Now, Darius would just need to think of an excuse in case anyone tried to stop him on his way. How about an attack on the castle referenced by an unconscious guard? Darius already had his target picked out. A certain guard that would change roles in another 20ish minutes. The guard was lightly armored, relatively alone, and positioned a little more than 400 feet from Darius’s current position, so he readied his bow.

A large wooden bow made from the branch of his favorite tree from his home. It has served him well for nearly a decade. Colored black and tinted purple, it was one of the few vestiges of home he still had.

Darius took one of his heavier arrows but wrapped the head extensively in cloth. He wanted the guard unconscious, not dead. Darius waited and took deep breaths, focusing solely on his target, in this case, the head of the guard. Darius stood for 30 seconds in cold focus before letting the arrow fly, hitting the guard square in the neck and chest area.

“Damn contacts,” he thought, but the shot served its purpose as the guard lurched to his side and fell over. “On to stage two.”

“C-Captain! You’re late! I mean your shift started three hours ago. Drank a bit too much last night, didn’t you?” The disguised Darius didn’t speak, opting to just show him the ID he acquired from McKenzie.

“Right, I get it. Head’s beating like a rabbit’s heart after a good ol’ round of bumping the naughty bits. Alright just give us a second, we’ll get these doors open for you.”

Darius thought about talking further with this man, anybody that likened rabbit mating to a headache is somebody he wanted to at least have a short conversation with, but he had a job to do.

Based on Darius’s surveillance, vault guards shifted positions every two hours. He did not own a working watch, so he relied mostly on the sun. He also didn’t own a sun dial, so he was effectively working off an estimate.

“10 minutes until the next change. I could get to the vault in five if I hurried, but that would probably garner unwanted attention. Best if I pace myself a bit.”

Darius had severely underestimated how much the mail armor would mess with his movements, it was only around 20 lbs, but the added weight bore on his mind. He couldn’t wait to be back into his leather clothing and cloak.

As he made his way towards the vault, any other guards simply moved out of his way and saluted. Honestly, Darius enjoyed the respect he received from his false identity as it reminded him of his own short tenure in the military. It almost made him pity the lashing many of these guards would get for letting him steal the Grande Verde… almost.

It didn’t take long before he could see the vault, again Darius got that bad feeling in his gut, things were going his way far too much. He made a quick check that he didn’t forget any necessary tools from his gadget pack that he left near a tree outside.

“Lockpicks, check. dagger, check. Throwing knives, check. Paint bombs, not strictly necessary, but check.”

Darius didn’t know why he kept getting this bad feeling, but then again, he didn’t feel much of anything when a large object rammed him into the ground, other than pain, of course.

“Captain! Captain, I was so scared when you didn’t come back to the barracks last night, captain!”

Darius’s mind almost went blank. He couldn’t quite see what was on top of him, but he assumed it was a man, no a giant. Whatever it was easily weighed more than 300 lbs and was crushing his lungs. Darius could only whimper weakly as he watched his life go by.

“Billy what are you? Is that the captain? Get your fat butt off of him you loaf!” Slowly but surely the giant, Billy, lifted himself off of Darius. The voice that gave the command was a woman by the sound of it, but Darius could only guess as he rolled onto his knees gasping for breath.

“Tor help us, captain, are you okay? Anything broken?” Darius glanced up to see who was speaking to him. A woman, as he guessed, wearing similar armor to his own, helmet and all, except her stripes showed that she was a lower rank, a first lieutenant.

“Fine… I’m fine,” Darius said

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“Are ya really?” she asked, “You sound a bit off captain. Have you been drinking?”

Darius knew that he should only say very little, any prolonged conversation is going to get him caught. He needed to go, but before he could stand himself, the giant arms wrapped around him, lifting Darius to his feet.

“Serena, watch out, Major Collins is coming! Captain, I’d suggest you get behind me if you don’t want her seeing you.”

“Serena? Major Collins? Who?”

