Superstitions

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The streets were getting quiet. Fast. It was almost as if there was a curfew the city of Tur-Kall. Suki sat in the shadows on the side of a street as time ticked by. It was nearing 10 o’clock at night. The moon was full and, with help from the stars, lit the city streets. The small girl was waiting. Waiting for her chance to come.

The large, three-story building towering on the other side of the cobbled road was her target. She was determined to enter, smash and grab. The man who owned it, His name unknow to Suki, was quite…wealthy. He wasn’t Suki’s target though. His small fortune was.

The time had come. The changing of the guards. It was the perfect opportunity to cross the road without being questioned. Suki darted across the dark road, then flattened her back to the wall just beside the entrance to the target building. The three guards at the door had turned their backs and entered the building. Suki stayed in the shadows as three new men walked out into the street. It happened quickly. The small girl leaped out holding her dagger. The three men were quickly lying motionless in the street. Suki took some time to roll the bodies into the shadows and proceeded inside. It was time. She was in. She had done everything perfectly, and now was closer to her goal. But she hadn’t noticed someone watching her from above.

 

Tuca was crouching on the edge on the mansion, it was a huge building, about three stories high. Heights had never been Tuca strong point, but he could put up with them. Tuca was testing the edge of his deadly scimitar as he heard a small noise behind him. He knew it was only Takako, but it still made him jump. Tuca was suprised he was chosen by Suki for this job, he had never been the most succesful, and this was meant to be a huge job. Besides, Suki usually preferred to work alone. Takako and himself were meant to wait for Suki to let them him... wait, Tuca saw something moving down on the street below, he could tell it was Suki. Tuca watched with mild suprise how quickly Suki dealt with the guards. Seathing his blade Tuca stood and retreated into the shadows, signalling to Takako on his way past...

 

Suki tiptoe-ran down the first, musty corridor of the mansion un-noticed. There were a few doors on both sides that glowed from lights inside. A fire place stood at the end of the corridor and some stairs went up beside it. She crept up the stairs to the first landing. No one. Second. No one. Third, all clear. The estate was dead. Not a sound to be heard. Suki stayed as quiet as possible and proceeded down a corridor. No light at all, save the small beam that came form the window she headed towards. The small girl arrived there and opened it. The wood creaked. Suki spun around to see if anyone heard, holding her breath. Once convinced she was safe, she opened the window totally, climbing out. She stood on a small landing and climbed up a few stairs to the roof. She could tell the two companions were hiding, but knew where they were.

“Let’s do this thing.” She said to the shadows, and returned to the window, noticing the footsteps behind her. She was sort of happy she wasn’t alone anymore. The more the better, but the better the chance of getting caught as well, she thought.

She led the two into a room, the main room. She hoped it’d go smoothly. She was wrong. A man sat in his large chair behind a wooden desk. Suki jumped over, drawing her knife.

“You move, you die.” It was surprising that the words had not come form Suki, but the half a dozen guards that now surrounded her.

 

As soon as Tuca's feet hit the floor he knew something was wrong, in an instant Tuca was armed with two daggers and crouched in a fighting stance. Tuca's heart stopped has he felt the icy chill of a sword blade at his neck, with a shake of his hands his blades dissapeared to only he knew where. Tuca stood slowly and inspected their surrondings. "There has to be a way out" he thought.

 

Suki cursed under her breath. She hadn’t considered a trap because she had hoped the organisation had been secret. Not secret enough, it seemed

“Suki? Well, I had expected something different, I must say.” The man grinned. He was a large, plump man, with black hair and brown eyes. He signaled to his lackeys and the swords held to the prisoners throats disappeared.
“Speak. Who do you think you are to rob me, hmmmmm?”
“Kill me if you wish, but don’t waste time with words, scum.” Suki spat at him.
The man chuckled a bit.
“Maybe I should, girl, maybe I should. But no, I have other plans for you. I’m glad you brought friends. They’ll make your job easier.”

He gestured to his men again and two of them left. A few moments later, they returned with three chairs. Suki sat down, waving to her friends to do the same. She was going to try playing it cool.

“What do you want, fatty?” The man just laughed again.
“I want you. I want to… hire… you. Yes, i could put it like that couldn’t I?”
“You want…” Suki started, but the fat man cut her off.
“They mustn’t be here.” He said, gesturing towards the others

Suki watched her two companions leave and the door close. Then the fat man leant back in his chair and said what had to be said.

 

Tuca was suprised at the mans... proposal. He made to argue with the request for him and Takako to leave the room, that is before he saw Suki give him a warning look.

 

Takako left the room with a weak smile on her face. Her first real mission wasn't going the way she had suspected.

"What do you think the man mend with Hire you?" she asks Tuca. "I don't trust this, I have a bad feeling, know what I mean?"

Takako thought about how this day started she was standing over the body of a man she had killed. The reason for this was that the guy tried to drown a few new born kittens. Takako looked at the critters and decided that she had to take one home as her new pet. She picket a almost entire black one and said “You will become my familiar, I shall call you Dinah!”

