Wonderer and the Hound.

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xUltimateTroublex

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Early morning was always the best for Ingrid. The morning dew still having from spiders webs and trees, the crisp air and the light sun always perked her up first thing, Ingrid had crept out. Under the strong control of her minder, this time meant it was the only time she could get away fast enough to not be caught, especially if she had piano lessons. As she got a safe distance away, she looked back to her home. A very understated place. Nothing like a manor. Her Father wasn't one for putting too much money into his home and family, more for business. She smirked and hmph'd triumphantly, striding along the grass.
Ingrid always sang or hummed as she went. It made time slip by much faster and out here, no one could hear her. She let herself daydream and lost her way quickly. Always did. A bit like a stray cat really, getting into places that she probably shouldn't. Looking around coming back to reality, she was in a garden, somewhere in the city... Where she wasn't meant to be. All kinds of trash and... Well it wasn't the nicest of places. She blinked. She'd never walked this far before. Must've been about 9 now then, she thought, sitting herself in one of the half broken chairs and bringing a knee up to her chest to adjust her shoe lace.
She left out a sigh, putting her knee down and patting her skirt. "Well, if you're lost..Stay put, and someone will come find you" She thought out loud, resting her head back to see the clouds moving above her. Just waiting to see who'd show up now.
 
Cal's nose stuck up, twitching as it caught hold of an odd sent. Something was... sweet. Sweet things were so out of place in this dead-end dump that he sniffed the air several more times to convince himself he wasn't imagining things. It was really there... probably.

He couldn't be sure until he checked. Cal raised himself off the floor and pushed away from the wall, heading for the front door. Benny noticed him moving, so he called out. "Where you goin', Mutt?"

"Out."

He didn't say anything else before the door closed behind him. Inside, the three men were left to muse among themselves. "Bathroom?" "No, probably smelled somethin'." "Yeah, caught whiff of barbeque." "That's seriously creepy, y'know?" "Whatever. It works, so I got no complaints."

Following his nose, Cal moved around the house. He stepped past the boarded-up windows and rounded the run-down shed attached to the side of the building, finally coming out on what was once a garden. A few flowers still sprang up among the mass of weeds, but the grounds were as dilapidated as the rest of the property, barely hinting at the beautiful home this place had once been.

Sitting in one of the surviving chairs, a small girl was staring up at the sky. Cal stared at her silently for several long moments, his nose twitching to check that she was indeed the sweet smell that had invaded. His eyes filled with curiosity, Cal began to walk to the child.
 
Hearing someone's footsteps, her heart jumped, she dare not move her eyes from the sky, as they didn't sound like her mother's shoes.. And father wouldn't come this far out.. She held her breath slightly as she felt someone's eyes bore into the side of her head and them sniff... Oh.. She probably shouldn't have used some of her mother's perfume...

As he started to walk over, Ingrid's eyes finally moved from the sky, looking to him.. He wasn't the best.. kept? But he didn't seem all that scary, so she relaxed, just letting him come to her, looking up at him. "Hello..." She murred gently. She was a bit stuck on what to do now. Most of the time when she'd walked off, her parents normally found her before anyone else did, but then again, she took a different route today...

"I'm in trouble... huh?" She murred again, wondering qhat Cal was actually thinking, as his face or body movements weren't telling her much.
 
The girl didn't move when Cal approached her. That was enough to make his head cock to the side: he'd expected her to run away already. One hand reached up to scratch the scalp underneath his mess of red-brown hair. The girl was an odd one, Cal decided. He'd drawn near enough to her to smell the strange scenting on her--the same scent that posh carriages reeked of. There wasn't so much on her that he ran away from it, but it made his nose itch. Still, underneath that annoying odor was the sweet scent that drew him back here.

Cal didn't respond to the girl's words. He stepped right up to her, stared straight at her innocent, hazel eyes, put his nose in her face... and sniffed. Twice. Moving up from there, he smelled the soft, brown hair that gently framed her head. Cal's feet carried him around behind her and his hands came up to hold her locks. It smelled nice--sweet like something from the baker or the goodies that housewives left in their windows. It smelled so good that Cal didn't know if he wasn't supposed to eat it. He dropped all the hair save a small collection, then stuck those in his mouth to check.

