Stashes, snakes and sausages [DATED]

[Manehatten Guard]

22nd July of year 4

The day was still and muggy as the sun began to set over Manehattan, its last rays highlighting the thin smog that clung to the streets. All over the city ponies and griffons were hurrying to their homes, to their own little piece of the land.

All save the unfortunates of the city, scurrying about like rats in the gutters and alleyways. In one such dingy gap between the walls of crumbling buildings a grey and grimy tercel crouched.

The alleyway behind the butchers shop was empty save for the bins containing the few bits of meat too unappetizing to end up in a sausage. The butcher never much cared about who or dug through the bins, making it a perfect place for a vagrant griffon to score an easy, if foul-tasting meal.

[Kroll]

Kroll slunk into the alleyway behind the butcher's shop, darting to his head to the left and right to see if he'd have to contend with any other transients or animals over the contents of bins. Seeing none, the transient griffon quickly made his way to the first bin, his junky, makeshift armor and weapons rattling against each other as he did so. Peering into the bin, the griffon couldn't help but gag at the stench of the unwanted chunks of meat, but hey, a meal's a meal.

 Reaching into a small pouch on his vest, Kroll pulled out a piece of leather that had been stitched into a cone-like shape with a rounded top and an opening on the opposite end, proceeding to slide it over his tongue before grabbing the first clawful of putrid flesh and shoved it into his beak, making an effort to chew the chunks of mystery meat as little as physically possible before swallowing. The leather cover over Kroll's tongue helped reduce the taste of the meat, but only enough to persuade its wearer to move on to the second bin and repeat the same unpleasant process

[Manehatten Guard]

As the vagrant dug into his meal of vile meat the sound of falling metal echoed up from an adjoining alley. vague and distorted swearing followed soon after as a group of voices bickered among themselves before moving in Kroll's direction.

[Kroll]

Kroll tried not to retch as he finished the contents of the second bin, wiping his beak on his sleeve before pulling the leather sheath off of his tongue and tucking it away. The griffon lied down with a groan as he leaned against the wall of the alleyway, knowing that his digestive track was going to be furious with him later.

He was just about to settle down for a quick rest when he heard faint voices coming towards his direction, causing him to sit upward sharply and rest a claw on the sheath of his machete, pulling the blade out a third of the way. Kroll wasn't sure who was coming his way, but was certain that they weren't looking for food to scavenge.

[Manehatten Guard]

The voices drew closer, slowly becoming clearer.

"Are you sure that stuff will be safe there boss? We don't want anyone to know what we are doing, it'd be the noose for us!" one voice said

"No amount of money would be worth that..." another said.

A third voice growled at his presumed comrades.

"Shut yer traps! Another couple of shipments and we'll have enough dough to get the hell out of here and beyond the reach of the council. Now keep it down, if anyone hears about this..." he trailed off.

The click of talons on cobblestone and metal grew closer.

[Kroll]

Kroll's grip on his machete tightened as he slowly rose to his feet. He had no desire to stay in the alleyway, but flying after stuffing one's face with rotten meat is usually a bad idea. Hiding slightly behind one of the empty bins, the griffon waited to see who would come his way, wishing that he didn't get his crossbow confiscated a few days ago.

[Manehatten Guard]

As Kroll hid a trio of armoured guards emerged from the alleyway. Their leader, bearing the insignia of a seargent upon his breastplate surveyed the alley quickly before leading the others on.

"Is it just me, or does this place stink more than usual?"

[Kroll]

Kroll watched the armored guards enter the alleyway, frowning at the leader's comment. Sure the rotten meat stank to high heaven, and the transient was certain that his filth hadn't helped, but did he really smell that bad? Nonetheless, Kroll stayed quiet, curious to see what these guards were doing in an alley like this.

[Manehatten Guard]

The guards moved towards the street proper, checking over their shoulders as they went.

"Now remember, none of us are to so much as think of the stash until the next time. We cant risk it being found" the leader growled as they rounded the corner, leaving Kroll alone in his alley again.

