Closed A Student's Student (Leith)

[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska let her rest. He knew she'd just been through a very tough experience, but her attacker was dead. How did it speak of him, that he hadn't felt anything? Fear, yes, for her. But when he'd killed the man he'd felt absolutely no remorse. He attributed it to a hard life; he'd been shattered the first time he'd killed. Now it felt more like a duty than anything else. He stroked her hair and let her have her nap. When she woke Kaska handed her his water flask so she could rehydrate and calm down a bit. "Are you ready to work?" he asked her. This was what she had come for. While she'd gotten a taste of the cruelty of man kind, now he felt obligated to teach her ways around it. He stood up and opened the trunk, rooting through it. The coat with bells, pants with hooks through them...they were an odd assortment of things but Kaska knew exactly what each one was for. He was eager to teach her. There were even heavy types of shoes and weights so one could learn to walk as silently as possible. More familiar things like various locks and the different picks used to open them. He remembered being frustrated by most all the things in the chest.

[Leith]

She woke up with a start sitting up quickly, but that made her head pound and a bunch of new places that ached complain. She gently flexed her wrist taking stock of it now that it had rested, just like she thought, just bruised. She took the skin gladly drinking from it greedily looking over at him. “The human, you killed him?”

She didn’t really remember much after getting back with him to the alley. She knew she’d been attacked, knew she got free, but everything else was a haze of fear and pain. She remembered his voice and his gentle touch, but she wanted to know if they would have to worry about someone taking revenge. She looked down at her nails, blood smeared on them, she sighed wishing she could wash her hands. Better yet, take a long bath and forget about all of it, but flying was out of the question there was no telling where the pain would be if she changed. “I’m grounded till the stiffness and pain go away, maybe a week or two, I won’t be able to hunt either less I stress my wrist too much.” She looked away “I’m sorry for messing up... I should have paid attention...”|
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[Kaska Villahotes]

"Well you don't need to fly for a week or two. But if you're going to be here for that long, you need to help me bring in food. I can't head out of the city and leave you here alone, even with Baldur watching over the alley. He wouldn't dare step in if a friend of that man I killed shows up. He's a good man but he watches after his own fat neck first above all others." Kaska said, pulling things out of the trunk. He examined them, seeing them to be in good repair. "The thing you have to learn about this city is, if something like this happens you get up immediately after. You can't wallow, or you'll starve to death. With you unable to hunt, this puts us right back to square one except you've given me an extra mouth to feed. And as you can see, I was barely scraping by as it was." he took stock of the equipment, looking it over, then sealing it back in the trunk. He settled his hands on the lid, thinking about what they could do. Her being grounded meant that he was now in charge. This was his territory, his city. It was painfully obvious she knew little to nothing about it and it was his job to teach her. Playing around had been a foolish error and he knew that now.

[Leith]

She snorted “You forgot about my snares and traps already haven’t you? I still have those and we have the deer, I can teach you to fire my bow, but hunting deer is out as you won’t hit anything. I’m not useless and I can pull my own weight just fine, I just can’t fly or shoot.”

She was a bit miffed that he’d forget already that she had other skills, but relaxed just happy he wasn’t angry at her. She stood up using her off hand and keeping her injured one close trying to keep from moving it too much. She knelt next to him eyeing everything, she grinned making some of the bells jingle. “What are these metal noisemakers? They sound pretty and are shiny... Can I keep them?”

Leave it to her to like them for their shininess, but at least they cheered her up. She flicked them a couple more times watching the light play off them.|
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[Kaska Villahotes]

"It's getting out of the city that's a problem." Kaska said. "We killed someone. He was well fed and confident enough to grab you. Meaning he probably belonged to a gang. Gang members don't like getting reputations for getting beat up by girls and skinny hookers. They'll not want me out of the city, and by proxy you. The guards don't want to rile up crowds more than they're already riled, so they won't let us out. Gods I hate politics." he stood up and grasped the coat of bells, smirking. "It's heinously ugly and noisy, but that's sort of the point." he lifted up a small purse filled with rocks. They were tiny bits of gravel that made an obscene amount of noise with each shift. "First rule of pickpocketing is not to get caught. Walk softly, which I know you can do already. The trick is getting this away from me without making a single discernable sound. It's easier on the streets, but this way if you need to be completely silent, you can be." He slipped the coat on, the heavy bells jingling in a loud chorus. He slid the gravel packet into the coat pocket and turned his back to her. "Go to the end of the alley, sneak toward me, and take it without disturbing a bell." he told her, folding his arms across his chest. It wasn't going to be easy. The pocket was surrounded by the tinkling bells, who threatened to make noise simply by the movements of Kaska's breathing.

