This is just called "Adventure Story" at the moment... yeah, inventive I know lol.
This is all my work! Don't take!! But feel free to read and ask questions. Or leave comments ^^
Chapter One
The road through the forest was dark and dank after a recent thunderstorm, but its inhabitants welcomed the relief of the summer heat. A traveler, clad in light cotton clothing, passed through it, soaked from the rain. He shook off the excess water, and cursed the sudden storm violently. It had been the deepest inconvenience to him, and he didn’t have the chance to seek any shelter.
He looked up from his footsteps that barely squelched on the muddy path, and heard voices. He stayed near the edge of the pathway and crept further, following the sounds. As he got closer, he could smell the food cooking, and his stomach rumbled with hunger. He went almost silently into the trees surrounding the small encampment, and stayed out of view as he scoped out the site.
There were just two tents next to each other, so there couldn’t be more than four in the group. He saw two people, one tending the campfire, and their dinner, and one was lounging on a blanket, whittling by the light of the fire. The traveler made his way to the trees behind the two tents, and waited for his chance to steal his own dinner.
The Vόslien whittling went to his tent to retrieve something, and the fire tender turned away from the meal to walk to the pile of wood a few feet away. The thief knew that this was the chance that he had been waiting for, and he was next to the fire in an instant. He stole a small plateful of meat that he could see the smoke still rising from, and returned to his hiding place, shrinking back through the trees a distance. He knew that the men would notice the meat gone, and would probably search for him.
He listened intently, but after hearing no immediate pursuit, travelled a bit more to find a stone to sit on. He downed half the meat within a few minutes, his stomach thanking him with each bite he took. He ripped off a piece of meat with his teeth, and suddenly his ears perk to some sound. He paused in his chewing, and listened to the forest surrounding him. He held the meat in one hand, and carefully, slowly, rested his other hand on the dagger at his waist.
He knew that it wouldn’t be this easy, but he had hoped that he would have a quiet night this night. Someone, or something, grabbed his shirt and yanked him off of the rock, and it took the Vόslien a second to pull the dagger from its sheath and take a swipe behind him. The two men from the camp were surrounding him, and he bared his teeth in frustration. He chewed and swallowed the bite of food that he still had in his mouth, not wishing to choke, or lose the battle, in such a way.
“Thief,” exclaimed one of the men in a loud voice, a long knife by his side. He swung at him viciously, and the thief barely had a second to block it with his dagger, and he pushed it down and away from himself. The man behind him caught his arms from behind after he defended himself, and he tried for a second to get out of the grasp.
“Not so stealthy now, are you?” The man said that was holding him. The thief gave a smile and elbowed him in the solar plexus, causing him to be released. He took a minute to catch his breath, and the other man roared with rage, thrusting his knife at the thief. He thought quickly, and blocked the raged attack, using the hand that held the stolen meat to uppercut him in the chin.
I’m Sain, the thief thought as the man wheeled back from him. The other man started towards Sain again, but the man he had uppercut knocked him down. They cursed each other and tried to disentangle themselves. Don’t forget it.
He took the chance and ran as fast as his leather sandals would allow him. He came at morning light to a town, and slept in one of the alleys for a few hours. He woke up and toured the town, intrigued by its many wares. No one thought anything of him. It was normal enough to see a blonde-haired young westerner in this part of the continent. He was in the plains now, having left the forests and the mountains the night before with no thought of wanting them back. The horizon held the coastline and many ports, full of unattended shipments that needed lightening. He wasn’t greedy, but every now and again he liked to make some money. Stolen goods were an easy way of achieving this, and he was good at it.
Chapter Two
“Who’s next?” A Catari woman says, turning over her shot glass on the table with a wicked smile. The man she had just defeated was helped away by his friends to recover. Her black tail stretched up her back to her neck, and the tip wavered slightly in the air, as if daring the men that were watching her last match to challenge her. Money was still changing hands, and a pile was growing beside her. That was the third man she took out this night. She enjoyed doing things like this when she was between jobs.
A man agreed and sat across from her. A waitress came and cleared the shot glasses from the table, setting down five new ones in front of them. The Catari nodded her thanks to the woman, and looked at the man across from her. She could tell just by looking at him that he had too much to drink this night already. She smiled slightly. “Make your bets,” she said, and her black cat ears perk slightly as she hears the various bets being said between the men.
She took the first shot, downed it with ease and set the glass down with a quick thump. She wondered briefly if it woke the man across the table. He took the shot glass in his hand and stared at it for a minute before downing it. He wavered his hand for a minute, then fell backwards off the stool. She laughed and called it a night, waiting only for the money to make it to her pile before gathering it up and heading to her room.
She kicked off her boots with a smile and flopped onto her bed. She could count her money in the morning, but now she needed to sleep off the small amount of the alcohol that had seeped into her bloodstream. Catari were known to few to have the ability to drink what they pleased. She wasn’t surprised at the men’s ignorance to the fact. Her breed was a dying breed, and seeing one of her own was few and far between.
She was much prettier than any of the Vόslien women, though some men might disagree. She had some feline beauty that made her face softer than the roughness of all the normal men and women. They had accentuated faces that were more often than not square chins and chiseled features. She personally does not mind this type of man, but then she had grown up being used to the fact that she is different from the others. It was something that she always loved.
She fell asleep quickly, her dreams taking her to unknown places. She awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and ready for another job. She counted her money quickly, placing all of the coin in her coin purse on her belt except for the money for the innkeeper, which she handed to him for the room as she ate a quick breakfast. She was about to leave when a man who looked official walked in the doors. He looked around the room once before he said loudly:
“The merchant Sato of the Isle is searching for extra guards for the night, for a full week’s pay.” Her ears perked to this, and the tip of her tail made happy circles in the air. “Anyone interested should speak to me now.”
She walked the few paces to him. “I am interested,” she said, readjusting her sword on her back in a meaningful way. She was the only one, so he nodded and asked her name. “It is Kasla,” she said, and he nodded again.
“You seem to be the only one interested. So let us head to the merchant now.” He led her out of the door and down a few streets to the merchant’s large house. She was let in, and after a short explanation to the guard on duty, she is briefed in as few words as possible.
Sato was expecting a very large, very expensive shipment to be made that night, and they just had to stop any thieves from getting near it. She nodded, and was told to return at dusk.
Kasla returned to the street, and walked aimlessly around for a while. She stopped two muggings by that evening, and she used her money from the night before to buy herself some lunch and dinner. She returned to the merchant’s large abode at dusk, and she was greeted and let in without a fuss. She met the other guards inside a large hall.
There were eight other guards, most of them men, and only two others were women. They all looked fit and they all seemed to know one another. Kasla frowned slightly at this, knowing that this is a common distraction. If they were talking instead of focusing on stopping intruders, then they weren’t worth half the gold they were paid. She adjusted the sword on her back in a fidgeting way, uneasy that she would have to do most of the protecting by herself.
Just get through the job, then you can move on, she thought to herself as the group was led to the docks and then into a warehouse. She was stationed along the north wall outside of the warehouse, along a dark alleyway. She frowned as she paced the length of a few hundred feet. She had no idea what was going on from here. If the front was attacked, she would have no idea. Kasla had a bad feeling about the whole night, but she kept her ears at the ready and continued to pace the length of the building.
