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The Blacke Letter; Part 6 |
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I went slower this time and kept my eyes front and also kept talking to Jerek to ensure that he was still behind me. “Thank ye, Chase, fer that back there. You’re the one stole his wallet, though, weren’t ya?”
I smiled even though he couldn’t see it. “Aye, ‘twas me who stole it. But I gave it back so don’t go getting mad at me.”
“True, Chase, but ye shouldn’t a stoled it in da firs’ place.”
“Ah know…” then I chuckled and said something to him that made him groan aloud in despair. “Got his cufflinks though…”
Now that I went slower, and wasn’t as overly excited, I could get more from those I passed. As I told Jerek what kind of ship to look out for, Jerek saw me make some quick motion with my paw and then I had some nearby civilians’ gold watch-chain over my wrist as I made my way across the port through the crowd. One woman’s purse was snatched and replaced in the blink of an eye, it’s contents emptied, and I moved on towards the nearest wealthy looking person, tucking another chain and a wallet into my sash. I passed by a young looking Frix and had the tailring from her tail without so much as ruffling the fur. I was running out of space to hold onto the stolen goods, so I slipped the stolen bone ring over my own tail and curled it to keep it in place.
Old Jerek was quite taken aback by what he was witnessing and was no longer listening to me. He watched as the forever - in his eyes - innocent kit that he though he knew for years, took from every and any one near to paw. All sorts of trinkets and gems, tiny precious items and jewelry was pillaged, stolen, filched, and ultimately thieved from anyone, even if the victim was looking right at me.
Once, I disappeared into the crowd, only to emerge seconds later with a gleaming double pawful of garnet. Half of it, I poured into the leftover space in one wallet in my sash, and the rest, with no where else to be hidden, was stuffed into my mouth and held safely, unobtrusively there, as if I were a Fromin. Fromins were the squirrel or chipmunk type species.
Old Jerek couldn’t believe his eyes. I was adorned not only with a large assortment of stolen weaponry, but also with dozens of stolen trinkets from innocent people!
“Captain! I see the Silencer!” Lapis told me from behind Jerek.
“Oh! Good!” I told her, without slurring a word on the garnet hidden in my mouth. With practice, I was able to hide most any item that way, and even numerous rounded, smooth and slippery items, like garnet. I would remain undetected by being able to slip my words right around and over the garnet whenever I spoke, without even having to think about it. I had even done it with Shinara, and once, went through an entire school day - including lunch - with perhaps a dozen garnet that I had not had time to deliver or hide any place before school.
I led the group toward the Silencer, no longer able to pilfer for the lack of room to hide the stolen goods, and made it to the dock that the Silencer waited at.
I crouched down behind a row of crates that were going to be loaded onto the Silencer and tried to watch the activities on board but was too low from the deck.
“You’re gonna steal this too, ain’t ya, Chase?” Jerek said with a note of disappointment.
“Don’t sound so resentful. Wouldn’t be a true pirate if I didn’t. ‘Sides, ye didnae mind so much when I told ye the KC was stolen.”
He blinked owlishly. “Ye know wot, yer right! We don’t go by no laws! Ah must be fergettin’ me manners! Carry on, Chase!”
He smiled and I smiled and Shinara, who stood moodily by, arms crossed at her chest, told me “Hurry up, kit! The captain’s the stupid little fat Sirin on the far side, and his crew only numbers a dozen! They’re all unarmed, so get to it before more passengers get on!”
I looked at her and almost glared, but remembered her previous actions to save my life, and instead nodded and motioned to Lapis on the other side of me.
“Looks like a fast little ship, Captain.” she told me.
“Yes. ‘S’why I chose it.”
“What’s the plan now?”
I drew two daggers and held them in both paws, brandishing them threateningly. “Charge in, take the ship, and kill any who resist!” I growled dangerously, happily, and hopped half over the crate before I was dragged back by my tail.
“Hold on there, Captain! A dozen’s too many for us, an’ that’s no way to get a ship anyway!”
I scoffed and told her “Auch! O course it is! I may have been trained in the manner a bein’ a good merchant captain, but I can certainly pirate my way into getting our own ship. Look! See!” I sheathed my weapons as I ran, and thought of which to use while I dashed forward.
