The Tale of The Crimson Blade
"This is going to be much more difficult than I initially expected." The Blue Knight crouched behind some shrubs staring out at the fortress where their quarry had secured himself. To say that it was well defended would be an understatement. The guards patrolling the wall looked like they would attack anything that so much as broke wind in their general direction. Knight turned to face his companions.
"How bad do you think it is?" Elfsong asked.
"Well, we have very few options in this case, namely two. One, we can stroll up to the front gate, magically dodge anything they shoot at us, and ask, nicely or not, where we can find Damian, and hope we're not dead at any point during this entire suicidal escapade."
Crimson Blade grinned, "Sounds lovely, and number two?"
Knight looked straight at her.
"Even better."
A few minutes later, she and Fel were pressed against the wall of the keep, trying to stay low and out of sight.
Stopping herself from stepping on what must have been the twentieth twig, Fel grunted quietly and whispered, "Why was it me that had to come along on this little soiree?"
Blade responded so quietly, Fel almost lost it in the rustle of tree leaves, "Because no one else is quiet enough, an if you keep talking that loudly we'll be found before we even get in." They snuck along the wall a little longer until Blade stopped suddenly, "I think there may be a way inside here. The stones in this wall are loose but we won't be able to move them from this side. Wait her and I'll be right back." Without another word, she began to scale the wall and disappear over the top. Fel waited... and waited... and waited a little longer. She began to worry that maybe her friend had been captured.
Wait a moment. Did she say friend? Yes, she supposed she did. She stopped to think on this until a grinding sound in the wall startled her. A stone in the wall slid out a few inches and stopped, then, a stone near it began to slide out as well. Fel started pulling out the stones and laying them quietly on the ground. On the other side was Blade, unharmed and definitely not captured.
"Let's go, we don't have a lot of time."
Fel climbed through the opening in the wall and they quietly replaced the stones they had removed. They were in what appeared to be the stable yard of the keep, a cart had bee pushed up against the wall. How she had moved it would apparently be a tale for another time, Blade was moving as fast as stealth would allow.
They made their way quietly out of the stable and into the main yard. The pair moved along the walls and through the shadows. Guards were fingering their weapons, looking like they were searching for something to use them on.
Eventually, Blade stopped at a hole in the wall near the ground that was just big enough for them to slip through. Motioning Fel to follow her she squirmed through into the darkness of the other side. When Fel pulled herself through, she that Blade had lit a small torch and placed it in the middle of the room. Crates of various sizes formed a wall between them and what must have been the only doorway. Once Fel was safely inside, Blade pushed another crate in front of the hole they had come through.
Finally speaking, she said, "Sorry about all that. When I got over the wall, I had to knock out a sentry to keep him from spotting you. They found the body sooner than I expected and we were lucky to find this storeroom to hide in. We'll have to stay here until it quiets down out there, at least until nightfall, then we can make our move. In the meantime, we won't have to worry about staying quiet unless somebody comes through that door."
"Until nightfall? I don't know if I can wait that long. I never enjoy staying still, or not being able to see the sky."
"Well, we'll just have to find a way to distract you for a little while."
"Any suggestions?"
"Too bad we didn't bring the Bard with us, I'm sure she has some interesting tales to tell. I know a few, nothing that's too exciting or even particularly interesting."
Fel set herself, cross-legged, on the ground, "Hmm, this problem deserves deliberation..." Blade leaned against the wall and the pair lapsed into thoughtful silence for a few moments. Fel then spoke up once more, "That Knight fellow, he's a bit odd."
Blade chuckled, "Yeah, you could say that."
"You seem to know him well."
"Well, this isn't the first time he's gotten me on one of these crazy quests of his. He's always had a knack for getting me and Fade, my illusionist friend, into several pots of hot water."
"How'd you meet him?
"Ah, now that's a long story."
"Great, that solves our problem.
"I don't know, it' not a very interesting story. You might get bored enough to chew your leg off just to get me to stop."
