Welcome, to the Barkhills

[The Skarzs]

"He's gone missing." Karn said bluntly. "Look and ask around."

[Cornflower MM]

Arya dsniffed, but walked off quickly. Dain sighed and shook his head. "I think you could have gone about that differently, Karn." He remarked kindly with a small smile. He was always saying things like that, and usually people took it the wrong way. He didn't care, though.

[The Skarzs]

"What I meant was. . . Forget it. If you see the otter, tell me." He walked out of the building and began questioning soldiers. Many of them were following orders to find out more from the captures, and the cougar got many reports, but no one had seen Garan.

[Cornflower MM]

Dain shook his head and started looking himself.

[Jasper]

Trillo ran his fingers through his hair in desperation and murmured softly to himself: "What else could possibly go wrong today?"
He could only think of one explanation for Garan's disappearance. His youthful blood running energetically through his veins along with his anger, he approached Karn at a quick pace. The cougar was facing away from him, but Trillo grabbed him and spun him around.
"Look cat, I don't know what's going on here, but ever since we came to your horrible castle everything has gone wrong. It seems like you're pinning it all on this Vrungin character, so why don't we go find him? Ten to one Garan's spotted them and gone after them himself. If we find Vrugin, we find the Captain, and that's honestly all I'm worried about right now. Find the captain, get a ship, and leave this place."

[The Skarzs]

OOC: Slight PP there, Jasper, when you turned Karn around, so turnabouts fair play here.

BIC: Karn picked Trillo up with one paw, grasping the mouse by his shirt. "Understand this, little mouse: if your captain has gotten himself involved with that wolf, then he is little far from being a deadbeast," the cougar growled. "We are on the brink of a war. While it is in my best wishes that you all return to your homeland, I cannot guarantee anything until this is over. As to finding Vrungin, it is not that easy: he holes himself up in the Cold Keep, and we don't know how many of the other outposts he has turned to his side." He set Trillo down, sighing. "I'm sorry, but there isn't much I can do."

[Gwen A. Mouse]

It seemed that Garan really had gone missing. That wasn't good. In fact, it was very not good. Arya came and went quickly, as did Dain. Then-- oh no, what has that fool mouse gotten himself into?

Fortunately Karn didn't seem to be truly angry with Trillo. At least, he set him down and let him go in one piece. Ginny sighed in relief. She didn't particularly enjoy the Redwaller's company, but that didn't mean that she wasn't worried about his safety. They had to be able to trust each other amid such confusion.

Unfortunately, trust was often a hard thing to come by.

Then something Karn said caught her interest. "Sir, what is this Cold Keep, and where can it be found?"

Ginny didn't dare looking at Trillo, keeping her expression carefully neutral. If she could only find out where the captain was being kept...

[The Skarzs]

"Cold Keep is a fortress built into the base of the mountain." Karn pointed at the snow-covered giant of a mountain to the east. "That's where Vrungin will be headed. It's a well-guarded point of advantage; used to be the homestead of the wolf lords before the war." The cougar heard something and watched a small group of soldiers run up.
"Excuse me sir," the speaker, a bobcat, saluted. "But Nidg here said that he saw an otter go running off into the forest about half and hour ago; is that the one you were asking about, Commander?"

[Jasper]

Trillo jumped up and down furiously.
"I knew it! I knew this would happen! Out of the way bumbling buffoons! I'll get the good captain back if I have to do it all on my own! He pushed through the soldiers and went for the door, fuming and muttering to himself:
"Sitting around here talking all day while Garan is out there starving and being tortured or the like! I'll show them all that Trillo Thistledown has something to say about it! I'll find that blasted wolf thing and boil his backside! I'll toast his toes and chew on his arms! I'll... I'll!"
Still muttering barbarically, Trillo exited the hall.

[The Skarzs]

A guard was about to hurry after Trillo, but Karn held him back. "Let him fume, soldier. He'll not get far." He began striding toward the barracks, calling out orders to form ranks in the commons area.

[Gwen A. Mouse]

Ginny was already trying to calculate the distance to the mountain when Trillo began shouting. She followed the mouse as he left the hall, calling after him. If he tried to leave now, with nothing, he'd only give himself sore paws- and guilt for not going after the captain properly equipped.

"Trillo, wait! I need to talk to you!"

[Jasper]

Trillo sighed as he heard the shouts. Had it been one of Karn's men he might have kept going, but this was one of his own crew members, the vermin member, in fact. Pushing his views of vermin aside with considerable effort, Trillo turned back.
"What? I suppose you want to come to? Or perhaps you want to stop me eh? Well I'm goin', like it or not. This miserable castle has been nothin' but trouble since we got here!"

[Izeroth]

 Seeing the ferret and the mouse run off, Ashtail sighed. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him. "Our group is breaking apart. First the leader, then those two. I had hoped we could stay together after the loss of our leader, but few groups can."   

[Cornflower MM]

Arya had been walking around, questioning various people, and came back into the hall. She was just in time to hear Ashtail's observation. She strode over. "Ashtail. Maybe not. Maybe we can stick together, but only if we do something about it." She said.

[Gwen A. Mouse]

Covering her surprise that Trillo had actually stopped, Ginny came to a halt next to him.

"Please listen. I want to go after him as badly as you. Captain Garan accepted me as crew when a lot of woodlanders wouldn't. But if we go after the captain right now- with no food, equipment, or allies, we'll either freeze or starve or get overwhelmed. Let's at least try to make a plan, and find some creatures to go with us."

She met his eyes squarely and offered a paw. "And I know that we don't trust each other very much, but we'll have to if we want to rescue the captain. Truce?"