Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Thief and the Fox (1x1 Closed RP)

"Yes... you do that," Ophelia said, watching the girl get comfortable on the crate. "Sweet dreams, Kitsu." As she said this, the thief laid down but continued to watch the girl. She was holding on to the gem tight, another precaution that she didn't like about people. Finally giving up on trying to make off with the jewel at least for tonight, she closed her eyes sighing contently while her fingers ran through the frame of the tiara through its cloth wrappings.

After a while of just sitting on the crate, Kitsu turned to look into the tavern again, watching the bard that Ophelia had mentioned. He seemed to be the center of life in the tavern, getting people to sing along with him, and entertaining them through out the night. She wished she knew how to play an instrument, so she studied him for the longest time. But after a while, she felt she might be able to sleep, so she curled up on the crate, placing her furs beneath her, and closed her eyes, slipping into a light sleep.

She woke up to the rooster crowing in the early hours of the morning and she stretched, slowly mustering the strength to wake. Ophelia had a wonderful dream that was somewhat different from the rest of her other good dreams. No money was involved, just a roof over her head and the unfamiliar sense of security she had forgotten about since she was kicked out of her home in her teen years.

"You awake?" she asked, rubbing her eyes, "We'd want to get moving as soon as possible. Want to be up before everyone else." She sat up and yawned.

Kitsu raised her head the moment Ophelia spoke. She, too, stretched and then looked to the woman. "Yes, I am," she said, hopping off the crate, as if she had not been asleep at all. She stretched out her legs next, and made her way over. "I am ready when you are!" she said, cheerfully. She was very excited, because now, she would be heading out to find Fallon. Her first real lead, and she was hoping it would all be worth it.

Ophelia stood, stretching once more before bending down to pick up the bed roll and the linen cloth containing the tiara. "Good, good. First order of business is to get some breakfast. Come along, now, don't want to miss our chance," she said, rolling up her belongings and tying them up. She motioned Kitsu to follow her back to her horse where she put away the roll but kept the cloth close to her. She then looked over the surrounding area since the sun was just coming up. It was a typical small village. The tavern was the main building in the center of the village and it was surrounded by small wooden houses. There was a bakery emitting the smell of freshly baked bread, a barn house, a chicken coop, everything she needed to make a decent meal. "What ya feel like eating right now? Chicken? Eggs? Bread?"

Kitsu's eyes lit up when Ophelia mentioned all of the food choices. "Oh, yes. That all does sound really good. But, I don't have any money to purchase anything." Her face fell at the last of her own words. She did enjoy a good meal when she could get it, but just the thought of was Ophelia mentioned just teased her mind.

"Not a problem, Kitsu," Ophelia said, crossing the dirt road as they made their way to the bakery, "You see, we poor folk have to adapt to what the world gives us. It's a necessity of life. If we don't adapt, we die, and I most certainly don't want to die." She stopped at the bakery's shop window just as the baker fresh rolls of bread to cool.

"Sir?" she said to the baker who stopped and smiled at her, "I'm interested in buying some bread. What kind is this?"

"Rye, ma'am. That's 5 copper a piece."

"Oh," Ophelia said with a frown, "I hate rye. Anything else?"

"Wheat bread. I can whip up a few rolls if you want."

"That'd be good! Thank you!" Ophelia said excitedly. The baker nodded and turned to gather the ingredients. As soon as he did so, Ophelia grabbed two loaves of rye and tossed one over to Kitsu before juggling the other one in her hand. "Careful it's hot. Let's get out of here," she said while walking briskly towards the barn house.

Kitsu watched the conversation between Ophelia and the baker, smiling all the while. That was, until Ophelia took the loaves of bread and tossed her one. She tossed it back and forth between her hands, because of the heat it emitted. For a moment, she looked at the baker while he was still busy, but turned to follow Ophelia. What the woman had just done... was something that she had been told to never do. She had always tried to avoid stealing this whole time.

"Um... are you sure about this?" she asked, keeping up with the female.

"Sure about what?" she asked with a mouth full of bread. "Oh, of course I am. Remember what I said earlier? Life and death, Kitsu. Would you die to save someone... what... five copper?" As she spoke she vaulted over the fence and walked over to the chicken coop. "Think about it like this..." she turned around to face the other girl and snatched her loaf from her and in her lowest, manliest voice she spoke, "Oh, I'm a baker. I have so much food to eat I couldn't possibly eat all of this myself! Oh, look at all those poor people out there. No food to eat while I have too much!" She cleared her throat and held out the bread for Kitsu. "And you come along and...?"

Kitsu looked at the loaf of bread she was holding out, then to Ophelia, then back to the bread. She held her hands together, nearly up to her chin, as she thought about what was being said.

"But... the baker worked hard to make that bread. The only way he can make the bread, is by being paid for it. If he didn't he wouldn't be able to afford the upkeep of his shop, or the ingredients to make the food, right? So if we just take it... that's one less loaf of bread he can make."

Ophelia was a bit disappointed by the sudden surge of logic the girl had. But she couldn't blame her. She didn't seem like the kind you could blame for having a different view. "Well you got me, there," she said, tossing the loaf of bread back at the girl, "you can return it or have it for yourself. Either way I don't think he'd be too pleased with you having the loaf, now would he?"

She took another bite of bread and stood in front of the closed chicken coop. She scanned the area for a moment before opening the door, startling the chickens inside. "When you're done deciding I need help gathering some eggs. Afterwards we can head on our merry way."

