Time for a lil fun with an Ozzie solo, costarring "Hudson!"

 
Whenever they stopped to set up camp for the night, Ozzie felt very much like a third - er, make that, a fourth wheel on a tricycle. Despite having been born in Forest Village, he was no outdoorsman. Despite having read dozens of reference books concerning wilderness survival, he struggled to put the theory into practice. He'd definitely been born to a life behind a desk. But, somehow, he kept getting swept up in these ridiculous adventures.

He'd tried to help the others with the camp as best he could, but even with having observed their actions on the trip so far, he didn't feel like he could be of much use so mostly he just did the simple jobs like the initial clearing of general debris from the site and snapping smaller branches into burnable lengths. Even "Hudson" - a city kid born and bred - was more use than Ozzie.

Right now, she was stoking the fire, smiling to herself as she built it back up to a nice hot, bright flame. As far as Ozzie could tell, Sassy seemed to be meditating, and Dash was tending to his weaponry.

Hudson stood up and stretched, then announced, "I need to, ahem, use the bushes. 'Scuse me."

She tapped Ozzie with her toe on the way past. He looked up into her face, which was nodding towards the dusky hillside, face formed into an expression which said 'come on and be subtle about it.'

He cleared his throat. "I, er, also need to use the bushes." Hudson rolled her eyes.

Ozzie followed her to a clump of ragged plantlife on the edge of the firelight, out of Sassy and Dash's earshot. Hudson crossed behind the plant, undoing her flies.

"I thought that was an excuse for us to talk in private!"

"It was," she said, hunkering down out of sight, "But I needed to go behind the bushes as well. Never kill one bird with a stone when you can kill two, that's what I always say. Er. Speakin' of killing two. Could you find me some leaves, mate?"

"Um. Okay." He cast his eyes about, scanning the nearby plants to see what they might offer.

"Don't go too far though." Ozzie sighed and stopped, and Geoffica asked, "So what d'you make of her?"

Ozzie crouched down next to a small shrub and started stripping the leaves from one branch. "Miss Sassy, you mean?"

"The very same," said Hudson, her voice straining a little.

Ozzie could feel himself going white. "I, er, she, er, she seems nice."

"Nice?"

"Yes?"

Hudson sighed. "Do you trust her? I mean, it's a bit convenient, innit? She shows up right as we stumble into Dash?"

"He was going to kill you," pointed out Ozzie, "She saved your life."

"Mmm. And I don't like owing debts. Anyway, I coulda handled Dash."

"If you say so," said Ozzie meekly as he gathered up leaves.

"That's another thing, mind. What if Sebastian has another mind control fit and tries to kill us all again when we can't fight back? What if he stabs us all up but good in our sleep?"

The thought had passed Ozzie's mind too, more than once, but in true Ozzie fashion he hadn't been able to reach any kind of definitive solution or even any vague notion of what to do. "I don't know," he concluded.

"It's all very fishy, and trust me Ozzie, I know fishy," said Hudson sternly. "We don't know a thing about Sassy. I hope she's on our side, but for all we know she might be the one who poisoned Dash. She might be in league with them teleporting ruffians we caught sight of back in Honorburg. She seems to know a lot about this place after all. You keep an eye on both of 'em, young fella-me-lad. Things're gonna get worse before they get better. Sooner we're back in the real world, the better."

Ozzie coughed. "Are you going to stick with us if things do go wrong?"

Hudson sounded affronted, from behind her bush. "Of course I am! What sorta question is that? I'm in this for the long haul, mate, don't you worry about that. Just pays to be prudent, that's all. Now then. You find them leaves, my friend?" she asked, raising a hand above the bush. Ozzie lifted them up... then stopped with them just out of her reach.

"Will you tell me something first?"

There was a hesitant moment, before she decided she didn't have much choice right now. "...okay?"

"What's this 'Hudson' business about?" he asked, uncharacteristically forthright. "You told me your name was-"

She cut him off. "Look, I'm not gonna go around giving people I don't know my name, am I?"

"I see." He paused for a moment, in thought, and then added, "What's your real name?"

The woman sighed. "Honestly? It's Moore. Wanda Moore."

Ozzie nodded and handed over the leaves.

"Thank you."

A moment later, he said, "Is it really?"

"Okay. You got me. It's actually Hayes. Sharyn Hayes."

"Really?"

"Lorena Guest."

"Really?"

"Effie Fisher."

"Really?"

"Nicola Price."

"Really?"

"Sarah Warner."

"Really?"

"Faline Tanke."

"Really?"

"Hitomi Radelescu."

The accountant nodded, finally getting the picture. She stood up from behind the bush, thrust her hands into the sand and rubbed them around for a moment, then beckoned him close with a nod of her head. "Left hip. Water flask. Tip some over me hands, would you? There we go. Cheers." She rubbed them together, and dried them on another fistful of leaves.

"That's another thing," noted Ozzie, "How come your accent gets so less pronounced when it's just you and I?"

She leaned closer, conspiratorially. "It don't do to let too much on, aye? If folk think I'm some idiot from the streets, well, that suits me."

"But you are from the streets..."

She grimaced. "From the streets I am, my friend, but an idiot I am not. Now come on. Act normal around... er... well, as normal as you can act, anyway. We're gonna need our wits about us, most likely."

Only mildly bothered by the semi-insult, Ozzie meekly followed her back to the fire.

See? A fun little piece. Overall, we haven't really seen Ozzie in nearly enough missions but he manages to pack a punch into the missions he does show up for. Hudson adds a lot to his story. I hope we see them both again sometime in Season two, but I've not heard from the handler in quite some time as of early 2012.