The girls were currently outside the city armory, hiding behind a large boat and tried to stay as quiet as possible as the guards passed by. They'd all managed to find extra coats hanging on clothing lines and snuggled next to each other for extra warmth. The falling snow added an almost surreal calm to the moment. Brianna was nearest the end of the boat and peeked to make sure no one was there.
"All clear." Brianna whispered.
"Good." Traude whispered back "Anyone see the box?"
Brianna and three of the other girls poked their heads up, scanning the scenario before them until they spotted the box up in a room inside the tower of the armory thanks to a half-open window. Just then Kamilla felt a sharp pain in her leg and winced, something Frieda noticed.
"What happened?" Frieda whispered.
"I'm fine, sis." Kamilla replied "Still hurts dammit."
"We saw the box. It's up there." Ottilie interuppted as they ducked their heads down "Looks like they haven't opened it yet."
"Alright girls, as soon as we have the weapons and our old clothes we make straight for the mountain." Traude said as the others nodded in agreement "Remember, be as quiet as possible. Bridget, you have the ladder?"
"Damn right I do." Bridget replied from the back of the group motioning to the ladder she was holding.
"Then let's do this." Traude said.
Bridget, Dorothea, Daniela and Barbara quickly scurried towards the high open window and propped the ladder up as quietly as possible. Once the ladder was set, Dorothea and Bridget held onto it and the girls began moving single file up the ladder and through the window.
/
At that moment at the Master's house, Adina was in the indoor warm bath upstairs (with some hanging noren giving her some privacy in her room) whilst the Master was busy reading at his table in the living room as his daughter, whose hair was down and went to her shoulders, was telling him all the gossip she'd heard on the streets, which perplexed and concerned them both at the same time.
"Prophecy?" the Master exclaimed "Who dragged that up?"
"The people. I heard it down in the market." Adina replied loudly as she washed her arms "They're gathering around saying that a dwarf ruler will return to the mountain and it'll once more run with gold."
"Poppycock!" the master barked.
"If you say so, father." Adina said as she moved over to the right side of the bath "But it's been a long time since the people have seen any riches. The old tales offer them hope."
"Well, that's not bad." the Master said as he twiddled with a pencil "Like I said, nothing but gossip and bloody hearsay."
He then started coughing (though not as violently as earlier that day), got up and headed into his room. Just then, a woman with brown hair and eyes came in with a green bathrobe draped over her left arm.
"All done in here, my lady?" the woman asked.
"Yeah Susan." Adina replied "I'd like the bathrobe now please."
"Very well then." Susan said as she placed the bathrobe on a nearby table then turned to Adina "I'll go and sort out your clothes."
Adina nodded and Susan left the room to sort the clothes out. Adina then gently exited the tub, making sure not to slip on anything and she quickly put on the bathrobe. It was a lovely dark green robe with golden octagons stitched onto it. She then promptly fluffed her curled blonde hair and after drying off a bit, went into the next room where her father was, who in the meantime had stopped coughing and was pouring himself a glass of wine.
"Papa?" Adina asked "Aren't you a little bit concerned about all these instances today?"
"Not very." the Master replied as he turned and looked at his daughter "I mean, it's strange yes, but nothing all that serious. Just a bunch of nancies."
"But what about Bard?" Adina insisted "And those election rumors? What if they mean to throw us into the street?"
"Not while I'm in charge." the Master replied sternly "I'll make sure of it. Besides our guards can handle it." he went on between sipping his glass "It's not like those idiots have anything better to do."
/
Braga and his men enjoyed some drink as the snow fell outside the jailhouse. In Laketown not much happened and if a crime did occur, the guards loved to boast how they handled it quickly. Beside Braga were his top officers: Bradley, who was a man in his mid-forties with blonde hair and a blonde colored short cut beard, Yun who was a rather relaxed looking fellow and finally Jeff who looked about the same age as Bradley with brown hair and eyes and a slightly squared head.
"To the breakers and enterers we locked up!" Jeff toasted.
Everyone gleefully toasted and drank heartily. Everybody except Yun who leaned back in chair and stared at the wall. This perplexed everyone sitting around because he'd been staring at the wall for about four minutes.
"You alright, officer?" a female officer named Bernadette asked.
Yun then turned his attention to the group with a really bored look on his face.
"These chairs hurt my back." he said somewhat gravelly voice "And when I look up at the ceiling all the blood rushes to the back of my head."
Everyone else stared at him with absolute bafflement while he simply took a sip of a mug sitting next to him.
"It's time's like this I wish I was standing guard at the armory." Jeff said in an attempt to return to normalcy.
"Relax." a guard named Edwin laughed "Nothing much happens in town anyway."
"Besides, who would be stupid enough to raid the armory at this time of night?" Braga inquired jokingly.
/
Lo and behold at that moment most of the girls were busy in the armory collecting their things whilst Dorothea, Bridget, Nadja, Ottilie and Barbara stood guard at the bottom of the ladder. The girls in the armory, meanwhile, began shuffling through their possessions. It seemed the guards were so lazy at handling the box they didn't even bother to go through anything. One by one they filled their bags and began prepping for the careful walk downstairs. Kamilla grabbed her bow and quiver which still had some arrows left. She slipped it on when that sharp pain in her leg
"That's sounds nasty." Traude said with concern "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, you know me." Kamilla lied "Don't make a fuss."
But just as Kamilla then began to make her way towards the stairs, that pain came back again causing her to yelp out in pain and trip over herself, causing a kerosene lamp to be knocked over as she fell down the stairs. The girls froze and waited to see if anything happened.
"M-Maybe no one noticed." Brianna whispered innocently.
But they heard something. The shouts of angry guards. And that answered Brianna's question.
"Oh, bloody hell." Daniela said.
"Put that lamp fire out!" Truade hissed.
Beate hastilly grabbed a curtain and put out the fire as best she could as the guards sounded like they were running. Suddenly, before they could do anything, the guards rushed into the building with their weapons drawn and cornered the girls against the wall.
"Okay, listen up!" Braga called from outside "Drop your weapons and come with us quietly and we won't harm you!"
"What have you done with my sister?!" Frieda bellowed.
"We've done nothing to her!" Braga replied loudly "But we will do something if you don't drop your weapons!"
Traude sighed in defeat and promptly dropped her sword Orcrist as a guard took it. The rest of the girls followed suit and soon were lead down the stairs by the guards.