I raced over and up the ramp, cringing a bit at the actual water below the ramp. The other three followed and stood subtly on the ramp to watch. I dodged around the wealthy, smartly dressed merchant passengers, startling them as I sought out the captain. As soon as I spotted the young, naïve, little vole looking Sirin, I whipped out the Khran that had belonged to Vervain and pounced upon him. With a cry, he went down, yelling “Help! Attack! Help me!” in a doofy Swedish accent. Realizing what weapon I menaced him with, I collapsed the Khran and drew one of the pistols to his forehead and he fell still. The civilian passengers would not attack - not the primly dressed lady Flurids and Sirins, nor the egotistical but inwardly cowardly, snooty Frix and Priffin gentlemen. And why should any of them play the hero? They were just lowly passengers and tourists.
“Everyone! Off the ship now, or the captain dies!” the passengers who had formed a ring around the spectacle gasped. Surely I wasn’t serious?
They could all plainly see how old I was - was this just a little children’s game? And was that pistol just a little toy?
None of them made a move to stop me and find out, or to leave as I had ordered. These snooty, snobby, too-busy-for-children sort of people could not realize the seriousness of the matter, because to them, (not ever having had any) children were nuisances and played silly games when they should be working or doing chores or attending school. Because of their baffled slow shuffling and the fact that my order had not been carried out posthaste, I jerked the gun violently and pulled the trigger without looking at the captain underneath me.
The loud, serious bang got them running, screaming and crowding towards the ramp. I watched them go, then nodded to my three standing at the rail.
“Chase! Tell me yeh didn’t kill ‘im!” Jerek dashed toward me and I stepped away to reveal the traumatized but otherwise unharmed ship’s captain. Above his head, on the wood of the deck, was a small, blacke starburst of ash where the laser had hit.
“I wasn’t really gonna kill him!” I smiled cheekily at old Jerek. He looked sternly at me then the pistol in my paw, but could not stay angry.
“Get up! You’re not dead!” I ordered the captain of the ship.
The terrified fat Sirin got up as quickly as he could, lest he invoke my wrath. “There! See? Never had any intentions a killin’ ‘im, Jerek.” I looked at the portly well-dressed captain. His nose was pointy and had long un-Sirin like whiskers protruding from tons of places, long and scruffy. I gave him a quizzical look, then peered closely at his face. “Hey, uh, what’s wrong with yer face, there?” I asked him, absently plucking a whisker as that had been the object of my confusion.
He squeaked and put both paws to his nose. I didn’t wait for an answer. “Wot’s yore name?” I said it sternly so as to not make him think I was suddenly just going to shake his paw.
He told me in a shaky voice “Friffin, Miss.” I smirked dangerously, then looked him up and down, although I hadn’t far to look up; he was almost as short as I was.
“Last name?” I asked him expectantly.
“Pfeiffer - My name’s Friffin Pfeiffer, Miss.”
“Gods! That’s a mouthful of a name!” I grinned and laughed and Friffin too smiled, hoping that it was okay to now that I was. “Tell ye wot, Friffin, me fat Pfeiffer. How’s about lendin’ us this fine speedy craft ye got here to a fine honest group of tradesmen like yeself, eh? Oh, we’ll take good care a her, don’t you worry yerself over that, matey! So, hows ’bout it?”
Friffin Pfeiffer nodded hurriedly as he saw my paw straying dangerously close to the pistol in my sash. “Yes, yes! Go right ahead, Miss! Just please, don’t hurt me! I never did anything against you!” Friffin pleaded with me. I smirked and his pleas grew more rapid and higher pitched, then suddenly, I realized that he wasn’t Sirin at all. No wonder I had thought at first that he looked like a vole or shrew; he was a Cheen. A mouse type creature with a pointed snout and whiskers and a long tail. He was an odd little creature though, and every time he spoke to me, it seemed at first out of fear, but then, his expression, his tone of voice, it hit me as fascination or awe.
Friffin stopped, mid-sentence when I suddenly laughed aloud at something unknown to him. No wonder he’d been so fearful of me. Friffin looked at me, worried that he had said something that might earn him a laser to the brain. “Friffin! Me heartie!” I told him with a broad grin and placed an arm around his shoulders. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya! In fact, I was jus’ gonna tell yeh to scamper on back to yore hole. But, I’d also like teh give ye a bit of advice that might help yew to keep all yor limbs where they currently are. Would ye like teh hear it?”