If felt like hair and tasted like clean. He spat it out quickly and walked back around to face the girl from the front. He crouched down to meet her at eye level, his brow furrowed and his sharp, green gaze boring into her.
 
Ingrid didn't know how to react. Cal was.. weird. As he put his nose right in her face, she leant back, staring back at him, completely confused.. Then he circled her. As he touched her hair, she panicked sitting completely still. That was, until he put it in his mouth. She yelped, grabing her hair from him and looking disgusted at the wetness from it.. now it felt strange.. yuck.

His eyes drew her attention again, feeling herself just want to edge backwards.. but the chair was breaking as it was, didn't want it to fully with her sat on it. She gulped quietly and tried to get over the weirdness that just happened. "What's your name?" She asked softly, hoping to get something useful out of him.
 
Cal didn't respond right away. He continued to silently stare at the small girl with his intense eyes. A soft wind blew around the house and through the garden, the foliage rustling to fill the silence. The wind's push ruffled Ingrid's dress and made her hair sway, but Cal's form stood completely unmoved as the wind broke around him.

Finally Cal's mouth opened to speak. "Mutt."
 
Ingrid's eyes followed Cal's movements. He was really.. strange. Wasn't like anyone else she knew. She hated the awkward silence he carried around with him. She soon stood herself, trying to not seem imitated by him.

"Mutt?...Now that doesn't sound right" She murred, looking at him oddly. "Mutt is what you call a dirty dog. You're not that... dirty.." She murred, looking him up and down as she spoke. "You've gotta have a normal name. Mine's Ingrid. What's your real, proper name?"
 
"It's my name" Cal answered with a shrug. "Everyone calls me Mutt. 'Cept Latea; she always called me Cal." He sat back in the dirt, spreading his hands behind him and leaning his weight on them. His nose twitched occasionally, but he'd stopped investigating for the time being. Instead, he switched to his eyes to continue monitoring her, matching the same up-and-down search Ingrid had made of him. "Either way, seems more normal than Engerd. Sounds like you're gonna choke just saying it. What's a kid like you doin' here anyway? You don't smell like the street; you're posh."
 
Ingrid just smiled as he spoke. Finally. Something she could use to keep the conversation going. Silence bothered her a lot. She just shrugged lightly. "It's Ingrid, not Engerd. And.. I was bored. Went for a walk, now I'm lost. Sitting here til someone finds me" She replied, resting her elbows down on her knees, and her chin in her hands, looking to him.

"Besides. I ain't that posh. That's more my parents. I just follow 'em"
 
"Iner... Enigra... Geez, your parents must have knots in their tongues by now. I'll call ya Gertie. Ya from Isel, then? I'd probably a' heard if someone posh was visi'in, so you've gotta be local. Not from this side a' town, o' course." He paused for a moment, cocking his head to the side in thought. "But ya talk kinda like us. Not as thick as these dunces, but yer not talkin' like ya got needles in your mouth. Ya still smell rich, though. You'll wanna wash that off if yer stayin' round here; even Hairy, Burly, and 'Fro could smell the money on ya."
 
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Ingrid couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but some of it made sense, but at least he was finally talking. "Well, if someone comes to find me, I won't be staying much longer.." She murred with a smile. "My dad is. He owns a load of random complaines and stuff. If they go bankrupt, he buys 'em and makes them work again." She explained, unable to smell the 'rich' on her, but he dress was pretty fancy...So she could see his point.
 
"Wait, Tycoon? You're Tycoon's kid!?" Cal shot forward, leaning on his hands to put his face closer to the small girl. "Ya serious? Tycoon's got so much cash you'd need a hundred carriages to haul it! Man, if Benny got ahold a' you, he'd..."

"Mutt! Where'd ya go, dangit!?" Speak of the devil. Benny had come out of the house and was looking around. It would only be a matter of time before he reached the back garden.

"That's Benny. Think your dad's gonna find ya before he does?"
 
Tycoon? Last time she checked, her father's name was Richard.. Not Tycoon... But as Cal got close, and scared the living daylights out of her, she looked up to the distance, seeing the shadow slowly creeping around the corner. She only shook her head and gave a little whimper. What would this guy do...? She panicking and tried to stand and hide, but there was nowhere to hide, and she had to struggle to get through the gap the first time, getting back out before he saw her was not going to happen...