Well, Ophelia was right. There wasn't really anything she could do about it now. If she went back, she would definitely get in trouble for taking the bread in the first place. She just felt bad for it. She remembered the conversations the old man would have with Fallon, and he often talked of integrity. She tried to remember to have that, but sometimes it was hard.

"Alright, I suppose I can help," she said, remembering what Ophelia said about surviving, and what it often meant. She went to the girl, and looked in the coop, watching the chickens starting to scatter about, wondering just what was happening.

"Eggs," Ophelia said, digging through the nests and pulling them out by the handful, "Come, now. Hurry. The chickens are causing a ruckus. The owner would think a fox was in their coop at this point. But see, the nice thing is, I'm not here to kill the chickens. Kill the chicken, and it stops producing eggs. Again, I'm merely taking the excess." She took six in all and left the rest for Kitsu to work with. "I'll be waiting outside. Gonna make sure the coast is clear."

Kitsu's eyes widened at the fox in the chicken coop comment Ophelia gave. She was a little afraid to take any eggs after that, but she did hurry, just grabbing three, since she still had to handle the loaf of bread as well. She quickly escaped the coop, the chickens now sqwaking like crazy. She definitely didn't want to cause a scene now and she quickly looked around for Ophelia. Once she caught sight of the female, she quickly made her way toward her, her tails bouncing behind her as she did.

"I guess you are right about taking the excess eggs. There were so many."

"See? And with that, we're set for the whole day. C'mon. Let's head back to my horse so we can-" As soon as Ophelia turned to move she bumped into the baker with another man bearing a shovel. Both men didn't look too pleased with what they saw and Ophelia took a step back, laughing nervously as she tried to hide the eggs. The baker looked a lot beefier when he wasn't hunched over behind the small window.

"Where do you think you're going, thief?" the baker said, cracking his knuckles.

"Running off with my eggs, are ye?" the other man said.

Ophelia took another step back, glancing over at Kitsu then back at the two. "Run to my horse," she whispered, "Bring it over to the bakery. I'll meet you there. It's a the black one in front of the tavern." She bit down on what was left of her bread before throwing an egg, landing it on the baker's forehead. She took the opportunity to turn and run at this point.

Kitsu looked to the two men in fear. She was caught, and she was going to be in trouble. But, Ophelia apparently thought otherwise. She barely heard the girl's words, but nodded lightly, before turning tail and running back toward town. The men might have followed, if not for the egg being thrown. The man who owned the chickens, was not pleased with his eggs being handled and thrown in such a way... and well, the baker was upset for the same reason. So they were more focused on Ophelia.

Kitsu did her best to run as fast as she could, trying not to trip over her own feet, while balancing the things in her arms. She came up to the black horse that was mentioned and reached up for its reigns. It took a few steps back, wary of her presence.

"Come on now... I'm not gonna hurt you. Let's just go this way, okay?" She grabbed the reigns, and with some difficulty, began to pull the horse toward the bakery like she had been instructed.

Ophelia hopped over the fence, turned and threw another egg and ran into the barn. Both men ducked it and continued to pursue her as she disappeared inside. She was climbing the ladder up to the second level and the farmer rushed forward, grabbing her by the ankle and causing Ophelia to drop the rest of the eggs below her. She held on and kicked the farmer's head with her free foot and continued climbing. She stood up there for a moment, smiling down at the men as she took another bite of bread. When the baker started climbing the wooden ladder, Ophelia made a break for the window, jumping out and tumbling on the grass for a soft landing. With the men busy with the ladder, she had a good lead and went straight for the bakery where she saw Kitsu pulling on the horse who seemed very reluctant to follow her. Still, she was there and Ophelia whistled loudly, catching horses attention who hurried off towards her. "Good job," Ophelia said, catching her breath as she climbed on top of the horse, "I'm surprised she listened to you. I'm still training this horse to come to my call but he only does it if he sees food in my hand." She tossed the remainder of her bread on the ground in front of the horse who sniffed at it before rejecting it. "See? He hates rye, too-"

"Stop her! Thief!" she heard the men call, catching the attention of a few other townspeople.

"You still got the eggs right?" Ophelia asked, offering a hand to Kitsu as the horse started to trot its way out of town, "Save 'em. Or else we'll be doing the same thing later today. Now c'mon before I leave you behind."

Kitsu looked to the men as they shouted, coming for them. She held the eggs gently, on top of the bread, and kept up a pace to take Ophelia's hand. Though she felt this was all a bad idea, she wasn't about to stick around and fix it. That would only end badly. With a sort of odd jump, she used the force Ophelia used to pull her up, to climb up behind the female as they began to ride away.

With Kitsu safely behind her, she kicked and the horse rode away, leaving a very angry town at her wake. After a good distance of running, she slowed the horse down to a trot. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Ophelia asked. The dirt trail ahead of them crossed a wide open plain with a giant, icy mountian, barely visible in the horizon. To their left was a small river that ran along the edge of the road. "If I remember correctly, following this river will lead us to that mountain up there and that's about our half way point and I have a few things I need to do over there. How are you doing anyways? Shaken? It's exciting isn't it?"

Not even a second after the horse had started to speed out of the village, Kitsu had clung to Ophelia for dear life, afraid that she was going to slid right off the back of the horse. She nearly held on so hard the she nearly smashed the eggs, but caught herself before she did so.

She held her eyes closed, until the moment the horse slowed to a trot. Ophelia gave their next general destination, and then asked if she was fine. No. She was not fine. Even though it was fast-paced and exciting... it was not the good kind of exciting. How was she supposed to fit in, when she was being tagged as a thief and mischief maker?

"Let's just continue on," she said, figuring the sooner she made it to Fallon, the better.