I dug my claws into the shoulder of his that I held and he squealed. “Yes! Yes! That’d be a nice bit of advice, Miss!” that was exactly what I wanted to hear.
“Good! Then, listen up! If ye go on right back home don’t be telling no one on yore way or any family members about me, yore ship, or what ‘appened today, it’ll help yeh out immensely. Like ter know why, Friffeh?” I asked slyly. He agreed again and I let go of his shoulder to step slowly around to the front of him as he said “Yes, please, Miss!”
With a snarl, I grabbed both his shoulders from the front and hissed into his face as I spoke and thought he might faint. “Because! Friffen Pfeiffer! I know your name! An’ if I’m followed by any security from this planet, I will turn this craft right back around and I will find you! I’ll hunt you down like the squealing little rat that you are, and you’ll regret me ever having let you go the first time!”
Before the hapless Cheen could nod or pass out, whichever came first, I flung him by the shoulders that I still had my claws dug into, bodily toward the ramp. He ran as fast as I had ever seen something so fat run.
I watched him run, and then saw him do a peculiar thing; down on the docks as I still watched, he stopped. Friffin Pfeiffer stopped and turned to look back at me. And there, on his chubby little face, was that look of awe again. And then, it was gone, as he resumed running away through the crowd.
Jerek placed a paw on my shoulder saying “Ye see that look he gave ya, mate? That, Chase, was yore first bit of fame. Ye’ve done it Chase, ye’ve gotten a name among the goodbeasts.” he stopped. “But Chase. I ain’t never seen yeh like this afore. Is this just a show, or have I bin blind these seven years that I’ve known ye?” his tone was genuinely sad.
I smiled gently up at him and took his paw from my shoulder in both of mine. “Yer old, matey. ‘Tis okie to be missin’ a few things now and again.” I told him just as gently as my eyes told him. “Don’ worry yerself mate. I won’t kill no one, lest they’s tryin’ kill me, or tryin’ ter kill yew. A’hm changing the whole definition of pirate!”
“Ah thank ye, Chase. Yer a good friend, an’ a good Cap’n. Most pirate Cap’n’s wouldn’t give a care about their crew or about who they killed. I kin tell ye ain’t ever gonna have a mutiny ter deal with cuz ye’ll do everthin’ right even though yer stealin‘. Ye’ll keep yore crew ‘appy an’ ye listens ter them, an’ that might be cuz yer still young, but I fer one, believe that ye will indeed be changing dictionaries all over the systems, mate!” he stopped and stood staring out at the sunset with me. “So, when’s me pay?”
I laughed and shoved him sideways. “Ye’ll get it soon enough! In fact, jus’ as soon as we’s get back here with a full crew in a little while, I’ll have everyone meet in the galley an’ I’ll split what pay I’ve got to give ye then. Don’t get used ter a regular paycheck though, cuz once we get under way with stealin’ from big treasure an’ merchant ships, yer pay is whatever ye kin carry off that ship. Now, go with Lapis an’ find some able bodied critters to make a full crew, an’ bring ‘em back ‘ere fer my inspection.”
The next words Jerek told me as he saluted made me beam proudly in realization that dreams do come true. “Aye-aye, Captain!”
I knew very well that leaving The Silencer after Lapis and Jerek had already gone was not the smartest of actions, but I had done it anyway; we were looking for members for my crew after all. If I wanted what I hoped to get then certainly I would have to search for myself as well.
The first place I went to was called The Office. The name really did not fit what it was though. The Office was a place for anyone to sign up for a job. They could either sign up and leave their applications there to be reviewed later by searching employers, or they could simply wait in the massive hall for employers to come looking. The Office here was not nearly as large as the ones on the planet Port or at any of the Proximas, but it did look like it needed to be. The place was packed. All manner of creatures from different species adorned and disgraced alike the benches, tables and floor space. Some were very young, seeking their first jobs and others were very old and seemed on their last legs, looking for jobs to be able to keep their homes. I remembered waiting long hours in The Office on Port just like these poor souls, and although I hadn’t been there looking for a job of course, it was still a pretty bleak and pointless waste of time stealing from them.
