Chapter 2: Preparations by day…

The clock stuck high noon. Garrett groaned, got out of bed, and looked for his peasant's garbs. This process took him about 10 minutes; healing potions could do wonders with wounds, but they sure couldn't prevent the stiffness.

After finally donning his commoner's clothing, he walked out into the bright sunlight. Being a night person, Garrett had to squint and shield his eyes until they adjusted. In one of his hands, he held a bag with the loot he had collected yesterday, ready for pawning. In the other hand, he had an envelope with the bills of sale that he had taken in his botched-up job. Hopefully, the loot and the pay that his commissioner was giving him would give him enough cash to get him some supplies and such for his emigration.

Walking along the streets, he found his way to the drop spot: the third tree in one of the many city squares. His pay, he was told, would be under the fourth. Looking around to make sure no one was looking (just in case a friendly citizen decided to point out his dropping of the letter, or a not-so-friendly citizen decided to take it) he subtly dropped the envelope in the tree. Walking along to the fourth tree, he let his hand rake through the soil, until he found his prize buried under the peat moss: a large pouch of coins, though he could tell by feeling the contents that there weren't many coins. However, he could also tell that they were golden crowns, which were worth far more than even a regular gold coin. Quickly, Garrett attached the pouch to his belt; many people did this, so he wasn't worried about being conspicuous. Looking behind him, he saw a man in a green shirt pick up the envelope, rifle through the documents, and pocket them. Fortunately, the man was Garrett's contact, otherwise things would have gotten messy. Garrett walked away. Now for a quick visit to a pawn man's.

15 minutes later, and Garrett was standing in an alleyway at the back entrance of "Jeffrey's Pawn Shop and Jewelry Maker." Jeffrey was a smart fellow. By making his second profession as a jewelry maker, people couldn't easily tell whether an item for sale was crafted in the workshop behind the counter (which was rarely in use) or light-fingered by a thief. Most of his jewelry came from the latter.

Garrett knocked on the door in a special pattern and waited. After a while, he could hear the lock slowly being lifted, then the door opened and old Jeffrey opened the door.

"Ah Garrett, hello! I'm glad you're here! Come in, come in!" The old man smiled and gestured with his hands…but something about him made Garrett somewhat cautious. Making sure of his concealed blackjack, he followed the old man in.

Trying to seem like nothing was amiss, Garrett brought out the loot. "Here, you might like this," the thief offered a golden ring with an inset diamond. "And this," he said as he produced a gold-plated vase with gems in the rim. "Or possibly these," and produced about ten statuettes.

Jeffrey sat through it all, albeit nervously, and waited for Garrett to finish. As soon as the thief finished, the old man said very slowly and hesitantly, "Well, Garrett, it seems you've been doing well, quite well. But I'm afraid your career ends now." With that, two City Watch officers came out from behind the curtain that led to the jewelry shop.

Garrett jumped up with a start. "You lousy bastard!" he yelled. "Why'd you sell me out? You cheap, two-faced…" he went on and on, even as the bluecoats came up beside him and tried to subdue him. Jeffrey spoke, apologetically, "It was either you or me, Garrett. Sorry, old buddy."

Garrett seethed with rage. "No one double faces me. Remember that until the day of your death!" Suddenly, the thief did a complicated set of twists, getting him out of the grip of the City Watchmen. They had no sooner raised their swords when Garrett pulled out another toy of his: a flash bomb, which sent out the light of 1,000 candles in a tenth of a second. Shielding his eyes, he threw the thing to the ground. He heard a poof! as the bomb exploded, followed by screams of pain. Opening his eyes, he saw the three other occupants waving about aimlessly, the City Watchmen swinging their swords everywhere, at tables, chairs, and anything that was within their swords' 3-foot length. Everything except Garrett, that is, who snuck up behind them and brought down his blackjack as hard as he could on both their helmeted skulls. They both dropped without a sound.

Garrett turned his attention to the man who had double-crossed him. "Now, Jeffrey, what am I going to do with you," the thief barely contained his rage as he paced the old man, who lay on the floor, moaning in pain. "I should really kill you now, but you're going to die in a few years anyway." Garrett thought for a while as the old man made pitiful moaning noises. "Alright, fine, I know what I'll do." He hoisted the man up. "Now, answer me these questions, or I won't hesitate to kill you like you almost tried to do to me. First, why'd you do it?"

"T-They told m-me it was either you or me. Well, it looks like they're not getting any of now, eh?" The old man faked a smile, but killed it when Garrett gave him a look of uncontainable fury.

"You stupid gutless old geezer! How did they know about you and me in the first place?"

"I don't know. I-I had suspicions about that other thief, what's his name, Gerabrile. He's been causing a lot of trouble, y'know." Ugh, Garrett thought to himself, This guy's horrible at lying. He said so, and then Jeffrey broke down.

"You deserved it! You and all the rest of you disgusting villains! I never wanted all you criminals in my shop anyway, you're all a bunch of vile beasts! You always have to control people! I hate that! I hate you! You horrible, despicable-taffer!" The old man sobbed uncontrollably, while Garrett stood so still he would have made a statue crack with envy. Finally, he spoke softly, "Well, at least you had the decency to finally tell me the truth. The bad thing is now the bluecoats are gonna be after both of us." Garrett thought a bit, then said, "All right, I'll leave you be. I'm planning on getting out of here soon, so it doesn't really matter." He started to leave, then thought better of it. "Actually, you could be of help to me," he said as Jeffrey picked himself off the floor.

"Really?" The old man asked eagerly; apparently he was not too mad at Garrett to try and compensate for the rather eventful afternoon.

