Crime Doesn't Pay

[seren1]

Emori walked almost soundlessly through the forest, making sure to watch where she placed her feet as she walked. It was vital that she make as little noise as possible, the last thing she wanted was to blow her cover, in her line of work it was important that she keep the element of surprise. She wasn't supposed to be there anyway, it was dangerous to trespass on clan territory, the risk increased if she was caught stealing, but without the security of a clan she had to steal to survive and provide for herself and her brother. Otan would usually be with her to make the task easier and also to act as another set of eyes but today was one of the few days that they'd chosen to scout out different areas.

The nomad had been following a young woman for quite some time, she could see her through the trees and as far as she knew, she had yet to be spotted. Her brothers absence meant that she had to adjust the way she confronted her target, two pairs of hands were always better than one but attempting this on her own was not impossible, she'd done it before. She inched slowly closer, always making sure that she had the trees for cover, waiting for just the right moment so that she could take the woman by surprise. Taking her knife from her belt, she held it firmly in her hand as she waited for the woman to come within striking distance. She didn't look as though she was heavily armed, so Emori thought it safe to assume that she was not a warrior, she didn't make a habit of trying to steal from warriors, they were trained in combat and therefore harder to take by surprise and fight off, most of her time was spent avoiding warriors in fact.

Suddenly, the woman stopped and Emori sank to the ground so that it would be harder for her to be seen if the woman decided to turn in her direction. However, she didn't appear to suspect that she was being followed and so when she started to walk forwards again, Emori soundlessly slipped from her hiding place. If she chose to wait too long then she could miss her window of opportunity, but if she made her move too soon then she'd be discovered and forced to flee. Slowly, she walked up behind the girl, making sure that her feet didn't disturb anything that could make a sound while she was out in the open. When she was close enough to the girl, she lunged forward, wrapping an arm around her targets neck to restrain her while digging the tip of her knife into her back, not applying enough pressure to pierce the skin but enough to let her know that it was there. "Don't move" she hissed, trying to keep the noise down as to not attract attention to them "if you make a sound, I'll cut out your tongue" the key was to keep her scared, Emori didn't think that the girl would put up much of a fight but looks could be deceiving.

Klara

[Klara]

It was quite a beautiful day so Klara had decided to go for a little walk to change ideas. She enjoyed spending time alone in the silent forest sometimes and just hanging around without having a mission to accomplish or a kid to look after. The orphans were adorable and Klara loved taking care of them but it could be exhausting and stressing so the rare moments where Klara could relax a little were always more than welcome. But the danger in these moments was to completely let your guard down, something that Klara didn’t do, otherwise she will maybe not have felt watched.

First, Klara thought that it was just some Trikru scouts or warriors who had to guard the town entrance so she kept walking quietly, but as she couldn’t manage to locate them, two possibilities came to her mind, either they were hide very well or she wasn’t watched by a scout or a warrior. The latter idea seemed more likely to Klara, not because she didn’t manage to see anyone but because she hadn’t heard about scouts and warriors being posted here. So she became more careful, ready to grab her dagger at any weird noise.

Klara stopped immediately as she heard something in a tree but she quickly saw that it was just a bird so she continued her walk back to TonDC. She was beginning to think that tiredness was making her paranoid when, before she had time to react, someone wrapped an arm around her neck and pressed a knife on her back. As the person who attacked her told her not to move and not to make a sound or she would cut her tongue, Klara let a chuckle "This forest is full of scouts and warriors so if I was you I will remove my arm from my neck and the knife from my back before I or someone else do it the hard way…". She was actually bluffing, she wasn't sure about warriors and scouts being around.

seren1

[seren1]

The girls words made Emori nervous, but she didn't remove her hold on her, she knew that people said things when they were desperate. This girl wasn't the first to try lying to her in an attempt to escape, Emori wasn't easily fooled. She had to take risks, that was how she survived, by stealing from those who had more than she did, this girl was Trikru, she had her whole clan to offer her support and replace whatever was stolen from her. Emori didn't have that luxury and she couldn't afford to be scared off by a few empty threats. "If you hand over what you own then I'll let you go, unharmed" she wasn't a murderer, she killed only when she needed to kill to preserve her own life and that of her brothers, she could already tell that this girl would not be a threat to her if she allowed her to go free once she'd got what she'd came for.