Her hands gripped the skirt of her dress for a bit fo support, knowing she had no one's hand to hold, as the shadow got closer, and the voice got angrier...
 
Cal just sat there watching, seemingly disinterested. He was thinking about what he was going to do now. Looking at Ingrid's trembling form, though, he was swayed a certain way.

Benny came round the corner. "Oh, there ya are, Mutt..." Benny's voice dwindled when he saw the girl standing there. All it took was one look and his pupils became cash signs. Cal could hear the gold clinking in his head from there. "Nice job, Mutt! We just need to find out who her parents are, and-"

"Hands off, dingus. She's mine."

Benny was stunned for a moment. He looked down at Cal, not believing what he had just heard. Mutt was supposed to do whatever he was told so long as they fed him. He always had. "What... did you say?"

"I said: She. Is. Mine." Cal leaned back and turned his head around, looking at the man over his shoulder. The glare Cal gave to Benny made the bandit's blood freeze. He actually believed he might be eaten for a moment.

"Butch! Gab! Get out here!"

Cal smirked. Benny was too scared to move, be it forward or back. They had about twenty seconds before the other two would get there. He turned back to Ingrid and gave her a lopsided grin. "Whatcha wanna do, Gertie?"
 
Ingrid stood and froze. That.. Wasn't what she expected to happen. she thought she would've been dragged, but instead.. Cal.. That was pretty awesome. She was lost for words for a good, minute before she shook her head to bring her back and smiled brightly at Cal. "You're really brave... I'm a total wimp" She murmured gently, swaying.

"I like you." She declared lightly, moving back over to him "Erm... I dunno. It's kinda late." She said, looking up at the sky to watch it getting darker
 
"Nah, it's just about time for dinner. Ya got somewhere ya like? Course, either you're buyin' or we're gonna nick it. Speakin' a' which, Goodie Wemper has a pie in her window. It'll be cooled off in about ten minutes."

The other two thugs joined their friend, momentarily stunned by the scene in front of them. "What's up, Benny?" Gab asked, his entirely too-large poof of hair shaking in the breeze. "You sounded like it was the cops or somethin'."

"Mutt won't hand her over! She's our hostage now, dangit! A fortune walked into our yard and Mutt isn't lettin' me have her!"

The noise was rather annoying. Cal stood up and turned to face the three. "Gertie, these're Hairy, Burly, and 'Fro. They can't cook worth crap." With that, Cal turned back and scooped Gertie up, lifting her high and sitting her on his shoulder. Benny was furious, Butch was getting there, and Gab was just staring flabbergasted. "So long, chumps." With that, Cal started walking away. The other side of the house was a dead end, only a two-foot gap between the house and fence and ending a few feet in at another fence. But Cal couldn't get the both of them through his hole faster than Butch could flatten them into pancakes.
 
It took the trio of thugs three seconds to sort through enough of their confusion to begin pursuit. Benny kicked it off with a shout and started running, followed closely by Butch and Gab hesitantly bringing up the rear. Cal broke into a run as well, shifting the girl on his shoulder down to his back. "Hang on tight!" he cautioned. The boy accelerated into a sprint and entered the channel.

He jumped right and planted his foot on the fence; then kicked off and planted his left foot on the house; then he jumped back to the fence; then the house. Each step brought him a little higher than the last. That was where Cal ran out of runway, so he gave one last push and aimed for straight over the neighbor's fence. He was high enough for about half his body to make it--the extra weight had pulled him down considerably--so he planted both hands on the fence and tucked his legs up tight. It was enough to get him over, just barely.

In retrospect, he should've warned the girl about it, too. Her shoes hung just low enough to catch the top of the fence. Her forward momentum stopped and she began to topple down. Her arms were wrapped around Cal's neck, so he wound up dropping right along with her. Underneath her, to be precise. The pair crashed to the ground, Cal face-first and Ingrid landing atop him.

From the other side of the fence, shouts of outrage ascended. Cal didn't care; he just lay there and let out a groan of pain. "Gertie, ya gotta gain a few pounds. Ya weigh less than my breakfast." He was thankful for her body being small right at that moment, though. "Let's getcha that meal so you can grow some."
 
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