Review Response time! Whoo! For once I'm writing at a GOOD hour!
Mastery: I'll do my best… remember that I'm always open to ideas. I'm glad you still like it!
2sidez: Who can look into the abyss without the fear of it looking back? …I'm glad you're enjoying my mini-stories!
MidKnight: Sent you an E-mail (three… I'm not great at E-mail, unfortunately.), and, as before, It's nice to know people like what I'm doing!
Shon: Writers make the world, Critics weed out the fuzzy edges of it's reality… I'm going to sound more repetitive and say THANK YOU for reviewing! …I'm glad you like it.
And now, the yap stops and I write something actually worth staring at blankly-er… reading. Hopefully.
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Chapter 7: The Thief
"Blinken Sie Nicht"
The last two pairs of eyes watched the form stride off in the direction of the town, not moving for fear of being noticed again in an unmerciful light. It was a wonder Kedri managed to keep quiet, as the sheer amount of pain would have had many people on the ground, writhing by now. The fact that the girl was holding onto him wasn't helping matters much, either... but the green-clothed boy waited until the figure was fully gone from sight before saying anything to her.
"Liddy… Liddy, get offa me… the bitch is gone, and yer lying on my arm… kind'a hurts."
An understatement, but the bandana'd thief leaned off him quickly, hands to her mouth… and ran off to find some of the encampments' healing supplies. Liddy wasn't the most world-knowledged girl ever, but she was helpful, and liked to be, as well as very fast with her hands if a merchant with a lot of glitter was nearby. Bright-eyed, fast-tongued Kedri tended to be more of a wordy, slight-of-handed and signature-forging sort of thief... What better way to rob someone than to sell them things that weren't his to give away?
As Kedri drank one of the smaller potions Liddy had brought back, he couldn't help but wonder how they all had gone wrong… …note to self, never insult the magic arts. Now all he and Liddy had between them was a deck of marked cards, a number of varying potions and antidotes, as well as their weapons and a smidgeon of cash… the next choice of action was simple enough to discern…
"Kedri? …We're going to be okay, right? I mean… it was…"
"Worried we lost ar edge from bein' in such a big group?"
"That… and I know we can't get attached to people much in our line of work, but… I miss them… it was like having a family or something… looking out for each other like that."
"I know what ya mean. Wi'll beh fine… Ah got a plan already."
"…can I ask?"
"Poker… people nevah sit down to a one-on one game, but evrebuddy and his buddy'll sit down against two… an' I'm damn good with marked cards. Make things look grim for us, taunt 'em into raising into everythin' they got… nail'em. Haven't been caught at it yet… hell, we should do better with two people now."
"…I've never used cards to get my money…"
"Let's spend today learnin' you, then… tomorrow we'll go out to the nearest town other than the one the witch is headed for, then run out like the bandits we are one we robbed everybody naked."
"…heh… we'll be fine then… thanks, Kedri…"
It was tough to keep the wounded arm from being smushed by the clingy, teary-eyed girl, but Kedri hadn't gotten this far (barring the incident earlier that day) without feeling a small bit of sympathy for his comrades now and then.
---
"I'll fold. Again. I swear, one day of teachin' an' yer playin' better than me…"
"I'm using the specials… trying to get more practice in."
"That'd be it, then… agh, St. Ajora… can't a guy have a straight game o' cards withya?"
"Heehee… sorry."
The tavern was an old one, on the outskirts of Poldetton. The Broken Spoke… an apt name, if unorthodox. The beer was watered down, some of the tables were split in half, and the barkeep was busy cleaning out the mugs with a rag that, against all reason, was steadily making them dirtier. The wooden buckets under the leaks in the molding roofs looked better to drink out of… but the two playing cards in hushed tones weren't thinking about downing anything. Their minds were almost exclusively into the cards in their hands… at least, until the doors opened wide from the force of a tall, stocky man in plate mail… the friendly face instantaneously plopped down to the table, directly across from the two. They were the only three in the place… other than the barkeep, who absentmindedly blew his nose into the cloth in his hands.
"Some leave this is… the only tavern for miles is a DUMP… damn the commander's wife, eh? Eh?"
Kedri only nodded and smiled at the man's elbow nudge, the cards placed face-down on the table as he turned to face the mustached man.
"Yeh certainly gotta story to tell, I can see… Le'ss hear it, ol' man."
"Eh? Whazzat? Ya got a thick accent on you… can barely make it out. Ya from Ivalice, then?"
