Author's Note
Here's the next chapter edited for you enjoyment
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Like some stories mine starts with a dream… scratch that like a nightmare that I have had to many times. The night was young and the twin moons where full one was a bright red the other was white. She panted with exhaustion she had run far from her burning village, her brown hair was soaked with sweat her tanned skin was marred with her blood. She though she didn’t know it, she was dying from the sword wound. But she had to continue for the small child in her arms. As if responding to her thoughts the child let out a small cry in response. On the babes left arm was a tattoo of a wolf’s head, bird with a long tail and a dragon. She covered the arm with the blanket. She continued to move now more slowly towards the woods and under their cover.
As she passed a few of the trees she rested her back into a tree then slowly sank down. With the baby still in one arm she tried to get up but immediately lost her remaining strength and her back was resting on the tree once again. “Must keep going” she mumbled to herself. She tried once more and couldn’t get back up. She put the baby in her lap as she lost the remaining reserves of her strength. What little was left of her blood began to pool around her. Slowly her breathes became short and longer apart. All that the woman could think in her last dying breathes was that if the gods had any mercy they would send someone to save her child.
Thinking it might help conserve any amount of strength she closed her eyes but only a few quick short breaths later she was dead. The child cried aloud possible sensing his mother’s death. It took a while for the child’s cries to die down. Out of the shadows of the trees stepped out six wolves. They were the size of horses even though their eyes were the same sapphire blue each had different colors. One of the three males was a reddish-brown, another was almost pure black except the white spot on his chest and the last one the biggest one grey mixed with some white. The three female wolves were just a varied as their male counter-parts. The one standing next to the black and white wolf had patches of white and black all over her body, another one had pure grey fur that glistened like silver, and the last one was whiter than even snow.
“Come to us Amaru.” the voice came from the black and white wolf. I woke with a start my heavy breathing slowed as I laid back down. I placed the back of my hand against my forehead it felt wet. Great I thought to myself I also broke out into a sweat just what I needed. I sighed the dream was just as disturbing as it always was seeing a village burn and then the death my mother. I never knew why I had such dreams I never grew up in a village and my mother didn’t die of a sword wound. But I was used to that by now, what had truly disturbed me was the presence of that sixth female wolf and the male speaking to me. Before today I had never dreamed of the six wolves. And why did that wolf say come to us? And how did he know my name?
I really didn’t have time to worry about such things. Beside’s maybe I had too much to drink last night. At eighteen years old I shouldn’t be frightened by my nightmares let alone asking myself questions about the damn thing. I got out of bed with a small groan and a wince it had gotten cold during night. I didn’t have look out the window to know it was still night out. I sighed I went ahead and finished getting up as I dusted the sleep from my eyes. I grabbed my two swords that I keep near my bed and unsheathed them. Though the room was small it was big enough for me to do a very basic workout practice with my twin blades and move with well coordinated steps. I left the room shrouded in darkness I didn’t own many personal belongings so the room remained sparse so I knew were everything was. At first I took my time slowly driving my blades through the air at imagined foes. Slowly with time the blades moved through the air parries, feints and blocks to the imagined strikes. My blades would narrowly miss the wall by mere centimeters as I moved to attack with thrusts and side swipes.
My workout came to an end half an hour later with the first rays of dawn crept through my window. I had broken out into enough sweet that I knew I would need to visit the bath houses first thing. On my left arm was a bandage that covered most of the top half of my arm coming slightly out of the bandage was the scar I had received two years ago during weapons practice. I sheathed my swords then grabbed my grey linen shirt from my chest I saw my reflection in the window. My hair which reached down to past my shoulders was black was now slightly darker because of the sweat. My eyes were the light green. I was about five and half feet tall and like all those who had been trained John, I was well muscled. I put on my shirt and then I strapped my swords to my back.
Now that I was warmed up from my small exertions I didn’t notice the cold as much. I guess it’s going to be an early winter this year I thought to myself. I looked around my small room. Like I said it was pretty empty, there was a small straw bed pushed against the far wall, next to it was a table my knife belt on it with my coin purse. On the opposite side of the table near the foot of my bed was my chest that held the few belongs I called my own and a small fireplace that had soot and charcoal left in it. I walked over and picked up my knife belt and strapped it on my waist and then my coin purse. When I picked it up it had felt heaver then I remembered that I had gotten particularly lucky when I pick the purses off a couple of noble boys who had gotten a little too drunk in the richer part of town that I had been in before I came back to my apartment. I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I grabbed my grey linen cloak from my chest. I heard a knock on the door, who could it be this early in the morning.