[Kroll]

Kroll frowned slightly, raising an eyebrow as he watched the guards leave the alleyway. Stash? he thought to himself. Slowly making his way out of his hiding spot, the transient began to stalk after the guards, somewhat intrigued by what they were talking about.

[Manehatten Guard]

The guards moved onto the street in silence, the last few ponies outside hurrying into their homes as they approached to avoid being arrested for curfew violation. They stopped and stretched their wings in preparation for flight.

"You remembered to cover it up properly right?" the guard to the left of the sergeant asked.

"Yeah, might've made a bit too much noise, but its covered good and proper" the other said.

As one they spread their wings and took to the air.

[Kroll]

Kroll watched the group of suspicious guards leave before slinking out of his alleyway and into the one the guards came from, curious to know what this stash was. The details of his restraining order pointed out that he could not interfere with any Guard or Guerrilla activities, but judging by how the trio were talking about the stash it could potentially be something off-record, which as far as Kroll was concerned, meant it was fair game for him to scavenge.

[Manehatten Guard]

Kroll found himself in another narrow path between the red brick buildings of Manehattan. The piles or refuse on either side indicated that the buildings on either side had not been occupied in some time.

Leaning against one of the walls was a large piece of corrugated iron, held in place by a pair of rusted metal bins.

[Kroll]

Kroll looked around the new alleyway, for the stash the guards had mentioned, previously, using his machete to move and dig around the piles of refuse. Finding nothing of much use, his attention turned to the large piece of iron, and began to push away at the metal bins that held it in place, hoping that whatever was being hidden here was worth the effort.

[Manehatten Guard]

The bins shifted with a dull grating sound, allowing the sheet of metal to be moved aside easily. Behind the sheet was a hole in the bricks and a small sack jammed into the small gap between layers of bricks.

[Kroll]

Kroll raised an eyebrow as he saw the hole in the wall. "Hello hello, what do we have here?" he murmured to himself as he reached into the hole and began to gently pull out the sack, hoping not to trigger any kind of booby trap.

[Manehatten Guard]

The sack came out easily and spilled its contents onto the ground. Inside were several pre-signed blank curfew passes, a pair of pouches that jingled when they hit the ground and a number of folders marked "CLASSIFIED".

[Kroll]

Kroll hissed in disappointment at the sight of the curfew passes, but directed his attention to the strange folders, opening up one of them while weighing one of the pouches in his free claw.

[Manehatten Guard]

The pouch had some heft to it, well filled and jingling merrily as Kroll moved it. The documents were... interesting.

They appeared to be lists and rosters of guard postings and patrol routes. Another one contained the personal history and details of local collaborators, and another one contained plans to deal with insurgency within the city.

[Kroll]

Kroll raised an eyebrow at the contents of the documents, flipping them through them. These looked like they were pretty damn important, definitely not something that should be hiding out in an alleyway. After the griffon put the documents back in their proper order in the folder, he furrowed his brow in thought, not sure what to do. His restraining order stated he was prohibited from being within 30 meters of Griffon Headquarters, so he couldn't just turn in these documents and passes. At the same time, he couldn't just give them to a patrol on the risk they would think he stole them from HQ somehow.

With a huff, the transient sat down on the floor of the alley and opened one of the pouches glumly, hoping that they contained something a little more usable than classified documents or curfew passes.

[Manehatten Guard]

The pouches were filled with coins from many nations, money from the Griffon Kingdoms and Equestria making up the bulk of it.

As Kroll looked through the pouches he heard a sound coming from the alley behind the butchers shop. The click of talons upon cobblestone.

[Kroll]

Kroll smiled slightly at the sight of the money. At least it was something he could use later on compared to the passes and documents. His mood was thrown off again as he heard talons clicking on the floor of the alley. Someone was coming, and the transient's stomach was still trying to negotiate with the rancid meat he had consumed earlier. He needed to hide somewhere, and by the sound of how close the talonfalls were, he needed to do it fast. Looking to the hole where he found the sack, Kroll had an idea; a brain-blisteringly stupid idea.

