"Guess we're getting the best of all worlds." I remark, closing the garage door and locking it up while the two hwardgon sniff about.
"Only thing we're missing is a hotel." Heiya comments, knocking over some poor sod's can of paint. I watch the potent smelling brown seep its way across the concrete, making a mess of whatever it clings to. Tearing down some cloth with a probably important picture on it, I slap it between the paint and the wagon. Can't have it getting onto one of the wheels.
"Don't know what you mean. We have beds and breakfast here." I say, ushering the daughter out of the garage so we can leave Nin to whatever it is he'll be up to. He's not going anywhere, and he's not going to have the strength to put into motion any plans. Him being home alone is not a concern.
"Heiya, go upstairs and get an eye on the street. We've no clue how light our time is." Ivahstar tells his little girl, moving her on further ahead and I find a counter to lean on. At the height it's made for, however, it's more of a seat than the actual ones.
"This house is under renovation. Never mind the damage putting a halt to it all." I let out, looking about at all the covered up furniture and decorations. Seems like the owners were getting something fairly general mixed with a full room extension. Bits of architectural reformatting, otherwise.
"Make the cage ourselves." Ivahstar says and I nod my initial reply. If we keep up the impression that the renovations are carrying on, albeit now with more work... Even the owners would buy our reasons for being here. We can even lie that I am some help brought in from the surface because our heavy equipment has been taken. Conscripted, acquired, whatever.
Folk with the kind of money to do this to their home will buy anything that makes sense.
"I'll need the usual kit for metal working, if that's the case. Whoever was working this property didn't leave anything, though. They must've actually packed up back when the initial problems hit." I explain, looking around some more, not finding a single wrench or screwdriver I might be able to smash up to make something of it.
"That won't be a problem. Enough mess around town to make something of it all." Ivahstar says as I push myself up to my feet once more. Keeping a hand out, I stop my head from banging on anything too needlessly. At worst, it softens the blow.
"I've always loved shopping trips." I let out, huffing as the ever serious elder hwardgon stares back at me. My smile grows, and he starts to knock on some of the cabinets, testing the metal hinges for all they're worth.
"You did pack sufficient scrap?" he asks, turning back to face me. I shrug my answer and think about the mental image of the town Heiya helped make.
"We're probably better off poking about a construction site or two. Take some real quality steel from them. They'll have actual bars, for starters. Concrete won't be much of an issue to handle, either. We can smash the mesh right out of it." I explain, poking around a cupboard to see what supplies the owners might've left behind. Long-lasting stuff in jars and cans. Pickled foods and syrupy sogginess.
"Should be a van or lorry lingering about at one of them, too." Ivahstar thinks and I nod along.
"Mm, yeah. We're going to want something they can handle a package while not being awkward on us for it." I say and Ivahstar shuts the cupboard up, not finding anything more than bowls and empty tubs.
"Get the vehicle first?" he ponders openly and I offer a hand for his paw.
"Will be a good idea. Let's me make the cage better, knowing what dimensions I have to work with. Better bonds are one thing. Comforting the dealer is something else." I say and Ivahstar frowns, one of the kitchen taps coming on. I keep my joke to myself but smile over it, nonetheless. It's water, silly old hegge.
"Don't make it too tight on the bug. Too little room and he'll seem dead." Ivahstar cautions and I nod again.
"Aye, let the predator prowl about for a moment." I say and we head off, quickly leaving the house behind us. The door clicks its lock and I give a quick wave to the girl on the top floor, no doubt spying us. The hand slips into one of my pockets and I pat around the rest for my sticks and lighter.
I 'ah' at my discovery and flick the two containers out. One comes up with a mechanical click and the other a cardboard tap. I pucker the cigarette between my lips and light the lighter. Everything goes back in my pockets and I satisfy myself with an easy sigh.
"So, is there anything else on your mind, old friend?" I decide to pop out into the open while we have quiet streets between us. No daughter within earshot to pick up on anything. It's a gamble, though, if Ivahstar is going to open up about anything.
"Heiya mentioned something when we met back up," he grumbles and I force a frown into being despite the satisfaction of my stress relief. Life throws a lot about and I can enjoy it all again with but a huff and then a puff. And maybe a pack of them in a day if things are quite bad.
"Right, that building." I recall on top of the way she was acting when she brought it up. She cannot be sure if it's what we should be cautious of, but the gods have never damned the cautious man. Only the one who lives a carefree life dominated and ruled by a love of ignorance. Well, that tends to be how it goes.
"I would never willingly take us on a route through Gamtambo's territory." Ivahstar lets out, his growl scaring a kid across the street. I gently knock against his head, coming to a stop alongside him by some neighbourhood post box.
