This is something of a side story thing, so will be updated less often than my main story unless inspiration strikes. Also this is technically chapter 2, chapter 1 can be found as a filler chapter in my main story "In the eye of chaos". Anyway enjoy!
That night, Crest snuck out of the sleeping zone before clambering onto the roof. Earlier that day Kaaron received a huge job from the boss as a symbol of trust, if successful they could apparently clear most of their debts at once. Crest felt suspicious, not that he was ungrateful but the boss was an asshole on his best day. Also, the job was to steal something from a well-guarded temple, which although sounded easy enough, they did this kinds of jobs before, the payment was on a whole other level. This was too much money for apparently very little work, and Crest had yet to see the boss be generous to anyone except those girls in the brothels he liked to visit.
"Well no point thinking about it on such a beautiful night." Crest lay back on the roof and looked up at the night sky. He never really felt tired at night, even from young, he always felt most alive and energized only after the sun set, that and the fact that he considered most lights too bright made him prefer night missions. It was getting worse over time however, it used to be only bright afternoons that made him feel irritated, but recently even weak lanterns were starting to hurt his eyes. He also slept less than one third of what others seem to need. This means he had lots of time to think and relax while others slept. The moon was full tonight, it was bright but not enough that it would hurt him, it made him happy and relaxed. It had been so long since he fully relaxed in moonlight, he always felt better and stronger after it but he never had time to spare moon basking for a while. Then he saw someone leave the hideout.
"That's odd, there wasn't any night missions for tonight when I checked earlier. Hmmm, could be good blackmail material."
With that, Crest dashed over the roof tops until he was near, before dropping silently and dodging into a shadow. For some reason, even before he was trained here, he had a knack for being stealthy and almost invisible when he stood still in dark areas. It was as if the shadows swallowed him and hid him from the rest of the world, this talent saved him as a child more than once when he failed any attempts at stealing from stores and pockets. The training he received here dramatically increased his stealth techniques, if it wasn't for his inability to use weapons properly he might have been chosen to be one of the gang's assassin. A high paying and elite job within the gang, the assassins were highly doted on by the boss and only received the best of anything. But Crest didn't regret it, for if he had been an assassin, he might not have met Kaaron and Lonius. As he snuck from shadow to shadow, the figure seemed to move more slowly and more relaxed as he moved away from the hideout and far from anyone.
'Definitely blackmail material, and if it is good, I might be able to get enough from this the get Kaaron to rethink the job from the boss.' Crest truly cared for Kaaron, and he knew Kaaron felt the same way. The only reason Kaaron was so happy and adamant about taking the job was because he wanted to buy his and Lonius's freedom. So if this brought in enough profits, he could convince Kaaron to reject such a suspicious job.
The figure stopped ahead and took off his hood. "It's me, I got the orders."
"Took you long enough." Another person appeared from ahead and lit a small lamp. In the glow of the light, Crest recognized the second man as a commander of a band of troops that that was directly under the boss, the first figure was revealed to be his lieutenant.
"So? What's the plan?"
"The boss says that he planned for a small group to sneak in and attempt to steal it, if they fail there will be a huge commotion and we can take the chance when they are distracted to smash in through the front door and blindside them."
"Sounds tough to rescue the inside team and fight the guards at the same time. We fought those guys before and man could they fight, first time I saw a guy that could kill 4 of me single handedly, and there's a huge group of them."
"Nah, boss says saving them isn't a priority as they are just debt boys. Grab the loot, and if you have the chance the inside team too, otherwise dump them. They will make perfect scapegoats if need be. We lost enough proper men to bother bout some kids."
"Ha, the boss knows how to plan an operation eh. Good job on sneaking out, now come to the camp and let's see if we can get you drunk before the sun comes up eh."
"Thank you sir."
'Shit shit shit!' thought Crest, the temple they were planning on attacking must be the same as Kaaron's. Which means the inside suicide distraction team was them! 'I gotta warn Kaaron!'
Kaaron was deep in thought after hearing Crest's story. "So you see, we HAVE to refuse that job."
Kaaron thought a bit more before finally saying "No, we go ahead with the job."
"But why? It is obviously meant to get rid of us or hurt us so bad we become deeper in debt to that fat pig."
"Look, there are 3 reasons we should do it. Number 1, as debt kids we cannot refuse a direct job order anyway. Number 2, this was a nice job unless we heard about why it's worth so much, how are you gonna explain why we refused without letting the boss know you heard his plans, you would be dead both ways."
"And number 3?"
"You, me and Lonius can do anything remember? I will make a good plan, we successfully carry this out and things will blow over, you just wait and see."
"Urgh, ok Kaaron I trust you, but promise me if things get bad we call off the job and run?"
"Of course, our lives come first, without it how will we spend all the money we make for the rest of our lives?"
Some days later.
Kaaron looked over the temple from on top the cliff. He recorded down every detail he could see from above the temple, routes, walkways, small alleys or places they could hid if someone was coming. He was leaving nothing to chance, planning everything down to the smallest detail to ensure maximum efficiency and raise their chances of success. He had already calculated the guards patrol routes and finished every single aspect of his plan, last minute preparations were ready and he had already briefed Crest and Lonius on their roles. And just in case they needed a distraction, he finished setting up the bombs along the cliff face and set a trigger. It was merely a few flints next to a small pile of firewood that had a small string leading out of it and into the first bomb. Tonight before the plan starts he would douse the firewood in oil before entering the temple, if things got bad he could fire a steel arrow at the flints to cause a spark and start a chain explosion. He also strapped a few explosives to his chest before covering them with his clothes, if the plan fails, he would make sure at least Crest and Lonius gets away, one way or another. He also held his lucky ring close, he had found the ring near this gauntlet in some ruins a few months back, he could not move the gauntlet but the ring allowed him to use magic, which had always impressed Crest. "Maybe I should let Crest carry it, in case I don't come back he will have something fun to remember me by."
And with that chapter 2 ends here, leave some comments and review thank you very much. I hope Kaaron doesn't die, I kinda like the guy. See you guys soon and hopefully next chapter of "In the eye of chaos" comes out soon.