Part Two - There and back again

These past few days had been quite eventful, S'darrah thought. She had wasted no time in Bruma, but started her thieving the very next night, after everyone had gone to bed. She snuck into one of the more finer looking houses, opening every trunk, closet and chest she could find. To her disappointment, there was very little of value to be found. Some fine clothes - she had a soft spot for fine clothes, S'darrah - and food items here and there was just about all.

So she headed upstairs, sneaking silently around the bed with the sleeping woman. But even in the woman's bedroom there wasn't much of interest. She didn't get it - the house was fine, the woman's clothing was fine, and even the bedsheets were shiny and new - yet there were no gold, no jewlery - nothing. Darn this petty Nord village!

It was only when she headed towards the staircase she saw the extra bedroom. No one was sleeping there, but there were a few chests there. Opening them revealed several fine weapons - maces, axes and swords. Even some armour. Can't find a Nord without some heavy weaponry, S'darrah thought to herself, putting it all in her bag before sneaking her way out of the house again.

Her find had made her eager for more, although she had little interest in searching through more of these Nord houses. As she looked around, she saw that the local weapon shop was just across the street. Excellent! No one saw her as she lockpicked her way through the door - only one lockpick left, now! - and entered the empty shop. This was more like it! All kind of expensive weapons were laying around the room, not even locked down! She greedily grabbed it all, only to notice that she wouldn't be able to carry it all. She, sadly, threw all the clothes out of the bag. Hm, the wine bottles were a bit heavy. She quickly opened one and drank it, leaving the empty bottle.

That was when she noticed another shelf filled with more weapons. She could barely carry what she had, even without the clothes and wine, so she decided to hurry back to Ongar, her fence, and sell it off before she returned. She got out of the shop without anyone noticing, for some reason the guards weren't patrolling this part of the town that often, and hurried over to Olav's Tap and Tack. To her luck, Ongar liked his drinks and could spend hours in the nights drinking and chatting with Olav, when he wasn't asleep in his own house. She quickly sold him all her loot - and got almost 200 gold pieces for it all! That would be enough to let her Doyen remove her bounty and she would still have enough gold left for a good meal and and a bed back in the Imperial City.

She returned to the weapon shop, but she was too eager. The clock was almost four in the morning, and the shop owners cleary liked to wake up early. She heard someone walking upstairs and froze. Then that someone came down the stairs.

"In the name of Azura! Get out of here before I call the guards!"

S'darrah turned on her heel and ran out. Luckily, the owner didn't follow her and she returned to Olav's and waited until nightfall. When she was sure the owners was asleep, she headed back into the shop and stole the rest of their weapons. She was getting tired now, and returned to Olav's again. Ongar was still there, although he was also complaining about getting tired. Still, he bought everything she had. S'darrah bought a beer and some food - still no meat to be found at Olav's. A Nord without meat! She sat down at the wooden table, drinking her beer and eating her simple supper before retreating to her room.

Morning came and S'darrah assessed her situation. She might be wrong, but she didn't think the other Nord houses had much interesting things for her to steal, and she had already robbed the only weapon shop in town. She didn't dare trying to sneak her way into the castle or any of the guild halls, as she suspected there would be people awake their at night as well. Besides, she only had one lockpick left, and she had fenced items for almost 500 gold now. She decided to return to Imperial City.

Again she waited until nightfall, it was much easier to steal a horse when the stableboy was asleep. She cursed silently when she approached the stables - only paint horses! They were so slow, she wasn't even sure if they were able to outride the many wolves found in the mountains. Still, she had no choice. Quickly she snuck up behind one of them, and got up in the saddle without anyone noticing, gallopping out of there. As she suspected, there were several wolves in the mountain, but she just kept on riding. One of them even followed her all the way down the mountain before it stopped it's chase.

There! She could see Imperial City! The ride wasn't that long, really. It only took about half a night. The road winded itself around half the city island, but she was too impatient for that so she steered the horse down to the water surrounding the island, dismounted and swam across. She headed straight for the Bloating Float, the ship that served as both a Tavern and an Inn. It was cheap, and no one asked too many questions in there.

After a good meal, having finally been able to secure some ham and venison from someone's basement in Bruma, along with some ale, she bought a room and went straight for bed, so tired that she slept for 24 hours straight. She could hardly believe her own senses when she woke up the next morning and could feel the ship moving - they were out at sea!

Something wasn't right. She got out of her room, only to stand face to face with a thief. A murderous thief. She tried to talk her way out of the situation, but he barred his sword and attacked her. Luckily, her blade training had been good enough for her to handle him rather easily. When he was slayen, she started to see the good things about this new situation - a lot of loot! She stole everything the thief had, including the clothes on his body.

It seemed like a gang of thieves had boarded the Bloated Float and set her ashore. Well, S'darrah wouldn't have any of that, and it seemed that fighting her way through was the only way. She went upstairs to the tavern deck, where she found a Dark Elf woman. She was harder to fight, especially since S'darrah had forgotten to heal herself after the previous battle, but the thief woman was soon defeated, and stripped for all her belongings.

One of the taver employees followed her upstairs now that it was safe. S'darrah continued up to the outside deck and the rudder, only to be faced with a large Nord. This fight was shorter as S'darrah changed her fighting style - she blocked less and fought more aggressivly. Looting the dead Nord, she worried that she might not be able to carry it all, but she was doing fine so far.

Returning to the tavern, she understood from the employee that the owner was locked into his cabin along with the gang leader. So she headed in as she had gotten the key from the Nord, and met Selene, the leader. S'darrah was good at talking when she set her mind to it, and had gotten quite a bit of information from the other thieves by talking to them before they attacked her. So Selene seemed quite shocked by all the information she had - not to mention the fact that S'darrah had single-handedly killed all the other three! So to S'darrah's surprise, and slight disappointment because of the loot, Serene surrendered. After taking her downstairs and locking her in the privates room, the ship owner thanked her and told her to go and rest while he steered the ship back to the Imperial City.

S'darrah wasn't too tired as she had slept so long earlier, but she rested for an hour. The ship finally reached the port, and she hurried off. Well, after being given 75 gold, which was the ransom amount for Selene. S'darrah thought that was a bit of a low amount as she had killed four men on her own, but she didn't say anything. After all, she had all their belongings to sell.

She ran back to the Waterfront shacks, to meet up with Armand so she could buy more lockpicks. She almost dropped her bag in shock when she saw that the paint horse from Bruma was standing between the shacks! She was convinced that he would head back to the stables he came from when she dismounted just outside the city island, but he had apparently walked all the way to the waterfront, and was now standing close to a bonfire, getting warm. She smiled to herself, that fitted her perfectly if she wanted to travel again. She didn't dare approach it now, though, as it was apparent to everyone that the horse was stolen.

Waiting until nightfall, she finally saw the torch light from Armand approaching. To her great pride, he had a special assignment for her since she had been able to fence so much gold. The Gray Fox had an issue with an over-eager guard officer who had demanded tax money from the poor residents of the city, and Armand wanted her to go find the tax money and the list of whom they had been taken from. She agreed to do it, and then asked to buy some lockpicks. She almost cried when he said he didn't have any. Now that she had a fence, Armand wasn't selling anything anymore. He did agree to take care of her bounty, though, for half the bounty sum.

Back to Bruma again! S'darrah almosr growled as she left Armand. Being a desert Khajiit, the Jerall Mountains was way too cold for her taste. Riding back and forth to the Nord village on a slow horse with wolves on her tail was not how she had envisioned her life as a thief. This time she would make sure she had enough lockpicks to last her until a better fence came along before she returned from Bruma.