Thieving Standards

[Zombie]

As the sun set behind the shops of the Business District and the bustle of a busy day began to calm, Lily Vaspar's second business began. Wearing a form-fitting green dress that was cut just slightly too low to be formal and not low enough to be provocative, she was seated primly behind her workbench, the smooth oak crowded with an organized chaos of bottles, beakers, and small pots. She carefully grated a small piece of mandrake root, a crucible catching the fine shavings. Without looking away from her work, she spoke. "Gauruk, sunset."

Wordlessly, the small mountain that had been sitting quietly in his massive wooden chair by the door stood up. The floorboards creaked as the troll walked to the front door of the shop. Drawing the curtains with exaggerated care, he slid a bar across the door and turned the deadbolt, nodding slightly at the satisfying thunk it made. Turning with the ponderous caution of a large man in a china shop, he took a large jar and a paper-wrapped bundle from one of the shelves and went to the rear door of the shop, unlocked it, and stepped outside into the rear alley. Shaking the jar, he woke the dozens of fireflies inside. From the cast iron bracket above the door, the insects cast a warm glow bright enough to see by. The troll sat down on the wooden crate in the shadows a ways down the alley from door and settled in to wait for the shop's hidden set of customers. Gauruk unwrapped the paper from his lunch, and slowly munched his way through the enormous sandwich. The smell of roast beef and mustard wafted on the cool evening air.

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb walked silently through the streets, hands in his pockets, his eyes staring off into the distance as he planned. Kaleb was, in short, tired of his small heists. Picking pockets, stealing food from the market place, such things were getting tedious and boring. What he needed was something that was more fun. Mind you he already had a place in mind. And he had already tried breaking into the place, but had failed due to a couple of... hindrances. If only Amyra could have been more help, instead of just flitting about and drawing all the wrong forms of attention. Speaking of the ghost-girl, where was she? Kaleb blinked and looked about, mildly surprised when his ghost companion wasn't right by his side.

"Amyra?" Kaleb called quietly, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. "Where'd you go?"
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It was hard, being away from her love, Kaleb; but he needed help! The little doggies were just too noisy... they liked her way too much, Amyra decided with a firm nod. Flitting through building after building she asked a couple nice and not so nice ghosts about her predicament. Only one had been helpful enough to point her to an underground alchemy store. Thanking the helpful spirit she zipped back to Kaleb, happy that she had good news for her love.
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Kaleb was just starting to enjoy the peace and quiet that came with the lack of Amyra by his side when she appeared, delighted by something or another.

"Kaleb my love, I have returned to your side with information I know you'll love!" Kaleb cocked an eyebrow at the ghost-girl hanging off of him, her eyes glittering happily up at him.

"And that would be?" "A way to get rid of the doggies~!" Kaleb smiled at Amyra.

"I'd appreciate it if you told me, Amyra." The ghost girl 'blushed' (she looked away and giggled) and told Kaleb of the underground alchemist's she'd heard of. After getting the location and politely saying no to yet another proposal of marriage, Kaleb headed to the store and knocked on the back door, as instructed, heart racing. Hopefully this wouldn't end with him being killed...

[Zombie]

Gauruk looked up at the sound of the knock. Wrapping up the rest of his sandwich, he lumbered out of the shadow he'd been sitting in and walked towards Kaleb, his bare feet making crunching sounds in the grit and dirt that covered the alley's cobblestones. His bleary, red-hued eyes locked on Kaleb, he put a hand on the door latch. Pausing with the door open a fraction of an inch, he rumbled, "Customers gotta be respec'ful when dey talkin' to Mistress Vaspar. Don' start nuffin you don' want me finishin'." The firefly lamp may have been responsible for the glint in his eyes, but the protective look on his face went far beyond that of hired muscle watching out for a client.

Opening the door the rest of the way, Gauruk led the way inside into the warmly lit shop. An observent man may have noticed the lack of traditional lamps. Instead, the ceiling was lined with scores, maybe hundreds, of examples of the glass-blower's art. Fireflies banged against the glass in many of the oddly shaped jars, bottles and tubes, while others were home to silently wriggling and crawling glowing insects of all shapes and varieties. The resulting light was the combination of all many of different hues and colors, blending into something close to sunlight instead of the normal reddish firelight one would expect.

