Training Teresa

[Morwen]

\'Thanks.\' Teresa whispered, in response to Ridley\'s complement about perfume, slightly surprised. She followed him into the shop, and waited a second while her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Her nose was immediately assaulted with the biting scent of dead animals and preservatives. Unlike the warm smell of used leather, these stuffed animals had a revolting odour, especially in such a small area.

Looking around like she was told to, Teresa immediately disregarded the mounted animals and large pieces of clothing. They would look suspicious and would be very difficult to sell afterwards. Small things... just like at the weapons stand. They didn\'t need to be quite so small, since they had time and privacy here, but they still needed to be concealable.

Stepping over to the wooden counter, she ran her hand over the smooth grains in the wood, stopping when her hand passed several intricate purses made of soft fur and a dark, coppery metal. There were only three though, and removing one would be too inconspicious.

Teresa\'s eyes lighted on some fancy coins on the far wall. Approaching the collection, she stared at some of the most obviously foreign. \'Ridley, these coins aren\'t from Oberon, or anywhere near here. Look, this one isn\'t even in English...\'

[Trillian]

"What are they made from, Teresa?" Ridley asked gently, for most coins were made from precious metals and could easily be melted down into an unrecogniseable nugget, not hinting at its former self.  As she looked behind the counter, he went to inspect the coin collection on the wall, also many of them not of the Kingdom and its surrounding lands, and also some with scratchings in them that Ridley didn\'t recognise as English.

Suddenly, a though occurred to him and he looked at Teresa in surprise.

"You can read?"

Education such as reading and writing came at a price, and most of the thieves couldn\'t do such a thing, nor even operate a quill or charcoal to draw even the most crudest images.  If she recognised a foreign marking, then she knew what a local marking was.

"Have you been schooled?" he asked in amazement.  Ridley had been tutored, such was his background, though his own understanding of written language was also limited, due to his early departure from his studies.

[Morwen]

Teresa shook her head at the question of what they were made of. Some looked like they could be silver, some even looked like gold, but she couldn\'t be sure. Who knew what other peoples used for their coins? Her fingers itched to take down the shining pieces and play with them...

When Ridley asked whether she could read, Teresa laughed; first at the prospect of being literate, and then second at the surprised look on his face. It was amusing to see the normally nonchalant thief taken aback by anything.

\'I would be so lucky! No, what little education I\'ve got is all from listening in on my old mistress\' lessons. So I could recite the alphabet for you, or every king for centuries, but I wouldn\'t recognise my own name if it were written in front of me. However, I have spent some time looking at the books in the Nemein library, and I\'m pretty sure that there are so such characters as these\' she gestured to a small, dark coin, \'in the English alphabet.\'

\'Besides,\' she added as an after thought, \'I have seen English coins before, and these aren\'t at all similar.\' She wondered whether Ara or Ridley could read, and if they could, whether one of them would teach her. She had always loved looking at Rosaline\'s books and trying to figure out what they said.

[Trillian]

Even reciting the alphabet was something beyond what most other thieves (common, poor folk) could do, but if she was an attentive child with a knowledgeable mistress, it seemed reasonable that she would learn the sounds of the letters, if not the letters themselves, especially if it was in the format of a children\'s song, which was how Ridley himself had learnt it.

"You\'re quite perceptive," he told her, his opinion of her lifting slightly. It seemed Ara had been quite lucky with this newfound thief, and Ridley would have to watch himself and his skills around her. There was no point teaching her too much, lest she be a threat to his status in the Thief Lord\'s ranks.

"Take what you want and we shall leave," he said, removing the case from the wall with some trouble and setting if on the floor before he set about breaking the glass in order to pick out the coins within. He took them all, placing them into a little holding pouch, separate to his current coins, looped on the other side of his belt.

[Morwen]

Teresa blushed a bit at her teacher\'s humouring words. He was so nice when he wasn\'t angry... The smile was startled off her face as Ridley cracked the glass in the display. She quickly darted a glance at the door, scared that someone might hear the sound. Looking back at the case, she shivered; glass was so expensive, especially the kind as clear as that. The case must have cost the furrier as much as several of the coins inside it.

Looking around, she grabbed a few of the expensive looking purses and slipped them into her frock, along with a pretty, jeweled letter opener that was behind the counter. She then took off the large boots she had borrowed from Ara\'s stash and put on the plainest pair the merchant sold in her size. The borrowed shoes she rolled up and tied with some leather twine before tying them to the pants under her skirt.

Teresa finished her pillaging by taking a few pairs of fur gloves from their stand. They might not sell for much, but they would help when the weather started turning cold soon. She checked that none of her stolen wares were conspicious, then turned to Ridley and said, \'I think I got enough... so I\'m ready to leave if you are as well.\'

[Trillian]

He moved behind the counter once he\'d taken the coins, and she was done by the time he was at her side.  He moved past her and behind her, in order to check the door.  It was locked so he knelt down to pick it.  This second door was a great deal more difficult than the first, but his skill was well practised for years and he had a proper set of pick tools.  The lock was open in less than a minute and he turned the handle to display what looked ilke a storage room.

