Maed's Theft
On a far off the coast to The Endless Sea, in the land of Valor, the sun rose bringing first light of a new day through the swirling sea mists and into the streets of Valnen. Already up was a man cloaked in black, that was no stranger to early mornings, nor for that matter late nights. The black clad man was new to Valnen having never ventured this far south before, and was eager to start exploring the city, though this was not his reason for rising so early. The strangers cloak whipped around yet another corner in Valnen's maze of alleys. At the end of the alley he had just entered was an inn called the 'Toothless Shark' in which he had paid to stay in the previous night upon arriving in the city. The stranger opened the door to enter a room that smelled of smoke, beer and the stench of people that did not take advantage of the chance to wash often. Although the room did not have the sweetest of fragrances it was not to badly furnished nor was it to dirty, for the price the inn keeper charged to eat and stay there. The inn keeper turned round as he heard the door open an looked at the stranger, who was in the process of hanging up his coat, then suddenly remembered his name,
"Well hello there master Maed, have a nice little walk?"
"Yes thank you, that is of cause if it ends with an ale."
"Cause and so it shall" replied the inn keeper laughing softly to himself.
Maed sat down at the table in the corner farthest from the fire to sit at a burn stained table and sat on one of the seats, though not with out testing it first. The inn keeper brought over his ale and left the man to his own devises, which at that moment happened to be cleaning his picklock, not the tool of an honest traveller that's for sure. Maed was a thief, and quite a good one at that, but had recently had a bit of bad luck with the authorities up in Valan which lead to him coming to the furthest city south, Valnen.
Maed by now had a pretty good mental map of Valnen, both the honest and dishonest parts of the city, He decided that now would be a good time to strike. Maed was not a good thief because he didn't get caught, Maed was a good thief because he multi-robbed houses across town, and didn't get caught. Maed had already picked his targets, one was a small trader's house, that sold rare oddities like gems, and the other was a rich minor noble's house in the nicer quarters of the city. Maed had picked these houses because there was a nice long curving alley contenting the two areas so as he could be from one house two the next in a matter of seconds, making for a good time to escape into the darkness of the night. The plan was to do it that night but the time was not right for him to rob them as a minor noble form the next city, Val-had, was leaving for home that night so the night-watch was extra vigilant for 'odd'' goings on.
Maed drained what was left in his tankard and walked towards the stairs. Upon reaching the top of the stairs a ragged looking man almost ran head long into Maed. This confused Maed, as the man did not give the near collision a second thought merely continuing on his errand. He shrugged and moved on down the corridor and onto his room. Maed was thinking alot about the near miss a second ago so that it wasn't until he was almost right in front of his room that he noticed that the door was thrown wide open.
Maed had been robbed himself, or at least he had been found out. This was not good. The colour drained from Maeds face as he assessed the damage done. The thief had found enough to send him to the gallows. This was a big problem, he had to leave, and soon or the city watch would catch him but he could not just leave with out robbing those houses, it would be a waste of time if he just left all that profit laying there.
His mind was set Maed would do it he would put his plan into action, tonight, and so he set off into the night. First was the merchant's house and so, with a quick look over the wall, he landed cat like on the other side, and set about his business first with the lock on the backdoor. Maed entered the house and closed the door behind him. It did not take long for him to find everything of value downstairs and to then find the money horde under a floor board in the master's chambers. The merchant that was in the process of transferring ownership, as Maed liked to put it, stirred in his sleep making Maed freeze. Entering the sleeping chambers of the owner's house is always a hit or miss kind of job, but well worth it if you can pull it off. The merchant fell back into his deep slumber quickly and not a second later Maed had exited the house through the window sliding down the drain pipe into the main alley of the town.
He was now running as fast as his legs could take him towards his next target of the night. Moving from shadow to shadow he reached his the second house. Entering this house was a lot easier than he had thought that worried him. Maed entered once again through the backdoor and started the search for valuables downstairs. It was not until he had almost reached the front of the house that he realised a slow, deep breathing coming from close by. Maed moved slowly towards the source of the noise. Upon entering the hallway he found there to be a dog asleep on the first step of the stairs. This was not good, it was most defiantly time to leave, but he had to pass the dog to exit the way he needed to so as to get out the north gate. Considering his options Maed had just decided to leave by the nearest exit when something ahead, above the dog, caught his eye. It was a strange object, in all his travels Maed had never seen the like and new that instant that this object could be worth a small fortune if he found the right market in which to sell it. It was a big risk, Maed run towards it, hoping the dog was slow to wake. He grabbed the small object then ran for the backdoor, and freedom. Reaching the door he burst through it, causing it to swing wildly into the dog, and before the hound was ready to take up the chase he was gone over the wall.
The north gate was all but unguarded as only five out of the normal ten guards were in the guardhouse and more than a few were sleeping, the other guards were probably looking for him in the city somewhere. Halfway through the gate alarmed shouts sounded from the gatehouse, one of the guards had woken and so Maed ran.
The guards mounted slowly giving Maed a head start but this would not be enough and he new it. Already he could hear the pounding of hooves on the mud track behind him. He looked behind him to see that the signal fire was lit and the five guards from the gate were closing in on him fast. Then something happened that made Maed and his pursuers stop in their tracks.
Souring out of the night sky came a silver eagle. The bird of pray from legends chose this time to appear. The eagle's feathers shone in the light of the moon casting a unique glow over the area of the paused chase. The eagle came in flying very low, so low that the horses turned and bolted back towards the town, then the eagle left as quickly as it came, leaving Maed alone jaw dropped at the site of the most singular event in his life. Recovering from his shock he turned and easily escaped the town guard, with his new belongings. This was a weird occasion indeed.
A hooded man stood on a hill, over looking the area of the recent silver eagle appearance, watching the retreating back of a very fortunate thief when from the woods behind him appeared what looked to be an elven warrior.
"And so it is done. To what end this road leads only time will tell." Spoke the newcomer
"Indeed, it would seem that way and now I must set up the next part of this path."
"Yes, Good-bye Aradath, for now." With that the elven warrior left on a new errand.
Aradath stood on the hill for a couple of minutes after the conversation with the elf, wandering what was going to happen, but then decided that right now it would be pointless to even try and guess. Aradath moved off the hill and down in to Valnen and the next section of the path upon which his feet we now firmly set.
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