Barrel swallowed another bite of his food and grumbled again. Lock sniggered.

"And it worked a bit [i]too[/i] well this time, eh, Carver?"

He gave Carver a playful shove as he headed into the lair. Shock came back to retrieve her gloves, taking care to handle them by the sleeves so she could soak them in milk and be certain none of the adderpepper juice was left.

~~~

By the time the trio were ready to settle down for the night, dinner had pretty much been forgotten. Lock managed to get Barrel to practice for a little while, and even got a good drum set out of him. Shock got her gloves clean and hung them up to dry, then went to check in on the scorpions she quarantined. They all let Carver do what he wanted.

As Carver couldn't always stay with them, they said their goodbyes when the pumpkin creature needed to head back to the Finklesteins, with the requisite slugs and punches.