Drip-Fed Pt. 07

"Yeah... let's see if I can still find the way," Reysha's cat ears turned a bit as she was listening for something, then they begun their track through the innards of the city. Apexus found it interesting that such a large gathering of people solved their waste problem by digging giant tunnels. With all their individuality, the slime hadn't thought it quite possible for humanoids to come up with such group-oriented structures. Yet, here it was.

They had to be somewhat careful, other people were stalking around these tunnels, searching for their own associates. Outside the law or not, the group wasn't about to reveal themselves to anyone unneeded. Every so often, Reysha stopped and listened again. Eventually, Apexus found what she was searching for.

It was a disharmonious scratching. As if somebody tried to emulate Aclysia's singing voice by dragging something over something else. It wasn't a painful noise, just amateurish. Following it eventually carried them to a door, meticulously clean, especially compared to the surroundings. The sounds echoed through a small, iron-bared gap at head-height.

Reysha hammered against the door and the noises stopped. A moment later, somebody stepped up to that gap. "Who is th- Reysha? Girl, shouldn't you be on the fu-" when the grumbly voice on the other side interrupted itself for the second time, their eyes had evidently fallen on Apexus. Understandably, as well. It was harder to overlook him than it was to spot him, as the slime had stretched into a taller position to muster what was going on with curious eyes.

"Hey, Trebby," Reysha grinned widely. "Interested in the job of the century?"

An initial answer came by the door swinging open. Apexus wasn't sure if the man he was looking at was oddly muscular or fat, as he had a pretty opulent mass but moved smoothly. What little fur humanoids tended to have on the head was apparently falling out of this fellow, as it had receded to a couple of long strands that formed a semi-circle around his blank and polished dome. Brown eyes looked amusedly as he invited them in with a swing of that odd tool he was holding. Some small, swung contraption of wood, with sinews stretched across. There was also some sort of small staff with a similar design. Much too elegant for the broad hands holding it.

"A nice violin you have there," Aclysia commented as all of them entered.

"Thank you, my grotesque rape of music lures my customers," Trebby answered and hastily closed the door behind them. The room they were now inside was stuffed with luxurious furniture. There was barely enough room for the six massive bodyguards to stand in the corners of the room and at each end side of the seat Trebby fell down into. Their rugged exteriors and dark leather armours clashed quite heavily with the purple surroundings. Even the owner himself didn't quite seem like he belonged there.

Indeed, Aclysia in her, miraculously still largely clean, maid outfit almost fit the best, as she sat down on the couch opposite of their host and folded her hands in her laps in a diligent fashion. Reysha fell on the cushioned thing with a relieved sigh, while Apexus preferred his place on the ground. The table was low enough that he wasn't bothered by this and humanoid seating just wasn't fashioned for elliptic shapes.

"Look at that thing," Trebby inspected Apexus closer. "I have never seen such a huge slime, much less one with so many... extras..." the smuggler stopped at the blue eyes, narrowing his own as if he was searching for something. "Are you here to sell the parts to me? Wings of that colour and size probably go for a lot."

"I am not to be sold for that shiny round metal you use to trade stuff," Apexus answered and everyone in the room, aside from Reysha and Aclysia, jumped. Some of the bodyguards even gripped their weapons, causing the tiger girl to hiss warningly from the couch. "What is happening?" the slime wondered, looking around. "I thought we were talking here? Aclysia, is this some sort of courtesy don't... I don't know about?"

"No, if anything, they are being tremendously rude right now, darling," the metal fairy responded and everyone relaxed a little bit.

"I am sorry..." Trebby cleared his throat. "Just didn't expect this. You must understand that you look rather alien to us and hearing a human voice from that is..." he struggled for a word.

"Adorable?" Reysha suggested honestly, although she couldn't suppress her laughter when Trebby shot her a doubtful glance. "Let's skip the small-talk Trebby, we have an Inquisition on our ass, can't be in your best interest to keep us occupied until they find us."

Apexus, feeling like he wasn't welcome in the conversation anymore, didn't add that there was also a Hunter who had marked him. Much to Aclysia's relief, since the metal fairy was aware that that would have made negotiations a tad harder.

