January 16

270 HE

Writ in the Evening

The foreigners I mentioned last night are from Scanra, and they are thieves such as me. I was out on my daily route this morning to relieve some merchants of their purses and reduce the number of rushers some when I heard that the Rogue had been bested by the foreign cove. Apparently the Scanrans hadn't liked the idea of being sworn to an overlord, so the cove had challenged Lockhorn and won. What's more though, the cove hadn't killed Lockhorn, claiming that he didn't want to have to fill the Rogue's position. That could only mean one thing: he was after my position. Great.

So I continued walking, so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice that I was being followed until I hit a dead end and turned around to find myself surrounded by twenty rushers. Uttering a string of colorful curses, I drew two knives and settled into a defensive crouch, more than a little worried. Ten rushers I could take on and walk away without a scratch. Fifteen with injuries on both sides. Twenty, I wasn't sure. There wasn't time to ponder though. One of the rusher's came at me from behind. I sensed the moving blade at the very last moment and twirled around, slashing the oncoming cove from neck to navel. He dropped like a stone and I relieved him of his blade, sending it flying into one of his comrades. Star Strike attacked one of the rushers from above, diving down to claw out his eyes while Moonless wrapped herself around another cove's neck and squeezed hard. I sent two of my knives flying into the necks of an oncoming gixie and cove and pulled out two more blades. Having finished her cove, Star attacked another gixie, whilst Moonless bit a cove. I could tell she had injected venom when the rusher dropped on the spot. I smiled grimly. Nothing was as harmless as it looked. I sensed four more rushers coming up behind me, trying to catch me by surprise. I spun again and sent the two blades I held flying. They struck two of the rushers in their throats, and they died slowly. As quickly as I had thrown my knives, I had two more in my hands, which I used to dispose of the other two rushers. Soon they joined they're comrades on the ground. A gixie sliced into my shoulder, I had been so involved in my fight that I hadn't noticed her. I turned to get my revenge, ignoring the biting pain in my arm. Before I was all the way around though, she fell forward into me, a knife embedded deep in her back. I didn't stop to wonder how it got there, assuming that one of her comrades had turned.

I killed three more rushers and turned to face my next opponent, but could find none. That confused me. I thought for a minute and realized that only sixteen of them should be dead. Eleven killed by me, four by Star and Moonless, and one by the… I didn't know whom. I counted the bodies on the ground. Twenty exactly. I checked them more carefully as I retrieved my knives and theirs. Hm… that was strange. Four bodies, including one of the original sixteen I counted, had knives that were clearly not from Tortall. I shrugged and started to take them to when cold steel pressed against my throat and I called myself stupid in as many ways as possible for not checking my surroundings afore lowering my guard. Suddenly though, I heard the cove, I could tell from how deep his voice was, swear loudly with a heavy accent in what I guessed was Scanran. The blade was removed from my throat and Moonless flew over to settle around my wrist, her head held triumphantly and a smug look in her eyes. I couldn't help but grin. She must have given the cove a warning bite, judging from the fact that he wasn't dead yet. "What was that?" came the rough voice.

I glared at him, my eyes a shocking blue. "A warning," I replied, "Next time you will not be so lucky." I tossed him his knives and moved to leave, but the daftie stepped in my path. Fine, I would hear what he had to say, and then if he still didn't leave I would knock him out or escape over the rooftops. I wouldn't kill him, mainly acos I didn't want his mots after me.

"Do you have a sister?" asked the Scanran, interrupting my train of thought.

"Um… no," I replied slowly, "Why do you ask?" I was very confused. What did the cove want?

The cove shrugged. "I just thought I had seen someone like you somewhere. But I saw a blue-eyed gixie, not one with silver glims like yours…" he trailed off. I was becoming extremely irritated and thus becoming said "blue-eyed gixie." The Scanran looked positively shocked. I grinned and flipped backwards onto a box, gave an exaggerated bow, and made my escape over the rooftops.

