The Company of Thieves -- RP

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No godmodding, powerplaying, being a jerk, etc. etc. etc. Before we start, there is one major rule: NO ONE-LINERS. Keep your posts at a decent length (of several sentences at least) ever time you write one. If you only have one or two lines to say, they can wait until you have more. This will keep the thread from exploding and getting weighted down with posts that not everybody needs to read, and it makes for a more story-driven RP. Thank you and have fun!
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It was hot and sunny, as usual. Dust billowed up on the horizon as a group of distant horseman galloped across the sand, heading to the north of Kasid; presumably to the capitol city of Cassir. Aleedi Hatik, the leader of the fabled Valenchi, thieves of legend, shaded her eyes with her hand as she watched them disappear over a faraway dune and out of sight. She herself was on foot, though most people with the means preferred to ride across the desert on the quick little horses native to Kasid that were bred especially for that purpose. The Kasidi horses were little and hardy creatures, capable of withstanding heat and sun and long periods without water, like the Kasidi people themselves. The desert was not an easy place to live, yet those who grew up there thrived.

Aleedi Hatik turned her face towards the south, the direction she was heading. The wind picked up; she reached behind her head and pulled up the sandscarf that was wrapped around her neck and chest, so it shaded her face from the sun and the dusty wind. She trudged along, pausing just once to take a drink out of her canteen. She was almost there -- almost to the hideout. Not Thieves' Hiding, which was very far away from here; but a smaller, well-stocked place hidden in the endless sand that was used and restocked constantly by thieves of all rank and caliber. There would be people waiting to meet her there, she knew. There pretty much always were.

At the feet of the mountains, near the southern border of Kasid Kingdom, small but old forest was living its ages undisturbed. The forest was split into half by a main road crossing through it. It was the road leading to the mountain passing and way back to the capital city of the Kingdom.

That was the place Saya loved to call 'home'. She never missed anything; the come'n'go-ers she robbed always provided her with all the supplies she needed. She never got caught and no one really ever tried too much. It was like looking for the needle in the haystack.

But that day was different... she was followed and she was being forced to quite a run.

Tom trudged through the desert, staring at his bare feet. He was close to Cassir, and hopefully, someone in the Valenchi. He was hungry and tired. He would have to steal some food when he got to the town. He sighed and looked up, using his hand to block the sun. Yes, he was close.

When he finally arrived, going through the gate, he shrunk even more as the guards gave him looks. His ragged clothes and skinny form didn't exactly make him look trustworthy. He fingered his dagger. Once inside, his spirits were lifted. The markets were full enough, the owners distracted enough. He would find something to eat. First he stole some bread, quickly shoving it in his mouth, and disappearing in the shadows before the baker turned and looked. Then some cheese and a pear. He ate it in an alley way, quite satisfied for now. Now he just needed to contact the Valenchi. However one did that.

Rashon walked with a skip in his step down the streets of Cassir. He received many strange looks because after a day of successful thievery, he managed to con himself several feathered womens' hats, his new favorite multi-colored scarf, a monocle and cane. Women were the most gullible when it came to conning, but the young man who he nicked the scarf from had been especially oblivious as well as the older gentleman with the monocle and cane. He tipped his many hats to passerbys with a cheery smile and made a turn down an alley.

He stopped mid-stride when he noticed the alley was already occupied by a young man. He didn't look like he had much on his person, but Rashon couldn't disappear with someone watching him. He did a double take and recognized the young man as the promising thief they had been tracking for sometime. Well, this certainly wasn't protocol, but what could he do? He pulled out a letter sealed with a wax letter V, tossed it to him, and ran down the alley. "See you soon!" He yelled as he disappeared from sight.

Tom dropped his pear in surprise. "What?!" he called after the man. Apparently, someone had been talking to him. Which would mean they knew him. Which didn't make sense. No one knew him. Those who did, certainly would have pretended they didn't, or hurt him. He stood and looked nervously out of the alley. He couldn't see much. Too many people.

He sighed. He walked back to his food, but something caught his eye. Tom squatted and examined it. "A 'V'...See you soon?" he mumbled. He narrow his eyes. V for...Valenchi? No. He...he shivered. Creepy. "See you soon..." he repeated. So they would take him? He smiled a little and finished his food.

Vin sighed silently as she walked down the street of Cassir, head down and hood up. Her cloak was way too warm for this sunny day, but wearing that meant she would have the possibility to hide her face with a hood, something she prefered to do whenever she was around other people. That meant being able to watch people without having them noticing her face, and since she lived of remembering people and telling about their bussiness to the Valenchi, she liked things that way.
A few people looked funny at her, probably because of her dirty and way too warm clothes, but didn't seem to think much of it. She smiled to herself. If they only knew of the knives she hid under her sleeves, or the dagger in her belt, invisible under the cloak, they wouldn't shrug her off that easely.

