Life Stone

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius turned at to the two, first to the one he just dropped. From that vantage point, it was more apparent to the fox that he only had one arm. He put a big paw on her head like she was a cub, "I'm a berserker. You don't want any of my kind attacking you. Besides, someone as young and inexperienced like you should be allowed to live to learn from her mistakes." Korius then stood up and looked at the red panda that seemed to have an interest in his party, though he can see the distrust in her eyes. "We are on an adventure. One for our own causes and gains. We're searching for the Life Stone, said to be the tear of the Goddess Serenity herself." He wasn't sure what the red panda wanted, but he was sure to keep an eye out.

Around this time, an elf had started to raise hell at the inn as she had lost her life savings of 5 golden coins, waking up every single patron at the inn, and even making Korius's ears twitch.  He turned to the little thief and raised an eyebrow, "Is THAT your doing, too?"

[tangletail]

Leo awaken with a start after hearing some angry feminine cry enter his room. He looked around momentarily, expecting to see smoke or an orange lime light to seep through his chamber's door, or window. But he found neither such to be the case. With a low sigh, he slowly and reluctantly crawled out of the bed. His eyes batted away the sleep that had kept him for the night. He was now standing in his room, his arms raised high in a stretched.

The cat looked to the door for a moment, “What the hell is going on out there,” he mumbled to himself, now heading to the door. He took the time to pick up his grapple hook and daggers from beside the bed,  and slipped them in their place of his belt under the sash before stepping out to the main floor downstairs. Once he was downstairs, he heard everything more clearly. An elven woman apparently loosing a handful of coins. The cat thought for a moment, not even recognizing her as a victim, then again he never had bothered to look at their faces when he goes pocket diving in the streets. He always figured it would be best to avoid eye contact, show that you didn't care for their presence or if they noticed you (even though you are making sure they hadn't), like a normal civilian.

With the lack of a jogged memory, and a decent amount of rest, the cat stood there, leaning on a table with a tired indifferent look in his eyes. They did shoot to Korius for a moment after noticing his weapon, and bizarre alcohol drenched fur. And like wise, he spotted the girl he had identified as a fellow thief, and the odd and inscrutable (to his abilities, or the lack of caring) companion of hers under the cloak.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana sat bolt upright when she heard a feminine yell which she almost thought was her own at first. When she focused after a moment, she realized that it was someone yelling downstairs about losing their money. She let out a groan and yelled, "Shut the hell up! Some of us are trying to sleep!" It didn't seem like her yelling back helped though and the woman downstairs was pretty much drowning her out. Sighing, she flipped the covers off of her body and swung her legs over the side of the bed. After she stood up, she grabbed the strap of her quiver and slung it over her head and left arm so it hung across her back then did the same with her bow. She then exited the room and headed downstairs, finding Leo leaning on a table looking rather disinterested in what was happening. She also saw Korius standing by the door with alcohol-drenched fur and clothing with two others standing by him who she didn't recognize since she had never looked when they had entered earlier. Her attention was brought to the source of the yelling though and she saw that it was an Elven woman. She had a huge urge to go over to the woman and slap her but it was understandable that she was distraught over her money. Judging by how the kitsune by Korius was dressed and the fact that she had caught a glimpse of Suzumi's gloves in Korius' belt, she had a strong feeling that she was a thief like Leo. With that guessed knowledge, she believed that it was either the kitsune or Leo who had taken the Elf woman's money. Leo looked a lot less interested in what was happening which was basically a trait of a thief so they wouldn't be found out, but he had also just been woken up like her. Her eyes switched back and forth between Leo and the kitsune then she just crossed her arms and leaned against the side of the stairway, waiting to see what was going to happen next and expecting Suzumi and Helios come down the stairs behind her very soon.

[Suzumibachii]

Jolting upwards at the sudden commotions coming from outside Suzumi instinctively reached for the table next to the bed to grab her gloves and get ready for any situation her eyes went wide as all she felt underneath her fingertips was the wood of the table. She started to look around under the bed and the floor before making her way to the door, she was rather panicked if she didnt find her gloves she would not only have to give up on finding the Life stone but also work very hard to go back tot eh academy, find similar gems, attune them to herself and all the other fun parts that came with that. Walking downstairs to see Kiana standing by the stairwell, glancing to the side to spot Leo looking rather uninterested before her eyes locked onto Korius instantly spotting the familiar glint of her gloves in his possession. Of course she didnt realize that he had just gotten them back from somebody with sticky fingers so she rather aggressively walked towards him. Stopping infront of him and folding her arm so that the markings on her hands were hidden. "Korius...What are you doing with my gloves?" She inquired as her eyes twitched a little.

