[Flashback] Hands off! (Tock)

[Naama]

15th Winter 510AV Anchorage Flotilla It was a moderately chilly day. The air smelled of brine and seafood, of rotting wood and antique pottery, and all manner of assorted scents. The Anchorage Flotilla was especially more chaotic than a modern city, which meant quick fingers and agile feet could potentially result with a successful snatch. A boy around eleven years of age with a rat's nest for hair and a face perpetually caked with dirt was shoving himself inbetween the sun-kissed bodies of the Svefra that inhabited the unorthodox cesspool of ships. He squeezed between hefty women, his dark, beady eyes trained on every single open pocket he could find. He came across a girl whose fiery red hair was particularly eye-catching in the sea of brunettes and blondes, and so he approached, slowly at first, fingers twitching with visible anticipation, and then he broke into a run. He slammed into her hard enough to cause her to unbalance, but a fall would not be the intended result. His nimble fingers had snuck into a pocket and grasped something particularly shiny and hopefully of value, and then he was off. Like a rat in the sewers, he delved deep into the sea of bodies, his devious giggling echoing into the briny wind.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Errands. Tock HATED errands. Hated hated hated hated HATED them. She'd been apprenticed to the wizard, Archimaneus, for over a year now. She was supposed to be learning magic from him. Yet the lessons kept proving few and far between. Take today, for example. They were on an expedition to gather some sort of rare Magecrafting reagents from one of the islands in the Suvan. Tock couldn't have been more excited.. at first. Of course, she hadn't realized when they set sail that there would be a week long trip of cleaning up after the wizard around the cabin, taking out the goddamn cat's sandbox, and bringing the crotchety old bastard his meals! Bah! She'd tried to protest, saying she wouldn't do it. He had responded by saying that if she didn't, he'd toss her overboard, and not take her to learn any magic. She had doubts about whether he could do the former, but he was well capable of the latter threat, and she wanted to learn the magic. So she ran his goddamn mother petching errands. "Stupid piece o' worm ridden worthless tight arsed wrinkly ol' ball sack wouldn't know what ta does wit' it bloody no good wanker!" she muttered and cursed as she trudged along the ships of the Anchorage. The dumb old wizard was relaxing back in his cabin on their ship, with a glass of cognac, a pipe, and a book. Meanwhile, she had to pick up all the supplies for their expedition. She had a sackful of goods, half of which she didn't know the purpose of, and nearly lost the whole bag when the little twerp bumped into her. "Oy, watch where yer goin', ya bloody lil booger-faced wankin' twerp!" she shouted, trudging along back towards the ship. Then she belatedly realized something felt... off balance. Like a weight was missing from her side. She reached into her pocket, where she'd tucked one of the more valuable items the wizard had sent her for. Some kind of gem that he said had come from another world. Why the old fart couldn't have picked up the insanely expensive object himself, she didn't know. But instead, he had sent her to one of the ships, to meet with another mage's apprentice (apparently, they ALL had their apprentices run their errands). The other mage came from someplace far from Syliras, so he and Archimaneus met here on the flotilla, partway between their respective homes. She wasn't entirely sure of the value of what she'd delivered in exchange for the gem, but she WAS quite sure that the wizard would take her head off (she really wanted to learn how he had built that Animated metal man with the huge axe) if she didn't bring it back. "Oy, THIEF!" she screamed, running after the kid. "BLOODY PETCHER! Stop 'at goddamn ankle biter!" She knocked people aside as she rushed after the kid, fearing that she would lose her head... and worse than that, be forced to wait on the boat instead of learning any magic!