"Yes, really," Garrett replied. And with that, he drew his blackjack and swung it at the man's head. Jeffrey made a small whimper as he hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. Garrett checked for a pulse; he didn't want the old bloke dead. Finding one, he got up and began to look around the shop. The man kept things other than jewelry, and some of it might be of interest to the thief.

A half hour later, he had found 25 broadhead arrows, 10 water crystals, 5 noisemaker arrows, a lighter and stronger sword, (good for a quick draw) and 10 fire crystals. The arrow crystals were hollowed out, elongated, glass arrowheads. Each was filled with a different substance, depending on what kind of crystal it was. The water crystals were filled with water, as expected. If a torch needed extinguishing, or blood washed away, the water crystal would be perfect for the job. But while water crystals were meant to be subtle and quiet, the fire arrow was the complete opposite. Filled with an explosive material and a burning head, the fire arrow would explode on impact and severely damage a target.

Now, Garrett thought as he looked at his plunder, how in the Watchman's name am I going to get this all home? It took him ten more minutes before he found the perfect thing: a knapsack with a fake back that could hold 20 tightly packed arrow crystals. Garrett put the water and fire crystals in, careful not to break them. Looking for a place to stash the arrows, he finally decided on putting them in his bag and hoping that a City Watchman wouldn't get too curious about a peasant carrying a bulging sack of sharp pointy objects. After pocketing all the arrows and crystals, he decided to look for other things as well. Another half-hour later, he discovered 8 more flash bombs, 5 gas mines, 5 regular mines, and 5 gas bombs. The gas bombs and mines released a potent knockout gas when triggered that would put anything within a 2-meter radius instantly to sleep. Garrett would have to be careful with these things, and he packaged them with utmost care. Garrett gave a satisfied sigh. Now for one more thing.

Going over to the cash box, Garrett cleaned out the obvious inside. Counting out the coins, he estimated their total value to be at about 50 gold. Garrett frowned. A jewelry dealer would have a lot more than 50 gold. He tried picking up the box, which was pretty small and could be picked up with ease. It didn't budge, which meant that there had to be a false bottom. This thought was confirmed when the thief tapped the bottom of the box and heard an echo, indicating a hollow area. Garrett pushed the inside of the box for 5 minutes and found nothing. Frustrated, he was about to give up when he noticed a button on the far side of the desk. Pressing it cautiously, he was delighted to hear the sound of a small door opening. Going back over to the cash box, he smiled like a child whose birthday had come early as he saw a mound of coins resting in the bottom, looking as attractive as any jewelry the thief had even encountered. He reached in…

And jerked back even quicker than he had put his hand in. A needle, undoubtedly poisoned, had just flicked itself across the fake bottom. It would have impaled Garrett's hand against the opposite side, and then slowly poisoned him as he lay stuck there. Shaking about his close call, Garrett anxiously checked his hand to see if it had been scratched. Thankfully, it hadn't. Garrett almost fainted in relief. Looking down at all the gold and silver coins, he tried to find a way to get it. The only problem was that the needle was directly in the center. Only a child would be able to get his hand in the openings that the needle had divided. Garrett thought for a moment, then stuck his sword against the far end, where the needle had hit the wood. Slowly but surely, he pushed the needle back against its socket in the false bottom. When Garrett heard a small click, he breathed a sigh of relief; now that the needle was out of the way, he could try this again.

Keeping his sword over the needle, he reached in freely. He felt the needle release, but it hit Garrett's sword instead of the opposite wall in the false bottom. Garrett smiled. Now for the fun part.

About 5 minutes later, he had taken all of the gold, silver, and bronze coins out of the false bottom. He put this money and the 50 gold he had found earlier in his money pouch. Now he could leave, and wait till night to do the other half of his plans. Hey, he could even check up on this City of Life. It always paid to-

He stopped in mid-thought, he thought he had heard something. Creeping over to where the blackjacked guards slept away, He discovered one lying on his back, and one lying on his front. Garrett froze. Both guards were on their fronts the last time he checked. Pulling out his blackjack, he reached down to knock the guard out again.

It didn't go as planned.

The City Watchman had been awake for 15 minutes before Garrett discovering him. As a result, he was extremely awake, and save for a little bump and a headache, he was fine. When Garrett had leaned over him, he threw himself off the ground. Drawing his sword, he told the master thief, "Your days of sin end here, taffer! Have at thee!" Garrett threw his bag and his knapsack away, and drew his new sword.

The two circled each other. Finally the Watchman thrust his sword out with the intent of skewering Garrett. The thief parried and thrust the man's sword down. Bringing his own sword to chop against the side, the man blocked again, and again, and again. Finally he raised his sword over his head and brought it down on Garrett's head. Or at least where it should have been. For Garrett had sidestepped the deadly blow, and now swung with one of his own onto the man's side. He felt the sword hit the Watchman's body-but all he did was curse and swing at Garrett. Garrett was so stunned by the Watchman's inability to get cut in half that he didn't block the man's swing, and it grazed his arm, creating an ugly gash along the length of his appendage. Get back into it! He told himself. If he's got armor, aim for the head! Garrett feigned with a chop to the right, then rolled the sword away from his wrist. With the sword pointed towards its master, he swung the sword in a high arc and it crashed onto the bluecoat's head. The man screamed, a scream that was cut off as his brain was deactivated.

Garrett stood there, panting and nursing the cut on his arm. Rummaging around the store, he found a healing potion. Though the things smelled and tasted horrible, they did their job, and did it rather finely, too. As Garrett choked the thing down, he could feel the potion's content seeking out the wounded areas and accelerating skin and organ growth in that area. Wiping off the blood from his clothing and stashing the body in a little-used part of the shop, he set off back home.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 3