Meeting The Neighbour (The Wheatstone War, Pt1)

Having got little rest her first night back in Wheatstone being disturbed by some strange animal cries throughout the night, Eloise dressed to spend some time working in the yard, hoping to learn something about her new neighbour to the south.

Peeking through the uncovered windows she could clearly see several hyenas consuming a hog on the floor of the home’s main hall. Bones were scattered about, offal spread about the floor as they rooted in with their snouts covered in blood. Behind that she could make out some kind of huge writhing plant, and at the end of the hall there appeared to be some sort of prehistoric-looking aquatic creature in a tank.

As she took all this in, she saw a female cabbit approaching with a hyena following her.

“Hello, there,” said the cabbit.

“Hello,” muttered Eloise, as uncomfortable as she cared to be. “I see you have… pets.”

The cabbit smiled, “I collected them on some of my adventures,” and then looked down to see the hyena marking its territory.

Eloise waved her hand in front of her face and spat caustically, “I suppose one does grow accustomed to the smell.”

The cabbit turned back to Eloise and continued: “Now, I should warn you that they’re not exactly house trained. Or trained. Or safe. But they’re really sweet.:

Eloise thought to herself, So I should serve them with a nice late-season riesling, then?… Looking at the hyena, she said out loud, “One can only hope that they are well-behaved enough to avoid fatally suffering the local citizenry’s efforts to defend themselves. What a shame it would be to see them shot. Repeatedly. At close range.”

The cabbit agreed, “Yeah, it would be a shame. But at least the others would eat well that night. I have a lot of them to feed. And pigs are expensive!”

Looking back and forth between the cabbit and the hyena, Eloise became aware that it had been a mistake to take over the mill house. She had Finn set up in the Bail Bonds office, and had got Lumpy into prison to gather intel from the other side, and it looked like it all might unravel with this cabbit and her menagerie. I don’t need this distraction; not now…

It was now a priority to get someone working on this creature, to get her out of the way before things got moving.

Looking back to the cabbit, Eloise saw her sniffing the wall. Trying to feign a cheerful tone, she called to the cabbit, “I’m afraid I must make my way into town. Nice to have met you.”

The cabbit was distracted with the hyena as Eloise quietly slipped away with a scowl and her own distractions.