Flashback Let Me Go With You

[Amora Jade]

Season of Summer, Day 20, 501 AV The wind outside brushed through the open window softly, making the small fire that burned on top of the candles dance. The breeze was the only thing that cooled the summer night. The routine sounds of shrieks and cries flooded through the alleyways and streets, not really attracting any attention from the still-awake citizens of Sunberth. Only fourteen days earlier the young pick-pocket, Amora, had turned seven. Her father had promised that after her birthday he would take her along on one of his heists. It was something she had been begging for since she could talk. Only her mother would take her along, though her mother didn't commit any breaking-and-entering crimes, she sold goods she 'obtained' to paying customers. "Why can't I go with you? Momma always lets me go with her!" The young girl had been begging her father for the past three bells to let her see how he makes money. It never made any since to her young mind how his job could possibly be more dangerous than her mother's."Please! I'm older now and much more responsible. I promise I won't cause no trouble, Daddy, just let me go with you!" "No, not tonight ,baby girl. I have a big heist to pull off and I can't risk you getting hurt." "I'm not a baby! I just turned seven I can take care of myself!" Ajak released a hearty chuckle and knelt on one knee to face his daughter. He knew how badly she wanted to be with him, but there was no way he could risk it that night. "I promise tomorrow night you will come with me okay? Tomorrow is a small heist that I know I could use your help with." Amora huffed loudly and crossed her arms over her chest, twisting her face into an angry look. That wasn't the first time she had heard that, and she knew it sure wasn't about to be the last. "Fine.. but if you don't take me with you tomorrow I'm gonna hate you fer'ever!" Her father chuckled once more and wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her close and stroking her hair slowly. "I love you Amora, and I really do promise I will take you along tomorrow. This time I'm not lying. We can even get you a nice new pair of boots while we're out too okay?" Though she fought it, a big smile spread across Amora's lips. The boots she had were pretty worn and had been sewn up by her mother several times. She wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him tightly, "Okay, I'll go with Momma again tonight. Be careful while you're out there by yer'self though!" After releasing their embrace, Ajak stood to face his wife, "Take good care of our girl, Rayana, and watch for Raul, he should be returning soon. I love you." He planted a kiss on her lips and she returned the gesture of love before he walked out of the apartment door, gently closing it behind him to be respectful to the sleeping tenants. "I'm sure your father means it this time, Amora." Rayana reassured her daughter as she began to fill her backpack with the items she planned on selling. Taking the young girl along with her was a bit dangerous, but it was safer than leaving her at home by herself. You could never know who might try and break in, or if the seven-year-old might want to play with the candles. The last thing they needed was to burn up the entire building. Amora decided to help her mother by putting jewelry, both real and fake, into the bag. People should know better than to trust a fence. They should know that they might be buying something that may or may not be completely authentic. "Where are we going to sell today, Momma?" They never went to the same part of the city twice in a row, just in case a customer were to figure out the truth about their goods. "I was thinking we could try near the Slag Heap tonight, people are usually pretty outta their minds out there and easy to convince. I'm sure buying from a little girl will appeal to them as well." Rayana smiled sweetly at her and lifted the pack onto her back. "Let's go." -- They arrived at the fire to see a couple dozen citizens enjoying themselves around it. Many were drunk, some were on drugs, others were trying to do "favors" for a bit of coin. The one's who were drunk and high were the easiest to persuade. "Alright, you know what to do sweetheart. Take these necklaces and this ring over there. I'm watching out for you. Remember what I told you if you are to find yourself in a bit of trouble?" "Yeah, yeah: Shove the goods in my pockets real quick and run as fast as I can into the darkest place I can find. Akajia will hide me in her shadows." She recited it like a boring lesson she had been preached her whole life. "Good girl, go on now." Amora strode over to a small group of tipsy customers and plastered a big, fake, innocent smile on her face, "Aye, you look like the type of people who like the better things in life! Or maybe a couple of you big ol' men wanna impress some lady huh? I have some pretty stuff right here y'all can all take a good look at! I'm lookin' to sell 'em real cheap!" "Awe look at the sweet little lay'dey! So you wantin' us to buy these pretty little trinkets you get there?" An awful-looking, very over-weight lady who had obviously had way too many drinks was the one to address her. The woman stumbled closer and fingered through the necklace Amora was now dangling from her arm to show them off. "Yus ma'am! One-hundred percent auth-en-tic" She purposefully tried to sound like she couldn't pronounce the word, to further enhance her innocent appearance. "Say, them right here sure does look good! Where does a sweet little girl like you come across expensive lookin' jewelry like them?" The young thief looked down an at her feet and spoke in the saddest voice she could manage, "Well, ma'am, my Momma passed away last year and left these right here behind for me and my Daddy. But, ya see, we a bit short on coin and we real hungry. Daddy is tryin' real hard to make money sellin' them slaves but he owes a lot'ta people so we gots to sell 'em.