Thank u for all of your reviews. I'm very sorry if this whole "Ren" thing took you off guard but I promise I'm not dropping Calen entirely and Ren certainly hasn't forgotten her. Just be patient, she'll still be a major part to the story! Underlined text is flashback.

"My name is Shalen," she introduced herself, "My parents abandoned me in this town and I've been a street rat ever since. I stay alive by picking pockets,"

Licking my lips of the excess flower, I asked, "Is that what that money is from,"

"Yes," she smiled triumphantly, "I stole that fortune all by myself,"

"I wouldn't call it a fortune…" I muttered under my breath then said, "I'm Ren…why did you help me?"

"You reminded of me when my parents left me, I couldn't turn away myself," she smiled.

"…Well thank you," I muttered.

"Where do you hail from?"

I told her my city and my title but rather than gawking or asking to bow down at my feet she just stared at me expectantly.

"And that meeeaaans….what?" she laughed, unsure of what to make of my nobility.

"You don't know of my nobility!?" I almost shrieked at her then I sighed, "Well what else can I expect from a street urchin?"

"The pot shouldn't call the kettle black," Shalen said with a now serious tone, "And you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you 'Miss Nobility',"

I only stuck out my lower lip and turned away.

"If you act like this life is so bad then how did you end up like this?" Shalen asked.

Looking over my mucky body, I scowled at my "new" life.

"I killed my father for trying to make me marry an abusive psychopath," I spat.

For a moment, Shalen didn't reply from the surprise that just fell out of my mouth!

"Uh…wow," she breathed, "Well that makes my story look pretty silly, huh?"

"You have no idea," I scowled.

The red head stood up, placed her hands on her hips, and looked down on me.

"You better stop being such a sour puss," she scolded like a mother, "Because I've made up my mind. Starting today, you'll stay with me and we'll carry each other's' weight through petty theft! What do you say?"

Shalen held out a hand to me. I looked at her grimy hand. I'd usually crinkle my nose at the sight of such an atrocity but at this point, I looked the same. Then I looked back up to her determined, green eyes. Shalen flexed and un-flexed her hand with impatience.

"YES!" I squealed with delight as I hit the ground.

Shalen jumped from the window after me and landed next to me.

"Ren! Shhh!" Shalen hissed, "You're going to give us away!"

"Lighten up, that fool is as drunk as a…" I cockily said but stopped to think of a simile, "As a person who can't think of a simile!"

"You mean like you?" Shalen whispered playfully to me through the night air.

"Shut up," I responded in kind, punching her in the arm.

"But we should get out of here," Shalen warned.

"Yeah, yeah!" I snapped, putting my hood up.

The two of us ran into the shadows, dodging through the skinny streets of Rivendell. After a bit of sneak-sprinting, we stopped under an empty pavilion to check out our loot.

"We're rich," Shalen smirked as she held up two bags of gold coins which we had stuffed with cotton balls so they wouldn't jingle.

"Can that compare to these?" I asked and pulled out two gloves.

They were bulky and I could feel metal inside them. On them were engraved Elvish characters.

"Karka and Rakka: Tooth and Claw," Shalen whispered to herself as she read the engravings on them, "What are they,"

"Remember our first heist?" I asked.

"Yeah, it took us almost a year of petty theft to get up to that level of crime,"

"And I explained to you why I was so agile?"

"Because you had Elvish mixed in your blood line?"

"Yes," I explained, "But the woman to start my bloodline was an elleth. She fought in the war of Sauron and the Elves with these gloves and passed them down through the generations. It wasn't until recently that my mother decided not to pass them down. She was an elf but she, for whatever reason, didn't want a human to have an Elvish antiquity…although we've had humans in our family possess them in the past. But anyways, she gifted them to Lord Elrond but now I'm taking them back!"

"So this really isn't stealing?" Shalen mused, "But just taking back what's yours?"

"Exactly," I replied evilly.

In the midst of our "story time" a guard spotted us and was now calling for back up. Shalen and I took off once again, not caring about trying to stay hidden anymore. I could've easily out run them all because I was half elf but I had to be creative with Shalen: she wasn't as fast.

