Ah, the Idle Weasel. An establishment whose halls were a resting spot for revolutionaries, and which by reputation was known to host a cadre of other ne'er-do-wells. Assassins, escaped convicts, mutineers and the like. It was a place where coups where planned. Where the planning of a government's end, was often staged, and where professional murder was always for hire. For the right price of course.
Yes, when you considered all this, the type of people who frequented this place, and what went on here, it was obvious that to call the tavern the 'Idle Weasel,' was far from proper, as the activities which went on within, were far from idle themselves.
It was also obvious given the nature of Captain Ghulius Gutgore, how he had friends here. Dylan, as she caught a glimpse of some wolves at a nearby table making eyes at her, rolled her eyes and laughed.
"Oh, don't even," she teased the wolves, while looking about for the badger whom Gutgore had instructed her to find. "I'm not only out of your league, but I'm so far past you, you can't even keep up."
Dylan chuckled. "Don't worry though," she teased before moving on. "I'm sure one of these barmaids can suit your needs."
The ermine as she departed the company of the three wolves then managed to find a back-room card game, in which the badger, Hilde, whom she was looking for, clearly was wiping the floor with everyone else.
"I fold," said a fox who threw his hand down in disgust, not wanting to lose any more than he already had.
"Mmm..." murmured an otter sitting across from the fox, while she toyed with a small circlet earring, pierced into her right ear. "Okay. I fold as well. Pazlet?" She turned to the peacock sitting next to her. "What about you?"
The male blue and green bird looked over for a moment to the female otter. Then forward to the person sitting across from him, which was Hilde. "Edict 35, of Artemistygix's Edict's of profit," he murmured, laying his hand down with the cards face up on the table. "Never quit, when a profit can still be made. Read 'em, Hilde. Five pair. A pentarchy's favor."
The badger raised a brow.
"Oh my," she murmured. "That is bad. Or, bad for you, I should say," she added with a smug grin as she laid her own cards down "Since I have a King and Queen from every suit. Sorry, darling. Prophets' favor trumps Pentarchy's favor."
"Wha...!?"
The peacock squawked, stood, and went to pull a dagger. Only, to immediately find himself pinned flat against the table with a Governor pointed at his head.
"Don't." The badger insisted as she held the gun in place. "You make one wrong move, and this itchy trigger finger of mine goes off. Got it?"
The peacock nodded. "Got it," he whimpered meekly, as he winced upon hearing the cock of the hammer. "N-Now, can I go?"
"I dunno can you?"
"Huh?"
"She means do you know the proper way of saying it, Pazlet," the fox at the other end of the table interjected, as he rolled his eyes. The rusty toned vulpine revealing in this action a sparkle of mischief in those azure orbs of his. Something which attested to a sophomoric disposition, as he indeed seemed to take pleasure in the peacock's confusion, while clarifying to the peacock, "It's may I go, Pazlet. The other phrasing makes it sound you're incapable of doing something without someone's help. If you say it properly with the phrasing of, may I go, you sound not only more confident but more competent as well."
"Oh. Well...May I go, then?"
Hilde shrugged. "I suppose," she replied knocking the hammer back into a safe position, and then motioning with the gun for the peacock and his companions to leave. Just don't go challenging my authority again," she hollered to Pazlet, as he walked past Dylan in the company of the fox and the otter. "The carpet in this room is imported Hoarfrost Troll Hide after all. And I do so hate having to clean blood out of it. It not only is a hassle, but it does make for awkward conversations on card night."
Dylan as she entered in place of the trio of friends, heard an audible gulp from the peacock and a very sincere "I promise!" The tone in his voice indicating, he would never try something like that again.
Dylan chuckled at this, as she approached Hilde who was now cleaning up the table from card night. "I take it you're Hilde?" she asked, not sure whether to be in awe of, to be frightened of, or to just be impressed by this badger, after what she'd seen her do. "I-I hate to interrupt," she said, not wanting to get on the badger's bad side, like that peacock had. "My name is Dylan Frostwood. I was sent to see you by my Master. Captain Ghulius Tiberius Gutgore?"
Hilde's ears perked up. "Gutsy sent you?" She said turning with an uncharacteristic expression of warmth as well as concern, when she heard these words. "Let me guess..." she whispered. "You're his new girl, right? Told you all you have to do is do a few jobs for him, do some spying for him, some sabotage, maybe a few thefts, and he'd reward you by making you feel as if you were the most special girl in Mintara. Probably promised to even forgo all others for you, if you did well enough, didn't he?"
Dylan nodded slowly, forgetting for a moment why she'd been sent here. "Yeah..." she replied. "But-But how do you know all that? About what he would've promised me, I mean?"
Hilde shrugged. "Honey," she replied. "A few decades back, I was who you are. Young. Ambitious. Easily entranced by the image of a strong, powerful man, who came to me with the claim that if I would just do these few things for him, I would be his one and only woman. Heh."
