Cole lived in Lunsken district with the rest of his family, the Tenberrys and their family was considered okay, not too bad in Voryhrm.
But that was in Lunsken, the worst district in the entire city, some might call it the slum district which wouldn't be too far off. And so Cole spent his life there And he had seen some messed up shit.
The law was basically a joke in Lunsken, the city watch station did not function at all. Lunsken was ruled by various criminal syndicates that wrestled with one another for control over the district.
All the businesses in Lunsken had to pay one of the six syndicates 'protection money' although the Tenberrys were better off than some they still had hard times which made it difficult make much of what they had when most of the money went out of the door.
Cole had to learn to protect his coin pretty much since he could remember anything, but that was not the end of it. For him, learning to protect himself was not enough.
He found pickpocketing to incredibly easy to master, his hands were swifts and light, he also had something about him that made it easy for people not to notice him.
Halflings were always significantly shorter than all the other races and people payed less attention to them in general but it was even more so for Cole.
One day Cole robbed the wrong man.
He was pickpocketing with his friends as usual. They had a tactic where they would openly distract the victim and he would sneak from behind and in the perfect moment take the coin from that sucker.
He was caught. Turns out the man was a member of one of the six syndicates and moreover he himself was a thief.
Cole shook in fear he knew that he fucked up, the six syndicates were like kings in Lunsken, you can rob anyone but them, and it was much wore if you got caught.
However the man let him go, apparently he had recognized Cole, he was one of the men that collected protection money from his father and uncle.
So instead of punishing Cole who was related to paying subjects he took his two friends, they were bums, beggars, insignificant lot.
Cole was left alone, but he soon came to his senses and—in a fit of madness, followed the man discreetly, street after street until he went into a building.
Cole knew what could happen to them, what happened all the time, only to people he didn't know nor care about. They get taken and disappear on a ship to some faraway place that no one is ever going to see them again.
Cole waited for a while and then went in, only to see the silhouette of the man heading into a basement. He had to save them.
The man was luckily alone, in the basement and he was using a rope to tie his friends hands to a metal pole. That was when Cole sneaked In from behind and stabbed him in the inner thigh and removed the knife immediately.
It was his pickpocket knife, he used it to cut open purses and now he cut open a man. By the time the man noticed anything amiss he was already bleeding fountains out of his thigh.
Cole didn't wait for him to bleed out but finished him off quickly while covering his mouth, it would be a disaster if someone heard anything.
Cole freed his friends and they just walked right out of the building, it would be hours later when the body might get discovered.
****
Cole used the bushes and the shadows of the tents and buildings to sneak around until he found the source of the food's smell, a big half closed off kitchen with two cooks throwing ingredients into big pots. They looked alike, perhaps twins.
"I say, what kind of useless shit is Bodger doing to be so late?!"
"He must be playing around with the women! Lucky bastard and we're here toiling all day! Fuck this shit!"
"He probably wants us to do all the cleaning and then come over with all the goods like a hero!"
"Hero my mother's ass! He just got lucky is all, to get one carriage with no protection. It's almost too good to be true…"
Cole, hid behind the various bags of potatoes and onions and garlics, under ten shadow of the big table in the middle of the kitchen.
Suddenly one of them leaned down and almost looked him in the eye as he picked a bag and put it over the table.
'Phew, wow Aldrich wasn't kidding about this cloak.'
No matter how good he was that kind of close proximity was not something you could in. If not for the wondrous item it would have turned bloody just now.
"Hey, you useless bums one of you come help clean out with us, the big brother is almost here!"
"Fuck, where the hell is Bodger! He should clean this shit we're cooking for all of you, you ungrateful dick!"
"Oh, is there a rat in here?" The outsider asked the twins and Cole took out his dagger and held his breath.
"Yeah there are, plenty of them, you want to catch them? Go on ahead we gave up on that task a year ago."
"The fuck do I care?! Get your ass moving, boss's orders!" The man who said this stormed off.
"Man, I'm gonna kill Bodger when he gets here!"
"Who cares about him, let's not wait for his lazy ass and serve the food as soon as it gets ready and then we can blame him. If that works then we may get rewarded by the big brother."
"You know what? Yeah let's do that, fuck that guy!"
One of the twins took of to help in the cleaning the place while the other remained to cook, meanwhile Cole knew that his chance has come. He peaked out from under the table went right back in.
After a while he saw that the man's legs faced away he moved out with the speed of a rat and grace of a cat, he pulled open the cork of the laxative.
He did remember what Nathan said about it, a few drops was enough but he was in no position to measure so he poured a portion of it in every pot and went back under the table.
"What was that? Hmm? Fucking rats, you dare to scurry around even when I'm still in here!"
The cooks went mad he started smashing the plates and utensils, at last in his anger he kicked the table aggressively flipping it over and the bags of food along with Cole rolled out.
"Holy fuck! Blood and darkness!"
The cook howled and jumped around holding his leg that was bleeding, he went out of the kitchen quickly while limping.
Cole who held his heart in his hand breathed out and dashed out, he followed the same route he came from but he was much slower this time since the movement of the bandits had slowed down with most of the chores done.
"BODGER!"
Cole stopped in his tracks, behind a bush. It was a loud voice that immediately caught attention.
He saw in the clearing where the food tables were moved for the feast to welcome the Ravenfolk demi-human the bandits all surrounded a man who had skull necklace.
"You all know me, I'm a merciful man." He declared, "if you want to have some fun with some fresh meat, I will allow it."
"But… if you take too long and make me look bad in front of big brother then you better count your days! Nass! Where's Nass?"
"Here boss." One of the men stepped forward.
"You go and get me Bodger that crazy bastard and do it in thirty minutes, big brother is about to arrive we're going to eat before you. And when we're done I better find Bodger and the loot here or else!"
"Yes, boss. But what if Bodger found something good and ran away?" Nass asked.
"You better bring him to me in half an hour or doesn't bother coming back."
"Yes, boss."
Cole took off and jumped over the wall when the bandits were preoccupied with their boss because—in the distance, faraway in the sky he spotted black wings flying in this direction.
Too big to be an ordinary bird. Cole didn't wait to see it clearly, he knew what it was.
"I did it! But we have a problem."
He ran until he spotted the others on top of the trees and waved to them, he saw the party cheer silently but quickly quite down.
Aldrich went down picked him up and jumped three time to bring him to the rest of the party.
"What is it?" Aldrich asked.
'These jumps are nuts! How is this guy not a Crestmaster?! Does that make sense?'
"Uh, first of all a bandit was sent to get Bodger and the others and finally the demi-human is here."
"Let me see."
Aldrich took out the binoculars and looked at the figure that was landing in the middle of the bandits camp.
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