Now she was standing here with Tuca, Waiting for things to come…

"Tuca?" She asks, "If that guy wanted us to wait here, then why did he bring 3 chairs?"

[ December 01, 2004, 16:18: Message edited by: SleepleSS ]

 

Tuca was fingering one of his many hidden blades as he left the room. He was in deep thought...

"What did this man want?","How did he know Suki's name?"

None of it felt right, thought Tuca. Suddenly a sharp pain brought him back to realty. He felt blood running down his hand, cursing roughly he drew the bloodied dagger and used it to cut a small strip of cloth to bandage his cut.

As he worked Tuca realised Takako was talking to him, listening intently Tuca tied a knot in the cloth.
"I don't know either." Tuca answered, "It certinaly does sound suspicious, I'm as worried as you are. Keep an eye out."

Tua walked over to the nearest wall an carefully sat down, his knee was giving him hell, it had never been the same after that job...

 

The fat man stopped speaking. Suki was interested, curious… and shocked. He wanted her to help him rob someone? It was suspicious. It wasn’t natural. Something was wrong.

“Well then, I suggest you go and talk with your companions. I’m assuming they’ll want to take part in this, yes?”

Suki stood, giving the man a slight nod. She walked from the room and found her friends. Tuca sat on the wall opposite and Takako was pacing up and down. They both paused and waited for Suki to speak.

“The fat man made it simple. He wants us to collect a small party, maybe just the three of us, and act as grave robbers in the Eastern side of the city.” She said bluntly.

The eastern side. It was the ‘royal’ side of the city. If street rats such as themselves were found there, none would be left alive. They would be hunted down. The mission was a hard one.

“I know it’s very hard to take it in, but I’ll explain every detail later. First, we must go back into the room to see why we have to do this. There isn’t a choice. He ah something of ours.” She could tell her friends didn’t understand. She led them back in to see the fat man and his guards were waiting. And two of the tall, brawny men held a smaller man back, there swords held at his throat. It was Takako’s uncle.

“Sit.” The fat man said calmly.

[ December 03, 2004, 06:06: Message edited by: Lantus ]

 

Takako is shocked when she sees that her uncle is captured by this strange men. “Why?” “He is a sweet old man! Let him go!” “Who are you people anyway?”

She walks towards the “fat” man that has talked to them before holding her hand ready to take her knife. “Answer my question!” She says with a real angry voice. “How come you know so much about us?” “Answer me!”

[ December 03, 2004, 22:10: Message edited by: SleepleSS ]

 

Suki tried to stop her friend, but failed. She watched helplessly as Takako yelled at the man. He just smiled.

“I know all these things about you because I have done my work well. It is none of your business, but maybe we could discuss this after you have completed the job.”

He looked at Suki, then Tuca and continued to smile.

“I suggest you leave new. Don’t fear, your uncle here will be fine. But that is only if the job is fine. I hope you understand. Karel, take them to the door.”

One of the guards opened the door and left, gesturing for the three to follow. Suki started walking, but saw that Takako wasn’t going anywhere.

“Come on!” she said, pulling her out of the room.

The walk down stairs was a quiet one. As soon as the door closed behind them and the trio found themselves in the street, Suki spoke calmly.

“We have to decide. What are we doing?”

 

Takako hold her hands on the knife, if she was quick she could kill the fat man before anybody knew what was happening. Then she felt Suki's hand on her shoulder.

She loosened her grip on the knife and left the room, she looked back one more time and mumbled: "At least I did grave robbing before!".

As she walked down the stairs her mind dwelt back to last year when she was digging up some jewellery from a small grave.

When they where outside she looked at Suki and said: "I don't think we have a choice here!". "Let's go home and get some shovels!".

[ December 04, 2004, 22:17: Message edited by: SleepleSS ]

 

Suki looked into her friends eyes. She almost smiled at the girl's remark.

“Well, I suppose your right, Takako. We have no choice. But how? How are we going to enter the Eastern side of town without being spotted and kicked out… or worse? Our kind aren’t welcome there, we all know that. We need a plan, and maybe even a crew. But first, we need supplies.” She could tell the others knew what she meant as Suki headed off down the road towards her ‘home’. It was very late now. The moon was still full though, and the streets twinkled with it’s light…

 

Tuca didn't like this, he didn't like this one bit, he knew what happened to street rats caught in that part of town better than nearly any other rogue in the town, his father had once been in charge of giving out the punishments. Tuca wasn't worried about himself, he knew he could pass through that part of town no problem, he was just worried about Suki and Takako. Suki looked like she could handle herself, but Takako she is only young. However he evntually followed after Suki, still in deep thought...

 

Suki walked down through the alleys towards the Eastern side of the city. She could hear her companions behind her.