Her mention of the scouts and warriors did put the nomad on edge however, bluff or not. She couldn't be caught stealing, thieves were not treated kindly, the punishment for stealing was extreme but once her hand was discovered, she'd probably be executed on the spot. "What have you got?" she knew that the girl would have something on her, at least some form of weapon, she didn't expect to get much, but she'd gladly take whatever she could and seek out better targets when she was with her brother and the risks were less. 

Klara

[Klara]

Klara noticed that she had made the girl feel quite nervous but apparently not enough for her to remove or at least loosen her grip on her neck. That attitude proved Klara that it wasn’t the first time that this girl was stealing someone. Klara knew how to recognize a thief when she saw one as she was a former one herself and this girl was definitely a good one. But she wasn’t scared by the girl, she wasn’t even nervous because she knew thieves weren’t killers so as the girl said that she will let her go if she gave her what she had, she answered "Come on, what are you going to do if I don't cooperate? Kill me? You’re obviously not a killer…". Klara’s plan was to provoke her so there would be more chance that the girl made a mistake but when she will make this mistake, Klara wasn’t going to denounce her or worse, she knew far too well what it was to have to steal to survive so she couldn’t blame the girl.

Klara was going to elbow the girl in the ribs so the latter one removed her arm from her neck when something moving in a tree caught her attention. She observed the tree carefully, focusing on it and barely listening to what the girl was saying. It only took her few seconds to see the archer in the tree, ready to shoot. Klara didn’t have much time to think about what to do but she was sure of one thing, she won’t let the girl get caught, she had been caught once and she had been lucky that the Commander knew her and decided to make a scout of her instead of punish her but this girl won’t have this chance. That’s why she managed to make the girl turn around so she got hit by the arrow instead of the thief. "Run!" she told the girl as she was getting up after being fallen because of the attack.

seren1

[seren1]

A glare appeared on Emori's face when she heard the girl say that she wouldn't kill her "You know nothing about me" she hissed, applying more pressure to the knife at her back. This girl didn't know her, she didn't know what she was capable of and Emori knew that she would kill if it was necessary to do so, she'd done so before when her life or that of her brothers had been in danger. "It's dangerous to make assumptions about somebody who's got a knife to your back" she warned "but nobody has to get hurt if you just give me what I want" she didn't want to kill this girl, she seemed to be just an innocent villager. She would not have made the mistake of targeting a warrior and if stealing wasn't necessary for her survival, she might've felt guilty about taking from somebody who couldn't defend themselves against her attack, but as her survival depended upon taking whatever she could from whomever appeared to be an easy target, it was hard to feel guilty.

The girl suddenly moved too quickly for Emori to react, spinning her around and the next thing she knew, the girl was on the floor. Emori spotted the arrow and was too stunned to speak, the girl had just saved her life and she had no idea why. She'd just been trying to rob her, allowing the archer to kill her would've taken care of the problem and allowed her to go unharmed back to her village. When the girl told her to run, Emori didn't hesitate, she could not afford to be caught. It didn't matter what clan these warriors were from, although it was likely they were Trikru as she was currently in Trikru territory. If they found her and discovered that she had a deformity, they would likely kill her and dying was not on the list of things that she wanted to do that day. She took off running, weaving between the trees and not bothering to check if she was being followed, she just needed to lose her attackers and she'd be fine.

Klara

[Klara]

The girl was right, Klara knew nothing about her but she knew how it was to be a thief and usually thieves weren't killers, they only killed if they didn't have another option. "Maybe... But I may know what it is to be at your place... Plus if you really wanted to kill me, I guess you would have already done it so..." Klara stopped as she felt the pressure of the knife against her back. "Life would be boring if there weren't dangers in it." the scout said as the thief told her it was dangerous to make assumptions about someone who was threatening you with a knife, then she added "I don't want anyone to get hurt either so why don't you just let me go and everybody will be okay?". She wasn't expected the thief to give up and run away but she was trying to distract her. Klara might seem to be an easy target but she wasn't, she knew how to defend herself.