"I live with animals, I'm not one myself"
"Alright, don't say I didn't warn you..."
Blade settled down on a crate and thought carefully about how to begin her story, "I suppose I should start a bit before I actually met the Blue Knight. I grew up in as normal a family as one could have, but I wanted more out of my life. I wanted thrills and excitement. I decided that being a rogue-for-hire had just about everything I wanted. Unfortunately that idea fell through and I became your everyday, average cutpurse. It wasn't long into this low of my life that I met the Blue Knight. I can still remember the calls of the merchants hawking their wares..."
* * *
"Pots! Pots for sale!"
"Fresh fruit! Apples imported from Calimshan!"
"Find your steel here! No adventurer should be without a stout blade!"
The woman with fire-red hair wove her way through the crowd; today she was making her usual rounds through the city of Baldur's Gate, "milking the herd," as she called it. Nobody seemed to be carrying much coin though, as pickings were slim. A sedan chair weaved its' way through the crowd, and she briefly considered making a run on it. After catching a look at the big bruisers guarding, however, she though better of it.
"Ah well, not every day can be payday." She began to turn and head back to her small home in the lower city when something caught her eye. A man was strolling down the street toward her. He was wearing a blue cloak with his face hidden well within the hood; he walked as a man with a purpose. She figured she had found a nice purse in this fellow. She began to walk toward the man in blue and adjusted her course so they would collide. As they neared, she examined her mark, and there it was, hanging like a ripe apple from his belt, just waiting for her to take it. She readied the small blade she kept up her sleeve, three... two... one... They ran into each other, and with the speed of a master thief, she whipped out her dagger, cut the purse from his belt, and secreted both away in mere moments.
"Sorry," was all she said to the man when they looked at each other. She walked away quickly before he realized what had happened during their brief exchange. She looked back at him and found that he was still staring at her, and then he turned and walked away. She ducked into an alley to calm her heart. His gaze had been...unsettling.
"Most think twice before stealing from me," a voice said. The thief started and found the man standing in front of her. "The rest live to regret. Give back the purse and we'll walk away as if nothing happened."
"And if I don't?"
The man fingered the hilt of his sword and looked straight into her eyes, it was almost as if he stared into her soul. "If you don't? Tell me, do you know what the word 'requiem' means?" The thief shook her head. "It's a lament for the dead. Many have sung such for those who trouble me. You would not care to have one sung for you."
The thief raised her hands and took a step back; her right hand began to reach into a pouch on her belt when her left hand suddenly flashed, throwing a small jar of stun powder to the ground. It broke open with a loud, ground-shaking sound and flashed a blinding white light. She turned and ran down the alley as fast as she could.
As she ran past a wooden pillar she felt something catch the sleeve of her jacket. A dagger had buried itself in the pillar with her jacket pinned between, just barely missing her arm. She tried to pull the dagger out, but it was sunk to deeply. She would've simply removed her jacket, but the dagger had her tunic pinned as well, and she was not going to walk about the city without that.
The man in blue walked up to her, shaking his head. The thief snorted, "Last time I buy stun powder from a place called Thieves' Picks 'N More. You should still be holding your ears and half-blind."
"Your powder did its' job well. If I had been able to see clearly that knife would be in your back instead of this pillar. The purse, or you can stay here."
She really had no choice, she handed over the small bag she had taken from him. He bounced it in his hand a couple times, and then held out his other hand. The thief sighed and pulled a fat coin from her boot and slapped it in the waiting hand. He replaced his recovered gold on his belt and began to reach for the dagger in the pillar, then stopped. "You keep it," he said. Then he turned and started back to the main street.
"Hey! You can't just leave me like this!" the Thief shouted at him.
"You'll free yourself eventually. If you can't, then you should try a different profession." He turned onto the street and disappeared into the crowd.
