Chapter 18: Really they are all terrible minions.

While Tough Snaps was having revelations that may have been dubious in their connection to the case, Golbassy, Habi and Eadam’s crew were making their way to the Spinning Gem Top. It was actually on the main street that cut through Cozzlanga but…

They were running into a bit of difficulty, as they kept encountering alleyways that were blocked by huge sleeping people, barrels, debris, ominous spiderwebs, spiked pits, feuding families, wild animal outbreaks, generic battles and so on. You know, the usual impediments.

Now, what would have been the best thing to do was to start travelling along the rooftops. Sadly unless one is a being that constantly flies or jumps you tend to forget about this option. Alfreed the bat should have told them, but he just assumed everyone actually wanted really badly just to walk, besides he was fully armoured he got really tired if he tried to fly when wearing armour. Aches and pains for days!

Golbassy and Habi could have thought of it, but they were a bit understandably shaken and preoccupied by their situation. They found themselves in a particularly unfamiliar, dark and gloomy alley, the winds were having fun making spooky sounds down it too.

Golbassy muttered into Habi.

“Hey, minion, what is the owner of Spinning Gem Top like?” she asked of Eadam.

Eadam was startled, sparkles (dandruff, poor guy) flying as he pulled his head back.

*Neiiiiiigh?*

“M-minion? I don’t even qualify as a henchman?” Eadam objected.

“You’ve never had much talent for henching, Eadam.” Sachs said.

“He’s never henched in his life” Davis sneered.

“Part of the reason he was our leader” B2T explained.

“Right, he was our leader so its only logico… logici, logicul that he’s no good for ‘enching.” Mobby said brightly.

*NIEEEEEEGGGH!*

“W-was?” Eadam looked to Alfreed for support.

“How exactly does one hench anyway?” Alfreed asked, oblivious of his former leader’s plight.

“A lot of it is in the mannerisms” Heed said.

“It really is quite different from minionry, a bit more of an advanced servile form” Hood affirmed.

“You two would know all about being henchmen of course” Sachs drily remarked.

“Of course!” Hood said.

“Yea… hey wait! You casting aspersions on us again Sachserime?”

“Don’t be silly, I’m not a mage, I can’t cast anything” Sachs said, barely holding in laughter.

“Well, I’m sure this is all very educational, but you haven’t answered my question, lackey” Habi huffed.

“A downgrade!” Eadam said, shocked.

“I guess he can’t even minion right eh?” Mobby squawked.

Eadam composed himself.

“Well mistress…” he began “…The owner of the Spinning Gem Top is a bit of a mystery, he’s a bluehaired shewpog who has never been seen without his gem encrusted mask, he came out of nowhere a few years ago and won the Top in a high stakes gamble from the previous owner, they say that the previous owner lost so badly that he dropped right out of everyone’s memories, and well, nobody can remember who the previous owner was. Anyway under Gemmask Jee, the den quickly became the biggest and most popular.”

“Hopefully we won’t even have to deal with him” Habi said.

“That would be nice” Alfreed agreed.

“How are you going to deal with this Niard imposter anyway? Mauling? Crushing? Ravaging? Keelhauling?” Mobby asked eagerly.

“No, I just want to use him to prove my innocence” Habi relayed Golbassy’s words.

“Ah, ‘prove your innocence’, I’ve had to do that, get the heat off myself for something I’ve done, pretty troublesome, I advise next time you fix it so that it doesn’t look like you did it in advance.” Davis mused.

“I am innocent! Really!” Golbassy wailed.

“Oh I’ve got an idea that could help!” Mobby said.

The idea was not however presented.

Golbassy stopped, everyone still left also stopped.

“What? What was your idea?”

“Yeah, you can’t just start saying something like that and then sto… wait where is she?” Davis said.

Everyone looked about in the unnaturally dark alley they had wandered into.

Golbassy muttered worriedly into Habi.

“Ok, Rollcall!”

*Neiiigh*

“H-here” Alfreed said.

“Present” Sachs said.

“Standing” B2T said.

“Wait, why didn’t I escape? Not again!” Davis realised.

“Uhhh, Hood has just vanished guys!” Heed called out, panicking.

“How do you know he’s vanished, maybe the words just caught in his throat or something” Alfreed said.

“If he was here, he’d be holding onto this with…” Heed abruptly cut off.

“Heed? Heed? HEEEEEEED?” Alfreed cried out.

“Hey, isn’t this kind of the time Sachs would cut in?” B2T asked.

*Neiig… gurk!*

Eadam was silenced.

“LIGHT WE NEED…” Davis suddenly stopped shouting.

“H-how? How do we get light? What is even doing this? I don’t sense anything!” Habi stuttered.

“Do that thing where you glow ominously!” B2T suggested.

Golbassy and Habi floated upwards, Golbassy’s eyes glowing and casting light around her.

She looked all around, but she saw none of her minions. Each one had vanished without a trace.

She looked high and low, but she could not find a single clue. Habi even tried to sense their presences, but she couldn’t sense anyone around.

Then as they were turning around, the came face to face with a frightening face, one with four violet slitted eyes, two in the more usual place, one below those and sideways and one above those three and also sideways. The hooked mouth tentacles didn’t help either.

Golbassy and Habi screamed. Had they been in another situation, they might have realised that it was just a baghead. However, even in another situation, the hunter Ramaros would probably still be just as unpleasant.

Bagheads are denizens that apart from the already described face, have a large leathery sac on the top of their fuzzy heads, this sac serves two useful services, it can extrude a kind of rope-like substance, and it has a flap that can be opened so that things can be put inside it. The rest of a Baghead consists of a usually lean, prominently ribbed, furry body and eight arms of varying lengths, general flesh and muscle. Two of these arms are usually employed in supporting the sac when full.

They are generally known for being both helpful and useful and quite in demand for their natural skills. It can get you quite a lot of friends when you can store things in a bag on your head and produce rope-like stuff.

Ramaros didn’t have a lot of friends. Of Ramaros’ many faults, it could be said that his desire to see his prey’s face as he killed them was particularly unpleasant and really not a very good idea for a hunter.

Golbassy closed her eyes and winced in anticipation of the killing blow.

The blow didn’t come. Golbassy opened her eyes and saw Ramaros, the hunter frozen in place, four hooked spears pointing at her. Ramaros’ eyes slowly rolled up into his head, and the stealthy killer collapsed in a heap, revealing behind him one of Golbassy’s siblings.

Gordon had tracked her down.