Who Let The Dogs Out

The warehouse district is a place that sees no rest, even in the winter months when so many other ways of life slow down for the turn of the year. The woman who had agreed to help Lheo and Theo find the warehouse where Zero had been taken leads them through alleyway and alleyway until she stops and points at a door with a painted sign hanging above it: a pony with a heart in its center.

"That's the Friendly Pony Company," the woman says. "Now, the men inside are about as muscular as the gods make ordinary men. I've got some fighting talent and I don't mind slitting a throat here or two if I gotta."

She looks between Lheo and Theo. "I anticipate the moment we get in there, they're gonna notice. Unless you two have something clever."

"This the main entrance?" Lheo eyes the sign from beneath his hooded mantle, then looks over at the woman, studying her. He has automatically lowered his voice. "There a back door? Doubt they've got him up front on display." He is notable for the absence of the hawk he so often carries with him, this time.

For one moment, looking at the door, Theo has a rather vivid memory of himself and Zero walking up and him pretending to be looking for someone to marry them. It had been that hint that had led to their relationship. If they go in mace-swinging and spell-slinging, Zero might get hurt. However, Theo's never been an accomplished liar.

He looks like a mercenary at first and even second glance really, but he's not sure how to approach this situation. He glances toward Lheo hopefully, and as he'd hoped the mage is quickly thinking through their options. Asking opportune questions while his own mind has settled into a series of unhelpful circles.

"It's the main, but there's got to be another entrance," the woman responds. "A lot of buildings around here have a larger door for taking in product from wagons and loading up freight to go to the docks."

She puts a finger to her lips and quickly darts around the building, vanishing for only handful of seconds before she returns and motions for the pair to follow. "Yup, shipping door back here," she stage-whispers.

Lheo's thin, serious line of a mouth quirks upwards into a smirk, and he holds up a finger. Ducking around the side of the building, he fishes from his pouch a small bit of some sort of gum, in which is encased a single eyelash. He stage-whispers, "I'll follow you, go," and gestures quickly, speaking a phrase in some eldritch language.

In the space of a breath, he vanishes from sight, leaving nothing where he once stood. "Go," his voice hisses from where he was standing.

At Lheo's insistence, Theo moves to follow after the woman who has led them here. The paladin keeps a weather eye out to make sure that no one is paying any attention to them, and he's glad when Lheo disappears a moment later. He more than half wishes that he could do the same.

The woman leads the way over to the larger door, which is, in fact, not just one door but rather a set of two that are chained together at their large handles. She snorts softly.

"Shouldn't be much of a problem to deal with that," she whispers, looking at them and the lock that's keeping them together. "Y'want me to pick the lock or you two have something else in mind?"

It's a minute before Lheo speaks up, a voice out of nowhere. "Pick it if you can," he murmurs. "Want me to open the front door and make them wonder what's going on, or wait?"

Theo considers a moment. "Wait until the lock is free, and when we're ready to go in, that'll be the perfect moment for a distraction." His fingers itch to touch his mace. The anticipation of what is to come is heavy in his limbs. "Come on. I don't want to leave him waiting any longer than he has to."

The woman nods and fishes out a slender little metal pick from a pocket within her drawstring pants. She gets to work on the lock. It's a matter of jiggling the right things--

"Got it," she mutters, pulling the chain off the handles and letting it slip to the ground. She looks over to Theo with those brown eyes of hers. "You ought to go first. I'm tough, but you're the one wearing protective gear."

Silence from the space where Lheo's voice has come before, but suddenly there's an invisible hand on Theo's arm. "Go on," he whispers. "I'm right here."

Theo nods determinedly to the woman and steels his resolve, his hand slipping his mace free of its place on his hip. The weight of the weapon is a comfort to him as he opens the door and quickly slips inside the space beyond.

It's only then that he realizes that this might be a trap, and that he doesn't care.

