One of the medium boxes called to Bogbean with the promise of decent meal. She clawed into the box and managed to break through the first layer of slats when a voice squeaked out from the depths of the crate,
“Just a minute!”
Bogbean pauses for a moment in surprise before returning to clawing at the box for the possibility of food. As she breaks into the crate and creates a big enough hole, smoke rolls from within in waves. A low lute sound starts up and builds as the smoke creates a mysterious effect. From within the box, Bogbean hears,
“And for your amazement!
A shadow begins to form from within the smoke and a small, brilliant blue Scalekin steps out of the smoke in a bejeweled, dazzling outfit and begins to play. He is dressed to the nines in an outfit of emerald green to compliment his blue scales and a tiny hat to match sits atop his head just as shining as the outfit. He begins to shriek at the top of his lungs,
“Miguel the Magnificent presents for you….”
His voice trails off along with the lute music as he realizes where he is and begins to panic. The smoke stops rolling immediately and the lights that had begun to swirl around the entrance of the box disappeared.
“Wha..what?! This is not where…! What?!”
The small creature, about the same size as Bogbean whipped out a dagger in desperate confusion.
“I was told I was supposed to perform!”
The severed head in the corner yells out,
“Nien, nien” again.
The creature looks at Bogbean, swing the knife in her direction, again yelling,
“I, uh, am the Magnificent Miguel! I was told to play!”
Bogbean replies in a sincere voice,
“You played well! It was really good!”
Miguel looks at her and takes a deep breath,
“Well that was not the full performance! I usually have a crew and we all play together and it’s amazing! But I carry them most of the time so I can understand if you didn’t quite like what I performed when I am trying to do things on my own and then they told me I could perform at the festival, and it was a one man show! My first chance to shine alone! Hi, I’m Miguel.”
He sticks out his hand to shake Bogbean’s.
“Uh…where the f!@# are we?! There was supposed to be like a hundred people. This looks like shit!”
The head in the corner is still talking in that strange language that Bogbean couldn’t understand and apparently neither could Miguel.
“What is that! Did you take that guy’s head off! How’s he still talking?!”
Bogbean stutters a bit as she responds,
“I I think I got kidnapped and drugged so maybe that happened to you. Maybe they lost us or something.”
Miguel nods a bit before looking around, taking in his surrounding for the first time.
“It must have been that man! I knew the money was too good!”
As he finishes looking around he points at the pungent head and body piled in the corner and asks,
“Are you gonna eat that?!”
Bogbean wrinkles her nose in disgust and lets him know,
“It stinks and looks like its been dead for while. I don’t think you wanna eat that. He may also be alive cause he’s talkin but he smells dead so…”
“Well is he alive or is he dead?! If he’s dead, it doesn’t matter!”
“Well, I think it’s both.”
Miguel takes out the dagger he had sheathed at his side and begins poking at the pile of head and body. In very broken common the head whimpers,
“Please. Help. Me.”
Bogbean takes Miguel’s attention away from the pleading pile and begins to ask him some questions.
“Can I ask you something?”
What I’m always open to answering questions from fans!”
“Uh, this man.. what did he look like, um what was his smile like?”
“That creepy smile. I swear, we were drinking and he was telling me how we could get rich and famous. That was when the bastard took off that big hat of his and, I swear I thought it was the booze at the time, but his mouth just kept growing and growing! But the gold looked real! He just told me to meet up with him later that night at the docks and I went and everything went black, then I woke up in a box. I figured that was my stage exit so I prepared and waited for my grand entrance! Entrance, hah!”
He points back at the pile and exclaims,
“But you know what he said! What did he say, what did he say?!”
Miguel turns to the pile and a course, guttural sounds comes out.
“Did you understand that?”
The head just stares at Miguel in blank confusion. Bogbean speaks up with a weird frown on her face,
“That was very off putting.”
“My mother used to sing that to me before bed!
“Oh what does it mean, can you translate it?”
“Uh, it’s something like, ‘I’m gonna eat you, but at least I’ll be full.'”
“Oh…ok.”
Miguel turns back to the pile and begins to take one of the shoes off the body as if to prepare him to eat. Bogbean interjected before more was removed,
“Um, lets keep him around a bit longer. He might know how to find the smiley man.”
“He knows where the man is?”
“Well they might know each other or be friends.”
“If they’re friends, we should kill him now!”
“Well, I want to keep him around a bit longer. Who knows. He can help.”
Miguel rolls his eyes and huffs but turns around and begins to explore the new, larger, but still cramped space he has found himself in.
DnD Wife Stories 