Once she managed to get up after the attack, Klara decided to run after the girl, she needed to help her not to be caught by the Trikru warriors or the thief would be locked away if she wasn't executed, she wouldn't have the chance Klara had. Running as fast as the pain of her injured shoulder allowed her to, she tried to lose the warriors and to follow the girl she had just saved at the same time. When she finally found the thief, she was quite sure that the warriors were far behind them. "There's a safe place not far from here. Follow me, I'll lead you there." Klara said beckoning to the girl to insist on the fact she should follow her. Then, she began to walk in the direction of the cave, she will go there with or without the thief. She needed a safe place where she will be able to take a look at her injury to make sure it won't get infected. So the girl could follow or not, Klara hoped she will but she won't waste time and strength arguing if she didn't want to.

seren1

[seren1]

Emori didn't take the girls words seriously, she didn't believe for one second that she knew what it felt like to be in her position. She could be wrong about her but she doubted it, those that grew up in a clan had a far more comfortable life than those who were forced to isolate themselves. If she hadn't been forced to flee, it was unlikely that she would have released the girl without getting something out of her first, she needed something to show for her hard work and the risk that she had taken simply by attempting to steal from somebody on Trikru land. However, she couldn't ignore the fact that the girl had saved her life and defended her from her own people, after she'd held a knife to her back and tried to rob her. She didn't think that she'd ever understand why the strange Trikru girl had helped her, but she was grateful that she had, because there was no doubt in her mind that she would be executed if the warriors ever found out about what she hid beneath her glove.

She didn't stop running until she was sure that she'd left the warriors far behind them, not wanting to risk them catching up to her. Even as she slowed to a walk, she knew that she couldn't stop completely because if she dared to rest then she risked being discovered again by the warriors and she wasn't foolish enough to believe that she'd be able to outrun them a second time. Emori flinched when she heard a voice nearby and her hand went instinctively to her knife again, until she realised who it was that was actually speaking to her. "You followed me?" she demanded, knowing that she had every reason to be distrustful of her, even if she had just saved her life. "What safe place?" she proceeded to question her, not waiting for an answer before she began to follow. She didn't trust her, not completely but she knew that if she'd wanted her dead then she would've just let the archer kill her when she had the chance and so Emori saw no harm in allowing the girl to lead her to safety.

Klara

[Klara]

As the thief answered to her words by a not so warm "You followed me?", Klara explained "Actually I did but I made sure that they didn't... which is quite easy for a scout..." she had lowered her voice for the last part but she said it loud enough for the girl to hear hoping that telling her some details would make her a little less suspicious. Klara was almost sure that the girl didn't take her seriously when she said she knew how it felt to be a thief and it was understandable, it seemed like she was just trying to win some time or to stop the girl from stealing her. The scout found logical that the girl thought she was doing that, after all she didn't expect the thief to trust her not even to believe her. But she knew that if someone had helped her as she just did for this girl, she would have been very grateful and she would have wanted to know why they helped. That was why she thought that the girl was going to follow her when she spoke about a safe place.

When she began to walk and saw that the thief had apparently decided to follow, Klara let a little smile appear on her face. "Like I said, I'm a scout. I know loads of places where you can hide from Trikru warriors for a while..." she said knowing that it didn't really answer to the thief's question so adding "I think following me is one of your best chances to leave Trikru territory unharmed.". Because yes, it was what Klara wanted for the thief, at least it was what she wanted if the girl had a good reason for stealing which Klara was pretty sure she did, a lot of thieves did what they did because they didn't have another choice. But before she could ask the girl why she did this, Klara needed to earn her trust so she decided to introduce herself instead of walking quietly until they got to the cave "By the way, I'm Klara, a Trikru scout as you have understand." maybe by telling her that she will at least get this girl's name.

seren1

[seren1]

