Oops, almost left this one out by mistake! But here we go.
It's a fun piece, thanks mostly to Ozzie's expert use of his character.. made all the more impressive by the fact that this is but Ozzie's third showing in AIL ever. He's paired up with the original AIL Adventurer, Dash.

So let's join them as they wake up after the big battle scene!

 
CAW! CAW!

Ozzie reached out and searched around for his alarm clock. Time for another day at the office... although his ribs ached, and his left eye was throbbing. That would be quite aggravating when it came to reading ledgers and tallying meat.

His fingers stumbled around in vain until they closed over... a damp rock? Wait, his alarm clock wasn’t a damp rock. It was a fine enchanted clockwork doohickey that never lost time. He’d paid the gnomes quite a sum of money to ensure that. Ozzie opened his right eye. CAW! CAW! repeated a blurry black figure opposite him. He opened the other eye, with some difficulty, and the figure swam into focus.

The bird stared at Ozzie, give a sad little hop, and flew away. Ozzie frowned. His alarm clock definitely wasn’t a bird. He was sure of that. Come to think of it, his walls and ceiling weren’t painted blue either...

He eased himself up onto his elbows and looked around. Wow. This place was a mess. Scorched earth, a trampled and broken campsite, bloodstains, and... oh my... corpses? He peered closer. The sallow grey skin didn’t appear to be human, but then the effects of death upon the human body weren’t Ozymandias’ strong point. For all he knew, a person could turn into a vase of daffodils after dying.

He heard a grunt, and looked around quickly. More trouble? No... just a man lying on the ground, apparently asleep. Ozzie squinted at him, wincing at the pain in his bruised eye. It was the fellow who’d introduced himself as Sebastian Dash, he remembered. He leaned over, and after a moment’s hesitation, gently touched the man on the arm and began to shake him.

“Mr. Dash? Mr. Dash sir? I believe you should wake up, sir, and see this,” he trembled. One second, Dash's eyes refused to open. The next second, Ozzie found Dash behind him, and felt a longsword held tensely against his throat. He started to swallow, then partially retracted said swallow as he felt his adam’s apple press against the steel for a moment.

"Sorry," Dash said, slowly taking the sword away from him and rubbing his eyes. "Reflex action." Ozzie finished the swallow.

“That’s... okay. Mr. Dash sir. It’s likely very prudent to - well. Take a look around, Mr. Dash. I’m not sure where Miss Aleena or the Princess are-”

"Gone." Dash growled the word more than said it. "Courtesy of some very persistent enemies of ours in the Feline Empire."

Ozymandias frowned and scratched his head as he tried to remember. “Oh yes. The... goblins, was it? I didn’t think the goblins and the Felines would be working together, certainly not this far into the human territories of the Kingdom?” He pushed himself to a sitting position, then bent over as his ribs exploded in pain. “Oh my. I don’t think Acts of Gob are covered on my health insurance.”

"I might have a few healing herbs for that." Dash looked rather banged up himself but made no complaints. "And my former.. ally.. Catrina, has taken the Knob Goblins over and unified them with the Knollish. For the time being, they're a unified enemy to us. Here."

Dash handed him some medicine, a jar of mashed and rather bitter looking herbs. Ozymandias squinted at it. “Salutifer Taeter compound, I believe? Not many people know this, but if you mix it with sheep-tree ash... ah, here we go...” -he sprinkled a bit of reddish powder from the campfire into the jar, and stirred it in with a twig- “It nullifies the bitter palette and makes it tastes surprisingly like bugbear rump steak.” He swallowed it, then screwed up his eyes and spat some of it out before holding his nose and downing some more. “Of course, you really need more sheep-tree ash than this,” he conceded, handing the half-full jar back to Dash.

"I'm fine," Dash answered the gesture. "Little more concerned with figuring how we're going to get Aleena and the princesses back." Dash let out a long sigh, rubbing a bit of blood off his head.

Ozzie sucked in air through his teeth. “You’re hurt, Mr. Dash. You could have a concussion. You need to rest up... you’d be no good to the princesses or to Miss Aleena in that state.”

Realizing he had a point, Dash reluctantly took the healing herbs, thanking him through gritted teeth, and took a swig of the thick mixture. It was obvious he didn't think much of the taste. Ozzie smiled shyly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Dash. There’s not much sheep-wood around here. I think the firewood was mainly chiropractor’s pine.” He looked down at his fidgeting hands for a moment. “So... where do you think the, the ...goblins and Felines, was it? Where are they likely to have taken Miss Aleena and the princesses? I, um, I don’t know what we should do next. I’ve never done this sort of thing before...”