In this Office, sat mostly Priffin and Cheen. There were of course others, like Sirin and Ibaras, Flurid and Markien, but not so many. Many of the younger ones sat on the floor and played card games or with wooden marbles, but everyone else mostly chatted with each other, or slept in whatever somewhat comfortable place they could find if they were here alone. A meager lunch was served everyday for those that stayed most of the day or had no where else to go, but only lunch to discourage any freeloading. The place was also closed at dusk every day to also discourage anyone attempting to make the place a permanent housing facility.
There was boring elevator music droning in the background and it was one of those tunes that you either had to get used to or go mad trying to ignore. Most people talked quietly, so there was also a steady murmuring of bored tones to mingle with and therefore strengthen the maddeningly dull tune of the music. The place was bleak and dead and grey and dull, but it was not filthy; in fact it was a cheerful place, but with these people crowded inside, it seemed cheery and dead all at the same subtle, alluring time, making The Office a truly dead and hopeless pit of simmering misery.
This was a tourist planet, that being the reason The Office was on the port; the only place on the planet not underwater. That also meant there were not many jobbing opportunities, so the room would probably remain crowded for a very long time.
I stood outside The Office, looking in the window at the hopeless faces. There was just a sprinkling of Markien and Flurid, unwelcome by others and by each other, that stayed mainly in little clusters of their own species at the tables. There were two or three badger type creatures called Salan too, who, whether they be male or female, always seemed to radiate a sense of protection, a sort of guardian. Most everyone felt welcome with a Salan; except Frix and Crea. It seemed there was a hatred, an insatiable rivalry born into their blood. Of course, the Salan was always an attraction for bets when it came to fights, but both species could outdo each other in some way or another. The few Salan in the room commanded the most oppressing feelings because in here, it seemed the only rule was survival of the fittest, coupled by the presence of the male Ibaras and the lean Sirain.
Sirain, perhaps even more crafty than the Frix, were although unseen, perhaps the most abundant species in the room. There was a noticeable pack in the far corner, but like their ancient wolf ancestry, there were many scattered about the room, seemingly none connected with another, but inwardly, all a part of the same devious pack. There were so many here because Sirain probably had the worst luck when it came to getting hired for anything. The Sirain species, naturally noble and proud, were also believed by many to be naturally evil. Many of these Sirain were jobless because most of the employers that came were looking for honest beasts. Many Sirain looked and found thrills in dishonest jobs, such as assassins, mercenaries, poisoners and spies.
The Markien and Flurid did well in hiding themselves among the rabble but each was always wary of the other. It was not uncommon for such fights to break out between species.
Overall, the room was packed with a motley jumble of all species, all in the same predicament as the poor slob sleeping next to him.
As soon as the little bell on the door rang, proclaiming visitors, every set of eyes was cast in my direction with a hopeful intensity. The room went chillingly still and quiet and I expected to be swamped with requests by the dozens in here. But as suddenly as it had stopped, the dull, droning hum of monotonous voices resumed and I was forgotten. And I knew why too; I looked just like any of them. All except for the obvious assortment of knives and pistols in my sash; but that wasn’t too surprising either….
With an apprehensive glance at a nearby moody looking Flurid, I walked carefully around the people in the room and made my way to the desk way at the back. Here, two Salan sat, idly leafing through some paperwork. I was not tall enough to see over the counter so I hopped up onto it instead, gaining both the attention of the two clerks and a new line of vision. Neither of them scolded me for it, but instead looked at me wearily. The one on the left instead asked me “Hello. Welcome to The Office. Would you like an application sheet or to stay here with everyone else? You’ll have to remove all your weapons too.” her voice was as bored as could be, but calm and sweet. She had a homely face, but a determined and stubborn one.
I sat on the counter, rodent-like, and told her “No thanks. I’m actually here to hire.”
At this the other Salan looked up from his paperwork. “Really? Then I’ll help you out over here. She covers new arrivals.” With a slightly lopsided pleased sort of expression, I directed my attention to him. “Alright, Miss. I’ve got a giant stack of papers here with applications. You can look through that or through the rabble gathered here. What sort of beasts are you hiring?”
“Sailors for a crew.” I told him, idly gnawing on a bit of garnet still in my mouth.
“Alright. We get a lot of employers for sailors. Let me find that folder…Ah! Here you are! This giant stack is all the applications we’ve gotten in the last three months from people looking for a job on deck. Don’t find anything in here that you like, then you can browse through this lot. Anyone wearing a blue tag with the number 1004 on it is a one looking to job as a sailor.”