"Not anymore," Trebby grumbled. "Since Hemle isn't around to pay his end of the bounty and the Divine Quest has been marked complete." The trio had absolutely no idea why they knew about that, but they took it. "Honestly, without that, killing you two and trying to get her might have been worth the hit to my honourable reputation. As it is, I honour even one of my guards lives more than whatever market value the body of your friend has... or your eyes, Reysha."

"Sucks to be you then," Reysha stuck out her tongue, her blue eyes in their grey sclera glinting dangerously as she kept one hand close to her belt of throwing daggers.

"We seek your aid in leaving this leaf," Aclysia kept the talk on tracks. "All three of us."

"Smuggle the three highest profile individuals we had in the last few decades off the leaf. I wouldn't be able to brag about it for a while, but in a few years that would be one hell of a story," Trebby hummed. "Plus I would stick it to the church, Zimber would surely love seeing that."

"So you will help us?" Aclysia asked, already hopeful.

"What's really in it for me though?" Trebby finished his thoughts and leaned back. "Hemle's money aside, the Guild still wants you for whatever reason...." he trailed off, looking to his visitors as if they could grant him an answer.

None of them had any idea. Aside from that one time Apexus had spared some people, he had never harmed anyone. His mere existence shouldn't have been enough to warrant any sum worth the hassle. Then again, there was the possibility higher ups thought that they were directly responsible for the death of Hemle, but revealing the details of that to the smuggler would have meant that they also had to reveal Apotho and that whole issue. A story too long and too unusual to just tell and expect Trebby to believe it.

As the silence stayed as his only answer, the smuggler just continued on as if the pause had been purely aesthetical. "What can you give that would be worth it? Aside from the story and my continued reputation as an honest businessman."

"Alright, let's see..." Reysha grabbed her adventurer's bag and began throwing stuff on the table. First, the coin purse, which was also emptied of its contents, then all the items they had gotten in the Clearwater dungeon but couldn't use. A curved sword of steel, a caster pendant with water affinity, pauldrons for plate armour and a bunch of intact rat teeth as well as other valuable monster parts. "You can have the money now, if you agree," she said as Trebby hummed approvingly at the selection.

"And the rest?" the smuggler asked. "This is already less than the Guild would give me. I am not trusting you to just leave it somewhere for me to find."

"And I only trust you as far as I can throw this," Reysha returned, dangling the now empty bag of velvet between her fingers, before dropping it on the table as well. "The offer is literally on the table, Trebouran" she finished, leaving Apexus confused for a moment before he realized that Trebby had been a nickname the entire time.

The smuggler hummed again, then smirked. "Well, you honestly had me from the start..."

"Yeah, right," Reysha laughed mockingly. "You totally aren't smearing honey around my mouth right now or something you absolute cockwaffle." The redhead chuckled unnervingly. "Just say yes or no already."

"Yes, yes, I will do it," Trebby apologetically raised his hands into the air. "Well then, guess I will have to call in some favours to get this done by today." Even Reysha looked surprised by the announcement, now it was the smuggler's turn to chuckle. "You think I am this daring with my jobs just because I like going against the church?" he collected the money off the table and neatly closed Reysha's former pouch when he was done. "I'm the best at what I do and the sooner I get you out of my shop, the sooner I won't have to worry about the Inquisition."

"I hope you're ready to get nice and comfortable," Trebby announced when he came back a few hours later. Shortly thereafter, he guided the trio through numerous tunnels in the underground. The bodyguards were always looking at Apexus, crawling along, despite having a redheaded tiger girl with pretty open weaponry around. "Because getting three people out of the city at once is going to be a bit more difficult."

"What, I thought you were good at what you do?" Reysha teased and earned herself a scoffing mumble. "How much harder can it be than just put us under some sacks and cart us out of here, huh? Come on, I can see that you want to boast about your business strategies, you absolute unit of a smuggler."

Apexus just had to interject. "What unit?"

Several people looked confused, Aclysia was the one who reacted first. "Reysha is using it metaphorically in this case. She isn't talking about any units of measurement."

"Oh. Sorry for the interruption. Feel free to boast now," the slime innocently continued to listen.

"...You're actually endearing, despite of how odd you look," Trebby admitted after a moment of silence.

