stakeout anxiety

Rigel arrived a little after sundown to the stakeout tent that Hops set up near the hazebloom beds, his anxiety burning fiercely in his chest. He slipped inside the tent and sat nervously beside Hops as she gazed out every so often towards the beds, keeping a sharp eye out for any culprits.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Hops?? What if the culprit is...is the fey king? What if he's violent?!" Rigel swallowed hard and sweat bullets just thinking about it. Hops tried to reassure him and motioned towards the net she had, "C'mon, Rigel, relax. If he's as small as those hoof prints we've seen, there's nothing to worry about. I'll just catch him in this net here."

"Well...alright...I hope you're right, or else we're going to have a massive problem on our hands..." Rigel sighed and shook his head, rubbing some tears of fear that pricked at his eyes away. Hops placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, giving him a soft smile, "Hey, everything's going to be alright. We're well prepared, and we have each other's backs. Besides, we don't even know for sure if the culprit is the fey king, it could just be some mischievous, unknown imp. At least Hutch will be happy to hear about this if it is an imp, though..."

"Yeah, you're right, thanks for the reassurance..." Rigel couldn't help but laugh a little and nodded his head, and he took a deep breath to try to calm his nerves as he went back to watching out of the tent with Hops, continuing to keep an eye out for the culprit.

Hours passed as nothing seeming to happen or go bump in the night, and if it weren't for Rigel's anxiety spiking every so often, he would probably be asleep by now. Hops, however, was wide awake still with extreme vigilance and alertness. She would jerk if she heard anything shuffling, which just caused Rigel to become even more anxious. He knew that he just had to calm down, however, as Hops had reminded him before. He looked around to try and find something to distract himself, finding one of the dango snacks that he had gotten from Dan as their stakeout snacks. He opened the plastic, and chewed on the dango happily. However, he was kind of...being loud about it, smacking his lips from the chewiness of the dango. Hops slowly turned to him, furrowing her brows, "...Can you keep it down over there?"

"Oh, u-um, sorry..." Rigel laughed nervously, then tried to remain quiet as he finished off his snack. Hops laughed a little, shaking her head, "It's okay, Rigel, we just don't want to scare off any potential culprits. Let me see one of those dango, I'm also quite hungry..."

Rigel handed her one of the dango as he opened up his second one, the both of them a much needed snack after hours of watching and no luck of seeing anything.

As they both enjoyed the snacks, Rigel's anxiety began to ease up even more and became less of a burden on him. The deliciousness of the dango and the company of Hops was a great tension reliever as he gazed out at the hazebloom beds, gently gleaming in the moonlight. He let out a content sigh, completely relaxed at the sight; it was peaceful, nothing disturbing the silence besides the occasional rustle of leaves from the wind or a passerby imp. Rigel almost forgot he was on a stakeout if it wasn't for Hops snapping him back to attention as she went back to gazing out at the beds with her net, a quiet reminder of the task at hand.

However, the peaceful moment was abruptly interrupted as the bushes near the bed of hazeblooms began to shuffle and rustle. Hops quickly got up, Rigel snapping his head to her, "Did you hear that??"

"Yeah, I heard it, now get ready as backup and I'll check it out-" Hops eagerly held her net and shuffled out of the tent, going near the flowerbeds and watching the bushes with a firm gaze. Rigel slowly followed, his heart beating out of his chest. This was it, this could be their culprit. It could simply be an imp, or it could be the fey king...That was the last thing Rigel was hoping it'd be.

After a couple more seconds of shuffling and shaking, something jumped out from the bushes...!

Hops let out a disappointed groan, "Ugh, this isn't our culprit, it's just a rabebe. Dunno why it's out this late in the year, but it certainly isn't our culprit."

She waved her net at it as Rigel let out a huge sigh of relief, shooing the rabebe away after it sniffled the ground a little in curiosity. The both of them were about to return to the tent when there was a loud shuffling coming from the bushes. Hops looked back, along with Rigel as his heart began to beat out of his chest again, "What's that...?"

It got closer and closer, and before long, the true culprit revealed itself...!