"Where are you going?" Shalen called as I took a sharp left.

"Just come on!" I called back.

I knew I had to be even MORE creative when an arrow landed with a –thunk- just an inch from my foot! I grabbed Shalen's wrist and yanked her back to the east! By the time we reached a dead end of a wall that bordered the city, we could hear the Elvish footsteps drawing ever closer!

"Shit, shit, shit," I cursed under my breath, looking around for something.

My eyes caught a ladder that just poked over the wall. Now I knew ladders couldn't talk but I felt as if it was telling me to use it!

"That ladder wants me to use it," I grinned almost like a maniac.

"Well that's not very helpful! There's no jutting stones to scale this wall with let alone reach the ladder!" Shalen cried.

Then she stopped and turned to me with an epiphany dawning in her mind.

"The gloves!" she exclaimed, "Use the gloves!"

"I don't know what they do!" I shouted.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE WE HAVE ANOTHER OPTION!?"

I shoved my new gloves on and as I clenched my fists within them, praying for a miracle…

-Shink-

Three hooked blades each unsheathed from the gloves at a neck breaking speed, making the both of us jump back! It only took one glance at Shalen to know what to do. I leapt at the wall and dug the blades into the stone, quickly climbing it as fast as I could. When I reached the top, I threw the ladder down! Shalen climbed it just in time for an arrow to hit her in the back of the thigh! She wailed in pain but kept climbing. I hauled her up the rest of the way, and to desperately avoid another few arrows, I jumped from the wall, holding the girl close to me, and gripped a tree with Tooth and Claw.

Our combined weight let us slowly descend, Tooth and Claw leaving sratch marks as they went.

"Can you walk?" I asked Shalen as she stumbled to stay up.

She only nodded and threw an arm around me. Together, we half limped, half ran into the woods. If it weren't for the fact of me being half elf, we would've never escaped.

I flexed my hands in and out, watching Tooth and Claw's blades move in and out. The noise they made was satisfying and I could get used to it. I finally had the heirloom I always wanted. After all, I was taught to take whatever I wanted.

But now what will I do? What else is there for me to want? I thought, taking the gloves and placing them on the dusty floorboards. The inn wasn't the nicest I had stayed in but you couldn't blame me for complaining, I used to live in a palace after all and I didn't have time to be choosy when I wandered into the town, looking for a place that would take an unconscious red head with an arrow sticking out of her. I had to pay for the room, double to keep them quiet of our whereabouts (can't have elves on our asses now can we?), triple for them to send for a healer, and quadruple to pay the healer. So all the gold we stole from Rivendell was gone but at least it went to a good cause.

"Ren, where am I?" I heard Shalen croak and I turned to see her still lying on the bed but looking at me with an irritated face.

"A town," I shrugged, deep in thought.

"Where did I get shot?" she asked.

"Why don't you try moving and find out?" I joked.

Shalen didn't laugh.

"Lower right thigh, but don't worry, I got you fixed up," I reassured her, "But it cost all our money we stole from those immortal snobs,"

"As long as we're alive," she smiled, "Why do you always call elves that?"

"Well they think just because they're immortal they can look down on everyone else," I sighed, pushing a strand of black hair behind my ear, "Just look at my mother. Because my father and I were mortal, she deemed us 'unworthy' to wield Karka and Rakka."

"They kind of bug me too," Shalen giggled faintly, "But I like that term: 'immortal snobs'. It's funny…"

…

"Shalen…I've been thinking, we've been planning that heist since our first heist. We saved every last coin on building up for supplies to make it work but now that it's over…" I stumbled through my words.

"…You don't know where to go," Shalen finished for me.

I nodded at her, thankful for her understanding.

"Why don't you sleep on it and we can decide in the morning?" Shalen suggested with a yawn, "It's been a mad night,"

As I took the bed adjacent to hers, I thought back to the first day I met her. Shalen had always been there for me, supporting every decision I ever made. I owed her my life. Without her, I would've died that night on the side of the road.

R/R!