Darius was still feeling a bit disjointed when Billy started talking, but he didn’t really see a reason to argue. The less people who knew he was here the better, so Darius did as Billy said. It wasn’t long before Darius heard some yelling from behind the giant, another woman.

“Serena, Billy, what are you two standing around for?”

“Sorry Major Collins,” Billy said, “Selena and I, well we…”

“We were… looking for the captain… for you,” Selena quickly added, “Isn’t that what you’re doing?

“Then why are you checking near the vault? You’d have better luck checking the bars, though I already tried,” commented Collins. “You two aren’t trying to hide him from me, right?”

Darius could feel Billy shudder, a feeling that nearly pushed Darius to the ground. From behind him, Darius could get a real look at just how big Billy was. Even when slouched over, he was easily over eight feet tall, maybe even closer to nine when standing straight. Billy was by far the largest man Darius has ever met.

Not just in height, this man radiated with muscle. Even behind his thick, plate covered armor he could see it. Darius wouldn’t be surprised if he could arm wrestle a gorilla. He also didn’t wear a helmet, not surprising as Darius didn’t think one could fit this man, but what it revealed was sickly pale skin, almost white. Darius mind raced as he remembered…

“Yeti?” he whispered.

“Yes, captain!” Billy shouted as he stood at attention.

Time stood still for a full second, Darius was in about disbelief about what just happened. Billy, in turn, seemed to immediately realize his mistake as he fell to his knees and started apologizing.

“W-Would you look at that,” Serena said weakly. “We found him.”

“Shut it,” Collins demanded.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Darius quietly laughed at his own misfortune. His mind went blank as he tried fruitlessly to escape the situation that befuddled him.

“McKenzie, hey, you there?” Collins asked. “You can stop trying to ignore me. I promise that I’m not mad that my little sister tried to hide you from me.”

“Little sister?”

The voice came from far below Darius, snapping him back to reality. Once he looked down, his vision was filled by a tuft of short, curly ginger hair. The small girl looked up revealing a pale face full of freckles and emerald green eyes. Though what really caught his attention was the large gun attached to Claire’s back.

“If I can remember correctly that thing is called a rifle. Aren’t those things supposed to pack a lot of power? Could someone with her small frame handle that?”

“Right, sorry Major Collins, but I’m a bit busy right now. My business should only take an hour, or two now, but I promise to meet with you right af-” Darius felt a sharp pain in his gut before keeling over. “W-What was that for?” Darius asked before feeling the tight pressure of arms wrapping around his neck.

“Claire, how many times have I told you to call me Claire?” she responded. “Even if you won’t let me call you by your given name.”

“Poor McKenzie, looking back, didn’t he also mention a Claire and Serena a bunch yesterday. I’m started to get the picture as to why he was complaining so much.”

“Got it! Got it!” Darius yelled in short breaths. “Claire! Yep, you’re Claire, got it!”

Even with such a small body, she was freakishly strong, or at the very least she had a monster grip. After a short time, she began to let go, but her grip tightened again as she changed her mind, “I’ll let go, if you say I love you… Claire.”

“I wonder if McKenzie has to go through this kind of thing daily. Cconsidering how quickly she did this, I wouldn’t doubt it. I need to remember that I’m playing a role here. McKenzie seemed the stubborn type so…”

“No chance Claire, in fact, if you hold me any longer, I’ll go back to calling you Collins.”

Almost immediately the pressure around Darius’s neck was released, letting him take in gasp of beautiful air.

“No fair McKenzie!” Claire exclaimed, “You cheated.”

“All’s fair in love and war, Claire.” Darius coughed.

Once free, Darius did what he does best, run away. “I was serious about being busy Claire, we’ll catch up later.”

Claire was stunned momentarily when Darius bolted away, but eventually recovered, “Hey wait! Serena, Billy, help me catch McKenzie!”

The two of them cried out, “Yes ma’am!” before proceeding to chase after Darius.