Standing and putting his picks away, he moved inside into the room and looked for anything that looked a little different from all the merchant boxes that were on shelves inside.  The best stuff was always kept behind an interior locked door, so he looked, and he found a small lockbox that was small enough to hold an item that could be concealed, but too big to conceal the entire box itself.  He picked it up and shook it.  Inside, things clinked and jingled.

Smiling widely, he took out his pickset once more, and withdrew the two smallest picks he had.

[Morwen]

Teresa watched silently as Ridley picked the lock of a small door she hadn\'t even noticed was there. It took him barely any time before the door opened into a little room filled with stock and other boxes. While Ridley played with the lock of a small, difficult looking lockbox, Teresa explored the room.

Most of the interesting looking boxes and cabinets were locked, so Teresa, not having any lock-picking expertise, soon got bored with them and went to look in the crates and boxes that were openable. These also lost her attention quickly, as they merely held fur and fur products that were not yet on display in the shop propre.

Moving to the corner of the small room, Teresa hopped up onto one of the large crates, and sat playing with a copper coin. She remembered a long time ago seeing a traveling stage magician who could make the coin appear and disappear. After the show, he had shown a crowd of eagre children, including Teresa, how to palm and manipulate the coin.

She had been no good at it at the time, since her hands were so small, but the events of the day had brought the magician to mind again, and while she had nothing better to do, Teresa figured she could try again. So, while she waited, she practiced the basic slights she had not been able to do so many years before.

[Trillian]

He was so taken with the tiny lock that he hadn\'t noticed Teresa\'s boredom.  Once the thing was sprung however, he opened the little lockbox with glee to find it was a music box which tinkled a merry tune at him.  He poked at it and realised it had a soft bottom panel, so dug his fingers in and lifted it out to reveal a number of silver pendants in various animal shapes.  Upending the lot into his hand, he put them all in his pocket to the sound of the music playing and then put it back and closed the lid to shut it up, before turning to look at Teresa.

[Morwen]

The sound of music shocked Teresa out of her practicing, and she looked up to see Ridley holding a small box, from which the music seemed to come. Hopping off her perch, the girl walked over to look over Ridley\'s shoulder at the curious little thing more closely. The box itself, as well as the jewelry the thief was taking from inside it, were both extremely pretty and intricate.

When the Ridely finished with the box and closed it, the music shut off and he turned to Teresa. She put the coin she had been playing with back in her pocket, and glanced at the small door they had come in through. \'Should we be going? We\'ve been in here for some time now...\'

[Trillian]

"Worried?" Ridley asked with a teasing lilt in his voice. "The markets are held all day, are you expecting the furrier to grow bored of selling his wares?"

He smirked at her then moved to another box. Greed had Ridley in its tight possessive hold, and there was no way he would be leaving without taking the full reward he sought. This was too easy an opportunity to pass up. He moved down the rows of shelves, shaking boxes, only picking the locks of the ones that jingled.

[Morwen]

\'Oh... no.\' Teresa said, going back to her wooden perch. \'I\'m not worried... at all really.\' She really was an awful liar. It wasn\'t that she didn\'t trust Ridley to know what he was doing, it was just that she was a very careful person. When she\'d had the puzzle of actual theft to deal with, her mind had been busy enough to be distracted from the danger of what she was doing. Being idle made her nervous.

Taking out her coin again, the girl tried to busy herself by working on the slights from before. She could get the coin to roll over three of her fingers and stop at the pinky, but she couldn\'t get it to roll back. Lost in her practice, she continued to play with the coin while Ridley searched for more locked-up treasures.

[Trillian]

Ridley was consumed by his work, opening little box after box, unable to open a few of them. Time tick-tocked away but he wasn\'t concerned due to the fact the markets were a long ordeal and the furrier had been observed staying to tend his stall until the last noble or merchant left him, always reminding everyone where his shop was if they wished to see more of his goods at a later date.

Ridley had discovered that the furrier must\'ve used a barter system with some of his things. He recognised the jewellery from the craftwork of a much recognised jeweller. Another box revealed more coins. Yet another had little metal chain links (these Ridley cast aside, not seeing their value). A pocket watch here (with fur trim, it must\'ve been a joint venture) and little metal soldiers from the toymaker.

Ridley lost track of what Teresa was doing and pocketed as much as he could, getting greedier by the second. The problem with his observing the furrier and not the shop was that he didn\'t realise a pair of patrolling guards came by and checked on the shop every hour or so.

