We make plans to return to Tiny's Tavern.

You are the first one to stir awake in the morning. When you break from the covers, cold air greets your face. Your breath steams, and the building is still pretty dark. You hesitate and listen to the forest around you as it crinkles with frost. The girls are still fast asleep around the fire, not paying you any attention. You remember Flicker should be returning at any moment, so the sooner you get a move on, the better.

When you gather everything up, you find kerosene, which sparks Arabella’s mind with a bright idea.

Arabella suggests you burn everything. The bodies, the weapons, the building. Leaving no evidence of your presence. Perhaps even to fake their deaths. You don’t care about the situation you’re currently in. In your mind, you already completed the task, and all that was left was to kill Flick, take the horses, and go back to Tiny’s Tavern. You’ll have enough problems in the future when you have to decide what to do with the three of them. So you tell Arabella and the others to do whatever they think is right, so they do. You toyed with the idea of leaving on foot, but honestly speaking, leaving anyone alive in Ashley’s group felt like a mistake you should avoid making. So, as soon as Flick returned, you smoked him and took the horses.

Before returning to your room at Tiny’s Tavern, you decide to stop at the bar to visit Marcelina. She owed you an explanation.

You kick off the slush from your boots as the mutants funnel in. The only person inside is Marcelina, who shifts uncomfortably after noticing you and all the mutants. She forces a smile, which doesn’t suit her at all.

“Well,” her eyes bounce to the three girls in the back who have taken a booth for themselves. “I’m assuming everything went according to plan?”

“I killed Ashley and the rest of his group because you led us directly to their objective,” you paused, offering a choice to say something. When she fails to do that, you press further. “I paid you to lie, and you couldn’t even do that. What’s your malfunction?”

Marcelina grunted. “There wasn’t supposed to be anyone there. Our city guard patrolled every location that could have had trouble and came back empty-handed. So it was natural for me to assume there wasn’t anyone there.”

“Well,” you start. “It wasn’t, and now we got four frozen dead guys for the winter.”

She shrugs. “The less of you are, the better.”

“Do you actually believe that? Haven’t you heard of that saying that tells you that you can pay a crooked man to behave?”

“And you can depend on an evil man to sin? Yeah, yeah. Mommy told me all about that.”

There’s a moment of silence. Then you lean in. “Does the Automatic Rifle Syndicate mean anything to you?”

Marcelina’s focus on yours. She doesn’t say anything. Instead, she stares at you expectantly. When you don’t continue, she gasps. “Oh, you’re done talking? Is that supposed to mean something?”

This time, you can’t read her eyes. Is she lying? Before you can answer, she crosses her arms. “Don’t swing names around these parts, willy-nilly, contractor. People’been shot for less.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Syndicates are…” she thinks before continuing, almost as if she’s deciding the weight of her words. “There is bad blood between the regular folk and the wanna-be syndicate groups, OK?”

She rubs her left ring finger and then sighs. “Keep that name to yourself. Don’t be stupid and stay away from anyone mentioning any independent names.”

“Why?”

Your question was honest, but she responds with a laugh. “Just listen to me. And steer clear of anyone…ANYONE mentioning the Toy Maker, yeah?” Marcelina turned her expression dead-serious, so you just nod in agreement.

…

…

The way back to Tiny’s Tavern was done in silence. Not even Mikko said anything. Arabella seemed to have something on her mind, but of course, didn’t say it. Gwendolion certainly didn’t do anything to break the silence. It was just your horses and the sounds of the forest. Gradually, however, chatter started to bleed between the three girls behind you when you broke within the mile range of the little town that was your temporary homestay.

Enter the threshold of the first few buildings, though, the chatter stopped, and all three of the girls rode closer to you. You noticed a few stares from the common folk. Some questionable, others twisted by disgust. The deputies of the local law enforcement spat and adjusted their rifles. Your breath steams when you exhale. With all these stares, it felt like you were gathering undesired attention. You planned on returning the horses with everyone else around, but now that everyone is looking at you…

You stop in front of the tavern and turn your horse around. “You three should go inside,” you tell your companions. “I’ll be right back with ya’.”

Arabella starts to protest, but you interject yourself with a little more **** behind your words. “I need you to watch over the twins. I’ll be back in 10 minutes...15 at the max. If you can’t do that, then you deserve whatever happens to you.”

Arabella straightens her back and sucks in her lips. “Never said I couldn’t do it,” she manages.

They hop off and guide horses to you. You look at Arabella hunch down to talk to her. “Stay in the lobby and don’t talk to anyone. Don’t even look at anyone. Don’t talk to anyone unless they talk to you. Don’t-” You stop to look at her. She’s listening very intently. “I probably don’t need to tell you any of this, do I? Keep to yourselves.”

She nods before turning to the others. She simply tells them to follow her inside. All 3 of your new...slaves? Companions? Whatever-they-are, filter inside the tavern, not saying anything.

As promised, the task you gave yourself only took a few minutes and made it back in time before the 10-minute mark. You were kind of rushing yourself to get back to the rest - you didn’t enjoy the idea of leaving any of the NSH’s alone for too long. When you push the doors to go inside, someone stops you.

It’s Delilah. You smile at her and wink. "Hey there, Delilah."

She looks incredibly annoyed for some reason; this time you're pretty sure it isn't because of your comment though. “You have a minute to talk?” She says, hinting that there’s only one answer to her question.

You dart your eyes up and see all 3 of the fox girls. They’re just talking to each other, and no one is around bothering them. So you tell Delilah, “yes.”

Even though she’s just wearing her dirndl, Delilah ignores the cold. She crosses her arms and then shakes her head in disgust. “We have like, 3 of the gross mutants inside of the tavern right now, can you believe that?”

“I know,” you begin. “They’re mine.”

Delilah gasps. “Warren, what the hell? Why would you bring them here?! You know I don’t like any of those sub-humans! And what do you mean they are YOURS??”

“Delilah, listen. I know you’re kind of...not a fan of the new sub-humans, but my hands are tied here right now, OK? I can’t...I wasn’t in a position to leave them in the forest.”

“They are better off dead!” Delilah stomps her foot down with her hands balled into fists. However, she seems to process quickly enough to realize that maybe a little too dark. “W-well, I don’t really mean that, but I suppose-” she trails off, mumbling something under her breath.

Delilah looks up at you; her expression is one you haven’t seen on her before. Distrust. “If you think that’s the best thing to do, then I guess I have no other choice but to believe you have a plan and a purpose for them.”

“Thank you,” you tell her. “Now, can we go inside?”

Delilah nods and then pushes the doors open, walking towards the fox girls.