She rounded a corner, then hesitated when she saw a young boy, alone in the alley. He was reading a message, and she stopped, making sure that she was hidden by the shadows and couldn't be seen if people didn't know what to look for. He seemed poor, which made her frown. What was a poor boy doing with a message? Where had he got it from?
Then she took a closer look. Could it be the young boy, Tom, who had caught the attention of the Valenchi? She smiled to herself. Interesting.

Tom looked up, seeing yet another person coming around the corner. He wasn't as surprised as before, quickly hiding the note. He tried to look as innocent and normal as possible, and his elbow slowly pushed the stole food behind him. He stared at the oddly dressed woman. He swallowed nervously as she stared at him. She seemed to be examining him, and he knew that he always failed examinations. One of his hands reached for his dagger fearfully.

Aleedi spotted the hideout as a brown smudge in the expanse of yellow sand, hardly worth noticing. She looked around to see if anyone was within eyesight -- the broad desert let her see for a long way, and no one could be seen for all that distance. People preferred to cross the desert as little as possible, which was why the tiny cave buried in the sand served as such as good place for thieves to hide. It was a rock -- a smal one, by no means a landmark. it was nameless and unexciting. It attracted no attention at all. But, if you were one of Kasid's extensive underworld, you knew that on the southernmost face of it, there was a tiny hole; an entrance three feet around concealed beneath a slight overhang of brown rock.

Aleedi wriggled through this little hole and crawled down a short but relatively wide passage, at the end of which was a cave. It was the honored responsibility of all thieves who used it to keep it well stocked with water, food, and various supplies, so that any of their kind who had need of it would be well provided for. Aleedi pushed the sandscarf off her head as she entered. It was cool and silent inside, the noise of the wind and the heat of the sun unable to enter. She smiled.

The chase was not ending. Saya had had a bad judgement of the man. He seemed to treasure his belongings enough to go after her as far as she led him. He was fast, she wasn't but she resisted long runs.

"Not much of a respectable man, else he wouldn't have done this.", she said to the ferret sitting inside a bag hanging on her chest. She had no choice it seemed but to exit the forest. She went the path leading to the desert; the dry air that day told her it might be a hand storm. An old piece of cloth wrapped around her head and eyes acted as protection. It was enough see through to walk, but there was no need. The mild storm was intensifying more and more.

Looking back she cheered at losing her chaser. She wandered blindly through the storm 'till she reached a sort of rocky land. It was a bit cooler here. Her intuition told her she was closer to the mountains so she walked along the wall to see if there were any cracks for shelter. Instead she had found a wide cave and entered.

There was light inside.

"How odd.", she whispered. She feared now that whoever was there might be a companion of her chaser. "No place to hide, shit!, she cursed.

Rashon checked his pocket watched and gasped. He was going to be late! He ran up to a horse stable, bopped the man tending to them with his cane and quickly mounted one of the horses. He rode it out of the stable and onto the busy street. People yelled and got out of his way as he spurred the horse on to run straight for the guarded gates. He threw his hats at the guards to deter them from chasing him as he passed through the gates. He looked back at the guards who were fumbling with the hats and steered his horse south and rode out of sight.

He had noticed her.
Vin stared back at him, trying her best to hide her irritation. It was a long time since such a young boy had noticed her when she was trying to blend in as a part of the wall, and she could have kicked herself. However, she did find it amusing how he seemed scared of him, even though he couldn't be more than two or three years younger than her.
But finding his look funny wasn't going to help her out of the situation. She hated being seen, never knew how she should react. Should she just leave? she wondered. Or should she say something.
The boy reached for his dagger, fear in his eyes. Against her will, her mouth turned into a short, ironic smile, but she quickly stopped it from turning into a grin. The poor boy seemed afraid, and having her laugh randomly of him would probably not help. Instead, she turned on her heel and vanished behind the corner, the cloak following after her like a shadow. She would follow him, she decided. She wanted to know if this was really Tom. If he was, she would end up following him around for the first couple of days, seeing if he was really to trust. If not, it wouldn't hurt finding out what he had been doing with that message.

Tom trembled. She stared at him for a long time, then suddenly turned to leave. "Wait!" he cried, confused and nervous. "Who are you?!" He ran out of the alley for the second time, looking for her. His dagger was in his hand tightly. He whimpered nervously, before going once more to his food. He picked at it, very nervous. Should he leave, because people were spying on him? Or should he stay, because of the card? He finished his cheese and played with his dagger with worry.

(anyone in the cave besides Aleedi?)

Vin was satisfied with herself. She had managed to blend into the mass so that the young boy wouldn't be able to find her, and when she heard him scream after her, she knew she had managed to get away.
The thing she liked the most about being a helper for the Valenchi was the time she spent spying on people. She'd always been good at staying unnoticed - or at least, she had until the young boy had seen her, she added in her mind, still slightly irritated - and had a weird habit of remembering faces. With her job as helper for the Valenchi, she was able to use it to something else, something more important than the brutal gang wars in the slum.
She waited for a while, then returned to the street, this time taking more care than before. She looked around the corner, noticing that the young boy was still there, and then left again, buying a bread by a nearby stall and returning to her corner, still taking great care that the young boy wouldn't be able to see her. This way, people didn't pay attention to her. To them, she just seemed like a young girl eating by a corner and watching the mass, possibly waiting for someone, and not a spy, waiting for the young boy to leave so she could follow him.

