The Gang’s All Here

Past the small opening, Earnest saw three figures sitting in discussion. With the way that he was positioned, he could see Rosalind sitting next to a rather muscular lad, both of them facing towards his direction. Closer to Earnest and facing away from him was the hunched back of the third person inside. Judging by what he knew of the gang, he guessed that the burly young man was Thomlin the brute while the one facing away from the window was either Ricard the rascal or Barnabas the brains. The figure that was faced away from him began speaking with a voice that sounded like it was permanently sneering. It had a certain tone, one that would put even the scummiest scam artist to shame, a tone that made Earnest think that this voice belonged to Ricard.

“Right, so… who was the one who wrote the rules again? Was it me?”

Rosalind looked towards the ground, as she had when speaking to Earnest in the bakery.

“No, it wasn’t you.”

“Right, so… was it Thomlin?”

Ricard motioned his head to indicate towards Thomlin. Thomlin took that as his cue to answer the question that was clearly not addressed to him.

“No boss, not me!”

Earnest could imagine Ricard rolling his eyes as he snapped at Thomlin.

“Not you, you brickhead! I want the answer from this bitch!”

After Ricard turned his attention away from Thomlin, he returned it to Rosalind, who answered again.

“No, it wasn’t Thomlin.”

Ricard made an exaggerated shrugging gesture, raising his arms and as well as is his voice.

“Aw shucks, well who could it have been then?”

“It was me, I was the one that wanted rules…”

Ricard stopped his gesturing and lowered his tone.

“And what do those rules say about whose turn it is?”

Rosalind sighed, then answered reluctantly.

“Yeah, I know we take turns. Last turn was Thomlin, this one is mine, and next one is yours… but-”

“Nuh uh uh! No buts! No butts or boobs or anything!”

Rosalind looked up from the floor, instead facing Ricard, and began speaking quickly.

“I ran into that knight that was visiting, and told him about studying magic, and I told him that I would show him too! I gotta show him, or else he might find out or something!”

“No chance mate, we all get ours, and if we all don’t... then I’m certainly still getting mine! Now get out already!”

Rosalind looked like she wanted to say more, to continue arguing, but the words just didn’t have enough **** to come out and ended up dying before making a sound. She looked back at the floor and mumbled an “Alright, fine.” before standing up. She walked over to the side of the base, and Earnest had to move slightly to adjust his angle to keep her in view. He saw her walk over to a makeshift bed, where it looked like another young man was sleeping. This one was smaller than the other two members of the misfit boys, and certainly looked like the type to read all day, hence Earnest guessed him to be Barnabas.

Rosalind took a seat at the bed’s side and turned Barnabas’s head half way towards her, revealing something on his forehead. Earnest squinted to take a harder look. It appeared to be some sort of intricate circular design drawn in black, but with the center smudged. Rosalind took a nearby cloth, which looked like it had been dirtied before with the same black material. She futilely tried to shake it to clean it, but it remained tarnished. She gave up and used it to rub the rest of the remaining design off of the sleeping young man’s forehead.

After wiping it clean, Rosalind reached into a nearby box and pulled out some sort of long tool. Focusing on it, it looked like a black twig with some cloth wrapped around it. Rosalind positioned it in her hand like a pen, and returned to the forehead she had just cleared.

She hunched over him and began to use the branch to draw. It must have been some sort of charcoal, as its movements left dark powdery marks behind. As Rosalind kept working on the complex design, occasionally looking to the side, it became clear that she was recreating what looked like the design that she had wiped off earlier. Once complete, it was identical except the section that was smudged before was complete. Rosalind stared at it closely, as if she was double checking her work, then stood up.

“It’s done.”

Ricard, who had nothing to do in the meantime but watch Rosalind’s work, responded.

“Finally. Thomlin, get over here!”

“Okay, gotcha.”

Ricard went over to the bed and began to move Barnabas. It quickly became clear that the person that Earnest had assumed was sleeping was actually completely knocked out. Ricard maneuvered the limp body around without it showing any response, finally getting his arms under Barnabas’s armpits to hold him up from behind. Ricard stood up with Barnabas held in front of him.

Rosalind approached them and stood across from the two. Thomlin then positioned himself behind Rosalind, who was actually taller than him, and put his hands under Rosalind’s armpits from behind, like Ricard had for Barnabas. As he did so, he snaked his hands around her front and got two handfuls of her breasts. Rosalind flinched in surprise.