Kedri had run into this problem before… but had never handled it in the way Liddy did.
"Yes… actually, he was inviting you to play a game of cards with us… it's only been us for so long, and we're getting slightly bored. We had hoped to make a little money before setting out, but since we're only trading our coins back and forth nothing is happening. I'm sure a strong-willed, perceptive man like yourself wouldn't say no to a little gambling?"
Kedri almost stared open-mouthed at the girl… but kept the surprise to himself. Perhaps a duo had more positives than he'd thought originally… he hadn't thought she had that much charm in her… was that why he'd let her come with him from the beginning?
…maybe so.
"Well, I couldna say no to that. I've only got a soldier's pay tho'…"
---
Three hours later, the two thieves were down fifty gold, the original soldier and his five recently-arrived combatmates grinning so wide it looked as if their heads would fall off. Kedri sighed gently, folding as he stared directly into the ginormous man's eyes from across the table…
"Alrih, yeh win this round I guess… I got nuthin', an' not enough left teh pay for a cream in Dorter back home… what say we each pu' it al up fer grabs, then declah' victor? You win, yeh get the rest of our cash an' a pair of squires the help yeh buckle on yer armors inna mornin', though we'd be travelin' with yeh, so yeh'd have teh feed us, until we got back teh Dorter. We win, we get the coins and give you any potions we got… Battlemongers like yerselves can' take any flesh stitching yeh can get, I know that. Neither of us lose out either way… not much, at least. No fold, or the like. Three hands, two teams, Me an' Liddy against yer valiant sword arms… two wins call victory."
"Kedri said-"
"I got what he said well enough, lass, don't fret yer pretty self about it… I'm startin' te unnerstan' the man. What say you lads?"
There was a chorus of ayes, and new hands were dealt eagerly… how could you refuse, when either way you mostly won? There was no denying that the two green-toned teens had the blue goods on them, as they had been offered up in betting a few times… and with healing supplies scarce this far away from Magic City Gariland, the offer was tempting beyond belief… and so was the idea of willing aids in the morning, to care for the chocobo so the knights themselves did not have to. Besides, new cash would always be made in their business, even if it wasn't always on time…
…but twenty minutes later, Kedri's side of the table graced them all with the quad-queens of victory, and a sigh of relief… what an end, especially after one of the shorter members of the mustached mob won the second round with two high pairs.
---
"Two hun'red gold, Liddy…"
"Yeah, that's what it counts up to."
"Two hun'red gold, Liddy…"
"Yes, Kedri…"
"Two hun'red gold, Liddy…"
"That's what it is…"
"Two-"
"I'm going to make you eat your hat, you know that, right?"
"…I say weh shud go an' buy a house… runnit asa guild… a guild, where we like… I dunno, do SOMETHIN' good…"
"It's a good idea, but two hundred gold isn't going to get us that far… it would barely get us back to Ivalice."
"Yeh, but we're bound to get there eventchaly, righ'?"
"Most definitely… but not lying on the roof of a moldy tavern in Poldetton…"
"Then weh hit the nex' town ovar… do that one ovar too… then the nex'… then the nex… an' by the time weh hit Zeltennia we're rich as Elmdor…"
"If we're gonna have a guild, it's gonna need a name…"
"The Corp… neh, that's too poncey."
"I like it… but yeah, it needs something… maybe The Commoners' Corp…"
"Pfft, no.. too long ta' say… but somethin' along those lines… but I think I'd know what we do…"
"Hmm?"
"Keep good-fer-nuthin' nobles from pushin' around people like us… people who dun' got castles an' stuff. A secret-type group… like, we dun' do anythin' till we got, like a couple differen' bases an' stuff, then the nobles dun' know what hit 'em…"
"… … think more in the morning… I'm getting tired."
"…Huh?"
Lidda had gone to sleep by the time he'd turned around, her head resting on his chest in a sort of hard way that made it seem like she wasn't going to move anytime soon. Kedri didn't have any sort of pillow, though… all in all, he guessed there could have been worse places to be anyway. Old wood was better than hard rock, and that.
"Death Corp, maybe. It's not like it hasta mean nuthin'. Besides, bein' a commoner, yeh might as well be dead anyway… brainless like the zombies. Brain-eatin' nobles… heh."
And Kedri Dedurick pulled his hat over the eyes, stretching lightly as his eyes closed for the night.