Thieves

By Dixxy

Chapter Eight

Lady Gretchen de Polamora was considered to be one of the wealthiest, but also snootiest, women in all of Truce. She was the wife of a high-ranking Porre officer and flaunted her husband's name and rather disgustingly large fortune to her advantage. Despite the fact she was- in a few words- very, very, ugly, she had some of the most expensive jewelry and clothing that money could buy (though you could surmise that the gaudy clothes she wore acted as a distraction from her less-than-desirable features). Any fur she had was from a real animal, usually endangered, and she only wore the largest rarest of jewels.

Naturally, she lived the high class life. She went to some of the classiest parties, thrown by some of the richest people of the Zenan Mainland and Choras. She and her husband often went on exotic vacations to places like El Nido (though she was very disappointed to learn the gates had been closed to all but merchants), and her home was one of the largest in the world. Yes, Lady Gretchen de Polamora was one of the classiest women in the world. At least, she thought so.

But, even in her snootiness, she did have one weakness, one craving that she satisfied as often as she could- she wanted to be seen in a positive light. Many of the poorer people of the community didn't like her because of what she assumed to be jealously. So, whenever she got the chance to, she would often try to be spotted being kind to the "less fortunate" and give them hugs or "kind words of encouragement". Would she ever do anything that would actually help? Of course not. She was too greedy for that. But as long as it LOOKED good on her part, then she was fine.

This information would eventually be turned against her.

Lady Gretchen and her entourage were out for a walk in the better half of Truce that was, generally, occupied by Porre officers or business owners who had helped Porre overthrow Guardia. She waved to the other women in her weekly discussion group as she saw them and winked at young men she found attractive (she usually had one or two affairs a week). She went down several random streets, enjoying all that she was seeing.

And then she saw her weakness.

There, sitting on the corner of one of the business establishments, sat a small boy. He couldn't have been much older than six or seven and had wild, messy, platinum blonde hair with large, brilliantly blue eyes. On one cheek he adorned a huge, red scar that looked like it must have been painful to receive, the woman wondering how such a sweet looking child could have been given it. He wore a simple outfit that consisted of a burlap tunic, a hat, pants, and well-worn boots. The child was rather thing and dirty looking, suggesting that he was perhaps a street urchin that had gotten away from an orphanage or perhaps a mansion in Medina.

Lady Gretchen squealed with delight at the sight of the boy- this was the perfect chance for her to make herself look good! That child was so sweet, yet so pathetic, that it was an opportunity she simply couldn't pass up. Quickly, she began to waddle (Lady Gretchen was a very large woman in addition to being very ugly) over to the boy, who looked up at her and smiled sweetly. "Hi, lady!" he said, waving brightly.

"Oh. . . what a dear you are!" said Lady Gretchen, bending down to look at the young street rat. She clucked her tongue as she pinched the boy's cheeks, causing him to take a rather uncomfortable and nervous look on his face. She chucked in response. "You poor, poor, thing, all alone here on the streets without anyone to take care of you. You must be awfully lonesome."

"It's all right, lady," said the boy, shrugging casually. "I get by all right."

Gretchen cooed at the boy, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Well, well then, little one- tell you what. I'm going to give you some candy- how does that sound?" she said sweetly. The boy's eyes widened and he nodded enthusiastically, holding his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels. The wealthy woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of chocolate wrapped in foil. The boy extended one hand and she dropped it into his waiting palm.

"Thank you, lady!" he said brightly, looking down at the candy. He looked up at her with a playful looked on his face. "Bye-bye, and thank you again, lady!" Lady Gretchen smiled, patting him on the head and sending him off. Without hesitation, the boy nodded and scampered off, not bothering to look back once. Before long, he had disappeared behind a corner and was well out of the lady's sight.

The wealthy woman chuckled to herself, pleased with her deed for the day. Now that she's given the little brat that four-month old candy, it was time to buy herself the nice, big, chocolate rabbit she'd been eyeing for the past several weeks. She turned to her entourage with the fake kindness they had all grown used to over the past several years. "If you don't mind, I will be going to the candy store to purchase something sweet for myself. Once we finish that, I want to buy a new dress and a new necklace, then perhaps purchase some tickets for the opera tonight- I hear the maestro is supposed to be quite handsome. Then perhaps I'll stop back at the candy store for some more chocolates," she said, reaching for her coin bag.

Or, at least where her coin bag used to be.

~

"Did I do a good job, Dario?" Glenn asked, looking at his brother nervously. The four young thieves had gathered in an alleyway lined with crates, where they made makeshift chairs and tables. Dario had dumped out the velvet coin bag Glenn had come up with and was counting the coins. The youngest of the group had just made his first attempt at pick-pocketing, something that Dario and Karsh reasoned would be easier for him to do because of his size.

"Four hundred gold- pretty decent," said Dario, nodding his head.

"But tha isnae enough fer a boat to El Nido," Karsh said. "What's our grand total?"

Norris, who had a pad on paper in his lap, was making some calculations. "One thousand, six hundred" he said. "Not to mention a few meals worth of food and some clothing. Not too bad, but not enough. Tickets to just someplace close like Choras is darn expensive-considering how far away El Nido is, we'll never make it at the rate we're going!"