Running through the center of the city was a large river. The Tur-Kall stream was what the locals called it, for it was a source of food and fresh water in the city. It had three major, stone bridges along it, all about 30 feet wide. And they had paths underneath the bridges running along the shore. These small, paved, sheltered areas were Suki’s homes. Many other ‘street rogues’ lived there as well. It was only because of the large number of ‘street rats’ that kept the local guards from acting.

Suki rushed down to the shore of the river and found the many lights of her ‘home’ ahead. A few people were still awake, but most slept, always with a weapon, of course. Suki walked into the camp, almost un-noticed. She stood on a large wooden crate in the center and shouted out.

“My fellow friends! I… we… need your help!”

 

Takako opens the door of her home. The little kitten ran to her mistress in the hope she would play with her. “Not now Dinah!” Takako says, “Mama is busy!”. She walks inside her room to get the stuff so needs on this mission.

She opens her closet and the first thing she takes out is her shovel. When we must rob a grave at the ‘royal’ side of the city “the grave would probably be located in a tomb or mausoleum, but I never go grave robbing without my trusty shovel!” she says to herself. Then she takes some more things that will come in handy. “Let me see…” she says, “A bottle of whiskey, a Pickaxe, a bottle of fine red wine, a long piece of rope, my Scimitar, some false keys and of course my flute and some dice!”. She stuffs all her things in her leather backpack, pets her kitten and leaves her room.

On her way downstairs she comes across the room of her aunt. Although she died a few years ago all her stuff was still there. “Maybe if Suki and me wear some of my aunts finer clothes the people at the eastern side might not see that we are actually from the poor side!”, she thinks, “But what about Tuca?”.

She walked to Suki’s "home" to tell her about her plans. When she arrived she heart Suki talk to a bunch of people.

 

Tuca could see that Suki could handle this situation, so instead of joining the crowd Tuca went to get prepared. Going over to what he liked to call his den he opened the large wooden chest that sat hidden under a clump of bushes. The chest was full of nasty looking weapons all heaped on top of each other, Tuca placed his bow and arrows back inside the chest, he then pulled out various daggers and placed them in hidden scabbards all around his body, next came a small axe which was tucked into his belt. Last of all Tuca pulled out a small crossbow, he had inherited the crossbow from his father who had made it with his bare hands and was very proud of it. Overall the crossbow was from Tuca's elbow to wrist in length, but still very deadly, the two bows could be folded in to make it compact and easily carried. Overall this Tuca donned a deep blood red cloak which was at the bottom of a pack next to the chest, he hoped the cloak would make him look noble while also hiding his various arms. Tuca then made his way back to the crowd, where he stood on the edge unnoticed.

 

I'd sighed rolling my eyes at this entire sherade (sp); I yawned and finally walked to the group but stayed at the shoreline. . . After some time I looked at all the group listening intently to Suki and started laughing as I myself knelt down picking some sand up, in the palm of my hand the sand seeped through as I made my way to the group.

"Suki, I've explained this to you once before, last time you got me into this mess." I sighed "First, I wasn't going to get involved in this facaude any more. Damn you!" I snapped. "But I cannot very well let you die! you owe me money from that bet!" I said elbowing her in the stomach.

"So who are your friends, now." I laughed.

As I spoke I walked around Suki and begun digging through a crack in the cliffside behind them all.

I then knelt to the crack and pulled out a bamboo staff about 6 ft in length, and a double barrel shotgun with a shoulder holster strap; I put it over my right shoulder diagnally, to rest on my entire back; My backpack, I put on my back over the shotgun; I grabed my cushinto blades (Claw like Daggers), and entangled them into my hair to hold my hair up, and to conceal the daggers well.

After a few moments, I looked over and smiled faintly at the bamboo staff, snatching it with my right hand; I shoved it over the shotgun but under the backpack, 6 foot in length even diagnal it almost touched the ground, it sill went about 6 inches over my head. .

I reached in finally and grabbed my leather-tipless gloves and put them both on; i begun punching and gripping to flex them out. . .

"Well we can sit and talk like school girls or do this!" I snapped and gave a sharp look to the one at the edge of the group trying to conceal himself. . . Not sure what to expect I gripped my shotgun handle tightly and then without warning ripped it up and over my shoulder and took aim at Tuca. . "Step out here now or die." I said, my aim a deadly shot as Suki, hopefully will remember.
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“Just lower your bow!” Takako said “It’s probably just Tuca standing there! He is a friend!” “That boy just don’t seem to like large crowds". Then she looks in the direction of the girl again. “And who are you?” She asks. “I know most of Suki’s friends, but I never saw you before.”.

When she looks in Suki’s direction she sees her friend is smiling. Then she looks back at the strange girl and says “Please, answer me! Can I trust you?”

[So much for the gun thingie ]

[ December 15, 2004, 11:26: Message edited by: SleepleSS ]

 

Suki didn’t know what to do. Her old friend had returned, and her new ones were unsure about her.

“Takako, trust me. I want nothing more then to help you. This… is Jess. We used to be… well, we used to know each other.” She waited for the reply.