It's been a while, but here's the next piece for the collection. The first scene is basically an adaptation of a Kirby comic by KC Green (unfortunately I couldn't find a direct link that says it's his work, but have a link for people to at least look at. ( gallery/j2nnWmG) ) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this update.

The warehouse was a hub of noise today, forklifts and White Fangs about sorting out the stolen crates of Dust onto shelves that would span right up to the ceiling with wooden and metal boxes. Normal dust particles hung in the air, highlighted by beams of sunlight streaming in through windows propped open.

One beam in particular was shining onto a crate where a small figure was sat along its edge. Feet drummed against the wood as they swung back in against the side. Bright coloured pencils were scattered on one side of her, while one was in her grasp and moving swiftly across the open page of a sketchbook on her lap.

"More drawings?" A silver head of hair dropped down to peer behind her at the page as Mercury came up. Bright colours were blurring into one another in the shapes drawn on the page the kid was holding. It may have been a bit hard, but not too hard to recognise the figure of Roman with a frown surrounded by crates and White Fang workers.

"Hm!" With a final stroke of the brown pencil, Ruby finished marking a cigar in Roman's mouth. "Em said this would help me wait."

Each day since they had come to Vale, Ruby had spent hours in the warehouse, left behind as Cinder went about her work, along with the others. At first, it had been interesting enough to clamber over crates as big as her and explore every corner of the warehouse. But, as more White Fangs and crates arrived, getting scolded more and more by Roman for getting in the way, and a close accident with a forklift, Cinder's orders became less "wait for me here" and more "sit and stay". And that's when the boredom really started to hit.

"What about these though?" A finger came over to tap against some scrawled words at the bottom of the paper. Mercury's brow pulled in, trying to make sense of the gibberish. "What's a 'blone'?"

"The black stone that's out front." With the warehouse door open, and Ruby pointing out towards it, he was reminded of the big stone block outside the entrance. Other than the colour, it looked like other bollard blocks left around this district, but it helped Roman and his workers identify this warehouse from the rest of the identical buildings that would surround it. "I heard how some words are made from combining others, and wanted to try it."

"Huh. So," The teen leaned back, looking around for something for his eyes to land on, eventually settling. "Roman's table over there, with the maps on it. What would that be?"

It took a moment for Ruby to think over it, heels idly drumming once against her crate before deciding.

"A Mable!" One side of Mercury's mouth twitched up. He had been expecting to have to waste time after finishing his assignment for the day early, but this was already better than seeing if his legs needed any fine-tuning.

"How about that then?" A hand drifted up to point near the Mable, where a pink parasol had been left leaning against a corner.

"Pumbrella!"

Close enough. His gaze swept around for something else, almost going to point at a random White Fang hauling a crate over to a shelf, before the thought of Cinder overhearing that result made him reconsider. "Hmm. How about…"

"How about you stop with the nonsense words?" Emerald interrupted, walking over from the warehouse door. The edges of some papers poked out from around her belt, tucked away to avoid people catching sight of some suspicious red dots across the top of them. "You shouldn't be teaching her to talk like a baby."

There was a pause.

"…What would 'No Fun Girl' be?"

"A Nirl!"

"Hey!"

"That's thirty-nine Ginger Street, right?" Emerald's eyes didn't leave the Dust shop on the other side of the street as they walked past.

"Hmm. And open till ten most nights." Mercury glanced over a sign set into the shop's door. "So unsafe, keeping those hours when there's a Dust crime epidemic happening."

"Whee!"

"So, plus the one on Verde Avenue, and that makes five more shops that can be added to the list." The girl's face did not change despite the excited squeal that had come from between them. "Was it only ones that would still be open late, or could really any be hit?"

"Again! Again!"

"Think we're trying to avoid alarm systems tip off the cops faster than a shopkeep held at gunpoint can." Still keeping in stride with Emerald, one of his arms swung forward at the same time that one of hers did the same. "Although given Roman got kicked out of one store by a customer, perhaps maybe he's just too cheap to hire someone to hack into them."

A small pair of boots flew up between them, Ruby giggling as she was swung up completely off the ground for a few moments, before gravity could take her back down again. Gripping tightly onto a hand of each of the teens, she narrowly avoided stumbling as her feet touched back down onto the sidewalk.

"How many more to check out before we head back?"

"Two more. Why, getting tired of playing 'nice siblings out for a stroll'?" It was half the reason they had taken Ruby along with them. That, and that Roman had almost blown his top at the drawings found on his map this morning.