The warehouse smells, to put it politely, of dirt, dung, and musk. There's more than a few cages that contain animals of a number of different types of dogs and cats that look scared. They haven't been cared for especially well, with the sights and smells being rather evident of that.

"Pet smuggling," the woman grumbles. "The nobility of Charn has had a somewhat increased demand for cats and dogs from abroad. Meat in Charn is scarce, so having an animal of luxury is like... the opposite of what they wanted from Zerithos."

She looks around. "I bet if they're smuggling people, they're further into the warehouse."

The only evidence that Lheo is present behind her is the footsteps she can hear in her wake, but then a voice emerges from the gloom. "Can we set them free?" It's a mutter, but filled with anger.

"I'm not leaving anything behind here." Theo says in response to Lheo's quiet question. His own voice pitched low to keep from being hears as he heads further into the warehouse. "We'll start with whoever they have locked up though... Maybe they can help us." He hopes that whoever is here is in a condition to do so, and if not that he has the healing capacity to help them.

As Theo heads further into the warehouse, the cages begin to look a little different. They're now avian birdcages of different sizes, with little colorful birds from Alexandria and beyond forced to share room with each other. They're quite noisy before the group ever approaches because, unfortunately, different birds of different species--especially aggressive ones--like to fight each other.

It means they have terrific cover for their approach, however, especially as both of the twins spot a rather large cage with a black cloth draped over it. Certainly much larger than these cramped and crowded birdcages next to it.

The truth is that the sights and sounds in this warehouse stab Lheo to his soul, and the sight of the birds stuffed in cramped cages is enough to turn his stomach, no matter how grateful he is for the cover of noise. "Whoever owns this place isn't leaving here alive." The fury is written in every word.

The footsteps behind her stop, though, and he taps her on the shoulder. "The big one."

If Lheo is angry, then Theo is livid. His face is concentrated lines of rage, and he stalks toward the covered cage with violence promised in every line of his body. Jerkily he grabs the edge of the cloth and lifts it, green eyes peering into the darkness as he tries to shed light on the situation. "Zero?"

The cloth lifts and... There's Zero, tightly bound with rope and in a fetal position on the floor. He's gagged with a rag that doesn't look terribly clean wrapped around the lower half of his face. Red-pink eyes widen as he realizes it's Theo, and he makes a series of muffled noises that are, thankfully, masked by the bird noise from the cages.

"Never did learn when to shut up," the woman mutters, with a little bit of a smirk on her face.

GAME: Lheo casts Mage Hand. Caster Level: 3 DC: 14

"I can get him loose," comes the disembodied voice from behind the woman. There's a rustling of fabric accompanying the words, lost in the bird shrieks. "You two start opening cages. Let's save as many as we can." Again, the voice is low, and he speaks a few more eldritch words, gesturing invisibly at the latch holding the cage shut.

Theo looks at Zero, pushing the heavy cloth aside so that Lheo can open the cage. He trusts Lheo to get the other man out but... The moment that the latch falls away he ignores the direction to duck into the cage himself. His mace is tucked back into his belt as he kneels and pulls a dagger from his boot to cut the rope with. "I've got you." His voice is a low murmur of comfort to the other man.

When Lheo opens the cage and Theo cuts up Zero's bonds, the mul'niessa man is visibly relieved, although the gag on his face makes it so it's difficult for him to actually communicate that relief.

The woman, however, is on the lookout, her brown eyes cast into the rest of the warehouse with a wary eye of the building. "They gotta have some form of security around," she mutters. "We better get out quick. Unless everyone wants to strike up a proper bedlam." She doesn't sound wholly opposed to the idea.

Scowling invisibly when Theo ignores him, Lheo turns in a rustle of fabric and gestures wordlessly. There is no warning, but one by one, cage latches begin to snap open, first the birds, then the cats and dogs. One by one, latch after latch after latch, and doors held shut by springs swing wide. Others drift open just a little, just enough. Those few that don't, he starts to stride towards the doors and open them himself.