Gauruk led the way into the main room of the ground floor. Lily still sat working at her bench, having moved on to carefully heating the mandrake shavings over the only flame in the building, an intensely bright candle with a small, white flame. Gauruk cleared his throat politely. It sounded like thunder echoing across a distant mountain range. "Lily. Customer." Sparing Kaleb one last meaningful look, he returned to the alley, closing the door behind him.

Lily carefully placed the crucible on a thick pad of cloth to cool. Looking Kaleb up and down, she smiled a mischievous little smile. "Well, you certainly don't look like most of the customers I see this late in the day. What can I do for you?"

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb stood by the door before he heard the crunch of feet on cobblestone. Turning to see if the person was a friend or foe Kaleb saw only a torso. Swallowing hard Kaleb looked up and say a chest and neck. Stumbling backwards slightly he looked even farther up to see one hell of a tall man staring down at him. Oh shit... was all he could think even as Amyra whistled appreciatively.

"Big guy." She commented, Kaleb agreeing silently.

"Customers gotta be respec'ful when dey talkin' to Mistress Vaspar. Don' start nuffin you don' want me finishin'." Kaleb nodded at the tall man/troll guy before following him into the store. The different colours and hues had Amyra squealing in delight and flitting about the place, touching and playing with the glass-blown lights. Kaleb glanced up, rolled his eyes at her happy antics before he moved to stand before a small-ish woman. Kaleb jumped when the big guy cleared his throat.

"Lily. Customer." Kaleb watched with careful eyes, not missing the meaningful look, before turning to Lily.

"Well, you certainly don't look like most of the customers I see this late in the day. What can I do for you?" Kaleb gave her one of his most charming smiles before carefully leaning on her work table.

"I have a friend who told me you might be able to help me with a minor issue I have. You see... I have a couple animal friends who aren't too keen on me, as you can see." Kaleb said with a small smile as he tugged up a pant leg to reveal a slightly blood-stained bandage that wound up his calve.

"So I was wondering if you have anything that might knock 'em out for, oh I dunno... a couple hours? A whole night would be perfect." Kaleb said easily as he dropped his pant leg, ignoring Amyra's patting of the injury. It was her constant cold touch that kept the injury relatively painless.

"What do you say?"

[Zombie]

Lily nodded. "Dogs, right? I don't terribly care for dogs myself. I think I can manage something. Have a seat." She motioned to the padded bench by the wall, placed next to Gauruk's enormous chair with an imperious gesture and turned to the shelves behind her. Smiling to herself, she practically danced from shelf to shelf as she gathered the ingrediants. The motions did intriguing things with her figure as she quickly moved jars to the table.

"Ten bishans will get you Stinkhorn fungus powder. A bit spread around where the dogs will smell it blocks up their nose, and they wouldn't notice you if you hung steak around your neck. Seven bishans gets you anise extract. Dogs love it. Put a bit on the other side of the yard, and any canines in question will pay far more attention to the anise than you. But for twenty..."

Lily whirled back to her workbench. "For twenty, I can make something special. Lace some meat with it, and the little puppies will sleep the night away. Even if you march through with a small orchestra. Some animals just need a good nap to make them less... cranky." The smile turned a bit suggestive. "So, how much are you willing to spend?"

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb cocked his head and did some mental math. Well... after this heist he should EASILY be able to afford the 20 bishani.

"Let's go for your 20 bishani deal." Kaleb said even as he counted them out in his hand. He dropped them into a small purse he had and set the purse on her work table.

"I'll wait over here." Kaleb said as he moved and sat on the chair she has gestured at, watching her body move about appreciatively. This was doing things to him he didn't care to admit to, especially with Amyra still flitting about, watching Lily do her thing.

[Zombie]

Lily hummed while she worked. It was a jaunty tune, and seemed an odd counterpoint to the methodical nature with which she ground, grated, cruched, and heated leaves and mushrooms. The preparation took a few minutes, and ended with Lily carefully spooned the gritty paste into small pouch of cheesecloth. Dropping the pouch into a beaker of water, she set it on a wire stand over the bright candle and left it to boil.