Dash frowned. "Now that you mention it, there's no way to know the demon's teleporting capability. We should really salvage what we can of camp and get to tracking them down." Dash smiled a bit. "If you want to come with and help."

Ozzie’s face went white. “...demon?”

Dash nodded. "Yeah, which is why I'm hoping to have a bit of backup. Maybe we could track down some allies of mine. Between it and the Jester King of Beasts, and his sidekick.. and her allies.." Dash paused. "You look a little ill."

Ozzie closed his eyes and nodded. “I’m fine. Miss Aleena offered me food, rest, shelter... I can’t leave her in danger now,” he said with a degree of resolve which surprised even the bureaucrat himself.

"If you're sure you're up for this.." Dash turned to gather his supplies. "We need to set out for the headquarters of the Feline Empire."

“The headquarters of the Feline Empire?” repeated Ozzie incredulously, “Even if their teleportation capabilities are limited, we’d surely get there days after they do. I mean, even just the logistics of...” he started drawing in the dirt with a stick. “Less people means faster travels, but from what I saw of those goblins they were strong and more than capable of a forced march. The princesses’ comfort is unlikely to be among their priorities... oh dear...” he made a few calculations. “I make it a seventy-nine per cent chance that if we’re to catch up in time to be of any use, we will need to find a mage within the next eight hours. Give or take,” he added, looking up at Dash with the expression of a hopeful puppy looking up at its master.

Dash paused. "Did you consider the fact the princesses are likely to be less than accommodating guests? Especially Aleena- but we know for certain Princess Jen Pi is very capable of escaping captors, too, given half a chance. Not to mention, if the ninjas who originally kidnapped her were to engage with the .." Dash reconsidered that quickly. "I think we might have killed them all, though."

Ozzie nodded. “Um. That will hopefully give us more time, then. Nonetheless, we must do something. If this, uh, demon can teleport, then it may not matter how far Jen Pi runs.”

"It can.." Dash replied. He stuffed what he could into his carrying bags. Unfortunately, many of his travelling supplies were damaged by fire and the fighting. "I could try to track down Fluffy Hamster, but he's probably still in KOKOL headquarters.. or Lapine. I have no idea where she'd be right now. That's all that comes to mind in terms of mages.. at least, mages we can trust."

Ozzie looked around, wondering how he could make himself useful. He began picking up random odds and ends, stuffing them into his pockets or handing them to Dash. “I could requisition a mage from the Council - but that would take too long without an Emergency Requisition Queue-Jump Form."

"Does holding someone at swordpoint with an angry growl count as an acceptable alternative?" Dash asked with a scrowl on his face. Then he let out a loud, high pierced whistle.

Ozzie shrugged dejectedly, not seeming to register the whistle. “Only if they’ve filed Form 78a, Permittable Use of a Semi-Deadly Weapon Within or Directly Without Council Property for the Purpose of Corruption And/Or Loopholing.”

Dash hmph'ed, a bit offended. "Semi deadly?!"

Ozzie walked over and stood next to Dash, handing him the last unbroken cup from the site. “I... oh dear. If lives are in danger, I could always, well, fudge things a bit? I am rather certain I could requisition us a council mage within, say, one hour and thirty-five minutes of getting back to Seaside Town. However...” -his voice lowered as he looked conspiratorially around the empty, destroyed clearing- “But it would mean needing to get to Seaside Town a.s.a.p., and also, well, it would be quite underhanded. Possibly even illegal. I wouldn’t normally consider this - but if lives are in danger, as I said. But I don’t know how you would feel about that, Mr. Dash, sir.” He cleared his throat politely.

Dash didn't answer, instead listening intently. Slowly a smile crept over his face. "At least our ride should be here soon."

“Oh?” asked Ozzie, not understanding. Then Dash's horse galloped up, stopping in front of both men and seeming rather unsure of the unusual stranger.

"Ozzie, meet Españolola," Dash said with a smile. "Now let's get going. Those princesses aren't going to rescue themselves." Dash paused and began loading the horse. "Well, they might, but just in case." Dash swung up onto the horse's back. Ozzie, after a few moments of uncertainly trying to figure out how to do this, finally straddled Españolola behind him. And with that, the two men rode off.

 
Well... one man rode. The other mostly clung on for dear life and screamed impotently.

Kay.. nearly overlooking this RP was a serious pain.. Anyway, we'll see more of Ozzie and Dash in a bit. Actually, we'll get right back to them after the next piece, which's Aleena and Dios!