Within a few moments, the griffon had managed to cram himself into the hole that once held the sack, covering himself in some of the refuse from the alley before covering the hole up with the sheet of corrugated iron. With any luck, whoever was coming this way would be at least two confused to kill him right away.

[Manehatten Guard]

The talon-falls grew closer then paused before the sheet. There was some movement, perhaps the owner checking that they had not been followed, then the sheet began to shift.

The seargent pulled the metal aside and looked down at Kroll jammed into the space. He stood, confused as to what was happening.

[Kroll]

Kroll looked up at the sergeant with a blank expression, as if he had been occupying that hole all along. As far as he could tell, his plan to temporarily confuse any potential attackers worked, but the transient neglected to think of a followup to that first plan to escape the situation at hand.

[Manehatten Guard]

The seargent, apparently mastering his surprise snarled and draw his sword. He pointed it at the vagrant griffon jammed into his stash.

"What the hell are you doing in there? answer me!" he hissed, apparently wishing to avoid a commotion.

[Kroll]

Kroll frowned slightly at the sight of the sword, realizing that because of his positioning in the hole, the sergeant before him only had to start jabbing at him and that would be the end of it. Though the rancid meat seemed to be affecting his reactiveness and ability to think rationally, the transient decided to try and come up with some kind of ruse to prevent himself from becoming shish-kebabed by the guard's blade.

With an idea in his head, Kroll suddenly sprang out of the hole, grasping the guard in an tight yet awkward hug that pinned its arms to its sides in a subtle attempt to make the sword less of a threat. "Oh thank you!" the transient said in a bewildered voice. "Thank you so much, sergeant! Some Equestrians conked me on the noggin and stuffed me in that awful hole...thank you so much for freeing me!" Kroll continued to ramble on, the layers of filth that were once locked in his feathers beginning to seep onto the sergeant. Though the pouches of money were nicely hidden, what the transient didn't know was that a few of the passes and folders--which had been stuck to the underside of his wings- had began to poke out slightly, now covered in grime.

[Manehatten Guard]

The tercel gagged at the stink of the homeless griffon, not helped at all by the residue of Krolls latest "meal". He tried to shove the vagrant off him.

"Get the hell off of me!" he snarled

[Kroll]

Kroll scuffled backwards, landing awkwardly in a small pile of refuse behind him. He looked up at the sergeant with sad eyes. "I was only trying express my gratitude..." he said with a disappointed tone.

[Manehatten Guard]

The seargent stepped back and looked down at his previously pristine breastplate, now grimy thanks to Krolls embrace. He looked back up and focused upon the bits of paper sticking out from between the vagrants flight primaries. His look of disgust slowly changed into one of simmering rage.

"What are you doing with those files citizen?" he growled "They are property of the guard, like me. hand them over. now."

[Kroll]

"I know that you're a guard and that you should totally have these papers," the transient said, trying to stall as he tried to think up a reason as to how he acquired the documents the sergeant wanted. "And actually, I'm quite glad you found me with them, so to speak. I was strolling around looking for things to salvage when I ran into some Equestrians who had their hooves on these documents..." said Kroll, attempting to gesture at the papers that were wedged into his wings. "I managed to swipe them from the crooks and make my way off with them, but somebody else knocked me out and stuffed me into that hole! I suppose the docs were too gross for their standards..."

The smelly vagrant turned its back to the sergeant, lifting his wings sligthy. "I'm uh, not exactly the most flexible of griffs, if you can understand, so if you could just kinda pull those papers out, you can be well on your way."

[Manehatten Guard]

The guard appeared to consider his options for a moment before reaching out and gingerly pulling sheets of paper and files from the vagrants wing, holding his sword close to his chest.

[Kroll]

The vagrant straightened up for a moment, as if to remember something he forgot to tell the sergeant earlier. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you--" he said as he turned around to face the guard, but that was as far as Kroll got before his stomach decided to forcibly eject the rancid meat he had consumed moments ago, projectile vomiting partially-digested chunks mixed in a slurry of bile at the guard before him.

[Manehatten Guard]

The seargent dropped his sword and staggered back from the vagrant, making horrified sqeaking sounds for a moment before throwing up himself. The combined stink of bile, rancid meat, rubbish and unwashed griffon was as horrifyingly bad as it was strong.