"Now then, let the bait soak in this for at least a few minutes, then feed the puppies. this is enough to handle five or six dogs, less if it sits more than two days. It has to cool before you use it. While it's warm, it smells, and the dogs won't eat." She took the beaker off the heating rack with a pair of tongs and poured the liquid into a pottery flask. Sauntering to where Kaleb sat, she handed it to him. "And you were never here. Leave through the back, and don't antagonize the troll. He gets so jealous sometimes."

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb chuckled and took the concoction.

"My thanks, Lily." Kaleb said as he strode out the door, whistling a cheery tune. Nodding the the troll Kaleb strolled right down the street and out of sight.

"Well? Did my information help my love?" Kaleb smiled over at Amyra and chuckled. "Yes, yes Amyra it did. Very much, thank you." Amyra squealed and danced about, delighted. She'd made Kaleb happy! "Oh Kaleb we should go get ma -" "Not this time Amyra, but thank you." Kaleb sighed, cutting off the ghost girl.

"Aww but Kaleeeeeb... I loove youuuu." The girl moaned, now dangling off Kaleb once more. "We'll be together forever." She batted her pretty blue eyes and Kaleb sighed before smiling ruefully down at the girl.

"But you're dead and I'm not." "So?" The girl pouted. Kaleb rolled his eyes before setting out to complete his robbery.
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Two hours later saw Kaleb making his final trip into the jewelry store, her had finally finished clearing it of its precious rocks, gems and metals, leaving Kaleb a very rich man... that would be IF he could sell any of it. He'd have to lie low for awhile, but he'd make a killing! And Amyra? Oh she made her... weight? Substance? Whatever... she came very much in handy. Acting as both a sentry and a scout, Amyra told Kaleb whenever there were people passing, etc; making her invaluable. Sure the girl was annoying some days to deal with but damn did she come in handy...

Kaleb locked the door behind him, chuckling as he did so, and walked away, whistling a very happy tune, a very heavy bag on his shoulder with a couple more at home, just waiting to be appraised. Oh yes, it had been a very good night and well worth the 10 bishani.

[Zombie]

As Kaleb was making himself the richest thief in the city, Lily was closing up shop. Two vials of pox medicine, the man with dog problems, and one buffoon who wanted a love potion but got bounced on his head instead. Not a bad after-hours crowd, and between that and the legitimate side of the business, the income for the day was rather good.

"Gauruk, will you feed the lights? I'm going to bed." As Gauruk rumbled his response, Lily stepped lightly up the stairs and out of view. Taking the bottles of glowing insects down one by one, he carefully dribbled a little honey-laced water in each one, taking several minutes. When he was done, he brought in the firefly jar from the alley, locked the door, and treaded heavily up the stairs after Lily.

[Kaleb Morrington]

The next morning Kaleb was woken up by screaming. Eyes snapping open, Kaleb bolted upright and whirled onto his feet, a random dagger held inexpertly in his hand. He looked back and forth to see Amyra run into the house, looking paler than usual.

"Kaleb! The Guard! They're here! Quick you must hide the jewels!" Quickly he grabbed the bags and kicked open a secret compartment, tossing them in quickly. He was closing the door just as the knock sounded. Thanking the Gods for Amyra he answered the door with a calm, if not aloof.

"Can I help you gents?" Kaleb asked the guards easily before they pushed by him. Kaleb leaned against the door frame and watched as they tore apart his tiny shack hunting for his jewels. "Where are they?" "Where are what?" "Don't play stupid with us, boy, we traced you here and your accomplice at the shop, they're knocking at her door as we speak." Kaleb swallowed. Oh shit...

[Zombie]

Sunrise found Lily curled next to Gauruk in the gigantic bed she had convinced a carpenter to make for the troll's bulky frame. The heavy, insistant pounding on the door below woke her with a start. One petite elbow in Gauruk's chest woke him, and even as he was blinking the sleep from his eyes, Lily was throwing on a robe. Peeking through the drawn curtains, she looked down at the guards in the street below.