Emori had to appreciate that the girl had saved her life and helped her to escape from a rather difficult situation, even after she’d tried to rob her. She was surprised to hear that the girl that had saved her was a scout, although she didn’t know what she’d expected… The girl obviously wasn’t a defenceless villager, that much was obvious by the way that she was able to disarm her and remove her from the path of the arrow that would have put an end to her life. “Why are you helping me?” she asked the scout as she cautiously followed her, she didn’t owe her anything, if anything she would’ve expected the girl to allow the trikru warriors to kill her. “I thought you’d want me dead, so why didn’t you let your people kill me?” she questioned her, no ordinary person took an arrow for somebody who only moments before had been holding a knife to their back.

She didn’t ignore the fact that it would be nearly impossible to escape the clan's territory without being spotted again, chances were that the warriors would continue to look for her until they’d found her, she was a risk to their people and the longer she spent on trikru land, the more she was at risk of being discovered. If she thought that there was another way for her to escape unscathed then she wouldn’t be entrusting her life to a scout who she barely knew. However, she knew deep down that it was unlikely that the girl had taken an arrow for her and endangered her own life, just so that she could lead her into a trap. “Emori” the nomad gave her name after Klara had introduced herself properly “you should really get somebody to look at that wound” she told the scout, her eyes wandering down to the arrow that was protruding from her side. She didn’t know how deep the wound was, but she knew that it would be best for somebody to take a look at it, preferably one of the clan’s fancy healers.

Klara

[Klara]

Walking quietly in the forest followed by the girl she just saved, Klara was thinking of how she was going to cure her wound. She wanted to wait to be at the cave before talking about what happened but as the girl really seemed to want to know why the scout did what she just did, she decided to give her the begining of an answer "Let's just say that I have my reasons... I haven't been a scout for all my life... I know what a thief life is..." she didn't say more. She will tell the girl more but first she needed to get to the cave so she could look at her injured shoulder.

Klara understood the girl believed her and began to trust her when the thief gave her her name: Emori. "Well, nice to meet you Emori... Even if I wish we had met in other circumstances." she simply said smiling at the girl. And as Emori told her she should get somebody to look at her injury, Klara said "I will take care of that when we will be at the cave... Do you have any healer skills? she asked it just in case Emori could help her because it will be very weird if she went to a Trikru healer with a Trikru archer's arrow in her shoulder. What would she say about how she got that? The only thing she could hope for was that the wound won't get infected.

seren1

[seren1]

The scouts words surprised Emori, it was hard to believe that the girl had once been a thief. She'd thought that if a person belonged to a clan then their life was considerably more comfortable than those that could not rely on a village for security. She figured that she could be wrong about that, she'd never stepped foot inside a village, she couldn't judge who had things easier "you were a thief?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her as she followed Klara, wondering what the story behind that was but knowing better than to ask such a personal question. "Are we almost there?" she asked impatiently, diverting the conversation away from the other girls past so that it didn't sound as if she was prying, they hadn't been walking for long but the scout had said that the 'safe place' wasn't too far away and Emori didn't like to feel so exposed when she knew that trikru warriors could easily spot them before they reached a place of safety.

She laughed as Klara spoke to her "I would still rob you" it was a joke.. Kind of, she did what she needed to do to survive and if the girl was telling the truth and she had once been a thief, she understood that. Maybe she'd go back to robbing merchants, people with stuff worth stealing because this girl and others like her obviously weren't worth the risk. When Klara told her that she would see to her wound once they reached the cave that was apparently safe for them to hide out in and asked her if she had any knowledge of healing, Emori shrugged. "I don't know much, I've tended to my own wounds and those of my brother but never had to deal with anything this bad" and she was thankful for that, the life of those like her and Otan was a risky one and that was why they tried to avoid attracting attention, they'd managed to survive without sustaining major injury so far but she knew that, that could change in the future if they weren't careful. "I could take a look at it if you'd like, but it would be better if you were seen by somebody who actually knew what they were doing" she knew that there were healers, they knew a lot more about wounds like this than she did, she was sure of that and she knew that Klara would be safer if she went to see a healer as soon as it was possible for her to do so.