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

A loud screaming woke Helios from his sleep. He tried to ignore it, but whoever it was was hell bent on waking the whole village it seemed. Climbing out of his bed Helios dressed himself in the dark concentrating on blocking out the sound of the screaming woman as much as possible. As he headed down the stares his new companions standing around Korius and the Kitsune who had been sauntering as if she'd owned the place. Taking up a spot next to Leo he couldn't help laughing some as he'd known right from the moment he'd seen her that this Kitsune would be the cause commotions. "I told you she'd be interesting Leo."

[EllieDragon]

Anoi blinked a bit in surprise when she heard that the man and his party were searching for the life stone, an object that she herself was planning to go after soon with Keio.  She looked at the Kitsune, knowing how fiery she could get when improperly accused of things.  She put everything together and determined that in fact Keio could not have stolen the woman's five gold pieces.  Keio may be a kleptomaniac but she was not cruel.  That and if she understood right her mate had been in the back of the tavern, searching the rooms.  She moved forward and wrapped her arms around the Kitsune, though she was weak she knew that Keio would not be willing to hurt her while trying to get at the male.


"Keio could not have stolen from that woman.  If she was searching the rooms for things then she couldn't have been out here.  That, and she is not cruel.. She would not steal so much from a single person."  Anoi then turned to the other thing that interested her. "The life stone?  That is something that Keio and myself are searching for as well.  I wish to study it.."  She left out the other part related to the spirit who she could only assume was watching all of this now.


She glanced around the bar after that, curse that screaming elf woman.  She had attracted even more attention to herself and Keio.  She noticed a few faces from earlier in the night staring down at them.  Maybe those were this wolfs party members?

[Rosanna Foxfire]

"Is THAT your doing, too?"

Keio bristled at that, it was probably a good thing that Anoi had wrapped her larger arms around her waist, preventing her from dashing forward to punch the one-armed wolf in the gut. "Why you little-  Hey!"  She turned her head some to catch Anoi's gaze with her own golden eye, "Let me go!  I need to punch him!"  She flailed uselessly in the wolf's direction, any thought of actual conversation banished from the forefront of her mind.

In the back though, the wolf's earlier sentence finally registered.  The Life Stone.  Profits that could set her and Anoi up for life.  That could get her parents out of the slums and keep them from working anymore.

And so, she stopped, snapping her mismatched gaze back to the handicapped wolf. "Wait-  Life Stone?  You and who else?"

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius looked over at the red panda, "She was there. These gloves are from my party mate's room. I wouldn't be surprised that she stole from there, too. The thief in my party is on a short leash so I know it's not him, and your little friend there is the only other thief in this village right now." However, he was pretty certain the thief had already spent some, if not all, of the money that she had stole. He turned to go into the inn, "Meet us at the gate in an hour at sunrise. I'll take care of this little fiasco, but I own you now. You're coming with us whether you like it or not as payment to the one you just stole from."

[tangletail]

Leo looked behind himself momentairly after hearing the footsteps of his other party mates. He had already caught the eye of Kiana, who seemed to be suspicious of the cat. His neck slackened a bit now, as he returned to her a dull look. He wasn't sure if it should be a complement that he stole the elfs money, or an insult that he was one of the suspects of the given predicament. Well, she wasn't far from incorrect in assuming it was him however. As the feline would gladly lower someone's standard of living into poverty, and leave them there to rot. But he did have some standards to follow. The elf could have potentially been Leo's target while he went around town picking people's pockets should her coin purse been full, but the appearance of a bag with only five gold coins is to easily mistakable to a bag of five copper coins or five silver coins. In other words, the amount that would normally be carried by a beggar or someone out of their luck. A class to low for Leo to feel morally comfortable with robbing, and also a yield that is not worth the trouble.

 
As Suzumi pushed by, Leo had quickly remembered her condition from a couple hours ago. His eyes darted down to take a glance at the condition of her hands, and quickly spotting the marks of the magical burns created by her gems. His eyes lit up for a moment, but he decided to remain silent about it for now. He could see where she was coming from, but the damage was also enough to rise some concern to the thief. For now he bit his tongue, and looked back up to Korius and the two other female kin in the room.

 
"Uh... yeah," Leo mumbled to Helios. His body fidgeting as a deep pain of nervousness settles into his joints. Korius choosing now to make it clear that he would not be putting up with the thief's antics. "Great..." he whispered so only Helios and possibly Kiana could hear it, "I am useless enough in combat if I am noticed, and now I hear that the one thing I am good at is placed on chop block." he paused for a moment and then looked to Helios with a distant gaze. He did have some other skills he could use. But the likelihood of them being worth much, is low. And then some alertness filled his eyes. He had remembered something only a while ago said by Helios that greatly confused the cat. "Wait... did you say something at some point about not following you to bed?"

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios laughed at Leo's words. "More like it was the drink that told you that Leo, but hey forget about last night. Be happy and rejoice. Every thief needs someone to watch there back and I'm your guy. From now on you and I are a team on the battler field you got it?" Helios was glad to get that out there. Helios was glad to have someone on his side who would watch his back. Helios was certain Leo would end up saving him more then once.


