"You're late" Callum pretended to be disappointed, he was dressed in uniform for a change instead of being dressed casually, he carried something wrapped in paper,
Rayla rolled her eyes, "Sorry, took a while to get this on properly." she gestured to her perfectly pressed uniform, "did you have to base it off your casual cloths?"
"Actually, his casuals are based off his uniform," Ezran interjected while eating a jelly tart. Zym and Bait were next to him,
"Hey Callum about last night" she felt her face warm remembering how embarrassing that was,
"Never happened"
"thanks" she breathed a sigh of relief, the last thing she wanted was for someone else to know about it, "So whatcha have in mind for today?"
"Right now we're wai.. ah here they are," Callum noticed a group heading towards them in the distance,
She turned to where he was looking, "What the?!" she saw two girls who looked of similar age to Ezran, and one of them was riding a giant wolf and a red-headed boy about Callum's age.
"Rayla meet Aanya, Ellis, Eva, and Preston," Ezran introduced them all while munching on more jelly tarts.
"Pleased to meet you all," Rayla decided to bow as she was sure they'd have to be important to be inside the castle. As soon as she raised her head she found herself face to face with the gigantic wolf, she could feel Eva's breath on her face, a silent moment passed before the wolf immediately started licking her nonstop. "Stop it, that tickles," she patted the wolf in return,
"Eva really likes you," Ellis giggled,
"Sorry we're late" Claudia arrived followed by Soren, she took Rayla's hand and began shaking it wildly, "Ooooh, you must be Rayla, I'm Claudia, welcome to Katolis, how old are you, where are you from? can I use you for an experiment?"
"18, the Silvergrove and whaaaa No NO and NO!"
"Sorry about Clauds, she's easily excited... I'm Soren, Crown guard extraordinaire at your service," He did a practiced yet over-exaggerated bow,
"Ahem... now I believe its time to get down to business," Ezran began to walk back and forth like he was doing a military briefing, "Callum, the toys."
Callum rolled his eyes before he unwrapped the paper and revealed two pairs of arm guards and gave them to Ezran and Rayla. He then gave some small balls to Ezran and Preston,
"OOOOOH What do these do?," Ezran happily put them on,
"Calm down first, yours can be used to project an illusion of you some distance away, Rayla's can be used to easily enter shadow form,
"Come again?" Rayla thought she misheard him, she could only do that during a full moon,
"You can use it to enter shadow form, a human could only maintain partial invisibility," He then turned to Preston, "in case you get caught, these produce a bright flash once primed and thrown,"
Preston took it with a devilish grin, "Oh I do hope I get to use these,"
"What are you guys planning to do" Rayla had no idea where this was going and thought 'What kind of mess did I get myself into this time,'
Ezran grinned at her, "We are going to raid the bakery,"
"Won't we get into trouble for this?"
"Not really, Callum's already ordered the food yesterday and paid for it then, we just take em before the store opens," Ellis explained as she patted Eva,
"So why do it at all?" Rayla found this confusing, if Callum ordered the food made then why raid the place,
"Because Barius only does deliveries during the after noon, they'll arrive around 3:00 PM and all those delicious treats would lose 19.4% of their deliciousness by then from getting cold," Ezran stated with a grim expression on his face,
"Deliciousness!" Rayla was pumped after hearing that, "We must rescue them as soon as possible!,"
Aanya's face scrunched up and whispered, "I see you found another Ezran,"
"If she's like Ezran then you share the same headache as us," Ellis added
"Thanks, I think," Callum rubbed the back of his neck hearing her say that, "Except her appetite isn't limited to just sweets," Callum whispered back,
Preston gave a sideways glance towards Ezran who was busy explaining things to Rayla, "I feel bad about your food budget Cal"
"I wish that was my only problem," Callum shrugged,
-
{{...0:00...}}
10:25 AM: Elm' Street, Governmental district,
Smoke could be seen rising from the chimney at Barius's bakery, the scent of baked bread and pastries, wafted through the air bringing a drool to anyone who smelled it. In all the buildings nearby, people were standing at the closest windows making wagers on whether the culprit would escape or not wondering if any of them will make a small fortune off their wagers. They quickly saw looking at the Crown Prince walking on the opposite side of the road, all of them were wondering what would happen today. The area was filled with so much anticipation that one could feel it on their skin, Ezran enjoy this moment before his lip moved upwards forming a grin.