The tercel went down on all fours as he dry retched and clutched at his gut, unable to articulate his horror in any meaningful way.

[Kroll]

The vagrant staggered forward, "accidentally" kicking the sergeant's sword further into the alleway. "I am so sorry!" Kroll said between hoarse coughs, resting a claw on the sick guard's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

[Manehatten Guard]

The seargent, covered in vomit and far too close to the vagrant griffon had just about enough of this. He grabbed Kroll by the throat and threw him to the ground before turning away from the tercel to get his sword.

[Kroll]

Kroll let out an infuriated squawk as he was thrown to the ground, smacking his head against the pavement slightly. Slowly rolling up to his feet, the vagrant drew out his khopesh and staggered after the sergeant, still trying to find his footing after thumping his head. "Oh no you...fucking don't!" he said with slightly slurred speech, turning his head to throw up a little before continuing after the guard.

[Manehatten Guard]

The guard picked his sword up from the ground and turned on Kroll, swinging his blade wildly at the vagrant.

[Kroll]

Kroll sluggishly raised his blade to block the sergeant's attack, his muscles tensing as the shock from the blow resonated through his body. The vagrant stared at the guard, his glazed eyes having an odd shine to them. "Since you were so polite to make the first move, sergeant, I won't need to feel bad about this next part." With that Kroll jumped back from the guard, pommeling his machete to a defensive grip with its hooked blade facing outward while crouching low to the ground.

[Manehatten Guard]

The seargent roared and charged at Kroll, swinging his sword wildly. as he came in range of the homeless griffon he flapped his wings, propelling him faster at Kroll.

[Kroll]

Kroll frowned as the sergeant charged at him, wondering how a griffon like that was capable of being permitted to be a sergeant, much less a guard at all. It was a pity to be hold, but it didn't stop the vagrant from dropping to his knee and sending his fist at the oncoming guard's crotch, hoping he wouldn't get decapitated in the process.

[Manehatten Guard]

The Seargent's blade sailed over Kroll's head with a whistling sound and a roar of frustration. A roar that was suddenly and sharply cut off as the vagrants fist came into contact with his groin. The tercel stood stock still for a moment before crumpling to the ground with a high pitched whining sound.

[Kroll]

Kroll shuddered as the guard's blade sailed over his head, but was overcome with relief when he heard his opponent hit the ground. With a sharp laugh, the transient rose up and put his knee into the sergeant's stomach, letting the hooked blade of his khopesh rest on the tercel's throat. "I don't plan on hurting you any more than I have, sergeant, but for what it's worth I--hang on a sec." Kroll suddenly turned his head away from the guard and made a motion like he was about to throw up again before coughing a little. "No, just in my mouth this time. We're good."

Refocusing his attention on the sergeant, the vagrant furrowed his brow. "I'm not really sure what's going on here...but I really am sorry for throwing up on you."

[Manehatten Guard]

"Go... to... hell" the vomit covered tercel whimpered through gritted teeth.

The sound of wings echoed down from above for a moment before four guards dropped into the alleyway, presumably attracted by the commotion. Each leveled a crossbow at Kroll.

Standing over a crumpled and beaten member of the guard was not the best first impression to make on these tercels of the watch.

"Back away and get down on the ground! Now!" one shouted

[Kroll]

Kroll sighed as he heard the guard shout at him, slowly tossing his khopesh aside as he backed away from the sergeant and lied flat on the ground with his forearms over his head. Overall, aside from eating rancid, raw meat and getting into a fight with a guard that could result in some incredibly steep charges, today wasn't going all that bad.

[Kroll]

Characters: Kroll, Manehatten Guard NPCs

Summary: After consuming some rancid meat from a wastebin behind a butcher's shop, a transient griffon named Kroll gets into a brief fight with a sergeant of the guard over the discovery of some sensitive documents being hidden in an alleyway one afternoon near the end of July. As their fight comes to a conclusion, the sergeant's back up arrives and apprehends the vagrant.

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