“Eep! Hey, quit that!”

Thomlin chuckled, gave her boobs another squeeze, then finally let go and held her identically to the two across from them. Thomlin and Rosalind shuffled forwards, closing the distance between Rosalind and Barnabas to only a few inches. Rosalind then spoke up in a **** tone.

“Wait, hold on. I want to check the circle again!”

Ricard quickly shot her down, sounding annoyed as he was doing so.

“Shut up and quit stalling already. Just get it the bloody hell over with you twat!”

Rosalind hesitated, then resolved herself. She tilted her head back, then slammed it forwards into Barnabas’s, headbutting him. Earnest was watching with wide eyes, thoroughly confused at the strange ritual he was watching Rosalind partake in. He continued observing as Rosalind went limp. She seemed to have knocked herself out with the self destructive attack she had just performed for reasons that Earnest couldn’t fathom. Thomlin stopped her from falling and held her upright. In Ricard’s arms, Barnabas seemed to have been violently awoken by Rosalind’s impact. He stood up on his own, and covered his forehead with both his hands.

“Fuck, that hurts! Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

Ricard withdrew his hold on Barnabas and seemed to find amusement in Barnabas’s whining.

“Stop complainin’ ya pussy, go get some numberries and stop your sniveling.”

He went over to the box and grabbed some yellow berries with one hand, keeping one over his forehead which must have been throbbing. He split the berry in half and rubbed the open side of one of the halves on his forehead, which was already swelling into a bump. The juice smudged and mixed with the black powder design on his forehead as he applied it over the surface. After it seemed to take effect, he threw out the half berry and found the dirty cloth to wipe his head.

While Barnabas was caring for himself, Thomlin moved Rosalind over to the bed which had been occupied by Barnabas until recently. She was dumped face forward, then flipped around so that her back was to the bed. Earnest could see a small black smudge on Rosalind’s forehead that had rubbed off during her impact. Thomlin looked at her, quickly copped a feel, then left her side. Normally, if he saw someone do that to Rosalind, two things would happen. First, he would expect Rosalind to beat the groper black and blue herself, and second, he would be furious at the groper and beat them up himself. However he did not feel any fury towards Thomlin, but instead just felt more confusion that piled on top of his already bewildered state.

In this state, making a decision was difficult. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, he just didn’t have any information. What did the conversation that he overheard mean, and what was that strange headbutting thing that they did? Was this the magic that Rosalind was learning, and were the misfit boys just scamming her with bogus magic lessons? What was Rosalind’s relationship with the misfit boys?

As Earnest pondered these questions, the misfit boys seemed to have calmed down as well. Ricard spoke up and addressed the other two.

“Alright boys, let’s get out of here. A knight from outta town has come ‘round, and the last thing we need is eyes on us right now.”

Ricard faced Thomlin, and targeted the next statement towards him.

“If he asks you any questions, don’t run away or do nothin’ suspicious, you hear? Use your head, think for a goddamn second, and give him an answer. The fewer lies, the better, but not a peep about what we’ve been doin’ nor about the base. Did that get through that thick skull?”

Thomlin simply nodded, then Ricard turned to face Barnabas.

“Thankfully, I don’t need to worry about you, since you barely talk anyways. But then again, if he asks you anything I feel like your spineless self might just spill everything. Just remember, we’re all in the shit if we get found out, but you’ll be in the deepest.”

Barnabas gave a fearful nod. This seemed to be good enough for Ricard.

“Alright then, play it cool. Oh, and Barnabas, don’t forget that next turn is mine, got it?”

The three of them stood up and prepared to leave. While they were preparing, Earnest removed himself from the window, moving to the side of the base opposite to the entrance. He snuck as quickly and silently as he could, moving away from the base and into the brush. He hid himself well enough that someone would need a search dog with a keen nose to find him hidden there. From behind his cover, he watched the three misfit boys exit their base and start down the forest path.

Earnest stayed in his cover as he took time to decide on his next action. Should he go into the base and try to wake Rosalind? Perhaps he should wait for Rosalind to wake on her own, leave, and then investigate the base himself. He could also tail the misfit boys, or even leave the village to look for outside help. At this point, he knew that this was far beyond pranks and mischief, and that something deeper was going on here. Earnest still couldn't see the full scope of what was happening, but he felt that he needed to do something.