Thieving Standards

[Arshad]

He could hardly believe his ears... Elene?! Could it be that she was still... But... No... That was not possible, he had watched her die, right before his very own eyes. So then, how did this thief know her name? His mind raced, could it be? Was she still alive in some form? If this man knew something about Elene, he HAD to find out. His heart racing, he opened his mouth to demand how he knew, but no words would come out. It took him a couple deep breaths and few more attempts to speak before he managed to string a sentence together.

"T-tell me, tell me how you learned that name." The irritation that had filled his voice just moments before, had vanished completely, replaced by a palpable edge of apprehension. The knife at Kaleb's stomach trembled with anticipation. If this fool was deceiving him then he. Would. Pay.

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb swallowed hard and stared at the woman hopelessly.

"What do I say sweetie? I doubt he's going to believe I can see ghosts." Elene smiled before coming forward.

"Tell him as you've said. Tell him I am connected to my necklace, it is what has kept me close to him in spirit. Also that I do not blame him for me death." Hesitantly Kaleb relayed the message, looking into the big guy's eyes. He could see what almost looked like desperation in them. He loved her Kaleb realized.

[Arshad]

Arshad listened with rapt attention as the thief passed on Elene's message. The moment he had finished, Arshad could feel a momentous weight being lifted from his shoulders. If what he had said was true... Then Elene had never truly left him, she didn't blame him. A sense of joy, a sense of mind numbing exhilration filled him till he felt like bursting into shouts of joy. Yet he restrained himself, held back the joy, like he had held back his sorrow and misery for so many years. Releasing the thief, and returning the knife to its holster on the inside of his vest.

"You..." He began, wiping away the beginnings of tears from his, "You have payed me back ten times what you owed me. You absolved me of so much pain. I only hope that I can one day repay you in kind."

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb chuckled shakily as he straitened out his shirt.

"Hey no problem big guy... but uh... hey if you can help me get my jewels back, we'll call it even... hell I'll even share some messages between you and Elene here. She's quite the lady." Kaleb chuckled weakly even as Amyra flitted about him, her ghostly hands dusting over him worriedly.

"Kaleb my love, are you hurt? Did that brute hurt you?" "Nah I'm fine Amyra." Kaleb murmured before smiling weakly at the big guy. "Sorry... ghost uh... girlfriend, I suppose you could call her, she was worried." Curiously he looked at Elene. Then back at the big guy.

"So what do you call yourself, big guy? Oh! I'm Kaleb!" Kaleb quickly stuck out his hand, praying to God he wasn't about to be killed.

[Arshad]

Arshad grasped Kaleb's hand with bone crunching firmness, and shook so vigorously he could hear his teeth rattle.

"My name is Arshad." he said attempting to imitate Kaleb's subtle smile, but instead producing a bizarre facsimile that showed a few too many teeth to look natural.

"So... uh, how many jewels are we talking about here?" He asked pointedly trying not to sound as if he was overly urgent to get his hands on the money. But, truth be told, besides the money he had earned last night, Arshad was dead broke. If he didn't get some money before tonight, he would have to sleep out in the open.

[Zombie]

Gauruk and Lily had made good time crossing the city. Gauruk had, at least. Lily just held on as the troll bounded across rooftops, avoiding the city guard. The scent had led them past a jewelers', crawling with guards and an irate fat man, probably the robbed owner. From there, it led to a small home, several guards in the street outside. The scent continued further on towards an alley.

"So... uh, how many jewels are we talking about here?"

Lily tapped the top of Gauruk's head to draw his attention, and held her finger up to her lips. Sliding down to the rooftop, she sauntered to the edge of the roof and looked down at the tableau below. "Normally, I don't really concern myself with the intentions of my customers, Prettyboy, but you've managed to bring the guards down on me. I'd love to hear how you plan to sort this mess out."

Gauruk loomed into view over the edge of the roof. His claws dug into the timbers, his bone-crushing grip drawing tortured creaks from the wood. Lily smiled and patted the troll's massive arm. "Gauruk gets so defensive about this sort of thing, but I'm willing to hear you out before letting him solve it his way."

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb was about to answer Arshad when Lily and Gauruk showed. shit shit SHIT was all Kaleb could think. He fought to think logically and fast. What to do what to DO? Kaleb paced, thought fueled by action.

"Kaleb my love...?" Kaleb looked up at Amyra. "What is it?" "Why not just blame someone else?" Kaleb blinked. Why not? He had a handful of jewels in his pocket from playing with them last night... but who? And how would he be able to get the guards off the girl and her freaking pet troll? Not caring about looking like he was nutty he relayed the question to Amyra. She sat in the air a moment, thinking. It was Elene who answer part of Kaleb's question.