I thanked him and took the offered stack of papers which was quite the hefty load and hopped back down off the counter. I sat at the foot of it and dropped the stack of applications that echoed with a resounding thump on the floor that got half the room quiet again. I ignored it and sat beside my new task and set about reading through them carefully. It was tough going as I was not greatly skilled in reading and some of the handwriting was absolutely atrocious anyway. I looked through about a dozen before I was bored with it, and took a subtle glance up at the creatures in The Office. Almost half of them had a blue tag fastened to their shirt, coat, collar or hat. I looked disgustedly down at the papers I had been browsing through and might’ve continued looking, but I did not have much confidence hidden within the folds of those papers; these were only here because the applicant was not. That meant, even if I found the perfect nominee in these papers, the person would need to be contacted and then a meeting date and then an interview must be arranged. I had no time for that.
I shoved the stack of papers away and looked up to face a scraggly young Serain. He was cloaked, like Lapis and I could not see his face very well.
“I hear yer hirin’ sailors…”
I faced him fully, indignantly, paws akimbo and told him “Aye, and how would the likes a yew have any sich knowledge a me own affairs?” I eyed him suspiciously.
He spread his arms and gave me what he hoped was an innocent grin. He adopted a corsair accent and spoke to me in a wheedling, disarming, and almost pleading tone. “Why, I ‘eard it from yore own mouth, missy!” he slipped into the pirate slang easily and it was obvious that he had been on a ship before. He held out a paw and I looked him over suspiciously. He was tall; quite a bit taller than I was. He was of average build, or so I could tell because of the cloak. From two slits cut into the top of the hood his grey ears protruded, floppy and comical. Had he a little more fur, he’d have looked like a younger version of Jerek. He too was loaded with daggers and knives cleverly concealed in his belt and pockets. Most of the weapons were rusty and chipped, but a few were finely crafted with golden hilts or crystal blades. One such knife with a ruby pommel stone set in a plain silver cross hilt caught my eye though. Surely that was not his. He was perhaps even more decorated with weapons than myself. How he had been allowed to enter with that assortment was beyond me and probably himself too. What threw me off the most though, was the long, thick, rather unnerving rat tail that flicked and curled back and forth in a slow purposeful manner across the floor behind him.
I was no longer entirely certain of the species but I told him “Ah’m sorry matey, but Ah don’t think I’ll be needin’ anyone like you aboard me ship. But, wot do you do, anyway?”
His smile was a dangerous toothy grin; or it would have been if it wasn’t obvious that more than half of the teeth in his mouth were baby teeth. The grin though, matched his eyes as they told me this was not an entirely honest beast.
“I’m an assassin, Miss. A knife thrower, a poisoner, a thief, like yerself. I kin throw a dagger to clip the whiskers off anyone’s face from an’ ‘undred feet! I kin poison ya quick and quiet or slow and loud with just a drop! An’ that ain’t all! I kin pilfer the teeth right outta yore face without ya knowin’!” he paused a moment to make sure I was still listening. “Why, lookie ‘ere! Got this fine little craft right outta yer belt an’ yew didn’t even know it, didya!” he held up the dagger for me to see. It was quite the rusty artifact, chipped and bent, and not nearly mine.
“Auch! Ain’t yew the braw beastie! Tryin’ teh pass that mess a metal off as me own! Ye’d make a better lawyer than a thief, assassin or poisoner any day! Ha! Assassin! Yer nothing’ but a ragtag liddle pup, a-stanin’ there on those stilts feedin’ me a pack a lies! Ah don’t need no liars in me crew, so git ‘ee a goin’, kiddie!”
I brushed past the stunned and mortified Serain, and he floundered for a moment as I walked away. He regained himself quickly to follow me to the door, stuttering and tripping over himself in his attempt to follow. I looked back at him when I heard a thud and a clatter of wood behind me. He hurriedly gathered up the stilts and now torn cloak, blushing furiously as he tried to put the twice-his-size robe back on and still leave without making too much more of a scene.
I rolled my eyes, stepped out the door and let him follow as he rambled in my wake. “But Miss!” he told me in his now childish voice, pleading with me as he stumbled over the hem of the cloak for the second time. “Please wait! I’m really an assassin an’ I kin really be helpful! Really! Miss!” he struggled to keep up with me.
