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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 4402124" data-attributes="member: 11760">The bounce in Bufer's step has all but disappeared, along with his smile, as he exits the Black Tower, replaced by a pensive frown. Heading in vaguely the same direction as he came, he watches his boots as he strokes his chin, deep in thought."Hmmph," he mutters aloud. "Well, that was distasteful.""No doubt. Eating greasy wizard would make for bad poops." Bufer looks up to see Storm walking next to him, looking over his shoulder at the wizard's tower. He catches Bufer watching him, then shrugs. "Would probably eat him, anyway, just to make point.""Ugh, please don't talk to me about eating," Bufer grimaces, as he absently strokes his protruding belly. "I think I'm in for some bad poops, myself.""What you eat?" Storm frowns curiously at him. "Stoopid cat?""Oh, only about one-and-a-half magically transmuted faeries," Bufer says. He grits his teeth as his stomach gurgles in response. "Ugh. I think I'm going to be sick.""Hmmph," Storm says, clearly impressed. "Tinkle-bugs be good eating, if can catch 'em. Tasty wings.""Ugh!" Bufer groans as his stomach gurgles again. He scowls at the kobold walking next to him. "Ye're disgusting!""Me?" Storm blinks. "You be the one who ate a tinkle-bug and a half --""Where in th hell did you go, anyway? Ye suddenly remember ye had something better to do?" Bufer snaps, desperate to change the subject. "Right as I'm walking into the bear's cave -- poof! -- away ye go! For a guardian angel, ye sure leave a hell of a lot to be desired, I'll tell ye that!""Storm no 'go' nowhere," the kobold sneers at him. "Just because gnomey no see Storm, don't mean he no be there.""Well, what'd ye disappear for, then? It's not like he could see ye!"Storm wrinkles his snout."Stoopid cat could, I think. Looked right at me." He shudders. "Gave Storm the heebie-jeebies."Bufer snorts."I don't know what's funnier: the idea of a fearsome kobold spectre like yerself being given the willies by a mangy old cat, or hearing the same say the word 'heebie-jeebies'.""Why that funny?""That's a gnomish word if I ever did hear one.""If it be gnomey word, that only 'cause tricksy gnomeys steal it from kobolds.""Oh, whatever. OK, I think we're far enough out of sight of the tower now," Winking at Storm, Bufer draws himself up to his full height, cups both hands around his mouth, and calls out: "All right, Lil' Big'un! Ye can come out now!""What you think you doing?" he asks."It's Hazel," Bufer chuckles. "She's been following us ever since we left. Ain't that right, Lil' Big'un? We know ye're there, ye might as well come on out!""Storm not notice nobody following.""Of course not; neither did I!" Bufer says, as though it were obvious. "That's the whole point! She wouldn't be much of a tracker if a gnome with no woodcraft and some out-of-practice druid who's been dead longer than she's been alive could pick her up that easy, now would she? C'mon, Lil' Big'un! The jig's up!""But didn't you leave note plainly telling her not to come along?""Well, of course I did!" Bufer says. "I always tell her not to come along! Then she comes along anyway! It's a system we got! Hazel, c'mon! Give it up! The gnome found you out! Ain't no shame in it! Get on out here, already!"Bufer and Storm wait together in silence, their eyes darting from bush to bush to tree, hearing nothing but the mating calls of distant birds."Hazel?"For a moment, nothing. Then, somewhere in the distance, a frog croaks in response."I don't think she's out there.""Mmm-hmm.""Well, how do ye like that?" Bufer says indignantly, placing his hands on his hips. "Can ye imagine? Letting me walk all the way out here, on my own! With clearly no idea of where I was going, how I was going to get there, or what was going to happen to me when I got there!""It practically insane. You did have the dwarf ...""Oh, screw the dwarf! Ye heard him! If that damned wizard had taken it into 'is head to transmute me into something like one of his precious faeries, Emus probably would have just pointed an laughed!"I could have been killed! He could have killed me!""Storm should be so lucky. Of course, day still young, and if gnomey insists on standing here and yelling guts out, something bound to come along and kill him eventually.""Oh, crap!" Bufer snarls. "I was counting on Hazel to get me home! I have no bloody idea how to get home from here! I wasn't paying attention on the way in; I was too wrapped up in relating that parable.""Gnomey god chooses priests wisely.""Listen, are ye going to stand there an' make jokes, or are ye actually going to be helpful here, and yes I appreciate the irony implicit in me uttering that sentence, so just wipe that look right off yer face, thank ye very much!" Bufer says. "Ye were a druid, right? Ye think ye could guide me the way back to Maidensbridge?""These not my woods," Storm says, after a moment. "But me think me remember the way. Come."Storm sets off in an apparently random direction. Bufer grins in relief, then falls into step behind him."Wow, this brings back memories. Just like old times, eh?""Gnomey not shut up then, neither.""I'll tell ye, the first thing I'm going to do when I get back is find Hazel Sawyer and Emmerson Grant, and give them two children a piece of my mind. Just where the hell to they think they get off listening to me, anyway?""Clearly, system needs work."</blockquote>

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