A Gallah mutt wanders past the booths and through the crowds of the Bazaar, following his nose to navigate more than his eyes or ears at the moment. He whistles merrily to himself as he weaves through the crowd.

A couple of wolves, dressed in the ragged clothing and leather overcloaks that sport metal studs at odd intervals, as much for the appearance of toughness as for actual protection, detach themselves from the shade of a storefront and move to intercept the Gallah. "Heyo, mutt! Ratdog!" one of them calls out in an effort to get his attention.

Piper barks suddenly as the voices reach his floppy ears. He turns around to face the two wolves and bows. "That is I. Can I help you, Messieurs?" His tail wags nervously.

"You're that vermite-catcher, aintcha?" the Jupani asks. He has a few scars on his face and one torn ear, the marks lending him the appearance of age. His companion looks to be a few years, if that, older than Piper. Both are muscular and sport chitin swords and daggers at their sides. "Whashisname, Fluter?"

"I am indeed an exterminator, Messieur. My name is Piper." The Gallah digs his thumbs into his belt to keep from fidgeting too much with his hands.

"Yeah, that's it." He smirks. His fellow wolf shares the smirk. "Business been good for you lately, Pipe-it? We hear you spend a lot of time at your work, down in them sewers."

The dog suppresses a whine. "Business has been slow, actually. All of the vermites have gone into hiding since there's less food to be had. But yes, most of the vermites that hide can be found in the sewers, so that is where I go to catch them."

The torn-eared wolf makes a low whistle of sympathy. "Hey, Pipe, y'know, that's too bad. Must be tough to make a living if you can't find 'em to catch 'em." He exchanges a glance with his companion. "But, ya see, we'd heard different. We heard you caught something big down there. Real big. We thought, well, maybe it was somethin' a little too big for a young dog like you to handle."

"Oh!" Piper grins happily. "Were you the ones who lost their wheelbarrow?"

The wolves look nonplused. "Wheelbarrow?" the second Jupani asks, startled. He speaks with a young-man's voice, high-pitched, and the torn-eared one glares at him.

The Gallah nods his head. "Yes. I found a rather large wheelbarrow in the sewers. At first I thought it was some sort of giant bug and I almost fell into the sewage stream hauling it out, but I managed to fetch it. It was all broken and bent, but it manages fairly well. I'm sure that something like that wouldn't have just been discarded. If it belongs to you, I'll be perfectly happy to return it."

The first wolf spends a few seconds glaring at his companion while Piper speaks, and the younger wolf hunches his shoulders inside his cloak, shrinking backwards from the first, who then returns his attention to the dog. "Naw, we din't mean no wheelbarrow." His tone is almost friendly as he waves one hand in dismissal at the mutt's description. "We were thinkin' somethin' a little more lively-like. Or maybe she wasn't so lively, once ya got her out of the sewers."

Piper mouths a large "oh". "Ahhh. You mean Kassie? Yes, I found her at the bottom of a drain. Someone pushed her in. Thankfully I found her in time."

The torn-eared wolf glances around as the mongrel answers, his nose twitching. "Yeah. Kassie. Little red vixen, right?"

"Yes, Messieur, that was her. She had some broken bones and won't be fully healed for quite awhile, but she should be all right." The dog tilts his head to the side. "Are you friends of hers?"

The other's ears flatten back for a moment. "Well, that's great news." He speaks heartily, but doesn't sound entirely convinced of his own words. "Um. Yeah, we're friends of hers. Leastways we wanna be. Say. Wanna drink? C'mon, I'll buy ya one, Pipit." The talkative Jupani claps a hand against Piper's back roughly, gesturing toward a small tavern further down the street. "I gotta few things to ask ya about Kassie."

"Ooomph!" Piper yips. "A drink? Well, I don't normally… it dulls my sense of smell, but I'm sure they have something lighter there." His tail wags. "I'm sure Kassie will be happy to hear that there's some people who want to be friends of hers. She doesn't seem to have all that many in Rephidim." The Gallah extends a hand to the larger of the two wolves. "So what are your names?"