[Leith]

She did as instructed moving up to him silently, but when she reached she accidently touched a bell. She looked up at him and grinned “A challenge, this’ll be fun.”

She tried again, but with a similar result, though she didn’t seem to get frustrated. She wasn’t happy about him telling her they would not be able to leave, but would follow his instruction. If they couldn’t leave, they’d make do, it was all that they could do, for now. “How long will we be trapped in the city?”

She moved around him trying for another spot keeping near to listen to him reply. She was fascinated by how they moved and studied him as much as the bells. She looked carefully to the other pockets moving unconsciously as he moved her hands pausing when the bells tinkled, but moving closer when they were still. If it was simply her goal to steal the bells themselves Kaska would find himself robbed of them, but he wanted her taking what was in the pocket.|
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[Kaska Villahotes]

"Until I can bribe the guards. A good freebie should do it, with me looking the way I do it would be worth it." Kaska said, tilting his head slightly to listen for her. He heard the bells tinkle and smirked, turning around. "When the bells sound, reset. The second you make a noise or touch something sensitive, then you're caught. Guards are called, or you disappear into the slave pens of the Zith forever." He turned slowly around, lifting his chin up and listening to her. "Remember, slowly, watch your target. The heavy pocket is the one you're looking for. Should have a bit of a sag to it." He closed his eyes and listened for her. Listened for any tinkling or noise. If she made a noise he would stop her and force her to reset. He had faith in her, he knew she could get the packet away from him.

[Leith]

She looked at his face seeing his eyes closed, she smirked, he’d given her a good hint. She walked carefully, as if to fool a deer, she eyed the pocket watching the bells. She’d been at it a few times, but his tip helped her, she slid her hand in shifting as he shifted pulling the packet out carefully. She moved to face him standing on her toes her face close to tap his nose grinning “Got it... Now can I keep the bells? You can keep your rocks.”

She didn’t want him to have to do anything with the guards, but she said nothing. He’d do what had to be done and if that meant something he disliked she’d not try and change his mind, she knew he’d not do anything foolish.|
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[Kaska Villahotes]

Kaska opened his gold eyes and smirked when she got in front of him. He took the gravel packet, smiling. "Good!" he praised her, rolling the gravel packet in his palm. "That was my side pocket, it's a fairly easy thing to grab from. But not a lot of men here keep things in their side pockets for exactly that reason. I'm going to raise the difficulty a little, and this time with my eyes open. You cannot betray yourself with any peripheral vision problems. If I catch a glimpse of someone trying to steal, I catch them and it's not fun when I do. So be silent and be quick." Kaska put the gravel packet in his pants pocket, folding his arms and keeping his eyes open. He kept his arms by his sides this time, giving her a bit of an obstacle. She would have to duck under a row of bells without being seen, slide her hand past his wrist, and grasp the gravel packet without touching the sensitive flesh near his hips. It wasn't an easy thing to do.

[Leith]

She sighed rubbing her sore wrist gently, between her hand and her aching head, plus her back it was getting hard to concentrate. Still his praise made her happy, she looked up at him and smirked “So if I make a mistake you’ll nab me and do something scary?”

While she knew perfectly well if she got caught by a stranger something would happen, she mostly was just teasing him. She rubbed her wrist again looking past him at the people walking by, any one of those people could be as bad or worse as the one who hurt her. “The man these things came from, will he be mad? What about those others you said that could be part of the dead man’s flock? I wish I had more than my teeth and nails… I wish I had something scary like your monster.”
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