As I opened the door I saw a little girl named Emily she had come from Lucas and John’s this early? She was only seven years old and barely came to my waist. Her hair was brown and came down to her shoulders like mine. She looked up to with her brown eyes and handed me a note. Her job finished she turned and ran down the hallway as I opened the note. All it said was meet us at the hideout at noon Lucas. Great I thought what in the hell do they want? Not that really bothered me I was going to be there late this afternoon anyways.
As I went down the hallway to stairs I passed many small children out playing while their mother’s cooked breakfast. Most smiled at me and waved the others who had bullied the smaller children backed away. Some of them had fear in their eyes some with hatred. Everyone in the building knew me knew that I was a thief. They did not care because I never stole from them and not that ever would we did have the rules to follow. Lucas and John had done well to make sure to teach all of us that. And since I lived in this apartment it also fell under the protection of the Thieves guild. When I walked out into the daylight I felt the true chill that had settled in over the night but it was slowly beginning to warm up already.
Slowly I made my way down the street already the street way busy of those going to their jobs or running morning errands. I made my way to the Marcy’s Bathhouse since it was the best place in this poor neighborhood to get a decent bath and your clothes washed as you took the bath. The sign’s of poverty was all over the place everyone’s trash littered the alley ways and poured out into the street. The beggars that walked the streets heading to the where they would start their begging for coin or food. Most of the buildings were three or four stories tall, they were old and most had need of repair, but there cheap landlords didn’t fix them up unless city inspectors called their attention to it. A slight breeze came through I tightened my cloak around me to ward off the cold. Not that this helped the cold seemed to always find a way past my cloak.
I was a block and a half before I turned on a street of mostly two story buildings. The buildings here were in far better condition that the last street. Marcy’s Bathhouse was the other end of the street and it took up the whole corner. I went through the door and was greeted with a familiar infectious smile and room. The entrance to the small because a major portion of the building belonged to the bathes. The woman sitting behind the table that acted as a reception desk was in her fifties. Her name was Granny or at least that’s the name she gave me when I first meet her. Her face was round and plumb, her nose was straight and her eyes were a dark brown. Her salt and pepper grey hair was shaggy. And one of the nicest women I had ever met in my life. I smiled back.
“The…” I didn’t get to finish what I was going to say.
“Usual Granny, please.” She finished my sentence with a small high pitched laugh as she just pointed to the back door.
Without anymore urging than was needed I walked past her through the worn out double doors. I walked past the main hallway that had two large doors to the public bathes, I always paid for a private bath. I was soon being followed by one of Granny service girls to the private baths. I slowed down to let her lead me to an open room. I followed her down a side hallway to the second door on the left. I walked through the open door and closed it behind me. The room was hot. In the middle on a raised platform was a tub that also could serve the purpose of cleaning laundry underneath it was a small fire that kept the water hot. Next the door was a small bench where I could lay my clothes and weapon. I removed my weapons and my clothes and laid them on the bench. I walked over to the tub and lower myself in the tub. I sighed with relief when I was fully immersed in the tub, a little water spilled over onto the ground. The service girl gave a quick knock on the door. She opened the door without a word from me and grabbed my clothes.
Half an hour later I was washed and cleaned, like always somewhere without me noticing they had left a towel for me to dry of with. The towel was also used to cover myself till my clothes had finished being laundered. Since it was early I didn’t have to wait long for my clothing to be returned to me. Once I was clothed I walked back up to the front. After I fished around all the gold coins I finally found a silver coin so I pay Granny for the use of her bath.
“See you tomorrow Amaru.” Granny said with her smile.
I left the bathhouse knowing that I would need to fence the gold coins as soon as possible. But then again I still had about five hours till I needed to be at the hideout so I made my way down to the Broken Arm Tavern to see Yulia. I smiled at that thought. Over the last few months our relationship had become a lot closer after old Thomas finally relented and allowed me to court her. It seems that today would be a good day to take her to market I thought as I hefted my coin purse. I made my back to way that I had come. I turned right making my way deeper into the poor part of the city.