"Damn. Someone led the City Guard to us, and they do not look happy. Get the emergency bag, and be ready to run. No eating them until I say to." She dressed in her more sensible faery garb, the leaves that made up the clothing rustling slightly under their own power, as though saying hello. Gauruk struggled with a pair of canvas trousers and a burlap satchel. The bag clicked with enough money to fund a hurried relocation to another city if needed, and the outside pouches housed Lily's darts along with a few of her more useful creations.

As he finished with his belt, Gauruk looked up. if he was worried it didn't show, but then, trolls rarely worry about much that doesn't involve fire. "If dey fink we did sumthin, dey prob'ly got both doors covered."

Lily nodded as she finished dressing. "Feel up to some climbing?"

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As the guards finally grew impatient and hammered the door in, Gauruk climbed out through the second story window, above the rear alley. Lily sat atop his shoulders, hanging onto his thick mane of hair with both hands. Bunching up his legs as he hung from the bottom of the window, Gauruk launched the both of them across the alley, his strong hands finding easy purchase on the edge of their neighbor's roof. The long piece of cord tied to his belt yanked a small piece of wood out from where it had propped the window open. The glass pane slid back down, closing the way behind them and making their exit less obvious. With his footing secure on the roof of the barbershop, Lily disposed of the string and wooden stick. "So sweetums, think it was the prettyboy with the dog problem? Let's go find him. I hope you remember what he smelled like, otherwise we're going to be spending a lot of time asking around taverns and such."

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb thought, and thought fast. Amyra... He glanced up at her and gave her a pleading look. Understanding his silent request Amyra zipped about, looking for something light and easy for her to move. She stopped she she found a small rock on a shelf - just a tiny little thing, but ti'd be hard for her to move. As she fought to push the rock Kaleb worked on getting as many of the guards out as possible.

"Well guys, looks like you're simply out of luck, they're not here." Kaleb said simply. "Where the hell are they?" The lead Guard snarled, his gloved hand coming up to grab Kaleb's shirt. His heart sped up a mile a minute, but Kaleb kept an outwardly cool appearance.

"You tell me... you tracked them here, track 'em to their hiding spot you government dog." Kaleb said cheerfully, causing the guard to throw Kaleb back. Landing in a small heap with a grunt, Kaleb looked back up at Amyra, not even noticing the small trickle of blood going down his face from a small cut on the back of his head. Amyra, however, did. Rage raced through her and gave her enough strength to push that stupidly small rock, which landed on the plate that was precariously balanced on the table, which caused said plate and rock to fall to the ground, effectively catching the guards attention. Kaleb thrust himself off the ground and dove out a window, rolling to his feet when he hit the ground. He took off at a blind run, breath burning his lungs.

"HALT!" Shrieked the Guard even as they took off after him. Kaleb rounded a corner and all but flew down it, his lungs on fire. Rounding another corner, looking over his shoulder, Kaleb never saw the tall man in his way, and ran strait into him. Grunting on impact Kaleb found himself once more on his ass, this time staring up at a big, dark man and a small woman, both staring down at him. Oh shit...

[Arshad]

Arshad strolled tiredly down the street still mostly empty in the early morning. He hadn't slept the whole night, having stayed up to guard some silly little shopkeeper who was making some sort of back door business deal with a shady figure in the back of his business. He was starting to contemplate perhaps spending some of his hard-earned bishani on a small meal, when an ungainly figure came darting around a corner, before he could dodge, or try to move out of the way the figure slammed face first into his chest nearly sending Arshad to the ground with him. After steadying himself he looked down at the fearful youth who had nearly ran him over. At first he had no idea what this handsome young man, with his sleek black hair was running from, his first guess, based on appearances alone, was the he was trying to get away from some maid he had slept with. That train of thought lasted only until he heard the sound of guards shouting (For it was clearly guards that were yelling, no one else can manage that false sense of authority in the pronunciation of “Halt!”, without first being a guard.) around the corner, on the other street. Without thinking he hauled the pursued man by the scruff of his cotton shirt onto his feet, and began to rapidly drag him into an alley that he knew well, where a nearby flour mill kept empty crates and used bags of flour. Pulling him close he whispered “Listen carefully, get underneath that pile of sacks and don't twitch a muscle until those guards go away.” he gave him a quick push in the right direction, before setting off at a quick pace towards the alley's entrance. Exiting the alley moments before the guards came thundering around the corner eyes darting left and right in search of the thief, not even bothering to notice the dark skinned Altain standing in the mouth of a suspcious alleyway. To his mounting frustration they continued to ignore him, and began to talk amongst themselves, pondering between pants of breath, where the sneaky thief could have darted off to. Arshad decided to speak up before they could settle on which alley they should search.



