Bandit's Nest

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She kept her head held high, but the smell was making her dizzy. Perhaps it would have been best to stay in the cave. She really didn't know what she was doing here anyway. She only escaped with The Jester because she didn't known where else to go. She spent her whole life in that castle. She'd only been outside of the kingdom twice.

She held on to his arm as they got closer, the giant gates looming before them. She tried to imagine a time when this city was prosperous and beautiful, but the image was hard to conjure up.

"I say let's just get whatever is necessary to keep us alive and get out of here" she said noticing more eyes on her. Even with a companion like The Jester, she was still concerned for her safety.

[Toneh]

The City gates had guards at it, or what seemed to be guards. They were standing in the middle of the gate, arms crossed and were armed with swords and bows. The leader held his hand up halting The Jester and Ari. “You gotta pay to get in boy.” He said looking hungrily at Ari.

The Jester looked at Ari who was now quite terrified of coming here. The Jester stopped and pulled Ari in closer to him. “Well, what do ya want? I’m not exactly the picture of nobility.” He said sneering at the man taking a much more aggressive approach to this little confrontation. “Ya got a nice untouched woman behind ya, we will let ya in for some time with her, aye?”

The Jester stood their and pondered this exchange for a moment. He how ever never once turned his back on them.

The Other four guards were now staring at Ari, and the Leader had left his post and was walking up to The Jester to get a better look at the noble woman.

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She swallowed. This wasn't going to end well and there was no WAY she would let those men lay a hand on her. Okay...think, Amaris....clever...sneaky. You're good at this. She had a crazy idea, but there was a possibility it might work. She inhaled deeply and spoke in a sharp, simple accent.

"Me, sah? Untouched?" she cackled. "Yer the funniest bloke I've 'eard in weeks! Did ya 'ear him, cousin? Untouched indeed! Lookit me! You think I was born with the gold to afford this dress! Ha! I once had to service thirteen fellows in six hours! What a night tha' was! Money was good though. Fraid my cousin here has to help me out these days. Seemed to have caught some nasty boils on meself, wanna see?" she asked beginning to lift her skirts.

[Toneh]

“BYE THE GODS!” The Jester exclaimed. “Do you have to always blurt out the truth about your self you wench!” He said giving her a convincing slap on the back of her head. “You are going to have to excuse my cousin, she isn’t exactly fighting with a sharpened blade if you catch my drift.” He said sharply to the guard who at this point looked utterly horrified.

“Aye go on ahead, get this whore some aid, looks like she needs it…” He muttered as he snapped his fingers, his subordinates giving the jester and Ari a birth. The Jester nodded to him “Thanks for understanding.” He said holding out his arm for Ari to grab.

The entered the city and once they had gotten far enough away form the guards. “Where did that come from? That was amazing, I though I was going to have to gut them.”

[diabolicalxdamsel]

When they were inside the gate she let her knees buckle and she grabbed onto him. "I nearly thought I'd be done for back there." Now that she wasn't in any immediate danger, the realization of what she had just done struck her and she began to burst into to fit of laughter.

She tried to breathe "I-I don't know really hahahaha! I mean, I've always been a pretty good actor and mimic, but THAT was entirely new to me. Did you see his face?!?" She was overcome with laughter again "P-perhaps he'd go for a discount AHAHAHA!"

She was getting looks again this time rather disturbed glances so she managed to calm herself down. "Hopefully that will get spread around and you wont have to worry about protecting me." She beamed up at him feeling a lot more at ease. "So, cousin. Where do we go from here?"

[Toneh]

“Well, hey it worked, and saved us a lot of time and trouble, I suppose we should try to make some money.” He said looking around and noticing that their were vendors, and a few people scurrying about. “Hmm…no… AH!” In a flash the Jester drew his long sword, and it was at the throat of a terrified young boy. “Gemme all your money!”

The kid shrieked “Mister I dun gots much!” He howled as the people all looked on and did nothing. “Yea well I have less, hand it over.” The Jester retorted.

The Boy was covered head to toe in filth, his pants were ragged and riddle with holes, and he had no shirt on his chest. “O-o-ok..” He said as he handed over a few copper pieces. The Jester then growled. “Now go!”

He then turned to Ari, and rested his sword proudly on his shouldier. “That was so bad ass I wish I could have seen me do that. He let out a smug smile, and motioned for Ari to pick up the money the little kid put on the ground. “Their, we got some money.”

[diabolicalxdamsel]

Her face was that of shock and horror. "You just took money from a CHILD, you bastard! How could you do such a thing?!? You think taking a child's money makes you badass? Hey, kid!" She called and motioned for him to come back, which he did very timidly. She knelt down, scooping the coins into her hand and placed them back into his. "I'm sorry, dear, but it seems like my friend here forgot to see that you are a little boy. You are an orphan I'm sure.

He nodded. "Yes, marm. My mother was killed when this place went mad. My father too." Ari almost wanted to cry, but instead she took some more dried venison she had tucked away and put it in his hand. "Do what you must to survive, but always be kind to those less fortunate, you hear me? Kindness is our last hope in making sure our future turns out better than our present." She kissed him on his forehead and he was gone.

She turned back towards Jester, eyes blazing. "Now surely next time you could try that on someone your own size." she began walking ahead of him, seeing a handsome young man in clothing almost as nice as hers. As she neared she pretended to trip, landing into his arms.

"Goodness, miss! Are you alright?"