"Hey, we've only been doing this for a week now. How much is one ticket?" asked Karsh.

"Uh. . . five thousand gold?" said Norris, nervously grabbing the collar of his shirt.

"Five THOUSAND!?" Karsh exclaimed.
"Well, let's do the math," said the Porre fugitive. He began to scribble notes on his pad of paper, talking along as he went. "So. . . if it takes us one week to steal one thousand, six hundred gold pieces, that should be about three weeks and a few days get one ticket to El Nido. Now, if we multiply that by four, that means we should have the money in about. . . four and a half months, IF we keep stealing at the same rate."

"But shouldn't you factor in the fact that we'll probably improve our skills as time goes on?" said Dario, crossing his legs and looking thoughtful. "And what about other things, like food? We can't concentrate entirely on stealing money, can we? And when we'll want to buy things on the boat, too."

"This isnae the time to thin 'bout souvenir shopping!" Karsh snapped, standing up and tapping his foot irritably. Dario raised an eyebrow to his friend in question. "When we git on the boat home, we arena going to be spending our time buying gifts fer ourselves with other people's money, no matter HOW filthy rich they might've been before we stole from 'em. We arena stealing fer fun, Dar- this is going to be our livelihood for the next several months if Nor's math is correct."

Dario rolled his eyes. "Karsh, we can to Zenan on a VERY fast military boat. Whatever boat we travel on next time is going to be a LOT slower. We could be on the boat for several weeks and we might need to buy food while on the boat." He turned to Norris. "Could you calculate how fast we would get there on a normal boat, and, in turn, how much money we'd need for that time?"

Norris shook his head. "Sorry, I never got that far in my education."

"Then can't we just bring in a few more thousand gold pieces and hope it's enough to last us the trip?" Glenn asked. His eyes brightened and he leaned forward in excitement. "Or, better yet, just ask the boat master how long the trip would be and figure it out from there?"

Karsh grumbled. "Aye hate it when 'e's right."

Glenn shot Karsh as dirty a look as he could muster. "Why?"

"Because Ay'm seven years yer senior, yet ye figure things out faster than me," he said. Glenn caught Karsh's point and grinned stupidly, at him, looking very pleased with himself. Then, for extra measure, he blew a raspberry at the older youth. The purple haired youth fumed at his younger companion, causing Glenn to start laughing. "Oh, yeah, sure, rub it in, why don't ye?! Just make me feel even-"

"Both of you- stop it," Dario quickly scolded, glaring at his brother and friend. Norris sat quietly nearby, wisely choosing to stay out of the argument- it wasn't his place and he had no desire to make it his place. "We have more serious things to worry about, and Karsh's incompetence or non-incompetence has nothing to do with any of it! We're only trying to get back home, and you two bickering isn't going to help us. Got it?"

"Right."

"Okay."

Glenn dug into his pocket, producing a wrapped up piece of candy. "Here you go, Karsh- it's the candy tha lady gave me. It'll make you feel better about it, if you want it," he said kindly. The purple haired youth nodded, his eyes widening as he took the candy and began to unwrap it."

"Thanks, Glenn. Yer so kind," he said, popping the candy into his mouth.

"Good, now that that's settled- OW!" Dario said, rubbing the back of his head. He looked over to where Karsh had a grossed-out look on his face, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Apon further inspection, Dario saw the candy lying on the ground behind him, obviously the projectile that had hit him on the back of the head. "Karsh! What is it NOW!?"

"Tha candy was old and stale! It was DISGUSTING! Yeesh, me mum's haggis was better than tha," said Karsh, spitting on the ground. He turned to Glenn, who looked disappointed with the candy he'd been given. "Aye dinnae blame ye fer tha, wee one, but tha was AWFUL candy! Still, thank ye fer the gesture- is the thought tha counts, after all. BUT MY TONGUE FEELS LIKE IS BEEN WASHED WITH DRY COTTON!!!"

"I bet that mean woman gave him the bad candy on purpose," said Norris, who was scratching his chin in thought. "I used to hear the soldiers back in Porre talk about some of the cruel things that the upper class does to the lower classes for kicks. If you ask me, the act of giving out old, stale candy seems like something they'd do on an everyday basis if it pleased them."

"What else do they do?" asked Dario.

Norris scoffed. "The works. Whenever medicine and food comes in from other ports, they buy ALL of it then sell it back to the lower classes at hugely inflated prices. Most people garden their own food, but whenever someone gets sick, it's very hard for them get the medicine they need to save them. And even so, if there's a bad year for crops, then they have to once again turn to the rich for their food. Plus, there's also clothing and housing to worry about."

"Why?" asked Glenn.

"Some people are just cruel- money and power have a way of corrupting some people. Sure, some people can be hoisted high in power and still be just as kind and giving as they were when they were still in the middle or lower class, but others let it get to their head and start seeing themselves as superior to everyone else in the world. As a result, they feel they've been given the right to treat everyone as such," said Norris. He scowled. "It's quite sick, really."