The Thief pulled at the dagger, using all the strength she could muster with one arm, but she couldn't pull it out. She would need both hands. She could wait for someone to come down the alley and ask them for help, but the kind of help that was likely to find her would more likely cut her throat than free her. She could tear through the cloth, but then she would ruin a perfectly good jacket and tunic. That left only one option open to her.
Not if all the murders in the world were walking down the alley would she do that. Grimacing, she began to yank at her sleeve, pulling the cloth over the razor-sharp blade. It wasn't long before she heard a ripping sound and with one more great pull, she managed to tear through the rest of the cloth and free herself. "Great, just great,' she muttered. She had just ruined her favorite jacket and her best tunic. "That guy's going to get a piece of my mind for this one." A few chuckles caught her ears and she turned to look at their source, standing at the mouth of the alley were two of the worst looking men she had ever seen and she was sure they were coming for her. Sure enough they both pulled blades and started towards her.
She grabbed the dagger in the pillar with both hands and pulled down as hard as she could, the dagger pulled out of the wood and she turned to face her soon-to-be-former attackers. The two men suddenly stopped in their tracks, both wearing a puzzled look on their face. It was if she had disappeared of the face of the planet.
"C'mon," she growled at them, "Don't want a piece of the pretty girl anymore?" Both men's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, they turned to look at each other then ran back the way they came, screaming at the top of their lungs.
* * *
"Wait, let me get this straight," Fel said. "You took his gold and he left you vulnerable to rapists, thieves, and murderers?"
"Right."
"And you're helping this guy?"
"Yeah."
"Did I miss something here?"
"Yes. The rest of my story, in fact."
"This will be good. Okay, so you pulled the dagger free and scared of a couple of wool-heads. What did you do after that?"
"Well, Knight had embarrassed me, and I wanted some revenge." Blade took a deep breath and went on, "Unfortunately, finding one man in a city of thousands was not an easy task. I had somehow tracked him to this seedy inn in the Lower City. I planned to sneak in his room while he slept, hang him out the window with his pants down for embarrassing me, and make off with his valuables."
* * *
Night had fallen over the city, and the time had come for her to exact her revenge. She approached the wall of the inn and began to scale it, despite the meager hand- and footholds. When she reached the window of her victim, she quietly jimmied the lock and entered. She was a ghost's shadow. There he was asleep on his bed, not knowing his doom was nigh. She drew the dagger he had left her and stalked to the side of the bed. She swung the blade, aiming to hit him over the head and make sure he remained unconscious, her hand was halfway there when another hand grabbed her wrist, pulled the blade from her hand, and threw her to the floor.
The man got up, no sign that he had been asleep on his face. Lighting a candle he said, "Good. I was afraid you would either be stuck there all night, or took the blade and went on with your life. But in coming here, without me even noticing you until you were about to give me a headache, you have proven your skill."
"You left me in that alley, embarrassed me, and now you're congratulating me on my skills as a thief?"
"Don't worry about the alley. I was there watching the entire time. If those two had gotten the better of you, my sword would have gotten the better of them. That dagger is also a magical one. When the blade is exposed, all one has to do is grab the hilt and be rendered invisible. That's why those poor chaps ran away screaming. They thought you were some kind of demon."
"So you're saying..."
"Your dignity is intact. This was all a test from the moment you snatched my purse." While her anger at the man still flared, it lessened a little when she learned that no, he hadn't embarrassed her, in fact, he had taken steps to maintain her dignity. While that was no great comfort, it was no small one either.
"Why were you testing me?"
"I have a job that requires special skill, while I can avoid being seen, I am not as adept as you are at certain things."
"So you need a rogue. Why me? There are plenty of others out there."
"I need the best. The test was to see if you were willing to take a risk to get the job done. Granted, there are better ways to go about it, but your stun powder caught me off guard." He shook his head, "And I thought I was ready for anything. When I saw my dagger had pinned you to that pillar, I improvised. I am truly sorry you went through all that though. You can still keep the dagger, don't expect its' magic to last much longer though, I couldn't afford one of greater craftsmanship. If you still want to, you can do to me whatever you feel is proper, so long as you take this job." The thief thought for a few moments, then she got up, walked over to the man, and slapped him across the face, after that, she used her purse knife to cut a small crescent in his wrist. The man took it, but the pain was clear in his eyes.
