It had been tough times for the ex legal mage turned guildless, between traveling, training and her gambling addiction, she was starting to run low on funds. And now from fighting vampires in cursed places to accepting a requst to stop a burglar. Opening her wallet she looked at the low amount of money she had left, she needed this job, even if it was a something as simple as stoping a burgler. With a sigh she closed her wallet and returned it to its previous position in her skirt, well hidden by the light-feather like plating she had around her waist. However money was money and finding request that paid well for a guildless mage wasn't as easy as just going to a request board like she used to do. 'I shouldn't have gambled that much' she sadly thought to her self as she continued moving through the streets of Hosenka, her destination now in plain sight and probably one of the bigger buildings in the town that is not a spa, the Mayor's office.
Entering the building she was met with a young women standing behind a reception desk. Moving infront of the desk Sara spoke up. "I'm here to meet with the mayor and the request about a burgler problem." Instead of getting a reply she only got a glance before picking up a lacrima. After a short amount of time the receptionist spoke up "Down the corridor the first door to the left." With a small nod Sara followed the directions. Reaching the front of the door, she gave a knock before entering. Inside she was met with another woman, this one older then the last. Said person didn't even register her presence and continued writing on something. Was it important? Honestly she didn't care, and with a small cough into her hand she gained her attention. Setting her pen down she gestured towards the open seat infront of her. Seating herself, something like a report was slid across the table infront of her, picking it up she noticed it was a report. "Its a pleasure to finally meet you, i am the mayor of the town and i would like to thank you for coming. What i've given you is a report of the information we know of the burgler so far"
Taking her lone eye away from the report she gave a small nod to the woman now known as the mayor of the town. "Cat-like person? Your having problems with animals" she asked with a small jab towards the towns represantative. Sara would be utterly dissapointed if that cat person couldn't use magic. And from the report he would mostly steal from people that came to visit the resorts in the town and brake into peoples houses and small shops stealing, jewelry, money or other valuables he may find. And no one was ever hurt in the process either they found out that they were robbed later on in the day or weren't fast enough to catch the burglar. Shops were mostly robbed at night and they were with little to no security. All in all this didn't seem a job for a mage or at least it wasn't supposed to be ranked this high, they just probably wanted to get it over with faster and we're willing to pay more for it, then wait and have the people's vacations be disturbed. " You can stop looking at me so annoyed, i'm going to turn him in don't worry" Sara said as she got up and went for the door. " The jobs going to be finished by nightfall probably" With those parting words Sara closed the door behind her, leaving the annoyed mayor to continue her work.
Returning to the streets she started her search, she would just have to stick to the report that she read, listening to the mayor that got annoyed from her small jab was going to be painfull so she just tuned out the rest of the conversation untill she was done with reading the rest of the information about her target. Small cat-like person, quiet enough not to alarm shopkeepers untill it was too late and faster then the guards. She thought of where to start, the town wasn't small so looking through the whole town in hope of finding him was scrapped, it would take way to much time. Wandering through the streets, scraping plan after plan, she heard one of her favorite sounds from a nearby building, people gambling and with it a plan sparked in her head. Why just not lure him towards her?
Entering the building she was met with a lot of people drinking and playing in their money away in verious diffrent games. Currently there was an ongoing open seated poker tournament, where you pay a small fee and they give you chips for you to play away in the match, with the winner receiving a fair amout of jewels. Seating herself on the table, she had to stifle herself from punching the people on the table. Comments like can you even play poker, or i'll hate to beat a pretty lady like yourself pissed her off. Instead she just told the dealer she would play. The first few hands we're relevently simple mostly folds with the occasional bluffs that got past them like butter, it was rare for some of them to play till the end with her still on the table. They couldn't read her stoic expression, while to her they we're like an open book, they were no where near as good as the people that she usually plays with. They smile when they have good hand and instantly reach for their chips to incrase the pot hoping to get a bet from someone, when they bluff their eyes would trail from the chips infront of them to the revealed cards on the table and back to their chips. They would either overbet a hand occasionally scaring the people out of the hand and them making proggress only from the small bets that are at the start of every round. Now four out of the 5 people that started at the table are left, Sara's chip stack slightly larger the the rest of the tables. The next round was starting and everyone on the table received their cards, slightly lifting her cards Sara internally smiled at the suited Ace, Duece of spades she had. As the first three cards we're revealed on the table she had already hit her mark, the three,four and five of spades had made it into the flop. The three cards she needed to win had come on the first round. Giving a small check to bluff that her hand is empty she waited on the others, being first had its benefits when you had the strongest possible hand for this round that is. And it seemed as luck would smile on her today, the first one that acted after her went all in, shoving all the chips forwards, and for some odd reason everyone else did the same, when it was her turn she called it, inturn putting all her chips on line. " You shouldn't have done that little girl" The man who had acted after her said as he revealed his own pair of ace duece albeit a different color to Sara's own, the other competetors cursing their luck. Sara looked at his cards as she started laughing, finally revealing her own set the man's grin slowly fed away, his jawl now hanging open.