[/b]" The lie slipped off her tongue smoothly and flawlessly. She looked back up at the hideous woman and gave a sad smile, "It's not like I really wanna, but we gots ta' eat ya know?" "Awe you poor thing! Well I don't mind buying a couple from ya, say I'll give ya five gold miza for two of them necklaces there. How's that sound?" "Yes ma'am, that sounds real good. Five gold mizas should last us a week or two.. well, that is if no one decides to rob us again. We ain't even got us a table no more to eat at, no chairs to sit in, I'm sleepin' on that hard wood floor with my Daddy. Tonight ain't too bad though, nice and warm. It's the cold nights that gets us. We ain't got no glass over our windows no more cause'a them van-da-lizers." Amora fueled her lies with a big sob story to try and pry her into buying more so that she didn't have talk to any more people. A drunken man took his place beside the woman to listen to the story as well, "Say you ain't got no more jewelry do ya?" "Why, yes'sir I do. I got me this ring right here if you be interested. It's real pretty and sure to win the heart of any woman, I know that cause it won my Momma's heart and she was a hard woman!" The two laughed drunkenly and assessed the jewelry further. "Well, I guess I outta buy that ring right there of'a ya then huh? I guess I can give you two gold coins fer' it. Say, I'll even give you five silver'uns for that there necklace too." "Sounds real good sir, y'all sure be helpin' me and my poor ol' Daddy out a lot. Thank ya so much!" Amora handed them the jewelry each of them bought and took their money in return. After smiling and thanking them once again she left and began walking until she was out of sight. Her mother followed and caught up really quickly. "I see you sold it all in one group. You're really getting the hang of this aren't you? How much did you manage to squeeze outta them?" "Actually, I didn't have to bargain at all. They were so drunk they gave me way more than any of that was worth. I got seven gold and five silver coin right here, Momma." She presented the money to her mother and handed it over. That was the most she had ever been able to sell at one time, and was also enough for the night. "Wow, I'm really proud of you, baby. We can head on home now, but first lets stop by the tavern and get ol' Merv to fix us up a nice meal." -- After enjoying their warm meal at the tavern, they headed home. They were sure to keep a look-out for Amora's brother on the way, just in case he was to complete the little job an old man had asked Raul to do for him. Once they arrived back at the apartment, they did their routine of checking the storage chests for any stolen goods. Thud! The door swung open and smacked against the wall behind it. Both Rayana and her daughter jumped and their hearts nearly stopped. They thought for sure one of those people they had just sold to had found them and was about to cause hell. To their relief, it was only Raul. "What in hell are you thinking, bustin' in like that? You nearly scared us straight to death!" Rayana was furious and it took her a moment to realize her son's expression. He had the look of a man who just lost the most important thing in the world to him. The look that had anger, depression, and confusion mixed up all-in-one. "What's wrong? Did the job go bad?" Without receiving more than just a slight head shake "no" from her son, she began to worry. "Raul... what's wrong? I never seen you like that before.." Amora pulled out a chair next to the small table and her brother fell into it, his elbows hit the table and his head fell into his hands. He just shook his head back and forth for several moments without speaking, that's when Amora's mother took the chair beside him and tears began to stream down her face and she became short of breath. Amora just looked back and forth at both of them and began crying too, "Tell me what's goin' on right now! I wanna know! I ain't never seen y'all like this you gotta tell me!" She became a bit panicked and her brother immediately took her up in his arms and held her really tightly. "Now listen to me, Amora. I need you to calm down just a second I have to tell you something real important." He sat his little sister back down on her feet and looked her in the eyes, wiping away the moisture from her cheeks. Amora breathed in deeply and stopped crying, then nodded. "Okay.. I'm okay." "Now this is real hard to say, and I want you to relax and just listen for a minute. It's gonna be real hard for you to hear it and I know you're gonna be feeling a lot of things and you have to remember me and Momma are here for you..." His words began to worry her more as he tried to soothe her. Rayana had taken her place behind her and put her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "When Daddy was out on his heist, the owner of the building had seen him breaking in. The man went and quickly found him the biggest mercs he could find... I saw them out on the beach, Amora. I tried to save him but those three men were too big. I killed one of them though, but not before..." He held his sister's arms tightly to her sides and rubbed softly with his thumbs, "Amora, they drowned him. Daddy is gone, forever..." Amora froze, her face was expressionless and she couldn't breath. It felt to her as if her heart was caught in her throat and someone had just punched her in the stomach. All of a sudden she got a piercing headache as she was trying to understand. To her it just wasn't possible. There was no way any man could have done that. Her father, to her, was invincible. "Amora, baby, breathe. Please, sweety, you gotta breathe!" Her mother tried desperately to snap her out of the state she was in. nearly two chimes had passed since she took in her last breath. Finally, she began breathing again. It came in short, choppy breaths and sobs as she began bawling. Her crying was loud and was coupled by a few grieving screams, "No! You can't be tellin' me the truth! Daddy promised tomorrow he'd take me! I knew I should'a went with him! I could'a warned him of them men comin' for him! I could'a helped!" Amora grieved like this for nearly ten bells before she lost her voice and ran out of tears to shed. Rayana and Raul tried their hardest to soothe her and reassure her it wasn't her fault. They also told her why she couldn't be there, that her father was just protecting her; but no matter how much they tried to keep her from blaming herself for it they couldn't stop her. She was too young to understand there was nothing she could have done to prevent it from happening. She stared at the ground, watching the light from outside creep across the wooden floor. Sighing, she finally decided to speak without grief in her words, "Where's his body?" Her voice were hoarse and could barely be heard, but her brother was close enough. "Slag heap, they burned it." The realization that had she taken only a bit longer to sell that jewelry, instead of wanting to hurry through it, she would have been able to see her father's body hit her like a stone, but she didn't cry - or even blink. --- The worst feelings she had ever felt were replaced by numbness and it stayed like that for the next few weeks. Slowly she began to let herself smile once in awhile, and even have a friendly conversation on occasion. It was a really slow recovery, but thankfully it didn't turn her into stone for good.

[Zandelia]

Amora :

Experience

Storytelling - 1
Persuasion - 1
Observation - 1


Lores

Daddy: A Promise Never Fulilled
Daddy: Drowned And Burned
Emotionless Stone
Tugging On People's Heartstrings With A Story

This was a nice little thread, though I'd have loved to have seen it enlarged and broken up into perhaps 3 distinct posts. Could have given more to you for that set up


Any questions about your grade? Please feel ree to PM me about anything!