"Why not ask your little friend if she has some of the bait to spare? You could also place this at the framed person's home..." Kaleb cocked an eyebrow at the elven girl.

"Not a bad idea Elene... but that leave the question... who?" Noticing the other three member's confused looks Kaleb chuckled, embarrassed at himself, and relayed the beginnings of the plan.

[Arshad]

The whole time Kaleb was formulating his plan Arshad kept a worried eye on the massive troll looming above him. He'd heard plenty of tails about them, mostly from the ancient tales the older men would tell around the campfire.The old man Fahri even once claimed to have seen a few of them off in the distance, when he had gone travelling near the Northern Forests. Hearing about them was one thing, standing within mere feet of one was an entirely different affair. He briefly mused thoughts of simply leaving Kaleb to the mercies of the massive troll and its companion, but he remembered his debt and decided to stay by his side.

Once Kaleb had finished laying out the basics of his plan Arshad imediately began to wonder aloud.

"Even if we did manage to successfully frame another thief. Wouldn't the troll lady still be under suspicion?" He paused for a moment to think, and could feel their gazes drilling into. He wished they didn't have to stare like that. Still he managed to

"I guess we should try to frame another herbalist! leave a bit of the bait, along with some of jewels. Maybe after the evidence has been planted one of us should go inform the guards, I should probably do that. Unlike you two, I'm not under suspicion, and also I'm not that good at sneaking..." Color flushed his cheeks as he finished his sentence. Elene was probably laughing that soft laugh of hers at this very moment. Last time he had tried sneaking, it was to get a peek at her bathing in a spring near where they had set up camp. Before he could even get half way there his mother had found out and pulled him by the ear the entire half mile. He still swore his left ear had been streched longer then his right.

[Zombie]

Lily smirked. "That sounds like it would work. I can probably sneak into my shop without the guards seeing me and collect the ingredients. Though framing two people will be harder than framing just one. So Prettyboy, do you or your friend have any thieves in mind that we could plant the gems and ingredients on? Someone with talent to pull of the heist and enough brains that they could be reasonably believed to have cooked up the sleeping dog tea?"

Gauruk kept staring at the two men. This was brainy-stuff. Complicated plans were not his strong point, and he was willing to leave it to the others and just look intimidating. Maybe one of them will be stupid and I'll get to hurt them.

[Kaleb Morrington]

Kaleb was wondering why Elene was laughing when Lily brought up her side of the idea. Frame one guy... a smart thief... hmm...

"Why not Matthew, Kaleb." Kaleb turned to look at Amyra. "You mean that asshole who ripped me off?" Amyra nodded, almost excitedly. Kaleb considered it before nodding.

"Sounds good to me. Aight guys I've got us a target. I'll meet you over by the well just south of here, it's right by the bastards house. From there we're going to need a distraction to get the prick out of his house... Arshad, I'll leave that up to you if you're in, man. Lily, why not you and uh... Gauruk go grab your woo-woo junk and plant it in the house while I stick these - " That that point Kaleb pulled out a small hand-full of the less precious gems " - around his house. Got it?" Kaleb asked. Amyra giggled.

"What can I do, my love?" Kaleb turned to Amyra. "You can be our scout, Amyra." Kaleb murmured to the ghost girl before turning back to the group.

[Arshad]

"Alright, it seems like we got a plan." Speaking with a strong sense of assurance. He fingered the hilt of his short sword for a moment and looked up at the sky to get a sense of time before continuing.

"I should wait till sometime after noon. Then I'll head to the nearest guard and..." Arshad paused. How was he supposed to convince a guard that he somehow knew about the plot, yet had no connection to the crime? If he just went up and told them about it, he would likely just get himself arrested and hauled off with them. He shrugged and said.

"Ah I'll figure something out later. I'll let you guys get to work." He nodded at the two and begin to stomp off down the alley without looking back.

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Arshad couldn't be more happy to be out of that alley. It was bad enough that he had that freakish troll leering at him the entire time, but he still hadn't eaten since sometime last night. The pains of hunger were starting to eat away at his ability to focus.

As he entered the street he immediately began to search for a place to eat. Their was nothing on this street, mostly run down shops of some sort that all seemed to specialize in not selling food. It wasn't until half an hour later that he finally found something that might actually sell food. The place looked revolting, the sign hanging lopsided from the post likely once showed a picture of a boars head. Now all that was recognizable was parts of the snout and ears, the rest having been chipped, and in places, hacked away with a knife. Normally, Arshad would have turned up his nose and went elsewhere, but the smell of well roasted beef and fresh bread wafting from the open windows, along with the barely legible sign advertising cheap prices, lured him inside.

[Zombie]

Lily's smirk widened. "Agreed. I'll see you in a bit, boys." With that, Lily stepped back away from the roof's edge, out of view. Gauruk snarled once, and followed.