"Try not to worry about anything, old friend. You have no way of knowing how much his mob has expanded since you were last down here. We don't even know if he's on the losing end." I say and Ivahstar gruffs loudly, his head shaking without an end in sight. I watch the former hitman run a finger around the street, pointing out so many things without a word or noise. Some make sense, others don't.
My instincts grasp what my mind cannot.
"I set too much up for him to do well with. There's no way he's anything but all-powerful." Ivahstar speaks, his experience with dirty work making anything but realistic pessimism the option.
"All the more reason for you to terrify the prickly bastard!" I huff, trying to breathe some joy back into the miserable circumstances we call our present and future. Ivahstar looks up to me, a good few decades of criminal experience burning my wick through the wax. Right down to the cracking, sooty jar. My lips straighten and the smile is gone.
"Terrify is the least I want to do," he tells me, walking off with little care that he's leaving me behind. I sigh out the smoke in my lungs and linger on the curb to take a few more puffs. He loves his daughter, he really does. Even more so since the day she became the only bit of family he has left. It's an enormous risk to be down here. It's a wonder we haven't run into anything already.
Ivahstar, for all his experience and cunning, lacks the humility to let go of his one defining feature. That blood wasp gun of his is simply too famous for his own good. Not many people can claim to have a weapon like that, so few do, even. I wouldn't be surprised if Gamtambo even played a part in that.
Make it so that everyone else is too scared to use a weapon like that, all to make Ivahstar stick out all the more. I swear, as well, Ivahstar just ain't as common a name as it used to be. Like the mob boss is hunting everything that so much as sniffs like him. The hitman that has a name that inspires terror everywhere in the dark underground.
And does the world not show a greater sign of terror than putting in all the efforts one can to destroy the problem? No matter if it's a man on his own, a boss in charge of a criminal empire or the emperor of an actual one. Violence is the answer when terror is the question. Utter, complete and total.
I take another huff from my stick, burning so much of it away to ash. It falls away with a knock and flies on the barely there underground breeze. I get going, catching up with Ivahstar as his eyes continue to work even in their growing age. Only a hint exists as to how much he's already figured out in his head.
"Might be worth taking the stolen car to one of the destroyed parking lots Heiya spoke of." I say, minding a few sedans and the distinct shape and style of a hwardgon's motor luxury. Curvy and bulbous, like the pressed up fat of a thigh in leggings and garter. A mental image that brings a bit of a shiver to me with my prior employment. Heh, certainly one way to ruin a woman's body for a man.
"Mmmm." is all Ivahstar bothers to let out as we loop around the circling street to get to the other side. Slipping my foot under some ball, I practice a few kicks and tricks and send it off onto the lawn. I second guess the front of the houses, finding it a bit odd they go so far as to bother with grass.
"Honestly, spend all your time underground and you emulate the surface for luxury." I chuckle and Ivahstar knocks a paw on a nearby white picket fence. Bouncing along it until he has no more wood to make a song with anymore.
"How can't we?" he asks and I look down, shrugging, as the obvious answer comes to mind. No matter how you look at it, like with all races outside of those in the holy texts. It all comes back to the seed of the claymen. Humanity.
Me and Ivahstar look nothing alike and we most certainly aren't related. But the blood of men still flows through his veins the same as it does me. Hwardgon blood, however, only flows in him. The same as aelenvari blood only flows in them and whatever other dozen races there are that can cast magic.
"If you're still up for travelling when all is said and done, I'm sure we can reopen some old deals down here." I suggest, seeing if I can get Ivahstar's mind to accept something a little calmer for the moment. A flash in the pan for anything but more seriousness and professional uptightness.
"Sell magic off to the towns and cities of the underground like me and Heiya did to the Lowlands?" he asks, huffing all sorts of memories out into his behaviour and actions.
"Yeah, but this time, maybe actually sell an actual product?" I question, chuckling with recollections of the few bits of mail we were able to share back in the day he was still doing it. Selling off waste to those who didn't know better. The stuff didn't even have a name until Ivahstar's transactions gave it one. Fool's Gold, for who is the kind of idiot to buy waste material? Why Lowlanders, of course!
People so lacking in magic that Nin would actually be safe living among them.
"I always sell actual products. Just not always good ones." Ivahstar lets out, a rare snicker escaping the maximum security prison that is his personality. I give him a little smile, nudging my friend along as he reminds me that even in the jaded can jade be found. Needs a polish, is all.
"Come on, we've got work to be doing." I chuckle some more, finishing up with my stick and giving someone's car an ashy cut.