Around noon I had fully recovered from my run-in with the Scanran cove and, with a good meal in my stomach and clean bandages on my leg and shoulder, I went to go see how I could hassle the Rogue and his rushers. As I was walking, I felt blood splatter a rusher's blade nearby and heard a child's scream. Following feel of the blood-covered blade I soon found myself in a dark alleyway just off of Copper Street. Five rushers surrounded a young gixie, I guessed she was around ten years old, holding a knife in each hand and standing in front of the limp form of a dead mot protectively. Even though there were tears streaming down her cheeks I could clearly see the determination etched across the gixie's face, and I immediately liked her. The rushers were so intent upon their prey that they didn't even notice my presence until three of their own lay dead. As I turned to face my next opponent, I saw the gixie slice the throat of the final rusher out of the corner of my eye. I nodded to myself. She was good for one so young. I quickly disarmed my opponent and pinned him down with ease of long practice. I took out a piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal and drew my sign: a long sword surrounded by eight small daggers. I used his own blade to pin the note to his shoulder and him to the ground, and stabbed another blade through his other shoulder, making sure he would not be able to escape until some other rushers or Dogs found him. I did make sure to pin him down a good distance away from what was obviously the gixie's house. I then turned to said gixie, who had slipped both knives into her belt and was now staring at me with wide eyes. "Well," I began, "would you like to give her a proper goodbye?"

A few minutes later I had the mot cleaned up some and inside the house. The gixie had just finished saying goodbye, as I had just finished dousing everything in oil. As we stood outside, I handed the gixie a candle, which she threw through the open doorway. Instantly the small house became a funeral pyre that was visible to the entire city. The gixie looked stunned, I was calm, and the cove I had pinned down had lost consciousness a while ago.

All of a sudden I heard a whistle blow down the street and swore under my breath; the cove wasn't going to remain there as long as I would've liked. I took the gixie by the hand and started to run, pausing only to grab my knives out of the cove's shoulders and tuck the note into a pocket on the inside of his jacket.

We continued to run for a while, stopping only when I reached my home. I opened the door, went into the other room and sat the gixie down on a chair. "I'm sorry that was so sudden, I didn't want to spend the next week in the cages. I'm Beka by the way, Beka Sarrasri. And what might your name be?"

The gixie was so quiet that for a moment I thought she might not answer. But then she piped up, "Cooper, milady."

I sighed. "Please don't call me 'milady,' I'm not but a thief."

Cooper nodded solemnly. "Yes milady Beka."

I grinned in spite of myself. "If that's how you want it milady Cooper. Now for the matter of your house. Obviously you are in need of one. Now you have three options." I settled into a chair across from Cooper's. "First, you can go back and live on the streets, and risk being killed by rushers or Dogs. Second, you could join the Rogue, but he would have only one use for a pretty little thing like you, and I can't quite see you becoming Lockhorn's doxie. And lastly, you could stay here with me and help me with my business as the Lone Rogue. I assure you, I would be very happy if you would stay, and Star and Moonless already seem to like you." It was true. My former companions had ditched me to stay with Cooper. Star was on her shoulder, and Moonless twirled around her wrist. "Oh, but there is one condition…" Cooper tensed. "… It will be just Beka and Cooper. None of this 'milady' stuff." Cooper laughed then, and came to hug me. I smiled and hugged her back, then showed her to her room and bid her goodnight.

I have been writing in this poxy journal for the past six hours, and it is well past midnight. I do not want to be irritable for Cooper in the morning, so I am going to sleep now. Goodnight.

A/N- For those who wondered why i used Beka Sarrasri instead of Beka Cooper, i already had the character Cooper of Copper street in my head, and it took me a while to remember that Beka's last name was Cooper already. I didn't want to change Cooper's name because Cooper of Copper Street is awesome (if i do say so myself), and besides, Rebekah Sarrasri sounds okay too right?