Once out of earshot, Lily turned to Gauruk and spoke quietly. "Sweetie, I want you to follow Prettyboy. I don't trust him any farther than I can throw him. But if you're there, we can throw him a lot farther. Don't let him see you, but don't let him get too far ahead. Can you do that?"

Gauruk nodded. "I can stick to der roofs an' follow his smell." Lily planted a quick peck on his gnarled cheek.

"See you in a little while."

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It didn't take long for Lily to make her way back to her shop, staying away from the main streets. Once she was a few alleys away, she stopped and concentrated. She hadn't used this particular bit of faery magic for a long time, but it was always there when she needed it. She seemed to draw in on herself, shrinking until she was the size of a housecat. Her dress of leaves shrank with her, and she was glad she was wearing it. Regular clothes would have stayed their original size, and that would have been awkward. Her darts would be hard to throw now, but if she had to use them, the plan would have failed anyways. Staying to the shadows, she approached her shop. Two guards were standing outside the rear entrance, but they looked bored.

"Look, Sarge. They ain't 'ere. Not that I would 'ave liked to meet that troll, but they ain't 'ere. Why the sod are we stickin' around?"

"Because they might come back. And because we were told to. Now shut the bloody hell up."

Lily suppressed a giggle. This shouldn't be too hard. Circling around the side of the building, she scrambled up the rough brickwork and reached the top of the building without much difficulty. Walking quietly to the chimney, she looked down it. She never lit the fireplace, but this wasn't something to take for granted. Seeing nothing but a dark, well-cleaned fireplace below, she carefully lowered herself into the chimney. Adjusting her size a bit so she could brace against the sides, she descended to the ground floor. Pausing above the fireplace, she listened. Nothing. Silly guards. Never underestimate a sneaky faery.

[Kaleb Morrington]

As Lily and Gauruk took off so did Kaleb and Amyra. Kaleb really wasn't sure if Arshad and Elene would follow but what did he care? Silently slippig down side-street and alley ways he never noticed Gauruk following them, though Amyra did.

"That brute trolls following us." Kaleb didn't even glance over his shoulder, just hopped over a sleeping drunk.

"Keep on eye on him." Kaleb muttered under his breath, knowing the ghost would hear him. Quickly he made it to the well. Sitting on the edge he sent Amyra out scouting for guards and Matthew while he waited for the other the catch up.

[Arshad]

As he pushed open the half rotten door, its heavily rusted hinges creaking and threatening to snap off, a warm rich scent poured into his nostrils. He could make out only a few of the wafting aromas, freshly stewed potatoes and roasted chicken laced with garlic, and fresh cut onions. As he moved inside he could see an older man with receding black and grey hair stirring a large poat filled with freshly made stew. next to him on a heavily worn down counter, with the badly mis-spelt names of several patrons carved into it, was a tray of fresh bread and a massive wedge of cheese, ready to be served to customers

Arshad set down next to a slumbering drunk, who by the appearence of his clothes, and the size of the puddle of drool that had collected in a crevice in the counter. Trying his hardest to ignore the mans obnoxious snoring, he began trying to get the cook's attention but before he could so much as speak a word, a large hunk of bread carved with its center carved out to accomadate a heaping portion of stew was dropped in front of him. The cook simply held out his hand waiting for Arshad to fill it with coins. After a moment of rummaging through his purse to pull out the two bishani that had been advertised by the sign outside, and then taking a moment to place the money in the waiting mans hands. He took a moment to breathe in the stews wonderful aroma, before his stomach began to berate him for wasting time. Picking up the crooked pewter spoon that had been placed in the bread bowl he began to eat. In between bites of the warm, thick stew he wondered how those other two were doing. Only to have his mind cleared by another spoonful of man-made ambrosia.

[Zombie]

Half an hour's worth of sneaking and a few suggestions planted in the guards' subconscious minds saw Lily walking away from her store, a bag slung over one shoulder on a canvas strap. The bag, securely buttoned shut, smelled like overfarmed dirt and bitter herbs, though anyone close enough to notice it would be close enough to Lily that they had better be very friendly.

She walked quickly, staying off the main roads, and other than ducking behind corners a few times to avoid the guards, she had no problems. Reaching the well Kaleb had mentioned did not take long. As she approached, Gauruk swung down from the edge of a nearby rooftop and ape-climbed down to the ground, joining them. Lily favored him with a smile, then turned her attention to Kaleb.

"Wolfsbane, aniseed, cow's blood, and coffin roses. The four main ingredients. Gauruk can wait here, while you and I plant them. When he's in custody, Gauruk and I can slip out of town and return from a 'prolonged herb gathering trip.' I doubt the guards will need much of an alibi from me once they find the evidence here." Lily tossed the bag to Kaleb. "So, do we know if our little patsy is here?"