The moment that the rope is cut through, Theo helpfully dispatches of the handkerchief covering Zero's face as well. Considering what Lheo is up to it seems like telling Zero to be quiet is probably unnecessary, and he smiles, a bit of vengeful wickedness making him almost grin. "You alright? Need any healing?" He's not the best at deciphering injuries, but he does a double check anyways.

With a wicked grin, the woman helps Lheo out in his quest to free the animals. The birds are even noisier than before as they either fight each other mid-air to settle some long-held grudges in captivity or are trying to find a way out of the warehouse. The cats scramble and hide while the dogs are either growling at each other, hide and cower, or, in the case of one eager-looking shepherd dog, tries to leap up at the invisible Lheo to give him a thank-you kiss.

Dogs are talented like that.

Meanwhile, Zero gasps loudly as he can breathe more soundly again. "Gods and stars," he says, "I didn't think I'd ever see--"

His eyes lock onto the woman, who's scooped up a bundle of kittens from a cage, and he freezes. "What is she doing here?"

"A'ight! Wot's all this about?" comes the voice of a man from further in the warehouse. Panic settles into Zero's eyes.

And there it is. Amid all the squawking and screeching, Lheo's just knelt down to give the shepherd some invisible ear scratches - although it _smells_ - when the new voice pops up. "Oh good," he drawls evilly. "Dinner just arrived." Suddenly, a nearby boa constrictor snaking its way out of a cage is grabbed, hefted, and with a grunt of effort, *flung* at the new voice. "Enjoy your meal, long one."

The look of panic in Zero's eyes makes Theo worry about Lheo. The only comfort that he has is the fact that Lheo is at least invisible. Hopefully he will stay that way and in the chaos they'll be able to enact an escape. Though Theo won't mind if he gets to hit something on the way out. He pulls Zero into his arms. "Come on, I've got you. Let's get out of here." He tries to help the other man to his feet and support him out of the cage.

The woman with arms full of kittens grins wickedly as the snake goes to coil around the man, who panics and screams running back in the direction in which he came. "Good toss," she says in Lheo's invisible direction. The kittens are spicy little things that hiss and claw, but she's not minding them much; one can only imagine she's endured far worse pain back in Charn. "I'm gonna go toss that back door open again so we can all get out."

The shepherd dog remains by Lheo's side, although he keeps a wary eye on the creatures around him. Is he waiting for a command of some sort?

Zero staggers to his feet and leans onto Theo. "Please, I am _ready_ to leave." He sounds so very exhausted.

Surprised as the shepherd dog stays by his side, Lheo gestures invisibly again, and the rest of the latches open. "All right, boy," his uncertain voice comes from his general location. It's the tone he uses when he's thinking fast, and he looks around for another cage that might have cats or kittens cowering in them. "Go to the door and tell me if anyone is on the other side." The sound of fabric rustling as he moves is all but inaudible in the din of growling, barking, cheeping, flapping.

Theo helps Zero out of the cage entirely and into the quickly dissipating chaos that is the back room. "Lheo!" He doesn't know where his brother is, but its too late to try and be subtle. "Time to clear out!"

Even so he keeps his eyes peeled for anything with a humanoid form. He still wants to smack some sense into someone.

The woman looks like she's about to throw the doors open on the entrance intended for hauling out freight, but then the shepherd dog plants himself down in front of the door and growls. "Sounds like that's a yes to me," she says.

Thankfully, it looks like none of the other cages have cats nor tiny kittens left in them. The litter that the woman's holding in her arms does seem quite young, so perhaps the mother cat has given birth to them somewhat quickly?

Zero murmurs to Theo, "You should... beat up whoever's on the other side." He sounds mildly out of it. He's exhausted, and exhaustion does do that to a man.

"Yeah," comes the disembodied voice of Lheo. "Okay, boy. Find us a safe path out of here." Another evil, quiet chuckle. "I'll open the doors from distance and let the dogs have 'em. Mama, come this way and you can have your kittens back. All of you, follow the dog."