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I saw the sign of the Broken Arm’s slowly come into view. The sign, more like a warning, depicted an arm broken in one spot but it was broken in such a way that the bone came through the skin. I opened the door and closed it as fast as I could to keep the cold out. The place smelled like it always did right before winter crept in of hot apple cider. The room held six tables and a small bar, the fireplace took up a good portion of the back wall. In it was a big cast iron pot holding the steaming hot cider. At the moment it wasn’t very busy, but would around lunch. I didn’t too look for Tom like always he was easily found at the bar while his son Horace was at the door eyeing for trouble.
Both Horace and Tom were built the same. They had a small bugle where their bellies was, their short cropped blackish brown hair was a mess as usually if not little greasy. They both were about a head taller than I was and wore the same faded grey shirt and brown pants. Things changed with their facial features. Tom’s nose once could have been straight but it had been broken more than a few times so it gave a deformed squished look, his brown eyes narrowed at me he didn’t look happy to see me, not that he ever did, one of his beefy hands was placed on his small club. Horace on the other was always glad to see me and had a small grin on his face as I came through. The two things that were different about him were he had dark blue eyes and his nose had yet to be broken so it was straight.
Ann had a tray of food and drink in her hands, I walked past her and smiled. Ann was Horace’s wife, of two years now. She had very plain features, she wasn’t skinny or fat, her hair was a very dull brown that reached to the middle of her back. Her eyes were brown and her nose had the shape of a small beak. She wore a white and brown linen dress. The only two things I really think Horace found attractive was she was a slightly better cook than his mom and her overly large breasts. Though she wasn’t very bright she did have some measure of control over Horace and Tom.
I took a seat at the bar near the kitchen. Tom eyed me as I sat down but said nothing. Ann walked up to Tom. “Well Tom did you ask Amaru what he wanted to eat?” She said curtly. Tom just grunted a reply. “You need to get over it Tom what’s done is done. Amaru is good for her and you know it now be nice and ask him what he would like anything to eat.” I wisely suppressed a smile. Tom just glared at Ann and her back at him.
Tom may have lost the contest of wills between the two but didn’t mean he would ask either. “Ask him yourself girl I’m in no mood to deal with him.” He walked away from the bar and went to the front door. Horace just sighed and let his father take his place.
“Stubborn old man.” She said under her breath. “Would you like anything to eat Amaru?” She asked me in her sweetest voice.
“Yes please, and would you let Yulia know I’m here?” I grinned at her when I heard Tom growl or cuss hard to tell these days.
“Of course I will.” Another bit of noise coming from Tom’s way we both ignored him. He hasn’t been in a good mood the last few weeks when he found out that I was seeing his daughter behind his back for the last year. Of course it didn’t help that he found out when I proposed to her in front of him. It put him in even more of a bad mood when he found out everyone in his family had known about and didn’t bother to tell him.
It was Susan, Tom’s wife, who brought out a bowl of pigeon pie for me. Susan even at her age was still very good looking and had passed down that trait to both of her daughters. She was neither fat nor skinny and she was smaller than me by a few inches. Her hair though light blonde had hints of gray in it. She wore a simple linen brown dress, her eyes were a light blue and she had a straight nose. “Ann went to go get her, eat up.” She laid the bowl in front of me and hand me a mug for the cider. I fished out a few copper coins and handed them to her.
I walked over to the simmering pot of hot cider poured me some of it. The pigeon pie was filling and the cider helped ward of the chill of the morning. Yulia arrived half way through my second helping of the pie. She was a younger version of her mother and in my opinion twice a beautiful. Like Susan she had light blonde hair and a straight nose. She wore the dark blue wool dress that I had bought her a few days ago after her father found out about us. Her eyes were a dark blue like her brothers so the dress really brought out her eyes. Ann came over and took the bowl away and I got up and walked to Yulia. I gave her a quick kiss and I smelled the rose scented perfume that I had stolen out some noble woman’s bedroom. One her left ring finger was a gold ring that held a ruby in between two sapphires, I also stole this from the same noble woman’s bedroom.
“You look and smell beautiful.” She blushed as I heard what may have been a growling noise from Tom again. I looked over to Tom and then back at Yulia. “I don’t think he’s quiet gotten over marriage proposal.”