Tom sighed as his dagger cut his finger slightly, producing a small drop of blood. He wiped it on his pants and stood. He should go. He didn't feel safe here. But, then, as he held the card in his hand, what if the Valenchi couldn't find him if he left? He had heard they were the greatest thieves ever, but who knew? He nervously stood in the alley for a few minutes, before getting very tired of feeling unsafe and walking into the crowd. He was jostled inside there, and Tom scowled. He hated crowds and people. People never seemed too nice. He finally cut out of a different alley, heading to who knows where.

((G2g. Be back in an hour.))

Vin finished her bread and checked around the corner again just in time to see the boy leave. She made sure that the hood was still down, then hurried after the boy.
He was going into another alley, a slight hesitation in his steps, like he didn't knew where he was going. He had probably just arrived in Cassir, Vin thought, which explained why she hadn't seen him before. Some might have felt sorry for him, being alone in an unknown city, but she didn't. She had enough in worrying for herself to start worrying for him too. Besides, what happened to him was none of her bussiness.
Unless, of course, he really was Tom.
She made sure to adapt her steps to his, so that her soft leather shoes wouldn't be heard, and kept a good distance. The houses around them casted long shadows, and she knew they would hide her from his gaze if she stood completely still. Her heart beated fast, and a vague smile formed around her lips. Finally, she was on a mission.

Two figures strolled through the crowded city, their pace slow an thoughtful as they peered at the city -- found the nooks and crannies and hiding places in advance, just in case- and generally aqquainted themselves with the sights and smells of Cassir. The shorter of the figures, dressed in green, munched contentedly on a sliver of meat-on-a-stick as they walked, while the other cut into a pear into slivers with a small silver knife.

"This is a nice place -- we haven't been here in ages," said the shorter.

"It's gotten bigger," said the other, dismissive.

"So after we patrol a bit, we'll do the same as we always do?" The figure slipped the last of the meat into their mouth and flicked away the stick, chewing between the words.

"Mhm," there was a slight pause before the taller figure cleared their throat, light and delicate. "Let's see how far my reputation proceeds me. Though, if their record keeper is sharp, it won't have had to."

"Oh! We were here sooner than I'd thought -- the child-killer case, yeah? Two, three years ago?" The figure in green smoothed down their robes, revealing sharply hips and a large bust. She grinned at her companion, shaking out her skirts, "I have to say, that was one of your better cases."

"Yeah," the figure grunted. The pear's core discarded, the knife tucked away, a loose scarf was wound around the figure's nose and mouth, shielding a pale face from the sun's heat. "Come on, the palace isn't far form here. Let's see if there's business to be done."

The Woman and her green-clad companion headed off, away from the crowds and towards a bit of entertainment.

((Rashon will be there soon, but so far just Aleedi.))

Rashon pulled the hood of his cloak over his blond head. He wished he had kept one of the hats with him and lamented the loss of them. He still had his monocle and scarf, which were worth something to him. He squinted when a small rock formation appeared on the horizon. Recognizing the hideout for what it was, he spurred on his horse even more. He would miss this horse, it was compliant and fast.

He dismounted the horse some ways away from the entrance and sent it running back to the city. He found the small gap in the sand and shimmied through it. "Intruder!" He shouted at the person who was not Aleedi. He threw his monocle at the back of her head.

Saya looked panicked behind her.

"SHIT!", she cursed.

She grabbed her bow and pointed an arrow at the man. "Stay away from me!"

((Is it okay if Adam is at a bar?))

Adam sat down at a seat inside his faborite pub. He folded his arms and propped his feet on the table. He closed his hazel eyes and grinned his pipe in his mouth. Swift, his hawk, was on his shoulder examing all of the surrounding preparing for a signal from her master. Adam opened one eye and smiled at the girl serving out the drinks. She was a pretty petite thing. "Hey, you there can I have some beer... it doesn't matter what kind." he winked at her his eyes both open now. Of course he would not be the one paying. He moved his gaze to a group of men around a round table playing cards. He pulled his seat up to them and kept his grin resting his chin on his hand. He took out a pouch of coins signlalling he will be playing to.
_

Amber stood in the castle looking out the window. She hoped she would need to play for someone soon there really was not much to do in the castle. She stood up and walked into her room the king and queen had allowed her to stay in for while before she had enough money for her own cottage or house. She strolled over to her desk and picked up a new piece of music she had written in ink. She than carried it over to her harp sitting down on a stool by it. She smiled and placed the music down playing the harp. Her fingers gently plucked the strings and beautiful music came fourth from the harp. She than sang quietly preparing for the time she would be needed.