Hilde smirked as she picked up a hand-made cigarillo and lit the tip. "Yeah," she murmured, after smoking a swirling, powerfully scented plume, from the long stick. "I learned too late, that Ghulius Gutgore doesn't believe in 'just one woman.' He's good at luring us in darling, sure. Uses the image of a man who can promises material wealth, adventure, power...he knows there's tons of women like you and me out there, darling. It's why I tell you to be careful. He doesn't really love you. If anything, you are a means to an end. And if anything, once he's decided that you've served your purpose, he'll either discard you for younger more beautiful talent, or if he feels you're a liability.... well, we won't dwell on that. You came for something?"
"Huh?"
Dylan shook her head as she was trying to take all this in, about the ursan she always believed cared for her, and who she thought honestly would one day reward her for her service. "Um...yeah," she finally replied. "Gutgore. He said you aid agents of his, who he has to send undercover. That you'd provide me a room, and the bare necessities?"
Hilde nodded. "That's my service, yes." she replied. "I may have left Gutgore's favor and may no longer be his girl, but he will never let me leave his employ. Not unless I am in a wooden box, or in a stone urn, if you catch my drift."
Dylan nodded. "I do," she replied, slowly beginning to get a bigger, more frightening picture, of who it was, that her master really was.
"Anyway," the voice of Hilde interrupted Dylan's thoughts, "that room. It's the last room on the left. All the rooms are upstairs, but I use that room because it has the thickest walls, and no one really rents rooms that far down anyway. So, you will have utmost privacy, with whatever you need to do."
Dylan nodded showing she comprehended and agreed. "Okay," she replied with a stretch and a yawn. "I'm going to head off to bed then, I guess. Thanks for everything. And um...thanks for the talk about Gutgore. I've got a lot to consider."
Hilde smiled slightly. "Just know you aren't the first to have been through it," she murmured as the ermine started out of the room. "It's like I said. I know what it's like, to be manipulated by him. To think he's the kind of man who will intend one thing for you. Who actually, dare I say it, intends to stand by his promises, before at the last second showing the true color of his fur, and leaving you alone, high and dry. You just be careful, okay?" she asked with concern in her voice. Dylan's response, being that she simply nodded.
"Okay," the ermine replied to the badger quietly. "I will. And thanks," she whispered, before she headed out of the back room and into the main hall of the tavern. A room still packed full of vagrants and ne'er-do-wells. Of, those same wolves, who, Calypso help her, were still throwing howls and sophomoric pick-up lines her way. An indication they either had not heard her earlier over the raucous din that existed within this place, or they simply were so full of themselves, that they actually believed they stood a chance with her.
The svelte snow-white weasel rolled her eyes as she reached a set of stairs at the back of the hall. "Simpletons," she murmured in regard to the wolves, as she began to ascend. "To think, that they actually would be able to disillusion themselves into believing they have what it takes to keep up with me. To be in the same league as me."
The weasel shook her head, as she found her room. She opened the door and entered. Her body weighed down by her mind's exhaustion, of dealing with posers and pretenders. Of, dealing with the fact, that everyone she met either turned out not to be who the claimed to be, were not the type of person they first presented themselves as, or were simple glory hounds who saw her as nothing more than another conquest or tool toward conquest. A thought by this point which made the ermine feel so weary and worn down, that all she could think to do was to throw her jacket onto one of the bedposts, and fall face first into the warm, inviting softness of the bed mattress.
"Calypso..." Dylan thought to herself as she groaned, savoring the feeling that this bed supplied to her body. "How did my life ever even come to this?" The ermine in response to her own question then chuckled dryly, as she knew the answer. A fact, she contemplated the irony of, as she began to drift off to sleep.
Yes. Dylan knew how things had come to be, the way they were now. She recalled, a younger version of herself, who lived with her family on the coasts of Tundror. Fishing, making shell jewelry, trading with the bears who ruled this land. A life which she recalled her parents had settled for, which they had come to terms with, and which they for the most part, had found a way to find happiness from. A viewpoint, Dylan recalled, she thought was foolishness. She remembered as a young ermine with fire in her heart, she had always this unscratched itch, to escape Tundror. That, she had made a promise to herself to never settle, until she had proved there was a way to achieve happiness without settling. A credo, which again seemed ironic, and which actually seemed much more foolish now to the ermine, than when she had first declared it. As what had she done, but do nothing but settle, and make bargains with devils like Gutgore, to get what she wanted? That was right. Even if a voice at the back of her mind, had said it was a bad idea, she'd done it. She'd let herself be tooled and fooled around, like a dumb dog-wood chasing a bone, and she truly felt disgusted and unfulfilled for it.
The ermine sighed one last time. "Well, here's to fulfillment," she murmured with a yawn, before closing her eyes and finally settling in to dream about the prospects of tomorrow. How if all went well, things finally might start going well, and she'd finally be able to acquire her share of a long-deserved reward.
Calypso, Dylan prayed this would be true. By the murk, this is what she wanted more than anything. To get up tomorrow and have that undeniable feeling things were really and truly, finally going to go her way.