"You're actually friendly, despite of how awful your music was," Apexus responded in kind. "My gratitude for getting us off this leaf."

The smuggler was unable to deal with such honest and nice words from a creature whose initial appearance he had felt repulsed by. A mixture of embarrassment and validation stirred in the man's soul. Not a particularly common way to feel in this line of work.

Trebby cleared his throat, "Yes... well, I am in it for the money." Quickly turning towards things he was more used to, he stepped up to a door and unlocked it with a very complicated looking key. "See, when you're going for illegal activities, there are three ways to remain on the loose. First is to just not be known, but when you're active for any measurable length of time that's pretty much impossible. Sooner or later people will just know about you. Especially if you remain local. So that's out for me.

"The second is to be unofficially in charge of things. Sadly, the hotpot of guild leaders that make up the local government aren't exactly corruptible. Especially since we have a gods damned Cardinal sitting on this leaf, who only ever partakes on meetings via letters," Trebby groaned and kicked open the door. "Even if it was possible, I don't have that kind of money."

They entered a room were a bunch of modified equipment stood around. Wooden logs that seemed perfect as firewood, but were hollowed out, seamlessly fitting lids sitting nearby. Mountains of differently sized barrels. Wax paper to wrap packages as smell-neutral as possible. A bunch double-bottomed crate. In the middle of the room stood a large horse cart. A surprisingly small assortment of adventurer's bags hung from a distant wall.

Apexus had to wonder about that. "Why not use those more often?" he asked. "Small bags stuffed with stuff should be easier to hide than most other things, no?"

"In theory," Trebby seemed happy to answer that question, even though it interrupted his other explanation. "Three problems though. Adventurer's bags enchants cause them to bind to their current carrier in some odd way that prevents more than a few bags to work for one person at any given time. They turn into simple bags until somebody else comes along to pick them up."

"That would still only limit operations on the leaf," Reysha continued, wandering around the cart while Trebby's henchmen prepared everything for their departure. "So that's why he has a few of them, the sly dog."

"Yes, yes," Trebby waved off. "The other two reasons are that they radiate magic. Scribe's can detect them quite easily, just like they can make an Inventory Analyzation. They can't just magically write out a list of illegal items hidden inside hollow logs. Third reason, specifically for cross-leaf travel, is that I don't feel like dealing with Parasytes."

Something about the way he said that word made it clear that he wasn't talking about tics or mosquitoes. Before Apexus could ask about it, the conversations moved back to the original topic.

"Anyway, like most of my colleagues around here, I take the third and easiest way to not remain in the business," the smuggler gifted all of them with a broad smile. "I keep up the façade of a honest businessman that nobody got the solid evidence to disprove off."

"Well, bully for you, that's how I would do things as well," Reysha suddenly stepped across the room, did several twirls, stopped behind Aclysia and gave her a big hug. "But somebody said morality is more important than thoroughness."

The metal fairy pouted. "You assured me this topic had reached its conclusion."

"Conclusion? Sure. Fun-making material? No," Reysha giggled, then almost burst out laughing. "Hey, remember that time when you flew across the entire continent buck-naked because your daddy got issues?"

Aclysia went from pouting to flushing deeply, something that only got worse when the tiger girl planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "This is a disgrace!"

"You liked the last time," the redhead couldn't help but tease.

After a few frustrated noises, Aclysia managed to say, "This is not the time nor place for foolery like this!"

"Right," Reysha suddenly stood straight as a pole and awaited further developments. Although her face didn't mirror that stern pose in the slightest. "What's the plan, Trebby?"

The smuggler just looked like he was having fun with all of this. "Alright, come up here," he told them and climbed on the cart. It was solid wood and pretty large, which also meant it was pretty tall. Reysha athletically pulled herself up, while maid-dressed Aclysia just spread her wings and hovered.

Apexus didn't have enough room to fly, not without creating an absolute chaos, so he had to slime his way up the wheels. Getting up steep surfaces had been much easier when he hadn't had all this extra weight on his back. Well, when he had been lighter in general. Nevertheless, he got up there.

The main surface of the cart had pretty flat, broad chest built into the middle of it. "You will get in there and then we'll throw normal wares on top," Trebby explained, knocking on the chest. "My buddies at the Stem will 'randomly' select us for a control. Don't worry, they'll just peek around enough that they can write a report about nothing going on."