Klara

[Klara]

Klara wasn't totally ready to tell her whole story to Emori. She had just met the girl and she had tried to rob her so anybody who would have been at her place would probably not want to talk about their past with a stranger. They wouldn't even have saved the thief who was trying to steal from them. But Klara risked her life to do so. So that plus the fact that she had already gave a part of an answer to the other girl made her feel like she didn't have to keep answering to the quesions about her past for now, the girl already knew enough. That was why Klara didn't say anything when Emori asked with a surprised tone if the scout was a thief before. She just didn't want to share right now. Seeing how impatient the girl was made Klara smile but she also understood her, feeling vulnerable in an enemy territory with warriors pursuing yourself was quite a good reason to be impatient. "Yes, it's just down there..." the scout said pointing the cave entrance direction. All they had to do to get there was to go down the slope they were on the top of and then they will be safe.

Klara laughed softly at the thief's words "Maybe. But maybe there wouldn't have been Trikru warriors around so I wouldn't have taken an arrow in my shoulder..." she said not that she wanted Emori to feel guilty, it totally was Klara's fault if she got injured. The truth was that Klara understood the girl too well, she was the same before and she would probably still be like that if nothing had changed in her life, if she hadn't been trained as a scout. Emori's words made Klara learn two things, first a thing about the girl, she had a brother which made her wonder why she wasn't with him and the second thing about her injury and how bad it was. Learning these two things, the scout was happy to learn more about the thief but she was also worry about her own health. "Does it look that bad that you're almost sure we can't deal with it by ourselves?" Klara asked smiling trying to hide her concern. But as Emori told her she should go see a healer, the Trikru girl told her "I can't go see a healer because if I do so, I'll be asked questions about what happened earlier... And I'm not sure I can easily explain why I have a Trikru archer's arrow in my shoulder... So I guess that means I'm going to have to trust you and hope that we have enough knowledge of healing to take care of that...".

seren1

[seren1]

When Emori didn’t get an answer to her question, she wasn’t exactly surprised, they barely knew each other and the question was a personal one. If she didn’t feel comfortable opening up completely to the scout then she could expect Klara to tell her everything that she wanted to know about her. She was a little disappointed that she hadn’t gotten an answer, just because she was curious to find out if there was more to this girl than she’d originally thought. Emori was relieved to hear that they were approaching the cave that was supposed to offer them shelter and safety from the warriors that were hunting them, she wasn’t used to feeling so exposed as usually she had more cover and usually she didn’t get caught stealing on land that belonged to a clan. She’d been foolish.

“I didn’t ask you to stop that arrow” Emori objected, she was not going to feel guilty or take the blame for Klara becoming injured by a warrior from her clan. Not when she had not asked or expected the scout to save her life “if you didn’t want to get hurt then you should not have gotten in the way and you should have let the arrow hit me” she was grateful that her life had not been ended and that Klara had thought to save her life, but that didn’t mean that she was going to allow anyone to use the injury to guilt trip her. At Klara’s question, Emori slowed a little and turned to look at the girls injured shoulder, never completely stopping “I’ll take a look at it” she confirmed “the arrow is in your shoulder, so it makes it slightly easier than if you’d been hit somewhere else” her knowledge on healing was fairly basic. She’d never had to deal with a serious injury before but guessed that since the placement of the arrow wasn’t near any vital organs, that its removal would be pretty straight forward. “We can’t have people asking questions” she smirked at the girl, knowing that if there wasn’t any poison on the arrow head then she didn’t have much to worry about, however the removal of the arrow would still hurt like hell and that was only going to hurt one of them.

Klara

[Klara]

"I have to keep some of my mystery otherwise you might not be following me right now." Klara told Emori a little smile on her face. She could see on the other girl's face that her part of answer hadn't fed the thief's curiosity but Klara wasn't ready to tell her her whole story, to reveal her past. She was still a stranger. Plus, Klara wasn't sure she could give Emori what she wanted to hear. She could barely explain to herself why she helped this girl, it was all about that feeling she had like she needed to do something. Something pushed her to do what she did. Maybe it was because of her past or maybe she felt that the girl was someone good and deserved a second chance. Klara needed to figure that out before being able to answer to Emori's questions.