Barius and his staff were all busy setting the tables, chairs, and cabinets ready before opening the bakery, leaving the kitchen completely unguarded.
Suddenly everyone was blinded by a bright flash,
"GAAAH! PRINCE EZRAN!" Barius knew it had to be him, it could only be him, slowly his vision began to return.
{{...1:26...}}
A whistle was heard from outside the store and they all looked and saw the young prince standing on the opposite side of the road holding a tray of jelly tarts while blowing raspberries at them then started to waltz using the pastry filled tray as his partner. Barius grabbed a large cake from one of the counters and threw it at the prince, but the cake barely made it halfway across the street. The prince looked up from the ruined cake and began to eat several jelly tarts in clear view of the baker to goad him.
Barius rushed out of the bakery running with all his might to catch the arrogant prince who was just standing there sticking his tongue out to mock him. yes, just keep standing still a bit longer,"
Barius leaped at the prince and as his hands were about to connect with the boy, but his hands went right through him and Barius slammed headfirst into a lamp post. The sound of the collision was like a large bell and could be heard by everyone nearby who cringed thinking how painful that must've been, some looked away on pure reflex.
Inside the kitchen, the stones on the wall began to move, Rayla fully invisible came out first and went to the adjacent kitchens to search for her target while the other four stayed to find their targets. Bait and Zym were guarding their escape route.
Rayla returned holding two trays one held Jelly tarts while the other had caked. "The target has been secured,"
"Ours is secured as well, lets head back and see what callum managed to record for us," Aanya looked at the food in front of her, anticipating how tasty they'd be. She, Soren, Claudia, and Preston also held trays filled with different food Rayla hadn't seen food like this.
"Knowing him, he's probably managed to find a good angle," Preston chuckled as he wondered how things were going outside.
They all made their escape as quietly as possible hoping no one heard them as the opening in the wall began to close.
In the front of the bakery, his staff was laughing as none of them expected this and knew that the kitchens were probably being raided right now but saw no reason to follow up on that train of thought. They saw Barius was rubbing his head looking disorientated, they all heard the whistle again and looked to find the prince standing elsewhere. Barius without a second thought began to charge at the prince, they all expected a repeat of Barius slamming into another lamp post or wall.
Unexpectedly they saw a hooded child riding a large wolf heading towards the prince from another street, she grabbed the prince helping him on and they rode away towards the castle.
Ezran turned to look at a dumbfounded Barius and began to sing with a goofy grin all over his face,
"Riding through the streets,
In a gigantic wolf,
With a tray of treats!,
laughing all the waaaay-hehe!"
Everyone looked on with their jaws open, unable to process this, this was the most absurd stunt they'd seen so far, most of them began to ask if anyone won the betting pools.
Once Ezran and his accomplices were close to the castle, he tapped his hand and the tray vanished,
"Think they managed to get away?" Ellis asked, Eva barked happily.
"Only one way to find out... EVA, TO THE GAME ROOM!"
As they neared the gate, the guards all offered them a salute, they all had a wry grin on their faces. The two children saluted back to them as they rode on at full speed.
11:35 - Katolis castle, the Game Room aka the personal fiefdom of Ezran and Callum.
The room was huge, filled with several sofa's, a large screen, a massive fridge, a fireplace, board games, and anything else the boys might've added over the years.
The stones began to move and as Rayla and her band of merry thieves marched in holding trays filled with delicious baked goods. They were greeted with the excited cheering of Ezran and Ellis while Callum was clapping.