She shot him a dark look. “He’ll just have to get over it like he did with Rose.” She grabbed my hand and led me through the tavern past her father. “We’re going to the market to buy more things needed for my wedding.” Tom put out his hand to stop us.
Even if he didn’t like me I knew he did love his daughters very much and was very protective of them. But the problem was he also felt no man was good enough for his daughters. “Your mother wants me to talk to him before you go.” His tone was even and short. I could tell he really didn’t want to do this but if I knew Susan he had no choice. “Look boy I may not like all this business of you marrying my daughter and you damn well know the reasons.” Which I did, he didn’t like the fact I was a thief. “Susan maybe right about you being able to care for my little girl.” I looked at our hands and smile menacingly. “But if you so much as lay a hand on my daughter before the wedding night I’ll cut your manhood off myself.”
“Father!” Yulia turn red from both anger and embarrassment. She pushed her way past Tom and I followed.
I heard the door to the kitchen slam open behind us and a whisper from Horace before I made all the way through the door. I heard “You said what” from Susan. I grinned to myself knowing that for his threat he would pay, but that left me to smooth things over with Yulia on her father’s behalf. And that would be hard for me since she could be just as unreasonable as her father.
We went towards Marcy’s Bathhouse and took a right towards the markets. We went a few more blocks before we came upon a few shabby ‘shops’ in the poor distract markets. Most of these ‘shops’ were merely fronts for fences. We headed straight to a small two story building that housed both the shop and the home of the owner. The sign hanging down said Boris’s Hand Me Downs it had no picture because he sold anything that was fenced to him.
Yulia saw where we were heading as gave me a look. I patted my coin purse and she nodded in understanding. As we walked in the door I heard the jingle of the small bell that let Boris know that someone was coming in. The room was about ten feet wide and twelve feet long. It had just enough light to let people see the goods on the tables for sale. One the tables was an assortment of things like cheap copper jewelry, old handkerchiefs, dresses, and many of odd and ends for the females his shop catered to. We walked up to the counter just as Boris came out. The best description of the man that I could give that he looked like a rat that had taken human shape. He was a few inches shorter than I was, he was skin and bones and his hands where cupped together that looked like they were more claws than actual hands. His thin brown hair ended in well a rat tail and he had beady dark brown eyes. He looked at Yulia and smiled. I could almost feel her shudder but she was used to him so she stayed by my side.
“Hello Boris, how are you doing this morning?” I asked him.
“Not too bad a bit cold though.” He said in his squeaky voice.
“I need to exchange out some coin today. I lifted a couple purses from off some drunken noble brats last night.” I gave him a knowing smile.
“Follow me then.” We walked into his backroom where he kept stolen items he had yet to send to his other store in the noble classes market or sold to merchants in the markets. The room was half the size of his store, in one corner was the stairs lending up to his home. The walls were lined with tables, chests, and cabinet that had many of the same items laying about on the few tables that he had in the front. In the middle was a long table that had at the moment coins stacked up at varying heights and even a plain copper ring, a few plain silver necklaces and a small chest.
We stood by the table with the coins and I poured out the gold coins onto the table away from Boris’ coins. I watched as a lot of gold coins fell out amid the few copper and silver I had left. I was pleasantly surprised that when I counted out the twenty gold coins to Boris. Boris counted out eighteen and half gold worth of copper and silver and I put in my purse. We left the store and followed the twisting and turning of the streets towards the market.
The morning went by swiftly and so did my coin. She went through my gold easily just buying enough cloth to give her family for a new outfit for the wedding. She and her mother would be busy for a while making them. I was amazed at the ease that she had gotten fair deals through bartering at all of the stalls we had visited. Of course I always found it easier to steal what I needed that buy. The cloth was only linen but she did manage to find many different colors. They were obviously female colors such as pinks, light reds and blues. The others I could tell where for her father and her brother because they were grey, brown and white the only colors they would wear. But I guess what was important was that she was having (too much) fun spending my coin. After paying the fifth stall vendor we continued to make are way the down the street when I noticed that we were being followed. I had noticed them at the first stall we had visited but didn’t take much notice of them now I did. But it was nearly time for me to meet John and Lucas at the hideout. After she was finished with the vendor asking the price for some babble that she found interesting we left for the back to her father’s inn.