Somewhat satisfied, the thief said, "Alright, you've got yourself a rogue."
* * *
"The job actually entailed sneaking into a castle, distracting a couple guards, opening the back door for Knight, and helping him make off with some rare artifacts that had been stolen from some museum or school or whatever. I finally decided to forgive him for his 'test' when he saved my life from a guard that got a little too distracted, and eventually he introduced me to the illusionist, Fade, who has been my friend since."
Fell shook her head, "That is the strangest story I have ever heard. If he had done that to me, I probably would've ripped his head off, whatever he needed me for."
Blade nodded, reached behind her back, and pulled a dagger out of its' sheath. It was simple; the leather wrapped hilt had only one decoration, a ruby inlaid on the guard. It had long lost the powers it once had, but she had a feeling that another power, one deep within it, had yet to awaken. She wasn't sure when it would happen but she knew, when the time was right, she would understand why he had given it to her.
"Hey," Fel said. "The moon has risen, its' time to do what we came to do."
The Crimson Blade, Rogue of Baldur's Gate, got up, sheathed her dagger, and said, "Let's do it."
--This is a chapter that actually underwent major changes during the course of writing it. So this is probably a good example to use in explaining my writing style. When I write, I have a very basic plan of what's going to happen in the chapter. Then I write a first draft with pen and paper. This is usually were I come up with everything, the outline is that barebones. Then I type it up and use that opportunity to make any changes or corrections I feel are necessary and then there you have it. Finished product. Thanks to Shadow Fox2 for reviewing, I hope this meets your desire for more, at least for the time being. And I'd like to ask anyone who reads to at least drop me a note to let me know that more than 4 people are reading this.
"This is going to be much more difficult than I initially expected." The Blue Knight crouched behind some shrubs staring out at the fortress where their quarry had secured himself. To say that it was well defended would be an understatement. The guards patrolling the wall looked like they would attack anything that so much as broke wind in their general direction. Knight turned to face his companions.
"How bad do you think it is?" Elfsong asked.
"Well, we have very few options in this case, namely two. One, we can stroll up to the front gate, magically dodge anything they shoot at us, and ask, nicely or not, where we can find Damian, and hope we're not dead at any point during this entire suicidal escapade."
Crimson Blade grinned, "Sounds lovely, and number two?"
Knight looked straight at her.
"Even better."
A few minutes later, she and Fel were pressed against the wall of the keep, trying to stay low and out of sight.
Stopping herself from stepping on what must have been the twentieth twig, Fel grunted quietly and whispered, "Why was it me that had to come along on this little soiree?"
Blade responded so quietly, Fel almost lost it in the rustle of tree leaves, "Because no one else is quiet enough, an if you keep talking that loudly we'll be found before we even get in." They snuck along the wall a little longer until Blade stopped suddenly, "I think there may be a way inside here. The stones in this wall are loose but we won't be able to move them from this side. Wait her and I'll be right back." Without another word, she began to scale the wall and disappear over the top. Fel waited... and waited... and waited a little longer. She began to worry that maybe her friend had been captured.
Wait a moment. Did she say friend? Yes, she supposed she did. She stopped to think on this until a grinding sound in the wall startled her. A stone in the wall slid out a few inches and stopped, then, a stone near it began to slide out as well. Fel started pulling out the stones and laying them quietly on the ground. On the other side was Blade, unharmed and definitely not captured.
"Let's go, we don't have a lot of time."
Fel climbed through the opening in the wall and they quietly replaced the stones they had removed. They were in what appeared to be the stable yard of the keep, a cart had bee pushed up against the wall. How she had moved it would apparently be a tale for another time, Blade was moving as fast as stealth would allow.