I stopped abruptly, holding my temper as he ran into me from behind and fell flat on his back. I turned, but did not help him to his feet. He hurriedly got himself back in order, and grinned lopsidedly at me. It was something in between a cheeky smirk and a sheepish smile.
“Alright, I’m waitin’.” I told him impatiently.
His smile vanished. “Miss, just gimme a chance! I kin steal and poision and throw too! Please! Jus’ lemme show ya!”
I sighed and regretfully, told him “Alright, but one more fib from yer face an’ Ah’m walkin’ away!” he nodded eagerly, hoping to please. Typical Sirin, but not Serain. What was he? “Okie then. Take one a them fancy knives a yourn an’ foller me.” I led him through the crowd a short distance into a wide empty alleyway. At the back were some heaps of trash and old posters or flyers and newspapers piled against the wooden fence. I pointed at the fence. “Ya see that wee scrap a parchment stuck agin’ the boards back there?” he nodded immediately. “Good. Now hit it with that knife and let’s see if yer really as good as ya say ye are.”
He looked from the knife to the fence, uncertainty stamped clearly upon his face. Just as I turned and was about to walk away and leave him, he turned, sharp and fleeting, to let the dagger fly, straight and true. I whipped back around to see the knife take the bottom edge of the scrap of paper down the alley. It was low, but then, the Serain was short.
“Matey! Good throw!” I clapped him on the back heartily. I saw a foreign look of unfamiliarity cross his face before he smiled proudly, then opened his mouth to boast, but I beat him to it. “Do it agin.”
His smile dwindled, but only a little. He did indeed do it again. We both heard clearly the resounding clang of metal on metal as his next knife struck the last.
“See! I really can throw!” his statement was not an indignant one, but more of a surprised one. Beginners luck, or a natural?
“Aye, that ye can! But wot about theivin’? Your fist example weren’t really a good one. Can yeh really steal, dog? Or are you jus’ gonna tell yer victim ya stole sumthin’ an’ expect ‘em to believe ya?” I sneered good naturedly.
“Yeah! I can definitely steal! Before; that was just -”
“Show me.”
He stopped talking, as I had obviously wanted, nodded happily and went down the alley to retrieve his thrown blades. This time, I led him to the edge of the crowd and onto an empty dock. Here, I sat myself down on a metal chest and told the Serain “See that ridiculously dressed Priffin over there? See all that stuff he’s got? See that giant overstuffed bag right beside him? Yeah? Well, ferget it. Look up on his belt. See the gold pocket watch and the silver cufflinks too? Well, nab ‘em both and don’t get caught by no one.”
“Aye-aye!” my applicant saluted eagerly and trotted off toward the Priffin.
He took off through the crowd on a direct path for his target. I frowned; he shouldn’t be doing that.
I watched subtly as he approached the Priffin very much the same way he had approached me.
“Good day to you, sir!” I heard him vaguely greet the victim. I stood then, ready to break up trouble when the Serain got caught. The fancily dressed Priffin looked down at the Serain, saying “Yes, rather nice day, isn’t it?” he asked more to himself absentmindedly. “Err, may I help you?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you can!” the Serain proclaimed in a business-like tone. “Allow me to introduce myself! I am, uh… Leonardo De Quincewuald! And you, fine sir, look like you could use a nice fancy decoratin’ blade to match yer outfit! Why, jus’ lookie here at this extravagant little knife! Goes nicely with yer style, wouldn’cha say?”
The Priffin eyed him cynically for just a moment, then twitched his nose ill-temperedly before opening his mouth to retort with something probably not suited for Leonardo’s ears anyway.
Before any sound could be made though, Leonardo handed the jeweled dagger to the Priffin and the puzzled victim could only take it with fumbling hands as Leonardo told him “Completes the purty picture of yer fine self, now don’t it?” he grinned hugely at the Priffin, and all the hare could do was stutter a bit.
“But, I don’t…I mean, there’s really no need - I think -”
Again, Leonardo interrupted. “Forgive me! Kind civilian, I ‘aven’t the pleasure a knowin’ yer name!” Leonardo’s smile never faded and his bubbly outspokenness threatened to boil over the brim.