"You might want to close your mouth or a fly might find its way there, and we can't have a 'proffesional' swallow a fly can we" She mocked him as she collected her money from the dealer, someone might say she was quite unproffesional and laughing at his hand would be wrong, the chances of her having the same streight were low, but a straight flush was even more rare, he had done the right thing, Sara just didn't like him and his comments throught the whole game, she wasn't going to meet them again probably so a litlle fun wouldn't hurt would it? She waved the small bag of jewels infront of them before attaching it to her waist behind her back and left the other gamblers on their own. One would ask why she would keep the bag behind her especially with the metal armor around her waist, won't it be stolen without her notice? Well she wanted it stolen, and it was a perfect place for a burglar to try and steal her money. Walking around the town she noticed the many spa building, hot springs and other facility's for people to relax in. The whole town was one huge vacation area, thats why they probably haired a mage to deal with the cat person or animal they we're having problems with.
It had been a fair amount of time since she started wandering the streets with her prize, hoping to attract the thief, as the jewels were in no small amount, if he doesn't come out today, playing with those low ranked poker players would have been a waste of time, in no way did she have fun even though she was beating them, it still wasn't fun. There was no adrenaline from losing, no long decisions on do you bet or you don't and when the people are open as a book, leaking out all the precious info someone would need to deduct if your hand is stronger or weaker then their own. Sara shock her head, clearing her thoughts of the game she played, focus was her priority at the moment, saying she would bring the burgler by nightfall was a mistake maybe, but she wouldn't go back on her word.
Moving towards a more crowded area, she was awed at how many people suddenly we're here, it was nothing like the streets before this one. And she saw why, it was a market area, loads of open stands, will it be for food or accesories you name it, behind the stands we're either jewelry stores or larger restaurants. Families would go around the stores, buy things from stores either for the own or their children. Hours passed on and Sara was getting irritated, no attempts to steal her small bag, not a single try or finger even had touched the pouch. Did the burglar know she was a mage and avoided stealing in the area? She wasn't drassed as a normal person but that didn't tell you how strong someone is just by their look, they could have the strongest looking armor or the scariest sword someone has seen but that didn't make the individual strong. Her own opinion of herself's strength was even that much, maybe mid decent but that was depending on how strong the person was. She wasn't even as proficiant with her magic as she wanted to be. She took a deep breath before reaching back towards her pouch. One touch, two touches and she slowly turned her head to her back only to find out it was gone. Turning her head backwards she spotted him, a small thing was running away with her pouch in its hand. "Oh no your not running with my prize money!" she yelled at him, going into a sprint of her own.
The burgler suprised her though he was running quite fast, she didn't expect the need for her magic, but soon her unique dark lightning started couating her legs, increasing her speed. Slowly she bagan to catch up to the small thief. She could have teleported to him but where's the fun in that. Aiming one finger at his general direction, she fired a small bolt of lightning, said bolt flew close to his head but did not hit him. The cat burglar not wanting to feel one of her lightnings quickly changed direction in hopes of losing her. No one had ever given him such a chase most of the people we're going to give up at this point. Jumping over a wall the burglar soon found him self in a dead end and thinking he lost her, he opened the small pouch to inspect his prize from today supposedly succesful run. Looking inside his mouth watered at the sight of the money he had stolen, indeed it was one of his best steals by far.
"Are you done?" Sara spoke up behind him finally making herself known to the burglar. He was wearing ragged cloathing with a hood with two pointy ends on the top, was that why they mistook him for a cat? "You know you kinda pissed me off, i was searching for you the whole day, i even wasted time to find a bait for you, and you took my money in the moment that i wasn't paying attentintion. Your good ill give you that, but that doesn't help your situation" She said as she put her finger together, electricity gathered between them. In a moments notice the lightning shot off her hand towards him.
Rolling to the side the burgler dropped the pouch of jewels on the ground. " Are you crazy lady, that could have killed me!" He yelled out in a less manly voice then Sara expected. Pulling out a knife he dashed towards her, getting a cut on her arm as she jumped backwards and put her hands infront of her face to avoid a serious injury.
"Oh your tougher then expected, and that could have seriously injured me, so stop playing innocent to distract me" Lowering her arms from her face she gave a quick glance towards her arm, making sure the cut wasn't deep. "That hurt you know, maybe you aren't just a simple weak burgler as i thought at first" she said as she charged towards him this time her arms coated in lightning. Getting in range of her fist, she started throwing out precise punches mostly to incapacitate him, she didn't want to kill him. Even if she wasn't a legal mage anymore, but she didn't want to kill him, maybe he had a tough life and this was all the was left for him to do. Not that she was condoning what he was doing, no not by any means, but she wasn't going to kill him, just turn him in and get payed.
