Gem has ran off on her own. Let's see how her story goes - and concludes.

 
Are they all wild accusations or is there proof for the truth?

She runs; runs as fast as she could, saying to herself, "King. King. Rat. King. Rat king. Might be more than one. Yes, he might be the one. Have to stop him. Yeah, it just has to be him." She keeps running, barely noticing what is in her path as she plowed on heading her way to Seaside Town. Is she scared? Of course she is scared; any sane person would be, especially of him! He swings more weight in Seaside than she does. He has managed to stay above the law which is more than she could ever do, and he is powerful and rich. That is a bad combination to go up against, but Gem is determined. She has a purpose and she focuses on that as her pace eats up the distance to Seaside Town. She would make brief pauses to gulp some water and then speed away again. It doesn't take her long to enter the Seaside Town gates and from there she heads straight to the marketplace.

Things there are just as she had feared. At the stand where Grelva had sold her goods, he sits smug and confidently selling his wares. She couldn't believe that he has such gall. The place where kind sweet Grelva once sold good herbs and fruits, this fat obnoxious man hawks his rotten fruit and worthless trash. She walks straight up to the booth. She could plainly see where Sassy had carved the name "Grelva" on the wood. Full of anger as she knocks on the counter.

"Huh? who is there?" he says, looking up and seeing no one. He next inclines his head to look down and sees her. "Why, hello there, little lady. Somefink I can git fer yu?"

In reply, Gem raises her skull busta, gives it a swing and cracks it on his knee.

"Ow! Hey, what's up with yu then?"

"What's up with you? Why are you sitting at Grelva's stand? You can clearly see her name on it and everything."

"Oh, yes, so you can. Well, a bit of paint would cover that up. What's the deal?"

"What's your deal, Mr. King. Why did you kill Grelva?"

The fat man laughs aloud. "That weren't me, little lady. Twas them rats and bats, it was. Turrib'l t'ing, it was."

"Yes, I know that it was. I think you were behind it. I suspect that you had her killed so you could take over her stand. Better location, less competition. So, what do you say about that?"

"Well," he says scratching his head, "I won't denies that I has a better location and that she was competition, so why shouldn't I take advantage of a profit like that?"

"That's all you care about, isn't it? Profit and lose, and you are the biggest louse I know."

Mr. King is starting to get angry now. "Now, look here, you little witch! Just because I took a better position doesn't mean nuthin. You mights have a hard time proofing I killed Grelva. I t'ink you had best leave this alone and go home to your mama."

"Maybe I should leave and get the authorities. I'll tell them what I know and what I believe. Either way, they will shut you down for a while, which couldn't happen too soon to suit me."

"Go away, kid, you bodder me."

"I will go and get the authorities. Maybe the penguins might be interested in someone who cheats and swindles for a living and someone who robs his own town."

"I think you have gone too far this time, you pesky fly. Let me show you somefink. Over there," he points over his shoulder, "is where my old stand was and sitting there is my brodder Joe. Take a look and see what he has got."

Gem turns her head and sees Joe out of the corner of her eye. He is sitting there smiling and he is pointing a sawed-off revolving shotgun in her direction.

"Maybe, you had best git while you can. Git while the gittin is good." He laughs and his brother Joe joins in his laughter. Gem stands frozen; immobilized with fear. She didn't count on this? What should she do?

Elsewhere, earlier

Sassy and the others look very concerned about the sudden disappearance of their friend Gem.

"Where could she have gone?" Sassy asks them. "Anyone know where she might have gone?" They all nod their heads no.

"She leaf camp. Her skeered of dat Ratso. She kno's him and he kno's her."

"You are right Linger," says Icy. "She was petrified of that Ratso. She has met him before and she doesn't trust him a lot."

"Well," says Bristle, "Neither do I if it comes down to that. I think we need to figure out where she had gone, find her and help her."

"I agree," Sassy says, "She could be in some real trouble. Where do we start?"

"We look fer tracks and folla dem."

"A good idea, Linger." Sassy says and they head out of camp to find tracks.

They find the tracks of Mole and Ratso leading off one direction and some other little tracks, which could only be Gem's heading off to Seaside Town.

"She go dat way!" Linger says pointing off to where the tracks lead.

"Bristle, you and Linger follow those tracks, find Gem and help her and we will meet you at the Typical Tavern in three days."

"No," Linger says. "Me not leaf Sassy and Icy alone."

"Okay then. Bristle, can you handle this alone?"

"I think so. I'll see you all in the Typical Tavern in three days." He gives Icy a kiss on the cheek and then runs down the path following Gem's tracks to Seaside Town.

Seaside Town, currently

Poor Gem is frozen with fear. She sees Joe handle that shotgun and she knows she might have overplayed her hand.

"Fer the last time, run along, girl. We don't want to kill anybody today. That's bad for business."

"You mean, you don't want to kill anyone else, right? There wouldn't be as much profit knocking me off as there was for Grelva. Isn't that right?"

"Look, lady, if you wants to buy somefink, then buy somefink. Otherwise, run along! We are busy here."

"I think the penguins should hear about all of this. I only connected it when I remembered that you used to call yourself the 'herb king.'"

"Yeh, well, that's me. Me name is Herbert King. Why not call myself Herb King?"

"We kids used to call you 'the rat' because of the way you cheated us and robbed us of our good money and gave us rotten fruit."

