by Endesu » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:33 am
"Well... actually...," Carroll began to respond in a most definitely uncertain tone.
She was interrupted, however, by a distant voice. "Hold on a second!"
From some uncertain point in the distance, Zappa, the man in the orange cloak, and a few other folk (presumably members of the Blow Monkeys) came towards them, bearing no injuries and apparently in perfectly good shape. "I'm uncertain as to what the hell occurred under there," Zappa began, looking back towards the tunnel, "or why the executioner squad decided to avoid attacking us, but apparently the lot of you managed to do pretty well."
Small smiled at Zappa, giving a brief but knowing glance to Greg as she did so. "I had to reevaluate their abilities - they all managed to do pretty well, considering."
"That's a rare compliment from you, Small, but I'm glad to hear it," Zappa replied, smiling. "Now, then, Carroll and Lucian," he began, turning to the two, "I want you to listen closely. Take the wide path around the forest. There will be back roads leading into it from there. Follow the back roads to reach the Monaruka River, along which you should eventually find Foggy City."
Carroll wore a somewhat relieved grin, and nodded. "Thank you very much for the information!," she replied earnestly, already looking down towards the forest, perhaps trying to best map out a visual route.
With the moment for reunion, Lucian decided to go to the orange-cloaked man and speak to him. "This sledge is awesome... it really helped me under there. Thanks for letting me use it and all, but I don't even know your name."
The orange-cloaked man smiled. "Heh! You can call me Orange, or Orange Deluxe. If you like the sledge so much, keep it."
"Really? Is that okay?," Lucian replied, a bit wide-eyed.
"Sure. A skillful person should wield it."
"Thanks, I will keep it! Someday I'll do something in return for you."
"Ah, never mind about that..."
At this point, Zappa turned to Greg. "I'm glad you hadn't left yet, Greg... I needed to speak with you before you left. After you informed me about the 'little accident' you had with the mirror at that man's shop earlier, I arranged to have one of our agents pick up the pieces, so to speak, and gather them together."
This said, he presented a bag of some sort... a peek inside revealed several broken mirror shards. "I want you to hold onto this. It should help remind you, in the future, to be careful with all things that you take hold of. We may be a gang, but we try not to be sloppy in the way we handle things. Hold onto this, and get yourself back in line. All right?"