Catching wild remils

A familiar bell chimed as he pushed open the door of the Imporium. “Yo Hutch, got your message, said you needed a hand with something?”

A muffled response came from the back room of the store, “Just a moment, Zepp!”

The store was a lot quieter than it usually would be, where there would typically be the chirps and yaps and squeaks of a dozen or so imps, most of the enclosures were completely empty. The only creature that currently seemed to reside here was a little black impup, who was asleep in its cage, its soft, barely audible snores being the only noise from the room. 

The flapping of small wings and footsteps broke the silence. As he turned, first he saw Reginald, Hutch’s pet chirop, flying into the room, closely followed by the imp trainer themself. 

“Hello, thanks for coming. As you can see, well, it's been busy here the last few days…” They gave a sheepish laugh. “I’ve sold out of almost all imps, and I'd like some help in trying to catch and tame some more.”

Zepp smiled at the bun, giving them a set of finger guns. “Yeah totally, no problem!”

“Good, good. I got a message from Hops about an infestation of remils in The Rabbit Hole’s kitchen, so we should probably start with there first.” They picked up a cage to transport the imps in, handing it to Zepp, and took some bait and traps in their own arms. The pair left the shop, the imporium owner turning the sign on the front to “closed”, and locked up the door. 

After making the short walk over to the bar, they found the bartender outside, a panicked look on her face. She lit up upon noticing the two approaching the building. 

“Hutch, Zepp, thank fuck you're here.” Hops began to explain the situation, how she had been bringing a delivery of food into the pantry, and noticed a hole in one of the boxes as she was placing it into the pantry. Upon opening it, several remils jumped out, and scattered all around the room, devouring every piece of food they could access. She closed the door on them, and immediately contacted Hutch. 

“I'm going to be in so much trouble with Angora for this.” She gave a heavy sigh, slumping against the door. “Don't worry,” Hutch replied softly. “We’ll capture them and get them out of your fur. Why don't you show us where they are?”

“Okay, this way.”

She led the two towards the back room, where the kitchen was located. From the chairs, cutlery and other furniture scattered around the room, knocked over and thrown everywhere, it was clear she had just sprinted to the doorway with no heed for her surroundings, taking whatever was in her way with her. She pointed them to the door, but didn't want to go in herself. “There's a second door leading to the pantry, they should be in there… I hope they're still there at least.” She began to clean up the mess she had made of the bar, bidding the two luck in capturing the wild imps. 

When they opened the door, the kitchen was in a similar state. Pots, pans, and utensils everywhere. The squeaks and scuttling of many imps could be heard from the pantry. Hutch put a finger to their lips, beckoning to Zepp that they should be quiet. “Help me set up some traps by the door,” They whispered. He did as asked, placing down some of the little plastic boxes, small biscuit imp treats placed inside to coax the remils inside. They were designed so that the imp would attempt to climb in the opening at the top to try and retrieve the treat, and be unable to get out again. Once they were done, they slowly and carefully cracked the door to the pantry open, and they waited. 

After a few minutes, the first little black rat-like imp came through the crack in the door, its big, white eyes locked on the biscuit. It climbed up on top of the box, tried to reach down its head to the treat, before falling down into the trap. It began squeaking, and frantically running around the inside of the box, trying to escape. When it realised it couldn't, it just curled up. A few more minutes passed, and the second imp came out, and a third, all falling into the different traps the same way, until there were five remils in the imp traps. Zepp opened the door to the pantry further, checking for any other signs of movement. There was no sign of any more wild imps inside, nor was there any more food, the shelves now being bare. In the meantime, Hutch carefully took the little imps out of the traps, transferring them into the bigger cage. 

“Is there any more inside?”

“Not that I can tell, anyway”

“Good, good, we should let Hops know.”

They picked up the cage of remils, and Zepp took the traps into his arms. They exited the kitchen, to where Hops was trying to clean up the mess she had made. 

“Oh, did you catch them all?” 

“Yes, all of them are here.” They showed her the cage, in which she pulled away from almost immediately.”

“Haha, I'll trust you with that, don't really need to see them. Thank you anyway. I'm guessing the kitchen is barren, though…”

“Yeah,” Zepp replied. She seemed completely disheartened. “They got at pretty much everything.”

“Fuck… that's another thing I'm going to have to pay back to Angora… thanks for your help. Good luck with taming them.”

They bid their farewells to the bartender, who continued tidying the mess, and brought the newly caught imps back to the imporium, placed them in different cages out in the back of the store, and set off towards their next destination, this time towards Dan’s Dango shop, where apparently, a group of inkaps had made a new home in the garbage bins outside.