Apexus had to admit that that was kind of ingenious. Fooling a security system by playing along with it sounded pretty smart. Like letting a rat dive face first into his own mass. Except he had somehow told the rat that was exactly the strategy to follow.

"Normally we only smuggle one person off at a time... You will have to really cramp down in there," Trebby looked doubtfully at the slime and then at the box. "Thing is your liquid body... sorry, Apexus, right?"

"Yes," the slime answered.

"You're way too thick," the smuggler stated right out of the gate. "That's a problem I didn't think about..." he made a sour face and looked around. "Maybe we could load you into a barrel? That's going to be a problem if there's a single strait-laced guard on shift with my buddy. Much easier to get them to ignore the stuff in the middle of the cart than a giant barrel..."

"I make myself thinner, give me a few minutes," Apexus answered and Trebby raised an eyebrow. With that massive carapace and equally big wings, he didn't see how the slime could bridge the difference between him and a lying person. To his surprise, both of those began to shrink visibly.

Aclysia used this time to ask another important question. "What are the precautions in case we get caught?"

"Then you're going to make a run for it," Trebby stated quite clearly. "And you're never coming back. I can weasel my way out of prison by bribing a few people here and tell everyone you forced me to do it or some bullshit like that. Unless they get your ass and you confess to something different. If they do catch you, you had a fourth accomplice who had my wife at knifepoint and his name is Derek, understood?"

"Sure thing, Derek, knife-point, we force you," Reysha yawned and looked over to Apexus, who had shrunk all Growths, aside from eyes and ears, down as far as he could. "How ya doing, slime boy?"

"Well, somewhat hungry," Apexus answered with the tiny remains of the Speaking Plates. His voice was as deep as usual, if a fair bit quieter in its maximum output.

Reysha made a surprised sound. "Expected you to sound all squeaky now. Honestly, I am disappointed... anyway, guess we'll have to fit in like this. Otherwise, we'll cut you down."

That was indeed another possibility and one that slime much wanted to avoid. Being sliced into tinier parts was a very unpleasant experience. With wings smaller than his fox ears, Apexus flowed his way into the open chest. Reysha and Aclysia soon followed.

It turned out to be a surprisingly comfortable experience for those two. What normally was nothing but a wooden box with nothing in the way of padding now turned into a slime cushioned bed. Cramping all of his Growths into one corner of the chest, off Aclysia's left shoulder, the only way all of them fit in there was for Apexus to spread himself all over the square floor and partly spill around their bodies.

Not only was this uncomfortable, holding things outside of his natural elliptic shapes for prolonged times was akin to keeping a muscle wilfully tense for prolonged periods, but it was also pretty hard not to get turned on by this complete feeling up of their curves.

To put it shortly, the girls were having it surprisingly nice, while Apexus was hoping this whole thing was over quickly. "Sure hope none of you are claustrophobic," Trebby joked when he closed the lid above them, leaving only a miniscule breathing hole and small gaps in the wood for light to enter.

Then a constant drumming of sacks being thrown on top of them began.

The cart rolled over the streets. Apexus could feel every bump, every depression and even every slant in the road in his liquid form. With eyes and ears basically useless, little managed to get through the layers of corn sacks that had been heaved on top of their confinement, his tremor sense was working to compensate.

Which only made the entire experience even more unpleasant.

Not a single word was spoken. They weren't supposed to move nor do anything else that could make any sound whatsoever. Apexus hadn't expected that getting out unseen was going to be pleasant, but being stuck inside this box for some indiscriminate amount of time was almost akin to torture.

It was simply monotonous, the time dripped along like counting waterdrops falling from a stalagmite. They came to a halt, Apexus hoping they had arrived at the gate, but apparently it was just some sort of traffic jam as they soon moved again. After what felt like an eternity, and many stops later, something did finally change.

There was talking outside. More footsteps around the cart. Without the constant bumps, Apexus could feel at least a bit. Not how many people were approaching, but the dull vibrations in the wood when men spoke in their deep voices. Somebody knocking on the driver's seat from the side. Laughter about an unknown joke.