"And where we've fallen into a very low social class in the past year, we can really see what it's like at that end of the spectrum," said Dario. He sighed heavily, throwing his hands up into the air. "There isn't much lower we CAN go, but there most certainly are jobs that we could take that are much less desirable than stealing- most of which I won't say in Glenn's presence." He grimaced.

Karsh, meanwhile, was still hacking and coughing over the candy. "My tongue feels like it just took a lick out of an ice cream cone covered in SAWDUST! If aye dinnae get a drink of water soon ay'll cut it out of my mouth and jump up and down on it until it's a pink mass on the ground! WATER!!!"
Dario smacked his forehead. "Karsh, quit it- we get the picture, the candy was bad. C'mon, there's a spring just outside of town- you can get your drink of water, and then maybe we can all get cleaned up a little bit." He looked down at his clothing, which he hadn't really changed out of for a good number of months. He picked up the end of the shirt to see it was beginning to fray and come apart. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "And maybe we should try stealing some clothing after that."

"Yeah," said Norris, poking his finger through a hole on his sleeve. "I'll second that."

"I can third it," said Glenn, looking disappointed at his boots, one of which was loosing its sole. He looked up at his brother with a slight smile. "But soon we'll be home and that'll be all that matters, right Dario? Daddy will be really happy to see us! And so will Riddel and Zappy and Zippy and-"

"Can we go now?" asked Karsh, who was still hacking and coughing. "Please?!"

~

Poor Karsh. . . I'm so mean to him, aren't?

Oy, I got a little stuck on this part, and to be all honest with you, I'm not on hundred percent sure where the next chapter is going. . . Oh, whoops, my bad, yes I do.

By the way, I know what to do about the Glenn hair color argument. It's actually quite simple- all we have to do is sneak up on him when he isn't looking, grab him, and bring him as quickly as we can to a sink (this might take a while as he's probably going to be squirming quite a bit). From there, somebody will produce the solution. . . a bottle of pink hair dye. You figure out the rest. No more hair color dispute!

IluvRikku12: I would like to think it's getting good. As for the top twenty list (yes, it's been expanded), sure!

Tami: Well, with the way things are going in my off-line rough copy, Glenn and one of the future cast members (won't say who) often get into trouble. I don't necessarily like it when they fight, but I DO like stories surrounding the brothers (A real good story about them is called "The Third Duty"- it's on my favorites list- Dario is something of an ass in it, but don't worry, that's what Karsh is for ^_^). I love Pip! He isn't creepy! *huggles Pip plushy*. As for the town, YES, DAMMIT! IT'S A HICK TOWN! I think it was a subconscious desire to make a town similar to a Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete town by the name of. . . *looks up strategy guide* ah! Yes! Meryod! Anyone who has played L:SSSC and gone a good ways through knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about ("I luv him. . . he's mah cousin, but I luv him!"). Okay, so it isn't EXACTLY like Meryod. But yes, there is probably incest going on there. As for the hair color thing, see two paragraphs above.

Rikku-oh-ki: *nodsnods* Okay, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Pauli: It's up to one's own interpretation as to how the characters are portrayed. Also remember this is a BIG TIME Alternate Universe- in the real CC world, Norris is a Porre Commander, Dario and Karsh become Devas, and Glenn is a private because his memory is kinda of bad and he forgets important things like TWO-FRIGGIN'-DIGIT PASSWORDS! I swear, if he ever forgot the password to get into the Viper Manor treasury I would have to hurt him. . . The way I see it, he might've had a hint of the burr when he was younger, but as he started talking around other people it might've dulled a bit. It should disappear little by little as the story goes on. Eh, no one's perfect (except for Jesus because he's the Son of God).

Alba: Yeah, he was bound to burst. He has a few incidents as he gets older and begins to question himself and his purpose in life. Of course there will also probably be a chapter where he and maybe another future cast member ask the age old question, "Where do babies come from?". I'd LOVE to see the old thieves explain that. Yes, that's part of the whole deal. However, probably by the halfway-point they have another reason to steal, which gets explained. And, if you read my pre-response notes, you would know that it's actually quite pink right now ^_______^.

Soulblighter2: Thanks SB2!! Nazi Germany? No, more like southern inbred hicks without the cheesy southern accent ("Mah mama is also mah sister! Hyuck, hyuck, hy-uck!"). Oh, you bet I am. I can't do a story like this without them SUFFERING. The beginning is actually the worst of it, as most of the story focuses on their lives as they grow up as thieves and make friends and have encounters with other party members. Well, they all, for the most part, use their traditional weapons (Glenn and Dario use swords, Nor has a gun, ect.). Yup, they have quite a repertoire, though at this point Karsh and Nor will more than likely go through a Feminine-Panty Syndrome *cough, cough*. Well, yes and no- you'll see.

Blank Space: I was e-mail and told this was Witten's Hand. Yes, it was bound to happen- poor Glenn, I'm so mean to him. No he isn't- he has PINK hair now, remember? Oh, oh, now we're going to start on DARIO'S hair? Quick, someone grab the rest of that hair-dye! We've got bigger fish to fry!

Yukair: Oookkaaayy. . . though I do agree with the diseased people of Corinaw.

~Dixxy