"Hey! You looking for that asshole who just came running around the corner?" Queried Arshad, doing his best to sound upset, the guard continued to scan around the street for half a second, before he finally took notice of the filthily dressed foreigner standing before him, the grimace that flashed across his face made it quite plain that he almost wished he hadn't.“Of course! You must have seen coming around the corner! Tell us where he went, quickly!” he barked roughly at Arshad, his eyes occasionally darting up and down the street still attempting to spot the ellusive thief. "Hmph! Bastard ran right into me! Almost knocked me strai-AGH!” the lead guard had slammed the heel of his heavy boot straight down ontoArshad's foot. Without letting off any pressure he moved his face within inches of Arshad. “Look. Here. You. Stupid. Piece. Of. Foreign. Trash.” With each word he ground his heel harder against Arshad's toes, his face getting steadily redder as he continued. “If you don't tell us where this thief ran off to! I-I-I'll have you have hauled off as an accomplice of his!” In between the spasms of pain pulsing through his foot, Arshad began to notice a slight change in the guard's tone. He went from blinding rage, to mounting fear and anxiety. What could this lanky half grown man have stolen to make this guard so desperate to catch him? Before he could think to much longer, the pain in his foot forced him to speak up. “Dammit! Stop! H-he ran down that alleyway down there! Now get your damn foot off of my toes!” The guards boot was off of his toes and pounding the cobblestone before he had even begun the second sentence, they set off at a run towards the alley Arshad had indicated a ways down the road, leaving Arshad to clutch at his injured foot.


After the guards had disappeared into what he hoped was not a dead-end alley, Arshad limped slowly into the alley where the lucky thief was starting to get up from underneath the empty bags of flour. As Arshad neared him he smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could even begin Arshad had him pinned against the wall with his right arm, and knife in his left pressed softly against his stomach. “Now, look here you damnable thief!” he spat out, his voice edged with pain. “I think I may just have had half of the toes in the my right foot snapped in two! You better make sure that it was worth my while or else I'm gonna drag you to the nearest guardsmen I can find and make sure they know who you are.”

[Zombie]

Atop a clocktower, Gauruk dug his ragged nails into the wooden beams and smelled the air. "Lily, did der dog-guy buy der knockout stuff? 'Cause sumthin' smells like cooked wolfsbane an' anise. Stinks sumthin' bad, like he used der whole bottle." Shifting in the breeze like an oak tree, Gauruk panned his head slowly side to side, trying to tell where the scent trail led.

One hand wrapped tightly into Gauruk's hair like the reins of a horse, Lily leaned forward. "He did buy it. Can you track the smell? I doubt anyone else in the city even knows about wolfsbane tea, much less uses the stuff." Gauruk nodded. The grin that spread across his face was the stuff of nightmares. Lily leaned further forward and planted a kiss on his forehead before settling in and tightening her grip. "Let's find him, sweetie." The troll swung his legs off the edge of the clocktower and began climbing down at an alarming rate before leaping to the nearest building and following the trail.

[Kaleb Morrington]

What a place to be in, partially dangling in mid-air, suspended by a seriously pissed dark-skinned dude while a pretty little white girl stands watching.

"Uh hey, easy there man. What do you want from me? I have some money man, but not enough to really pay you until I push these jewels... providing I actually get them back..." The poor girl beside the dark dude looked so distraught, but maybe she could help.

"C'mon cutie, help me out here, tell your man I'll pay him I just need to actually get the money - " Kaleb stopped speaking when he saw the blood. SHIT! SHE'S A FUCKING GHOST!

"You can see me?" The woman asked, her voice very faded and hard to hear. Kaleb nodded after glancing at the dark man, not surprised to see confusion and anger in his face.

"Tell Arshad that you're speaking to Elene." Kaleb swallowed hard and turned to the dark man.

"Uhhh... you know a chick by the name of Elene? Because uh... she says hello?"