"I'm Torn-ear and this is Silent," The Jupani answers. "Silent don't talk much." Torn-ear shakes Piper's hand firmly, then slips his arm back over the mongrel's shoulders, leading him off towards the bar. Silent brings up the rear, head still hunched against his shoulders, his eyes darting about the street, nose sniffing the wind. "Someone pushed her in, ya say? Dagh-shamed waste of a thing, people throwin' away a good fox like that. D'ya know who did it?"

"No, Messieur," the Gallah barks, staggering a little under the weight of the arm. "I figured it was just a bunch of young pups out for a spot of fun at someone's expense. It happened all the time in Gallis."

The inside of the tavern is darker than the street, illuminated by fading sunlight, and growing smoky from the recently-lit torches on the walls. A Skreek behind the bar chats with a serving wench standing before it when the three enter, while the sole other customer sits alone at a corner table. Torn-ear says, "Some kind of fun, eh? You ever have that kind of 'fun,' Pipit?" while ushering the Gallah towards a table at the opposite side.

"It's Piper, Messieur, as in the pipes. I'm a musician as well as an exterminator." He flashes the barkeeper a smile before focusing on Torn-ear again. "That sort of fun was for the purebreds out sowing their wild oats before they settled down in their mansions. Sometimes the mongrels who could claim to trace their bloodlines to a purebred joined in on the fun … but I'm just a mongrel."

As the staff continues to converse by the bar, Torn-ear swings into a seat and pounds on the table. "Yo! Girl! Get me three beers!" The serving wench glances over at the threesome irritably, while the rat returns Piper's smile, and breaks off their conversation to draw the beers. "So, the fox's gonna be okay, eh?" Torn-ear continues, seeming to be at most half-listening to Piper, his mind on something else. "Where's she at now?"

"She'll be in bed for a long while, but she should heal up." Piper eases himself into one of the chairs. "I brought her to Roho's infirmary. Thankfully, they're taking care of her without charging me… although I'm hoping to do something to repay them eventually. I wonder if they could use a wheelbarrow?"

Like his companion, Silent sits at a chair facing the room, with a view of the door. He glances around a lot, nervously. After a moment, the serving girl, a human, sways up with a tray of three beer mugs, and deposits the beverages unceremoniously onto the table before departing. Torn-ear grins at the Gallah's story. "Heh, that Roho must be a good guy. I wonner what made those pups pick on Kassie, eh? Think it was somethin' she did to them?"

"She doesn't seem like the troublesome type. I think she was studying to become a healer, and fell upon some bad times. It happens to most everyone I suppose." The Gallah dips his nose in the mug and takes a couple of experimental sniffs of the beverage. "Before I came to Rephidim, people were telling me stories about how there was a ghost in Darkside that ate foxes or that foxes were bad luck. The nobles out here like to flush them into sewers for sport as well. People don't really need a reason, I suppose." He sneezes some foam from his nostrils.

Silent smirks, almost giggling, at Piper's sneeze, and the other Jupani cuffs him lightly on the ear. Wrinkling his nose, Silent wipes the expression from his face, returning to his sullen examination of the bar. "Guess not," Torn-ear replies to Piper, taking a hefty draught from his own mug. He sets the beer down before him again and studies the Gallah on the other side of the table.

The Gallah laps a mouthful of the liquid from the mug and wrinkles his nose. "So are you interested in hiring her? She will probably be in need of a job once she gets out of the hospice."

"Eh? Hiring her?" He seems surprised by the suggestion. "Mebbe. Um. So. Didja know Kassie before she had her little fall, Piper?" The scarred wolf turns his mug in place before him, watching the Gallah closely.

Piper shakes his head. "Not in the slightest, Messieur. She told me a great deal about herself when I visited her and I may have passed her by without knowing it in the Bazaar once or twice, but we only met after her accident." He mimics Torn-Ear's mug rotating… maybe it's something that makes the stuff taste better.

"Dat's how you found out about her bein' a healer-in-trainin', eh?" The wolf downs the rest of his drink and pounds the table for another. "She just toldja when you visited her. She tell ya it was pups who flushed her, Piper?"