Admittedly, it's very tempting to do as Zero suggests. However Theo angles away from the door and heads toward the other exit instead. Let the dogs have whoever it is. "You're more important than beating sense into idiots." He says with a touch of a growl in his voice. "I'm getting you out of here."

The dog goes back in the direction of the way that the man (who presumably still has boa constrictor on his person) ran off in, and the woman follows suit, leading the mother cat to follow her as she's got her kittens.

"I'm not that important," Zero murmurs to Theo as the paladin walks with him. And then his eyes widen as they turn a corner and the man from earlier is on the ground, writhing and screaming as the boa constrictor has wrapped itself around the man. "Nevermind, I'll leave the self-pity at home, because is that man getting eaten by an overgrown set of hosen? Am I seeing that right?" Zero asks.

"You've never seen a snake before?" the woman asks with a little laugh that comes out as a more hoarse noise. "Lheo, unleash the hounds."

"He's getting what he deserves, Zerthos," comes a disembodied, cold Lheo's voice from the doorway to the warehouse. "_Alnaric zhan._" The doors to the freight area crack open and begin to creak open, and he leaves the door just cracked so that any cats brave enough to run can follow them out the front before following the rest.

"You're important to me." The words are soft, and Theo isn't sure that Zero hears them at all. He grunts as he spies the man on the floor being eaten by the snake and he only shakes his head. A part of him wants to offer the man the mercy of a quicker death, but the memory of Zero in the cage and the reality of Zero in his arms thinking that he's not worth protecting cements Theo's willingness to let the man die at the hands of those who's freedom he'd foolishly stolen.

He keeps moving forward.

The dogs in the warehouse go tearing at whoever's on the other side of the freight doors, the cats and birds following quickly after the doors are opened to escape to freedom. Alexandria's population of stray animals might have just increased, but the streets are not as cruel as untended cages.

The shepherd leads the group outside, and he eyes the man for a moment before peering at the kittens in the woman's arms. Mama cat looks expectantly at the kittens and the woman makes that hoarse sound again that should be laughter. "Okay, you probably want your kids back."

She eyes the men. "You've got Zerithos, and you should probably go take him back to your place. I'm gonna go help mama cat find a place to put her kittens up for the winter."

Zero stares at the woman and... "Ahm. Do I... Owe you anything?"

"Just call me Lis," the woman says, "and we're even. I don't like owing anyone anything and I don't like other people owing shit to me. Good?"

It's at this moment that Lheo abruptly bursts into the view of the others, the invisibility spell fading to reveal the hooded mantle. "Lis, then. Thanks - thanks for the tip. They sure are cute." One side of his lips quirks up in half a smile, and he turns to peek back through the door. "Let's get out of here before the fight ends," he tells the others. "Peace, and thanks for the help. Let's go."

His eyes search out the guard dog who led them out.

Theo nods low to Lis, his expression breaking to show an edge of gratitude. There's a moment of relief when Lheo shows himself once again. Even with the presence of his brother's voice nearby it was more comfortable to see him physically. The paladin wraps his arm more securely around Zero. "Come on then, lets get you home."

Even Lis didn't think anything was owed, Theo felt a bit of obligation toward the woman in spite of the fact that they'd met at odds with one another. In the end, she'd helped them when she didn't need to. That meant something to him, and if there ever came a time that she needed help... He knew that he'd give it. For now though, it was time to get to someplace a little more secure.

"They are. Cats and dogs are nicer than people." Lis's voice is darkened by knowledge before she turns on her heel. "Bye."

She walks away, cat following her as she walks off into the cold, and the shepherd dog remains, looking up at Lheo. Zero raises a brow. "I think you have a friend there, Lheo," he says. "Would they let you keep him at your room back at the Arcanists' Society?"

And then he looks at Theo. "Let's... walk and talk?" he suggests. "I'm ready to go home."

-End