They made their way quietly out of the stable and into the main yard. The pair moved along the walls and through the shadows. Guards were fingering their weapons, looking like they were searching for something to use them on.
Eventually, Blade stopped at a hole in the wall near the ground that was just big enough for them to slip through. Motioning Fel to follow her she squirmed through into the darkness of the other side. When Fel pulled herself through, she that Blade had lit a small torch and placed it in the middle of the room. Crates of various sizes formed a wall between them and what must have been the only doorway. Once Fel was safely inside, Blade pushed another crate in front of the hole they had come through.
Finally speaking, she said, "Sorry about all that. When I got over the wall, I had to knock out a sentry to keep him from spotting you. They found the body sooner than I expected and we were lucky to find this storeroom to hide in. We'll have to stay here until it quiets down out there, at least until nightfall, then we can make our move. In the meantime, we won't have to worry about staying quiet unless somebody comes through that door."
"Until nightfall? I don't know if I can wait that long. I never enjoy staying still, or not being able to see the sky."
"Well, we'll just have to find a way to distract you for a little while."
"Any suggestions?"
"Too bad we didn't bring the Bard with us, I'm sure she has some interesting tales to tell. I know a few, nothing that's too exciting or even particularly interesting."
Fel set herself, cross-legged, on the ground, "Hmm, this problem deserves deliberation..." Blade leaned against the wall and the pair lapsed into thoughtful silence for a few moments. Fel then spoke up once more, "That Knight fellow, he's a bit odd."
Blade chuckled, "Yeah, you could say that."
"You seem to know him well."
"Well, this isn't the first time he's gotten me on one of these crazy quests of his. He's always had a knack for getting me and Fade, my illusionist friend, into several pots of hot water."
"How'd you meet him?
"Ah, now that's a long story."
"Great, that solves our problem.
"I don't know, it' not a very interesting story. You might get bored enough to chew your leg off just to get me to stop."
"I live with animals, I'm not one myself"
"Alright, don't say I didn't warn you..."
Blade settled down on a crate and thought carefully about how to begin her story, "I suppose I should start a bit before I actually met the Blue Knight. I grew up in as normal a family as one could have, but I wanted more out of my life. I wanted thrills and excitement. I decided that being a rogue-for-hire had just about everything I wanted. Unfortunately that idea fell through and I became your everyday, average cutpurse. It wasn't long into this low of my life that I met the Blue Knight. I can still remember the calls of the merchants hawking their wares..."
* * *
"Pots! Pots for sale!"
"Fresh fruit! Apples imported from Calimshan!"
"Find your steel here! No adventurer should be without a stout blade!"
The woman with fire-red hair wove her way through the crowd; today she was making her usual rounds through the city of Baldur's Gate, "milking the herd," as she called it. Nobody seemed to be carrying much coin though, as pickings were slim. A sedan chair weaved its' way through the crowd, and she briefly considered making a run on it. After catching a look at the big bruisers guarding, however, she though better of it.
"Ah well, not every day can be payday." She began to turn and head back to her small home in the lower city when something caught her eye. A man was strolling down the street toward her. He was wearing a blue cloak with his face hidden well within the hood; he walked as a man with a purpose. She figured she had found a nice purse in this fellow. She began to walk toward the man in blue and adjusted her course so they would collide. As they neared, she examined her mark, and there it was, hanging like a ripe apple from his belt, just waiting for her to take it. She readied the small blade she kept up her sleeve, three... two... one... They ran into each other, and with the speed of a master thief, she whipped out her dagger, cut the purse from his belt, and secreted both away in mere moments.
"Sorry," was all she said to the man when they looked at each other. She walked away quickly before he realized what had happened during their brief exchange. She looked back at him and found that he was still staring at her, and then he turned and walked away. She ducked into an alley to calm her heart. His gaze had been...unsettling.