"Congrats, after that stunt you are now part of our exclusive little group," Preston said as he was getting some bottles from the fridge,
"Thanks... but I'm not nobility," Rayla
"Neither is Claudia, Ellis or me for that matter. This is your welcoming party, so enjoy it," Soren explained
"Save it for later, its time for the most important part... Callum, the recording!," Ezran interjected as he wanted to start the main event.
"Gotcha oh lord of sweets" Callum went over to a large black mirror attached to the wall and placed something into it, "Grab a seat, its show time"
"What is that thing?" Rayla asked
"Basically, I place this recording sphere in this slot and this large screen shows whatever is recorded on it." he then pressed a button and they all sat at whatever couch was closer to them.
"Aren't tele's supposed to be smaller?" Rayla asked, she remembered the ones she'd seen when she arrived but couldn't recall any this big
"The regular ones, yep... this big screen costs a little over two hundred gold give or take a few dozen" Preston said
Rayla kept going over that absurd number in her head, she realized these rich people have too much money than they know what to do with,
Soon the screen began to lighten up and played its contents, they were all laughing hard as they kept replaying the video. Preston and Claudia were on the floor while Soren was holding his stomach in pain struggling to stop. Rayla was having the time of her life, she couldn't recall the last time she laughed so much.
After taking some time to recover they began to divide the loot, Rayla was wonder what all these were as she only recognized jelly tarts, cakes, and the sandwiches.. the rest were new to her.
"So what exactly are these? I recognize three of em but..."
"This is one is called Coxinha, basically its diced meat and other stuff covered in dough and batter then deep-fried in oil." Preston held up the food for her to see, "This is a local specialty back in Del Bar, my sister and I would eat a lot of them,"
She took a bite out of one and could taste the gravy-soaked chicken, it was a bit spicy and the crunch of onions and cabbage, she didn't know what the seasoning was.
"So what about these?" she held up two triangular-shaped pastry,
"Oh, that's called a samosa, its originally from Neolandia, it's made using filling either meat or vegetable.. usually the latter mixed with lots of spices, wrapped in a small flatbread then fried till its crispy, the other one is called a puff.. basically the same thing but with a lot more dough and filling. It's from Duren," Callum explained,
"The puff is basically a chubby cousin of the samosa," Aanya added then pointed to the other items, "This one is called an egg boat, and this is an alfredo roll,"
Rayla wiped away her drool as she listened about the deliciousness in front of her, "I think I'm in heaven"
Preston narrowed his eyes "Are baked foods not common in Xadia?"
"We have em," She tried going over all the different types of food she ate in Xadia, "but its almost entirely vegetarian where am from." then shrugged
"It seems we'd make a killing if we opened our own bakery there," Preston began going over the numbers and wondered if it would be a good venture,
"Yeah, you're gonna have to put your elaborate scheme on ice until someone finds a cheap way to cross that glowing wall," Callum waved the idea away causing Preston to hang his head as his plans began to crumble to dust.
Claudia came with a box with an image over it, "Let's try this one... Night of the Walking Dead!"
"Night of the what now?" Rayla wondered what they were planning,
"It's a horror film, we often play movies while enjoying the spoils of our victory," Aanya said,
They finished divvying up the food then went to the sofa and ate as they watched their movie.
After the movie was over the young ones along with Bait, Zym, and Eva were all asleep on the couches while the teens decided to move elsewhere and gotten themselves another bottle of sodas. Soren and Claudia had already left.
"Man I never thought banditry would be so lucrative," Rayla downed her soda quickly before letting out a loud burp,
"damn, you have no inhibitions girl," Preston mused
"You have no idea," Callum added,
"So Preston how'd you get roped into this?"
"I was visiting the bakery a few years ago hoping to do a collab with Barius and found myself in the middle of a raid, a most fortuitous and profitable meeting I would say,."
By 2:45 PM the three of them had left to do their own thing, Rayla went to get her armor, Callum went to his meeting and Preston headed to the docks, while the rest were still sleeping.
