtle gesture."Tavi!" barked Arden.  "I need you to go to each door and find out if Twiggy's left. Ask the bouncers.  Hurry."  Her commanding tone received a brisk nod from Tavi and he set off.Before Mena and Kormick could say another word, Arden put a firm hand on Mena's shoulder.  "You two stay right where she vanished," Arden told her. "She might come back to that point.""We can do that," said Mena.  "After you, Dame Mena," said Kormick.Alone with Acorn, Arden looked into the mouse's eyes once more.  "Now we can search," she told him.  She wove through the crowd to the room's nearest corner and began searching methodically, up and down, slowly crossing the room's length and breadth.No Twiggy.But Acorn seemed to respect her orderly progress.  He settled down on her palm and watched intently.As Arden made her final sweep down the far wall, wondering exactly what sights she was going to be exposed to if she had to start poking into all the curtained alcoves and back rooms next, Acorn suddenly gave a leap and a quiver in her hand.  He stuck out his nose and sniffed urgently at one curtained doorway in particular. Arden edged closer and twitched the curtain aside, just a little, to peer in.With a sigh of relief, she saw that Twiggy was there—though she was mildly surprised at what Twiggy was doing.  Not wanting to disturb her, Arden set Acorn down gently, watched him scurry over to his friend, and then let the curtain fall.### In another private room, Nyoko lay back against the bare chest of a handsome Adept samisen player and let him give her sips of wine from the goblet they were sharing. She took joy in the beauty of his fingers against the fragile glass—strong and sensitive, all at once. Ah, truly, he was a skilled player.### Tavi was receiving a simultaneous back rub and foot rub from two different women—far more pleasant than those nightmare massages at the Adept House that he'd endured to win an invitation to this party—and he was lost in a warm comfort, nearly asleep. Tonight's mission was a success, Arden said she'd found Twiggy somewhere, and most importantly of all, Rose was safe in bed back at the Inn.  Right at this exact moment, he had nothing that he needed to do. And that was glorious.###  Kormick picked himself up off the bar after another laughing fit to see Mena smiling at him with enormous drunken pride. He'd always been attracted to her fearsomeness and her rare flashes of grim humor. But he'd never known she could make him laugh until he couldn't breathe. She was, quite possibly, the perfect woman.### Arden found an unoccupied overstuffed cushion and nested herself into it with another glass of water, watching the swirling people around her. She felt good. In hindsight, she had overreacted to Twiggy's disappearance—the girl was perfectly safe—but she couldn't make herself regret it. Ordering around Tavi, Mena, and Kormick had been strangely satisfying.  An indulgence party indeed, she thought, allowing herself a private smile.  Tavi's relaxing, Mena's carefree, Twiggy's irrational … and I was in charge.###  After many hours, the unceasing music twining through the party's rooms and alcoves gave way to a roll from a deep drum, and Lord Tanaka staggered to the center of the stage."I am told," he rumbled, "that it is dawn." Then he swayed once, twice, and fell with a thud like a fallen oak into an unmoving stupor.The party was over.</blockquote>

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