She smiled sweetly batting her eyes. "Perfectly fine since you were there to catch me..." In the blinking of an eye she snatched his satchel from his belt, and straightened herself. "I thank you kind, sir." she said curtsying deeply.

"It was a pleasure to catch a woman as lovely as yourself."

She feigned a blush bringing her hand to her cheek. "Farewell, my betrothed is waiting."

The gentleman frowned, but bowed and she caught back up with Jester. Once they were out of sight, she tossed him the satchel. "Think there may even be a gold coin in there or two. Now let's get vittles."

[Toneh]

The Jester argued back. “What? You said you wanted to pick pockets and get some food, their it is.” He said as he looked at her defensively, he then gave in and rolled his eyes as she turned and coddled the boy. “You are only making him soft.” He said tapping his sword on his shoulder in an irritated fashion. He then lessened his irritation as the sexy little predator found her another mark and went to work.

He cleared away so that the man would not notice he was being set up. Ari came back with the poor fellows personal purse in her hand. “Ok, ok you win, but remember that kindness crap wont always work. You are lucky that little kid and his friends.” He said pointing to the crowd of children he ran over to in an ally way. “Did not leap on and cut your throat.”

He reached out to inspect the contents of the satchel. “Some changes need to be made…but I do not think we are the ones to be making them, we tried it once, and look what happened.” He said calmly.

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She nodded. "That they do. Perhaps we'll find some people here looking to change things. Is there anyone here in charge of this city?"

She rolled her eyes. They are only children and they are doing whatever they can to survive. I mean, look at those poor things. No direction but there own and perhaps some older child. I was really lucky to be taken in by the castle and reared to be a proper, civilized human being. Goodness knows what I could have become had I been tossed out into the streets. Perhaps still a little luckier than these little ones.

She became quiet thinking about how there could possibly be hope for them if change came. "I think if things got better here, I'd like to run an orphanage."

[Toneh]

“Well things are only seeming to get worst, and as far as an orphanage their would have to be some major changes, and I highly doubt the local Pasha who run the guilds around here are going to be to happy about giving up the organized chaos that keeps them in power.”

He said calmly. “Really and truthfully we need to find somebody to work for.” He said as he counted the sparse few gold pieces that were in the satchel. “We can go grab some food and buy you a bath and a new garment, judging you are a lady and you should dress the part.” He said eying her up once more.

He did have intentions to keep her appearance up, as her comely beauty would probably gain the attention of men in power and allow them the ability to speak to them. This would help the jester to position him self to acquire much coveted wealth.

“If you want, we can linger about and pick more pockets though, you do seem to have the knack for it.” He said chuckling slightly as he tossed the satchel back to Ari.

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She arched a brow "So The Jester wants to make a good, honest living after trying to rob a little boy. That was a rather fast change of heart."

She smiled "Just because I'm good at it, doesn't mean I like to do it. Now, don't be greedy. After we get the new dress, I could just as easily sell this one off after I clean it and do a few small repairs. We should only get what we need. Some meat to cook, a few small spices, and some hearty vegetables should hold us over. Now, where do you suppose we find employment?"

[Toneh]

“Change of heart? Honest living?!” The Jester let out a loud cackling laugh at Ari’s statement. “Hell no, honest living around hear is working for a spice peddler or colleting tabs on the locals for coin, essentially before I met you I was a hired thug.”

“Speaking which how did you ever hear about me? All I did in Corania was……excavation…” He said pulling back as if he did not want to fess up to some of the more seedier element of what he was willing to do to attain money.

“Changing the subject he shifted back to finding work. “Look if we find and employer willing to hire me, I can probably get you on too for a little extra, it beats picking pockets or whoring.”

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She gave him a curious look, but didn't press any questions. Sounded like treasure hunting to her.

Oh, I've had sources. I heard that you were one of the best fighters around and when I heard you were in town, I couldn't possibly miss out on the opportunity. I had eyes and ears all around that kingdom. I finally got to catch a glimpse of you while you were exiting a tavern, you were better looking than I had imagined. Because of the way you dressed my messengers found you quite easily and the rest is history.

"I suppose I could make a fairly decent spy" she said thoughtfully. "I've played the role most of my life anyway..."

[Toneh]

“Well that was in Corania, this is what is left of Xexoria, here everybody is a spy, here it isn’t just who you know, it is if you can do it that counts.”

“I am a Xexorian, we were a desert nation, and deserts shift and change and so did this nation.” He said walking and talking. “We were a great nation once, long ago, now we are nothing but thieves and whores hiring our selves out….and I love it.” He said turning to Ari, So the question that we really need to be asking our selves in this nation that is ever changing, is simply Who Do We Want To Be Today?”

He then paused and mused to him self thoughtfully. “So you were watching me in the tavern eh?” He said as a devious smile formed over his scruffy face. “I thought I felt somebody staring at my ass when I was leaving that night. It was you, I felt that stair.”

[diabolicalxdamsel]

She looked around her, at the great, crumbling structures and masses of people passing through. "This place has so much potential to be great once again, I don't see why you enjoy living in chaos. This place could be a prosperous nation, a capitol for trade even." She sighed a little wistfully, already missing the kind of place a woman could walk though without being eyed at like prey.

She was taken aback by his comment. "Why I most certainly did not!" she protested turning her head away to hide the blush. "I had to make sure it was you and someone pointed you out as you left, that's all.