Prey and Praise

“Oh, you’re here! Thank goodness!” Hutch breathed out a sigh of relief upon seeing Tsubaki enter the building. “I could really use your help.” 

“You said as much,” Tsubaki recalled Hutch’s frantic phone call where they said they needed help but not much else. “Care to elaborate on what exactly you need help with?”

“Yes, right, of course,” Hutch cleared their throat and led Tsubaki into the next room, which housed all of the tame imps. Tsubaki was instantly able to notice that there were much fewer imps than the last time she was here.  “You see, there is a high demand for tame imps these days, but I’m just one person. I’m running low on tame imps to keep up with the demand. I heard that you were a good tracker, so I thought that you could help me find and train some.” 

Tsubaki raised a brow at this, but thankfully, Hutch answered her biggest question before she even had a chance to ask. “I will compensate you fairly, of course.” 

Tsubaki wasn’t the biggest fan of imps, but fortunately for Hutch, there was very little that she wouldn’t do for money. “Hmm, alright, I’ll help you.” 

Hutch breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness. Come, let us not dally, we need to catch as many as possible!” They picked up what appeared to be two cages, each looking like they could house a couple imps comfortably with their large size. Tsubaki led the way to the door and held it open for them as they shuffled out of the building.

Tsubaki wasn’t sure if Hutch was aware of this fact when they hired her or not, but she was actually quite skilled at tracking down imps. Since they used to be considered pests rather than pets, she used to take on a pest exterminator role for money. Of course, since times were changing she no longer did work like that, but she still had the skill set for it. Because of this, she knew exactly where to start.

Tsubaki led the way to the nearest alleyway with the stinkiest dumpsters. Hutch was following a ways behind her, but they were making too much noise with the cumbersome cages. Tsubaki held up a hand signaling them to stop and wait before creeping closer to the alleyway by herself. A few moments later, Hutch had silently set down the cages and joined her. 

They both peered down the alleyway, and Hutch had to suppress their excitement upon seeing two Remil imps who were happily munching away on some trash. 

“Stay here, but be ready,” Tsubaki whispered as she inched closer to the imps. When she was finally close enough, her hand darted out to grab one. Unfortunately for her, the Remils were far enough apart that she couldn’t grab both at once. The other one became spooked and ran… right to the alleyway entrance where Hutch was waiting. Hutch easily grabbed it, as they had lots of experience wrangling and chasing rowdy imps. 

“We did it!” Hutch beamed and, when Tsubaki rejoined them, both imps were placed safely in the cage. “At this rate, my adoption center will be restocked in no time!” 

Their cheer was infectious and, despite catching imps in a stinky alleyway being pretty low on her list of favorite activities, Tsubaki couldn’t help but smile. “You’re not out of the woods yet. You’ll still have to tame all the ones we capture. I can’t imagine that that’s an easy task.”

“Not the easiest, but certainly rewarding. You’ll help me with that too, won’t you?” 

Tsubaki groaned. “We’ll see.”