"Most think twice before stealing from me," a voice said. The thief started and found the man standing in front of her. "The rest live to regret. Give back the purse and we'll walk away as if nothing happened."
"And if I don't?"
The man fingered the hilt of his sword and looked straight into her eyes, it was almost as if he stared into her soul. "If you don't? Tell me, do you know what the word 'requiem' means?" The thief shook her head. "It's a lament for the dead. Many have sung such for those who trouble me. You would not care to have one sung for you."
The thief raised her hands and took a step back; her right hand began to reach into a pouch on her belt when her left hand suddenly flashed, throwing a small jar of stun powder to the ground. It broke open with a loud, ground-shaking sound and flashed a blinding white light. She turned and ran down the alley as fast as she could.
As she ran past a wooden pillar she felt something catch the sleeve of her jacket. A dagger had buried itself in the pillar with her jacket pinned between, just barely missing her arm. She tried to pull the dagger out, but it was sunk to deeply. She would've simply removed her jacket, but the dagger had her tunic pinned as well, and she was not going to walk about the city without that.
The man in blue walked up to her, shaking his head. The thief snorted, "Last time I buy stun powder from a place called Thieves' Picks 'N More. You should still be holding your ears and half-blind."
"Your powder did its' job well. If I had been able to see clearly that knife would be in your back instead of this pillar. The purse, or you can stay here."
She really had no choice, she handed over the small bag she had taken from him. He bounced it in his hand a couple times, and then held out his other hand. The thief sighed and pulled a fat coin from her boot and slapped it in the waiting hand. He replaced his recovered gold on his belt and began to reach for the dagger in the pillar, then stopped. "You keep it," he said. Then he turned and started back to the main street.
"Hey! You can't just leave me like this!" the Thief shouted at him.
"You'll free yourself eventually. If you can't, then you should try a different profession." He turned onto the street and disappeared into the crowd.
The Thief pulled at the dagger, using all the strength she could muster with one arm, but she couldn't pull it out. She would need both hands. She could wait for someone to come down the alley and ask them for help, but the kind of help that was likely to find her would more likely cut her throat than free her. She could tear through the cloth, but then she would ruin a perfectly good jacket and tunic. That left only one option open to her.
Not if all the murders in the world were walking down the alley would she do that. Grimacing, she began to yank at her sleeve, pulling the cloth over the razor-sharp blade. It wasn't long before she heard a ripping sound and with one more great pull, she managed to tear through the rest of the cloth and free herself. "Great, just great,' she muttered. She had just ruined her favorite jacket and her best tunic. "That guy's going to get a piece of my mind for this one." A few chuckles caught her ears and she turned to look at their source, standing at the mouth of the alley were two of the worst looking men she had ever seen and she was sure they were coming for her. Sure enough they both pulled blades and started towards her.
She grabbed the dagger in the pillar with both hands and pulled down as hard as she could, the dagger pulled out of the wood and she turned to face her soon-to-be-former attackers. The two men suddenly stopped in their tracks, both wearing a puzzled look on their face. It was if she had disappeared of the face of the planet.
"C'mon," she growled at them, "Don't want a piece of the pretty girl anymore?" Both men's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, they turned to look at each other then ran back the way they came, screaming at the top of their lungs.
* * *
"Wait, let me get this straight," Fel said. "You took his gold and he left you vulnerable to rapists, thieves, and murderers?"
"Right."
"And you're helping this guy?"
"Yeah."
"Did I miss something here?"
"Yes. The rest of my story, in fact."
"This will be good. Okay, so you pulled the dagger free and scared of a couple of wool-heads. What did you do after that?"
"Well, Knight had embarrassed me, and I wanted some revenge." Blade took a deep breath and went on, "Unfortunately, finding one man in a city of thousands was not an easy task. I had somehow tracked him to this seedy inn in the Lower City. I planned to sneak in his room while he slept, hang him out the window with his pants down for embarrassing me, and make off with his valuables."