"Hey! Keep that down. Don't like to hear that."

This gives Gem a great idea. She holds her head up high and yells at the top of her lungs, "Rotten fruit! Come and get your nasty rotten fruit! Step right up here! Right over here to the rotten fruit!"

In answer to this, she turns in time to see Joe fire a shot into the air. He levels the shotgun at her point blank.

"Next one is the one that is going to scatter you all over dis markit, sweetie! I means it!" He loads another shell into the gun. "So, what's it going to be then?"

Meanwhile, nearby

Bristle had been running hard for a while now. At the Seaside Town gates he pauses for a drink from the well there. He enters the town and looks around. He doesn't see Gem but suddenly, he hears a muffled roar. He jerks upright and stares in the direction he heard it. He sprints toward the marketplace.

He comes upon a strange scene indeed. He sees the guy in his booth handling a shotgun and wonders what this is all about. Sure, guns were incredibly rare in the Loathing Kingdom, but Seaside Town still had laws regulating them!

Bristle hears a slight whimpering sound and sees Gem, by another booth, cowering in fear, frozen to the spot.

"The nex' one is de one that's gonna scatter yu all over dis markit! I means it!" The guy with the shotgun is yelling; he hasn't seen Bristle yet. He is so focused on little Gem. She has obviously caused quite a stir in the market today.

Bristle loads his sling and aims for the gunman. He takes careful aim and lets fly.

Gem stands there as if she is rooted to the spot. She doesn't seem to have the ability to run or even walk.

"Go ahead, Joe. Let her have it! Who's going to miss one street rat anyway." Joe starts to pull the trigger when there is a whomp and the gun falls from his hand and falls to the ground. Seconds later, Joe falls to the ground too. Bristle steps forward and seizes the shotgun.

"Just what is going on around here anyway?" he asks. "Gem, are you okay?"

Gem starts to speak but seems to have some trouble doing so.

"Course she ain't allright, stranger. She says I killed someone. I tink she is nuts. Maybe we should take her out of the rain? Here, let me help."

Bristle moves to stop him. "You keep your hands off of her!"

"Oh, yes, as you say stranger. I was just mindin me own business when this girl starts accusing me and calling me names. She was trying to get the people not to buy from me. Trying to ruin me sales."

Bristle walks over to Gem. "Hey, it's okay now. He isn't going to hurt you. What happened?"

"I," starts Gem and swallows a gulp of air or two and then keeps speaking with a rush as if she is afraid once she starts she might not be able to finish. "I did accuse him of killing Grelva. I think he masterminded the market raid just to kill Grelva. He gets two stands and they are both good ones, he loses his competition; he has a lot to gain from the raid. I also think he made a profit on the things that the bats and rats stole."

"That ain't true! She can't proof anyfink."

"How about you?" Bristle asks him.

"Huh? What you mean?"

"Can you prove it didn't happen that way? Where is your proof?"

"Well now," he says and he starts to sweat. "Not my job to proof anyfink, it's hers, isn't it?"

"I don't know. I am no lawyer, but I do know where to find some. Gem, why don't you be a good little girl and get the authorities. Get some penguins while you are at it. Bring them back here. I'll watch these two until we can lock them up."

"Right." Gem says and she speeds off to find the law.

"Hey, look," says Mr. King, "I haff a business to run here. I can't afford to lose business. I can't afford to answer questions and go to court. If I ain't here, somebody else might take me two stands."

"That might not be such a bad thing the way I see it." says Bristle, stepping on the gun to keep it away from Mr. King and his brother Joe. "Let's let the law decide what has to be done, shall we? If you are an honest, law-abiding businessman and merchant than you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Shortly thereafter, Gem returns with the town authorities and a flock of penguins who are well-armed. None of them looks pleased when they spot the illegal shotgun. It only takes a few minutes of questioning to determine who the gun belongs to. Moments later, they hustle the two businessmen off and into custody.

Gem is smiling and she seems really happy. "I can't believe we did it! Thanks for helping me Bristle and coming to rescue me. Of course, I'll have to stay here until this is all over but I'll sleep better at nights knowing that Herb King and his brother Joe are in jail."

"Well," says Bristle, "I am glad we avenged Grelva and made those guys pay. I was supposed to escort you to the Typical Tavern in three days. I guess I can explain what happened to Sassy and she will understand."

"Sure she will." She looks up at Bristle. "I think I will stay in Seaside Town for quite some time. Any time you guys come here, come and see me."

With that she walked away and Bristle can't help noticing a bit of a spring and a skip in her step.

The voter commented on how this solved some of his problems with Sassy's earlier stories, with Linger and Sassy being suspicious. This piece also Gem some much needed character development and ties up a few loose ends.

I helped tweak it a little editing wise by pointing out the gun wouldn't be legal in Seaside Town, rather than having Rat King arrested on a simple accusation from someone who actually assaulted him at the start of the roleplay so hopefully that helped a bit.

We're getting close to the last set of roleplays for the mission, too. With 21 roleplays, I'd call it another successful mission! This roleplay was posted just about a month before I went with family on road trip to Maine, so Bina (Mary Kate) and I really had to rush in the last few days before I left to get the Finale done.

But maybe I'll talk more about that when we get up to the Finale. Next up is another Mary Kate solo!