Turning to Korius as he walked in he could tell the fur was preoccupied by some thought. He was surprised to see Suzumi be so direct with him about the gloves. It wasn't until he saw the gems in them that he realized they were valuable. Though why the gems were in the gloves Helios had no clue. He decided to ask Suzumi about them next time they were on the road.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana was going to stop Suzumi when she started to approach Korius about her gloves after she had come downstairs but she didn't see much point trying it. She thought it was pretty obvious that Korius didn't have them because he took them. She then glanced at Helios as he passed her to stand next to Leo after coming down the stairs. As she listened to the red panda and the kitsune after Korius had told them what they were doing, she groaned inwardly. "Don't tell me we're going to have MORE people joining us..." She thought to herself in irritation. It wasn't long after that that she heard Korius say that they had to join the group to make up for the elf's life savings being stolen. "Son of a bitch!" After that, she heard Leo whisper something to Helios about being useless to the group. She couldn't blame him. If she were in his shoes, she would have felt the same way. When your main thing is to take things from others it doesn't seem like it could help much. Of course, she realized that his "talents" could help them in ways, but she knew that if she were him, she'd be too focused on thinking negatively to realize the positives. When she heard Helios mention that he would watch Leo's back and they would be a team, she wasn't really surprised. The two of them had seemed to connect instantly when they met. She didn't really believe she would connect like that with anyone else in the group. Sure, Karina was another archer so they had that in common, but Kiana didn't think that would necessarily make them buddies. Hell, it could make them rivals in some way, shape, or form. "It doesn't matter anyway. I'm doing this to get my brother back, not to make friends." She thought to herself. All she had to do was get along with them well enough that they could work together. Just then, a light bulb clicked on in her mind. What would they do when they found the Life Stone? She was pretty sure they couldn't share its power and her biggest threat would be the one she was watching by the door. This was something she would have to think about.

[EllieDragon]

Anoi stared at the man for a few moments, her arms still tight around Keio's waist to hold her still.  She approved of her mates sudden switch from aggressive to agreeable.  This could be her chance to find the life stone and use it to study the entity connected to her in more depth.  The entity apparently approved of it as well, a sense of calm coming through the link between them.  Her fluffy tail wrapped around her and placed itself around Keio's leg.


"You have a deal.  We will be there and I can promise that my mate will be of no further inconvenience for you."  She obviously did not accept that she was now 'owned' by the wolf.  Coming from a wealthy family she was the one who did the owning, well figuratively speaking.  To her this was a business deal, a means to an end even though it came from unfortunate circumstances.


Looking down at Keio she frowned a bit. "Let us gather some things love."

[Rosanna Foxfire]

The foxkin twitched an ear in irritation, "Meet us at the gate in an hour at sunrise. I'll take care of this little fiasco, but I own you now. You're coming with us whether you like it or not as payment to the one you just stole from."

Her first thoughts were to rebel.  To say that they wouldn't come simply because he wanted to play vigilante, to attack the wolf verbally for being so stupid as to assume that there were only two thieves in town.

But Anoi's tail wrapping around her leg gave her pause.  An ear twitched again, and mismatched eyes turned to look over her mate's face as she spoke.

"You have a deal.  We will be there, and I can promise that my mate will be of no further inconvenience for you."

She caught the incredulous look on the Red Pandakin's face, only to nod once.  Her bushy tail swished behind her, and she shook her head, turning on a heel.  At this rate, she supposed it was good she'd been lucky enough to get such a haul earlier, though she didn't think it was from the same elf-  At least she hoped not.

"Hai.  We'll need provisions." And when they found the stone, and Anoi had had a look at it, she could sell it to some lord or noble or something-  If they found the stone.  She wasn't even sure it existed.  But every chance with One-Arm was a chance to make him regret saying that he owned her.

[Suzumibachii]

Suzumi rolled her eyes a little as she heard that more people would be joining the group, but she remained quite for now her eyes quickly glancing over the two new comers trying to figure out which each of them did for a living. Looking at Korius once more she cleared her throat. "Korius may I have those gloves back please..." a hint of impatience in her voice.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius was surprised to see his party already meeting up with him as he walked into the inn. He handed the gloves back to Suzumi before heading to calm the situation down, "Keep those closer to your person when you sleep." The black wolf walked up to the crazed elf and dropped a powerful hand to stop her from running around, causing her to fall on her face, "Calm the hell down! Everyone in town already knows what's going on at this point. Here. This should make up for it." Korius fished out 5 gold coins from the bunch that he had received from Karina's father and tossed it at the elf. He then turned around, passing his now awake party, "Come. We're making a visit to the local blacksmith. We're going to have to get to the gate in an hour."

When the group arrived at the smithy, Korius knocked on the door, having leaned his sword against the wall. The old man answered the door, obviously hung over and half naked. "We only have just under an hour before we have to leave."