The dog's eyes widen at the wolf's ability to swallow the beer so rapidly. "She never saw them. I just assumed that it was some hooligans who caught her with her back turned and gave her a good shove. It happens often enough, although I'm a bit sad that it had to happen to such a charming little lady." He forces down another mouthful of the drink and spends the next several seconds rubbing his tongue against the roof of his mouth to try and clear the taste out.

"Never saw 'em?" Torn-ear scratches at his good ear, leaning back perilously in his chair. "Poor kit. At least it's good to hear she's gonna be okay." He tilts forward again with a snap to pound on the table once more. "Hey! Girl! Get me anudder!"

Piper tilts his head to the side again. "So what do you do for a living? You look like some of the airship types I've known." He breaks into a tongue-lolling grin and perks his ears. "I'll bet you're an airship captain, right?"

With a long-suffering sigh, the woman carries another mug to the table and sets it down before pacing back to the bar. Silent takes another gulp from his first beer while the other wolf leans back to bolt down half of the fresh one. Torn-ear is in mid-swallow as Piper hypothesizes about his career, and he gags at the phrase "airship captain." The front legs of his chair crash onto the floor as he tilts forward, one hand flattening against the surface of the table. He struggles to swallow, but ends up spewing a mouthful of beer across the table. "Airship captain?" he gasps.

The mutt yelps and ducks under the table. "I'm sorry, Messieur!" He peeks out, pressing his nose against the wooden edge of the table. "Just you seemed interested in a healer and you don't seem to be the types who would have a shop out here and… er… " He whimpers.

The scarred wolf rubs at the side of his muzzle, shaking his head bemusedly. "Vhai. No, I'm not an airship captain. I do, eh, this'n'that. Y'know how it is. Y'work when y'can find it." He scratches at the back of his neck as he suddenly notices just how alarmed Piper has become. "Hey, 'ey, calm down there, buddy. It's no big deal, y'just startled me, 's all." He leans forward to pat the dog awkwardly on the shoulder, the gesture gentle, especially compared to his earlier rough slaps. "Ah, me 'n m'friends, sometimes we get a bit dinged up doin' stuff. Sure y'know how that is – Betcha get bitten 'n clawed by them vermites sometimes, right?"

Piper lets out a relieved sigh and draws himself completely out from under the table. "Ah! I understand now. You do freelance work, odd jobs. That's what I do as well. Sometimes I'm hired to clean Creens out of someone's attic or sometimes I'm going for vermite bounties." He settles back into his chair. "Do you have any sort of specialty? I mean… most of the odd jobs I do have to do with chasing pests."

"Oh, um, you could say we handle pests, too. Bigger ones than the kind y'deal with, though." Torn-ear grins encouragingly at the mutt. "Anyroad, we figure mebbe it'd be good to have some healer handy just in case. Figure a young 'un like Kassie, she wouldn' cost s'much. Dunno fer sure, though." He waggles his fingers indecisively, then drains the rest of his second beer.

"I'm sure she'd be happy for any work you could offer her, although it may be awhile before she can actually do her job again." The mutt whimpers to himself and then shrugs, brightening again. "I'll let her know that there's some nice gentlemen that are interested in maybe offering her a job sometime. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that. It was very nice to hear that someone was concerned about whether she was all right or not from the fall as well."

Torn-ear nods to the Gallah. "Yah, if y'see Kassie again, y'can tell her we'll get in touch if'n we decide we need her. 'Ey, y'almost done there, Silent?" The other wolf finishes his drink and nods. "We'd better get goin'. Nice meetin' ya, Piper." He stands to go, giving the Gallah another slap on the shoulder, and throwing some shekels onto the table.

"I will indeed, Messieur." The Gallah rises up as well. "And it was a pleasure meeting the both of you."

The scarred wolf grins toothily, and cuffs his partner lightly to encourage him to stand faster. Silent joins him and, with a nod to the mongrel, they depart.

Piper shakes out his fur and licks at the inside of his mouth after the two wolves leave. "Fellow exterminators. Interesting."