Neither Yin nor Jiang were so happy to get spittle all over his face as Ning shouted with a mouth full of fish, her one good eye wide with shock.
Jiang sighed, slouching in front of the fire, watching the rest of the fish cook on sticks as he replied, "Yeah, there's been news about another town that got raided outright. There's only a handful of survivors, one of which is hanging out at my hometown. It's likely that they'll try to raid it, considering we've got a lot going for us right now."
"But Boss, they can't be THAT stupid! There's patrols everywhere now!" said Ning, this time after she finished gnawing angrily on the remains of her fish. "Not only that, even they must have heard the story about a Chimera here! And us, too!"
Yin placed a paw on his chin, closing his eyes as he said, "Probably not. We do make an effort not to be seen and recognized." He opened one eye and frowned, watching the fire crackle underneath the cover of tree branches. "I do wonder why they would raid anything, given that Lord Zhung's royal guard are patrolling the paths."
"Because they don't give a shit." Ning and Yin turned towards their boss, curious as he straightened up and looked them straight in the eye. "Any thief or bandit or whatever who would brazenly murder almost an entire town in broad daylight simply don't give a shit about the consequences. Hell, they might even be confident that they could kick the Royal Guard's ass. It's a power play: maybe they think that if they raid a few towns and burn them to the ground, it'll make people piss themselves when their names come up and throw money and tributes at 'em to keep them as far away from 'em as possible."
The trio fell silent for a few minutes, pondering the grim possibilities of a bandit group gone wild over a meal of cooked fish. It wasn't hard for Jiang to tell how they felt, especially as Yin snapped and chewed on fish bones with a growl and Ning grumbling something under her breath. He couldn't blame them: not only did they make it even harder for them to get money, there was so much needless death and destruction.
After all the fish were devoured, Ning cleared her throat and asked, "Hey, Boss. Do we even have a clue who their leader is? Maybe it's someone we know, and we can maybe talk 'em down! Or shank his shins or something!"
"Not a damn clue," Jiang replied with a sigh, grabbing a nearby bucket of water to douse the fire out. "A friend of mine spoke to that survivor, but that guy couldn't remember if there was anyone who stood out. And I'm not about to go and shake him down for answers after dealing with that shit."
"All the more reason to keep guard around here, then," said Yin as he crossed his arms and glanced around the forest and looked back towards the cave he called home. "We are keeping quite a bit of stuff here, and with both the Royal Guard and Bandits to worry about, it's important to keep our earnings safe." He turned toward Jiang, eyebrow raised, as he asked, "But we can't rule out the possibility of it being someone we know, can we?"
"Yeah, Boss, we can't!" Ning said, standing up and balling her hands into fists. "It could be anyone! Heck, it could even be Tao Liu!"
Yin's eyes narrowed as Jiang grit his teeth and glared. Jiang's blood boiled with anger as he recalled Tao Liu standing near a caravan they targeted, his hands and sword slick with the blood of guards and merchants that stood against them. That same blade carved into another guard without a single shred of mercy. Corpses littered around them, the dying crying out for mercy... and that sickening grin plastered on Tao's face.
"I did such a good job putting down these guards, Boss," Tao said as he plunged the blade into another guard to cease his cries. "Now there's no one to say a word of our little crime. Maybe I deserve a bigger share of the goods for such a job well done!"
After a minute, Jiang said quietly, "You're right: we can't rule it out. It could very well be Tao, but we don't know that for sure. We don't even know where their hideout is. All we can do right now is hope for a good chance to get the jump on 'em and shake down as many answers as we can from 'em." He avoided Ning's gaze, rubbing at his neck again as he mumbled, "Fuck me if it's Tao, though. That's one problem I didn't bother to take care of..."
Yin placed a paw on Jiang's shoulder and shook his head. "Don't kick yourself over it too much," he said with a small frown. "The whole situation back then was tricky. If we hadn't retreated when we did, not only would we have been convicted of a crime we didn't commit, those guards who almost died to him would have bled out. It was more important to you that they lived than Tao died." As Jiang slumped a little, Yin added, "There was no way you could have known it would turn out that badly, so I'd rather you'd take pride in what little good you did manage than the mistakes that you made, my dear Boss."
"Besides..." Ning popped her head off and leaned on Jiang's shoulder awkwardly with a grin. "If it's Tao, that means you get to beat him to a pulp for real! And I get to shoot him in the face, and Yin gets to eat him!"
"As if I'd have such terrible tastes as to eat a lowlife like him," Yin snorted.
Jiang smiled a little bit, turning towards his friends and replying with, "Well, I guess that's one way to put it. Either way, we should take care of it somehow, ya know?"
"And be the big damn heroes we wanna be and be showered with money and love and praise?" Ning grinned wider as she rolled off Jiang's shoulder and back into her body's hands, screwing her head right back in place. "Hell yeah, I'm all in, Boss!"
"I already get enough love and praise from my family, but a little more can't hurt, can it?" Yin added with a cheeky grin of his own. "Do be kind and let us know about their movements, Boss. Especially if they are going to target your home!"
"Pffft. As if they'd actually mess with Boss's home, Yin. I mean, he's the Boss for a reason!"
Jiang would have appreciated that bit of praise a little more, had he not seen the plume of red smoke rising into the sky, in the direction of his very own hometown. All of his cheer and happiness faded, replaced with a stern glare and a growl. Ning and Yin were both confused, at least until they saw the smoke and saw their own boss dashing towards it.
"Aw, man! I spoke way too soon!" Ning cried, heading into the cave to grab her bow and quiver of arrows before dashing after Jiang. "Yin, come on! We got work to do!"
Normally, Jiang would tell them to stay back. They weren't exactly welcome into human society... but he honestly welcomed the help. Even if he didn't, they would have forced their way into helping, anyhow.
Hopefully, they wouldn't be too late...
