*rrRip*
The cardboard box containing our hero was opened, and his utterly deflated body was pulled from the packaging. Two voices spoke, just out of his line of sight. "Are there any instructions?"

"Not that I see."

"Isn't it supposed to say something?"

Groggily, Hergot/Bozon listened, struggling towards wakefulness with the opening of his packaging. It had been a very boring but stressful however-long-it-had-been since he'd been carefully put in there and sealed inside.

He was expected to say something? Oh dear, these jesters had very limited speech capabilities as he knew well from playing with them. Well, there was one thing that he knew he could say regardless, at least.

His eyes opened a little, finding the movement more difficult than it ought to have been as himself, and he tried to say the one thing that he knew an inflatable jester could without expending any magic. His character name.

"Bozon?"

Bozon could see a young boy clap and exclaim, "Woah, that's rad! Can I inflate it a little, dad?"

"Go on, son! Just be sure to use the bicycle pump."

The boy reaches for the pump, and gets ready to shove it in the lower rear valve.

Bozon's eyes opened a little more, eyes slowly turning in his helpless, deflated face to try and look at the child. It took an effort to do, more like hauling a log than like the simplicity of normal body movement. He privately prayed that it would be easier once he had some air in him.

And from what bit he could see and hear, it seemed like that was soon going to be the case. What was a 'bicycle pump' though? He did not recognize that first word.

A touch of fingers, dulled by the heavy rubber coating his human self. Or... where was his own self, like this? Something to ponder on his own time. Something cold pressed against the base of his spine; he was fairly sure that he knew what it was touching. Apprehension ran through his nerves, not knowing what he was in for but determined to face it like a man. Like his victims had. A taste of his own poison.

The bicycle pump was inserted in the only logical location, and air was pumped in until Bozon was just a little less inflated than was most comfortable for him.

The boy said, "What does it do?"

Before he could respond, he was interrupted by a man dressed in reds and greens, "King Samhradh, the convoy leaving for Nexus is about to depart. If you are going to send your son for schooling at the Tree of Wisdom..."

The boy's father replied, "Go on ahead and report back on potential dangers for the journey. When that task is complete, knight, then we will send Tine to school."

The knight jovially responded, "You just want him to get your money's worth from the jester, don't you?"

"If I do, then you can have your fun with him when you return."

"Ha! Fair enough. I'll return as soon as the task is complete." With that the knight departed.

Tine repeated himself, "So... what does it do?"