* * *
Night had fallen over the city, and the time had come for her to exact her revenge. She approached the wall of the inn and began to scale it, despite the meager hand- and footholds. When she reached the window of her victim, she quietly jimmied the lock and entered. She was a ghost's shadow. There he was asleep on his bed, not knowing his doom was nigh. She drew the dagger he had left her and stalked to the side of the bed. She swung the blade, aiming to hit him over the head and make sure he remained unconscious, her hand was halfway there when another hand grabbed her wrist, pulled the blade from her hand, and threw her to the floor.
The man got up, no sign that he had been asleep on his face. Lighting a candle he said, "Good. I was afraid you would either be stuck there all night, or took the blade and went on with your life. But in coming here, without me even noticing you until you were about to give me a headache, you have proven your skill."
"You left me in that alley, embarrassed me, and now you're congratulating me on my skills as a thief?"
"Don't worry about the alley. I was there watching the entire time. If those two had gotten the better of you, my sword would have gotten the better of them. That dagger is also a magical one. When the blade is exposed, all one has to do is grab the hilt and be rendered invisible. That's why those poor chaps ran away screaming. They thought you were some kind of demon."
"So you're saying..."
"Your dignity is intact. This was all a test from the moment you snatched my purse." While her anger at the man still flared, it lessened a little when she learned that no, he hadn't embarrassed her, in fact, he had taken steps to maintain her dignity. While that was no great comfort, it was no small one either.
"Why were you testing me?"
"I have a job that requires special skill, while I can avoid being seen, I am not as adept as you are at certain things."
"So you need a rogue. Why me? There are plenty of others out there."
"I need the best. The test was to see if you were willing to take a risk to get the job done. Granted, there are better ways to go about it, but your stun powder caught me off guard." He shook his head, "And I thought I was ready for anything. When I saw my dagger had pinned you to that pillar, I improvised. I am truly sorry you went through all that though. You can still keep the dagger, don't expect its' magic to last much longer though, I couldn't afford one of greater craftsmanship. If you still want to, you can do to me whatever you feel is proper, so long as you take this job." The thief thought for a few moments, then she got up, walked over to the man, and slapped him across the face, after that, she used her purse knife to cut a small crescent in his wrist. The man took it, but the pain was clear in his eyes.
Somewhat satisfied, the thief said, "Alright, you've got yourself a rogue."
* * *
"The job actually entailed sneaking into a castle, distracting a couple guards, opening the back door for Knight, and helping him make off with some rare artifacts that had been stolen from some museum or school or whatever. I finally decided to forgive him for his 'test' when he saved my life from a guard that got a little too distracted, and eventually he introduced me to the illusionist, Fade, who has been my friend since."
Fell shook her head, "That is the strangest story I have ever heard. If he had done that to me, I probably would've ripped his head off, whatever he needed me for."
Blade nodded, reached behind her back, and pulled a dagger out of its' sheath. It was simple; the leather wrapped hilt had only one decoration, a ruby inlaid on the guard. It had long lost the powers it once had, but she had a feeling that another power, one deep within it, had yet to awaken. She wasn't sure when it would happen but she knew, when the time was right, she would understand why he had given it to her.
"Hey," Fel said. "The moon has risen, its' time to do what we came to do."
The Crimson Blade, Rogue of Baldur's Gate, got up, sheathed her dagger, and said, "Let's do it."
--This is a chapter that actually underwent major changes during the course of writing it. So this is probably a good example to use in explaining my writing style. When I write, I have a very basic plan of what's going to happen in the chapter. Then I write a first draft with pen and paper. This is usually were I come up with everything, the outline is that barebones. Then I type it up and use that opportunity to make any changes or corrections I feel are necessary and then there you have it. Finished product. Thanks to Shadow Fox2 for reviewing, I hope this meets your desire for more, at least for the time being. And I'd like to ask anyone who reads to at least drop me a note to let me know that more than 4 people are reading this.