[Existentially Odd]

Guards Skellern and Macintosh were sauntering through their rounds with relative casualness, when they came upon the slightly ajar door to the furrier\'s shop.  Guard Macintosh - being the more experienced of the two (as was declared by the light green ribbon adorning his breast) - noted something amiss in the shadow cast by the open portal quite a way down the alley.  His partner, Guard Skellern, had a light grey ribbon on his lapel, declaring him a humble weapons guard.

Of course, there was a lot to be said for humble. Guard Macintosh - whom everyone called \'Mac\' with various degrees of venom - had been reassigned to simple street patrols from his usual, more prestigious position of training other guards in dual-wielding shortswords (his particular specialty) or drilling a company of skilled guards a week beforehand.  Mac had a nasty temper (augured, some said, by his fiery orange hair) and a vindictive streak that had landed him in some hot water with one of the lieutenants and now he was supposed to be learning from his interactions with the commoners, understanding how best to cope with anger and realise just how deeply his actions effected them.  Or some such bullshit.

His partner was entirely the opposite; less experienced in general (though not with a long sword) and obedient to a fault, he had already learned that he should automatically defer to Mac\'s wisdom and rapidfire decision making on the job; not only was the deference to greater experience a sensible idea, but it kept the peace a lot more easily, too.

"What have we here?" Guard Macintosh murmured as they came level with the door.  He looked at his partner with a glint in his eye and a rakish smile across his wide lips.  He held an index finger up to them, to be sure Guard Skellern was quiet as he pushed gently on the door, hoping it didn\'t have squeaky hinges... it didn\'t.  Now they only had to hope that the floorboards inside would not give them away as they crept in, Mac in the lead and his brunette partner following cautiously.

Hearts thudded with the increased release of adrenalin into poised bodies, their ears strained to hear a sound.  Eventually they heard it, not coming from the shop itself, but from a room off it.  It was just some shaking and clunking of something at irregular intervals and in irregular patterns, but it gave away the fact that it was likely not the owner (they had only seen his stall at the markets a short while ago, but there were a lot of people about and they could have missed him returning to his own shop... though he would be foolish to leave the front door open) in that little room.

Guard Macintosh drew his shortswords as he crept towards the internal door - already ducking and dodging so that he wouldn\'t be seen by its occupant but might catch a glimpse of what was going on in there for his own benefit - glancing over his shoulder in time to see his partner draw his own weapon.  With a nod of approval, he resumed the slow walk to the storeroom.

[Morwen]

Teresa was still practising with the coin. It just wouldn\'t return across her hand, and that bothered her so much that she wouldn\'t give up, even if she had to practice the rest of the day. Quickly, she rolled it from thumb to forefinger, middle finger, ring, and finally the littlest finger. Slowing it down, she concentrated hard enough to get the coin back to the middle finger before it dropped, for what seemed like the millionth time.

\'Dammit!\' She swore quietly, her upbringing not giving her much curses stronger than that. Quickly sliding off her crate, she chased the coin across the floor, pouncing on it about half way between where she had been sitting and the far wall, where they had come in.

When she stood up, Teresa thought she saw a glimpse of something moving in the shop proper. Shaking her head to clear the feeling, she spun the coin into the air. When she snapped it out from its trajectory and slapped it on the back of her hand, it turned out heads. She smiled. Things were so lovely when they went as planned.

[MissusHow]

Ara had been on her way to the market to see how Teresa and Ridley were doing, as well as to check up on the rest of her thieves. Her eyes had been scanning the road and when she found two guards making their rounds she turned a corner abruptly and peeked her head out to watch them go by. But they didn\'t. They went into a shop, which had the door slightly ajar. Her mind screamed an alarm and as soon as the guards were in the shop she rush out and slid on the sand as she tried to stop herself. Two fingers went to her lips and a piercing whistle rang through the empty streets.

She heard a clatter from inside, and that was her cue. It was definitely her thieves. At the top of her voice she screamed in the most girly voice she possibly could, "HELP! Guards! Somebody!" Her hands quickly reached down to the dust and she threw it in the air, feeling some of it fall into her eyes. They began to water immediately and her lip quivered convincingly, "Help! They\'ve got my purse!" she wailed, hoping the guards would take the bate, as she choked through a whimper.

Her howls becoming increasingly louder and more agitated, "Somebody! He\'s taken my purse! He\'s taken my money! It was all I had! Guards! Somebody! Heeelp! May Talon smite your soul, thief! May Adora shun you and turn her beautiful face away from such scum as you! You don\'t deserve to be scrapped off the bottom of a chamber pot! You disgusting pig! My money! My money! Somebody help! He\'s getting awayyy!" Ara had to resist a smile, she\'d tell /this/ one to her thieves...it was surely the best insult she\'d ever made up for herself. Her mouth was downturned and she was the picture of desparing disarray.