Managing to dodge the punches the burgler jumped back and reached into his pocket's he pulled out three throwing knifes, each thrown one after another towards Sara, but she was able to dodge each one of them with ease. While she was busy dodging the burglar had closed the distance between them again, this time Sara was ready, moving her body a bit she dodged the thrust that was aimed at her chest and delivered a strong punch to the cat person's abdomen sending him flying backwards his hood flying backwards to reveal an exceed.
" They we're really having a problem with a cat, and here i thought i was going to play around with some cosplaying human" She said gigle at the mare thought of fighting a cosplayer was funny in her mind. Clearing her thoughts she focused on the exceed that just got up, he was faster then she expected and probably had some magic in its arsenal. " Your a real crazy lady you know that, now that you know that im a cat, you won't hurt me aye" He said as Sara finally got a closer look at him. Black and white mixing together, it looked really exotic in a way but with the rags he used as cover no one would notice its exotic looks.
"I would have let you go without a problem chibi, but i really need the money so prapare yourself" She said lunging forward her fist crackling with lightning as one of her spells was activated. The exceed seemed faster this time with a slight glow to itself, it was dodging faster and faster. Sara's usual stoic expression was now in a frown, the exceed curtainly had magic and it may not be the last one.
"You seem sad did you expect to win so fast and that i would let my self lose so easily, you don't look that though now, i thought i was a bigger threath and the mage they hired will be stronger, but your some no name girl that's just good at losing" He said as he prepared to attack her again. But before he could launch his next attack, Sara gave out a roar
"Good at loosing ehh. I'll show you, you good for nothing cat" She venomosly spat every word as she coated her entire body. "Lightning Step" Muttering her spell to herself she prepered to lunge at the cat, he had crossed the line, calling her that she was good for losing was a mistake and he was going to regret it now. Dashing forward and closing the distance before he could even react, she roundhouse kicked him into a nearby wall. Making a small creater in the process. Next she coated the tip of her arms with her signiture spell, the Lightning Cutter, the mare sound of it ran chills down the spine of the thief, it was like a hundred birds chirping at the same time. Rollig to the side he narrowly dodged getting impaled from her attack.
Taking the oppertunity to strike her while she was pulling her hand out of the wall his knife only striked stray lightning, before he was pummeled to the ground with another strike from said person he was trying to cut. "This is another ability of mine Tempest Shift, it lets me teleport a small distance, now are you going to surrender" she said as she removed her eye patch to show a red slitted eye that seemed to glow in the the darkness of the alley, as the sun was now mostly out of sight and the light it gave was dim.
"Demon lady" We're the last words as he looked upwards from his captor before he fell into unconsciousness. Sara sighted and dusted herself as she returned her eye patch to its original positon, hiding the red eye from the sight of any onlookers. Picking the exceed by its backpack she looked at the place where she had made a hole in the wall, inside a candle was glowing on closer look, the room was filled with verious different wallets, pouches and jewelry. "So this is where you we're hiding your stuff, and you said i was full of myself while you led me to your den, stupid cat" She said as she moved towards the mayor's office, the thief resting on her back.
It hadn't been long before she reached the mayor's office. Entering the room she was greated by the mayor still writing out paperwork. The job seemed boring who would ever want to be a mayor, was what Sara thought as she placed the thieving exceed on a nearby chair. "I did the job as i said i would and if you can give me a piece of paper i will write out the destination of the stolen goods." With a nod the mayor pulled out a pencill and a piece of paper on which Sara could write. A minute passed and Sara laid the pen on the table. "I would like to get payed now." She said as the mayor took out a pouch from one of the drawers. " I was thinkng of not paying you for the remark you did today, but you did keep your word on the timing and you found the stolen goods, so this is all as stated in the job request, now get out of my sight" The mayor finished going back to her paperwork.
Sara quickly took the pouch as she exited the building with a happy smile for a job well done and not having too look at the anoyed face of the mayor, honestly it was just a small joke in her opinion. It was getting dark so she would have to find a place to rest in before heading out to the next town. Patting the back of her waist, she noticed something, her pouch of the poker tournament was missing. She thought someone stole it again, before it striked her, she left it there beside the exceeds hideout and now they are going to take her money. Sulkingly she started making her way towards a nearby inn. For the second time today she was able to lose her prize wining. " My day is so not lucky, losing my money and getting locked down by a cat, what now its going to rain while i make my way towards the inn?" She mutterred to herself and like on que thunder striked in the sky followed by rain. The only things that was heard from the rain was the agonazing scream of an unlucky mage.
WC 3518/3500