“Oh, uh, I’m Kaddar Longwind III, but I -”
Leonardo took Kaddar’s paw and shook it warmly, saying whole heartedly “Pleased ta meet’cha, Mr. Longwind! Well, Kaddar me fine feller! If’n ya don’t think ya need sich a fine knife as this’n, then lemme demonstrate!” and as Leonardo ceased shaking Kaddar’s paw and took his own away, I saw the cufflinks go with it - a stealthy endeavor, but not an expert one. “This little dagger’s got an edge keener ’n the guillotine! No wind resistance ya see! Watch closely now!”
With a flick of his wrist, he sliced sideways, making the Priffin jump back in surprise. The Serain wasn’t kidding though; that blade was sharp and it parted the silver chain in two. At the same time that the Priffin hopped back in alarm, the watch and chain fell noiselessly onto the bag beside him.
Loenardo made a great show of being concerned of course. “Terribly sorry, Sir Longwind! Didn’t mean to give ye a scare like that! Just demonstratin’ the cleavin’ prowess a sich a pretty lil’ knife! Note how smooth that was! Never clipped a hair off ya!”
Leonardo held out the weapon hilt first to Kaddar, imploring he take it and try it himself. His childish grin seemed glued to his face.
Finally, gathering himself up, Kaddar adopted an assertive tone with the young Serain. “Young sir, I neither want nor need any weapon! Really! Who needs weapons these days!”
I thought Leonardo was pressing his luck terribly when he asked Kaddar “So, does that mean ye don’t want ter buy..?”
“Quite right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a dock to locate.” Kaddar replied rather huffily. He went to lift the huge bag and Leonardo rushed to help.
“Alrighty then! Terribly sorry sir, for botherin’ ya! Here, lemme’ help ya with that big ole’ suitcase!”
Outwardly, Leonardo politely helped the Priffin with his bag, but just as Kaddar turned, Leonardo snatched the watch from atop it as he turned to leave as well.
Again, he took a direct tack toward me. To counter it from any suspicion, I pretended not to notice his looking directly at me.
“Hey! Was that good? That was good, right?”
I sighed “ You‘ve got a lot to learn, but you did get the job done.”
His draw dropped. “‘lot to learn’? Why, that was perfect pilferin’ if’n I don’t say so meself, missy!” He paused and eyed me suspiciously. “Ye sayin’ ye can best me at theivin’…?” Leonardo asked indignantly.
“Yes.” I told him monotonously, leaning back against the crate to grin crookedly at him. “But you are one lucky beast; you did so many sure-fire things to get yourself in trouble yet you still pulled it off.”
Leonardo was starting to fume in rage. “Like what? I didn’t do nothing’ wrong! That was perfect! The whole thing!”
I sighed in exasperation and stood up. “Wot did ye do wrong, matey?! Where do I start! Fer one ye went right for the guy through the crowd. You also spoke to ‘im! A good thief is never seen, never heard. An’ what if’n I’d given you a time limit to keep to? You took nearly five minutes!”
Leonardo did not seem to listen though, and persisted. “So, yer sayin’ ye are better’n me.” he glowered suspiciously.
I walked a few feet around him, scrutinizing the insolent Serain with slight disdain. “Aye, that I am! You seem ter think this is a game. Stealin’ ain’t no game. Ye get caught by the wrong guy, they ain’t gonna throw yer in jail - no - ye gat caught by the wrong guy ye might find yer own dagger in yore back! Aye, an’ ye know why? Cuz a good thief runs, and ye’d get it in the back cuz you’d take a direct route away!”
Once again, Leonardo seemed only to have listened to my first word. “Weel then…” he said slowly, thoughtfully. “Ah says I kin beat yew any day at thievin’!
I stopped my slow scrutiny and unwittingly snapped “Is that a challenge?”
“On yer blade, it is!” he jeered.
“An’ I bet me blade I kin beat you!”
“Yer on!”
“State yer rules, dog!”
“One hour, lassie; one hour, we meet back ‘ere. Who’s got the most loot, is the better thief!”
I grinned, brandishing Vervain’s cutlass haphazardly. “I made my bet, so wot are yew bettin’?
“Me whole belt a blades!”
“Alrighty then! Shake on it!”
We shook paws, glaring at each other.
“Ready?”
“Ready!”
“Go!”
Two thieves raced away from Dock 93; one in a straight line, the other in a weaving pattern, neither ever knowing that a third person dashed away and into the crowd from the same starting point and toward the police station in a purposeful beeline.
 Wolf of Winds · Sun Oct 22, 2006 @ 07:45pm · 0 Comments |
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