12 Oix 4385: The Arrest

[song-for-always.livejournal.com]

Sorry sorry! The cafe wanted me to leave because I wasn't ordering anything. Then the guard who didn't exactly arrest me earlier was outside. So I had to sneak out the back. Except there were more city guards by the bakery behind the cafe. They probably weren't looking for me. But I ran away from them anyway. Just in case! At that point, I decided to go home. That seemed safer. But it took me a while.

Who are all those people who also write in your scroll? I was going to pick up where I left off. But with everyone else writing too it's hard to know where to start! I'm starting over on a fresh section of scroll instead. I hope that's all right.

I wanted to tell you that I didn't just let them arrest Sevendrums! When the city guard showed up everybody ran. Including the Orren who had gotten Sevendrum's hat last. I ran after the Orren, but I lost her in the crush of all the other running people. I levitated above the crowd to try to spot the hat, but I couldn't see it anywhere. Just a sea of fur interspersed with a little chitin. When I turned back to where we'd been set up, Sevendrums wasn't there. But his drums still were! So I knew it was bad. I levitated higher to look for him. A Cani guard had lassoed him and was towing him away. Sevendrums wasn't resisting because he's not that kind of prime. I flew after them, yelling, but the levitation was too slow and the crowd too noisy. I dropped to the ground to run after them. By then the crowd had gotten out of the immediate vicinity of the guards and was going the other way, so it was pretty clear running towards them. Except that a Herethroy guard intercepted me and told me to go on home.

"I can't go home! You're arresting my friend! Let him go!" I squirmed in her grip. Herethroy have a lot of arms to pin you with!

"Look, you're obviously a good kid," the guard started, getting her midarms around my torso as I wriggled out of her upper arms. "But your friend was breaking the law."

"I'm not a kid!" I finally wormed out of her grip and darted after Sevendrums and the Cani guard. "And he wasn't breaking the law! It's not his fault!" I caught up to the Cani as he was loading Sevendrums into a holding wagon with a bunch of naked primes. The other primes were all wailing and whining and complaining.

"Don't you dare lock him in there with them!" I yelled.

The Cani looked at me with bored eyes. "If your friends didn't want to be locked up with Khtsoyis riffraff, they should've kept their pants on."

"What? But he doesn't even wear pants!"

The guard climbed onboard next to the wagoneer. "Skirts, then. Whatever."

I grabbed the sidebar and hopped on the rail as the wagoneer lashed the horses. "But you don't understand! He didn't do anything! I stole his hat!"

The Cani laughed at me. "Not wearing a hat is the least of his worries, miss."

"But ... what? Why? That's all he normally wears!"

Now the guard looked as confused as I was. "Miss, I don't even care what kind of game you're playing. You want to help your friend, you can pay the fine. But if you don't get off my wagon now, I'm arresting you, too."

"I shall be ... quite all right, Song-for-Always," Sevendrums said to me through a barred window on the wagon. "But would you kindly ... collect my drums for me? I shouldn't want them ... lost in this scuffle."

So I agreed. Reluctantly! I hopped off of the wagon but I wasn't happy about it! I spent an hour scouring the area frantically for his drums because they were gone. One of the shopkeepers nearby told me two Rassimel had taken them! I started to run to the guard station to report them stolen. Then I ran back to the shopkeeper to get the Rassimels' descriptions, and realized they were Ioste and Orziman.

I went to the guard station anyway to find out how much the fine was. They made me wait the rest of the day. They SAID it was because there were so many arrests. But they didn't even get to Sevendrums yesterday! I had to go back again today. And they finally told me and they want TWO HUNDRED LOZENS.

TWO HUNDRED!

I've never even seen two hundred lozens in one place! I'm hoping you have since you're rich. Can you pay it?!? I don't know what else to do! Even cley selling doesn't pay that well.