"Again!"

"Maybe…"

"Emerald!" Tears were starting to bud in the corners of her eyes as Ruby wandered in the centre of the park, looking around her for the other girl. A handful of people out enjoying the day slowed down as they spotted her, a young child on the verge of crying, alone and panicking. "Where are you?"

A large sniffle followed her shout, an arm raising up so she could rub her face with the sleeve of her jacket. This, and the whimper that followed, was the breaking point for some of those people who felt the need to help.

"Hey there." One woman knelt down to try and get to Ruby's level. "Are you lost? Would you like some help?" More sniffling followed, though she shook her head. "You sure you don't want any help at all?"

"I just want my sister." Ruby tried to blink away the tears and look around the park again. "I can't find her. She was right here a moment ago!"

"Well, maybe we can help you look for her. Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"Ruby!" A light green head of hair came into view from behind the woman. "There you are! I told you not to wander off!" The teen scolded as she scooped up the missing child, who eagerly wrapped their arms around the other's shoulders.

"I only stopped for a moment, and then you were gone!" She tried to talk back, but the choke of crying to her voice as she clung tight to Emerald.

She was still sniffling away the tears as the teen thanked the woman for stopping to help. Those same sniffles started to die away once Emerald had walked a distance away from the good Samaritan and out of sight.

"Did I do good?"

One hand reaching into her pants, Emerald brought out a thin leather wallet. Using a thumb to pull apart the folds and take a look at the Lien inside brought a smile to her face.

"You did very well. You're getting better and better at the fake crying." The wallet was folded up and slipped away so she could better hold onto the weight of the child hugging onto her. "How about some ice-cream before we head back for the day then?"

"Yeah!" Any signs that there had been tears before was completely gone by this stage, grin lighting up her features.

"You remember the promise though?"

"Not to tell Cinder that I was helping you pickpocket again?"

"There's a good girl."

"You know, elephants are really only as big as dogs." Mercury stated casually, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back on the crate he was using as a stool.

"What?" There was no way Ruby could have just misheard that, looking up from her paper, pencil still in one hand as she stared incredulously at him. "That's not right. Elephants are meant to be really huge!" She said, stretching her arms up towards the roof of the warehouse to emphasise.

"Nah, that's just a myth. They're really just as small as you." It was hard to keep the smirk from showing on his face as he tried to keep up the bald-faced lie.

"But what about the zoos and all the pictures of them as being giants then?"

"Fakes, the whole lot of them. They probably found some rhinos and stuck props on them to make them look like elephants." He shrugged at the growing frown on the girl's face. "I'm telling you the truth."

"No you're not! You're lying!" Ruby took the bait, getting to her feet. "Elephants are not small!"

"Well, if you don't believe me, we can just ask someone else. Hey Emerald!" The teen in question looked up from the map table to glance over at Mercury curiously. "Elephants are actually really small, aren't they?" It was only by the brief appearance of his familiar smirk that she was able to get the hint to play along, and that he wasn't just being an idiot like normal.

"…that's right. They keep most of them in labs now, which is why you don't get to see any actual elephants running around." The look of disbelief was now aimed at her instead. "Because they're so endangered."

"That can't be right!" Ruby repeated herself. "Why are you both lying about this?"

"Us, lie? Would we ever lie to you?"

"Yes! Because you've done it before!"

"Does someone want to explain to me why there's so much noise here?"

The introduction of a familiar cool voice made the smile drop from both teens' faces. Amber eyes peered calmly around the three of them as she walked into view, but the thin line of Cinder's mouth suggested she knew this was more than just the volume of a simple conversation. Neither Mercury or Emerald wanted to be the one to confirm that. "Well?"

"…just a bit of teasing that maybe went a bit overboard." Despite trying to downplay it, Emerald still didn't like having the full focus of those eyes on her. Mercury kept quiet, waiting to see how her description of events went down first before acting. "Sorry, Ruby, we didn't mean it."

Although there was some grumbling, the child did look less upset than she had before. Which seemed to be the deciding factor in Cinder simply looking over them once more instead of dealing out some kind of punishment.

"Whatever it was, no more. There's enough going on as is that I can't afford to deal with this right now. So keep it down, and be ready for tomorrow." With that, she let them be, the click of her heels heading over to an end of the warehouse that Roman had disappeared into an hour earlier.

Both teens let out a breath they hadn't even been aware of, and there was peace for a few moments.

"…Okay, so elephants may really be that big. But giraffes, on the other hand…"