"I know. And if it all happened again I would have done the same. I'm definitly not blaming you for this." Klara didn't mean to make the girl feel like she was blaming her for that arrow but maybe it hadn't been really clear the first time she said it. "Getting hurt is part of my job... I was trained as a scout so I don't really care to get hurt, I'm kind of used to it." Getting injured could happened almost everytime in a scout life, but even if it was paintful, knowing that it was to save a life make it better. Then as they were speaking about her wound and the girl answered her question, Klara said "Thanks. At least it shouldn't be deadly so I guess I can say I'm lucky." There wasn't any vital organs in a shoulder so the worst that could happen to Klara was losing the use of her arm if the injury got seriously infected which was hopefully not going to happen. And unfortunately she couldn't go see healers to make sure of that. She couldn't take that risk. "Yeah, one sure thing is that it's better for both of us if no questions about what happened get asked." It was better for both of them, for Emori because Klara wasn't going to betrayed her by saying everything she knew and explaining how she helped but also for her because she couldn't afford to be asked questions about why she helped a thief who was trying to rob her.

After thinking about that, Klara realized they were arrived so she informed Emori "Here we are! Come in." she said tilting her head to invite the girl to enter the cave.

seren1

[seren1]

Emori could see why the scout might be reluctant to tell her everything about herself, they were more or less strangers to each other and she knew what it was like to want to keep things to herself, especially when she was around people that she didn’t trust completely. Although, now she at least understood the frustration that came with having information kept from her, but whatever it was that Klara was keeping from her was personal and Emori could respect that she didn’t have a right to pressure her into telling her anything that she wasn’t comfortable discussing. The girl had saved her life, for whatever reason and Emori kind of owed her for that. “I have to follow you, I don’t really have a choice when the only alternative is to go wandering through unfamiliar territory alone, I’d probably walk right into some of your warriors and we both know how that would end” she told Klara when she spoke about having to keep some of the mystery about her and suggested that if she didn’t then she wouldn’t be following her at that moment.

Perhaps she’d been a bit quick to defend herself when she realised that Klara had not been accusing her of being at fault for her injuries. Emori was confused about the life that Klara seemed to lead, she spoke about how injuries weren’t uncommon for her and about how she was used to it. Emori knew that life was dangerous, but she’d become quite accustomed to avoiding those that might have the intention of hurting her and Otan, hearing that there were people even within the clans that had to worry about being severely harmed every day of their lives came as a surprise to her. She knew that there were always dangers, but she always assumed that those who were a part of a clan would lead more comfortable lives than she did. “I prefer to avoid people who are dangerous, seeking them out just seems to be asking for trouble” she voiced her opinion, not completely understanding what Klara did and how she came to be injured so often.

“You’re very lucky” Emori told Klara as the other girl spoke about how her injury wouldn’t prove fatal “it could have been a lot worse, but I don’t suppose I need to tell you that” if what she said was true about how often she was injured, then Emori thought that it was safe to assume that she’d had worse and knew how bad things could have been. “It’s better for you if no questions get asked, I’ll be long gone in a couple of hours and I won’t be coming back for a while” she muttered, rolling her eyes. If Klara was caught and punished for helping her to escape, then that was hardly her problem, she hadn’t forced the woman to do what she’d done. Emori definitely wasn’t worried about the scout giving away anything of her location because Klara had no idea where she was heading and it was unlikely that the warriors would risk their lives by following her into the dead zone if they managed to track her that far, once she was off their territory she was no longer their problem.

Once they reached the cave and Klara invited her inside, Emori was at first cautious but entered the cave with barely any hesitation. She’d rather face the cave than be left outside to deal with the warriors that were searching for them. “Sit, I’ll take a look at your shoulder” she said, gesturing for Klara to take a seat on the floor.

Klara