Adventures in the Palace
Legal: See chapter one
Thieving
Quick Authors note: I don't have the Lioness Quartet with me, so if any of the descriptions, name spellings and places settings are wrong, I apologize profusely (I'm writing solely from memory). Any corrections would be greatly welcome. On to the story…
A young man with darkish hair and sparkling green/hazel eyes watched two boys approach the inn where he sat. Through the window he could see they journey through the crowed street to the entrance of the inn. Smiling and shaking his head, the King of Thieves beckoned to Solomn to bring a pitcher of lemonade for the incoming guests. Just as the lemonade was brought, the two boys came rushing in to the inn.
"Ha, I told you he would be here Gary!" declared the small of the two, a young man with bright red hair and startlingly purple eyes.
"Yeah, you were right" Gary of Naxen replied grinning at this young friends hopeful face, "do you think I'm going to pay up now?" he asked.
"Gary, you said you would!"
"I said I might make the bet with you, I never said I would" the young man replied.
Getting angry at his older friend, 'Alan' of Trebond demanded Gary to pay up. Out rightly laughing at the two pages argument, the King of Thieves decided to finally intervene.
"Settle down Alan, I'm sure Gary will pay up in time, wont you master Gareth?" George asked.
"While of course I will George, as soon as I find a way to win it back!" Laughing the three friends sat down to enjoy the lemonade on the hot fall day.
"So George, you promised. Can we start today??" Alanna asked hopefully.
Looking at his young friends eager faces, George only shook his head. "Are you sure you boys want to try this out? Its not easy you know and how will you explain to your esteemed father and the Lord Provost why you were caught picking pockets?" he inquired.
Managing to look only slightly guilty, Alanna spoke up "We wont get caught George, your teaching us and your the best, so we wont. Besides, it's not like were going to rob the royal treasury or anything like that." Gary nodded his head in agreement. Inwardly cringing at what he had gotten himself in to, George stood up and beckoned the two to follow him up to his room. Once they were all inside the King of Thieves sat the two pages down to explain to them the rudimentary basics of the art of thieving.
"Know boys, the first thing you need to know, the first rule and basically the only rule you need to follow is never get caught, never be seen." George issued seriously.
"That's hardly a rule. That's common sense." the son of Naxen laughed along with Alanna.
"Rules are often common sense my young lord. Common sense will save you, as will these rules. Now, you must appear innocent yet not gullible. Likeable but not rememberable. You must not look like a noble but neither like a street rat. It's a fine balance a good thief strikes in his appearance. You must move quickly but never be in a hurry. Calm but on your toes. You must carry weapons but never be seen with them. You must never have your stolen goods on you for more than five minutes at a time. Always have a drop spot picked out ahead of time so you won't be caught with goods on you. Return later to your drop spot but don't be seen near it for more than 30 seconds at a time. There are more boys, but I don't have the time to teach it to you all in one afternoon." George instructed.
The next couple hours the thief proceeded to instruct the young noblemen that basic art of thieving. George had them practice by taking small jewels and purses off of him before he would let them in to the street. Finally he deemed them ready to go out in to the market place for one run and one run only. Arranging a meeting place for after the first run, Alanna and Gary set off in opposite directions whistling happily as they set our on their mission. George watched them go and then decided to tail Alanna thinking she may need more help than the quick Gareth. Following the young page through the thongs of the people he saw her stop hear and there glancing at different stalls and vendors. She would occasionally glance around at the groups of people, but never for more than a few seconds. 'Good job Alan' George thought, see the page move calmly through the street. Suddenly, quick as an eye blink George saw Alanna bump in to a rather fat gentlemen and brush off. Hearing Alanna apologize profusely and walk on, George knew she had made a 'collections'.
As Alanna made her way over to a niche in the wall behind an apple vendor to drop her stolen purse, she saw George in the crowed. 'He didn't think I could do it, did he?' Alanna thought to herself and smiled with victory. 'I wonder how Gary is doing.' Her thoughts wondered to her friend.
Gary was not having as good as a time as his younger page friend was. First of all, he could not quite move through the crowds as easily as Alana could. He was quite a bit bigger and also, although he did not have red hair or purple eyes, he was handsome enough to leave an impression. 'Maybe I can charm something from someone.' He thought. Deciding that would be the best way. He calmly moved over to where a pretty young maid was selling a multitude of colorful silk scarves. Smiling at her with a charming smile he glanced through the scarves pretending to be interested in them. Striking up a conversation with her he proceeded to charm her for a few minutes. Then deciding that it was time, he left the stall and snuck around back. Seeing where she kept the box of funds he crept through the back and made a leap for it. Suddenly he heard a high pitched scream. Turning around he saw a wide eyed young girl sitting on a box playing with her doll.
"Mariana!!!" She yelled, "There's a man in here!" Grabbing her doll and jumping off of the box she exclaimed: "Why are you here, you need to leave. This is my shop and you can't be here."
"I'm sorry little maiden, I really am. I'll be leaving right away, I promise." Gary issued, quickly backing up and trying to get out. Just as he reached the door, Mariana burst through the front entrance.
"You!" she screamed, "Get out you horrid thief, get out now."
"I'm leaving now Miss, right now" Gary said trying to calm her down as he turned and high tailed it out of there just as the shop keeper let out the dreaded cry of "THIEF". Trying to run as fast as he could Gary dodged in and out of traffic. Feeling people grabbing at him to stop him he started to panic. Then, like a gift from the great Goddess, he heard Alanna's voice.
"There you are brother!" Alanna said, running up to him. Grabbing his arm and calmly pulling him through the crowds, they were both stopped by the city guard.
"What's this of a thief?" They demanded.
"You see officer; my brother here has some problems. He's seen the doctor and all, but he just doesn't get any better. See he has some problems behaving sometimes and gets in lots of trouble. I thought I knew where he was but he wandered off and the next thing I knew he was running crazy through the crowd. I promise he didn't do any harm, he's not smart enough to do so." Alanna quickly lied, knowing she was going to get it from Gary later for making him out to be a mental case; she went on, "I hope that he didn't make any problems for you sirs, I'll keep a good look out for him now." Alanna ended, leading Gary away from the guards and back to the Dancing Dove.
They got back and collapsed in George's room, laughing over what had happened. "You can thank me later pig-head" Alanna laughed, "and now you really owe me from our bet!"
"Of course fire-top" Gary replied, "of course." George finally appeared in the doorway and scowled at the pages. "I guess you saw what happened?" Gary asked.
"Yes in fact, I did." George answered. "You are just darn lucky Naxen that Alan was there to help you, or you would have had some explaining to do to your father."
Sighing, Gary smiled and nodded. Being almost dusk, the two boys took their leave and made there way up the road to back to the palace. As they reached the gates, Gary turned towards Alanna with a pleading look on his face.
"What's up Gary, why so grim?" Alanna asked noticing her friend's disturbed expression.
"Alan?" Gary started, "you'll keep my screw up just between us, right? I mean, if it got out, can you imagine what my cousin and Raoul would do to me?"
Smiling Alanna replied: "If you're lucky Gary my friend, if you're lucky…"
Laughing, the two friends made their way up to the gates and in to the next adventure that would surly await them…
Authors Notes: Well, I apologize for not updating very soon, school has been a hindrance, to say the least! I hope you enjoyed this one with George being in it and all. I thought it was time for him to make an appearance! I hope that you enjoyed this adventure. Remember, if any of you have any ideas of things the group could do, let me know! Also, any suggestions and/or complaints are always welcome!
Thank you to all the reviewers, I hope you continue to enjoy the stories!
Till the next adventure comes along…
~Dragonsong